Revenge Is A Dish Best Served With A Side Of Claws

[Barricade]

Day 11 - open to Cons who might be aboard Ship and be amused at seeing 'Cade get pawned by a pussy.

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Officer 'Cade is officially off the clock. Officer 'Cade is also looking forward to a little down time back on Ship where he can chill out and have a cube without having to worry about his sigil showing or if his smile is sincere enough. Maybe he can even track Wreckage down for some non-specific gloating, too.

Yeah, that sounds like a nice plan for an afternoon off. The only thing that could make it better is someone to hack up, or at least to hack on. He'll settle for gloating and a cube, though.

[Ravage (ROTF)]

Barricade is off duty which means Ravage is off duty, and the giant cat is more than glad to be free of his vest and collar. More than that, Ravage is glad to be free of the role he must play.

Now, there is nothing stopping him from making his displeasure with his "partner" known.

Ravage stops to scent the air, checking to see which way the cop car had gone. This will not be like their game with Wreckage a while back.

No. This will be considerably more deadly.

He pads slowly in Barricade's direction. The cop car should be around the next turn or so. Conveniently close to the training room.

[Barricade]

// Mad Cat, // Frenzy pipes up suddenly. He sounds almost smug, the little glitch.

// What? // Barricade isn't really interested in dealing with another one of Frenzy's little games at the moment. Maybe after his cube, but not right now.

// 'Cade's got a proooob-lem! // Frenzy snickers. Definitely smug. // Kitty cat is stalking 'Cade-mouse. //

"Aw slag."

Discretion being the better part of valor, to say nothing of having a pretty significant love-hate relationship with pain (he loves to hate it), Barricade does the only sane thing when confronted with a couple tons of pissed-off razor-cat hunting him down for some (probably well-deserved) revenge:

He turns tail and runs like his aft is on fire.

[Ravage (ROTF)]

Hasn't anyone every told you running from a predator only inflames the predator's desire to kill, Barricade?

Ravage opens his stride, now loping down the hall at a quicker- though still easy- pace. Ravage is in no hurry. No hurry at all.

He can smell Frenzy.

//Stay out.// he tells the little glitch, making the rare use of Frenzy's personal frequency.

Ravage's pace increases. He's gaining ground.

[Barricade]

// Wanna watch, // Frenzy sulks. Oh, he'll watch out for Barricade like no one else, but even Frenzy has to admit that 'Cade's earned this smackdown. Plus, Frenzy rarely passes up an opportunity to snicker at a fallen friend.

Meanwhile, Barricade is headed hell-bent-for-leather for the training rooms. There's no way that he'll manage to shake Ravage in Ship, but maybe if he can call up a suitably chaotic sim, or even just a sim with more hiding places...

Okay, he's not going to be able to shake Ravage, period, but at least if he's in a sim, fewer 'Cons should have the chance to walk in on his humiliation, right?

[Swindle]

Swindle walks down the hall carrying a large crate in a fashion that would really hurt his back if he was human. Some things, for one reason or another, just won't (or shouldn't) go into his storage dimension. This particular crate is full of recalled handguns, and Swindle has a rule about not putting weapons with defective safety switches into the extradimensional space in his abdomen.

Oh, but what have we here? The local dirty cop goes zooming past toward the hard-light training room, with Ravage loping casually after him. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on. He opens his comm and broadcasts for every 'Con to hear. //Ravage versus Barricade, live from the training rooms! The carbot's got the reach but the catbot's got the teeth! Who will come out on top?! Taking all bets, two to one odds, Ravage's favor!//

[Ravage (ROTF)]

//Watch, then.// Ravage growls.

Interfere and the little glitch will hurt as much as Barricade.

Ravage breaks into a full on run, not wanting Barricade to do something annoying like lock the cat out of the sim room. That would delay the Saleen's punishment, and delay will put the cat in an even worse mood.

As he runs past Swindle, Ravage's tail flings out, narrowly missing the conman. Ravage doesn't mind the fight being known. Let Barricade's humiliation be as public as Ravage's was.

[Barricade]

Hey, the only ones who saw Ravage in the sparkly kitty collar were Frenzy, Barricade, and that fragging fairy Autobot! That's hardly really "public"!

The thought of trying to lock Ravage out never even crossed Barricade's mind, actually. Frenzy would just hack entry, and, besides, Barricade has to leave sometime, so there's really no point. He just wants a bigger playground to use, is all.

Fortunately, they've already programmed in their Cybertron; Barricade just has to cue it up as he dives through the door. He does so with a quick radio transmission, sparks kicking up behind him as he skids on the deck plating.

