"More Than Meets The Eye: Part I"

[una]

((OOC: Phoenix, you have me really scared for Nexus. Because a few Maximals have died already and since Nexus is a temporary character(isn't he?), this RP has me acting like alittle Mama Bear over all Maximals. XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ))

"YOU LEETLE BABY MAXIMALS HIDING BEHIND PUNY GUNS! COME OUT HERE TO FIGHT! I WILL MOOSH YOU INTO EETY BEETY TEENY PARTS!"

"Whitegrazer, get out! Now!!," "Outside! It's going to explode!!"

Whitegrazer jumped out from the weapons systems and rushed to follow Aurora into the nearest opening. As she jumped out of the Akira, the ship had been consumed in fires, and she motioned Aurora to follow her as they gathered more distance from the ship, which now had exploded in a ball of fire. The force of the explosion was strong so she used herself as a shield for Aurora to keep the young one from blown away.

Orcariner was close by so she waved at him then stared at Tantrum, who no doubt wished to shred them with his rail gun just like he did with the ship. She must find out a way to take the twenty feet tall Predacon away from the area, so he won't cause no more harm.

"Orcariner, Tantrum is wounded, but his anger is great as well as his firepower. In the heat of the battle, it is so easy to lose oneself to such powerful emotions. I will try to draw his attention towards me and away from you two," She stared back at Tantrum then at the Orcariner noticing that he has gotten some pretty good hits, "Aurora, stay with Orcariner and do what you can to provide him support as well as repair some of his wounds if you can while I will go deal with Tantrum and Buster. I will lead them away so you two can focus on helping the others."

She smiled at them both before she went to meet Tantrum face to face. Her stance wasn't threatening or antagonistic. She put her arms out like she was offering a compassionate ear or a hug, "Tantrum! I am the one who has wounded you!"

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Blackarachnia looked upon in shock and anger that her shot didn't work, which made her look like fool! She reloaded her cybervenom when the Maximal vermin started firing on her. She rolled to try and avoid some of his shots but when she stood up one of the shots hit her square in the chest. It knocked her out and into a world of nightmares, all she could hear was Tarantulas's laughter and his fingers gripping her, humiliating her. Arachnitron standing there next to him, assisting him in his little game.

She wanted him to GET OUT OF HER HEAD!!!!

((OOC: I feel bad! XDDDDDD But don't worry, Blackarachnia, you will get your little vengeance here. XDDDD ))

[DarkSpark]

OOC: Do Tarantulas & Frilla have a rivalry I don't know of? Just saying Frilla sounds like she's more familiar with him than I realized, or is it just that she used to be a predacon & all? Anywho, I don't imagine my turn will come up again that soon this week, but Friday & Saturday I'll be busy, not going away, just doing stuff with family & friends. Peace

NewMoon wrote: Frilla gulped before she pushed off the tree just seconds before the missiles would hit the tree, landing some feet across from Tarantulas as she glared towards the bug obviously not afraid as she use to be. Although, there was still some slight hesitation in engaging the larger spider one-on-one. "Gotta do better then some fireworks to get rid of me Tarantulas,I think you would have learned that by now." She mocked him before letting out a hiss as she transformed to robot mode and drew her laser gun, aimed towards the spider in hopes to keep stalling him from the pod. With his expertise Frilla knew he could easily make the protorform, if it still remained within the stasis pod, a predacon and their mission would be for not so she had to keep the mad scientist busy as possible unless he got back up or she did. "But I have to say, the transmetal look isn't really working for you maybe I can give you a little cosmetic change."

Pulling the trigger Frilla began firing upon Tarantulas, stepping forward slightly as she tried to force the mad scientist back some more, knowing the pod wasn't too far off from either of them and neither was Airazor, and unknowingly, Cheetor from her team. Though the frilled lizard doubted Tarantulas would have been alone, he wasn't that stupid enough to always work by himself so somewhere there was likely one of the other spiders or Predacons making their way towards the pod. Just hope this will be enough.,She thought to herself and if she had to she'd resort to her beast mode since she was far more nimble in it and her acid spit might do much more damage to that transmetal armor Tarantulas now had.

"Ugh, the rat has better banter than you!" Tarantulas hissed back as he returned fire with his own gun, jumping back to avoid her own shots as best he could, "His aim is better too!"

Once he'd put enough distance between himself and the lizard, Tarantulas opened fire with another missile barrage, intending to blow her to scrap this time in the little clearing in which they were fighting...If not, he could at least use the smoke cover to his advantage.

