Station Battle: Decepticons Retreat!

[Spinister]

The Apache keeps Hairsplitter turned around and watching the fight behind him. What kind of lunatic brings a pair of knives to a dogfight? Then Fleetwind pulls out a knife, too. If Spinister had a face right now, his palms would be covering it. Bludgeon would love these people, and he'd show his love by impaling them all to a wall.

The movement out of Fleetwind is fairly impressive. Clearly, the Seeker saw the feint coming and prepared accordingly. As fast and as agile as the Valkyrie has displayed himself to be, Fleetwind has displayed himself to be cunning, practised, and experienced. The next step would be to pull off those same motions but not get slashed in the wing, but there is always, always, always room for improvement.

Spinister points out, calling over to Needlenose and Fleetwind, "If he'd warned you, your little foe might have picked up on it."

It's not a compliment by any stretch of the imagination, but one might imagine some tacit approval there, and one would not be delusional in doing so.

Skyblast looks as if he was just making a last run out of spite before he pulled out, and Dead End is providing suppression fire, even if he is unlikely to connect. Between the Stunticon and the Seeker's blade, Skyblast should withdraw with all speed if he has a lick of sense. Spinister considers the possibility that Skyblast does not, but Spinister continues retreating and does not turn to fire.

[Nimbus Tsura]

Skyblast can pretty much ignore the shots from Barricade's cousin down there, between his natural agility, his training in aerobatics, and the fact that the Decepticon probably doesn't want to paste both the yellow guy and the grey one by accident.

He only has a moment to be satisfied when his blade cut the Decepticon's wing. There is the shriek of an alien eagle from the Valkyrie, elicited when Fleetwind's dagger finds a home in Skyblast's side. Startled, Skyblast exclaims, "You use daggers, too?"

Instead of speeding up and just getting the heck out of here, he cuts his forward thrust and whams on his thrust reverses, coming to an immediate stop in mid-air. He rolls, bringing his undercarriage towards Fleetwind. Then, the Valkyrie's talons snap open and reach out, aiming to ensnare the Decepticon's hand.

Connect or not, he then boots his forward thrust back on at full throttle. He's not quite trying to draw-and-quarter Fleetwind. He'd need four of himself to do that. Skyblast is just trying to forcibly tear off Fleetwind's arm as he retreats.

[Dead End]

The fracas with Fleetwind doesn't go unnoticed. "Oh, dear. That doesn't look promising. Demolishor, Wreckage, if your guns are functional in anti-air mode, cover me--and each other."

Dead End transforms and flies up toward the aerial battle above, drawing his concussion rifle as he flies. He may not have been in range before, but he will be very soon. Hopefully he won't have to catch any falling Decepticons.

[Demolishor]

"Don't expect me to aim well," the tank grumbled as he transformed and his turrets began to rise upwards. He wouldn't be able to hit anything directly above him, but as long as they stayed a bit off to the side he might get a few good hits in.

It would be an even bigger bonus if those hits were on the enemy.

[Wreckage]

Unfortunately for Dead End and Demolishor, Wreckage can only fire on Skyblast if he happens to fly in front of the Stryker. He selected this form for its mobility and armour, not for its ability to shoot at airborne enemies.

Nonetheless, this is quite the warm reception for the sky-painter! Surely he, of all Autobots, can appreciate the enthusiasm of his audience, who have him quite in hand, Wreckage thinks. He hardly needs to add to this bout of ego-stroking. So onward he drives. Battle out of the way for now, his curiosity after this different Starscream has returned and he would like to quell it.

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OOC: Wreckage will be leaving the thread now.

[Fleetwind]

Fleetwind's reflexes might not be quite the equal of Skyblast's, but they're still rather good, and he has trained to make effective use of both his alternate mode and his robot mode. He twists his arm and snaps it down by his side even as he cuts his antigravs, sending both himself and his passenger dropping to a safe distance out of the way before he turns them back on. Even this is only barely enough, and the screech of metal against metal can be heard as the sharp tips scrape off paint and even the outer layer of Fleetwind's armor where they connect, before he finally snatches his limb free.

