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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on Feb 13, 2011 21:54:12 GMT -5
Day 30, Event Horizon, air ducts, open
Bambi has not been idle during all the fevered fighting. The B. feinbergi has been stalking through the air ducts, debating just the perfect moment and situation to strike.
She sees light little claw-marks, now and then, ones that she hasn't seen in the air-ducts before, so she suspects no comrade made them. The air ducts are a second home to her, because Botanica probably would not appreciate Bambi slipping through her trees, strangling the breeze. Bambi sniffs deeply, listens, and pauses now and then to feel the vibrations.
She can say, with 95% certainty that she is not alone in here and moreover, that her prey is not far at all from her current hunting grounds. Time to shift from idle tracking to active stalking. Her tongue flicks over her teeth and lingers out to taste the air. Right this way, Bambi thinks, moving quietly.
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Barricade
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Post by Barricade on Feb 13, 2011 22:43:30 GMT -5
Frenzy will very much debate his status as prey, with four sets of clawed hands and a couple of miniguns, to boot. He's even spoiling for a fight, after having half of his mission thwarted.
Oh, he got the information Shockwave had sent him for, but Frenzy had been interrupted in the midst of trying to sabotage the Autobot's working spacebridge when those bulk buffoons burst in and spoiled everything.
But there is still time to salvage his mission, perhaps. Time and noise and distraction enough to circle back around in the ducts and walls, make another pass, try to wreck it again, after all. And maybe even rescue Hook along the way.
As long as 'Cadecade doesn't call.
He freezes for a moment, feeling a shiver through the metal under his four hands. It could just be something from the battle at the other end of the ship. It could be something much closer.
He takes no chances, and finds the nearest shaft to silently scuttle up, changing his approach vector.
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on Feb 14, 2011 11:31:47 GMT -5
Four arms, two arms, big guns; miniguns: they all go crunch the same. Whatever Bambi is stalking, it is a quiet little thing, she thinks, well-versed in leaving no trail, but Bambi, who got the short end of the Dinobot stick in a lot of ways, did get senses that would make an eagle and a bloodhound both jealous. She can see little scratches, here and there, that Mayday or Long Haul would never abide in their work, feel the quiver of metal, hear that too-quiet silence, and smell that -
Bambi pauses and creeps back, peering at a cross-shaft she passed by earlier. The smell's stronger here. More of an aerosolised particulate gradient. The trail here is fresh. Bambi climbs up, tail counterbalancing her, and she scales after the intruder.
Somewhere, in an unrelated note, there is a cup of water, and there are beautiful, perfectly circular waves in it.
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Barricade
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Post by Barricade on Feb 14, 2011 13:16:25 GMT -5
Frenzy bypasses several bisecting shafts before selecting one to tuck into. The air is fresher here, with faint light glinting at a corner he can see several meters ahead. There will be a vent there, if past experience serves him correctly.
He is small and weak compared to other Decepticons, and though his hacking abilities are among the best, one does not survive in Megatron's army as long as he has being this small and weak without having a healthy dose of paranoia, no matter what other skills one may have. He's more certain now that something is tracking him, and it's time to change the rules a little.
Anything tracking him must be small, like himself, but he knows all too well that size is no indicator of ability, and though he is small enough to navigate these passages, he doesn't have the room he'd like to fight.
Rather, to ambush.
The vent he'd expected looms up ahead, and it's short work to pry it open so that he can squeeze out. But he doesn't. Leaving the damaged vent behind, he skitters ahead to the third in the line, and pushes out through that one, instead, once he's made sure the corridor beyond is clear. His eye-stalks swivel to and fro, seeking the best advantage. Down the corridor, another bisects this one. Perhaps there, he can find an access panel to hack the systems in this area and take down the lights; he skitters away silently, ducking around the corner in search of another hiding spot.
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on Feb 14, 2011 14:56:50 GMT -5
Bambi eventually comes to the damaged vent. She does leap down the room below, taking the bait, and she ends up wasting a bunch of time before concluding that her prey was never here. A quick climb, and she's back in the vents. Bambi sniffs and nods to herself. Yes, it never went this way. It is throwing switchbacks at her, cunning little thing. There's a rictus of a grin on her muzzle, something sharp-edged, showing her fangs. The scientist sits in the backseat, now, and the cunning little predator that is her sits behind the wheel.
