Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on May 5, 2008 15:55:40 GMT -5
OOC: Coming over from Hellbender's Breakthrough.
Now, normally, Rattrap refrains from doing stupidly reckless things. Or recklessly stupid things. These sorts of things tend to be harmful to his health and often result in injury. However, Rattrap also has a bad tendency to pick pretty outrageous moments to do stupid and reckless things. It's just cooler that way.
This is probably one of those moments.
"Gotta be outta my flippin' gourd," the spy hisses at himself as he runs. Oh, sure, he was all cocky grins when he got moving. If he happens to stop and look back for whoever decides to follow him, it'll be the same, with a taunt or two thrown in. None of that apparent good humour reaches his optics, though. He knows he's doing something reckless and stupid. He can't believe he's doing this, in fact. He's probably got some crossed wires somewhere. Or maybe he couldn't keep ignoring that nagging, annoying little voice telling him he needs to do something. The voice that got that little bit louder when Rodimus showed up. Oh yes, Rodimus. Rattrap blames you.
Because clearly it can't be his conscience.
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Post by Ironfire-3 on May 6, 2008 12:55:41 GMT -5
OOC: also from the Breakthrough
Stupidly reckless is a very good way to describe planting a bomb on a tank, at least a bomb that doesn't deal enough damage to disable said tank. On Ironfire's end, charging after a lone rat probably isn't that stupid. Besides, he made her music skip. He will pay for that.
The grey tank follows the rat-bot. Sure, tanks aren't the fastest vehicles. But, he's on foot and small. Ironfire contemplates merely ramming him down, but instead decides to give her cannons some workout, too. That'll let her deal better collateral damage.
Twin thuds herald the launch of a pair of explosive shells, aimed slightly ahead of the pursuee's current location. Maybe they'll hit, maybe they won't. Either is fine with Ironfire. She's got plenty of ammo.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on May 6, 2008 22:39:07 GMT -5
Fine, fine, so his placement was bad. Next time, Rattrap will just stick the charge where it oughtta blast the tread loose. Will that make the big bad tank feel all better?
Okay, probably not. But it'll make Rattrap feel better. Because yes, he's small and on foot against a tank. But you know, he decided to do this. Nobody threw him out here, Rhinox didn't pick him up and hold him in the line of fire. Oh, sure, he'll blame anybody and everybody else if someone asks him later – if there is a later – just what bug crawled into his transistors, but for now, this is his decision. And he's sticking by it.
Even if he isn't sticking to a coherent path. Because one of the fun things about alleyways is that they have all these handy little cutoffs. Tucked-away nooks and crannies. Basement and sewer accesses. He hears the tank rolling after him and he's already diving behind a huddled flock of rubbish bins when the sound of cannon fire compresses the air for that split-second of discharge. Nothing back here – crud – but there, across the way, a manhole cover. Can't get to it before the shells hit. Oh, this is gonna singe some fur.
Impact makes the world a noisier place. Messier, too. The shockwave flattens him against the road and scatters the bins all over the place, partway back up the alley, but as smoke and debris start making it harder to pick out where he's going – and hopefully making him harder to pick out from the scenery – he beelines for that hidey-hole, prying up the cover and dropping in. Because it's more dramatic that way, he grabs a ladder rung at the last possible moment and he hangs there for a couple seconds to catch his breath. Figuratively speaking. Rodimus gave the order to flood the sewers and judging by the sound of things, Wheelie carried it out. That Rattrap's feet aren't dangling in the water right now must mean the levels have fallen. Still sounds wet, though.
"Nobody better say nothin' about soggy, burned rat," he mutters to himself, letting go and hitting the water. Well, he won't drown at least, but he won't miss any more swimming lessons, coach, honest.
Okay, just hug the walls, use the pipes, listen. Gotta try and get behind the Verminator before heading back upstairs.
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Post by Ironfire-3 on May 7, 2008 8:24:48 GMT -5
Why yes, that would have been a wise plan. No, it wouldn't make Ironfire feel any better, but it would mean he'd have a robot after him instead of a tank.