"Tarantulas to everyone, have any of you reached the pod yet? Is it secure?" Tarantulas inquired from behind the cover of a large tree, on the group's private frequency while the maximal was busy dealing with his missiles, preparing to make a break for it if it turned out no one in his squad had actually reached the objective yet.

Naitokage wrote: Landslide smirked under his faceplate as Terrorsaur came at him, coming into his range.. He raising his shield up to take some of the laser shots causing a small chunk to break off from the shield, though a few got past striking his chest and shoulder with little effect as Landslide just pressed on. Mercy? I don't think you know what that means lad! he then laughed once again, his right arm extending it's grenade launcher as he turned his sword pointing his arm out, then fired off two grenades , deliberately missing Terrorsaur as they flew past his sides.

The grenades then remotely exploded behind Terrorsaur, sending two blast waves(no shrapnel) into his backside knocking Terrorsaur towards Landslide as he brought his sword up and changed the direction of his thrusters, swinging his whole body into the strike on Terrorsaur, but not using his chainblade on the weapon, as he didn't want to chop Terrorsaur in half, his own form of mercy in a sense.

Meanwhile a loud plonk was heard from Landslide's body, having been hit by Blackarachnia's cyberpoison at his backside, however much to Blackarachnia's surprise, the cybervenom had not taken effect at all, not even displaying the usual energy effect on Landslide's body that would be normal to anyone afflicted with poison.
(Just to note, Landslide's special ability is his body is fairly resistant to cybervenom and nanomachines due to being infused with Rheanimum gas, essentially making his body extremely dense and durable. Nanomachines generally can't do anything to him, Cybervenom you'd probably have to make a hole through his armor to an area with vitals like mechfuild and such.. The hardest way to do that is through his back though.. since his backside is a large armored hollow container for carrying cargo or maximals.. )

Caught completely off guard by the grenades that had seemingly missed him only to detonate right behind him, Terrorsaur spun out of control, swords reflexively crossed in front of him to protect himself, his eyes widening in shock and outrage as he saw what was about to happen as Landslide swung his sword towards him...

"SSSSSSSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!" Terrorsaur cursed as he as the force of the blow sent him careening through the sky into the distance, until finally crashing into the side of a cliff, leaving a sizable dent in the rock itself.

"...I hate maximals" Terrorsaur groaned as he lay there in the rock catching his bearings, too dazzled to care what the slag the rest of his team was doing while he was being used as a baseball by the maximal's new guy.

OOC: Dragonball Z style lol

Phoenix wrote: Nexus had been unable to contain a smirk rather unfitting for a renowned military figure such as himself, finding a certain amusement in watching the formerly so cocky Megatron now struggling to keep his own hide from getting scorched by the massive incoming fire. His shoulder cannons maintained their fire against the Predacon commander, alternating between targeted body parts while pummeling him with a steady stream of shots. It was only a matter of time before Megatron made a mistake that would prevent him from blocking the shots.

The older Maximal took note of Optimus moving away, but seemed no worse for wear because of it. Megatron was already in a defensive position so it would take some effort for him to do anything other than retreat. If not.. oh well. It wouldn't be the first criminal whose life Nexus had taken, not that he ever bragged of such deeds. It was just a necessary part of fighting a war, so even though he respected all life he had no quarrels with taking a few of them for the good of the many. That was perhaps a lesson he had not reinforced enough in his pupil, since Optimus seemed reluctant to make such a choice.

Megatron growled in indignation as he fired back at Nexus with his shoulder guns, still using his tailgun as a shield, a weapon better suited to blowing this throwback from a forgotten time back to the stone age! It wasn't easy, and it was only a matter of time before the maximal got past his defenses and landed a lucky shot...Megatron could not, WOULD NOT, fall here, not at the hands of a spawn of Prime, not at the hands of an outdated model who'd only just arrived on this planet and interrupted HIS war! No one would stand in the way of his path to power!

Megatron turned up the juice on his harrier jets, kicking up loads of dust and dirt, more so than Primal's own attack had done, giving himself enough cover to obscure Nexus' vision, or at least his view of the predacon commander, thus allowing Megatron to escape his line of fire at long last, using his skates for additional speed over the terrain as he burst forth from the smoke to fire his shoulder guns at Nexus's feet to throw him off balance. He then followed this tactic up with his primary weapon, unleashing a massive beam of destructive energy raging towards the unsteady old soldier to wipe him off the face of HIS planet.

He was the one on the offensive now, not Nexus, and it would stay that way until Nexus was no more!

[NaitoKage]

(Heh, maybe DBZ,or maybe just similar to a rampaging G1 Dinobot.*L* though the swing mostly just comes from Landslide's method of flight and the fact melee combat in the air is hard to do. )

"SSSSSSSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!"

