|
Post by Needlenose on Feb 17, 2009 23:47:41 GMT -5
Needlenose's shot flies off into the sunset, leaving the jet to deal with one on his own. And wing-mounted shots besides? Lovely. The fashionable jet's paint job isn't completely spared, as several of Track's shots land, but these don't keep Needlenose from closing the distance, jinking first above the missile, then leading it as it closes in behind him.
He takes off after Tracks, making for a very close pass, and at its closes point he transforms, switching to anti-gravs. At this point, the missile is flying towards both of them. Needlenose does his best to mirror Track's flight for a moment, optics cheerful.
"Gee, if I'm using antigravs, and you're using jet-thrusters... wonder which one of us is generating more heat?" he ponders rhetorically before peeling off, looking to see who the missile follows.
While he's doing all this, he's not leaving his radio idle, either. //Shallow? Mirage, daaaaaahrling, I'm just not that hypocritical. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings? Except, of course, Transformers. And they'll go on forever and a day about the importance of not giving themselves over to their warlike natures, if they do that they've become as bad as us, yadda yadda... and then viciously criticize someone who dares to create art that doesn't support the war effort as a 'waste of resources.' Optimus Prime ruined me. The Decepticons, meanwhile, offered more freedom for artists than the Autobots ever did.//
//Something to think about, hot stuff.//
Meanwhile, on the ground...
Zigzag and Sunbeam are still crouched outside of the entry to the underground.
"I don't think she's coming out on her own," Zigzag notes.
Sunbeam sighs. "Duuuude. I hate dark places." He has a pretty valid reason for it, too.
The two stand there and watch the hole for a moment more.
"Needlenose'll know if we don't go down there," Zigzag points out.
Sunbeam sighs. "Yeaaaaah." He looks at Zigzag. Zigzag has the wrist-lighty-things. He shrugs, then wanders nearby, where the remains of a cage, one of the rare, physical ones instead of the energy ones, can be grabbed. He starts to drag it towards the hole.
"Haang on. We'll have a way down in a moment."
|
|
Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
|
Post by Override on Feb 17, 2009 23:52:31 GMT -5
Override does what she can to avoid the many and multiple shots flung her way, but then, a strange thing happens...
Although there are still many blasts, and she still can't avoid them all, it's as if there are considerably fewer focused in her little area.
Unknown to Override, this corresponds to Misfire's decision to focus on her.
//Shouldn't you be more worried about saving that kid than taking these guys down?// she asks Mirage as she transforms, skidding towards a halt, and running for the partial cover offered by one of the left-over exhibits. While she runs, she fires upwards, having no problem aiming at something directly overhead now that she's holding her gun in her hand.
|
|
Tracks
Cadet
Can't match this
Posts: 122
|
Post by Tracks on Feb 19, 2009 1:10:38 GMT -5
Tracks has no witty reply to Needlenose's point as now he is being followed by both his own and the Decepticon's missiles. That doesn't mean that he's going to take those words lying down though. We'll see who'll get blown into smithereens...Tracks definitely doesn't plan on being the one.
He twists in the air, arcing towards Misfire's floating form. // Override, if you'd be so kind as to let me take a turn in distracting our opponents. // Because if anything's distracting, an oncoming Autobot and two missiles should be attention grabbing right? // I don't know how long I can keep far enough ahead of these missiles, but hopefully long enough. // Long enough to scare the cons with? Long enough to maybe blow one up?
|
|
Misfire
Minor
The Chamberlain, His Incomparable Immensity, Emperor Misfire. The Accidental Butcher of Anyone He Wasn't Aiming At
Improving. Honest!
Posts: 449
|
Post by Misfire on Feb 19, 2009 10:28:56 GMT -5
"Oh, this is totally not my day. Hook is gonna deliberately put something in backwards if I come back trashed up this soon," Misfire grumbles as both Override and Tracks decide to concentrate their efforts on him.
Override's aim is much truer than Misfire's, and she scores shots through one wing and his tail. Makes maneuvering a bit tricky, but nothing he can't compensate for. Tracks, however, presents a different sort of problem.
What to do when you have a flying car trailed by heat-seeking missles headed for interception?
"You know, I really hate you groundbound who try to compensate with fancy attachments. It's quite pathetic." Misfire calls out to Tracks. Deliberately, he pours on the heat (pun intended), now spraying fire at max. Then, Misfire dives, heading straight down, his intention being to lead those missiles into Override, pulling up just in time. Though they might hit the ground instead. He'll take some shockblast damage, but that's better than blowing up.
|
|
|
Post by Mirage on Feb 19, 2009 10:48:39 GMT -5
Mirage actually sighs over the radio.
//Yes, Override, but it will do no good to find the little miss and whisk her away, if these two are in a position to try and follow us back to base now will it? However, I think I've found her.//
//Clipper, you have fallen down a hole and are being harassed by two uncouths, yes?// Mirage asks as he takes up position behind a bit of debris. He carefully aims his rifle at the one with yellow boots, considering his options. Mirage has seen what these Nebulans look like sans armour, and is fairly certain one would not survive a shot. It bothers him; Mirage is no assassin. He has not become jaded enough to kill from hiding without reservation.
