Sure, he's fortunate that Megatron wasn't anywhere NEAR as mad as Starscream had thought he'd be upon learning that they still only had half a synthetic energon formula, or at least he hadn't taken it directly out on his second... but once Starscream had given him a name for a possible holder of a second piece, Megatron had sent him on his way and out on Orion Pax hunting duty.
This in and of itself wasn't necessarily a poor assignment. He had his orders: Locate Pax, observe from a distance and avoid engaging him, and tell Megatron immediately. This he didn't mind, because he now had his own personal investment in the task, especially since Pax had gotten in touch with him and informed him of the presence of Autobots on the planet.
Thing was, he is having zero luck locating the bot from the air, which is infuriating because how damn hard could it be to locate a bright red and blue big rig? And so he finds himself (rather unwillingly) wandering the city once more, holomatter avatar skulking about a local shopping mall among the crowds upon crowds of humans, keeping an audial out for any sort of rumors or leads that put him back on the right track.
He's marching his way past a food court when an internal warning indicator starts going off. Conflicting signal... He turns this way and that, looking for the source before finally tracing it back to what looks like an ordinary Earth female to the naked eye, but under the scrutiny of an energy scan its origins become immediately apparent. Another holomatter avatar. Another Cybertronian. A Decepticon would have likely checked in upon arrival on this planet, so this could only mean one thing: Autobot.
He carefully falls into step a good distance back from them, watching carefully. Willing to observe for as long as possible, but also waiting for the moment when they inevitably catch on to his presence there.
(Muffled spaghetti western music playing in the distance)
Sure, he's fortunate that Megatron wasn't anywhere NEAR as mad as Starscream had thought he'd be upon learning that they still only had half a synthetic energon formula, or at least he hadn't taken it directly out on his second... but once Starscream had given him a name for a possible holder of a second piece, Megatron had sent him on his way and out on Orion Pax hunting duty.
This in and of itself wasn't necessarily a poor assignment. He had his orders: Locate Pax, observe from a distance and avoid engaging him, and tell Megatron immediately. This he didn't mind, because he now had his own personal investment in the task, especially since Pax had gotten in touch with him and informed him of the presence of Autobots on the planet.
Thing was, he is having zero luck locating the bot from the air, which is infuriating because how damn hard could it be to locate a bright red and blue big rig? And so he finds himself (rather unwillingly) wandering the city once more, holomatter avatar skulking about a local shopping mall among the crowds upon crowds of humans, keeping an audial out for any sort of rumors or leads that put him back on the right track.
He's marching his way past a food court when an internal warning indicator starts going off. Conflicting signal... He turns this way and that, looking for the source before finally tracing it back to what looks like an ordinary Earth female to the naked eye, but under the scrutiny of an energy scan its origins become immediately apparent. Another holomatter avatar. Another Cybertronian. A Decepticon would have likely checked in upon arrival on this planet, so this could only mean one thing: Autobot.
He carefully falls into step a good distance back from them, watching carefully. Willing to observe for as long as possible, but also waiting for the moment when they inevitably catch on to his presence there.