event: portal six | the wasteland

[mayfield_mods]

If you had thought that a charred nuclear hellscape couldn't possibly get any worse, turns out you thought wrong.

The sixth portal is located just a few yards across from the entrance to the Mayfield Dairy. The door to the Dairy is, as always, locked, but those of you who stare long enough at the drawn curtains might notice them fluttering slightly every once in a while- as if there's movement behind them. As if someone is watching.

Even just by glancing at the portal from the Mayfield side, you can tell it makes the desert portal look like a tropical vacation by comparison. The portal opens up to the interior of a ruined schoolhouse, its walls and floor caked with dust and ash. The hallways are bare and desolate, save for the occasional scorch mark. Inside the classrooms you can see small skeletons beneath the desks, curled up as if for warmth.

The world outside the schoolhouse is no better. Not only are the old hazards still here- pockets of intense radiation, air clouded by ash and smoke -but things have apparently deteriorated since your last visit. There are glitch pockets, as expected, but they're not sitting in place anymore: they're moving, slowly at times, quickly at others. And they're not moving at random, either: they'll come straight for you, as if they're hunting...

But glitch pockets aren't the only ones out for your blood. The roaming gangs of cannibal survivors are still here, but they appear to have been as changed as the landscape. Many of them bear the same deformities as the drones of the carnival- multiple or lacking limbs, two bodies fused together, mutated growths spreading up and down their limbs. Many of them are wearing scorched hazmat suits, patched together haphazardly. All of them are armed. None of them are friendly.

The sun hangs high in the sky, but you can barely see it through the thick brown clouds. This is a dead world, and unless you find that memento fast, you're about to become a permanent resident.

Comments

[electrowhipit]

[ Jolt backs up a bit, startled, when the door falls off. Sorry, Sideswipe. He takes moment to look around, then pushes his way through the ruined door and outside, where he transforms. His optics land first on the glitch pockets, but he can't really look at them too long.

Eventually the figures in the distance catch his attention. ]

Looks like we're not alone.

[stabbywheelfeet]

[He grunts, when he's backed into. But doesn't otherwise protest as he follows along behind the blue Autobot, also transforming.]

... What a charming place this is.

[He ends up shaking his head, also flinching away from the glitches, his engine revving unhappily.]

Where to next, my dear, fearless leader?

[electrowhipit]

Well, if you were trying to hide something in a place like this, where would you put it?

[stabbywheelfeet]

Probably somewhere heavily guarded. Either by living sentinels or in some kind of unreachable place.

[electrowhipit]

... Okay, if you were trying to hide something but still make it accessible, where would you hide it?

[stabbywheelfeet]

A vault? A... behind Ironhide?

[He spreads his hands.] I have no idea. If any building is standing, I'd think it'd be in there.

[electrowhipit]

I guess the only thing for it is to start looking. [ Back to being a car, then! Time to roll out. He's going to head towards the nearest crater to start looking ]

[stabbywheelfeet]

[Given the terrain, he's probably better off staying in robot mode. Not that it's going to slow him down any... So he skates after Jolt, keeping his optics on those distant figures.]

Here's hoping this won't be another Westport.

[electrowhipit]

I have to wonder if Westport would be an improvement, though. I mean, look at this place.

[stabbywheelfeet]

No.

It wasn't. That wasn't... better than this. You can actually use your intakes here. We're ourselves here.

[electrowhipit]

All right, all right. I was just wondering.

[stabbywheelfeet]

[Don't mind him, if he skates forward, to put his hand on the roof of your cab, for just a second.]

Don't worry about it. Let's... just get this over with, all right?

[electrowhipit]

[ That makes him smile- you know, inwardly- and he rolls on, looking for clues. Something. Anything. ]

[mayfield_mods]

[Up ahead is a particularly large crater. Around its perimeter floats dozens of hovering glitch pockets.]

[stabbywheelfeet]

[He slows, his blades sliding free of his arms, as he watches those things fly around.]

... Or. It could be right out here in the open. And heavily guarded?

[electrowhipit]

[ Jolt pulls to a stop and transforms, electricity sparking along his fingertips. ]

That's a possibility.

[ He throws a quick glance at his companion, before walking slowly closer to the crater. ]

[stabbywheelfeet]

A good one, I'd think.

[He nods, and then paces along beside him, watching. He's ready to throw Jolt to the ground, in case one of those things gets too close.]

[mayfield_mods]

[As they go closer to the crater they will notice how massive it is. It's deep and by far the largest of any crater they may have seen so far.

The glitch pockets continue to float around it, but are not yet coming near them. No matter how far they float they never stray from the perimeter.]

[electrowhipit]

[ Jolt steps as close as he dares, craning to see if he can see inside of the crater ]

You see anything, Sideswipe?

[stabbywheelfeet]

... It looks like Devastator made impact, but aside from that, I don't see much.

[As he creeps up alongside Jolt.]

Those things seem pretty stuck in place, though.

[mayfield_mods]

[They won't see much debris around the crater. But if they look closely enough, they should see something in the middle of the inside.]

[electrowhipit]

[ Jolt has to strain a bit- even get up on his tip-toes, so to speak, before he catches sight of something. ]

There's something in there. Think we can make it through?

[stabbywheelfeet]

[He strains as well, peering down, and then up the sides of the crater.]

I think maybe I could. I'm faster than you, after all. [He pauses, then makes to climb over the lip of the crater.]

Think those whips of yours reach the bottom?

[electrowhipit]

Eesh. It might be close. Why?

[stabbywheelfeet]

Because you might have to play rescuing damsel to my distressed hero, in a minute.

[If you catch his meaning...]