Coming Undone (Kaon)

[Spiritimus Prime]

Drift quietly leapt across the roofs of the many buildings that were part of the Decepticon territory, Kaon. Normally he would never venture off this far into an enemy world, but it seemed like he had no other choice. The news from Storm Blue was all he needed in order to find the whereabouts of his old enemy, Turmoil.
From what he had heard from the locals, according to Storm as well, Turmoil's ship was possibly hidden in the outskirts of the city where the individuals were less active and less likely to go near because of fearing that they will be spotted by the watchful optics of the Autobots and their Autotroopers.
The question was - where abouts in the outskirts? Drift knew that it would be somewhere where there was less of a chance of being spotted by anyone or anything. That would mean that the ship would be in the southeast. It was the only place where everything was quiet and it seemed to be the best option for Turmoil.
"If I were him..." Drift mused, "then somewhere quiet is where I would best be."
Nodding to himself, Drift moved off towards the southeast. He was surprised at how much activity there was when he drew nearer. He had been right. This place was quieter than all the rest of Kaon and he wasn't surprised at all. This was all due to some vicious mechs living around in this area and he wasn't even fazed by this set of news. No, it was perfect.
Getting down on one knee, Drift took off his white cloak and folded it up neatly before placing it in his subspace pocket. He then took out a black one from a box and a Decepticon insignia. It was the same insignia he had removed from his chassis a long time ago, way before he had replaced it with the Autobot insignia. He had hoped he wouldn't be wearing it again, but he had proved himself wrong when Sentinel had sent him on this mission to take down Turmoil once and for all.
Sighing, Drift carefully removed his Autobot insignia and placed it in his subspace pocket with his white cloak and replaced it with the Decepticon insignia. Next, he slipped on the black cloak and pulled the hood over his head and turning his optics red so that he could look more like a Decepticon. Previously he had been sparked with blue optics, which had made him an odd one amongst his kind, but he had been gifted with the ability to turn his optics red just so that he wouldn't stand out so differently. But nearly everyone knew about the truth. He was Autobot born.
Drift shook his head and pulled the black cloak's hood over his head. Standing back up to his full height, he leapt off the building's edge and calmly walked amongst the streets with a confident stride as he began his search for Turmoil's ship.

[shadowfang]

The Sparkling managed to free herself from distractions long enough to get her mind back on track and make it to the outskirts of Kaon. She wasn't tracking Drift so much as she was looking for the place Storm had mention. Just entering the much quieter area in the southeast, Prima let out a slight whimper of fear, that had somehow crept into her system like a bad case of the scraplets. She looked around and continued to move farther into the Southeastern part of Kaon, albeit slower. Her more rational, little sparkling side, told her that it was a bad idea and she should return to the pub and Storm. The part that insisted that she was Unicron however continued to push her forward. "Unicron fears nothing! Why am I fretting over a little darkness and quiet?" She muttered, more to reassure herself than anything else, but her vocal processor lacked it's usual extreme overconfidence in herself.

[Storm Blue Lightning Saix]

Storm's eagerness to return to her old stomping grounds was understandably minimal. She was in alt mode, which provided her with some protection, but the femme's concerns were not self centered. Far from it in fact. Nose to the ground, Storm employed her excellent sense of smell into tracking down her wayward charge. Prima, she figured, had to be following Drift's trail. Or at least be going in his direction. Despite her looks she knew the sparkling wasn't stupid, but Prims's...ego sometimes made her bite off more then she could chew. Now was certainly one of those times.

She stopped when Drift's scent hit her nose. Lifting her head up, she looked through blinking blue optics across on of the most unpopulated area of Koan, the Southeast region. Better then the wastelands, but not by much. At least now that Storm had the mech's scent, she could probably expect Prima to be close by. Maybe...giving her head a good shake, she took stock of her surroundings one more time before following after the sleek white mech, hoping to find her adopted daughter before it was too late...

