"More Than Meets The Eye: Part I"

[Phoenix]

"Thanks..."

Nemesis smirked slightly at the other Predacon's reluctant response, but it was with some relief that she took note of the transmetal pterosaur take to the skies. This battle had indeed come to something of a stalemate, especially since they honestly had nothing to gain from it. Sure enough, she and Terrorsaur had the advantage of likely being the two fastest transformers on this planet, but their speed and maneuverability came at the cost of heavier armor and brute strength. As things were, they were simply wasting valuable time and energy by lingering here.

"Don't go all sentimental on me now," she quipped, "I merely had no intention of carrying your skid plate back.."

"Do we even have anything to accomplish here anymore? We're getting our skid plates kicked and have nothing to show for it."

The avian female paused long enough to glance over at the damaged, but still relatively intact pod. There was no way she was hauling that thing back, with or without assistance. Carrying that thing would only slow them down, making them easy targets. It was unwise to even consider it, to say the least.. She'd just have to find a way to make it up to Megatron later.

"Predacons, we're done here," she replied, including Starshadow and any other Predacon in the area in the transmission, "Return to base!"

With those words she took off, quickly transforming into the somewhat menacing transmetal hybrid between a bird of prey and an aircraft, thrusters igniting to cause a rapid acceleration back to the base she dreaded so much.

The Predacon base rested dangerously on a volcanic surface that threatened to swallow it whole at any given moment. Such a hostile environment, uninviting to friends and foes alike, made it seem almost as if Megatron had planned for the ship to crash there. The black and silver Predacon took a moment to digest the first impression, memorizing every detail as he made his way through the strangely empty base. For someone of his talents it had been no great task to avoid the automated defenses protecting the base, as they were not exactly on high alert. And so far the base appeared strangely quiet, almost deserted, prompting the stranger to venture further inside.

Arriving at what he presumed was the command center, the intruder stopped and looked around before moving over to a computer console. He used it to look up some information, nothing major, about the current Predacons who made this place their home. He didn't get far before a noise caught his attention, one that seemed strangely out of place here. It sounded like liquid splashing.. and an odd squeaky sound the male couldn't identify. Following the sounds as well as a trail of dents in the floor so generously left behind by someone, he soon found himself standing in front of a door. Conveniently enough the door had been left unlocked, undoubtedly because the Predacons knew better than to disturb their commanding officer. Darkwind felt no desire to knock, however, so he merely slipped inside the tyrant's personal quarters, his own footsteps quiet as a hunter stalking his prey as he did.

Megatron was sitting in a tub, a rubber ducky clutched in his hand looking like it was taking the abuse of a lifetime at this very moment, a fact that brought a bewildered smile to the intruder's face.

"Why so grim, mighty Megatron?," the stalker finally said, stepping out of the shadows as he did. His arms were folded across his chest, the Predacon symbol clearly visible on the right shoulder.

[una]

Whitegrazer had took her mind off the sudden feeling that troubled her when Optimus took her hand, giving commendations towards everyone for what they did during the battle. She squeezed his hand gently, grateful for his compassion and appreciation despite the obstacles and bumps amongst the battle. Aurora did a great job in hacking into the ship's computer. She noticed the smile Aurora gave her and returned it as well as giving her a pat on the head.

"What caused Tantrum to retreat with Buster so abruptly?"

She couldn't help but stared at Orcariner and Aurora when Optimus asked that question before she looked upon him with an amused expression.She wondered how Optimus would react to the fact that she literally let herself wide open for an attack, but Tantrum, who seemed so confused and bewildered by move, just made a break for it?

"I'll be honest," said Orcariner, "I didn't entirely see what happened. Whitegrazer stood up to the two of them while I was temporarily incapacitated by the ship's explosion. I don't know what she did. I only saw the results."

"Maybe he was feeling engorgement?," the ermine suggested teasingly, toying with the bovine's choice in alternative mode.

Whitegrazer laughed softly, rubbing Aurora's head, "I don't think Tantrum expected me to approach him in the matter that I did."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

((OOC: Poor BA, I abandoned you so long. XD I'm sorry. I got a plan for you now. XD))

She woke up with a startled, noticing that everyone was leaving the battlefield back to base. She shook her head and her pinchers held their positions as she tried to get the images that poured into her processor from returning. From the connection she still had with Tarantulas, the images she had seen have to have had been from him or life. What she saw made her actually want to erase everything and start anew.

As she got up, she staggered abit, transforming into her beast mode.

She needed to get back to her room and build something quick.

[Mystrea]

Ironclaw continued to watch the battle unfold. Unfortunately the protoform had not done anything to warrant him to engage her. She fired back at the spider, who he now knew was called Turantulas. Cheetor just seemed to be getting in the way until he started his airial maneuver. However just at that moment Ironclaw heard something from his side, he tensed up and looked to see a distorted figure in the corner of his eye. The figure then disengaged his camouflage and spoke. The badger realised that he wasn't about to attack him, yet.
"You carry no emblem stranger...." Ironclaw drifted off knowing that this was no Predacon as such, a mercenary. The stranger then proceeded to other him offer him the same unaffiliation.
"I'm loyal to more than my next pay check. I have greater purpose than you" the Maximal rejected his offer and would never associate himself with their kind.
Ironclaw was watching him, anticipating his strike but was distracted by the battle infront of him. In particular a Predacon female swung for Frilla. Strangely he felt eager to get in there and stop her. The badger wansnt sure whether Frilla would handle it or not. However a radio call came in and interrupted his thoughts. Dinobot informed him that there were potentially other spiders about. He then saw Dinobot come out of the brush to take on Frilla's attacker. Satisfied with this Ironclaw came out of his hiding spot and into the clearing with his new opponent. He made his clawed fingers very visible and struck a pose ready to fight.
"This ones no spider" Ironclaw finally responded locking eyes with him.

