"You don't think they are inside some alien site, do you guys?"
Seeing Whitegrazer approach the group, Optimus was relieved, but he took in her damage.
"This whole occurance was created by the aliens," he answered her grimly, pulling the puzzle together.
"The transwarp device was bait to lead all of us here and deal with my clone and fall through the depths of the broken ground." No, he wasn't too happy about the whole situation.
"There has to be some way inside without having to..." " use the shortcut it seems. And I don't think the clone will make it easy for us."
"No, but he's severely damaged. Unless he has some kind of quick regeneration, cloaking is his best chance of defeating any of us. But with these thermal scanners that Icebreaker has given us, not even cloaking will be much help to him." Optimus felt more confident this time taking the alien down for good. However, he still wanted answers, but it was unlikely that they could get anything more out of him than they did before. Speaking of those thermal sensors, Primal was detecting someone hiding in the bushes not far from them. Was it Manterror?
"Valkyrie, can you get a visual on a body I'm picking up just west of us? Just right over there," he said, looking in the direction he was talking about.
"But be careful. It might be Manterror." Icebreaker should make these sensors for everyone to use. They were quite handy.
Taking notice of Saber's presence, Primal immediately turned his attention to her. While he was glad she appeared to be all right, he was unsatisfied how she had been handling herself. He may not be an experienced commander, but she was a former general. Why didn't she act like one? Because of the beast inside of her?
"Your batsy boyfriend dumped you?"
"Actually... I dumped him."
"AHA! I knew he was your boyfriend!" "I think..I can understand why."
Optimus's patience was beginning to wear thin. Did no one understand the severity of the situation? This was no time for teasing or joking around, and he especially didn't want Starshadow distracting Saber-Fang.
"FREEZE! OR I'LL BLAST YOUR HEADS INTO- ICEBREAKER-KUN~!!" Cecaelia jumped on the penguin maximal, hugging him from the side. Finally, there he was! "I thought I would never see you again~!!"
You nearly scared me there Cecaelia! Heh heh.. looks like the Predacon's have been treating you well.
With Cecaelia's outburst, Primal insticntively swiveled with his torso and lifted his left arm, ready to activate his wrist cannon, but he quickly oberserved that it was unnecessary, so he lowered his arm, his back aching a little from the sudden turn. What exactly was going on between her and Icebreaker? Why did he feel so unaware of everything the Maximals under his crew were doing beyond the walls of the Axalon. Shaking his head out of frustration, he returned to the matter at hand. After all, maybe it was nothing between them. Saber-Fang and Sonar on the otther hand was another story.
"Should we try looking for a cave entrance perhaps? Trying the way they went in could only get us caught up in the rubble too."
Hrm.. Well when I was up in that tree, I saw a cave to the north of here..Since I am our only other medic at the moment and trained in search and rescue, I guess I should do that if you guys can take care of hunting for Optimus's evil twin. I'll leave the clone hunting to you and Optimus, I wont need that sort of gear where I'm going, but the smoke grenades might come in handy for you, and you can always use a spare pistol..
The Maximal leader, agreeing with Feralnight and Icebreaker, was surprised to see Cecaelia jump on that opportunity so fast with the penguin without complaining or talking back like Starshadow. But if they could work together to find each others' missing comrades, then he wasn't going to object.
"Optimus, where can I regroup with you?"
Dinobot was still with them? That was good to know.
"Grid zero-zero-one-four, Dinobot," Primal replied. Dinobot was only a short distance southeast of them.
"Optimus," Tigatron spoke,
"Airazor was also swallowed by the quake. She was badly damaged and could not escape the crumbling ground with flight."
Primal could sense the concern in the tiger's voice and nodded.
"She'll be fine. We'll find her," he assured him.
"For all we know, they could be regrouping below us as well. And firearms would not be wise to use down there." The way Optimus saw, they might be better off underground than they were above with the clone.
Tigatron nodded and took a breath, gathering himself. He needed to be strong now and do what their leader asked of him. All he could do was pray for Airazor that no harm would come to her.
-----
Orcariner!? Thank the Matrix! It's darker than the abyss down here! I can't see a thing!
Airazor? How the heck did she fall down? thought Rattrap. What a mess.
"Want help? Or do you think we should shoot each other?"
"No one is shooting anybody!"
Yikes. Rattrap stepped onto the ground and said,
"Beast mode," reverting to his rat form. Now he felt more comfortable, not that confined, dark places bothered him. Steelclaw, eh? They were stuck with Winnie the Pooh? He'd better be careful because he was outnumbered.
"Rhinox found a way out of here. It looks like three of us have light sources so we'll be alright. If there's anyone else down here who need helps, then grab them out of the debris. Otherwise, let's get out of here as soon as possible."
Yes, we don't need any further bloodshed.. What we need is to get out of here. Rattrap, lead the way.
Sighing, Rattrap said,
"I had a feeling you'd say that." Twitching his whickers, he headed into the large corridor, carefully examining the walls, the ceiling and the ground. He was looking for boobie-traps although he wasn't so sure there were any. Something told him that strolling on out of this maze wasn't going to be the case. It's never that easy.
(( OOC: I will try to post for CC later to get an attack started again. Sorry I don't have time right now to do so. Also, if you guys can come up with traps for those in the caverns, that would be fab. I'm afraid I don't have the time to cover that part with the aliens.
))