Flying High

[sixthdeadliest]

WHO: Six and anyone who happens to be around.
WHAT: Six is putting his wings to good use to refine his foot map of their area of Cybertron.
WHEN: Any time during the species swap event (March 10th through 24th). Please specify when.
WHERE: All around. Feel free to flag him down.
WARNINGS: Largely clean unless someone wants to start a scrap with him.


Six was getting used to walking on all fours, even at flying. His landings were rough but that would get better with practice as well.

He stretched his wings, getting the feel of the wind in his feathers before jumping and flapping furiously. It was a wonder that this form didn't plunge into the ground. It looked like it shouldn't work, yet it did.

He circled overhead, gaining altitude by hitching a ride on a thermal, before soaring over Cybertron. He'd walked a good portion of the area, but flying was both quicker and would allow him to properly lay out the space in his head. He'd have to sketch it out when he had hands again. (He refused to believe he'd be stuck in his lupine form.)

Of course, he'd periodically land to rest, get some water, and even catch something for food. However, he'd be back at his base camp at nightfall.

Comments

[place_in_the_sun]

Hinata at first only sees the flying shape, and she rushes to the nearest balcony of Solus's temple, waving.

"Melan!" That was him...right?

[sixthdeadliest]

Six backwinged so that he started hovering in place, looking about to try and find who she was shouting at. It wasn't any word (name?) that he was familiar with.

[place_in_the_sun]

That...wasn't Melan.

She wasn't used to flying things, at least here, and she'd thought anyone flying near here had to be a friend.

"D-don't try anything! I can protect myself!"

[sixthdeadliest]

Six couldn't explain anything verbally like this. And he definitely didn't want to get attacked. He needed to convince her that he wasn't a threat.

He landed several feet away and folded his wings, lowering his head and tucking his tail between his legs. He then gave a whine. It cost him some of his personal dignity, but that was better than being killed by being misidentified as a foe.

A lesson of One's came back to him: Friendly fire isn't.

zombie apocalypse = necrotags?

[place_in_the_sun]

"Y-you're not Melan." Her grasp on the obvious is solid, at any rate.

But it didn't seem to want to hurt her. "Are you all right? Are you hurt? Hungry?"

YOU LIVE. 8D And it's no problem. I know things get hectic.

[sixthdeadliest]

At the last option he gave a little bark, wagging his tail. Flying burned up a lot of energy. While he could dig up dog food in the Lambda, what he really wanted was fresh meat.

*hugs*

[place_in_the_sun]

The tail wag was...just like one of Kiba's dogs. Her face split into a grin, just a little bit homesick.

"Come on! We can find you something to eat."

She tilts her head. "But first, you need a name, I think."

[sixthdeadliest]

Six trotted over to her, huffing at the suggestion of giving him a name. Well, it wasn't as if he could tell her. At least she no longer saw him as a threat.

He then looked up at her and gave a little bark, tail wagging.

March 20th | Early Morning | Junk Pile

[deusrexmachina]

It had been five days since Rex had been struck down mid-trek across Haven in his exploration of the vast area, only to wake up shortly thereafter in a familiar looking fur covered body. The trouble was that, at first, he hadn't even been able to remember that he was ever anything but a chupacabra. For the first couple of days, he'd wandered about, avoiding just about everyone and everything, wary of all the weird sights, smells and sounds. Where was his jungle? His hunting grounds?

Around day three, however, he started to come back to himself somewhat, recalling that he was supposed to be something else. And, as the day had progressed, he realized that his instinct was ruling him far too often. By that time, he was starving, desperate for food, yet aware that most of what his beast body would consider "prey" were the other sentient organic life forms in Haven.

And that was when he descended into the tunnels beneath Solus Prime's temple to hide and hopefully avoid any run-ins with anything non-robotic.

However, hunger soon drove Rex back to the surface again. Stalking around in the Junk Pile, he searched desperately for something to eat. Anything edible. Fortunately, after a few hours of hunting, his keen sense of smell managed to turn up a large bag of unopened dog food. After digging it out, Rex tore into it and without allowing himself to think too hard about what he was doing, began to wolf the dry kibble down.

It wasn't long before he was joined by another creature with a growling belly... A rat that had somehow been pulled through the Lambda. Just as desperate for something to eat, it took the risk of getting close enough to steal a bit of food...only to get snapped up in the jaws of the chupacabra. Initially, Rex wretched inwardly, his jaws locked tightly shut around the rodent and refusing to move. It only took seconds for instinct to take over, however, the taste of fur enough to get those fang filled jaws snapping repeatedly, crunching the rat into pulp to get as much blood out as possible before everything was swallowed in one gulp.

Intruder dealt with, Rex turned back to the partially eaten bag of dog food and tore into it again, his infamous appetite combined with his starved, larger body encouraging him to devour the entire bag... Whether or not he would even notice the approach of another predator at that point was debatable.

[sixthdeadliest]

Six had been heading to the Junk Pile to find some more food. What little rodents he could find never satisfied his own appetite. He internally gagged at eating dog food again. He almost preferred the mice eaten whole.

However, the sight of the chupacabra gave Six momentary pause. He didn't know what it was. Something pulled through the Lambda or someone who'd been changed?