(Haven't put his reaction to the banshee sonic blast yet because I want him to at least start a fight with Umbra, looking forward to this )

[Night-Hunter]

The punching only served to anger the beast further and bite down harder. It inwardly smirked at the sickening crunch that soon followed. It was determined to rip the smaller cat's leg clean off. One punch hit the beast's nose, which caused it to stumble back, growling with pain and anger.

It glared at the smaller cat, but there was a gleam in it's neon green eyes. Rather pleased with itself for having drawn first blood.

[NaitoKage]

( Ug, sorry for the delay. Yesterday had to gut the bathroom to get to a leaking pipe, then vacuum pack 15 pounds of bacon. Which sounds strange.. but how alot of my days tend to go..>.>)

Cheetor was a bit dazed after his impact with Tarantulas..However going 0 to 500 mph and using his head as a battering ram would do that sorta thing.

"Heh...Wretched cat...Heh...You think it wise to get this close to me?"

Cheetor just looked at Tarantulas dazed and confused.

"Tackle a spider, you get the fangs! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

He let out a short scream, then blacked out out from the Cyber venom bite.

(You'd think that unfortunate, but Cheetor is the only one who wont have to hear the Banshee scream. )

________________________________

"You carry no emblem stranger...."

Umbra was taken back a bit at the fact he wasn't recognized by Ironclaw considering some of the trouble he had given the Maximals before, and even watched some of the battle Ironclaw had with Cecaelia.

"I'm loyal to more than my next pay check. I have greater purpose than you"

Umbra smirked at the statement, though he found it amusing that either side held any value to this pointless war started from their ancestors long ago. Not that being a tool of war was a great purpose either, but he found merit in it from a monetary standpoint.. which often seemed slightly more justifiable then many of the Predacon's own reasons for fighting..

"This ones no spider"

Considering how often I get mistaken as a Squid or fish.. I'll take not being confused with an arthropod as a complement sir. Umbra smiled as he spoke, releasing his hand from his sword leaving it undrawn, his tentacles on his back sliding the blade away as he went into a stance observing Ironclaw's own stance.

The clawed hands held infront of him instead of using a weapon or gun, likely using a style similar to wrestling or pitfighting.. Much different from Whitegrazer's elegant Diffusion tactics, but also in the cephalopod's opinion just as dangerous from it's freedom.. Umbra's own systems deleting the save file on Cheetor's physical data and starting to record Ironclaw's as a replacement for future usage.

Umbra then suddenly stepped in sending a crescent kick towards Ironclaw in attempt to probe his defenses.
___________________________

(Oddly was requested to do this, as otherwise Star and Saber will just fight to the death.)

Landslide watched as Terrorsaur seemed to be horrified by having the stasis pod thrown at him and started to back off from Rattrap, then watched as Nemesis called the retreat, flying off back to their base.

Landslide looked towards Starshadow and Saberfang as he started to come down, his grenade launcher making a cycling noise to load a shot, he then reached from his back drawing his chainsword but left the chainsaw off as he flew down near Star Your friends are leaving without you, but don't worry.. I'll give you a LIFT! he then swung his chainsword down with all his might in a manner that looked like he was swinging a golf club.

The ground exploding from the impact as Starshadow seemed to be knocked up with a cloud of dirt sent flying end over end off in the general direction of Terrorsaur and Nemesis.

After the swing Landslide landed onto the ground, his leg sparking as he put his sword away, his grenade launcher retracting into his arm. He turned looking down towards Saberfang as his strange dual visor shined revealing four optics under it staring down at her. So yer the thing I was warned about.. Lets see about gettin' you back home lass. he said in a surprisingly calm manner, not seeming to be too intimidated by the much smaller cat, more worried about her and his allies safety.

(Edited post due to my verdict on Banshee's scream. )

[starshadow]

((OOC: ... Now to answer some questions..

1. Banshee was aware of Arachnitron's existance as she stalked Ranty before she let herself been known after she shot him with a sonic blast and she's not the kind who would be surprised if someone attacks her from the back or somewhere else since the Preds are out for her blood.

2. Not a body paralysis. The impact of that shot made her almost lost balance in the air and of course she managed to keep herself up in the air. The cybervenom shot hit one of her and that means she can't used that arm, but that doesn't mean she can't use her other arm to throw her knives.

3. I assumed that the side effects of poison don't occur like...immediately? Star has been bit by Glowstick like..a few times and it takes awhile for her to feel like s***. But what NS said is legit.

Now to the next part! NS has answered the first two questions.

3. Sound attacks can cause one to be stunned or to have nausea which is up to the player who's affected by it. How long does it last? Until she stops screaming.

And the rest is answered by NS. Thanks a lot bud! :3))

Starshadow panted as her energy decreased significantly. As she was about to attack Saber again, a huge figure towered over her.

