A Bot Alone

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OOC: Peeled off from Team Aft. Thread for Optimus.

The Lithone whose head is visible has an axe, a foot, and a lance heading toward it. All connect and the thing screeches before falling back through the hole, its face a ruined mess. This doesn't stop the grasping, clawed hands, some of which get stomped on, but between the feet and weapons coming down on the weakened flow and the creatures grasping up through it, it's not long before the entire deck plate gives out, leaving all three Autobots with nothing to stand on.

Cables, ducts, and pipes get in the way, though some are broken through, as the three mechanoids, thanks to the weakened ship infrastructure and their own momentum, crash through multiple floors, possibly bouncing and jostling this way and that as they fall.

When they hit bottom, they are not all together. Though the fall has, momentarily, gotten Optimus away from the Lithones, it's also put him out of sight of the others as well. He's in a room filled with ancient, destroyed communications equipment. There are two doors, one of which is shut and not in working condition, the other of which is cracked open. From the sounds of things, someone or someoneS are right outside the door.

[Optimus Prime]

It takes a moment for Optimus's gyros to recover so the world stops spinning. Once it does he gets to his feet and takes in his new surroundings.

Up: Big messy hole, the edges of which are too fragile-looking to grapple on to.
Down: It's a floor. Hopefully it is more stable than the last floor.
Around: Communications equipment, nonfunctional. A closed door that doesn't look like it works, and an open door with something horrible behind it.

Optimus Prime plants his feet wide apart and hefts his axe in both hands, ready to meet whatever comes through the door, eyes grim and determined, mouth hidden behind his battle mask. Then he blinks, quickly shifts his axe to hold it in one hand, and sprays the floor right in front of the door with fire-retardant foam. Hopefully whatever comes through the door will trip.

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Whatever comes through the door trips.

Specifically, it's a Lithone that comes crashing through the partway open door, clinging onto a gnawed-on robotic leg that he seems intent on using as a club, at least until the slick foam causes him to loose his footing and drop his makeshift weapon. The process trips up two more behind it, sending them tumbling into an equipment rack opposite the door. The force of their impact causes something - it looks like part of a crate - that had been sitting on top to get knocked free and fall on top of them. If Optimus happens to look in its direction, he might even see part of a (perhaps familiar) logo and the letters, "PrimaT-" on the broken box.

Not that he has long to ponder that, as the Lithones are in the process of clambering back to their feet, and some sort of... mechanical monkey creature leaps towards Optimus's head.

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus, despite not being programmed to be a hero, is pretty good at thinking on his feet. When the three Lithones tumble into the room, he quickly shoots a grappler at the equipment rack to pull it down on top of them. He doesn't really notice the box with the PrimaTech logo, but then he's rather preoccupied at the moment and he never encountered PrimaTech on Pz-Zazz.

The Prime fully intends to escape out the door while the Lithones are disentangling themselves, but then a monkey jumps on his face. He yelps in alarm and tries to pry the creature off.

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The equipment rack comes crashing down on the creatures before they can clamber their way back upright, forcing them to start again among a mess of spilled transmitters and receivers. One manages to push the rack off of the three in a crash, while the other two struggle to get back to their feet.

The monkey tries to resist, biting and clawing at Optimus's face in an attempt to hang on, but ultimately its efforts fail as its pulled away (though how much damage its efforts to hang on cause are another matter). It attempts to instead grab ahold of Optimus's arm before the other has a chance to fling it away, though if the Prime is fast enough, it won't have time to do so.

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus really does not have time to deal with the monkey right now, even if it is leaving deep gouges on his face. Elita-1 can admire his monkey-induced battle scars later. Or he could just get them fixed. Whichever.

He really hates to do it, but the three creatures on the floor won't be there for long, and he needs to get out of the room now. So, as he runs, he tries to grab the monkey's head, and one of its hind legs, and pull.

If the Prime can manage to make it out the door, he'll spare a quick glance to see if there's some way to block it and trap the creatures in the comm room.

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The door had been wrecked - split in half - from before Optimus's arrival. Half was still within the frame, but now that Optimus is outside the room he can see the other half. Throwing that across the door may slow them down, though several of the deck and wall panels are loose enough that they may work for the same purpose, and they're a bit larger.