Now, where did the rat get to? Ah, there he is, ducking into the sewer. The smoke cleared just in time her her to see that. She fires again, not expecting it to do much actual damage.
Hm. She's not going to fit into that manhole, no way. Just not happening. She scowls, or would if she currently had a face. She'll have to wait until he comes out, or find, or make, her own way down. Preferably the former. Ironfire is not exactly built for sewer work.
"Well, little rat, you've decided to just up and leave? How cowardly of you." Well, really, it's a fairly reasonable idea, getting out of there. But, she can try to anger him, to egg him back, right? Surely that's a valid stratagem.
She rolls along, following the sewer in the direction she's pretty sure the Maximal went. She may be wrong, but she may be right. Time, or a certain bit of prey, will tell.
A bit of falling building bounces off of her, leaving no real damage. Oh, that's right, there are traps here. Perhaps she would do well to be careful. Perhaps.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on May 7, 2008 13:44:50 GMT -5
Rattrap rolls his optics and shakes his head in disbelief as evil-Ironfire's voice echoes down to him, muffled and tinny. Oh, puh-leeze. Like no-one's ever tried that tactic on him before.
"Why don'tcha just spit in the wind while yer at it?" he calls back, whether or not she can hear him. "I swear," he goes on to the wall as he pulls himself along, trying not to get ripped off by the current and tossed downstream, "every time, it's the same slaggin' thing. 'Oh, Rattrap, yer a coward' and 'Maximals nevah turn tail' and oh, my achin' skidplate." His voice drops to a raspy growl near the end and his upper lip curls into a sneer. Well. Here's a ladder… and Big Bertha's still rolling, sounds like. She might even be right overhead.
Slow and steady, Rattrap slinks up the ladder. For somebody drenched in sewer water, he has pretty good traction on the rungs if he says so himself. But enough preening. No light piping through the grip holes on the cover; something landed on it? Just his luck, she's sitting on the thing. Of course, a well-placed charge can turn a manhole cover into a very nice projectile, depending on the angle and the rotation…. For now, he gives the lid an experimental nudge.
Here's hoping she doesn't like playing Whack-a-Mole.
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Post by Ironfire-3 on May 8, 2008 13:31:36 GMT -5
Ironfire pauses, tread square on a certain manhole cover. "Where are you hiding, rat?" She fires a blast into a nearby building, for no real reason; collateral damage doesn't hurt the attack, unless she happens to hit an unfortunate ally. If so, she can only hope it's one of these strange 'cons, not an Autobot.
The tank sighs in a particularly tank-like way, whatever that's supposed to mean. Not going to be able to find him very well in this mode she thinks, before transforming. He may or may not have had time to move away from the cover before she stomps hard on it, trying to break her own way down.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on May 8, 2008 18:59:51 GMT -5
Oh yeah, Rattrap picked a real winner this time. Where is he hiding.
"Where'm I hidin', she asks," he mutters, scowling when the cover doesn't move so much as an inch. Just his luck. She is sitting on it. "I vanished inta thin air, dat's what I did, I swam ta freedom while you sat there wit' yer head jammed up yer exhaust port. Where'm I hidin', I'm hidin' in the slaggin' sewer where I ran not a cycle ago, ya overgrown beatbox…." He goes on grumbling even while he pulls out one of his upgraded bombs and activates it with a quick squeeze. "I swear, they put anything in new builds back then," he goes on, sticking the bomb to the manhole cover. Red alert, red alert, signals the little blinking light. Down the ladder starts Rattrap. "Musta given her the guts from a Commodore or–"
THOOM.
That… wasn't his bomb. Rattrap looks up even as the tremor shakes the ladder and he loses his grip; lucky for him, the sides of the tube hold at least for that stomp, and the bomb's still in place and blinking away. He scrabbles for a ladder rung and jams his feet against the other side of the tube to keep from falling headlong into the water. No time to stop, though; back down he goes, swinging himself to the wall and hightailing it. So to speak. He doesn't wanna be in this tube with that bomb when it goes off. And it will.
Soon.