The second vent's nothing. She takes the third. More crawling and creeping and peering around corners. Bambi recalls well Mirage's lesson, how she sprang at him and he knew she was coming and was ready for her. She's determined she won't be counterambushed. Just another corner or two, Bambi's sure of it...
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Post by Ravage (ROTF) on Feb 15, 2011 0:03:32 GMT -5
Slowly and silently, Ravage follows the scent trails which have pulled him deep into the Autobot ship. Rather than stay outside the ship, Ravage took the first opportunity to enter it, ducking into the hole made by that manipulative spider.
Frenzy. Ravage can smell the little glitch, all bitter and spiked, his scent tasting like molten solder mixed with razor blades. The other scent, stronger then Frenzy's and layered over the hacker's, sharp and spiced like banked coals, coating Ravage's sensors.
He could warn Frenzy. But the doing might warn the other hunter. Ravage's lips curl in snarl. He will be silent, at least, until he has a clear shot at his prey's back.
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Barricade
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Post by Barricade on Feb 15, 2011 1:30:10 GMT -5
The lights flicker, sputter, and then die in that section of the ship. Frenzy moves on, the only evidence of his presence the lingering trail of scent that he cannot contain, and a pair of deep holes jabbed into one wall that pierce one of the multitude of lines that crisscross the ship, carrying information, commands, data.
He pauses for a moment, considering the darkened corridor. There are more vents here; he could scale the wall with ease and slide himself back into their warrens to scuttle and skitter about in, but, while more concealed, that still does not offer him space to counter any opponents that might be following him. And the vents do not offer nearly as many opportunities for casual ambush as the deserted, darkened corridors and the myriad of rooms and cubbies that access from them.
Still, perhaps he could find a vantage near the ceiling farther down. Someplace where he can wedge himself above, where he can see his opponent slip around a corner before that opponent notices him, pressed into the darkness like a waiting spider.
He dims his optics and turns to trot down the corridor in that ground-eating lope of his, the one that employs all four hands as well as his feet, ducking down another bisecting hallway to put more distance between himself and his hunter as he seeks out just the right ceiling from which to make his attack.
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on Feb 15, 2011 10:42:24 GMT -5
The lights die, but the dark is better for what Bambi came here to do, slitted light blue pupils wide against her medium blue sclera, optics narrowed with consideration. The dark is much better. Doesn't Frenzy know? The dark is just the time for sudden dromaeosaurid attacks!
Getting up on the ceiling of the vent is harder for her than it is for her prey. She's bigger, not to scale, but she gets up there, leaving some claw marks on the ceiling of her own - who needs pitons when she has built in sickles?
Then, with all the inevitability of the unwed young lovers dying in a horror flick, the B. feinbergi on the ceiling reaches around the corner, jaws outstretched, and attempts to crunch those jaws closed around her rightful prey.
Bambi's like the hyena trying to make a lunch of the vulture that is preoccupied with a carcass, and like that hyena, she can't noticed the lion in the grass behind her.
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Post by Ravage (ROTF) on Feb 17, 2011 0:20:01 GMT -5
In the air vents, the Autobot air vents, the lion creeps tonight...
Ravage pads a bit more quickly after Bambi's trail, following those scents. Slowly, they increase in sharpness and clarity.
There.
He turns the corner at a silent trot, intent on pouncing whomever is stalking Frenzy. And perhaps Frenzy along with him.
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Barricade
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Post by Barricade on Feb 19, 2011 21:20:57 GMT -5
Validation; Frenzy can feel the too-regular shiver along his sensors of something approaching. It's hidden, almost completely masked by the shudder and tremble of the ship's movement and the battles raging elsewhere, but there, almost little more than the rub of molecules, a tiny flicker of dissonance.
His would-be hunter is good. Very good.
Better than anticipated, actually, as Frenzy has pressed himself back into a little nook, waiting, when the barest flash of his own faint optic light reflects off the jaws snapping toward him. That is all he sees: a flicker of blue against glinting chromed fangs and the barest flash of red spines arrowing unerringly in on his position.
