Beach Arrival, Take Two

[Slingshot]

Slingshot doesn't think he's going to catch up to Skyblast right now, but he's still putting his all into it. There's no point in following, if he's not going to try.

But he's the slowest. Only Mach 1.6 at his top speed. And, okay, he can hover. Big whup. Watching Skyblast in the air, that didn't seem like such a big deal anymore.

Prime, he wanted a fight so bad. Anything to give him a target for the acid-burn spreading through his body. At least Skyblast hadn't said anything about his specs.

Skyblast wasn't one of his brothers. Slingshot didn't think he would have held himself back from decking the slagsucker.

[Nimbus Tsura]

Slingshot would do well to remember that Skyblast is an alien jet. He's also a lot smaller and lighter than Slingshot. Curiously enough, unlike Powerglide, Skyblast's alternate mode isn't full-sized. He doesn't seem to mass shift at all between modes.

Something that Slingshot can't know is that Skyblast doesn't carry the dead weight of machine guns and missiles, the way that many fighters do. Having all energy weapons that he only creates when he needs also saves on weight, to the downside of burning fuel.

Skyblast does not slow down per se. Instead, he starts weaving through the air, tracing out a braid with his flightpath. The net effect is that he slows. He wants to see what Slingshot can do, up close.

Also, all the chatter on the radio has him concerned. That battle sounds wicked. Jazz needs new parts, which Skyblast keeps foremost in his mind, and he's not sure that he's big enough to carry this thing.

Mentally, he snickers over the idea of playing escort fighter while Slingshot plays freighter. Doesn't seem like the white jet would like that.

[Slingshot]

"That's it, up ahead," Slingshot growls out. Skyblast's pansy braiding had let him catch up with the other jet. No, that was not making Slingshot happy at all. Still the slowest, d&$nit!

He wished Skydive were here. Skydive would know how to put Skyblast in his place, or would at least tell Slingshot how.

Omega's roar over the broadband makes the Harrier's thrust nozzles twitch into a slant, pushing him upwards briefly before he can re-align his thrusters the way he wants them to go. Okay.

Down below, a clearing opened in the verdant forest, and in the clearing was a circle of silvery metal. In the middle of the circle is an extremely familiar body.

Slingshot cries out in shock and rage, and the sound is more the scream of a raptor than the sound a mech should make.

He transforms in mid-air, falls, transforms again, VTOL jets spewing hot exhaust that slowly fades as he descends.

At touchdown, he transforms, scrambles over, drops to his knees beside Optimus's grey body. Weak, bird-like sounds twist from his vocalizer, the croak of a crow in distress.

[Nimbus Tsura]

Why is it that all the 'pansy' aerial artists of either faction are packing pointy objects?

All the ranting and raving on channel has Skyblast rather flustered. He tries not to let it show in his flying. If they're too late for Jazz because of Slingshot's slowness, he fears that he will never forgive the other flier.

At the circlet of silver metal, Skyblast again slams down his control surfaces, and he even stalls out intentionally. He transforms and drifts down lazily, although gravity does cause him to pick up speed. Skyblast was a mile or so high in the sky, after all. At terminal velocity, he transforms back to jet mode and glides to the ground, coasting. His landing is graceful and elegant, but he does take a while to stop. If he wants a pinpoint landing, he has to do it in robot mode. Once he has slowed down, Skyblast transforms and sprints over to the body.

What he sees here startles him. It takes him a while to parse the dead robot as a Transformer of Slingshot's general style line. Skyblast is mulling over the aesthetics when it hits him, and he blurts, "He looks like Optimus Prime would if he was designed like you!"

Maybe that's why Slingshot seems so upset?

[Slingshot]

While the other Autobots might imagine a temper-tantrum taking place in that space of radio silence, there wasn't one. The jet punches the ground, gouging out grass and dirt, and his expression is terrible. But that is all.

"Okay," he growls. "How are we going to do this?"

[Nimbus Tsura]

Skyblast looks at the corpse up and down. The guy is bigger than him. There's no way he can carry all that himself. Slingshot's a lot bigger than him, but he's still not built for hauling.

After a few moments of hard though, Skyblast suggests, "I could cut him in half." He gestures to the body's waist. "Right there. I'll take the lighter half, you take the heavier half. Unless you think you can manage it all."