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Post by Ironfire-3 on May 9, 2008 9:02:51 GMT -5
Ironfire pulls up her foot to stomp again. But before she can, the bomb does what bombs do. Namely, it explodes. Violently. For that is the way of bombs. The manhole cover strikes her in the face, denting her helmet and causing her to stumble back. Catching her balance, she peers forward. The bomb seems to have done her work for her; it created a quite acceptable opening for her to enter the sewers through.
A thump echoes down the tunnel as Ironfire lands. Now, the question remains, which way is he running? A slight sound, a sight of robot, and she thinks she's found him. Turning, she charges forward, firing her shoulder cannons.
"Come out and play. Or, stay back and get blown up. Either works."
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on May 11, 2008 10:43:42 GMT -5
Oh, geeze. Oh, great. Oh, crap. Another brilliant plan blown to smithereens by an enemy who doesn't know not to drop in uninvited. Because really, who takes a bomb blast as an invitation? Smelt-slag crazy tanks, that's who.
"Of all the slag-suckin'– awp–!" Rattrap throws himself off the wall and into the water when Ironfire fires. The current's swift, but the water's dwindling and while Rattrap's got skills, he isn't the best diver out there. He's only got so much depth going for him before the explosion rocks the tunnel and the water fills with shrapnel. One, two, five – no, three – hits pepper his back and legs and he comes up further down the tunnel with a gasp. The water's starting to seep in where those bits of metal and stone punched through his outer plating and it's starting to crackle at circuitry. Slag.
Rattrap drifts through one intersection before he can work his way far enough to one side; at the next, he latches onto a ledge and slowly – first of all, he's got some major sore spots; second of all, tank girl's still back there – drags himself out, ducking just around the corner for cover. At least it's dark. Oh yeah, with this lighting, nobody'll ever find his body, nope. Assuming there's more of him to find than little rat scraps plastered all over the sewer walls, that is. He's got evil Ironfire hot on his tail, firing at him in close tunnels like she doesn't care if she brings the roof down…. Say, there's an idea.
"Sorry, dollface," he announces good and loud and insincere, not budging an inch, banking on the acoustics to baffle his location and slow her up a bit. "Dis is gettin' a little too rough for a first date!" Can't keep heading down this main pipe; it's big enough for her to fit through and fire in. But this side-street line… looks just a little tighter. Not by much, but it could be enough. It might even work. And it might not kill him.
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Post by Ironfire-3 on May 11, 2008 12:00:03 GMT -5
Blown to smithereens, eh? Why yes, that is exactly Ironfire's standard operating procedure. Bomb-blasts tell her her enemies are still nearby!
Speaking of which, where is that slagging rat? She stomps down the sewer, hopefully in roughly the right direction. Unlike her prey, Ironfire's fully functional; her prior damage is cosmetic. But, the sewers aren't desiged for something her size, and that gives her prey an advantage he will know how to use.
Ironfire fire's off another cannon shot. There's more reason to this than just to try to create a fine dish of fried Maximal. The brief light from the explosion allows her to catch a glimpse of something moving. That's likely her prey, so she moves towards it, but it escapes her field of vision. Where is he?!
Indeed, the tunnel does scatter his voice, keeping her from using it to locate him. "It would only be a date if you had the opposite gender. As is, it's a merely an outing."
Slowly but surely, her scanners are starting to aid her in her quest for the Not-So-Holy Rat. She approaches the location she believes him to be near, then launches another shell.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on May 11, 2008 15:07:21 GMT -5
Lucky for Rattrap that artillery shells don't corner so well. Not so lucky for whatever that smear across the way used to be. Rattrap's moving after that first blast, slogging through the calves-deep water on the ledge and checking branch tunnels as he runs. Too small, too small… this one might work.
It'll have to work; that second shot's a lot closer than he likes. He looks, he judges the distance, then he pushes himself off the ledge in a mighty, mighty leap; it gets him about a third of the way across and he sets a personal record swimming the rest of the distance when he inevitably falls short of the mark and hits the water. Get up onto the ledge and pay no attention to that stabbing twinge near one beast mode foreleg, buddy, 'cause you gotta keep moving.
