Adventures Ahoy! (Open)

[Wash]

(( 23 October 2027, Around the NEST main hangar, 1215 HLT))

Wash move briskly about the base, using his lunch break to its fullest and he attempted to, yet again, explore more of the base. The test pilot had only been at the base for three days, but he was already more than enjoying himself. The other residents, the Autobots, were intriguing, and seemed to come in as many varieties as humans did. Of course, being the friendly guy that he was, Wash was always looking to make new friends.

[Wheeljack]

Wheeljack was in a strange mood, and with Jared at school and his other much larger sons finally on Earth and thus safe and sound, he was a happy Alpha indeed. So today, instead of being in his lab as per usual, he was out on the open tarmac driving around and doing brodies and burnouts, racing around like a crazy bot. Of course, seeing no one behind the wheel told everyone on base it was an Autobot, and those who knew the Autobots knew who it was. With as wildly as he was driving, he also had complete control of where he was going and was careful to stay well away from any humans and aircraft, keeping himself at the north end of the base where the Autobots' hangars were. He needed to let off some steam and racing around like a mad stunt bot helped to clear his processor.

[Wash]

The sound of a roaring engine caught Wash's attention, and he ran in the direction of the noise. Spotting the white and blue Mustang, he grinned, guessing it was an Autobot. Of course, he did his best to keep his distance from the car as it raced around, finding what he figured was a safe spot to sit and watch the car pull stunts he was sure many drivers would not be willing to, thinking about if it were possible to duplicate any of them in a jet. "I don't think I've seen that much maneuvering in a dogfight!" He called with a laugh.

[Wheeljack]

Wheeljack hadn't noticed he had an audience until he heard the human call out to him, at which point he turned and skidded to a stop facing the human as he came to rest about twenty feet from him. "Oh, hi there." he said cheerfully and rolled forward towards him, stopping about five feet from him. "I didn't know anyone was watching me. Heh. Are you new to the base? I don't remember seeing you around before." he added curiously. He was always happy to meet new friends and hoped that such would be the case here with this one. Besides, he liked humans, they are such an interesting species.

[Wash]

Wash laughed a bit. "I headed over when I heard the sound of an engine. And yeah, I'm the new guy. Name's Hoban Washborne, but everyone I know calls me Wash." He slid off his impromptu seat, walking closer to the car. "So, what's your name? And you get good news or something? With how you were skidding and drifting, it sure looked like it."

[Wheeljack]

Wheeljack chuckled. "Well, hello there Wash." he replied, then transformed to his full 18 foot height. He then knelt down and extended a hand to Wash. "Wheeljack, Autobot Engineer and Inventor, mech coroner, Cybertronian neuro-scientist and Spark specialist, and resident optimist." he introduced himself. "As for my ahhh... mood... Yeah, I have. Kind of a really long story, but the short version is the release of stress and worry now that my family is whole and together again." he told Wash, grinning happily.

[Wash]

Wash grabbed onto a finger, about the only part of Wheeljack's hand that he could easily grab, and shook it. "Guess all that keeps you really busy around here, huh?" He asked. "I test-fly aircraft, in between getting myself acquainted with everyone here. And that's good!" He grinned up at Wheeljack, though his look turned inquisitive. "Who are they, if you don't mind me asking? And what happened?"

[Wheeljack]

Wheeljack nodded and knelt down more fully, settling in to talk to Wash. "War happened, to put it simply. Our home world was slowly dying n we had to leave. I carried n raised five Sparklings as my own but was forced to leave them behind when the evac order came for my assigned shuttle. I spent far too many thousands of your years worrying I would never see them again, afraid they'd be killed by our enemies, fearing they'd hate me for leaving them behind... But, they found their way here finally n all I could do was hug my lil ones n cry seeing them alive and together again. The first one to make planet-fall was Fireflight, the youngest of them. Next was the oldest n leader of the bunch, Silverbolt, then a couple days later Skydive n Slingshot arrived together after they apparently met up on Mars. The last one to find his way here was Air Raid after he was chased across several star systems by Thundercracker; he's a Decepticon Seeker. All five of my lil bots're fliers though. The five of them combine together n when they do my sixth son awakens, Superion. I was so Spark sick with worry n fear for them that when they each arrived all I could do was cry with joy n hug them." He shook his head then and vented a bit. "It's been a long and agonizing war for a lot of us, really. Course bout a month ago I got the shock of my life when one of the other Autobots, Chasm, found a ten year old boy out on the streets n brought him to the base. All he had was a photo of his mom sitting on the front fender of a car n a muscular guy with a sshaved head standing next to her with his arms around her, a worn leather wallet, n a silvery running horse with a gouge across the shoulder. His mother had been killed when he was two n he'd gone looking for his father a few years later." Wheeljack brought a hand up n rubbed the horse emblem on his chest for a moment. "He was looking for me n I never knew his mother was carrying, she never told me." he added more softly. "Jared's a Techno Organic, half human half Autobot. They're very Rare, his kind are first generation as it is, n he's especially rare because he's a natural born, not a created merging like the rest are." he explained, uncertain if Wash would understand or not.

