Between: Into the Wild Blue

[Duskwing-3]

Duskwing-3's current problem is a very hard canyon face that he's coming up on fast. He does the obvious; he pulls up, hard, and ignites his afterburners.

The dark blue and purple zooms straight up, his engine exhaust a streak of flame as long as he is. He just barely clears the unforgiving rock--

And zooms into Skystrike's sights...

---
Note: these are the same canyons that Kup and Dead End scouted earlier. The point is academic, since neither one of them is there right now...

[Skystrike/Skylar Stringers]

The sensation of getting holes poked into her wings was an unpleasant wakeup call. The strange haze of anger suddenly faded away, the crisp pain jolting her systems. Her first instinct was to immediately roll away, out of the line of fire, but then Duskwing-3 flies out of the canyon and right into the planned path of her missiles—

//Duskwing! Missiles!// Skystrike-3 warns the other blue flier, shifting his aim to the twin projectiles speeding in his friend’s direction and firing frantically in an attempt to stop them.

Skystrike meanwhile, cuts back her speed. The missiles were poorly aimed but hopefully Duskwing-3 would be too much of an idiot to dodge them. It got her reflection off her back anyhow, allowing her to take a split second check her diagnostics and make sure nothing important was leaking before rejoining the fight. As she'd predicted, it was like fighting Autobots really—just shoot at their friends and they’d go into hero mode and try to rescue them. How terribly strange.

//Starscream, sir?// She snaps off the warning on the radio, speeding up again and taking aim at Skystrike-3. //The other me has arrived.//

[Duskwing-3]

Duskwing, either one of them, is notoriously stupid, true. He is, however, competent in battle, if totally lacking in imagination or initiative.

// Ohslagslagslag! // Duskwing-3 snags air with his right wing flaps in an emergency maneuver and abruptly flips to one side as the wing stalls; he spirals, corkscrewing with the missiles corkscrewing past him. He straightens out upside down, flying mere dozens of feet above the high plateau beyond the canyon--

The missiles slam into the ground on either side of him and explode, showering him with rock fragments that sting and scratch.

// Booyah! That was close! Thanks for the head-up, 'Strike! // Duskwing radios on the Hero band.

[skystrike-3]

//Just so you know, you’re utterly insane. // Skystrike-3 manages after a moment or so of feeling like his coolant lines had sprung a leak and froze over his internals. He would’ve said more had he not been suddenly blasted by laser rounds and was forced to pull evasive maneuvers. His momentary lapse in attention had cost him however and he ended up getting white hot thrusters on his back.

//Slaggit all to the glowing pits of the wasteland!// The berkut transforms in the middle of turning to slam his wing into Skystrike’s side.

She almost gets thrown off his back, but not before digging her fingers into his damaged air vent and wrenching to keep a hold on her mirror. Things would get a little more complicated for her if she allowed her opponents the distance to sort out who was who.

[Duskwing-3]

Duskwing-3 rolls, righting himself, and loops back toward Skystrike... Skystrikes, plural. He transforms abruptly and hovers in robot mode, pointing his arm-guns at the tussleing pair. He holds his fire, staring at them.

// Which one a youse is you? // he asks Skystrike-3.

[skystrike-3]

//The one being wrenched at the moment— damned to the pit!// “Get off of me!” Skystrike-3 howls, trying to put some distance between the other Skystrike and himself. Skystrike unfortunately has no intentions of letting go and was gaining the upper hand at the moment and there was a whine of her shoulder guns winding up.

Skystrike-3 utters a low, spiteful snarl and struggles to keep the guns away from his back, and finally manages to free himself, kicking off from her midsection and twisting to bring his own guns around to face her.

//The one with the mangled air vent is me!// The berkut-3 says over the radio to Duskwing.

[Duskwing-3]

Duskwing-3 swings both arm-guns to point at the Berkut-former with the bent air intake and fires. He's not a bad shot, but he's no Starscream. Fortunately, he's no Misfire, either.

Unfortunately, no one ever successfully explained to him about shooting into melee...

[skystrike-3]

//I said that was me!// Skystrike-3 yelps as unexpected blasts of fire poke more holes into his wings and back and the other Skystrike happily takes the opportunity to add more fire into the mix. Although that was only after she manages to dodge some of Duskwing’s stray shots in addition to her mirror’s own retaliating shots despite the friendly fire.

It was well worth it though because the next second Skystrike was using him as a living shield against any potential blasts in her direction. He has enough mind to keep firing although being distracted between Duskwing-3’s shots and hers is an unpleasant situation to try and double task in. Some of the laser fire suddenly melts through his cockpit and the other dark blue jet utters a strangled curse as smoke from burnt components seep through his systems in out his vent in thick, black heaves.

Then he’s suddenly falling.

//Oh bugger this.// He mumbles as overheating warnings flash across his vision. // A little help if you’d be so kind, Duskwing.// At least he wasn’t going to be shot at for a few seconds.

