Desert: Hook, Line and Sinker?

[Sky-byte]

Sky-Byte reaches Long Range's side and makes to knock against the larger mech's shoulder in an attempt to gauge the other's consciousness. As relieved as he'd be that Long Range actually isn't dead, this shark won't be too pleased that Long Range was only playing dead (playing dead, avoiding enemy fire, all's the same) all along.

"Long Range! Answer me, soldier!"

Botanica's exit goes unnoticed, but Sky-Byte does catch Skid-Z's movement out of the corner of his optic. "You, Autobot Skid-Z!" He whirls and points one finger righteously in the racer's direction. "No one does this to my troops and gets away with it under my watch! Tsunami Blast!"

As soon as the violet blast clears from Sky-Byte's chest, he's charging towards Skid-Z, Anchor Arm spinning with a dangerous whine through the air.

[Skid-Z]

"You, Autobot Skid-Z!"

Git, he's center of attention now! The racer whirls around on Sky-Byte's speech to revenge. "Said it before, watch me!" He answers abruptly, tightening the hold on his gun. Surely the bot's not gonna....

Yes, yes he is! When the Tsunami Blast shimmers at the shark's chest, Skid-Z twists to what he has faced before, yet his shoulder is still grazed generously. He wants to raise his gun and give the Predacon an appropriate answer, but is beaten to the punch, quite literally!
Skid-Z barely dodges Sky-Byte's spinning, bladed arm, and does the first thing presenting itself in his tight situation against the stronger bot: he runs!

"Get off my back, Sky-Byte!" He shouts agitated, trying to shake off his assailant. Several shots go the shark's way; while he hopes they are somewhat effective, he's in no position to turn around and take proper aim.

[Long Range]

"I'm fine, you worry about yourself." Long Range says as he waves his good arm at where he thinks Sky Byte is. Really, its touching that Sky Byte cares that much for his troops, but until the enemy is taken care of he'd rather have Sky Byte completely forget about him than needlessly distract himself.

That said, its nice Sky Byte didn't just assume Long Range was scrap.

[Sky-byte]

Sky-Byte bounds after Skid-Z--not too quickly mind you, his pace is at a slight lope as sparks still spit occasionally from his joints at his forced transformation. He ducks between the Autobot's shots, cursing as some graze way too close. If Skid-Z keeps up his pace, it won't be long before he outruns the Predacon. But Sky-Byte throws in a few more 'Tsunami Blasts!' towards the racer's way, hoping to blast the pesky Autobot down.

Really, Long Range can be flattered about Sky-Byte's attention on him if he wants, but do remember that Sky-Byte's partiality towards the Decepticon is due to Long Range's seeming respect and willingness to follow orders (sometimes...). Plus, Sky-Byte doesn't like the idea of losing all that positive attention.

Hah! It's not like Sky-Byte's some sort of sensitive and human-coddling soft-hearted mechanism. No, not at all.

[Skid-Z]

When more blasts start to come from behind, someone's feeling the righteous pull to haul his tail out of the fire.
"Transform!" Skid-Z cries out, switching quickly to his vehicle form. Without wasting any time, he sprints away from the battleground.


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Out of thread unless stopped.