To Savor Freedom [Pandora]

[KARR]

Date: February 15th, 2025 // Time: 6:00 pm // Location: somewhere on the gulf off of Texas
Note: the date may need to be tweaked, I'll let you know

Freedom.

Ever since he was revived by the Decepticons, he had ultimate freedom (well near ultimate), and he was loving it. KITT and Mike hadn't been able to keep track of him even after having some reckless hit and runs. He wasn't bothered at all by the quiet times in Decepticon activity. He was just content occupying himself and getting to know other Decpeticons. He used the time to get used to his new body, which he loved, it made him feel even stronger!

All KARR ever wanted was to be himself, and before he joined the Cons, didn't even get that. Until the increase in Decepticon activity almost thirty years ago.

KARR was particularly hyper today. He had been using his submarine mode in the waters at far South Texas, happy to be alone. Accelerating rapidly, the beast from 'the black lagoon' eventually emerged from the water transforming into his Attack Mode form while masking his signal and making sure to access the land where there were less people. He didn't feel like running over anyone right now. He just wanted to keep moving and stretch his servos, to work hard. KARR wasn't interested in causing trouble, so he tried to keep his driving somewhat defensive as the streets darkened. As the sun set, he settled on a quiet spot of the shore near Tranquility and watched the setting sun from a parking lot.

The AI relaxed on his chassis steadily with a soft sigh, trying to relax. Freedom, he loved it so...

[Pandora]

Pandora did not normally go to the beach, but Hope had insisted. Hope liked the beach, while Pandora preferred the mountains. The dull gray femmme was standing off at a distance while watching her four minicons thundering around. The four ran a few laps around her before racing off. They all looked just glorious in the sunset, especially War with his flaming mane. The four continued to race off and Pandora turned her golden optics away to watch the waves and keep an eye on Hope. As for the other four, they thundered along towards the parking lot that KARR was in. War and Plague came to a stop. Famine moved a little further and his ears perked up as he saw the car.

~"Human, back to Pandora."~ The black minicon stated before spinning on his heels. Pestilence had said nothing as it simply spun around but one of the 'insects' left to get a closer look at KARR for whatever reason. The other parts of Pestilence shrank back towards the shadows, followed by Plague and War. Time to see what a human was doing out here all by themselves, or if this was just a car left here while the human was off somewhere else.

~"Easssy Famine, it might be ssaafe..."~ Came the hissing and unified noise of Pestilence as the bug came to KARR and attempted to land on the trunk area of the vehicle to get a better look.

[KARR]

The twin yellow scanners paced idly, sensors watching the minicons closely. He had started watching the minicons and their 'owner/leader' with curiosity, not having seen Cybertronians like this before. He knew some had Symbiotes, but whether or not they had them seemed to come to be by pure chance. Of course, there was no human currently with the vehicle. Perhaps he should trick them into thinking he had a human driver, but perhaps they were smart enough to catch the smell of Cybertronians on him, and even figure out the holoform was just a holoform.

He quickly started translating their 'foreign' dialog, still not completely a natural at speaking their language.

The AI vehicle decided to flip open the trunk in order to nudge Famine off himself. He'd rather avoid any sort of contact for now...

[Pandora]

Suddenly the trunk came open and Pestilence's bug came flying off and joined the rest of the hive as they were the shape of the minicon. War sprang in front of them and stared right at the KARR, ~"That can't be a regular car!"~ He said, the Cybertronian tongue being pretty well all that he and the other minicons knew, before looking around and transforming to his robotic form and heading closer to KARR. Plague watched before also before transforming and following. Pestilence did not transform so much as the bugs rearranged to look like a minicon of some sort. Famine remained from behind to watch, ~"Watch it guys..."~ He said, uneasy about the whole thing but knew War was set on something, so he was going to probably follow through no matter what now.