The Seeker does note the skill behind other’s movements, and quells a brief surge of panic. This guy really is a superior flier, from the looks of things, and he might have to face him again... and he's not sure he's up to that.

Fear makes one cautious. Panic gets one killed. The pastel Seeker stuffs his panic back inside once he's dropped out of the way, and answers his opponent, "Sometimes." Now that he should be far enough out of reach, he raises his scraped arm once more towards the sky-painter, his knife now twisted out of his way, and fires his shoulder mounted rifle. "And sometimes, I use these."

[Needlenose]

Needlenose seethes at the approval of Fleetwind implicit in Spinister's tone, especially since it comes at the price of a correction to Needlenose himself. He's going to have to keep an eye on the pastel Seeker to make sure he's not competition. He has no time to snap back at Spinister or anyone else, however, when he suddenly drops a fair distance. He tries his best to clutch onto Fleetwind's back, but he only has one good arm, and that's holding onto Zigzag. "Hey... hey... HEY!" he shouts as he feels himself start to slip. "Watch it!" he cries in panic.

Damn it, he has got to get this transformation thing fixed!

[Spinister]

Spinister continues to watch the fight with his familiar's eyes, his own focused on his own path of retreat. He keeps his infrared on, ever vigilant.

Appraisingly, he notes how Fleetwind makes use of gravity to evade his enemy, which is quite clever, although his counter-attack is somewhat lacking. In fact, the attacks of the ground Decepticons are also wanting. They're aiming at a smaller-than-usual target that moves with high speed and agility. For every shot that hits, they're going to waste several. Moreover, Omega Supreme has transformed, Spinister's infrared reports to him quite clearly. The Autobots have to be pulling out, and Skyblast looks like he's retreating, too. Skyblast is going to be out of the area before they can kill him. Any nominal waste of medical supplies that they can cause by damaging him really isn't worth their time. Finally, just based off his flying style, which looks more flashy moves than combat manoeuvres, Spinister guesses that the Autobot likes the attention. Why else would he tarry so long?

Needlenose's reaction strikes Spinister as wholly unacceptable. He's just flailing and squawking. It doesn't matter that he's injured. It doesn't matter that he's being carried. He needs to show some more composure and usefulness.

[Nimbus Tsura]

Skyblast is disappointed that he can't grab the yellow Decepticon's arm. He'll remember this and duly repay it. From the multitude of Decepticons firing at him, the Valkyrie takes minor damage, at the worst, when he can't dodge. He has military armour. It bugs him, when he's trying to pull the tight reverses his art demands, but he's happy enough to have when his daredevil ways get him shot at by a handful of Decepticons.

The response of a SR-71 to enemy fire is just to speed up. Skyblast isn't that fast, but a similar concept applies here. He pours on the fuel, zooming out of the area, following Slingshot's beeline. He takes actions that look evasive as he leaves, but he also keys up his grey exhaust generator.

The grey exhaust makes it clear that those weren't really evasive manoeuvres at all. The path of his retreat is a rather rude Cybertronian gesture, wonderfully detailed and shockingly crude. But why would a car do that with a box of capacitors?

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OOC: I'm outta here. I'll rejoin the other Autobot thread soon. Have fun, ya Decepti-crumbs!

[Dead End]

Dead End watches the Autobot jet fly off, then slowly settles to the ground.

"What a curious talent! Of no use whatsoever in combat, but potentially very entertaining," he says as he transforms back into Porsche form. "Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

Dead End heads on down the road, following Wreckage. Even though the fellow didn't come east with them, he seems bright enough to follow the road back west. Hopefully Demolishor will also follow. No doubt the jet and the helicopter will merrily zip off and leave the rest of them to their fate.

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OOC: It be timeskips nao?