"Maybe seein' a guy will unfreeze yer humour protocols," he taunts when the ringing from the blast fades and those lumbering steps abruptly crescendo, a glint of blue light appearing at the end of the tunnel. Because the girls obviously ain't doing it.
Oh yeah. Rattrap went there. And now? He's gone again down that new branch to the left. Look, the rodent's running scared.
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Post by Ironfire-3 on May 11, 2008 20:26:40 GMT -5
He went there, and Ironfire is not pleased
"Oh, that does it." She charges forward and steps wrong, finding herself submerged in the water. Sputtering, Ironfire stands up and manages to slog her way straight through the current Rattrap had to swim in. There's a slight difference in size, after all.
"My humor protocols are plenty functional. You are simply irritating." She yells after him, hopefully starting to catch up. She's at least close enough to guess what tunnel he went into, and swerves to the left. "You can't keep away forever."
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on May 12, 2008 19:12:42 GMT -5
Oh-ho. So there's a sore spot in that armour plating, is there? Let's see if Rattrap can't work with this.
"Must be a great thing you got goin'," he declares, taking cover just inside a recessed doorway; the door itself is locked, but he might be able to do something with it. "Too busy scarin' off all the guys outta cannon envy. Lemme guess, they take all da chicks with 'em?" He eyes the layout from where he is, keeping an ear on Ironfire's progress. At least she's noisy. "I'm tellin' ya, just lay off the siege engine act and smile a little more and you'll get yerself a boyfriend in no time."
Too risky to cross the tunnel right now; he needs a distraction. And to stay quiet from here on out. Doable with a little shuffling and some dumbed-down explosive. Perfect stuff for blowing the lock off a door, even better for grabbing attention with a little more flash added to it. He tacks it in place and wires it up, then takes a half-step from his cover before pressing the trigger.
A bang and a brilliant flash fill the tunnel and Rattrap's off at top speed, scrambling for the next cross-tunnel. Which can't be close, no.
Rattrap always wanted to practise his hundred-meter dash.
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Post by Ironfire-3 on May 14, 2008 16:23:26 GMT -5
Ironfire's eye twitches, but of course that's not visible to Rattrap. "When I catch up to you, you will regret those remarks. Besides, I enjoy being a siege engine. Makes it easier to blow things up. Including little rodents."
Her progress down the tunnel continues well, and she nears his location. And, then, the flash and bang echo and shine, not respectively, down the tunnel. Ironfire's optical sensors are briefly overwhelmed, but soon she can see again, and she's off in the direction of the flare.
Is it just her, or are these tunnels starting to get smaller?
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on May 17, 2008 15:15:02 GMT -5
It might be her. Or it might be that she's been following Rattrap into… well, a trap. Oh, it's a jerry-rig of a job, every step taken by the seam of his skidplate, but he's setting it up all the same and hoping for the sake of said skidplate it works.
Oh, she's bound to notice that he keeps leading her down narrower tunnels. Sooner or later, she's bound to notice. Unless she really is that dense, which is always a possibility. But if he can keep her distracted from it long enough to get her wedged in one just a little too compact for her to get herself loose, that's all he needs. Gets her out of the very dismal picture for a while, frees him up to get the slag out of Kaon, and might even tie up some of her pals to come extract her.
Lucky Rattrap. She hasn't fired on him by the time he reaches the cross-tunnel and he scrambles around the corner, flattening himself against the wall and scoping the layout. T-intersection another sprint down and across, four-way further along. Evil Ironfire sounds like she's coming after him at a pretty decent clip for a tank; T-intersection it is, then. Can't trust himself to get much further as quick as he'd like. He crosses – it's gonna take a deca-cycle to dry out all his soaking circuits, he just knows it – and, just to be sure Evil Ironfire doesn't lose the trail, draws his blaster and leans out to pop off a few shots in her direction; then he ducks back and heads for that next tunnel on the right. Looks like the same size as this one.
Frag it. At least it isn't bigger.
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