Luckily, these minicons meant no harm, they were only curious is all. War brought the back of his hand and gently tried to tap the door of KARR to see if he could get any movement out of it. Was this a friend or foe or was that thing with the trunk just a coincidence? Famine was the look-out, just making sure no humans were going to suddenly come upon the scene. That would be bad news for all of them and Pandora.

[KARR]

KARR wanted to chuckle as the bug-like Minicons flew off his trunk. They could hear the hypnotic hum of the pacing LED sensory lights as they moved closer. He was now very tempted to shift into Attack Mode (no weapons, just the physical changes) and see how they reacted. He was unable to resist the temptation (thus shifting rather suddenly into what is seen in his signature). The transformation was complete when the red underglow lit up the chassis and a spoiler rose up onto the tail. The scanners continued to pace in their ever hypnotising manner, at the same constant pace. When they studied him closely.

There were so many of them...he took thorough scans of each, saving their images in his data base. And while he was at it, he took a close up satellite view of Pandora while he was occupied watching them.

[Pandora]

Suddenly the car began to change and War, being the trigger happy minicon he was, aimed his weapon at the vehicle and jumped back, ~"It's going to attack!"~ He said before Plague sprang into action and shoved the guns to the side.

~"If it was it would have done so already! Don't shoot it though, you might make it angry!"~ He warned before looking to KARR, ~"At least we know it is not a normal car, unless it's one of those human soldier vehicles, but I didn't think their vehicles were that advanced."~ He continued, still musing over to himself over what exactly this was. Pestilence remained silent as another bug came on to it again, this time starting near the hood of the car and trying to go toward the windshield, but was aware of the windshield wipers, and aware of what they could do to the poor bug-like minicon.

[KARR]

Instead, KARR revved his engine. It was a short, simple growl. And a throaty one - one that signified very healthy internal systems. The growl was not a long, deeper growl to express anger. He hoped it would be enough for them to know that he was listening to every word they said, not get them to think he was angry.

It was then KARR decided it couldn't hurt to try to play with them a bit by activating his holoform from afar. He walked up to them from the beach, making sure to stay out of their line of sight when it flickered to life. The holoform made sure it was clear one more time before he stood up from a crouch and moved towards them. "Fascinating, isn't it? It's mine. And you don't have to run, I know of your kind. It's very...aware. Alert. And smart." the man clad in a white collared shirt and black jeans spoke as he walked up to them a bit too casually. He was having fun taking the opportunity to speak about himself in this way. He kept quiet after that moment to see how they would react.

Before the minicons, the nanoskin on the alternate mode shimmered from the front to the back, and in a major of a second or so, the car turned into a dark blue color with a teal shine.

[Pandora]

The growl made the three suddenly spring back with War pointing the weapons at KARR again. It did nothing else though but War kept his weapons trained upon KARR, just in case. The voice again made the three jump and whirl around to face the human. They were all about to disperse when the 'human' said that he knew of their kind already. The three looked between each other before looking back to the human and then to the KARR, ~"It is not Cybertronian..."~ War said. ~"It has no spark..."~ Commented Pestilence and Plague finished with, "~"It is not what we are particularly looking for."~

Once they said this to one another, Plague turned to the human and spoke, feeling rather awkward, "Er, this is a very impressive vehicle you have human. Well, we should be heading out now either way." He said as he began to step away along with the other two, not realizing that KARR had been simply messing with them the whole time. They would return to Pandora, but would go a different route to make sure that they have not been followed. They would not want to risk Pandora's safety after all.

[KARR]

"Not what you're looking for? What do you mean?" Repeating them in question would probably reveal the truth that this man was no ordinary man, and that the vehicle surely wasn't either. It was not just an advanced vehicle, after all. He transformed after some cars zipped by in the distance behind him. ~"Surprise. Though my origins are different, I live among Cybertronians. And I do have a "Spark"."~ The holoform smirked and faded all together as his real form spoke the Cybertronian language - quite well, for having recently been revived and downloading a data base full of information he was still 'feeding' his thirst for knowledge on.

KARR hoped revealing himself would get them to linger a bit, he was equally curious about THEM.