[Wash]

Wash listened attentively, nodding a bit at some of Wheeljack's comments. "War does that to people and families. At least yours found it's way back together, and even grew some." He offered a smile, reaching out to place a hand on one of Wheeljack's legs. "So, fliers, huh? That's neat. Sorry, I'm still kinda getting used to all this. My last boss didn't tell me that this new assignment I'd accepted involved the Autobots. Kinda found out when Ironhide met me at the gate. The wrong gate, apparently. I was supposed to have been on the other side of the base."

[Wheeljack]

Wheeljack chuckled at that. "Oh Primus. I hope he didn't scare you too badly when you first saw him. I know from experience he can be real frightening if he's in one of his grumpy bumper moods." he said and shook his head slightly. "I know some humans don't do too well with surprises like a big black truck transforming into a bigger black bot with huge cannons mounted on each arm. Ratchet told me one story 'bout how they were headed to the island base by ship n some pirates decided to hijack the ship. Seems Ironhide found great amusement in following the pirate's order of "Get out of the vehicle or I'll shoot you." by transforming right in front of the guy, holding the business end of one of his cannons a foot from the guy's face and telling him to "Walk the plank." Wheeljack laughed a bit at that. "Apparently the pirate in question n all his pirate friends jumped ship in record time and were never heard from again after that little display." he added with a helpless chuckle and shake of his head.

[Wash]

"Well, I certainly was surprised." Wash laughed. "And pirates? Wow. Sounds like there's never a dull moment for you guys, huh? Nah, he just kinda surprised me. Helped me find where I was actually supposed to go, too. One would think that the military would be good about keeping everything clear, but I've learned the answer to that rather quickly; cai bu shi.*" He shook his head, not thinking twice about his habit of speaking random Chinese phrases.

((*No way.))

[Wheeljack]

Wheeljack chuckled a bit, nodding in response. At the last bit from Wash, he looked slightly puzzled for a moment and scanned through the global network to locate the phrase Wash used. Once he found it he was able to track what language it was. "Ah, okay." he mused absently and downloaded the language database so he would have it handy for future reference. "I wasn't aware that some humans spoke in more than one language at a time." he said with a smirk. "Good thing we can easily download your language protocols or we'd be in serious trouble, I think."

[Joanne Rhodes]

It had been about a month since Jo got comfortable at this new base. It was a strange but wonderful place. For so long she'd forgotten who she was, after having been working with the humans for years. She was studying for her next promotion, reading information on her tablet as she walked out to take a break. Like the bookworm she was, it was always difficult for her to put down good reading material, even if it wasn't exactly a fictional novel she read for fun. She was in a studious mode, as she wanted to impress the other Cybertronians here - particularly the ones that specialized in the medical regimes. Jo was getting along with Ratchet somewhat, but it was awkward, and as it was, making friends with others had been relatively slow going.

But the undercover Pretender femme wasn't concerned about how awkward it was being around kin when she bumped into one of Wheeljack's legs. She'd somehow spotted Wash easily - as she had some sort of innate tendency to try and avoid human males, but for whatever reason, the large mech was not in her foresight in the same way. "Woah, sorry there." Jo blushed slightly out of embarassment, trying to avoid eye contact with both beings. Luckily she hadn't hit Wheeljack's leg hard enough she'd knocked herself over or dropped the tablet. "I really need to stop trying to read while pacing..."

[Wash]

Wash grinned a bit sheepishly. "Sorry, bit of a habit I picked up from a friend in the Air Force. I don't really know that much Chinese,just some odd phrases." When a woman almost walked into Wheeljack's leg, Wash stood up and stepped closer, ready to help if she needed a hand. "You alright there? Gotta be a really good book to have your attention like that."

[Wheeljack]

"That's alright, I don't mind" Wheeljack replied, then chuckled a bit, looking at the poor flustered girl. "Sounds like me when I'm really into one of my projects; everything else just kinda disappears. Don't worry, you didn't hurt anything." he offered, hoping to reassure her. "Jo, right?" he asked. He had seen her around the base but had never really had much chance to interact with her directly. "I'm Wheeljack n this is Hoban Washborne, or Wash for short. He's a test pilot n I'm an Engineer." he introduced casually, smiling at her. "Aren't you a medic?" he asked her thoughtfully, seeming to remember her with Ratchet on occasion.