The Fast and the Dubious

[Override]

With someone else to take care of Emirate Xaaron, Override is free to keep Duskwing occupied. Although, for the moment, he's probably mostly occupied with trying to pick himself out of the dirt.

Override decides to encourage him to speed it up.

"Not sure what you mean by a 'Stunti-bot,' but they sound like folk who could get along well on Velocitron!" With that, she spins out, turns towards Duskwing, and drives right for him. Time to get moving, Seeker!

---

OOC: Crossposted to "The Prize Inside."

[Duskwing]

// Dead End, what'd ya do that for? // Duskwing asks on the 'Con line, confused. He lifts his head out of the dirt--

Only to see a crazed Autobot car charging right at him !

"Gah!" Duskwing rolls violently to one side, screeching in pain as his bent wings get crunched against the ground--and Override's oversized front fender clips one of his legs that he didn't get out of the way quite fast enough. There's a shriek of tearing metal, and Override gets one of Duskwing's horizontal stabilizers as a fender ornament. When all is said and done, Duskwing winds up half-sitting, watching Override's aft end go by thataway.

[Override]

Override spins out again, shaking off Duskwing's stabilizer, and ends, once more, facing the Seeker. Her engine revs twice, threateningly.

"You know," she observes almost casually, "We could do this all day... or you could try the smart thing and surrender."

[Duskwing]

Duskwing scrambles to his feet and jerks his remaining arm-gun back into line. "You ain't beat me yet," he growls, raising his arm and aiming the weapon at Override.

Then he fires.

[Override]

"Right, right," Override murmurs, annoyed. "Skip the smart th- yowch!" Duskwing's shot hits her in that forward curve that would serve as Override's lower left leg in robot mode, knocking off a chunk of protective armor and leaving the area beneath sparking with some minor damage. The process knocks out one of the three headlights on that side, and it's a sure bet she'll be limping until the damage is taken care of.

"Have it your way," she grumbles, then returns fire from her guns, still armed from her encounter with Shockwave and presently pointing right at Duskwing. As she fires, she drives towards them, swerving as necessary to try to keep the jet in the line of fire.

[Duskwing]

Duskwing was sure the crazy car was going to shoot back at him; he'd actually planned what to do if she did. He leaps into the air and flies, out of her reach--

Except for the part where he hadn't jumped quite fast enough to avoid her shots. A bolt clips the side of one knee joint, blasting a hole in his armor and partially fusing the joint. Even if his modern-art object wings aren't enough (and they are), Duskwing isn't transforming anytime soon.

"Owww! Fragging clown car! Gonna dismantle those dross-spewing guns and shove 'em down your fuel pipe one piece atta time..." Duskwing plinked back with his one arm-laser while hovering.

[Override]

Oh! No! Duskwing has flown into the air, high enough that Override can neither run over him, nor can she elevate her forward-facing vehicle-mode guns to fire on him! Surely, the Seeker has out-thought the racer!

Or maybe not.

As Override passes below Duskwing, she springs from vehicle mode to robot mode, landing with a skid as she raises her gun, now nicely settled in her hand, to fire at Duskwing. In the process, his 'ping' hits her right in the chest, over what would be the driver's seat, had she ever really bothered about a driver - if there was a human there, they'd be dead!

"Yeah yeah yeah, so far all I can see about you is that you're all talk and no performance, blueboy," she taunts.

[Duskwing]

Duskwing flinches slightly at the shot; it strikes one of his already mangled wings, burning another hole. Sparks drip like blood for a bit. In spite of the damage, which normally would inspire a flood of invective, he hovers in mid-air and stares at Override in puzzlement.

"What kinda insult is 'blueboy'?" he says. "And whaddya mean, 'all talk and no per--per--performance'? Dat sounds like something a human would say. A human dame."

[Override]

Override is not a seasoned warrior, but you wouldn't guess that from the way she performs on the battlefield. Her opponent's let his guard down, and she takes advantage of it, snapping off three more shots as she runs for another portion of the crater. If he lands, she wants to be able to convert back to a vehicle to take advantage of it, so she won't go for complete cover, but something partial on the edges might suit her just fine.

"Again, it's 'yack yack yack'!" she complains, tiredly. "All show, no go."

