Desert: Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me

[Botanica-3]

Note: This thread not only runs concurrent time-wise to the happenings in Beseeching starting with Botancia's retrieval of Optimus, it is happening practically right next to the battle between the Primes, on the other side of the meteorite. So what happens here can affect there and vice versa. Open to whomever might wish to join

---

As her alternate retreats with her burden in one direction, Botanica approaches from the other, curious, oh so curious about what this thing might be in the pretend-Matrix center, this thing which has not been found or noted in her proper place. This thing which is large, metallic, calling....familiar.

She circles it, ignoring the noise above, ignoring the creature which she senses not that far away, tightening that circle with each pass. Finally she's that close, reaches out, brushes a hand across it's partially-buried bulk....

//Noooooo!// She wails, aloud and across the General band as she shoots out of the ground: //Not possible, not possible, it's home, it's home! Cybertron broken, fallen, dead and crumbled, nononononononono!// She prostrates herself, top of her head and one hand still touching the rock as she wails and writhes in denial and pain.

[Hellbender]

That creature not far away stirs from its watch as he receives orders from his Lord and Master. Get a sample at all costs--.

Hellbender is a mining worm. Getting mineral samples is what his alternate mode does--and he's already in alternate mode. He churns through the hard-packed desert soil to the buried base of the meteor and grinds upward, along one edge.

It's metal, not so hard as Omega Supreme's armor, but hard enough, and slow going. Hellbender shunts what he grinds away to his ore bins until they are full, then shears away from the hard metal core that wears his grinders down.

The metal was not so hard as Omega Supreme, but it tasted like him.

That he chose to surface with grinders still running at the epicenter of the voice vibrating the metal and earth with its shrieks is not coincidence. Lord Shockwave would like the Bot silenced, if opportune, and Hellbender lives to please his master.

[Botanica-3]

Giant mining worms grinding laboriously through metal make noise and vibrations, though Botanica is quite distracted by her grief and horror. Distracted enough that the worm's presence registers almost too late. Just before the cutters break the surface, she throws herself forward and onto the meteor. Not fast enough, though, and two of her lower vines are caught within the cutters and ripped off.

"Aieeeeeeeee! What are you, you hideous, monstrous destroyer of worlds?!?" Because obviously, the giant worm eating Cybertron bits is the cause of such a horrible, horrible thing happening to her home. After all, it doesn't exist in her world. Green fluids stain the rock as she tries to tuck herself in as small as she can. It hurts, hurts so badly, and between the pain and the burning familiarity of the rock's she's perched on....

There is no Botanica, only Zuul Crazy Plant Witch.

So, Hellbender, how many plant spores did you happen to ingest with all your digging about beneath the soil and such? And how do you like your taste of technorganic flesh?.

"Grow!" she hisses, eyes alight with madness.

[Hellbender]

Sucking down chunks of the shrieker mushroom (which tasted of a curious mix of Cybertronian alloys and 'unidentified hydrocarbons mixed with complex organics') or whatever it is only seemed to make it scream louder. That did not accomplish his goal of silencing the creature--

About the time his ore analysis routines concluded that chunks of Botanica were 'probably early lignite coal mixed with meteor alloy', something jammed deep in his bins and pipes, and Hellbender's intakes, two of his bins, and his cloaca felt oddly bloated. What the slag?

More parts of his ore processing/digging system stiffened and jammed, and Hellbender started to feel twinges of pain as parts started being forced out of line deep inside. What the slag was going on? Damage control wasn't very helpful, only signalling that parts were jammed by some rapidly expanding substance...

// Lord Shockwave, something is jamming mah systems interally. What abilities does the shrieky plant-thing have, sir? Ah'm having trouble identifying what's causing the problem. // Hellbender's voice sounds just a bit worried.

Hellbender emerged fully, lashing about as he tried to shake loose the roots and tendrils growing inside him. Fear began to gnaw at him as the pain grew more intense. Think, what was he supposed do if he sucked down something undesireable underground, like petroleum?

The procedures snapped to mind. Back-flush and purge. Hellbender turned his maw to face Botanica-3 and slammed his mining systems into full-power reverse. Gears groaned and protested, but finally turned as the extra power overcame the enmeshing rootlets--the worm vomited a spray of gravel, roots and metallic chunks in the plant-former's general direction.

