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Post by Sable Conolly on Jan 13, 2008 18:55:46 GMT -5
Potential victory was so very close, and then it slipped out of his grasp before his could tighten the noose. If Dead End has made it, Scourge had been planning to veer back into Dead End's path and perhaps to close some distance. Instead, Scourge dives off the edge of his building, his descent beautiful as a freshly fallen angel. Any image of beauty is ruined when he smashes into a building across the way on the way down simply to slow his fall. Mid-fall, he puts away his plasma gun. With a rain of shrapnel haloing him, he finally lands on street level, on his feet.
Scourge shakes himself and transforms to semi truck mode. If Dead End's on the street, Scourge certainly isn't going to chase him with his feet. Without his trailer, Scourge is faster, and he manoeuvres more nimbly, but he lacks his disc launchers. He will need to simply run Dead End down or transform to get off a shot.
Alternatively, he could look at those maps and try to head off Dead End. Dead End has the maps, too, but that doesn't mean Scourge should ignore them. They've been accurate so far. Scourge decides to combine the two. He isn't headed for a major cut off, but he does put the hammer down and wheels around the block, aiming to end up where Dead End should exit. If he's really lucky, he might even be able to t-bone Dead End in the side.
One thing is for certain; this chase should certainly belie any suspicion that Dead End intends to betray Starscream.
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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 Jan 13, 2008 20:05:26 GMT -5
Now if he were Scourge, and no fool, how best to ruin Dead End's whole day? Hmm, well, at least he wasn't doing a Motormaster and driving straight through the building like Bonecrusher on nitro.
That left over or around. Dead End accelerated; if Scourge came leaping down out of the sky like the son of Kickback and Motormaster, he'd either land on Dead End and smash him into the the asphalt, or Dead End would dodge.
If he drove around, he might come out---
RIGHT THERE! Dead End's radar alerted him to the rapidly moving mass of metal on a collision course, and he floored the accelerator, just barely squeaking past Scourge's grill--
CRUNCH!
Or not. Scourge's bumper clipped Dead End's right rear fender and sent him skidding sidewise down the street. The Stunticon put his wheel over, disengaged the clutch, and let the skid turn him completely around so that he was rolling backwards down the street, nose pointed at Scourge.
Also guns pointed at Scourge. Dead End fired his vehicle-mounted blasters, twin bolts of energy lancing through the air toward Scourge.
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Post by Sable Conolly on Jan 13, 2008 20:19:04 GMT -5
Scourge takes some hits. They don't hurt much, and they certainly aren't going to slow him down. These little things might add up on him eventually, but he isn't going to let an upgraded version of a Car Brother faze him. He cries out, "Scourge, transform!"
Dead End has radar. Dead End knows he's here. Finally, they've been crashing through buildings. If people in range don't know he's here, they're deaf, blind, and idiots. Scourge is still peeved that he actually has to say it, though.
Sparing a glance for the sky, Scourge snaps off a shot at Dead End with his plasma gun. With the barest of delays, he calls, "Barrage attack!" and lets loose his shoulder missiles, not at where Dead End is, but where Dead End will most likely try to move to dodge the shot from the plasma gun. Scourge then glances, checking how the area correlates to the maps, and he debates where to dive for cover at the inevitable reply.
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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 Jan 13, 2008 20:45:07 GMT -5
Dead End swerved slightly, still going backwards and accelerating now, but not quite far enough, and the plasma bolt splashed off his front left fender. Then Scourge launched a rocket barrage at him.
Rockets?? What is he, Motormaster and Onslaught's mutant offspring?
Dead End swerved-- up the side of a building and drove backwards on that, letting the rockets zip by him--
Then he flipped off the wall and came back down on the street facing Scourge--and fired again. Perhaps Scourge was more vulnerable in robot mode?
The Porsche's engine roared and tires smoked as Dead End suddenly hurtled forward, following his shots towards Scourge's mid-section...
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Post by Sable Conolly on Jan 13, 2008 20:58:41 GMT -5
Scourge continues to acquire extra parents. At this rate, it's going to be more a question who he isn't related to, not who he is. Dead End's stunt driving is noted with an amount of respect but would be better appreciated if Dead End wasn't pulling Spychanger stunts against Scourge.
He pulls away, dodging a few of the shots, but when Dead End comes barrelling at him, Scourge steps forward, not shying away, not trying to dodge. He plants his feet firmly on the road and puts away his gun. He crouches and holds out his hands. Scourge intends to catch and flip Dead End. Dead End would need to muster an awful lot more momentum for Scourge to try to evade. Scourge has the specs to grapple with a Prime hand to hand.
