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Characters:Botanica, Stardrive Location: Stora Sjöfallet National Park, Sweden Content Warnings: Excessively nerdy nerds Plot Summary: A tale of two techo-organics
Stardrive transformed and landed, her impact creating a small crater in the ground. There was this voice screeching in her head which got louder and louder as she came near this piece of land between two mountains. It was a pretty place to humans probably, but the green life-filled landscape was very unnatural compared to the metal spires of Cybertron (though, she supposed, those are part of one big entity) or the rocky landscape of Antilla.
We can agree on that at least, she told the voice in her head. Thankfully, it had quieted down to an uncomfortable feeling, allowing her to focus on finding just what exactly was causing that voice in her head so much distress.
She started walking around, letting the voice's discomfort guide her way.
Botanica sat floating just a meter above the inlet, her senses awash with all the varied kinds of life that were native to the park. An ecosystem in balance was one of the most rewarding sensations she'd ever felt, all the flora, all the fauna, working together as part of the great cycle. Most of her great discoveries had been given life through similar rituals, simply sitting in the middle of nature, letting all the stressors of life melt away. She certainly had some important work to attend to, but the concept of time travel wasn't going anywhere any time soon.
Then, a drop touched the pond.
Metaphorically.
Another life sign wandered into the intricate web she'd spun. Again, metaphorically.
She read it as Cybertronian in nature, with a few energon deficiencies, some modified systems, but other than that nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the voracious cluster of both carbon and silicon that had integrated itself with them.
Whatever it was, Botanica could feel it searching for her. Perhaps not her specifically, but whatever was at the center of this web of life.
Stardrive was pretty sure it came from the lake, now that she's closer. The trees before her were blocking her way though. Her silver armor retracted from her hand as her fingers fused together, sharpening at the edges. She swung the blade at the vegetation.
Her hand bounced off the trunk. It had turned back into its original form.
Ugh. I'm just trying to find out what it is. Can't you cooperate? She willed her hand into a blade again, but her digits unfused as quickly as they stuck together.
N̺̜̝o̦̯̲͙̫͍͞!̛̘ ̧̤͕̺̤̤ͅB͚̥̠̣̟a̶̝̹̜d!̹͎͚̟
Can't you just tell me what it is you're so scared of?
Really? Stardrive drew her armor back over her hand. There was one thing her parasite can't control. She transformed into her spaceship mode and took off. She shut her engines off and transformed, landing on her hand and knees on the lakefront. Did she look cool? She hoped she did. She stood up slowly.
Good thing there's no one around to see-
A green and brown bot was hovering right before her, and the voice in her head shrieked.
Botanica could swear that there was some internal voice screaming about her, somewhere.
Oh well.
Must've simply been her imagination...
Clunk.
The sound of someone performing a really cool landing nearby struck Botanica's audials, prompting her to cautiously look around. A solid three and a half seconds passed before she finally realized that the new arrival had newly arrived on the shore behind her. They were absolutely beautiful! Botanica found beauty in most things however, so her standards weren't too high.
A moment passed as she analyzed the being before her. Yep. This was the presence she'd felt searching for her. Botanica mentally checked off the Not a Decepticon box in her head, and started to go down the rest of the list. She tilted her head, quizzically. Such a strange internal composition... it was almost as if she were transforming for two.
With that out of the way, Botanica ceased her levitation, standing up on the surface of the water. She smiled a big get-to-know-you smile, and waved.
As Botanica analyzed her, Stardrive did the same. Levitation, obviously. Maybe flight. Organic life covered every millimeter of her body. Probably regeneration powers. She didn't really understand why, but the few technorganics she's seen all had regeneration abilities, to some extent. She herself had benefitted a lot from this.
Stardrive looked down and found her hand ready to form a blade. She tightened the armor around it, keeping it from morphing.
No! Bad parasite! She clenched her fist, her fingers' sharp tips digging into her palm. She felt the armor's burn through the parasite's mental link. After a while, it released her hand, retreating into gods-know-where in her body.
Her armor was made of Regenesis ore iteration 12, nicknamed "Protection", she remembered from the debriefing after defeating Unicron. Wait, what? When did that happen? Its properties weren't that well-defined, but embodying the concept of protection apparently includes protecting the form of her body from unwilling alterations by parasitic organisms.
It was only after a few awkwardly quiet seconds that Stardrive realized the strange bot had greeted her.
"Hi, I'm Stardrive," she said, waving her other hand. At this point she noticed the bot had switched to a standing position. I've got to pay more attention.
Stardrive's pause gave Botanica a few extra moments to further analyze her composition. Now that she was standing much closer, she had a better look. In many ways the two, or rather three, of them were quite similar. Stardrive was in fact technorganic, much like herself; the only difference being that her techno and organic halves were both competing for dominance over the other. While that seemed terribly unhealthy for either of them, Botanica was not one to judge.
Not aloud, at least.
Something else was separating both halves, however. Yes... it was the silvery protective covering around their body. It was armor, likely Ore-12 if her memory served. Energon ore variants were something of an enigma and curiosity to Botanica, even if it was really only ancient history to her. She'd need at least a few of them to get home, too.
Botanica ceased her rumination as Stardrive finally introduced herself, prompting a gleeful smile from the former. She stepped closer to Stardrive across the water, her pedes leaving only a single ripple from their passing.
"I had a feeling that someone was looking for me!" She said happily. Botanica assumed that Stardrive was some sort of explorer, and ran with it.
