"Flight is no longer your advantage, Optimus!"
"Do you mean I finally have a challenge now?" Primal taunted Megatron as he flew off at a high speed. So Megatron had acquired the ability of flight? Great. Optimus wasn't too enthusiastic about him boasting on the subject but no matter. The ape still had a lot more flying experience under his belt than the t-rex did. Granted he was in a new body now and had to adjust to this new kind of flight, but the principles were the same.
"It's your turn to burn, Optimus Primal!"
Still the same pyromaniac. The Maximal Commander swerved to the side to avoid the fiery heat and then sent a short burst of his thruster at Inferno behind him, hoping to give him a quick dose of his own medicine before he flew up into the clouds in hopes of losing the flying ant.
Dropping back down from the cloud cover, out of his peripheral vision, Optimus took notice of Starshadow suddenly arriving next to him in the air from above, invading his personal space. With a quick glance of his optics meeting her's, he didn't even wait to see what she was going to do. Primal immediately cut his thrust power and engines and suddenly free-fell away from her out of her electrical reach. Spiraling downward a few several feet, he ignited his power again and leveled out, briefly looking back up at her to see her hands sparking. That was a new trick she had. And rather dangerous... But he wasn't out of trouble yet.
"You're about to make the shortest comeback in Cybertronian history Primal!"
Was Terrosaur holding grudges? Was he still determined to be the best flier in this war? Optimus couldn't care less about it. He was simply an opportunistic and improvisational Maximal. It wasn't his fault Terrosaur blinded himself most of the time. Time to shake these missiles.
Diving down toward the canyons below - some of the terrain that been changed and quaked due to the Vok's death ray - Primal weaved through the ravines as close as he could to the rock walls and naturally formed rock bridges and overhangs in an attempt to get the projectiles to hit those instead of him. Tightening his turns and barrel rolling over just inches away from a bridge that stretched across from one side of the ravine to the other, two of the missiles hammered into the rock and exploded, raining dust and gravel everywhere below and behind him. Leveling out for a moment, he turned himself horizontally and raced along the rocky side of the gorge sideways. Just before he reached a large formation of protruding rock, he grabbed the side of his board with his hand and pulled upward, the back end of his hover board just nicking the edge of the cliff. The missile, lacking the maneuvering that Optimus could perform, exploded into the ledge. Three down, one to go.
"Hey, dat is not fair! Come out here so I can shoot you better!""I'm not done with you yet. I'm coming for you!"
The blue ape shot straight into air, lifting away from the canyon and spotting the largest Predacon still in pursuit of him but obviously restricted to the ground. Recalling what that big guy had said to him earlier, he didn't sound like the sharpest tool in the shed, which gave him an idea. Performing a large loop upside down to keep space between him and the missile, Primal then dive-bombed toward the tank and leveled out just a few feet above the ground, flying head-on at Tantrum.
"Special delivery! Courtesy of Terrorsaur." Optimus hollered to the cow/tank with the dactyl's missile in tow before he quickly barrel rolled just off to the tank's side, barely missing him and the ground as he grabbed his board with one hand again to pull it tightly toward his body, hoping the projectile would hit the Predacon. Unfortunately, Optimus hadn't been equipped with countermeasures. After the roll, Primal banked hard and turned upward again, flying back in Terrosaur, Starshadow and Inferno's direction again.
(( OOC: I'm assuming Terry's missiles lock on to their targets. Not sure but that's how I played it.
))
-----
Rattrap was relieved that so many of the Predacons were actually chasing after Optimus instead of finishing off the rest of the Maximals whom they had been so close to terminating. Must have been their leader's intention all along. But how the new blue monkey was going to take care of them by himself, he didn't know, and that worried him. Speaking of worries, the Preds who did linger behind were still trouble. Nemesis, for example, was still posing as a great threat toward Whitegrazer and the rest of the Maximals around her.
"Umbra infiltrated our base. I am taking care of it now."
Still? thought Rattrap.
Dat slimy, camouflaging, tentacle freak. "Careful, Airazor. I hear he has pretty convincing camo," he warned her.
"Optimus?"
The TransMetal rodent heard Orcariner for the first time since... well, he figured since he helped him set up the Nomad's turret that Terrorsaur destroyed.
"Hold on, Big O," Rattrap tried assuring the big guy, watching his optic close again. He worried for his current condition; it looked like he'd slip in stasis any moment.
"That is not your decision to make!,"
The rat, falling apart like everyone else, quickly turned back to Whitegrazer when he heard Nemesis yell at the mare.
"I wouldn't try anything foolish if I were you. You wouldn't want my hand to slip, now would you?"
Rattrap kept a grip on his tail that was now flexible instead of locked into a straight spear, but he kept his distance so as not to trigger Nemesis to harm Whitegrazer. He wasn't sure what to do now.
"Are you two actually fightin' over a sword?" he said, trying to take the Predacon female's attention off of Whitegrazer and humiliate her. ...If that was even possible. He snickered and added,
"Why don't you go after de guy who gave dat sword to the one who knocked you do-" Suddenly, Rattrap cried out and fell to the ground, shaking involuntarily as Arachnitron's cybervenom shot made contact on the small Maximal and paralyzed his systems. He laid quietly and still on the dirt, his red optics now dark.
-----
"Optimus has perfect timing,"
Rhinox couldn't agree more with Frilla. Optimus always had a knack to show up in the nick of time. But he didn't hang around, instead he tried luring the Predacons away from the
Axalon and the injured Maximals. He hoped he'd be all right handling them on his own. He hoped none of this would have been in vain only to lose him again and thus the Maximals losing the Beast Wars just like they were about to only moments ago.
"I don't think Optimus was the only one who's online guys."
Rhinox turned his head toward Feralnight's observation as he laid on the ground on his back. Who could she have been talking about?
"In fact it might be Ironclaw."
Ironclaw? Had he survived after all? They could sure use his help now with these pesky Preds who were refusing to leave. It was then when Rhinox suddenly noticed a shot coming from one of the spider's that was targeting the rat.
"Rattrap!" Rhinox's voice rumbled as he witnessed Arachnitron shoot him and saw his smaller friend collapse. He tried so hard to get up but his systems simply wouldn't allow it. Furious, concerned, and fed up being wounded all the time recently, he glared across the way at Arachnitron, wishing he still had his guns so he could scare her away. But he didn't. He was out of ammo. And even with Optimus making such an introduction, a few of these annoying Predacons were still hanging around trying to finish them off.
"Dinobot... Feralnight... Silverstreak... Anyone with ammo left or a weapon... Get Nemesis out of here!" the rhinoceros pleaded over his comm. link.
(( OOC: Didn't know what else to do about this situation, except for throwing a rock at Nem.
))