He landed a few feet away and started pushing some of the garbage out of his way, his nose identifying another bag of dog food to tear into.

[deusrexmachina]

Rex was nearly done with the bag in front of him, the EVO turned legendary goat killer actually considering the bag itself as potentially edible when something dropped out of the sky nearby.

Too close, too close!

The chupacabra snarled and edged back and around enough so that he could face the newcomer, bat-like ears tilting back at an angle and black mane bristling. Rex's first instinct was to attack. In terms of weight, this other creature was smaller than he was and even though he no longer had an empty stomach, he could always stash the carcass somewhere to eat later. Plus...there was the blood.

Still, it was another predator. He could tell from the look and scent of it. Consuming another meat eater didn't necessarily jive with his new body's usual behavior.

After a few seconds, Rex quieted somewhat and edged back in toward what remained of his meal. It looked like that wolf thing (or whatever it was) had found food of its own, so maybe it would stay put and not attempt to steal what remained of his.

[sixthdeadliest]

Six ate his fill but there was plenty leftover. He backed away from the bag and turned his nose towards it, offering it to the...whatever it was.

"All yours," he said, remembering belatedly that without the communicator (who could hold one without thumbs?) it would come out as barks and growls.

[deusrexmachina]

Having finished his own food, Rex looked up to see the wolf apparently offering what was left of the other bag? The chupacabra tilted his head, ears swiveling forward in question.

After a moment, he moved up closer and attempted to investigate the other predator, cautiously invading his space to sniff at him.

[sixthdeadliest]

Six didn't move, allowing the creature to sniff him to its heart's content. He wasn't going to argue with those teeth or those claws, after all.

[deusrexmachina]

By this time, Rex's curiosity had fully overruled his body's instincts and he really wanted to know just who he was dealing with, here. He was aware that certain refugees had been turned into other species, but scanning the network to get a good idea of who had changed and into what was difficult.

Pulling away from the wolf, Rex looked down at torn open bag of partially eaten dog food, an idea coming to him. After pulling a metal plate closer with one paw, he managed to scrape some of the kibble onto it and made the effort to arrange it into letters. It was annoyingly painstaking work when one had no hands, though having such pinpoint sharp claws did help.

Finally, the word "WHO" was in place. Rex sat back on his haunches and looked expectantly at the wolf.

[sixthdeadliest]

So it was a fellow member of the motley crew here. That made things simpler.

Six walked closer to the message and began trying to push them into place with a paw. However, that proved more annoying that anything else. Instead, he nosed the kibble about, forming a single figure.

"6"

[deusrexmachina]

The reaction was immediate. The fearsome beast in front of Six suddenly became a puppy, behavior-wise, tail wagging as he got in close once more and pressed the side of his head against that of the wolf. A definite one-eighty from only minutes prior.

The behavior wasn't necessarily a complete give-away as to who Six was dealing with, but it was still a pretty good clue.

[sixthdeadliest]

So it was someone he knew well. Kid was out unless he'd changed at some point over the past few days. However, he hadn't seen Rex for a while, knowing the kid was out exploring. Knight was definitely out since he knew the man had become a unicorn of all things.

He lifted a paw to pat the head of the beast before pointing at him and tilting his head to one side. He hoped it got the other's original message across well enough.

[deusrexmachina]

The chupacabra made a sound like a growling purr at being patted, then nodded when the wolf pointed at him with one paw.

Going back over to the spilled food, Rex sat down and carefully used one long claw to rearrange the kibble into three letters. As before, it took a couple of minutes to get the message right, but in the end the word formed was clear.

"REX"

He glanced over at Six, tail swishing back and forth cheerfully again.

[sixthdeadliest]

Six gave a lupine grin, tail swishing in contentment twice. Good. He'd finally located the kid.

He walked over to the rest of the kibble and gave it a shove in Rex's direction. He knew what a bottomless pit Rex could be under normal circumstances.

[deusrexmachina]

Though he wasn't as desperately hungry as before, Rex quickly accepted the invitation and made short work of what remained of the food. Having that much in his stomach would keep him from feeling quite so ravenous and allow him a little more control over his body's natural want to hunt.

As soon as he was through, however, he was back at Six's side again. Rex bumped his nose against the side of Six's head, then shoved his snout up under the other's black furred chin. He couldn't manage words to say how glad he was to see his partner, so actions would have to cover it.

[sixthdeadliest]

Six gave a slight huff at what was obviously a...whatever it was's...version of a hug. In response, he opened one wing and stretched it as best he could over Rex's back. It seemed like the right thing to do even if he did feel a little silly.

Really, he didn't have a lot of option without being able to talk.

[deusrexmachina]

Rex responded with what could only be called affectionate leaning, perhaps even a bit of shoving. Nothing too forceful, however. It was all pretty ridiculous, but he'd missed Six and while he normally wasn't given over to being so openly mushy, there was some animal behavior playing into his actions.

...it was really the only logical explanation as Rex took to licking the side the Six's neck and head, right up behind one ear.

[sixthdeadliest]

Six spread his four legs for balance as Rex leaned against him. All right, so the kid was definitely happy to see him, too. Good to know.

He gave some grumbling at the licking though. Mmmm...monster slobber.