Landslide completed the swing, turning a full 360 in the air after having hit Terrorsaur, hovering as he looked towards Terrorsaur in the distance, surprised the flier was disposed of from his tactics. Well, that worked better then I thought.. he said to himself, then noticed something falling from the sky nearby, Saberfang. Seemed in his fight with Terrorsaur, he was oblivious to Starshadow flying near them.

Slag...Hang on lass! Landslide said, putting his sword away, his wing shield attaching to his back as his thrusters turned 180 degrees, rocketing him down towards the ground and Saberfang.

As he plummet ted, he reached out grabbing Saberfang with both his arms holding her close. You know.. if ya wanted to fly,all ya had to do was ask! he said while his thrusters suddenly made another 180 turn with his back, wings unfolding revealed to be a bit tattered as he slowed and altered his descent from a straight drop and started to fly low across the ground, bringing up his feet as he landed, sliding across the ground to a stop.

Landslide set Saberfang down, his wings fluttering a bit then folding up onto his back as he looked towards Nem holding Rattrap. He looked towards Saber Watch for that Thunder cat, I'll try to distract the bird.. he said in a low tone, then looked towards Nem walking towards her, a cycling noise heard from inside his arm as he pointed his right arm's grenade launcher towards Nem Git off im' lass, just make it easier on yer self.. This fight is a waste of time. The pod's destroyed, the protoform could of burned up in the atmosphere..
_______________________________________

"What shortcut did you have in mind?"

"Tarantulas to everyone, have any of you reached the pod yet? Is it secure?"

Umbra heard the radio call, but didn't respond. He responded to Spineback It's fairly obvious a land route would take too long and we can't see much of anything down here.. so we should take an arboreal route like the arachnids did.

Umbra then moved towards Spineback scooping her up with his robot arms before she could protest, then hopped up extending his octopus tentacles grasping and tearing through tree branches as he made his way towards the top of the trees, then activated his jump jet launching from the tree top, spreading and flattening his tentacles out to extend his airtime by gliding to another distant tree, then brought his tentacles down wrapping around branches as he landed, only to move along the tree tops in a manner that almost seemed compared to a giant harvestmen arachnid while his jump jet recharged.

[Night-Hunter]

"Not bad... Not bad... for an amateur!"

Saber snarled and went to attack again but Starshadow was faster, she snarled again at the feel of claws on the back of her neck. No matter how much she stuggled and twisted, she couldn't get at the Transmetal feline.

"Let's see if the myth is true...

What myth... Scrap!

Saber felt her spark jump to her throat at the sudden lift of altitude. She was helpless.

"... If kittens like you can land on thier feet!"

Her spark nearly seized up when Starshadow let go of her scruff. Thinking quickly; she transformed and whipped out her blasters and fired at Starshadow aimming for her thrusters.

She turned while falling, it was quite startling to see the ground hurtling towards her. This was how she imagined meeting her fate, falling from a great height only to smash into the ground.

Try as she might, she couldn't keep her optics open. She tightly closed her optics and simply surrendered. She opened her eyes again when the rushing noise slowed and she saw that Landslide had caught her, she breathed inward sigh of relief.

"You know... if ya wanted fly all ya had to do was ask."

Saber couldn't help but chuckle a little. "I'll keep that in mind next time."

Once safely back on the ground and Landslide set her down, Saber bent over a little, hands on her knees. That had been crazy and intense!

"Watch for that Thundercat, I'll try and distract the bird."

Saber gave the bug a shaky thumbs up to let him know that she heard him. She shifted back into her beast and growled at Nemesis to back Landslide up.

((OOC: Hey, Star! Now's a good time to break a tooth, Saber won't be expecting it!))

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: Whoa, whoa, whoa, NK. Ease up with Landslide saving everyone in a single post. Not even I do that with Optimus. ...Except when he saved the whole planet. ))

Optimus was in route to the Akira when he felt something was about to happen from Whitegrazer. Fires started to appear and rapidly grow on the broken vessel as Tantrum continued to devastate it with his rail gun. Whether or not Inferno was still in pursuit of the Maximal leader, he flew in lower toward the ship, frantically looking for the ermine and the mare escaping. "Aurora, Whitegra-!" he called for them with great concern but was suddenly cut off. An explosion from the ship erupted right underneath him, a fiery ball engulfing him briefly before the force of it blew him away through the air. Primal was forced to close his eyes and felt the extreme heat surround his body until he was tumbling out of control and fell over a hundred yards away from the destructive scene landing on his stomach, his hover board retracting before impact. The TransMetal gorilla laid there unconscious, surrounded by some trees that would temporarily provide him some cover from any Predacons who might go searching for him; at least it would hopefully buy him time until he could wake up. But at the moment, everything was black and silent for Optimus, his emotions and feelings severed from Whitegrazer as he laid there burnt and a little beat up from his crash landing unaware if his two comrades had ever made it out of Akira before it exploded.