That said, he snaps, "Barrage attack," and launches another barrage of missiles at Dead End. Scourge intends to catch Dead End, but if he can cause him to spin out prior instead, that's quite fine by him.
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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 Jan 13, 2008 21:40:03 GMT -5
Scourge... wasn't even trying to get out of the way, even though he's far less balanced on two legs than on four wheels. Even though his narrower, less-armored mid-section was exposed. The fool was trying to catch a ton of German engineering moving at better than 60 mph!
Dead End's final thought as he rammed into Scourge's mid-section was the sudden, sinking realization that this particular dark truck was strong enough to rip the spoiler off Rodimus Prime!
Then he felt Scourge's massive hands grab hold of his front bumper...
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Post by Sable Conolly on Jan 13, 2008 22:00:23 GMT -5
Having a reinforced terrorist smack into his midsection isn't the most pleasant of feelings, but Dead End is, in the end, only a car. He barely moves, pistons straining as metal on metal screeches. Tone absently disapproving, Scourge husks, "Would your Motormaster have dodged, Dead End?"
He gives Dead End's bumper a squeeze that would likely be painful and rend metal on any normal machine, but how that works out with a force field remains to be seen. Then, digging his feet in hard enough to leave grooves in the road, Scourge attempts to fling Dead End onto his roof and into the sturdiest looking building front here. He's flung car Autobots bigger than Dead End over his head prior. This can't be that hard, can it?
As soon as Dead End is gone from his hands, the lasso is back out. Scourge has never hog-tied a sports car before. This should be interesting.
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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 Jan 13, 2008 22:48:08 GMT -5
Oh, bother. "He would have transformed into truck mode and played chicken," Dead End replied drily.
Fortunately the still-working forcefields on his front bumper acted to reinforce the metal there. If they didn't, he would have fared badly the first time he rammed Bluestreak into wreckage. Or was it Cliffjumper? Too many wrecked Autobots ago to remember.
"So much for that plan!" Dead End said as Scourge sent him flying into the nearest building. A little rotation from his lifters and he landed greasy-side down--but the sheer momentum of Scourge's throw sent him crashing backwards into a cinder-block wall.
The wall crumbled under the impact--but so did Dead End's hatchback and left fender, where the forcefield node generator was still burnt out. Debris rained down on his roof and hood, but they held up. Smashed and dented metal pinned his left rear wheel and kept it from rotating freely.
Dead End transformed with a painful wrench and looked down at the snapped flagstaff laying under the rubble that had torn it off his front fender. The forcefields had not extended as far as the flag.
"Oh, BOTHER!"
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Post by Sable Conolly on Jan 13, 2008 23:15:09 GMT -5
Scourge snorts and decrees, "Play chicken? I prefer to play conqueror." Even when he played chicken with Rodimus Prime, it was only to try to trick Rodimus Prime into getting his tyres slashed. Unfortunately, Rodimus Prime was too clever to fall for the trick. Luckily, brute force seems to work just find on poor little Dead End here.
Scourge looks over Dead End, surveying the damage done, and his optics light up avariciously. Dead End, apparently, didn't have that force field of his completely repaired. Moreover, that pretty little flag of his seems to have snapped off, the flagpole pinned under the rubble.
Swift and dire, Scourge withdraws the Sword of Fury, whirls back, and thrusts forward to attempt to impale it clear through Dead End's unshielded leg, to pin him to the floor. With the flag in sight and not attached to Dead End, Scourge doesn't want to waste time with tying Dead End up, not now. Then, he moves to kick the rubble off the flag. Scourge stoops to snatch it up by the pole. He comments casually, "If you're acting, you do a fine job of it."
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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 Jan 13, 2008 23:47:09 GMT -5
Now Scourge was just plain going Motormaster on him! That looked familiar. Dead End coolly watched as Scourge whirled his excessively large sword about, and just as Scourge lunged--
Half-turned as he swept his vulnerable leg back and to one side, then dove over the sword, grabbing the end of the flagstaff--
Just as Scourge kicked the rubble off. Dead End snatched the flag up with the one hand, flinging the other out to steady himself--he was horribly off-balance.
"It's a Stunticon thing. In combat, no one gets freebies."
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Post by Sable Conolly on Jan 14, 2008 0:01:08 GMT -5
Dead End's agility will not go unpunished. His sword is out of his hands, and the Stunticon is grabbing at that flag like it means something. Scourge could shoot Dead End, point blank, but he decides to try something rather more personally satisfying and more personal in general. Scourge pivots and aims a kick clear at Dead End's head. He then swivels and attempts to bring a foot square down on Dead End, putting all his weight and force into it. Connect or not, the floor underneath them is going to be cracked. Scourge observes, "Now, wouldn't being cleanly pinned by a blade be so much less unpleasant?"
