OOC: Here are my characters' posts. Again, sorry for the wait!
BIC:
Arachnitron was surprised to hear Tarantulas' response to her transmission.
“Negative, I'm faster so I'm meet you, be prepared though, the traitors Dinobot and Frilla will be in pursuit. Try to take out at least one of the maximals who've arrived at the pod while you have the element of surprise on your side, the others and myself will meet to back you up”
“Okay, I will,” she responded over her comm and then clicked it off.
She had decided not to stay in the area where the pod and the Maximals were so she had already traveled away from there, but she didn't tell Tarantulas that. She was expecting that he would need her help with the Maximals. She turned around and headed back to the location of the two Maximals at the pod. Arachnitron was just deciding who, strategically, would be the best to start shooting at when Tarantulas came up behind her.
“Greetings...Cheetor is transmetal like myself and can fly now, but lacks firepower in that form, whereas Airazor, despite lacking his upgrades, has a flying robot mode. She's the more dangerous of the two despite his speed, so we should endeavor to take her out so she can't pick us off from the sky. You snipe the cat, I'll take the bird. 1, 2, 3...Fire....”
Arachnitron nodded to signal that she understood the orders and prepared her weapon to fire at Cheetor, but before she could, Tarantulas was shot by some kind of sound blast and knocked out of the trees! She noticed a large, white bat in the trees! Where did she come from?! She figured it must have been the protoform from the stasis pod.
Tarantulas frantically radioed for assistance from Umbra and Spineback and then turned towards Arachnitron.
“Get the bat Arachnitron!”
Arachnitron changed her target as Tarantulas barked out the new orders, but the instant that she did, one of Airrazor's wrist mounted missiles whizzed towards her. It knocked her out of the trees and into the brush below!
From her new position in the bushes, Arachnitron raised her cybervenom launcher and fired at Airrazor hoping that once she was knocked out of the sky, she could return her attention to the new Maximal.
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Dinobot was a bit disappointed to have only gotten one good shot off in Tarantulas' direction. The eight-legged freak scurried off into the woods in front of them before he or Ironclaw could even do any damage to the Predacon.
"Perfect timing guys, unfortunately I didn't have many snappy comebacks to make the run. Or Rattrap's stench."
“And for that we are all grateful,” Dinobot responded with a sly grin.
"But I'd say we hurry and give the others back up there's no telling who else might be with that psychotic spider aside from Arachnitron or Blackarachnia."
Dinobot's grin faded. He, too, realized that Tarantulas was, without a doubt, headed towards the location of the stasis pod. Cheetor and Airrazor would need back up soon. And where there was one spider, there was bound to be another...at least. He half hoped that Arachnitron had been sent elsewhere and that he'd only have to deal with Tarantulas and Blackarachnia. After their last encounter with her, Dinbot and the other Maximals were privy to witnessing the mental deterioration of the young spider. She was confused and delusional, but worst of all, Tarantulas had somehow convinced her that she needed him. Dinobot could only guess that Tarantulas was to Arachnitron what Megatron was to Inferno....the fuel behind the fire. Tarantulas was mad enough on his own, Dinobot didn't need two lunatic Predacons to deal with.
Dinobot snarled in response to Frilla.
“Affirmative. We should....”
But before he was able to finish his thought, Cheetor's voice came over the comms.
“Cheetor to Dinobot, I've arrived at the stasis pod. It seems to be empty.. But there's something moving around in the trees, we're going to investigate. Over.”
“Negative, Cheetor,” Dinobot responded.
“it could be an ambush. Wait for back up.”
About two or three seconds later, Cheetor's voice could be heard over the commlink again.
“Cheetor to Dinobot, Airazor and I are taking fire from the spiders! Maximal protoform has been found, it seems to be helping us I think.”
Well, that certainly was good news! The protoform, thought to be lost, was found and was not reprogrammed! As far as he was concerned, mission completed! It was time to get out of there and back to base. It was pointless to keep fighting when the most important battle was won: The protoform. But Dinobot didn't want to call a retreat until he was sure that the protoform really was Maximal. They'd regroup at the pod's location, see the protoform's allegiance, and then retreat back to base together. They were leaving together this time.......
“Cheetor, we are on our way to your location to provide back up! Hold your ground until we get there!”
Dinobot clicked off the comm link and motioned towards Cheetor's coordinates.
“Let's go!” he said to the others and lead them to where the pod had fallen.
As he neared the location of the fallen pod, he sent a few warning shots from his eye lasers into the fray of the battle, not necessarily intending to hit anyone just hoping that the Predacons would scatter once they saw that reinforcements had arrived.
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Inferno continued to dig through the debris for the Maximal leader.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are, Optimus Primal!” Inferno taunted laughing manically.
After a few more moments of searching, Optimus stood up from where he had landed. Inferno was a few hundred klicks away. He laughed again, but then noticed Optimus grab his gun from his hip and target the fire ant! Before he could respond, Optimus shot at the ant one shot after another after another.
The first shot knocked Inferno off his feet, he landed in a smoldering heap amongst the debris of the demolished Maximal ship. Inferno tried to stand up to return fire, but the next shot knocked him back down and damaged his flying mechanisms. He'd have to remain within the debris until he was able to fly again.
Allowing his internal computer to begin repairs on his propellers, Inferno grabbed the nearest piece of the fallen aircraft to use as a shield as more of Optimus' shots landed around the red ant.
"Attention all Predacons, return to base! We've accomplished what we came here to do, let the Maximals wallow in their misery for now, we shall return in force to finish them off later, Megatron out!”
Inferno heard Megatron's orders over his comm link and decided to turn to retreat, but he noticed another Maximal blocking his path! Inferno attempted to shoot the Maximal blocking his path out of the way, but Optimus shot the weapon out of his hand!
“It's your turn to burn, Maximals!” Inferno shouted from his place behind his shield. He pulled out his flamethrower weapon and lit the surrounding debris on fire!
The fire must have worked to deter the Maximals because all at once, the shooting stopped! The flames around Inferno did not allow him to see that the shooting had stopped because Optimus had turned his attention else, so feeling proud of himself, Inferno dropped the shield to utter his usual, “FOR THE ROALTY!”, but the flames around him engulfed him in just a few seconds!
Screaming in pain, Inferno ran from the flames still unable to fly. Greatly damaged by the big ape's firepower and burnt to a crisp, the red ant fled the battle and headed towards the Predacon base leaving a trail of smoke behind him!
OOC: Edited to include Inferno's post!!!
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