Code: Select all

Your friends are leaving without you, but don't worry.. I'll give you a LIFT!

The next thing she knew was sent to the air, her back slamming onto a rock wall and her body crashed on the ground. Looking at him with a murderous stare as her body stopped glowing and her optics turned back to its cool color, she spoke, "next time we meet...you won't be so lucky.."

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

"I would appreciate that immensely,"

Optimus gave Nexus a warm smile in return as they walked until Orcariner broke in.

"Thank you, Optimus," "I'll be honest," "I didn't entirely see what happened. Whitegrazer stood up to the two of them while I was temporarily incapacitated by the ship's explosion. I don't know what she did. I only saw the results."

Primal gave a nod to the TransMetal whale before his orange optics gazed over to the females for an explanation. They hadn't had a lot of encounters with Tantrum but he had assumed that he was a pretty durable, bent-on-annihilation kind of bot. Had he been mistaken in this presumption? Or was he just easily confused by words and certain actions?

"Maybe he was feeling engorgement?,"

The Maximal leader smiled at Aurora's joke, saying, "That sounds more like Buster's excuse." He paused thoughtfully for a second before adding, "I wonder if they graze together..." Optimus normally wasn't one to poke fun at anyone and their choice of beast forms, so he stopped and thought, I'm starting to sound like Rattrap, as if it was a negative thing to occur for him. Or was it Aurora who was rubbing off on him? Maybe it was Aurora spending too much time training with Rattrap; the both of them feed off of each other's sarcasm, wit and jokes like parasites who feed off of their hosts. Not that that was a bad thing, of course, after all, they often lifted the spirits of the crew when times were slow or dark. It just wasn't his style so he left that up to the rat and ermine Fuzor as it seemed to come naturally for them.

"I don't think Tantrum expected me to approach him in the matter that I did."

"We'll have to keep notions like that in mind and utilize them the next time we bump into him to make sure it's a strategy with a positive effect," Primal mused. With Tantrum's minimum intelligence, the Maximals should be able to use simple procedures to confuse him and maybe even scare him off like Whitegrazer may have done.

Reaching their base of operations, Optimus released Whitegrazer's hand and entered inside with Nexus who had immediately retreated to his room without saying more. The Commander was almost offended by this because he had wanted to discuss a lot more with his former teacher but he understood how exhausted he must have been, not to mention his serious wound that needed time to repair since he had refused a CR chamber. Disappointed for a brief moment, Primal got over it as the Admiral disappeared down the corridor and returned his attention to the rest of his group.

"It doesn't appear that the other teams have returned yet so if anyone needs a repair chamber, you better claim one now," he announced.

It was then when Rhinox appeared, a silent joy and relief that crossed his face when he saw them despite some of their injuries and their leader who was burnt all over with a nice gash on the left side of his upper chest. "I take it it was a pretty rough battle," he said with his observation.

"To say the least but everyone survived," Primal noted most importantly to the engineer. "The Akira was destroyed," he said somberly, and Rhinox understood by the tone of his voice that it meant that they were still stranded here on Earth with no more hope of escape than they had before Admiral Nexus had arrived. "I've given Nexus his own quarters where he can rest. Have you heard from Rattrap's and Dinobot's teams yet?"

"Not yet," the rhinoceros answered handing Optimus a clean cloth. "Sonar has been unusually quiet for some time now, but I must discuss something with you about Feralnight."

Taking the cloth, Primal started to wipe off the black soot on his armor and paint, showing more scratches and dents from the debris of the Akira's explosion that had hit him that hadn't been as noticeable beforehand, but nothing else was worse than the large cut under his arm on his chest. He squinted his optics in some pain as he moved his arm to clean himself with the rag, following Rhinox to the corridor just to step away from the others in the command center to speak privately. "What it is?"

"I ran a scan on her that we had wanted to do a while ago, and we shouldn't have waited," the scientist explained. "Glowstick had infected her with a virus that used her communication link to listen in on everything everyone has said around her."

Optimus stopped wiping his hands and stared at his friend with a mix of anger and worry. "But Glowstick has been dead for some time now. To whom was this information feeding?"

"I can't say for sure if it was even transmitting to anyone after his death. I might be able to dissect more of it from what I took but I can't guarantee results. I've given her an antidote to cleanse her systems and repaired her communication link."

After shaking his head in frustration, thinking about all of the data the Predacons might have been eavesdropping on for this long, Optimus finally nodded to Rhinox's explanation, thankful that he was able to help her and get rid of the virus. "How did this happen?"

"She can't recall," he answered. "All she remembers is encountering him, being unconscious and then waking up. Either he wiped her memory clean of it or some of her data tracks are being blocked. Out of respect for her decision to leave that alone, I couldn't investigate further or try to unlock any missing memories of hers."

"Alright," Primal said, clearly annoyed, outraged and bothered by this news. But he wasn't mad at Feralnight, he was mad at himself for not helping her sooner and mad at it happening at all thanks to Glowstick using one of their own as a spy for the Predacons. "Thank you, Rhinox. I guess all we can do is move forward. Is she alright?"