Scourge cracks his knuckles, just slowly enough to make the sound deliberate and intentional. He withdraws his scavenged steel cable and tries to loop it around Dead End's wrists.
Scourge dismisses, "Not combat. This flag. You are protecting it very earnestly."
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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 Jan 14, 2008 0:22:52 GMT -5
Scourge's kick stunned Dead End momentarily--then he's slammed into the floor by Scourge's stomp. The floor cracked and dented beneath him--only the forcefields Megatron built him with kept Dead End's chest and back from collapsing under the blow.
He was well and truly pinned; his blocky robotic shape made it impossible for him to turn against a stronger opponent crushing his back into the floor--and Scourge was much, much stronger than Dead End. One arm was still flung wide and pressed against the ground, easily captured in Scourge's cable; the other clutched the flag determinedly, part of which was trapped under Scourge's foot.
Dead End's visor flared brightly. "Surrendering to the inevitable would be easier than defying it, but that's not how a Stunticon does things."
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Post by Sable Conolly on Jan 14, 2008 0:43:05 GMT -5
Something that is simultaneously useful and yet frustrating about Dead End is that he doesn't get damaged easily. It makes driving him to ground a right pain in the trailer hitch, but it means that reusing Dead End at a later date for another purpose is viable. There is another flag to worry about, if he manages to take Starscream's.
Scourge cinches a knot tight around Dead End's one wrist, and then he considers Dead End's other hand. Scourge is certainly not going to move his foot, since it is partially on top of this flag. So instead, he tries to wrench Dead End's tied arm over closer, so that he can loop the cable under the grabbing hand and bind them both.
Scourge comments, "You are either convinced this is the real flag, or you are an excellent actor. I, however, won't know which until I haul it back to my territory."
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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 Jan 14, 2008 19:27:11 GMT -5
//Dead End, knock him off, Transform and fly the flag out of there. SELL SWORD! I TOLD YOU TO ENGAGE!!// Starscream's voice sounded a bit frantic to Dead End.
Though he had decided from the beginning to throw in with Scourge, Dead End found himself regretting disappointing Starscream a little. He didn't particularly like the ill-tempered former Air Commander (and current Leader), and he really didn't like getting shot for no good reason, and Starscream was not and never would be Megatron, but...
One had to admire persistance. Time and again, the Stunticons had witnessed Starscream defy the inevitable and claw his way back up to the top again. He really was quite remarkable in his inability to concede to fate. It seemed almost a pity to set him up to fail again.
Dead End's tone was genuinely apologetic when he informed Starscream, // I am transformed, sir, and I'd be delighted to oblige, but he's standing on my chest. And the flag. //
At least it was only a game this time... and Starscream should not have left him unsupported against Scourge and his team-mates. Though to be fair, Sell Sword was supposed to be here, too. Still, what happened when it wasn't a game? Against Autobots, there were no questions of loyalty. But in an internecine struggle... Dead End considered himself loyal to Scourge, but who would Scourge side with?
Dead End might have hated Starscream for the murder of Megatron--Motormaster certainly had, but Motormaster hated everyone for everything--but Galvatron had avenged Megatron so quickly and thoroughly that there really wasn't much point. That Starscream never had the chance to enjoy his usurped position--he'd gained nothing from Megatron's murder except his own death. This Starscream hadn't even done that yet. If only he wasn't such an ill-tempered jerk! Otherwise, Dead End could rather like someone who came back from the dead.
Maybe if Starscream ended up dead he'd be more agreeable.
Dead End didn't struggle against Scourge's attempt to tie his hands together, though he was mildly amused that Scourge seemed to be tying him to the flag. Was Scourge going to drag both him and the flag back together? If so, he'd be delighted to run off with it if Scourge got careless.
"Ah, but first you have to get it back there. My teammates are still out there, you know."
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Post by Sable Conolly on Jan 14, 2008 22:37:24 GMT -5
Scourge wants Dead End all tied up with nowhere to go before he tries to get the flag from Dead End. Cinching Dead End's wrists together tight enough to hurt most machines, he shifts one hand to hold the rope and grabs at Dead End's good leg with the other hand. If he manages to bind the ankle to the wrists, he'll finally reach for the bad leg, as well.
Scourge notes, sounding amused, "And you'll make a fantastic shield. Just have to watch that leg." Starscream is the one who really worries Scourge. If Starscream shows, Scourge will swallow his pride and call Sky-Byte for help for certain. Sell Sword, however, he might risk handling solo.
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