He hopes he never does.
//Unfortunately, Needlenose, I can picture even my Prime saying that, and he was new to power. Anyone who could not recognize the worth of your talent is a fool.// And Mirage means that. //But we aren't here to dance and debate today, are we?//
//How attached are you to your partners, old friend?// he asks softly, before squeezing off a shot. A carefully-aimed shot that may, at worst, graze Zigzag.
Mirage can't make himself murder in a non-life or death situation. Yet another reason for Xaaron to curse him.
|
|
|
Post by Clipper on Feb 19, 2009 21:47:15 GMT -5
Other than some more scuffing, Clipper doesn't hear much more from her tormentors, neither more taunts, nor the anticipated thumps of their arrival. She does, however, hear Mirage's traffic.
// Well, I'm down a hole, in some sort of tunnel, I think, but my optics are still out, so I don't know who is up there. Someone, though, // she replies, sounding calmer than she had before. Sounding a little... clipped, in fact. The worm has turned, and she's packing... a peashooter, unfortunately.
// But uncouth sounds just about right. What do you need me to do? // she asks, sensing an impending... intervention on her behalf.
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on Feb 20, 2009 17:41:58 GMT -5
Needlenose cackles gleefully as the missiles follow Tracks. He's about to follow after, ready to make life even more difficult to the harried Autobot, when he hears something that stops him cold.
His optics widen, he shrieks in animalistic fury, and dives towards where his Nebulans are. Over the radio, he seethes.
//KILL YOU!!! KillyoukillyouI'llkillyoukillyouyouaredeadDeadDEAD, you hear?!//
He reaches his partners, but not before the grazing shot hits Zigzag, knocking him over and nearly knocking him out. Needlenose shrieks again. Sunbeam leaps and transforms, responding to Needlenose's mental command. Zigzag is gathered up... he's hurt, but he's still conscious, allowing, moments later, a less showy transformation.
//We were trying to take your little toy alive,// he snarls ferally over the airwaves, //but you know what? You aren't the only one capable of picking on someone that isn't your own size!// With that, he leaps into the air and fires directly down. Zigzag may have notoriously bad accuracy, but when the ground is the target, that makes little difference. He can't see Mirage, and he can't see Clipper, hidden in the tunnels... so he'll take his fury out on what he can see.
|
|
Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
|
Post by Override on Feb 20, 2009 18:03:50 GMT -5
Override's mouth and optics open wide in that expression of dull surprise that CGI characters seem to do so well. Then, quickly, she falls into her vehicle mode and accelerates, trying to move out of the way of the missiles.
She's fast. Fast enough to avoid being at the point of impact. Not fast enough to avoid the shockwave that follows, knocking her off her tires and sending her tumbling side over side until she crashes into one of the curved-claw shapes that once marked a cage's corner. There she groans as she transforms, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it.
|
|
Tracks
Cadet
Can't match this
Posts: 122
|
Post by Tracks on Feb 21, 2009 12:40:40 GMT -5
Some of Misfire's blasts do find a target, and Tracks hisses and swerves in the air as bolts char and warp his armor. Where on earth is Misfire heading?
"Override!"
Tracks finds himself hurled through the air as the shockwaves hit him. The ground meets him with a loud crash and squeal as he skids over the orange metal, throwing up a shower of sparks. His transformation mechanism grinds in an unpleasant way as he unfolds before stumbling to his feet, rifle in hand. The Needlenose's snarls cut through the airwaves and the sight of the Decepticon firing at the ground is spinning in his vision. Tracks takes aim, sites wavering as his gyros try to reset, and fires.
|
|
Misfire
Minor
The Chamberlain, His Incomparable Immensity, Emperor Misfire. The Accidental Butcher of Anyone He Wasn't Aiming At
Improving. Honest!
Posts: 449
|
Post by Misfire on Feb 21, 2009 14:58:31 GMT -5
Misfire tumbles nose over tail through the air as the shockwave from the missiles' blast hits him. Some paint is peeled off, a few plates knocked loose, and his radar and gyrostabilizers are knocked off line for a short while. But he and Aimless are more or less all right.
//Slag! Needlenose, is he okay?// Misfire's concern is obvious, and very real. He doesn't know which of the double Targetmaster's guns were hit; it doesn't matter. //That's low, even for an Autobot.//
//Gonna take me a few to get my systems stabilized after that blast. You just tell me where you need me, though, and I'll make it happen.//
|
|
|
Post by Mirage on Feb 21, 2009 15:15:25 GMT -5
Well, that was a bit more of a reaction than Mirage was expecting. He doesn't recall his Needlenose caring seriously about much beyond himself and his designs. Well, and fashion. Fashion was Serious Business(tm) in their social circle.
