red_diode_district | Everybody learns from *somebody*

Everybody learns from somebody

Passing the doors into the library, Megatron was pleased he had gotten the schedule correct as he saw who was sitting at the desk. If it had been completely necessary due to his own schedule, he'd have come here when he could. But since he didn't have to...

Ignoring the faint itch interfacing hadn't properly gotten rid off, Megatron approached the librarian at a lazy, casual walk. It was a pity he hadn't seen any signs at all that the surprisingly fine-lined truck-alted mech had the inclination he was looking for. Things would have been a lot easier (and, really, pleasing) if he had.

As it was, since there was no one left in the current arena circuit that he trusted with what he had to hand over, perhaps he would have to avail himself of one of the clubs. It made an irritable twitch slither down the treads on his shoulders, the thought that he'd have to do that.

It was ages since he'd had to go to an open venue like that to simply get his needs properly taken care of.

And he really would have preferred the librarian. Orion Pax - it hadn't taken anything to find out the designation when to found the schedule - was witty, somehow diplomatically argumentative and didn't give in if he knew he was right or wanted to stand for his opinion, actually had some smarts to go with said use of words and Megatron wanted to know more.

More, and more personally (most of the earlier he'd simply learned over the few times he'd been in the library when the mech was, but hadn't actually approached him). So this time, he decided to actually use the librarian's assistance in what he was looking for... and perhaps get something more out of it.

"Excuse me?"

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Megatron hummed, absolutely undaunted by Orion's scolding, though he dipped his helm in acknowledgement.

"Of course. But all of those disappeared because people willed them to. The only thing that has been done so far about this, if the people responsible even know about these deeper parts, is restrict access to the underground in certain places."

Of course, they probably knew. These etchings and the other things Megatron had found down here were probably the explicit reason for the 'forbidden zones' for the 'safety of the pubic'.

But they hadn't tried to destroy this, and it was perfectly possible, as Megatron well knew, to get underground with only a bit of ingenuity and exploring.

You could even end up in places like this by accident.

"Societal disasters are as bad as natural disasters when it comes to the loss of data and knowledge," Orion said, grimly acknowledging Megatrons' point. "But still. Not taking chances. The people responsible for keeping this place hidden could well decide it is not worth the risk of keeping it intact."

He bristled at the very idea, field fluctuating.

"Anyway. Show me something else - though if it is as groundbreaking as the last one, I might not survive the trip," he managed a laugh.

"I would hope you do," Megatron chuckled, rubbing his thumb over the metal of Orion's hand, "as I would be very disappointed if you offlined from this. Though I suppose you would, at least, offline happy."

He put a little weight into the word and let his grin sharpen a bit, implicating what he was actually talking about... even if Orion no doubt could offline happily from all this hidden information.

"But, I'm not sure if what I'm showing you next will be as interesting as the wall. But even if it isn't, we may find other things."

THe corridor curved around, nearly whimsically as they walked, the walls having stopped being flat and straight and instead undulating gently, composed of cables twined together instead of flat metal plates.

"Haha," Orion grumbled, even as a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "Happily maybe, but I'd rather not." He gave Megatron's hand a squeeze, before focusing on their surroundings as they walked ever-deeper. Orion frowned, reaching out to gently brush the nearest wall, free of any interesting glyphs.

"Huh. I feel like we're in the maintenance corridors of a Metro-titan."

A pause.

"...We're not, right?" He asked doubtfully, eying the floor.

"We shouldn't be," Megatron said, eyeing their surroundings as well, curiosity suddenly sparked, "unless you know anything about Iacon that I don't? Though we are, of course, far enough at the edge that a metro-titan for Iacon wouldn't be here..."

This... was curious. He hadn't thought about this at all, how the corridors looked. But, thinking about it, he doubted it was a metro-titan; he remembered now that the passages underneath Kaon, both the city-proper and further out, had looked like this as well when he delved deep enough.

So what, then, did that mean?

"Not as far as I know," Orion said, optics widening, startled. "But then again, considering how so few people even know what is down here..."

He trailed off again, glancing around. He gave Megatron's hand a squeeze.

"Well. We should treat it as though it was. Just in case."

"I guess, though if it is one, I doubt they are aware," Megatron said, eyeing the walls around them speculatively as he compared what he'd seen on earlier excursions and this.

And needing more exploration before he started to attempt to draw conclusions, but this had very, very interesting suggestions.

"But I suppose it would hardly hurt to be courteous as much as possible." Megatron tilted his helm into a nod, while reserving the right to be as non-courteous as necessary if it came to fighting...