With an undignified squawk, he shoves away from his hiding spot, lower hands slashing out, upper hands clicking into their mini-gun configuration to spit out a brief spray of bullets toward the bambiraptor. He doesn't even care that he's fallen from his perch and is heading toward the floor; it's away from those jaws, distance to bring his funs into play as he backpeddals away as fast as his feet will carry him.
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on Feb 19, 2011 21:42:12 GMT -5
The tiger panther catches Bambi by the tail, and given that both her prey and her unexpected hunter know she's here now, she lets out an audio-splitting shriek like an eagle's cry, of pain and rage. As she falls, she tries to reach out with her foreclaws to drag Frenzy in, so that they can all land in a big pile of sharp things, i. e. themselves.
His mini-guns rip into her, but if her claws sink into him, she won't be the only thing ripping!
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Post by Ravage (ROTF) on Feb 20, 2011 0:55:11 GMT -5
Ravage uses his hold on Bambi's tail to try and give Bambi a hard shake- just as she lunges for Frenzy, and Frenzy's bullets are let fl. The result is that Bambi tugs the big cat forward, possibly into a pile of spikey savagery.
Ravage tries to twist so that he can bring his back claws into play and rake them along Bambi's underbelly.
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Barricade
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Post by Barricade on Feb 21, 2011 2:14:46 GMT -5
Frenzy twists desperately, the squeal of indecipherable curses filling the air as he contorts himself to tuck his limbs away from the grasping saurid nightmare. Ravage is there, though, ripping Bambi away from Frenzy, and so the ginsu terror cuts short the fire from his miniguns as he crashes to the floor and tumbles, scrambles, skitters as quickly away from Bambi's grasping claws and snapping teeth as possible. He loses a few shards of painful-but-inconsequential bits to her claws in the process, but better a few bits than to be trapped in that deadly embrace.
"Glitch-sucking gret'ka!" he snarls, one of his sharp-stars spinning up to speed as he crab-crawls back away and watches for an opening. He could open fire again, but he won't; not with Ravage in the fray. As long as the kin-cat is keeping Bambi bound up, Frenzy is in less danger, because he's prettu sure that the Autobot is faster than he is on the sprint, and 'Cade is elsewhere, closed down, fighting and not listening.
No. Not not-listening. Hurt. "'Cade!"
// Cade's hurt! Needs help, // he blurts to Ravage. // Needda go! Needda go NOW! //
Ravage may be kin, but Barricade is 'Cade. 'Cade trusts Frenzy, will protect Frenzy; Ravage would rather eat him.
There's no time to target Bambi, not without risking Ravage, and Frenzy may need his sharp-star to help Barricade. He all but slams it back in it's storage compartment as he turns and flings himself upright to scamper away.
One moment. One moment only do either Bambi or Ravage have to stay him, before he vanishes into the darkness to find his partner.
ooc: out of thread unless stopped. En route to Teeth, Claws, and Other Pointy Things to thwart Drift.
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Post by Lynn Deanna Payne on Feb 21, 2011 9:25:53 GMT -5
Frenzy escapes! Bambi is frustrated and roars out her spleen. The fact that Ravage is shaking her by her tail and has put some deep gashes into her underbelly doesn't help.
So Bambi does what she was threatening to do and attempts to set Ravage on fire. She squirms and snakes herself around until she thinks she has her head aimed at Ravage, and it's a rather confined space. Then Bambi breathes searing flames at the cat, fire reflecting crazily off all the sharp objects.
Bambi just hopes she doesn't spontaneously combust. She hates it when she does that.
OOC: Die roll: 6. Safe for now. Will have her combust on a 1 or earlier, if I find it appropriate and/or funny.
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Post by Ramulus on Feb 21, 2011 21:58:45 GMT -5
Ramulus is too late to catch Frenzy head on, so it's two against one now. Poor cat. //I'm here.// Bambi is warned.
It only takes a solid cry of "Maximize!" and the TMII makes his entrance, vanadium blades unsheathed and the Slagmaker poised to fire. "Oi, we should have a bigger barbecue!" He has to ready an action because Bambi's still cooking the cat so he can't go into melee combat.
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