Settling Turbulent Skies

[Oracle]

OOC: Continued from here. Private for the moment.

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Having successfully captured herself a sulky jet and succeeded as well in dragging him from the rock arrival room without any explosions occurring, Oracle feels rather accomplished. Until she realizes she has no idea where she's actually dragging said sulky jet off to. Somewhere Slingshot's temper isn't going to get further inflamed would probably be good, somewhere he could get rid of some of that unhappy would be better.

That actually gave her an idea and a quick mental consult with a map had her turning down a different corridor with purpose. "Come on, I want to see if the sim room is busy." If Slingshot did get angry in there it wouldn't damage things and if he did keep his cool they could go flying.

Of course, if Slingshot didn't want to go along with her, he was going to have to actually extract his arm from her grip first. Oracle hadn't really realized she was still literally towing the other jet along, though if he pulled away it would obviously occur to her. She was too focused on getting where she was going to think maybe she ought to let go otherwise.

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OOC: Dragging of Slingshot with permission.

[Slingshot]

The surly teenager is getting led off by the hot babe for a private play-session in the sim room. Someone with a dirty mind might find this an inherently unfair situation.

Slingshot stomps along after Oracle, letting her tug him along wherever she wants to go. On the bright side, he's not stomping in a way that suggests he's doing it just to make noise so everyone will know how angry he is. On the minus side, he is still that angry.

"Why? So you can pull up a shoot-'em-up sim?"

[Oracle]

Glad there's no actual stomping behind her, Oracle is still very aware she's in the company of a primed explosion. Which was the whole reason for heading someplace they hopefully wouldn't run into anyone and she wouldn't get involved in a bunch of property damage if that temper blew.

"Well, I suppose I could if that's what you want, but personally I was thinking something more along the lines of a little challenging flying." Because flying and a way to get rid of aggression at the same time sounded like a really good idea.

Arriving at the sim room Oracle checked inside before grinning. Empty, good. Dropping Slingshot's arm finally she stepped into the room and over to the console. After that it was just the effort of a few moments to pull up the program she wanted. Thankfully she didn't have to make Slingshot wait while she programmed it, since this particular simulation was her favorite place to fly solo. The sky was nice but...not the same thing.

Appearing on the monitor and through the open door seemed to be some sort of underground canyon. Metallic walls and occasional crossing spars of metal said it probably wasn't something on an organic planet, if the place really did exist. So did the size, since while to one side there did appear to be some sort of end where the canyon ended in a wall, the other end went out of sight beyond a turn. Not too far above where the door opened was more crossing spars and supports that seemed to be holding up the ceiling but looking down it was another story. There was no ground for a very long way below.

"So, think you're up for this, or would you prefer just to shoot things?" It wasn't intended to be challenging really, but Oracle's grin was clearly asking if Slingshot thought he could handle her brand of flight as she stepped out onto the ledge on the other side of the door.

[Slingshot]

Slingshot leans through the doorway, one hand on the 'real' side and holding on tight. He scowls at the underground canyon, optic-band flashing. "This place is so fragging weird," he pronounces. "How does it even make sense, half the stuff it does?"

That said, he steps out on the ledge with Oracle, one hand still wrapped tight on the edge of the doorway.

"Anything we can shoot in here?" Sometimes a mech needs more than just exertion to get rid of anger. He glares at Oracle's challenge, the thrust-nozzles on his jet shifting.

[Oracle]

Shrugging, Oracle looks down into the canyon that according to the dimensions of the room, shouldn't fit. "I have no idea. I got a bit lost when Perceptor explained the door to me, let alone how the rest of it functions. It's useful and interesting though." And she doesn't need to know how to make one to use it thankfully.

Slipping back into the control room with a wry grin at Slingshot's comment, she spends a few long moments at the panel before going back to the door. "There wasn't other then any critters down here, since it's a program I put together and well, distinct lack of me needing to shoot things. But that's easy enough to fix." It wasn't that hard to add random targets in interesting places, she just hoped he didn't run into anything trying to shoot them.

Stepping back out onto the edge of the ledge, she looks back at Slingshot. "So?" Less challenge, more 'anything else you needed?' in her voice this time.

[Slingshot]

"So what?" Slingshot demands. "Let's fly."

He all but flings himself into the abyss, falling with a whooping war-cry before transforming and taking off down the canyon. He's not fast by jet-standards, but he is almost supernaturally nimble. In terrain like this, Slingshot can really shine.