Hm. It wasn't like there was anything down here, now was it? And yet his threat-assessment was working quietly away...

"Doubtful," Orion agreed, some of the tension leaving his frame. Megatron had a point, after all. If it was aware of them, it probably would have made them aware of it sooner.

"But aware or not, courtesy never hurt anyone." Orion said with the start of a smirk, giving Megatron a pointed nudge.

"So what is the next artifact we're looking for look like?"

"As much as possible," Megatron allowed, arching an optic ridge when Orion nudged him, and then shrugged, "not so much an artifact, unless you'd call everything down here that, as a piece of history, I believe."

Frowning thoughtfully at the corridor and the two branches they were presented with, Megatron took them left, and soon it started to go sharply downwards in a sort of spiralling ramp.

A fair distance below them the ramp ended in an open area with at least one open doorway, light spilling through it invitingly.

Beyond was a huge hall, the floor's octagonal plates etched with some pattern, and in the center stood two positively giant statues. Of course, with the way their metal was coloured and the way they'd been made, they really did seem like two giant cybertronians posing together, each with one arm raised and nearly touching the other's hand.

Once, there'd been a data depository in the form of a disc in that joint grip. Megatron had removed it on his first visit here, and wasn't about to - yet - show it to Orion.

"Every item and wall mural down here could be correctly called an 'artifact', my dear," Orion corrected as they walked. Especially if everything was as significant as that last find...

When they reached the large entryway, Orion couldn't help but gape in surprise as he stared up at the grand hall.

"...oh."

He took a hesitant step inside, gaze no leaving the giant statues.

"...You are certainly full of surprises, Megatron," he managed faintly.

Chuckling and once again pleased at Orion's reaction, Megatron shrugged.

"I make it my business to be. That way, no one will know what to expect in a fight."

Or, in this case, this part of their relationship and this expedition, even if he was as surprised as Orion was now when he first found them.

"I haven't manage to figure out who they were, but they must have been important, once."

"I'm afraid I can't really help there," Orion said, slowly approaching the giant statues. "One of them looks familiar - I've probably seen him somewhere before, in the archives - but I can't recall his name. And the other is even more of a mystery..."

Eying the statues and overcoming his awe, Orion made his way to the base of the nearest one, searching the pedestal for something that might actually tell them the name of the giants.

"Might not be important," Megatron said, clearly dismissive, after a moment. They probably were, but not in the sense the etchings Orion had been interpreted were. They'd been holding the item Megatron had removed and tucked elsewhere, after all.

"And I don't think there are any plaques or anything; didn't find any the first time I was here." But if Orin had sharper optics than he did, all the better, since with names they could go searching through the archives for any mention that hadn't been scraped out already.

Because Megatron was pretty sure it'd been. The age, if he could judge them, both alone and by the item they'd been 'guarding', implied pre-Golden Age, and their history did not stretch coherently further back.

Due to 'unprecedented catastrophe' his aft.

"'Might not be important'?!" Orion sputtered, turning back long enough to give Megatron a incredulous stare. "Don't be insulting. If someone bothered to make two giant fragging statues of these mechs, I highly doubt they are 'unimportant'!"

Shaking his helm, Orion approached properly, circling around the first statue.

"We'll find out who these mechs are, if I have to go back and search the entire archives for the matching image from my memory."

He could see any name plates at first glance, but that didn't mean anything. Dust and fine debris coated the pedestals and blurred the finely-crafted lines of the statues themselves - a name, date, or even maker's-mark could be hidden anywhere. Slowly, he ran his hands along the most likely edges, searching for precious information buried in the silt.

"Did you find anything else the last time you were here that might give us further clues?" he finally asked.

He shouldn't laugh at Orion's reaction, but that was what Megatron did, waving a placating hand in the air while Orion walked around the statues, trying, in vain, to find anything that would help identify them.

"If there's any scraps of data left of them, I'm sure you'll find it that way. You could also use your recorder to take additional images," Megatron pointed out, remembering the thing he'd used earlier on the wall.

The last question had Megatron pausing, leaning against the foot of the one with a more animal-like helmet design.

"No. I didn't. Though it seems to me as if they were holding something, once," Megatron said, offering up what he knew for a truth blandly, pointing up at the hands held aloft, that didn't quite touch.

"Of course I will," Orion murmured, already focused on his task.

"But I'll search around here before I have to resort to scans and a long archive-dive with only the picture of a rusting statue to work off of."

Orin paused, hands resting up against the pedestals, glancing up from between the statues.