[Spiritimus Prime]

He had been walking for some time since he had decided to head off to the southeast region of Kaon. Drift found this a little suicidal at what he was doing, but he knew that it was the only way. According to the information and the memories stored in the back of his CPU, Turmoil had a great interest in gladiator fights. It would be possible that the huge, killer mech would be in the southeast where most of the illegal elements would be. Gladiator fights were one of the reasons Turmoil would be here.
If Drift was going to strike in a silent way, he knew that the best chances of success lied in his talents of deceiving his opponents in order to catch them completely off guard. This led to Drift doing two things. 1) He could join up in a gladiator arena battle under a new name in order to learn about his surroundings as well as the location of Turmoil. 2) He could rejoin Turmoil's ranks and earn back his trust before striking for the final blow at the last moment without Turmoil's knowledge.
Both of those options were extremely dangerous and very foolish, but what choice did Drift have? Whichever one he picked, the white mech knew there would never be another chance at going back. Whatever he decided, he knew that his own fate would be sealed as soon as he thought it over with.
Drift considered the two options carefully. If he chose to go under cover, it would be mean there would be tonnes of optics watching him like a turbohawk and his chances of striking Turmoil would be extremely slim because he knew that the large mech would pick a high place in order to avoid a lot of notice. However, if he chose to return to the ranks of the rouge Decepticon, it would mean that regaining the trust would be an extremely difficult thing to do because of what he had done in the past. Drift could guess that Turmoil would make him do something against the Autobot code that he had learnt in the past and he did not want his cover to be blown at the last moment when he was within striking distance. He would have to pick his timing of the strike very carefully, or else there would be no second chances and no escape.
"I guess I have no other choice but to go with plan B," he said aloud, but quietly to himself. Drift knew that it was the only way and he had no other choice. He sighed in defeat and continued to head in the direction of the southeast.
Suddenly, the white mech came to an abrupt halt when his acute audio receptors twitched at an unusual sound he had never heard before. The movement was coming in fast at a one-gait run and he could tell the follower had four legs instead of the usual two-gait run that all bipedal Transformers had. There were few Decepticons and Autobots that had that kind of gait and he had only met one of them that did have it.
"Storm Blue?" he whispered to himself. "What the slag is she doing here?"
Cursing underneath his breath, he glanced over his shoulder to see if he was wrong or not. Sure enough, there, heading straight towards him at a brisk pace was none other than the ex-Decepticon femme, Storm Blue, in her unusual alt form. He knew she stuck out like a sore thumb and he had a feeling she was seeking him out for a reason that was beyond him.
Placing a hand behind his back where his white hand was very easily exposed to Storm Blue's keen vision, he stuck out his index finger and his middle finger, praying to Primus that she had seen it and then broke off from the crowd and disappeared into an alleyway so that they could talk in private should any of Turmoil's goons be listening in on their conversation. Obviously it was too dangerous out in the open to communicate face to face because Drift knew that his cover would be blown in a matter of seconds should the discussion be overheard.
Leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest as he melted into the darkness, Drift waited for Storm Blue to rush into the alleyway after him should she have seen his signal.

[Storm Blue Lightning Saix]

Her swift feet stopped trotting as soon as she spotted the snow white mech ahead of her, holding out a signal that he had seen her and she should follow him. For a moment she stood up on two hind legs, head swerving around to see if she could also catch sight of Prima...after a second or two of looking, she swiftly gave up. Falling back down on all fours, Storm let out a growl of frustration and causually walked over so she wouldn't draw attention to herself, but still kept her long, glowing tail blade curled under her in case someone here did recognize her.

Thankfully, no one did so she was able to slip into the narrow alley like a blue ghost, transforming only when she was completely swallowed by darkness, just like Drift. When she was in full sight of him, she lowered in a slight bow then straightened up again to regain her composure. "My apologizes. I'm out here looking for my...daughter Prima. She ran after you when you left. I was hoping you had seen her..." The stress and worry was clear in her voice and the femme's optics kept wondering off, as if expecting to see Prima at any moment.

[Spiritimus Prime]

Drift frowned, but he said nothing against Storm Blue for being out here when he had buisness to take care. He had no time to be searching for a child at this time, especially when it was amongst a crowd of Decepticons that were on the verge of destroying the peace-loving Autobots in the future if they didn't do something soon.
"I'm afraid I haven't seen or even heard of your sparkling wandering around these streets," he said calmly as he unfolded his arms from across his chest. "Besides, this isn't a good place for you or her to even be here. You, Storm Blue, are a wanted fugitive in Kaon and I should warn you that there's a huge price on your head, even as I speak."
Drift removed the frown from his facial expression and sighed deeply. This was extremely dangerous of Storm Blue to come here, but he didn't have time to do two things at once, especially when it came to the concerns of Prima, whom he had no idea about.
"I suspect your daughter wasn't looking for me," he said. "If my guess is correct, then she would be heading in the same direction that I was." He looked towards the gladiator colosseum that towered over the buildings behind him. "Towards the most dangerous and most well known place in Kaon... Repungo Colosseum. If we hurry, we may be able to catch up with her before Turmoil suspects that I'm here to kill him."
He turned back to the femme, waiting for an answer from her. If she was willing to come, he would accept it. If she decided not to, he would continue on his own and get Prima back while he was there.

