Blurr shivered in his light plating - little puffs of heated air leaving his vents; the acid rain mercilessly sapped the heat from the air and his frame. He closed off all of his vent flaps, trying to conserve as much heat as possible. Normally that was not a problem, Blurr was a purebread high-speed messenger bot, a speed demon as some refered to them, cooler environments were welcome when he was at peak of his performance. Idling was not peak performance.
Which was why his frametype were not in a very high demand, finicky, as one of his clients had put it. Blurr had not taken offence, he could have but ultimately there was no point in it; he was still valuable enough for some elite breeders to keep and some instances to employ. Not to mention that he took pride in his pedigree and profession - delivering messages and light packages at ultrasonic speed.
He flexed his numb fingers which had become stiff with cold and tried to ward off the alarming thoughts that crept in. What if the rain continued overnight? How much colder would it get? For this trip his handlers had not accounted for an acid storm to catch up with him.
The irony was that the delivery site was close by, the area was familiar to him but he felt like he had been running in circles, constantly taking the wong turn.
Futilely he tapped his terrain positioning sensors but they remained unresponsive - scrambled by the weather. The heavy droplets of acid landed on the forest floor with a warning hiss, a couple splashed on his armor, making him wince. Out of fear for his wellbeing Blurr hid under an overhang of crystals and looked grimly at the spectacle before him.
His destination was a manor of the renowned and feared scientist who's true face nobody had seen. Blurr remembered being approached by mecha who wanted to find out the appearance of the mysterious mech. Blurr hadn't agreed, spying on his clients just was not done in his line of work, not if he wanted to keep his position.
He shuddered once more and paced in the small patch of ground still spared from the rain. Why hadn't his office picked up on this weather event? Usually they were much better at informing their staff. Blurr grumbled to himself slightly and tried jumping on spot, some movement was better than none at all.
After a while Blurr deemed this form of exercise futile and instead curled up on himself. He must have dozed off, too, because next moment he knew it he was startled to attention by a sound of sizzling and quiet snarls. A lone chariot pulled by two large beasts appeared in his sight. Whilst it still hissed and steamed in the rain the creatures were seemingly unaffected by the corrosive downpour. A portly tarp-covered figure stepped carefully off the chariot and approached Blurr.
He twitched, his cold and exhausted systems baking extra time to boot properly. Warily he looked around for escape routes and concluded that he was effectively trapped by the weather and the alcove he'd chosen to hide in.
However his fears dissipated somewhat when he evaluated the size difference between him and the newcomer.
-"Don't fear, little thing. You are the delivery to the Shockwave manor. I am here to give you a lift. The weather is unpredictable in these parts and master was worried for your wellbeing."
Blurr wanted to clarify that he Had a delivery but he himself was not the delivery; but let it slide since the mech was nice enough to come out for him in this pit of a weather.
-"My thanks to master Shockwave."
The mech offered Blurr a tarp, not unlike his own, to protect him from the acid rain.
-"No thanks are necessary, it is only logical."
Blurr slid the fabric over his frame but his guide did not seem to be content by how he did it and adjusted the edges of the tarp for better coverage.
- "Your frame is very delicate. You are likely to sustain more damage if you do not properly protect yourself."
Blurr was at a loss as to what he should reply to this. It was not untrue, but it did not speak well of his owners and even if Blurr agreed that they could have opted for a thicker layer of protective coating for Blurr's frame, he felt a bit defensive.
-"All messenger frames have a layer of anticorrosive coating. But.. I doubt it would last in this storm."
-"It wouldn't." The driver agreed and helped Blurr up to the seat next to his.
With a little click, the driver ushered the heavy insecticon-type drones to move.
They traversed the downpour in silence. Blurr pulled the edge of the tarp hood further over his face to protect his sensitive antenna. The crystal forest around them hissed, as reactions between plant bark and acid took place, punctuated by a stray call of a mechanimal caught in the deadly downpour. Most of the metalloflora in these areas naturally retained a layer of oxidized plating or non-reactant oils to protect itself.
Acid rain also had its upsides. It helped erode the dead matter and release the minerals and metals necessary for the growth.
Blurr looked around bewildered, he had never been caught in an acid storm in a way that did not warrant immediate world of pain. But now, from the safety of his tarp he could appreciate the beauty of a violent acidic downpour.
Before long they were at the manor and Blurr wondered how he had missed that turn.
The driver hopped off the chariot first and deftly removed his tarp, simultaneously turning it inside-out to prevent any acid droplets from touching his plating. Blurr was less adept at this but tried none the less. It took him longer but in the end he managed to remove the protective layer in the same fashion the driver had and to hang it on the nearest silicate hanger.
Now he had the time to examine the driver better - a stocky mech with wide and open features.
-"Thank you for bringing me all the way here. I am aware that you did not need to and I do not usually get lost but my geopositioning got scrambled. I hope I did not cause much delay."
The mech just nodded.
-"Your room is ready."