"Two of you"? That came to Stardrive as a shock. She didn't think her parasite showed. Well, maybe that moment it tried to take over her hand, but that wasn't obvious, was it? Could just be a motor malfunction, right?
"This planet?" Stardrive asked. "There's too much life covering its surface. Much, much more than home." She didn't like it one bit. Apart from how different it was from her home planets, the abundance of life meant Dire Wraiths could be hiding anywhere. She couldn't use her analyzer either. The Dire Wraith in her keeps making it come up positive no matter where she points it.
Botanica wasn't the least bit surprised that her new friend could get an accurate read on her, as well. Still stepping lightly enough as to not break the hydrogen bonds of the water beneath her, Botanica put a servo to her chin, and thought out her answer. Her first answer was an eager smile. "Why wouldn't I be on Earth? Look around!" She replied, taking a moment to appropriately spin in place, her arms outstretched. Botanica motioned to the peaceful and picturesque national park around her, untouched by pollution or human development.
"From the entire biosphere to the smallest prokaryote, this whole planet is a treasure trove of biodiversity! Oh how it makes my processors sing!"
She was tempted to, really.
Very tempted, actually.
"But I have to ask," she replied. "I can tell that you're technorganic as well... but both of your halves are terribly unbalanced."
Stardrive looked around as Botanica told her to. It only made her more confused. Every square meter was covered in some form of organic life, and organic life meant potential Dire Wraiths. She supposed some of the creatures were cute, like those little furry animals she caught floating on the ocean surface, hammering away at a shell on their bodies, but ever since Rom told her about that time a forest turned into a group of Wraiths, she couldn't help but think everything around her could be a Dire Wraith. Old habits die hard.
Her armor rippled. Her brows furrowed. That's never happened before.
Another few seconds passed before she realized Botanica asked another question. "What am I?" she repeated. "Wouldn't I like to know. As far as I can tell, it's some sort of Dire Wraith infection-"
Ṉ͈̮̗̜o͙͓̬̬̬͎͈͡t̻̻̱̹ i̡̞̳̥̦nf̷̮e̸̘c̯̥͔̻̘ͅt̗͉̀i̞͙͎͚̤͟ͅͅo̺̝̳n!̜̭̘ ̠̯̰̘̼̜͎F̴̗ri̩̗͓͚̯e͙̙͚̞̖͟n̨̟̼d҉̝̞ͅ!̼͖͎͙̳̦̘ came the voice in her head. She ignored it.
"-that somehow left me in control. Your turn. What are you?"
It had been quite some time since Botanica had approached the subject. She had studied much about them, as any good scholar studies infamous galactic blights in their free time. There were plenty of examples of Dire Wraiths infecting Cybertronians, although none of them ever left the host in control as it had for Stardrive. If she were back home, Botanica would've been staring at a prize-winning essay right now.
Questions for Stardrive would have to be tabled, as now it was Botanica's turn to answer questions about herself, a subject she never shied away from.
"I am Botanica!" she said with a flourish. "Technorganic explorer, scientist, biologist, physicist, researcher, adventurer, teacher, time traveler... and florist."
"I've been trying to make my way back to my own time, but since chronal mechanics is a long and complicated process, I decided that taking a few breaks to appreciate Earth was warranted."
"I am Stardrive," she said, realizing that she forgot to introduce herself. She listened as Botanica listed off her titles. But researchers and scientists are basically the same thing, she thought And biologists and physicists are scientists. She decided to keep her mouth shut.
E͕͔͔̘x̭̣̹͞p̗̜̠̟ļ̺̣̮̪̭o̙͎̣r҉͕̹̫̖͈͎̯e͖͖͕r͎͍ ͇̫̭̟̜͚͖a̻̭n̦̤̲d͓̘͙͎ ̤̯̱̳̩̲ͅaͅd͓͈v̝en̴t̟̩̮̕u̕rer͏̣̹͉̬̺̟̘ ̨̠͔͓͖͕s͎͕͈͈͖̻a͍̙͓̝m̩̼͉͕̮̞͝ͅe͈̝͙̲̘ ͏͙͓̹̬t͓͘h̪̙͇̥͕͎̪i̗̥̳͎n̷g̷̳̲̭͔̱͉,̗̰͈̣̕ said the parasite.
Shush!
"So you aren't from around here then? Or rather, around now." She paused. "But why Earth? Why now?"
"Iunno. Earth's become the focal point for a series of space-time disturbances lately, but for the life of me, I haven't been able to find out why!"
An eco-friendly light bulb lit up inside Botanica's confusingly complex brain. She began to run another battery of calculations in the span of a thought. Theses results, much like the results of every other test that Botanica had run, needed some good old fashioned exposition!
"Wait a minute. This makes no sense!" She blurted out, raising her arms up to the sky in exasperation.
"Why are we all meeting on Earth of all places? These past few years have defied all statistical and probabilistic models! The Autobots and Decepticons were already here for a multitude of reasons, but then everyone else starts showing up! People who would've had no reason to show up but a few months ago!"
"I was in the seven millionth century or something for space's sake! Why then am I pulled to this incredibly precise point in history, to Earth no less? I wasn't even near the Earth!"
"So," she continued, "To answer your question: I don't know. And to that end, I don't know why you are here either, or anyone for that matter. My closest guess is that something utterly terrible has happened, or is about to happen. This terrible something must have caused a temporal shock wave that punctured the fabric of space-time, and is now pulling us all toward some horrific, mega-super-ultra singularity."
"Or it could all just be coincidence. But I can't write a paper about that, now can I?"