[Duskwing-3]

Duskwing-3 abruptly stops firing. // Sorry-sorry-sorry! I thought you said to shoot da guy with the bent air intake! //

Now Skystrike is falling, hit bad and it's ALL DUSKWING'S FAULT. Duskwing rolls over and dives, pointing one arm-gun back up at the other Skystrike (not the one with the bent air intake) and firing at the same time he reaches out to his own Skystrike with the other hand.

"It was an accident! I thought you meant the other guy!" Duskwing babbles hysterically as he lunges, trying to grab Skystrike-3 and slow his fall.

[skystrike-3]

//It’s quite alright, really.// Skystrike-3 manages to rumble in a long suffering tone of voice despite desperately trying to start up his thrusters—only to find them as effective as his antigravs at the moment. //Next time you do that though I’ll have to hurt you.// He coughs oily black smoke through his head vents, gingerly touching the sizzling hole in his abdomen somewhat dazedly. Whatever it was that the shot had burnt through, it had gotten him good.

Without any other chances at staying airborne, the blue jet instead flattens himself against the oncoming air, hearing the wind roar as it rushes under his angled wings and slows his fall somewhat. He cranes his around to look at Duskwing as his teammate rushes towards him then glances at his mirror as she tails close behind him, retaliating any shots coming her way, waiting for the right moment to strike the moment either were vulnerable.

Just as Duskwing lunges, Skystrike-3 pushes one wing down against the air and propels himself forward to grab his friend’s hand, growling above the wind; “I know it was an accident, now hush up!” whilst aiming a few shots at the other Skystrike. Next goal: get on the ground quickly without Duskwing getting shot as well in the process.

[Duskwing-3]

Duskwing-3 seizes his wingmate's hand and holds on. Still keeping his other gun pointed vaguely at the other Skystrike, Duskwing swings his legs back down, folds his toes back, and kicks on his boot-thrusters, adding to the lift from his lifters.

An F-15 can accelerate fully loaded straight up. A Decepticon Seeker that looks like an F-15 isn't really an F-15; it has much, much more powerful engines than anything human-designed. Duskwing kicks on his afterburners and burns fuel like a drunken Skyfire at an "all the free energon and Seekers you can carry home" party; twin pillars of fire taller than he is roar past Skystrike-3's legs.

The massive counter-acceleration feels like someone just turned the gravity way up; fortunately, angular robot hands lock grips together and don't slip nearly as easily as sweaty human hands would. Hopefully.

"'Strike, look and see where I can land you. I'm kinda busy watchin' your mean side up there." By watching, Duskwing-3 means 'shooting at'.

[skystrike-3]

Clinging on for dear life wasn’t exactly his style but Skystrike-3 was grateful for the help anyways. Of course, the sudden wrench in gravity tends to help (or not, but it was better than falling) with feeling of gratefulness and it did clear his systems from some of the smoke.

“Drop me near the canyon!” He yells over the sound of laser fire and rushing wind. “I’ll go on from there— you’d better haul your own aft out of this airspace too; Starscream might still be around!” Although Starscream was a secondary worry with the other Skystrike still shooting after them.

[Duskwing-3]

"Izzat left or right or can I just go straight down?" Duskwing yells back, too busy concentrating on sniping at the other Skystrike. If he stops and turns to look and get his bearings, he's afraid she'll dart in close and shoot them both down. Which would be bad.

"I dunno about Screamer--I think he was chasin' dem Dinobutts." ...an exercise that even Duskwing thought was pointless. After all, they'd probably just ignore him, lazy bums that they were, and it wasn't like he could really hurt them. If he tried real hard, he might get them mad...

"Hey, where'd our Starscream get to? I thought I heard him on the radio."

[skystrike-3]

“A little to right and then straight down!” Skystrike-3 hollers back after chancing a look at the quickly receding earth. He glances up at his wingmate after the Dinobutt comment, managing to sound amused in spite of their current predicament. “Still better to be safe than sorry, Dusky!” He watches as a few of Duskwing’s shots glance off of his mirror’s back, allowed himself a smug smirk at the angered roar of engines.

“I do not know the current whereabouts of our dear leader but I’m sure you can just radio him— yipe!” He yelps as a shot fries another hole in his already Swiss cheese-like wings. Snarling, the berkut snaps off a few shots of his own although his aim wasn’t much good considering he was currently being hauled around by his arm. See, if his mirror had just shot him in the wings earlier things still would’ve been just dandy (albeit, still painful) but nooo, she had to shoot him in the damn cockpit. He grumbles and shifts slightly to shield what he could Duskwing’s lower body with the wings deciding there wasn’t much else they were useful for at the time being.

[Duskwing-3]

"Got it!" Duskwing-3 obligingly shifts himself to the right and then throttles back on his thrusters, letting gravity have a taste of him and Skystrike-3. He lowers Skystrike-3 straight down, not looking away from the Other Skystrike until he feels Skystrike's grip go slack as he touches down.

He's very likely to hit the ground with a surprised 'thump' himself.