That anger-fueled burst from ZigZag comes a bit too close for comfort to Mirage, though, sending debris shooting up into the air. The blast knocks Mirage off his feet and into the open-literally, as his cloak is knocked offline form the recoil.
"Damn damn damn!" he mutters, diving and rolling for cover again. He has to wait for his cloak to reset. In the meantime, he tries to lock his sights on the Targetmaster.
//Tsk. All this show of temper over a little graze. You always were a drama queen, Needlenose.//
Mirage hasn't noticed yet that Clipper's hidey hole has been covered up by rock and other debris. Not good.
|
|
|
Post by Clipper on Feb 21, 2009 17:10:43 GMT -5
Her question has barely hit the airwaves when the general band erupts with such a stream of hate that Clipper instinctively flattens herself against the side of the tunnel, flinching back from a voice she cannot see. Before she can call for Mirage, for any of the others to ask them what is going on and make sure that they are all right, there is a horrid rumble from where the sounds of battle had been coming from. From the hole to the surface she had tumbled through. Heat and pressure build like a wave that rises with that rumble, and she suddenly finds herself sliding down the curve of the tunnel wall she had braced herself against, feet knocked out from under her by the quaking of the ground all around her. It feels like slow motion, although her chronometer ticks mere seconds past as it washes over her, that heat and pressure and roar. Debris rushes past, grit, some stones, then larger stones, and then the tunnel feels as if it is shaking itself apart all around her, and she is tumbling. Tumbling, tumbling, tumbling, head over heels, stones, some as large as her head, some even larger still, rocks, sand, dirt, grit, all of it propelled by that pressure wave of fire roaring behind her. She can feel herself scraping along the tunnel as she is pushed before it with the rest of the debris, and when the world comes to a stop, she has to pause for a moment to allow her head to clear. On a positive note, as she begins to finally push herself to her hands and knees, shedding rocks and pushing bits of shattered metal off of her as she does, the tumble seems to have jarred something in her optics in a good way. They're finally rebooting, at any rate. Unfortunately, they're taking their sweet time in doing so, and, at best, she can only get a vague and hazy blur of faint light somewhere up ahead. That's the totally opposite direction that light should have been coming from, though, and so she tries to feel her way back to where Mirage had apparently been heading-- Only to find nothing but debris, packed tightly, blocking her way. What happened? Is everyone all right? Are they-- Mirage, again, on the general frequency, and he doesn't sound like he's in distress. That's good. She's the only one in trouble, then, hopefully. Still. Behind her, the light flickers for a moment, as if blocked. Clipper twists to pull herself the rest of the way free, and is brought up short as her left foot refuses to budge. What was that sound? It sounded like... something sliding over rock. Metal or... or something more... slithery. // Holi? // she radios, using his frequency, and trying hard to keep her voice calm. // I think I've been buried. What... What do I do? // she asks, confident that the Captain of the Rescue Patrol can fix this. More confident that Holi will fix this. ooc: radio traffic cross-posted to Clipper to Holi.
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on Feb 22, 2009 1:34:42 GMT -5
Caring about one's Nebulans is caring about oneself, so in some ways things haven't changed. Needlenose's definition of 'self' is now just a bit broader.
//I'll show you drama!// Needlenose proclaims, well, melodramatically over the radio. There's a shriek of pain as Track's blast hits his left wing. While looking for the source of the shot, however, he spots Mirage gone visible instead. //Hah!// he exclaims when he's spotted him. He transforms, tucking his Nebulans back into his cockpit, and dives after Mirage. He flies over, a quick strafing run using more conventionally weaponry than his Nebulans (blasts that should be a lot easier on the surroundings, particularly the tunnels below).
To Misfire, on the Decepticon frequency, he radios, //He'll recover. Don't be too shocked, though. Nothing's too low for these noble Autobots. Remember: they're lead by Emirate Xaaron.//
|
|
Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
|
Post by Override on Feb 22, 2009 1:57:32 GMT -5
Override's head is cleared and, for the moment, no one's attacking her for the moment. //I'm all right,// she assures Tracks, returning to robot mode to look around.
//The little one? Where is she?// she asks the others. She fires off a few shots at Misfire - letting him know he hasn't been forgotten about - before transforming. With that, she starts to roll towards where Needlenose had been firing, hoping that perhaps the double Targetmaster had known what he was doing.
|
|
Tracks
Cadet
Can't match this
Posts: 122
|
Post by Tracks on Feb 23, 2009 17:16:48 GMT -5
Tracks shakes his head, vision finally stabilizing and the ground no longer rolls and heaves under his feet. His start is a little wobbly, but he transforms and jets after Needlenose once more a split second after spotting Override's path. //I'll try to keep the Decepticon distracted since you know where the girl is. // Tracks radios over Autobot frequencies.
//Hey, Pinhead!// Oh yes, Tracks did just break out the corny TV show insults. //Why don't you pick on someone your own size?// He trains his black-beams at the jet and fires. Right now, he's aiming to blind.
|
|