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Post by Hook on Sept 10, 2007 21:22:52 GMT -5
A thought crystallizes in Hook's mind as Shrapnel apparently goes insane: It's like herding cyber-cats.
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Dead End
Major
Yes, we're all doomed. I already knew that.
Posts: 797
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Post by Dead End on Sept 10, 2007 22:43:41 GMT -5
Dead End has seen the Insecticons before, and he knows what that purple glow around Shrapnel's antlers means. Even as the twin lasers stab toward Starscream, Dead End moves, grabbing Hook by one arm and shoving him out of the way, almost into Demolishor's arms.
"Hook, stay clear! Demolishor, protect Hook!" Dead End gooses his lifters, leaping forward and over the toppling form of Starscream, drawing his concussion rifle and engaging his forcefields as he jumps.
He tosses off a shot at Shrapnel as he descends, both feet aimed at the beetle-mech's head.
OOC: man-handling okayed by Hook's player, Starscream falling based in information from Starscream's player. Edit: Whoops, those were Shrapnel's lasers, not his called lightning. My bad!
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Thundercracker
Minor
Accomodatus the Obliging, Costumer Extraordinaire
Maybe they should just move my berth to repair bay and have done with it...
Posts: 259
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Post by Thundercracker on Sept 10, 2007 23:59:44 GMT -5
Thundercracker backs up instinctively as glowing ropes of lighting arc from Shrapnel to Starscream, filling the air with the reek of ozone and fried circuitry. Internal programming, as well as centuries worth of battle experience, scream at him to attack the Insecticon; a deep-rooted desire to survive longer than a planetary rotation demands otherwise.
As Dead End takes a flying leap toward Shrapnel, Thundercracker comes to a decision. He never particularly liked Starscream anyhow. And besides, it looks like Dead End's got everything under control at the moment. Why catch a mouthful of electricity for no good reason?
He tilts one shoulder slightly toward Jetstorm, silent permission for the Vehicon to take a seat if he wishes, and stands back to watch the action unfold.
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Starscream
Major
"Sometimes I can almost feel it!"
strangely enough, male.
Posts: 945
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Post by Starscream on Sept 11, 2007 4:36:17 GMT -5
Whirlwind? Wasn't Shrapnel's thing another elemental force?
Mind you, no time to question such things when you've been caught by a surprise blast. Starscream is outraged that Shrapnel would dare to open fire - but more than that, he's stunned that he would do something so idiotic when Starscream had him surrounded. He catches the blast square in his chest. "I thought you might be idiotic, Shrapnel, but I had no idea you were suicidal!" He quickly returned fire by aiming and firing at the arm that held the grenade launcher, before making an anti-grav-assisted leap up.
Why, Starscream thought to himself, aren't they coming to the aid of their leader?
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Blackarachnia (BW)
Rookie
She lay back on the ground and let the soft earth envelope her body.
Miss Predacon Blackarachnia, at your service.
Posts: 226
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Post by Blackarachnia (BW) on Sept 11, 2007 4:41:08 GMT -5
Blackarachnia was going to inform Hook about what she had seen, when this brawl erupts in front of her. She just can't believe what she is watching. "...No wonder everyone on Cybertron upgraded." Oops, did she say that out loud in front of Hook?
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Jetstorm (BM)
Minor
Producer, Director, Actor, Writer, but not prop boy, Jetstorm, soon to be winner of some award.
Posts: 355
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Post by Jetstorm (BM) on Sept 11, 2007 13:56:01 GMT -5
First reactions can be a very good thing. When shots fired, the airborne general darted back, out of the way and held up his arms, the laser guns mounted on his ‘wrists’ humming. First reactions were to not get shot, and to not die. For once he was quiet, too, his red optics glaring as he stared at the bug. He knew he couldn’t do much but if all else failed and he was bothered, he’d distract him and then blast off.
Then the larger bots reacted. Jetstorm breathed a sigh of relief, as he isn’t chosen to get attacked. He darts over to Thundercracker’s side, the larger seeker noticing his request and offering his shoulder. How perfect! Jetstorm lightly settles himself down on Thundercracker, it’s like having a front row seat to see the most interesting performance this planet had given yet.
“Why, I do believe this is more interesting than watching Tankorr try to do simple math,” Jetstorm laughs to himself as he leans back on his hands, his bottom fin half curling up as he keeps himself balanced. “Thundercracker, my fellow flier, I do thank you for providing a front row seat to this fight,” he says, being relatively nice for once. After all, can’t be mean to ‘em all!
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Post by Demolishor on Sept 11, 2007 16:44:26 GMT -5
Demolishor's not the brightest potato in the drawer, but he's quick to follow orders when people throw things at him.
"Right!" He catches Hook and steps in front of the other mech to guard him with his bulky body. Transforming might have given him more stability and firepower, but he'd be far too compact to do any protecting.
Finally, he gets something Important to do!
"Been tryin' to shoot somebody today, might as well be you." And his shoulders shift, his missile launchers firing even before his arms are properly in position. A focused, gleeful grin crosses his face as he sets his feet--he's sick of all this standing around.
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Post by Shrapnel on Sept 11, 2007 21:11:16 GMT -5
Being surrounded was exactly the reason Shrapnel had started shooting! Silly Starscream, making an Insecticon decide that you're about to try to squish him is a bad way to do business.
Need more bribery, Starscream. Need more bribery.