The monkey-creature's head and one leg are grabbed, and its peeled off Prime's face. It shrieks for a moment despite lack of air to scream in, because in cartoon space everyone can hear you scream, but the force of the pull is enough to disable the thing. There are currently no other opponents in the passageway. A quick glance aft shows that it's not far before the passageway ends - they had entered through the rear of the ship, after all. Forward, there is a turn-off that might well be a stair, or rather ladder-way.<sup>1

1</sup> On ships, both what a civilian would call a "ladder" and what they would think of as "stairs" are just referred to as "ladders." This might seem weird at first, but a ship's "ladder" is generally much steeper and shallower than what most civilians identify as stairs, sometimes to the point where the dividing line would get pretty fuzzy, anyway. It's just easier to call them all one thing.

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus was trying to dismember the monkey, possibly because he thinks he is some other Optimus Prime, but he will certainly settle for getting it off his face. He tosses the vile creature aside and then runs for the really steep stairs, scrambling down them, heedless of the proper terminology.

There's not time to try to pry off panels, he doesn't think. This may turn out to be a wrong decision.

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Behind Optimus, the three larger creatures finally work their way out from underneath the spilled equipment rack. Two of them begin snapping at each other, however, forcing the third to claw its way out over them. By the time he sticks his head in the passage way, Optimus is out of sight - and he scrambles after.

The lower level looks much like the upper one. Ships tend to be terribly confusing that way. More wrecked walls, wrecked ceilings, wrecked doors... one of them, much thicker than the others, and apparently designed to be more air tight, stands out, partially due to its make, but mostly because of the large, hulking machine that is in the process of entering it. When Optimus scrambles down the ladder, however, he grunts and looks up in surprise at the new distraction and turns to begin to shamble towards the Autobot.

The sound of a familiar voice screaming can just barely be heard, impossibly carrying through the airless cartoon space, though muffled by both distance and the thickness of that larger door.

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus is uncomfortable with large things shambling toward him. He puts his hands up in front of him and says the Universal Greeting, just in case this particular one happens to be friendly. In the extremely likely event that this doesn't work, he'll fire a grappler at the thing's leg to try and trip it up.

The Prime winces at the scream, looking over his shoulder to make sure he doesn't get surrounded in the narrow passageway.

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When Optimus gives the Universal Greeting, the lumbering bulk stops and his optics flicker in consternation, as though trying to remember something. Then he shakes it off, snarls, and begins his forward progress once more.

At least until the grappler hits his leg and does what is intended, tripping the mechanical monster up and sending it toppling forward with a thundering crash.¹ It growls, grabbing at the cable and trying clumsily to remove it with one arm, even while it pulls itself slowly with the other. If it were to try one task or the other, it would no doubt make better progress.

Optimus has not yet been surrounded, though it may only be a matter of time before the robots he encountered in the deck above make their way down.

¹ Not really. This ship doesn't have atmosphere. Work with me here.

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus does not want to give these horrible monsters a chance to surround him. He does not want to die alone in the cold, sound-transmitting void of space, knowing his friends are meeting a similar fate somewhere nearby and there's nothing he can do about it. That would suck.

So he takes a bold risk and tries to vault right over the downed hulk as it tries to right itself. Better all the monsters are on one side of him, even if he has to climb over one.

Well, better all the monsters he's met so far are on one side of him, anyway.

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The bulky thing roars and flails, grasping for Optimus as he attempts to vault over it. As this happens, a clattering on the ladder heralds the arrival of the three Lithones from above. One, a different one before, has the gnawed on leg, while another has ripped away the partial door from above. He throws it at the Prime.

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus stomps on the monster's hand as it reaches for him. It helps to think of it as a monster. He's cleared the bulky mechanism and is putting on a burst of speed to escape when the door hits him in the back. He stumbles forward, catching himself on one hand to save himself from sprawling on the ground.


Hastily picking up the door from the floor, he flings it back at the Lithones, discus-style.

[Impactor/"Imp"]

Impactor's dimmed optics brighten faintly and turn rounder with surprise at Springer's words. He had not even realized that he was shouting. It just came. He frowns a moment, looking down at his one good hand.

He did give that up. But that shout, that moment... it had felt natural, and he... he had felt closer to alive than he had since he'd taken a bullet to the brain processor.

He snorts and says dismissively, "I can quit any time I want to." Then he kneels to blast the hatch open with his shoulder cannon. "I just don't want to today."

With that, the Wrecker jumps down through the hatch, going right through the white 'gutter space' between rows of panels and landing in the frame below, where Optimus Prime is in the process of throwing a door into some Lithones on the opposite end of the hallway. Apparently, if Impactor and Springer had stayed in the passageway above, they'd have soon come across the communications room the young Prime had just left.

"Oh, hey, lookit that." He looks up through the blasted hatch at Springer. "Found our roomie."

OOC: Crossposting from Cave Troll. Springer, please post in.