Big Green nodded and said, "I believe so. I think she may have been ashamed and worried how you would take it but it isn't her fault." As far as they knew. He himself was a little taken aback at how well Optimus was taking this in because lately he had been known to lose his temper with everything that kept going wrong. He couldn't be blamed but it didn't help to strike fear into the others with his uncontrolled reactions to bad news. Perhaps Whitegrazer was helping him to remain calm, or he just knew that there was nothing more to do and what was done was done and the problem had been fixed.

"See if you can contact Rattrap and Dinobot and find out what's going on," Primal asked of him.

"I was already on my way to do so," Rhinox said as he patted Primal's upper right arm in comfort and entered the bridge.

"Aurora," Optimus called for her from where he was in the hall. "Come with me to the infirmary, please," and he began walking there with a troubled mind, wondering how much the Predacons had gained by Glowstick's action or if Glowstick only did it to benefit himself and not Megatron. As far as he could remember, it hadn't seemed like the Predacons knew more than they should if they had had access to everything Feralnight was unknowingly transmitting. Maybe, just maybe, they had gotten lucky this time and Glowstick had never wanted or meant to help Megatron with it. But would the information and data still have been stored somewhere...?

"Rhinox to Dinobot and Rattrap, do you copy?"

-----

"For the last time, I AM NOT A BIR...RAWK!"

Bulls eye! Rattrap cheered to himself as his gun shots hit Terrorsaur's injuries... until he saw the laser beams. Instinctively, he held up his hubcap to shield himself from the lasers but the constant stream of heat and energy started to bore a hole through the center of it. Under the pressure and weakness, the hubcap snapped in half and a quick shot of the lasers hit the Spy square in the chest, knocking him backwards off of his feet and landing hard on his back before the pod thrown by Landslide narrowly missed Terrorsaur. Rattrap laid there unconscious with his gun and pieces of his shield off to his sides, his upper chest smoking and blackened with a large dent of melted armor that had almost penetrated all the way through to his insides if his lasers had not been cut off so abruptly in order to avoid the pod.

"Rhinox to Dinobot and Rattrap, do you copy?"

After several minutes of darkness and silence, Rattrap's systems started to reboot and he slowly came to hearing a deep voice nearby. Was that Primus? Yeah... yeah, that was Primus. He had finally died in this terrible war and was hearing the voice of Primus himself. "Funny, I thought I'd have ended up in the Pit..."

"Rattrap?" Rhinox called to him over his comm. link from the Axalon.

"I ain't complainin', I'm just surprised is all," he went on, thinking he was having a conversation with someone else.

"Rattrap, what are you talking about? You're not dead. This is Rhinox."

"Oh... Oh! Right. Still alive... Darn...," the rat grumbled as he reached over and felt the damage on his chest. Terrorsaur hadn't finished him? Where did he go? Looking around, all he found in the Predacon's wake was the unidentified stasis pod. And his face still hurt from the bird's punch.

"What's your status?"

"Uh... Not dead," he answered the rhino on the other end. "Also, it looks like the Preds are retreating. But, Rhinox," he groaned as he sat up, grabbed his gun and put it away and glanced around at the others, "de pod was empty when we all got 'ere. And it ain't one o' ours."

"Interesting," Rhinox replied. "See if you can bring it back with Landslide for inspection."

"Yeah, I'll get right on dat," Rattrap returned sarcastically. "Be back at de Base soon," he ended with their transmission. Slowly getting to his feet and kicking the two halves of his broken hubcap out of his way, he walked over to the mangled pod and leaned on it with his hands. "Is everybody okay?" he called to his team of Maximals on his comm. link. "Regroup at the pod."

[Night-Hunter]

((OOC: Insert Mortal Kombat Theme song here. Lol.))

The beast jumped back with a surprised snarl when the massive bug all but dropped kicked the smaller glowing cat. It growled deeply as the insect landed, its eyes locked on the sparking knee.

So yer the thing I was warned about... let's see about getting you home, Lass.

The beast didn't hear him, it was too focused on the insect's wounded knee. Licking it's jaws, it went into a crouch as it readied itself to punce, knowing that it could take the bug down by ripping into the injury and make it worse.

But instead of pouncing, it dug its large claws into the ground and it's entire body tensed and shook it's head. It was as though the beast was waging war on itself.

No! I can't let this happen again! Saber thought as she fought for control.

[Mystrea]

(As for the cyber venom affects. Ironclaw would not be affected that much by it based on his character type)

Ironclaw posed patiently, knowing that his opponent was studying him. The Maximal soldier was doing the same, with what little information he had. He came to the conclusion that he has a chance to over power the mercenary and cause some damage due to his inferior armor (correct me if I'm wrong, just basing that by comparison). However his tentacles would be the biggest problem, they would be hard to predict and could swing the battle out of the badger's favor.

He made his first move and Ironclaw was ready to receive it. He was able to grab the incoming foot and stop it mid air. Without warning he immediately launched himself forward onto the octopus, throwing his whole weight upon him and taking him to the ground. Dust and dirt kicked up as they impacted the ground. They covered some distance and rolled over once or twice before they came to a halt with Ironclaw being on top of his enemy.The soldier looked deep into his opponents eyes, without hesitation he would end him there and then. He raised his hand into the air which cast a moon light shadow over the octopus bot. He balled his hand ready to blend his fist with the cybertronians face.

(What?!?! I see no mistake )

[NaitoKage]

( Just to note to everyone. Wintersong posted in the absentee forum that she'll be gone all summer. So Wintersong and Spineback are MIA until she returns. So battle wise, Moon or Blackrose can choose however they want to forcibly have Spineback retreat and move further into the battle.