And then the deck plating vanishes, replaced by broken, war-torn streets filled with the debris of collapsed buildings and fallen battlements and toppled weapons towers. In short, Barricade's hunting grounds of choice.

Alas, it's also Ravage's home, as well, so the advantage is pretty much negated. At least Barricade will have the comfort of familiar surroundings when the cat finally tears him to ribbons. For now, he's skirting through the debris, looking for a spot to try and ambush Ravage once the cat finally tracks him down.

[Swindle]

Swindles presses himself against the wall as Ravage runs by, his tail nearly scratching off the paint in a sensitive area. "Whoah! Think I'll watch this one from a distance." He makes his way to the lounge, placing the crate of defective pistols in a corner and programming the entertainment center to display a 3-D hologram of the action in the training room. "Now seems like as good a time as any to enjoy my energon rations for today," he comments to anyone who cares to hear as he takes a nice, comfy seat.


Skippable unless interacted with.

[Ravage (ROTF)]

A low rumble of appreciation emanates from the great cat as he bounds into the sim and is deposited in a random location. Barricade chose well. They are both on an even playing field here. Perhaps Ravage has a slight advatage; he can go where the Saleen can't, after all.

Ravage does not run now. No, he pads softly, silently through the broken and charred remnants of his former home. His head comes up as he scents the air. He knows this section, knows this city. Remembers the battle which destroyed it.

Oh yes, this will be a good hunt, indeed.

He turns left, moving with deliberate motion. Looks like he caught that scent he was looking for.

[Barricade]

Frag. Frag, frag, frag, frag, FRAG! This is not exactly the relaxing cube Barricade had been planning on indulging in today. He'll be lucky if all he'll need by the end of this escapade is a single cube, and not a complete transfusion.

Well, there's no way he can outstalk the cat; he's good, but Ravage was built for stalking.

So, stalking is out. Looks like it's time to set a good old-fashioned trap. He doesn't have long, though, and starts setting a trail immediately. He's got to find a likely place to set up an ambush. And fast.

[Ravage (ROTF)]

Take spark Barricade. Remember, you're in the sim room. Any damages won't carry over. You might well need that refuel more than ever, though.

Ravage loves that the Saleen is frightened- or as frightened as any Decepticon will admit to being, at least. The cat can smell the apprehension, the worry of the other infiltrator. Sweet ambrosia, that.

He leaps, taking to a high ledge that runs along the ruins of one building. From there, he jumps to a broken beam and swings out on it over the trashed roadways. Ravage flattens his body against the beam, his natural coloring blending in with the charred and blackened metal.

He has an excellent vantage point, even if he is more exposed. Slowly, his optic scans the area below.

He listens.

[Barricade]

The banter on the Decepticon channel continues, with bets flying, both for, and against him. Don't worry, everyone, he's keeping track of who bet what. Barricade knows a thing or two about comeuppance.

Down one shattered street and toward a series of what used to be warehouses before they were bombed out, going as silently as he can. It's nowhere near as silent as Ravage can manage, especially since Barricade is willing to sacrifice some noise for speed. Ahead, he sees a good spot: an old loading dock with a few intact walls still surrounding it and a large debris field leading in. There's a couple of bays in the dock, and some shadowy alcoves within the tumble of debris. Just the right spot to lay his ambush.

As soon as he nears the debris field, he works one claw into his opposite wrist, slicing a few small fluid lines. Coolant and thinned energon and lubricant spray out in a thin mist, coating some of the debris. More noise now, as he scrambles to cover as much of the area as he can as quickly as possible with that drizzle of his own fluids.

Ravage has a keen, keen set of olfactory sensors. The only way to even hope to fool them is to give him enough Barricade background scent to hopefully disguise which directing he's lying in wait in for a few moments extra.

[Ravage (ROTF)]

Ravage's head comes up, swinging toward the increased noise. Even at this distance, the sudden spike in scent comes to him.

He growls softly. Barricade isn't stupid or clumsy. The Saleen could not make noise, if wished to. Thus, his making noise like this is likely deliberate.

The great cat stretches, then leaps down to the ground, landing lightly. He heads toward that noise, that increased scent.

Certainly, this is an ambush.

Certainly, Ravage doesn't care. It's the fight he's after as much as the hunt.

This doesn't meant the cat won't be careful, however.

[Barricade]

Scent laid down, Barricade dives for his chosen shadows. The debris and the topography of the loading docks don't offer much in the way of cover, but that's as much an advantage as it is a disadvantage for the infiltrator. Cover to hid him would also conceal Ravage, after all.

Also, cover to hide him would be in his way when he needs to spring. He trusts to shadows and what little cover he does have to conceal him from a cursory glance. It might be enough. Maybe.

At least he might be able to see the pounce coming, if not be able to meet it with his own.