re_alignment | [Broadcasting from the tallest peak he can find in the junk pile.]

[Someone has been through this before. Someone knows this drill. Someone has worked very, very hard to finally make it back to his Cybertron, only to find it all wrong. Again.

Someone probably has destroyed a few piles of junk in their anger.

However, someone also has paid attention to the communications on the network, and has ventured to the 'temples' that were mentioned, and has found them locked against him.

This someone is not surprised.]

Listen closely, and listen well.

[It is time to act. The feed opens with a closeup on Megatron's faceplates, optics blazing red, the scant remnants of gladiator paint still burned onto the metal.]

This is not where we belong, and I am done with this.

I am done with waking up to see an unfamiliar sun obscuring all-too-familiar stars. I am done with strangers being cast from world to world. I am done with mechs-who-would-be-gods so graciously patronizing us by allowing us to remain while simultaneously enforcing unethical segregation and I am done, finally, with the thwarting of destinies that I and my allies have slaved, toiled, and died to create.

You can listen to those who make the rules here if you desire to. I have heard a song like theirs, before.

Or.

[He flashes, briefly, a datapad that seems to have some sort of schematic on it--a schematic that looks (to those who are familiar with them) like a complicated space bridge.]

If you are 'done' as I am, you can help me.

I am Megatron, and I will deliver anyone that joins me to their rightful homes.

[A single, pointed tooth is visible in the smirk that finally dawns on his face. His interdimensional portal had only worked, once, but with the right mechs he would see it to completion again. Immediately.]

I guarantee it.

~~~~~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He laughs.] So do I!

And the beauty of it is, it changes nothing outside of my world. I create a splinter timeline, and you get to enjoy your unorthodox retirement here. [He's guessing, but it's a guess based off the physics of Axiom..which really shouldn't be used as a basis, but it's all he has.]

Hn. Is this related to Tarn? [The DJD is sounding suspiciously like that mech both Fulcrum and Misfire had warned him about.]

And...

[Wait.]

Overlord. He's here, isn't he. [He's talking to him, now.] Who is he?

[smirk] Well, perhaps if you succeed, send a letter of notice if the portal remains open here and there. A "postcard", if you will. Because if you can indeed achieve the goals and ideals you initially fought for in the beginning of the war without all the literally galaxies-wide chaos, then I'd surely love to visit. Maybe "retire" elsewhere.

[He frowns at the names.] Tarn... Yes. He's the leader of the DJD outfit. I've never met him - obviously, as I'm still online - but... I don't really like to think about it if I don't have to.

And Overlord is here, yes. Much to everyone's chagrin. He's been holding occasional torture parties. Killed quite a handful of our residents, though some made it back alive... But, basically, he's perhaps one of your greatest admirers. Completely insane and warped, he's a psychopath responsible for... Pit, I can't keep track. Overlord's obsessed with you, I hear, and he... He tortures, plays with his victims before slowly, painfully deactivating them in the worst possible ways. [His frown twitches.] He's a byproduct of his time, I suppose.

[That gets a crooked smirk out of him, because it sounds familiar.] You should come visit. There were...

There were others I made that suggestion to, as well. From other worlds.

Of course, it goes without saying that I'd be most welcoming to those who assisted me to return...

[Which you're doing, in part, by giving him this information. He'll use it.]

He mentioned something about an infiltration protocol. [Which he hadn't heard about before, but if a future version of himself had put a mech like Overlord into it, it didn't bode well.] Not easy to handle, is he?

I'm not sure I could help in assisting you, really. I'm just a medic.

No. [SIGH] No, he is not. My advice? Stay away from him. He's probably stalking you as we speak, but just... avoid him at all costs. I know that from your past - or your present, I'm not sure - you were a gladiator and a ruthless fighter in the ring, but seriously, don't try and fight him should push come to shove.

Unless somehow you can permanently incapacitate him in some way. [grumble] Probably come back if you killed him, psychotic glitch...

Decepticons need medics, too.

[And you've got a better bedside manner than the other ones he's met...except perhaps Glit. Glit is a special case, however.]

Stalking me? [Well, this is interesting.] And you're suggesting I not fight him? [Where is the fun in that?]

That sounds suspiciously like you doubt that I could win. [He's Megatron! He doesn't lose. This is like a challenge, to him.]

I offer my assistance to those who need it, true. But I'm rather content with keeping my services open to anyone, regardless of their faction. [Though maybe not Overlord. Forget that guy, man.] Decepticon, Autobot, or neither.

Like I said, he's obsessed with you. If he knows you're here, he's either hunting you down or setting up some sort of "welcome party".

[smirk] I think you could take him, sure. But easily and without some considerable effort? No.

That is the aspect of this world that has surprised me the most. Hn.

[It was ironic that in Axiom, Autobots and Decepticons had a hard time keeping at each other's throats. But here? Here, where it was hard surviving without everyone's cooperation? Here, it mattered less. That was an interesting thing to consider.]

If there's to be a party, I'll have to bring a present.

Half a kiloton, I'm thinking.

[Broadcasting from the tallest peak he can find in the junk pile.]

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