As for Ironclaw, he doesn't worry about Cyber venom because honey badgers don't give a slag. Or rather seem to have some strong skin preventing fangs from piercing and poisoning them. oddly some mice/rats have a minor immunity, and Opossum are completely immune to snake venom from how their immune system works.

In the arthropod kingdom, armor plating does stop venom as Harvestmen (Yes the spindly giant legged arachnids) have thick armor plating that spiders can't bite through, much akin also to certain beetles having such armor plating that even Tarantulas bites don't penetrate through. Though.. somehow Spitting Spiders use venom coated webbing they spit from their fangs to poison some insects while tying them up like something out of Spiderman. So.. I dunno there.


Cybervenom Defined by the TF wiki http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Cyber_venom

Which mentions the different delivery method, either barbs, spikes, or energy transmitted carrying a computer virus as mentioned by Darkspark (I believe he also sourced the TF wikis)

So this would mean certain delivery methods would be less effective then others.. though outside of Blackarachnia,Banshee,and Umbra, I don't believe anyone else uses the dart or barb method. Darkspark wanted Tarantulas to use or assumed he still used Cybervenom through his gun, though to be honest that is never seen when he's a Transmetal in the tv series, but honestly I don't care too much there because modifying canon characters is fine.

Now.. in terms of how I've defined it for Umbra is rather set. His poison sword and poison tipped Gauss spikes each do 1 point of cyber venom damage based off the player's endurance stat, which builds up over time to poison them weakening the enemy's strength and speed stats.. so knocking them unconscious isn't a requirement. However, this only works if Umbra can cut or impale a spike into the enemy armor, as the thin cut or hole transmits a small amount of poison into their system. If the sword directly impales into them the character takes max Cyber venom damage pumping the stuff in there in larger volumes, but they're only unconscious or paralyzed for 15 minutes or whenever the player defines.. and do not require CR treatment.

In terms of Quickstrike, generally is similar. Bites do more damage if impaled through armor, but his Cyber venom blasts can hit a limb and inflict some poison effect which can build up over time from more hits, much like in the battle against Silverbolt. Instead of falling to the ground, he had issues moving limbs swiftly as they lock up. The only difference is since Quickstrike can fire a continuous beam of venom, he effectively can jackhammer a character down over time.

Banshee has Poison tipped throwing blades, so I assume they have to pierce to inflict poison status.

Now in terms of Spider bites, those HAVE to pierce, but in terms of energy based attacks.. I assume we just thought they ignored armor, since there have been cases in the show where Quickstrike just nails someone in the face with a blast and they go down..

But, as the wiki states, the Cyber venom has alot of inconsistency.. particularly sometimes characters go down from a hit, or just get weakened. The beam version itself seems to be capable of causing ignition, and is capable of physical impact damage much like many of the other beam or energy weapons in the show, while also sending a transmitted viral code to mess with cybertronian circuits..

So, lets hear what Darkspark and Blackrose have to say, considering they primarily use Cyber venom as an energy type, since any verdict directly effects them the most.

Also as for Cerebro shells, Bombshell/Hardshells weapon of choice.. they work sort of similarly to cyber venom but not exactly. Cerebro shells impale or attach to the head of a transformer or organic lifeform and unleash a bunch of wires which directly take over and control the mind of the victim. For transformers, it's easy to remove, but for humans and other organic creatures it's a nightmare for a brain surgeon. Similar effects have been seen in the animal kingdom from parasites and some types of fungus.. much like insect larva implanted into roaches and things which the larva takes over the mind of the roach while slowly eating it from the inside until it bursts free as a new wasp.. )


( OOC:

However his testicles would be the biggest problem, they would be hard to predict and could swing the battle out of the badger's favor.

LOL Yes, Umbra's balls sway like a Tanuki. And while it reminded me of a japanese commercial, I don't think I can post that here.

As for Umbra's durability, yeah, Umbra isn't the most durable, but more so to cutting or projectile based damage. Blunt impacts he can survive a bit better since he's squishy and rubbery. This is part of why Umbra could hold up to being thrown around by Whitegrazer so much. But you could easily sink your claws into his rubbery hide.)


Umbra fell back as Ironclaw rushed him and pinned him to the ground, watching as the slightly larger soldier brought his fist up, instinctively bringing his hand up to grab Ironclaw's wrist, Umbra simply smirked as two of his tentacles raised the two up slightly at an angle as his back Siphon positioned itself. His siphon then fired off his jump jet, launching the two into the air, turning and having Ironclaw land on his back rather hard due to the angle of the launch, as well as Umbra's own weight.

Two of the Ninja's tentacles slithered around Ironclaw's free arm to pin it down, Umbra then brought his robot hand into a Hammer fist position, bringing it down on Ironclaw's face.

____________________________________________

(Mouth full of acid sounds rather horrible, so probably a good choice not to bite his knee. I assumed she would of just jumped at him and he'd have to block with his forearm since.. Landslide can take handle her attacks better then alot of the others. Oh well, either way, she'll probably wake up after awhile at the base.)