-"That is very kind of you but I don't think I will be staying long enough for it to be necessary."
-"Really? Where is your next delivery destination?"
Messenger bots were normally too expensive to keep idle for too long so usually their itinerary contained several delivery destinations and several stopover points to collect the next deliverable and refuel before they returned back to their station. In a sense it was a circuit.
Blurr checked his latest updates and frowned. There were no more destinations and he could have sworn that there had been more when he had first set out. In fact, his current destination stated that it involved a physical package but Blurr clearly remembered that he had been only given a data packet.
- "There must have been a mistake in the records."
Blurr became slightly more agitated. His very existence depended on his performance - frames that failed to deliver were repurposed and that was only a kinder way of saying stripped for scrap metal. So far Blurr's track record had been impeccable and he intended to keep it that way. Desperately Blurr pinged his delivery service but the signal was scrambled.
- "You needn't worry, you can stay here as long as necessary. Master Shockwave would be glad for company."
Blurr did not doubt that but rumors were that the master of Shockwave manor was a monster - deformed by some experiment or other that had gone wrong. And that he was always in the lookout for test subjects. Not that rumors were always true but in circumstances such as Blurr's one couldn't help but be cautious.
-"Ah. Yes, I guess he does not get many visitors...when it rains like this." Blurr was quick to correct himself. Just assuming that the mech was a hermit was impolite, rumors or not.
The tubby mech smiled and ushered Blurr into one of the corridors.
- "It would be best that you remove any remnants of the rain. You would not want your plating to corrode would you?"
Before Blurr could utter another squeak, he was given a fluffy towel and pushed into a washrack.
It was not uncommon for the delivery recipients to spoil Blurr a little, be it an energon treat to send him on his way or a help with an injury sustained from going too fast. But this seemed like a tad too much investment for a mere delivery bot. Blurr tucked the thought in his processor to ask Longarm about that later. Now, however Blurr sighed, feeling he cleanser wash away the itchy irritation caused by the rain.
He thought that he had seen a reflection of a red bulb in the wet tiles of the washracks but when he looked around for the source of the light, he did not see any. Shrugging it off as tricks of his processor he did a short job of drying himself.
Once out of washracks he stopped. Longarm was nowhere to be seen and Blurr had no idea where to go and he did not want to just stand outside the washracks either. Hanging the damp towel over his shoulders he tried retracing the steps from washracks back to the entrance hall. Standard housing was easy to orientate in, custom-built mansions - not so much and Blurr did not want to impose even more on the good graces of his host. He counted the doors, looked at the support beams, they all looked identical and after a while Blurr had to admit to himself that he was hopelessly lost.
-"Oh, I would not enter there." Blurr almost jumped out of his plating, Longarm's appearance had been sudden. He had craned his helm from one of the adjacent rooms. -"This is the closed-off wing of the mansion. I'm ashamed to admit it is a little run down since not many mecha reside here on permanent basis."
-"I did not mean to intrude, that would be rude and I would not want to come across as ungrateful for the hospitality I have been shown."
Blurr clutched the damp towel in his hands and pulled his mouth into a smile. The idea of spending the night in this mansion made him uneasy but with the storm outside and his communications scrambled he had no better options.
-"I apologise for leaving you alone, I wanted to make sure that your quarters have everything you might need." Langarm gestured Blurr to follow him.
In vain Blurr tried memorising the path and Longarm chuckled good-naturedly at the little messenger's insistence.
-"The hallways can be challenging to tell apart but you'll get better with practice."
Blurr giggled and shot back in the same friendly manner. -"Not that I would mind moving in but I'm afraid my schedule would not permit me to linger too long."
-"I'm certain you will be able to clarify your current position with your superiors once the storm is over. Now I must bid you a good evening." They stopped next to an unassuming door in an unassuming hallway which was the same as the rest of the hallways in the manor.
Blurr nodded meekly and gasped when he took a peek inside the room. He did not dare to take more of Longarm's time by questioning if the guest room had really been the quarters for him but he still felt a bit taken aback.
-"It is a bit embarrassing - you have treated me well and I do not even know your name."
-"I assure you it is of little consequence but you can call me Longarm of you wish."
-"Of course it is! Of consequence, I mean. Thank you for being so nice to me Longarm."
Sill uncomfortable with the sudden luxury Blurr stood in the middle of the room making sure not to dislodge anything. It was not as if he had never seen an opulent room before, he just had never been invited to use one. It was almost too nice. The furniture was on the large side and Blurr was certain that he would get lost in that large berth. He looked out the narrow window, it overlooked a garden, still sizzling and hissing in the noxious downpour.
On the table next to the berth there was a cube of oddly tinted energon.
Blurr settled with a cube and sipped at it lightly, the taste was odd, slightly resin-like. Blurr smacked his lipplates and set it aside, he was more tired than hungry anyway.
Careful, not to disrupt the covers too much hee settled on the very edge of the berth and tried catching some recharge.