[shadowfang]

It didn't take long for Prima to find the most active thing currently going on in that sector. The Crowd for the gladiatorial arena was huge! The sparkling couldn't really fathom what was going on there that would be so exciting... Was it a play? Prima liked plays. She smiled eagerly almost forgetting why she was there to begin with. Her more Unicron obsessed self scowled her for this and told her that they needed to find this, "Turmoil" person and kick his aft to make an example of her greatness out of him. The sparkling in her reasoned that Turmoil might like plays too and would be in there...

So the sparkling in question, had made her way deep into the crowd that Drift and Storm Blue had been in only moments before. As small as she was, no one seemed to notice her and many of the mechs simply towered over the sparkling, hiding her from view. There was an occasional "ooch!", "ouch", or, "Hey! what the?!" As her spiny body poked, prodded or scraped by someone as she squeezed through the crowd like it was a jungle. The entrance was just within her reach and she let out a wicked but adorable grin, putting a hand on her hips and swaying her hips slightly (as she'd seen the scantily clad femmes in the area do) and purposefully as she casually made for the entrance.

[Storm Blue Lightning Saix]

"T-The colosseum? Primus, I'm going to kill that kid..." She groaned softly, already feeling a prossecor ache coming on. "Thank you, that's all I needed to know. I can get her on my own..." She paused when a group of Decepticons walked by them. They were too far back in the shadows for them to spot either of Drift or herself, but it still made her hiss in caution. "Scratch that." She whispered when they had gone by. "We'll do things your way."

[Spiritimus Prime]

Drift had expected Storm Blue to try and do this on her own. He knew those Decepticons were approaching and had made no move to stop her until she realised her mistake and backed away before the Decepticons would notice her, even as she admitted her mistake.
"A wise choice," he said coolly. "But I would highly recommend, if you really are coming with me to the colosseum, that you wear a cloak in order to hide your true self. Turmoil will only recognise me and I do not want him to figure out that I am working against him for the Autobots."
Drift placed a hand into his subspace pocket and pulled out a brown cloak. He stared at it for a moment, using his thumb to get a feel of the cloth he used to wear a long time ago before he had left the Decepticons to search for answers that had opened his optics to the truth about his own kind and had made him realise just how evil they were.
"Take my old cloak," he said, handing Storm Blue the old brown cloak. "It may not be much, but it's all I've got left. If you are going to come with me, you must do exactly as I say because we are going into a place where EVERYTHING is not what it seems. As soon as you step into that place, your life is completely on the line. Am I clear on this?"
The white mech narrowed his fake red optics into thin slits. He didn't want to appear threatening, but he had to make sure that the message was carried out as clear as crystal. Neither he nor Sentinel Prime could afford to let Turmoil live after all the crimes he had committed long after Drift had left the Decepticons. There was no room for mistakes and it was cruicial that they get this over and done with as soon as possible.

[Storm Blue Lightning Saix]

"Yes, sir." Storm nodded in determination as she briefly checked her own swords, thanking Primus she had the mind to bring them along then quickly wrapped the cloak over her thin black frame, completely hiding away the constant blue glow that came from her body. She had to fold her audios down in order to pull the hood over her head, but when she did the light from her helm was trapped under the folds, casting ghostly shadows over her strangely serious face. The change in her demeanor was rather dramatic, but she knew that neither of them could afford to fail in their respective missions. As loud and obnoxious as Prima was, the sparkling was still Storm's responsibility and the cyber cat really didn't know what she would do if anything happened to the thorny little whelp. Mentally setting the last fraction of her childish self straight, she turned back to Drift, expression neutral and optics slightly dimmed. "I'm ready whenever you are."