Once his systems were cleared, mostly, Hellbender proceeded to the next step: he dumped a small spray of fuel into his 'digestive tract' and ignited it, burning out the organic contaminants gumming up the works--incidentally resulting in a brilliant orange puff of flame from his tail outlets.

He noted in passing that said purge procedure was contraindicated in known gas-bearing formations....

[Botanica-3]

The moment Hellbender's giant maw points her way, Botanica shrieks and skitters over to duck behind the curve of the meteorite's . She still gets showered with smaller bits of grit and rubble, but she is to far gone to worry over small cuts and bruises. The group fighting across the way, however, might have to worry about more than small injuries.

What to do, what oh what should she do? She is fretting and hissing, worrying, then the deaths of all those tiny greens within Hellbender hit her senses. "MURDERER!!!" She rises up up her vines, gaining as much height as she is able (which is considerable). "Foulest parasite, bottom-feeding, root-destroying wurm! Diediediediediedie!"

While she continues to scream mostly unintelligible curses, Botanica launches data spike after data spike at that ugly head and maw.

[Hellbender]

Hellbender's new optics pick up the quick motion of Botanica stretching and flinging bits of herself at him. Sonar tells him the objects are dart-shaped, with hooks or tendrils, and the screams of "Murderer! Diediediedie!" reaching his audials hint that they are far from innocuous. Mindful of just how he nearly lost to Fleetwind in the war game (Was it really just a few months ago?), he slams his maws shut and revvs the cutters. There's not much point in having heavy armor if you stick a big gaping hole through it in front of your opponent's face. Or blossom. Or whatever.

Some of the darts skitter off the curving armor, one or two are caught in the cutters and flung away in bits, but one hits Hellbender in the optic and another catches near the axle of a cutter. Disruptive signals pulse from the data spikes, and the cutter starts oscillating wildly, while the optic sends maddeningly scrambled flashes and colors to Hellbender's visual processor before going dark. In self defense he cuts the power to the runaway cutter, then rotates that side of his head away from Botanica and dives back underground, trying to rub the annoying spikes off in the earth...

[Botanica-3]

The spikes will be easy enough to dislodge in the soil, and the doing makes Botanica howl with frustration. It ran away, and just when she was making progress against it. Not fair, not fair!

Oh, but what to do now? She shrinks back down, once again perched atop the meteor. Anxiously, she watches the sands, whirling about in hope of catching the wurm if surfaces again. Her eyes linger a moment on the sight of the twin Primes across the way, and she crows, "See, see, not so powerful, not so unstoppable, told you, told you I did that you were not immortal! Self will murder self, and then we will see if self is strong enough to still survive!"

[Hellbender]

Hellbender dislodges the spikes, as predicted and sets about refilling his ore bins--from beneath. Once he's done, he plans to surface somewhere at a distance, transform into a proper robot, and practice his long-range sniping on a certain green shrieky thing.

He's damned tired of being called a worm, of being nothing but a worm. He'd almost rather be called a 'stinking Con' right now.

Then new orders come from Shockwave:

//...Get the samples, and then await further orders. I think our allied Prime has met his match, and would prefer not to risk you needlessly.//

// Yes sir... // he replies, with some observations about the rabid plant-thing. Nothing for it but to dig deeper and prepare for further battle elsewhere.

---
coming to end-of-thread?

[Botanica-3]

if she were in her right mind, Botanica would have run off ages ago. That thought still tickles the back of her mind, but she finds she can't leave. Can't leave this hunk of home, can't tear her eyes from the Warchilde's unmaking. The troublesome wurm is almost forgotten as she watches the tableau of Prime on Prime. The Dark Prince will hopefully be slain, his body relived of it's gifts. But those gifts must not go to this Prince of Light either.

She lets out a squawk of protest and anger when Scourge's attack begins to rain down upon the group. They are not so far away that she is fully safe from the attack, but that is not what raises her ire. He interferes, and that is quite vexing indeed.

---

OOC: More or less. Feel free to exit. B-3 is going to stick around to make commentary and occasionally shriek at the events happening in Beseeching. Or harass anyone else who decides to drop in.

[Skid-Z]

Someone *should* have run off. But the sheer call of duty and the reluctance to cower in a corner and leave his comrades behind drives a silver bullet past the craters edge towards its centre.