"...Huh. Megatron, I think you're right." He glanced back down around his feet with a vaguely hopeful air, but it was quickly obvious even with the thick coating on the floor that whatever might have been up there wasn't lying where it might have fallen.

"Drat! Whatever it was must be long gone, if it existed at all.:

"Looks like that, yes," Megatron murmured, nodding seriously. He should know, after all. He'd removed the casing that had contained a golden data-repository disk inside, himself.

"Neither of these are particularly rusty, however, Orion," he said with a smirk, glancing up at the statues again; they were nearly pristine in both lines and colour, if not polished any longer.

When something that almosy seemed like an earlier echo but sounded just slightly off came on the tailend of the last echo, Megatron glanced towards the opening they'd come from and frowned.

... Was there something down here?

"Oh I know," he said flippantly, "But they might as well be. This grime is getting everywhere, but I think I found a spot where someone removed a name plate or plaque under it..."

He trailed off, noticing Megatron's tension at the same time he realized his larger partner was not the one making noises. Orion froze in place, audial nubs twitching as he cautiously turned his helm around toward different parts of the room.

"Megatron, what is that?"

Turning around, Megatron scowled, pulling his sword out of subspace.

"It seems that we aren't alone down here," he remarked even as he backed up slowly, gesturing for Orion to come over to him while his optics stayed locked on the trio of beings that shuffled in.

They looked... awkward, whatever they were. As much bare protoform as armour, everything seemed slightly off and twisted, their faces lopsided and jagged blades sticking out at both awkward and inconvenient places and angles.

"Back up slowly, towards the wall, but not into the doorway."

"What?"

Horrified, Orion voice cut out with a sharp burst of static when he caught sight of the- the horrors shambling through the entryway.

"...Primus. What happened to them?" He could barely look away - and yet kept flinching from the sight of their unfortunate faces. Because of it, he nearly tripped as he shuffled his way closer to the wall.

"How long have they been down here?"

Orion had no idea what they were, but it was fairly certain such pitiful beings wouldn't be in their right minds - if nothing else, the pain of being in such a state would have to be intense.

"I doubt..." studying the slow creatures, Megatron didn't take their current speed at face value, and kept his free arm out to shield Orion somewhat. He should have brought his shield as well. "... that they've ever been topside, Orion. I don't think they're lost and have mutated."

Something just didn't feel right about these; to Megatron, no matter what they (vaguely) looked like, they didn't read as Cybertronian. And thus, even if he wasn't exactly aware of it, they were only one thing; enemy.

"When I tell you to, turn on your headlights for a few seconds." It was brighter in here than the corridors outside, but the concentrated light from headlights like Orion's could still be startling and even blinding.

Orion's neck creaked when he turned from gawking at the horrors far too quickly, giving Megatron a look. Monsters and beings of the dark deeps were not part of Orion's expertise.

"But...what? They can't- People live down here?"

And were apparently so addled by injury or mutation that they gave no sign that they had heard Megatron's words, making no apparent attempts to block their optics.

::Er. Alright?:: He agreed, tensely readying himself.

"I doubt they count as people, Orion," Megatron said with a snort, slowly weaving his sword in front of him in warning, though the creatures didn't seem to take notice.

::I don't think we need to bother to talk over radio, Orion. While they probably understand speech, I'm wondering if they have a proper causal understanding and a sense of future events.::

It was, at least, Megatron's assumption. He raised his sword as he cast a glance behind him, noting how close they were to the wall.

::Now.::

::I'll stick with it just in case, thank you.::

Orion really wanted to argue the 'not people' part of the conversation, but this probably wasn't the time.

And he didn't want to distract Megatron from a fight, not even for the sake of (potentially) ill Cybertronians.

So he lit up his headlights on cue at their brightest setting, and was startled to see the visceral reaction the pitiful- people? creatures? - had at the light.

Someone else might have hesitated to strike down opponents who jerked and shied away from the light, twisting and then freezing in the same movement, clearly startled and blinded both.

Not Megatron.

He leaped forward, swinging his sword and cleanly chopping one of them in half and driving a deep groove in a second, kicking the third and sending it sprawling for a moment.

That was the only free action he got, however, as the injured one suddenly lunged with a speed completely contrary to the earlier shuffling, wielding its body like the weapon it was with all the odd blades and twisted angles.

Megatron ducked, kicked at its knees, and thrust his sword out at the thing he'd kicked to the ground earlier as it picked itself up and made to jump on Orion behind Megatron's back.

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