[Pandora]

The three minicons suddenly jumped when the holoform had spoken to them. They all stared in awe at what happened and all gave a gasp when the car suddenly transformed into a robot and spoke their language. For a while, they could only stare with their jaws agape. Even their look out was staring in awe that they had found another Cybertronian. It was then finally War spoke to KARR, ~"We were hoping you could meet a friend of ours."~ He said. The four were always up to this trick, trying to find a mech to bring along to meet Pandora so she could become happy. They knew it was not right for her to be alone forever and they wanted to see her happy. They thought finding a nice mech for her to befriend would help to make her happy.

[KARR]

"The friend that is farther down the coast line? If you are her friend, you are not her symbiotes, then?" KARR asked with a hint of confusion in his dark tone. KARR had originally thought they were symbiotes, but now if they said 'friend', that didn't make sense. He wanted to know what they were, and more about them, too. "I have all the time in the world to meet someone new." he added. He was more focused on the Mini Cons for the moment, watching each of them with his pacing scanners that replaced the normal location of the optics.

[Pandora]

~"We are her symbiotes, but we act also like her friends. The relationship between the two is one immeasurable. She treats us well. We are all a family."~ Plague said to KARR. Fortunately, KARR had agreed to go meet her and the four looked among each other again. They then turned and began to make their way back up to Pandora. Pandora's golden optics looked to the four as they approached. Plague then looked to KARR, ~"This lovely creature here is Pandora."~ He said as he looked to KARR. Pandora chuckled, rolling her golden optics before looking to KARR, ~"Pleasure to make your acquaintance mister...?" She trailed off, not knowing his name. He was an interesting mech, and looking him over she could not see an Autobot or Decepticon symbol on him. Perhaps he was another neutral? Of course, she was also aware of the game her symbiotes were playing. They often did this, and she figured she would play along and the two soon part ways, never to see each other again.

[KARR]

"I am the Knight Automotive Roving Robot. KARR for easy reference. It is a name given to me by the humans. They like their acronyms apparently." KARR responded as Pandora greeted him, reconsidering the fact that humans had a gazillion acronyms for EVERYTHING. "It would seem your symbiotes found me, I have never seen so many. Can I get each of your names? I would rather not have to keep referring to them as 'your symbiotes', as as well." he expressed genuine curiosity towards the symbiotes and thus he hoped that she wouldn't consider that awkward or intruding.

[Pandora]

He gave her a long name, and that confused her. He told her to call her KARR for short. While to her it was an unusual name, it all made sense when he mentioned it was given to him by the humans. He was not born on Cybertron, but was made by humans? That was something new. She had never heard of humans creating Cybertronians and was immediately interested. She also could not help but to feel his voice hit a familiar chord with her, but could not identify where she had heard it before. KARR mentioned her symbiotes had found him and she had a feeling she knew why they invited him back. When he asked for their names, each one stepped forward to introduce themselves. War was first,

~"I am War."~
~"We are Pestilence."~
~"I am Famine."~
~"I am Plague."~

Pandora looked to see the timid little minicon Hope hiding behind her. She stepped out of the way as the angel looking minicon stepped forward, ~"I am Hope."~ She said before darting behind Pandora again. She was untrusting of strangers. It did not help that Pandora was so over-protective over her. Hope was not meant to fight, and that was the reason why Pandora kept her on a tight leash, never letting her out of her sights. That said, every one of the symbiotes were special to her.

[KARR]

KARR studied each of them, putting their names to memory. His headlights flickered on and off when Hope bravely made her appearance, expressing his intrigue. "It is nice to meet you all, and "friend of the symbiotes"...?" he queried, knowing that he hadn't heard Pandora's name just yet. Luckily being AI, remembering names was no issue for KARR. Curiously, he studied her form closer, wondering if perhaps he could acquire a flying alternate mode as his fourth form of choice. Aerial capabilities would be advantageous. KARR had to find something to stay evenly matched with his twin after all.