[Oracle]

Shaking her head with a quiet laugh, Oracle dives out into the canyon as well. Twisting in midair she revs her thrusters so she's oriented the right way before transforming and tearing off after Slingshot. She's not quite as graceful as he is in this mode, but she knows the terrain much better and she can see the obstacles before she reaches them. That together is allowing her to pull some otherwise suicidal stunts as she careens through the air after the other jet with a whoop.

She may have brought Slingshot here to calm down, but damned if she's not going to wring all the enjoyment out of it she can as well.

//Targets should start showing up on both sides shortly. Stationary ones are bright, moving ones aren't.// Because the fact they move should be enough to pick them out, right? She hopes so, she's not a gunner.

[Slingshot]

It's safe to assume that Transformer battle-computers are designed to track movement through the optics. They're probably even fairly good at picking out camouflage.

That doesn't mean movement alone is easy to pick out and shoot.

There are times when the canyon gets so narrow Slingshot has to fly on his side, and times when spars and hanging debris form tight gates that he has to contort to get through intact without slowing down.

Slowing down is for wusses.

Coming around a turn sharply, he yelps and points his nose for the ceiling, his thrust-nozzles twisting to push him away from the sprawl of junk blocking his way. If Oracle is fast, she may get to see the sight of Slingshot hanging vertical in the air for a moment before arcing up in a tight circle and coming back down to find the way through.

[Oracle]

Hey, as far as Oracle is concerned, if it was easy it wouldn't be nearly as fun. She picked this particular simulation exactly for the challenge it represented after all.

Being a bigger jet than Slingshot is and a having that minor loss of maneuverability doesn't seem to slowing her down that much as she almost dances through the air. Of course it's a really good thing she knows the canyon or there might have been some really interesting acrobatics as she whips around the same turn that caused him to go vertical.

Letting out another whooping laugh she corkscrews up and over a spar to the side, crossing under the other jet's flightpath, then twisting back down to clear a support in her way.

She's got to admit, that vertical stunt was pretty impressive. First time she came through there she almost splattered to spite her Sight.

[Slingshot]

Slingshot follows Oracle through the gap on this wall, then angles down sharply as movement catches his attention. Target! He snaps off a few blasts, missing.

Making an irritable sound, he curves in a circle to reapproach rather than continuing on with the course. He will get the stupid thing!

[Oracle]

An upward spiral and then a looping twist bleed off speed and avoid the next two obstacles in Oracle's way at the same time. The third spar she doesn't even try to avoid, instead transforming to come to a stop feet first against it with a muted smack, then clinging on with both hands as she watches Slingshot loop around for another try at that target. Determined thing, isn't he?

Shimmying up the spar for a better view of her companion, she can't help but wonder if he's going to do that for any target he misses.

[Slingshot]

The target explodes in a nice little fireball. Slingshot crows in delight, then angles off to catch up with Oracle.

//What're you hanging around for?// He really doesn't mean it nastily, but word-choice and tone of voice probably aren't helping him at all.

[Oracle]

Luckily Oracle finds herself more amused at the surly response than bothered, and simply pushes back and flips off the spar, transforming again as she falls.

//Just waiting for you. I can fly the canyon alone anytime, but I didn't come here alone so why should I fly on alone? Besides, just because I can't shoot things doesn't mean I don't appreciate good marksmanship.// She's so not going to mention his miss the first time, but to be fair the targets aren't the easiest things to spot.

A tight spiral, dive and then an abrupt wing-over take her past the next set of spars and beams in her way, though there's a short whoosh of air from her vents in relief as she clears the last obstruction for the moment. That had been way too close, and her mildly stinging wingtip cautioned her that just perhaps she might want to consider slowing down a bit. Seeing the spar hadn't helped her to avoid it if she couldn't react fast enough. //Might want to watch your wings through there.//

[Slingshot]

//Yeah, yeah.// Slingshot follows Oracle through the spars as close as he's able. He uses his thrust-nozzles to control his flight in ways a lot of other jets just can't.

Then another targets pops up, and his first shots send it exploding in a tiny fireball.

He breaks away from Oracle and dives down, down, down, then levels off. He flies straight for some time before tilting his nose up at as steep an angle as he can manage without stalling, going back up into the maze of spars.

[Oracle]

Though it might have been smart of her to do the same thing and get a bit more clear space around her, Oracle instead opts to stay up where she is and transform again on the fly, running along a horizontal spar when it gets a bit too tight for safe flying.

//Alright, alright.// She grins and shakes her head as she makes a thruster assisted leap up and over to another beam to run along when she reaches the end of her current one. //I won't warn you there's a very interesting series of crisscrossing spars coming up in that case.// Should be fun to watch him go charging through it though, even with her backhanded warning.