Landslide observed as Saber went from looking like a wild animal ready to strike, to a confused mess. He walked towards Saber and tackled her to the ground, surprisingly pinning her down as he reached from his side, pulling out a strange grenade like object and hit a button on the side as a needle extended, then jammed the needle near her neck injecting a tranquilizer into her system.

Sorry.. Sleep well lass. he pulled the tranquilizer shell from her neck, then heard his radio.

"Is everybody okay?" "Regroup at the pod."

Aye.. Nothing a bit of repairs back at the wont fix lad. I just tranqed Fangs.. Landslide then noticed the broken fang on Saberfang, looking around as he noticed the other half on the ground Looks like we may need to do some dentistry on er'. We'll be there soon. he chuckled and got up slowly, staggering as his leg sparked. He reached into his side pulling out a grease gun, then started to spray his knee and leg down, to flush and dilute the acid eating at his body, as it would eventually take his leg off before he got back to base.

Making his way to the fang he picked it up, putting it away with the grease gun, then made his way to Saberfang, lifting her up and passing her to his back insect legs as his back container opened, loading her inside and closing.

He transformed to his beetle mode, making his way to the Stasis pod on his five legs, then stopped looking towards Rattrap I loaded er' in the back, how are you doing.. and Uh.. What do we do with this thing lad? the beetle then looked towards the Stasis pod pointing at it with his large head horn You want me to take this back too?

[DarkSpark]

OOC: In regards to Tarantulas' cyber venom blaster, if it makes people feel better I can make it just an ordinary laser gun and start using the cyber venom rifle Big T picked up later on instead (or something akin to it), the one he used to poison Optimal Optimus (though it doesn't have to be the same venom that causes your head to inflate & sing comically XD). I just figured Big T's "spinner gun" worked like Quickstrike's cybervenom beam, an energy blast that carries a cyber venom payload, or that it would make sense for it to work like that (a spider without venom is a sad thing lol).

Phoenix wrote: Nemesis smirked slightly at the other Predacon's reluctant response, but it was with some relief that she took note of the transmetal pterosaur take to the skies. This battle had indeed come to something of a stalemate, especially since they honestly had nothing to gain from it. Sure enough, she and Terrorsaur had the advantage of likely being the two fastest transformers on this planet, but their speed and maneuverability came at the cost of heavier armor and brute strength. As things were, they were simply wasting valuable time and energy by lingering here.

"Don't go all sentimental on me now," she quipped, "I merely had no intention of carrying your skid plate back.."

"Good to know" Terrorsaur replied back, grateful indeed that he'd evaded that stasis pod, in his current state he might have been trapped and left at the mercy of the maximals.

Phoenix wrote: The avian female paused long enough to glance over at the damaged, but still relatively intact pod. There was no way she was hauling that thing back, with or without assistance. Carrying that thing would only slow them down, making them easy targets. It was unwise to even consider it, to say the least.. She'd just have to find a way to make it up to Megatron later.

"Predacons, we're done here," she replied, including Starshadow and any other Predacon in the area in the transmission, "Return to base!"

With those words she took off, quickly transforming into the somewhat menacing transmetal hybrid between a bird of prey and an aircraft, thrusters igniting to cause a rapid acceleration back to the base she dreaded so much.

"Won't hear any arguments from me! RAWK!" Terrorsaur said as he took off as fast as his beast mode's jet boosters could take him, leaving the rotten maximals behind and quickly catching up to Nemesis and saying "Megatron is not gonna be happy about this...He's been testy enough as is since the arachnids cost him that stupid energon mine."

Phoenix wrote:
Megatron was sitting in a tub, a rubber ducky clutched in his hand looking like it was taking the abuse of a lifetime at this very moment, a fact that brought a bewildered smile to the intruder's face.

"Why so grim, mighty Megatron?," the stalker finally said, stepping out of the shadows as he did. His arms were folded across his chest, the Predacon symbol clearly visible on the right shoulder.

Megatron instinctively raised and targeted his shoulder guns at the intruder who'd dared to enter his personal chambers uninvited whilst he was in the middle of a bath, wordlessly depositing his "stress relief" back into his hyper space pocket. Still in a relaxed position in the bath with his arms propped over the rims of the tank, Megatron glared back at his uninvited guest, still in control despite the intrusion...And refrained from shooting the newcomer on sight once he noticed the predacon insignia, but did not put his guns away and kept his eyes trained on the intruder, red eyes boring holes into him as he asked coolly "Why so grim? Well, for starters, there's an uninvited guest in my private chambers who's identity seems to elude me...Care to elaborate on that? Quickly, yesss."

Starshadow wrote: "This ends now whether you like it or not!" and with that, she took and threw another throwing knife at the spider and another to the direction where the other cybervenom shots came from before letting out an audio piercing sonic cry even though her fellow Maximals would be affected. (OOC: Here comes nausea! )

Tarantulas cackled maniacally as Cheetor slipped into stasis lock, the venom dose he gave him would finish him off soon enough, but the spider felt that a double dose was more than appropriate for this occasion, he'd been waiting to finish off this cat for a while now, why take chances? Unfortunately, it was then that Banshee's sonic cry reached his audio receptors, the spider yelling in pain at the assault on his ears, releasing the poisoned cat and using his wheels to put as much distance between himself and the scream as possible.

"YEERRRGH! Maximal witch! Listen to this! TARANTULAS TERRORIZE!" the spider said as he transformed again, hands planted over his ears to numb the pain somewhat as he fired a swarm of missiles at the annoying bat, one of her arms paralyzed by cybervenom already, leaving her vulnerable to attack.