Radar picks up an entity, and vision locks onto a very familiar shape.
B-Botanica? Wait a min- oh, oh!
Not good.

Skid-Z shrieks to a halt. Alright, now, he just wants to turn tail. But since Long Range ripped that one off... A pained hiss escapes him.
“Transform!”
Internals instantly begin to record his vision as the silver and teal bot casually strides forwards in meteor direction, wary of its plantformer companion. Surely something can be said for scouting infantry and their courage... they have plenty.

Botanica seems occupied.... Is that a good thing? Or does he have to be polite and announce himself?
“I can’t help but wonder why he’s fighting alone?” He questions, making sure to imply ‘he’s’ with the Mirror Rodimus. Being an uninvited guest, Skid-Z makes sure to keep general distance.

[Hellbender]

Black fire rage reaches even here, but it's weaker, far weaker than at the center of the hellstorm in the crater. A sudden spasm of anger tears through Hellbender: why is he loitering here? Does Shockwave really think he's that much of a coward, that he has to be 'protected' from getting hurt?

He's Hellbender, one of the most powerful Decepticons on the planet!

Free of the circuit disruption, all four of Hellbender's grinders start up as he tunnels furiously through the earth, heading for the sound of chaos and explosions.

---
Exit thread for... somewhere. Possibly 'Beseeching'

[Botanica-3]

He should have run.

He really, really should have run. Botanica's normal state of mind is just a hair's breath from madness. Proximity to the Prime eats away at her control. Perch her atop a chunk of the planet to which she is psychically bound, and then let the Prime's dark flame wash over her....

Zantedeschia Alata Utricularia is a particularity deadly wildflower when threatened.

For long moments, she presses herself flat upon the meteor's surface, a high sort of keening wail the only indication that she still lives. It hurts, hurts her terribly, and it pulls at her, tries to drag her forward into the dark fire, twist her into aiding, hurting, something, anything, anything to stop this heat that threatens to burn her from inside out.

Skid-Z's question registers, but slowly, and she slithers around on her perch, hissing, still pressed down, eyes wild. If Skid-Z knows the myth of the lamiae, it would be an apt comparison, as Botanica looks more like coiled serpent than plant at the moment.

"IIIIIIII doooooo not knoooooow youuuuuuuuuuu." The words seem to come from far away, as if she is struggling to force them out.

[Skid-Z]

If only Skid-Z’s reality had known sheer brutalities like some of the rest. He might’ve been strong enough to fight the black flames.
But he hasn’t, and isn’t. When they scorch his body, it feels like his spark is torn asunder. He doesn’t even hear Botanica anymore above his own horrified cry, not knowing whether to clutch his head, his chest, his arms or anything else, it all burns!
"//P-please! S-Stop it!!//"¹

Knees slam into the ground as the bot yields, curls up, shakes feverishly, turns apathetic to the world around him. ... and effectively out of commission.

----
¹ Cry both on radio and vocalized.

[Botanica-3]

The interloper falls, and Botanica finds she is not inclined to torment the crying bot. There is too much happening, too many others to watch, too much fire, even if the fire is not what it once was. And there in the midst one Prime still stands, trying to fight ghost and god. She slithers back around to face the area of greatest darkness, where that Shining Prime still stands. Can he do it? Can he defeat the demon and his caged pet?

She should run, herself, dive beneath ground and run, but she does not. Deep in her spark she knows that such a thing would be futile; she may escape the flames, but her soul will still burn, making ash of her from the inside out. No, no, if this is her last day, if this is the End of Days when the Devourer of Worlds comes, then she will burn with her planet. Both of them.

And there is still a Matrix in the midst of that swirling dark that calls her name.

[Emirate Xaaron]

What's gold, scorched, and displeased all over?

It is an Emirate Xaaron, stomping over into the area after dragging Dead End somewhere relatively safe and not on fire. There is a certain steel about him, in the way he carries himself, that the Emirate Xaaron that this Botanica might have seen never possessed - that cringing, pathetic wretch.

Hmm. This is taking him closer to that chunk of Cybertron. Coincidence? Emirate Xaaron doubts it. He looks from the vegetable abomination to the wreck of a car, and his optic band narrows. Emirate Xaaron commands simply, "Get away from him," and attempts to play Monkey in the Middle between Skid-Z and Botanica.