Nemesis tilted her head a bit as she watched Ironclaw, expecting a reaction from him where there was none. He still wore the same serious look as he had at the beginning of this altercation. Despite his severe wounds, a large gaping hole protruding in his chest and his wrist cannons rendered useless where they'd been sliced cleanly away from his body, he was oddly enough still standing. And worse yet.. his body language indicated he was ready for more punishment.
Well.. she would leave that up to the Maximals since the badger had so blatantly ignored his orders. Not that this surprised her overly much, having seen Ironclaw’s less than thrilled expression upon seeing Primal arrive. Somehow the two Maximals hardly seemed very close. And still she had no doubt Primal would put down his own life for the stubborn mustelid, even if she doubted the badger would be selfless enough to do the same for his commanding officer. It made for an interesting situation for sure.
Primal speaking up brought her attention back to him, her amusement apparently growing.
Optimus Primal wrote:"You would be wise to hold your tongue, Nemesis,"
Now
that sounded like a challenge. The female's grip on the sword tightened a bit as she turned to fully face the Maximal leader who continued to address her.
Optimus Primal wrote: "Despite your beneficial upgrade, you're in no more a position to continue battling than he is."
Nemesis responded with a snort as she glanced over her own armor, perfectly smooth with not as much as a scratch to show for the battle she was just engaged in. She was well aware that Optimus was a formidable foe, he had been even before his own upgrades, but she had never been one to back down from a challenge. The Maximal commander was definitely at a disadvantage given the injuries of his troops and the presence of other Predacons to back her up. He might be uninjured but so was she. Nor was she particularly exhausted, having conserved her ammunition as much as possible thus far.
"Trying to talk me down so soon?," she responded in a teasing tone, fighting down those lingering doubts in the back of her mind. She had never been able to have a fair fight against Optimus, really. Either his team mates had gotten in the way or she had been unarmed, so the chance to actually fight him appealed to her. It was not so much about impressing the other Predacons by taking down the unbeatable Optimus Primal, and certainly not because of some devotion to Megatron and his cause, no. The only one she had anything to prove something to was herself, given her recent failure to execute a helpless foe.
Nemesis was only Predacon by appearance. Underneath she was still very much so of a Decepticon nature, feeling the same warrior pride that her kin had during their many centuries of power struggles against the Autobots. She was still young by Decepticon standards, being one of the last created at a time when her kind was being phased out for a smaller frame under Maximal rule. Perhaps her heritage was what separated her from the others, perhaps her unusual history and abilities too. Or perhaps she was simply a freak of nature with too much pride to be willing to accept even the slightest sign of weakness.. of her own ability to feel remorse. Whatever the cause, she was truly bothered by her encounters with the Maximals that had left her questioning herself, and she wanted to kill any doubt that lingered within.
Optimus Primal wrote: "By the way, Nemesis, I believe you have something that doesn't belong to you. Care to return it?"
For a split second her glance fell upon the extinguished sword in her hand and a rather puzzling smile appeared on her face. She reached behind her back, replacing her sword back into its holster and pulled out another, heavier and very much so familiar looking sword. Holding it up, she slowly rotated it in her hand, exposing all the symbols she had meticulously carved into the shaft to make it match the other weapons she carried on her person.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she told him coyly as she eyed him with a steely look, an amused gleam in her eyes.
She was just about to continue when Inferno's voice cut through the air.
Inferno wrote:"Now it's your turn to burn, Optimus Primal!"
Right then and there she realized what he was about to do. That crazy insect was yet again running rampant. She barely had time to look over to see the massive flame rapidly approaching, leaving her with little choice other than to put some distance between herself and the Maximal commander. Forced into a temporary retreat, Nemesis flipped backwards, pushing herself into another back flip with her hands before landing back on her feet again.. hopefully at a safe distance. Still some of the transmetal feathers on her right wing felt warm to the touch, having gotten too close to getting singed for comfort.
Her optics burning with anger as she turned to glare at the blasted insect who completely disregarded his own team mates in his attempts to wreck havoc. One of these days she was going to ram that flame thrower up the ant's rather massive rear end. Another time, perhaps.
Orcariner wrote:"Icebreaker was a fighter at heart," he whispered just loud enough for the others to hear, "He'd want us to keep fighting for him. Keep fighting until justice is served."
Aurora's large, pointy ears flattened as she listened to the large mammal's words. Truthfully she had never seen the side of Icebreaker that the whale was now describing, but it was entirely possible that he would have hidden such a side from her. Still.. it just didn't seem to fit the departed penguin's personality to be the vindictive type.
Again she fixed her large, green optics on Whitegrazer.. her new mentor now that Icebreaker was no longer among them. The look she sent her had softened quite a bit from the earlier outburst, not wanting to take that anger out on someone who was completely innocent in what had happened.
"He didn't deserve to die," she said solemnly, deciding to leave it at that until she had a chance to talk to Orcariner alone.
Before long the whale-copter began his descent towards their destination. Aurora flipped open her wrist-mounted computer within moments of having her feet safely back on the ground again, doing a few quick calculations before pointing in a south-western direction.
"The signal we originally picked up is gone, but it originated from somewhere in that direction."
) 