Skyblast doesn't manifest an energon blade yet. Slingshot seems awfully distressed. In fact, Skyblast prepares to dodge a blow or thrown object over his suggestion. It's easier for him. The body barely looks like a Transformer, to Skyblast.

[Slingshot]

Slingshot glares at the other jet, ignoring that Optimus is going to be cut up for parts anyway. "Think we can both carry him if we rig it right? I've got grappling lines."

[Nimbus Tsura]

Skyblast looks pensive. He shuffles his feet and notes, "We'd be causing each other turbulence, and the balance issues would be crazy. It'd be awfully tricky flying." Sure, Skyblast's the master of the air, but he's never done coordinated flying. He flies solo, a lone wolf of the sky.

He scratches the back of his neck and looks up. Skyblast adds, "Also, we'll be one big target with zero maneuverability. Do you really want to fly into a war zone that way"? At least if we each have our own burden, we'll be a bit more agile."

The Skyblast shrugs and finished, "But if you want to do it your way, get out those cables."

[Slingshot]

Slingshot stares increduously at Skyblast. "What, flying in tandem is supposed to be hard?"

Forgive him, he's a member of an airplane gestalt.

"But yeah, we'll do it your way if that's all you can handle." Slingshot shoves himself to his feet and steps well out of reach of both Optimus and Skyblast. In fact, he backs over to one of the archways and grabs onto the side.

He's squeezing it hard enough to warp it, but it's better than flinging himself at Skyblast when he sees the other jet mutilating Optimus Prime's corpse.

[Nimbus Tsura]

Skyblast grumbles to himself at Slingshot's blithe reaction. What, he thinks that towing a non-aerodynamic bundle between them would be easy? That would totally unbalance them, and the drag would be unimaginable.

He scowls over at Slingshot. Skyblast mouths, 'all I can handle' back at him. Why, he doesn't think that Slingshot can handle what he's about to do here! Focusing, Skyblast draws on his own reserves and brings forth a single energon sword in a dark smoky grey. He raises it up and brings it down to slash the corpse in half. Skyblast finds it a little harder than he was expecting. This is a well-built corpse. Skyblast is reduced to inelegantly hacking and sawing, but eventually, the deed is done. He calls out, "I'm done here."

Skyblast grabs one half and moves to heft it out into a more open area.

[Slingshot]

Slingshot feels the thin, elegant archway twist and warp under his grip, damaged by his too-tight hold. Silverbolt would be upset by that- Except Silverbolt would probably have torn Skyblast apart himself.

When Skyblast takes Optimus's legs away, the Harrier releases his grip on the arch and stumbles over to the battle-damaged, scarred, broken torso of the only mech outside the Aerialbots who had ever given him the benefit of the doubt.

He touched the inner circuits of Optimus's chest, then jerked his hands away as if burned. Spare parts. He couldn't keep thinking of this as Optimus. It was just... A dead mech. Who wasn't Optimus.

The orange of his visor dimmed to brown, then brightened again. Carefully, he shut the open panels, then reached for his grappling line and began to bind the torso to his jet. It was a tight fit, but once he transformed and got his robot body out of the way, there'd be plenty of room.

Indeed, there was plenty of room, and the Harrier takes off straight up. Then hovers for a moment, as he realizes that he's not pointed in the correct direction. 'Instinctively', he lets his nozzles twitch the way he wants to and finds himself spinning in mid-air until he faces towards the coordinates Perceptor gave him.

"... Right. You lead the way."

And that's all Slingshot has to say until they get there.

[Nimbus Tsura]

Skyblast is left wondering if this body belonged to someone Slingshot knows, someone special to him. The other jet seems so torn up. Skyblast offers awkwardly, "If you'd like, when there's a lull after the battle, I could do a funerary painting for him."

He resorbs his sword, but a funny thing called entorpy means that he gets less out than he put into the blade.

Now Slingshot's ability to hover would come in handy. Skyblast is forced to leap into the air, transform, and pick up speed. Only then can he circle back and swop down with his talons opened wide. Skyblast gets it the first time, and the talons lock onto the leg section.

Then, he lurches into the air, a bit unbalanced. His flight smoothes out as he grows accustomed to the burden. Skyblast doesn't try to outpace Slingshot this time. Instead, he just keeps with the other Autobot's speed. The ground blurs underneath them.

[Hook]

And the jets head over to the Station Battle: Jazz's Repairs thread.