[Duskwing]

"OWWW!" Duskwing bellows in outrage as one of Override's bolts blasts his cockpit; more alarms blink redly in his huge queue of damage reports. He vaguely worries that Hook is going to be mad at him for getting all bent up, which would be unfair, because he's following orders.

He scowls angrily at Override as she dives for cover. Is he keeping her distracted enough? She seems to be shooting at him, not messing with Shockwave, so that ought to be good. Duskwing really hopes Shockwave sees it that way, and forgets about those stray laser shots.

Duskwing takes advantage of his opponent dashing over that way into cover to fly back toward the hollow, just far enough to grab up his other gun and re-mount it on his arm. He keeps a wary optic on the red and white car-former, but a smirk escapes him as the mount connectors 'snick' back into place.

He's got two guns now.

And his cluster bomb launchers.

Let's get dangerous.

[Override]

With Duskwing once more not firing, Override has another chance to choose cover.

Too bad she doesn't take it.

Instead, once more considering her surroundings, she runs along the edge of the crater bottom proper before transforming and driving once more, picking up speed quickly. She feels more comfortable as a moving target, and even if she can't hit the jet just now, it won't be long before she has enough momentum to start climbing walls...

The Stunticons can have their lifters. Override gets by with pure horsepower.

[Duskwing]

Duskwing frowns, momentarily puzzled as to why the crazy Autobot is driving in circles on the side of the crater; then he shakes his head. He doesn't need to understand the guy to blow him up.

The purple and blue Seeker rolls and flies stretched out over Override's path, firing desultory shots at the speeding car. He doesn't really expect to hit; he's just trying to get a feel for how fast the car is going.

Then he launches two cluster bombs, aiming for the cliffwall in front of Override.

Buried in the storm of alarms from his massive wing damage, Duskwing doesn't notice the new warning that appears after he fires:

Bomb launcher jam. Requires manual clearance...

[Override]

Override is by far her most agile when she's a vehicle, and she is, in fact, going very, very fast. Her top speed approaches sound. Thus, she rather easily dodges around Duskwing's more half-hearted shots. The cluster bombs are a bit harder to avoid, especially because they're not at Override but in front of her - but by this time, Override is no longer on the bottom of the crater, but on the very cliff-wall Duskwing is firing his cluster bombs at! To stop is to fall, but to keep going is to fall as well!

Override's Veloctitronian. If she's gotta go down, she'll go down because she moved forward, not because she stopped. Override, going at very near her full speed, transforms and leaps, spring off the side of the cliff, trying to throw herself clear of the landslide Duskwing's attack has caused. Her momentum carries her forward, and that last leap pushes her away from the cliffside... but the only remaining force in play is gravity, which is pulling her down, not back towards the crater wall. Thus, once momentum stops acting on her, gravity does, pulling her down to the crater floor along with various rocks and boulders. Her last moment stunt prevents her from being buried, but it doesn't prevent damage from the fall, or from some of the smaller pieces raining down after she hits. Her driver's cannopy is completely shattered, and the torso to either side is dented. It could have been worse, but she's still pretty badly injured.

The queen of the tracks groans, and struggles to get herself back on her feet - or even her wheels.

[Duskwing]

Duskwing's optics widen slightly as he watches the avalanche sweep Override away.

"BOOYAH!" He grins triumphantly and hunts around for a few moments before spotting the red and white robot amid the fallen rock. Override is down! Duskwing starts to aim one arm-gun at the struggling Autobot....

A keen whistling sound caught his audials; there was something familiar about that sound--

"Oh, slaggit!" Duskwing rolled and kicked on his thrusters, and flew out of the crater region as fast as he could in heavily-damaged robot mode.

// BOSS! INCOMING! // he frantically radioed on the D-band.

[Override]

Override just makes it out of the pile of rubble and back onto her feet when the wall nearest her explodes. Again. She ducks instinctively, looks around to see where the shots are coming from... and realizes they aren't coming from anywhere. "Grrrrr," she growls. "Cowards!"

It is significant to note that Override's experience with warfare consists entirely of situations where she could see the enemy. The idea of being fired on by someone she can't see is entirely new to her... although now that she comes to think of it, it's not something she'd put past Ransack or Crumplezone.

The racer dives forward and, once more, starts to drive. The need to get out of this crater is even greater than normal, and it isn't long before she's speeding up the walls.

... She sure hopes those who are still tucked away in various hidey-holes are doing all right.