Hot Rod had been picking at his energon cube until he looked upwards seeing Cliff go into the washroom, he got up as he began walking to the bin, he threw the plate in the bin before dusting himself off. "Aye, Shifter, where do you think Springer is at?" The Cybertronian looked up adjusting his goggles before saying "He went to the stalls to get a moment to himself I heard." Hot Rod looked at Shifter who just gave a small enigmatic smile. Shifter went back to pouring a smoothie in the cup. Hot Rod started to ask "Where is... Chromia?" Shifter looked upwards before saying "Hm? You just noticed? She's been gone for 30 days." Immediately Hot Rod looked a little restless and discomforted as Shifter soon gave the smoothie to a human who came to grab their order. "7 shanix." He said as they took out some coins to him. He grabbed it, put it in the small plastic drawer nearby him.
"Wait hold on a minute. Chormia's gone?" Shifter looked up hearing Hot Rod's answer as he nodded. "Yes. She's been missing for a while now, nobody knows, not even me." Shifter looked at Hot Rod who was glancing at the vending machine. After Hot Rod brought one of those snacks, Shifter went back to reading a book about different types of acids and alkalis as he opened the page to where the bookmark was. Soon Hound came inside seeing both of them do their own thing as Shifter noticed him and put the book to the side "Do you want a drink?" Hound soon came wanting some circuit mocktail as Shifter nodded and went to the back of the bar.
Hot Rod been thinking to himself 'Why must this happen? first Moonracer dies now we got Chromia missing, it's like the Decepitcon want us to fall slowly in number, for us to lose hope. And from what I've seen, it certainly has a effect on others and their mental state. I must figure out who is behind this all and find out what they are doing...' Hound noticed that Hot Rod looked to be deep in thought before asking "Hey, Rod'? You been staring at the wall for 2 minutes now, you okay?" Hot Rod jumped before turning around to see Shifter looking curiously and Hound having a bit of concern on his face. "Yeah I'm alright. I was deep in thought, yeah." Shifter didn't believe him but decided to drop it for now as Hound nodded, still having worried gaze on his face.
They saw Ultra Magnus come in as he crossed his own hands "We may have found a trace." Immediately they turned around curious. "I see. May you go on?" Shifter asked before Ultra Magnus continued "We found out that the corrupted energon generators have traces of fungi, we couldn't guarantee what type it is however." Hound looked as his mind instantly went to his knowledge of life "Could it be a sort of fungi that relies on replicating on other substances?" Ultra Magnus turned considering what Hound said. "Me and Zera talked about it, we didn't get much out of the results, because we only studied one generator. But this is worrying that something that belongs to the eco-system has been exploited with ease."
"So we finally figured out what had corrupted those generators. But why the human bodies? it's a little unusual for a Decepitcon killing more humans than Cybertronians." Hot Rod stated at the end as the serious bot looked towards the side "I do not know why." Ultra Magnus answered simply. "It could be a distraction to throw us off, to reduce our numbers or make us lose our minds. Neither of those options are good." Shifter replied, his smooth echoey voice showing little to no emotions "I personally agree, they do say never expect anything out of ya enemy or they will get on top."
"So where are you going now?" Hot Rod asked as Ultra Mangus answered back "I'll be going to my room." Hot Rod watched him leave as he joked a little with Hound "Stiff as ever, huh?" Hound gave a slight smile "Yeah, he can't really get loose." Shifter watched them sit down sighing in relief that the bar has finally some release, he thought someone was about to be fighting again which Shifter made a rule against in the mess hall. He started to softly whistle to himself, mixing mangos and apples in a human-made blender before being done with the drink. He saw Nicole, the designer for the plushies come in. "Oh hello there young lass. May I take your order?" Nicole nodded and asked for a banana milkshake. Shifter grabbed from the fridge some bananas and strawberries with some milk. He cut the banana and strawberries, put some milk inside and began blending the milkshake.
He gave the milkshake to Nicole who had a smile on her face. She started to sew a Cliffjumper plush as Hound came over to her "Hey Nicole, are you done with my request?" Nicole nodded and gave him his own plushie of himself, Nicole watched him run away while holding the thing as she finished up her Milkshake and left to go somewhere private to sew the plushie quietly. Hot Rod watched both of them leave before turning to the bartender "Did you know about this?" Shifter shook his head before saying cryptically "No, I know a lot of things but never something like this. I'm not really one to be extremely active with the world, I end up straying away from technology a lot of the time."
"Huh, so what do you know?" Hot Rod asked as Shifter looked at him before saying "I do know something about those mines even if my knowledge of earth isn't great. I heard a rumour that a large machine that is supposed to make materials had a leakage in it. It messed with the temperatures, some of the pipes ended leaking oil instead of the water and worse of all affected some of the miners there. Some died in the process, some had gritty injuries and others swore they heard some sort of Cybertronian cry that sounded like a creature." Shifter shrugged before continuing "It's a rumour, so I don't believe it fully. But what Ultra Magnus just said... I think there is more truth to it."