Tactical displays come online as Dead End leaps into action. Everyone gets rapidly tagged with a designation and threat-levels as movement detection goes up rapidly in Shrapnel's programming queues as 'something to pay attention to'. It makes a battlefield hellish, but better than getting shot.
The Insecticon skips back as Dead End descends and shoots at him, the blast of concussive air warping the road he so recently stood on.
Starscream's shot takes him in the arm - how the blazes had he not hit Dead End in the back? - and the Insecticon jerks his arm to the side. The grenade-launcher remains in his hand, though. No scorch marks can be seen either, but against that black paint...
Demolishor's yelling alerts Shrapnel to the attack at his back, and twin purple beams of light zip out from the end of Shrapnel's antlers. These aren't lasers, though, as they remain visibly connected to the Insecticon and-
Dead End!
The Stunticon freezes in position for one moment, then flings himself in between Demolishor's blasts and the Insecticon.1 Shrapnel, for his part, gives the tank a rather baffled look. What was that for?
Never mind, though! There's Starscream to deal with!
"I can take one more, Starscream, Starscream." Shrapnel grins up at the Seeker, grenade-launcher pointed off to the Insecticon's right. "Who do you think it will be?"
---
1. Done with Dead End's player's permission.
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Post by Hook on Sept 11, 2007 21:14:23 GMT -5
And Hook was just thinking about how he desperately wanted to be Secret Service'd today and be flung around by hooligans.
Not.
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Dead End
Major
Yes, we're all doomed. I already knew that.
Posts: 797
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Post by Dead End on Sept 11, 2007 22:05:21 GMT -5
Dead End winces mentally as he takes Demolishor's missiles right in the back. Fortunately, his dorsal forcefield nodes still work, though his unshielded leg takes a solid hit, dropping Dead End to his knees. He still can't control his body, but Shrapnel won't have him running after anyone anytime soon.
"Beware! He has control of me!"
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Thundercracker
Minor
Accomodatus the Obliging, Costumer Extraordinaire
Maybe they should just move my berth to repair bay and have done with it...
Posts: 259
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Post by Thundercracker on Sept 11, 2007 23:30:09 GMT -5
Slagslagslagslagslagslag! shrieks Thundercracker's CPU, doing a frantic panic dance and demanding he take action. Shrapnel going after Starscream is one thing, but Dead End is another. Granted, Dead End probably doesn't give a drone's aft about the blue Seeker, but Thundercracker IS somewhat thankful toward the Stunticon for softening the blow of his sudden arrival here. He does owe Dead End something, he supposes...
All right, here's your payback, he thinks, and he arms his shoulder-mounted incidenary rifle (which is, luckily for Jetstorm, on the shoulder opposite the one the Vehicon is currently using as a chair).
"Might wanna watch it, things are going to heat up," he tells his passenger. To Shrapnel he yells with a somewhat forced bravado "Hey stinkbug, you like playing with fire?" before he lets loose a volley of bullets.
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Starscream
Major
"Sometimes I can almost feel it!"
strangely enough, male.
Posts: 945
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Post by Starscream on Sept 12, 2007 0:02:07 GMT -5
Blast it, Starscream was getting fed up with this. Now he's commandeering Starscream's OWN troops? "ENOUGH! I don't know what kind of idiot goal you have in mind here, Insecticon, but it's not going to work." He yelled as he fired a Null Ray blast square at Shrapnel's chest.
Even if the blast missed - or didn't work, Starscream had an idea who Shrapnel might possess. At least, if he had to make the choice of the people here. "Demolishor -- fall back! NOW!"
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Blackarachnia (BW)
Rookie
She lay back on the ground and let the soft earth envelope her body.
Miss Predacon Blackarachnia, at your service.
Posts: 226
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Post by Blackarachnia (BW) on Sept 12, 2007 0:03:19 GMT -5
Blackarachnia just took a step back as her arm reached behind her back to retrieve her gun. She doubted Shrapnel was talking about her, but she's going to be ready in case she's wrong.
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Jetstorm (BM)
Minor
Producer, Director, Actor, Writer, but not prop boy, Jetstorm, soon to be winner of some award.
Posts: 355
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Post by Jetstorm (BM) on Sept 12, 2007 17:55:36 GMT -5
Jetstorm raises a finger as he’s about to say something when there’s suddenly the scent of electricity. Ozone. That could only mean one thing - Real sparking electricity. He falls very silent at that moment, his body almost trembling as he grabs the side of Thundercracker’s head, his sharp clawed fingers ready to dig in if at all possible.
“... E-eep...” Jetstorm says in a voice far tiny and squeaky for his usual self. His claws tensed up as he held up his other arm, half shielding his optics.
Could this be fear in the general’s voice? It had to be. If one looked closely... He was indeed shaking.
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Post by Demolishor on Sept 12, 2007 20:27:03 GMT -5
"Sorry!" Demolishor calls to Dead End, recoiling slightly and shifting his arms back. Bug was even freakier than he thought.
"Got it covered, Starscream!" He'd love to stick around and see Shrapnel get crushed into an ingot, but now he's on bodyguard duty. Starscream must want Hook out of the way and entrusted Demolishor with this auspicious task to reward him for his loyalty.
Demolishor turns to Hook, still shielding him with his enormous backside, and grabs the smaller mech around the torso. The tank bodily lifts Hook, clutches the Constructicon to his chest and starts running towards the other side of the bunk.
"Hang on, we're retreating!" Whether Hook likes it or not.
--- Manhandling done with permission.
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