[Phoenix]

"Megatron is not gonna be happy about this...He's been testy enough as is since the arachnids cost him that stupid energon mine."

Merely changing her direction a tad as they continued on their way back to the Predacon base, Nemesis also thought with about Megatron's reaction with some dread lingering in the back of her mind. It was true the Predacon leader had a rather terrible temper at times, but in a situation like this leaving the otherwise useless broken pod behind seemed like the only logical choice. Otherwise they would be putting themselves at risk for further attacks by the Maximals, perhaps even capture. It hardly seemed worth the risk just to bring back a broken piece of equipment.

"True.. He might throw a bit of a fit for a little while, but with any luck the third team had more success on their mission which should ease him up a bit. Even if the day has turned out to be a complete loss, all we have to do is stay out of his way for a little while until he decides on a new scheme to implement."

Nemesis couldn't blame the red flier for being a bit nervous. He'd been on the receiving end of Megatron's fury more than once, and certainly more than she had. Now that she'd started taking more of a front line position among the Predacons, she, too, would have the displeasure of dealing with their moody commander's rage. Oh joy.

Up ahead the Predacon base came into view and Nemesis started her descent.

"Why so grim? Well, for starters, there's an uninvited guest in my private chambers who's identity seems to elude me...Care to elaborate on that? Quickly, yesss."

The black and silver male remained still, maintaining his calm demeanor even as Megatron trained his weapons on him. If anything he merely raised his arms ever so slightly to show that he had not come here to fight.

"My apologies for the interruption, Commander. The name is Darkwind," he said as way of introduction, "There's no need to be alarmed."

Noticing that the tyrant was impatient for answer and was dangerously close to pulling the trigger, he quickly went on with his explanation.

"Allow me to explain.. Upon learning that Nexus Prime was heading out to find Optimus and therefor also you, I stowed away upon his ship in a stasis pod. As soon as I had a chance, I sabotaged the Akira in an attempt to destroy it and its occupant prior to arriving here. I then used the pod to escape, leaving the Akira to its fate. The old fool never knew what happened."


Following up with a reassuring smile, Darkwind tilted his head ever so slightly. "There are still Predacons living on Cybertron who believe in you and what you're trying to accomplish. That's why I'm here to offer my humble services."

He then paused, giving the commander a chance to speak. Or act. Whichever he deemed necessary.

"Aurora,"

Aurora snapped to attention, having halted as soon as they had gotten inside the base as her mind merely drifted to the recent events that had just taken place. She was certainly happy about having Nexus here, but the idea of another world filled with transformers was a strange and foreign concept to her. It wasn't often that she considered that the others had a life elsewhere before arriving on this planet, the only home she'd ever known.

"Come with me to the infirmary, please,"

Quick to oblige, Aurora jogged to catch up to the much taller Maximal. Optimus seemed worried about something, not that this was anything new. The commander always did let the problems of the world rest on his shoulders and way too often he took responsibility for events that had not been his fault.

"Is something wrong?," she whispered, looking up at him while they walked.

[Night-Hunter]

Saber had finally started to gain control over the beast when Landslide tackled and held her down. Letting out a surprised snarl, she sank her claws into the ground and started to struggle under him.

There was a sharp sting in her neck and she instantly started feeling drowsy.

Sorry... Sleep well, Lass.

Saber gave a soft growl in reply before finally giving in to what ever he had shot her with. A few moments later she started changing back to her orginal beast form, the only change to her Smilodon beast form was a busted tooth.

[starshadow]

"YEERRRGH! Maximal witch! Listen to this! TARANTULAS TERRORIZE!"

As the missles came flying towards her, Banshee's optics were widened as she could not react quickly enough to avoid them. Once she stopped her sonic cry, the missles came in contact with her, exploding on her which sent her flying to a tree. Her body slid down to the ground, her armor burnt and damaged, her fur from white to gray and black with a strong scent of smoke, her wing membranes torn and tattered. She was grounded. The cybervenom that was "given" to her earlier just made it worse as her wing mechanism went offline and one of her optics went glitchy. She could feel that it was starting to affect one of her legs, the pain on her body was starting to increase and her breathing was affected. Banshee glared at the spider mech while she sat on the ground, defenseless. Was she going to die just after finding her crew member? Probably so.


((OOC: Tarantulas shall be pleaaaassseeddd! Banshee didn't set her cry's frequency to mess with the missles so yeah...feel free to do stuff to her. Prisoners, test subject, torture etc.))

[Blackrosefencer]

OOC:

In regards to the stealth issue, all Arachnitron's profile states is that she is skilled in the art of stealth. I'm not quite sure what this means, exactly, since stealth could be so many things.. Just listed by itself, I see 'stealth' as being very quiet, able to hide in the shadows and thus making the character difficult to see. That, however, does not mean a character is invisible to radar or other sound related ways of 'seeing', or that they do not have a heat signature. Yes, the profile states she doesn't have an energy signature, but these methods of detection are different. If there's a misunderstanding, please clarify what you meant.

No, I don't think there's a misunderstanding. I think that all makes sense, but maybe I can update that in the profile just in case. I just, more or less, was hoping by saying "stealth mode", it would distinguish between her caring whether or not she's noticed, but maybe that didn't come off quite how I wanted.

Now then you'd ask that she specifically looks for her with active sonar, but I'm not sure I'd ask that for a Bat at in a night battle. Seems redundant.

I didn't want her to do that.... I just felt that since she didn't do that (she wasn't likely to be using echolocation while trying to battle Tarantulas at the same time), then that should mean that Arachnitron should have been successful in using her skills in stealth.

And isn't this all happening at the dawn of a new day (not to be cliche)? Not nighttime.

Also this has been pointed out, wouldn't the light from Arachnitron's gun also give away her position? Or does Arachnitron's gun fire darts?

I had figured they were darts. The cybervenom guns always looked like darts to me.

...Banshee's definitely not a psychic but..you do realize that the cybervenom shot gave off the general direction where Arachnitron's location's at don't you?

Obviously, but light moves faster than sound. Once she heard the shot, wouldn't it be too late to react?

But maybe I should clarify.... The reason I brought up the knife throwing at the end was because it didn't follow the events of what happened with the rest of the post. It didn't account for the paralysis which Starshadow said had happened, but then didn't explain anything else about it and was otherwise unaffected by said paralysis.
I didn't have any issue that she figured out where Arachnitron was....it just didn't match the rest of the post.

(Edit: Just realized I left something out.. She was just shot by the cybervenom, it takes time to feel the pain. When she can't use her arm which means she can't feel it.

Now to pain and cybervenom. BRF, I don't have to post her thoughts because she can react to the situation instinctively. *slag I'm sleepy* Like..."One arm down? Use the other arm then."

No you don't.....i did say it was just an example. But you'd most certainly have that reaction in the narration.

Now on to her aim, all I can say is that her skill is 8.5 and so arm dominance doesn't matter....

This is a good observation. Maybe the higher skill would mean she could switch hands if she needed to, but I think it still might affect her acurracy. 8.5 is very skilled, but I think true ambidextrous-ness would be something reserved for a 10.

If I'm correct, viruses need some time to affect a system but that depends on the virus in reality so let's go by stats. Arach's firepower is 6 so it's kinda ridiculous if Banshee's injured badly with just one shot of cybervenom.

I didn't say she should be injured badly....I just said she should be injured period. But 6 is above average so it'd be a little unreasonable to expect Arachnitron to not be successful, likewise, Banshee's endurance is only 6 and I'm going to assume that you're going to want Banshee to endure some pain here and there. You're the one who mentioned paralysis. I didn't force that on you! That was your choice. I just was pointing out that what you said happened and what your character did were entirely different! And I think it didn't much make sense to be able to go about Banshee's normal business without acknowledging that paralysis.

Right now we really should end this unecessary minor debate about technical stuff.

Not really minor since it directly reflects players reactions to your post. And I appreciate you taking the time to clear that up....although, there may still be some confusion about the sonic boom, if you'd care to elaborate to clear up Pheonix's questions. I did what I thought would make sense based on what you and NK explained, but I certainly can edit if I misinterpreted....

In regards to the comparison between the damage done by Tarantulas and Arachnitron respectively. Since both victims have the same armor rating, let's look at the stats involved in the attack.

Arachnitron has a firepower of 6 and a skill of 7 whereas Tarantulas has a firepower of 6 and a skill of 10. Skill is essentially how adept a character is at carrying out an action, essentially how good they are at something. They both do an equal amount of damage with their attacks, but Tarantulas has a higher skill level so he's more likely to hit his target. He may have hit Cheetor is a more centralized location, thus affecting him more quickly than Arachnitron who hit her target in a limb. If cyber venom functions like regular venom, it's not an instantaneous effect but rather one that starts at the location that is initially hit and then works its way throughout the body.

Agreed. I think all of that makes sense.

BIC:

Arachnitron strained to see over the trees to watch the Predacon turned Maximal's reaction to her cybervenom shots. She was a bit disappointed to see the first shot miss its mark, but was pleased when the second shot hit! The bat had been attempting to throw a knife at Tarantulas which she did drop, but Arachnitron most certainly expected one to come towards her as well. She crawled to the safety of the next bush just as the knife hit her arm. Arachnitron winced as she yanked the knife free from her arm, but she was thankful that she had moved when she had, otherwise, the knife may have hit vital circuitry.

Just as she was about to send return fire, she suddenly felt a bit uneasy. Her audio sensors tingled from something she couldn't hear (OOC: Since NK said, those closer to Banshee might hear it, but others may not). She struggled to maintain her balance as she swiped at her audio sensors trying to grab at the mysterious sensation. She watched Tarantulas continuing his attack. She noticed him clutching his own audio sensors and did the same. Her equilibrium seemed to normalize, but if she removed her hands from their place over her audio receptors, the unsteady feeling returned.

Suddenly, the bat went down! Arachnitron kept one hand over her audio receptors and pulled out her energon pistol. She was surprised to find that the feelings she had were suddenly gone. Whatever the bat had been doing before had stopped. With her pistol drawn, she took a few steps out of the brush and approached Tarantulas and Banshee no longer needing to stay hidden.

--------------------

Dinobot will have to wait until tomorrow....but I intended to have him help Banshee out now that she's done screaming, but I've been busy wedding planning tonight.....and I have a full day ahead of me tomorrow with some appointments and such.