-----

Pleased to see Blackarachnia finally down and k.o.ed, Rattrap turned around and suddenly felt a tremendous pressure against his chest that blew him off of his feet and landed him on his back, his gun falling a few inches away from his arm's length. What the heck just happened?! Regaining his bearings, he found the horrible and foul former Decepticreep on top of him, pinning him with her blade to his throat. He glared at her before he swallowed a slight gulp in fear as she teased him with her sword. The rodent, not really known for bravery, attempted to hide the terror in his eyes as he looked up at Nemesis who towered over him. He truly despised this female and her unfair advantage of her stupid nanobots. However, he did have an idea for such an encounter...

(( OOC: Written by Phoenix ))

Git off im' lass, just make it easier on yer self.. This fight is a waste of time. The pod's destroyed, the protoform could of burned up in the atmosphere..

Nemesis barely even offered Landslide more than a passing glance, not finding much merit to his feeble threat. Not wavering from her straddling position on top of the rodent, her sword still pressed firmly up against the rat's throat, she merely responded in a somewhat annoyed voice.

"You better work on your bargaining skills there, 'lad'," she said, putting emphasis on the final word, ".. given your weapon of choice is just as likely to cause serious harm to your little buddy as it is to me."

(( OOC: Back to me))
Peeking over at Landslide, Rattrap had a feeling Nemesis would call his bluff simply because she knew he wouldn't risk blowing up his own team leader. At least he hoped he wouldn't seeing his grenade launcher, of all weapons, aimed at them both. That certainly wouldn't have been his weapon of choice. He hadn't even had the opportunity to his demo charges yet. He could try a sticky one now and plant it on her and risk her blowing him up, too, but he had something else in mind as soon as he gathered enough courage to pull it off.

With his arms and hands underneath her and out of her sight, he distracted her with some talk, saying, "Hey, while I got you here in my personal space, dere's somethin' I've been meanin' ta try." Subtly and carefully, Rattrap opened one of his forearm compartments which ejected a small but powerful taser that he caught in the same hand as he continued. "See, I got a theory on yer nanotech, and it goes like dis...!" Activating the electricity in the taser to shock her with a lot of voltage, he jammed it into her lower abdomen and held it there for as long as he could before she reacted, hoping it would cause her to jump away from him or put her sword somewhere else not near him and not decapitating him. After some research and going over the data countless times about nanobots and most of their weapons and other elements having little to no effect on her, electrocution came to his mind of weapon expertise, and what better time than now to test it.

(( OOC: Because I'm not sure if Aurora ever told them how she took down Nemesis before on her own. Then again, she also had water. ))

-----

"Well, wasn't expecting any of that."

As the computer ran its diagnostics and compiled the data and results, Rhinox looked at it with just as much puzzlement as Feralnight. "Interesting," he said, his curiosity cresting with the information. "Well, I can understand this virus that was implanted in you somehow by someone that we should have taken care of some time ago," briefly wondering how much information the Predacons had managed to acquire from their "spy," "but why would anyone want to 'attack' and block, or possibly delete, your memories?" the science engineer thoughtfully inquired more rhetorically than actually expecting an answer from his comrade because she probably didn't know anyway if parts of her memory had been tampered with.

"Let's begin with the virus. It's a fairly common one used for espionage with your comm. link and shouldn't be difficult to be rid of," Rhinox explained warmly with a light smile to assure Feralnight that everything would be all right. Attaching a couple syringes to her, he injected a vile of mechanical antibiotics to gradually deplete the virus in her system while he started working on her communication link, opening its protective plate and using small tools to fuss with the wires and small computer board with the audio system, making sure any links to any Predacons or anyone else was severed. Satisfied with his work, he closed her comm. link and asked, "How are you feeling? Better? Any difference at all? I may be able to recover your memory data tracks, but the decision is up to you. Perhaps it was something you had wanted done on purpose a long time ago to forget a painful or traumatic memory. I don't know. But if I can recover it, it will come back to you."

(( OOC: I'm really just winging it here; I don't know all of this technical stuff and viruses and whatnot. New Moon, let me know if you want anything changed. ))

[Phoenix]

Aurora was not a big Maximal, some would likely even call her tiny, and standing at a mere five feet tall certainly did not give her an advantage when running away from an exploding vessel. Fortunately the taller white mare was nearby, even shielding the smaller female from the blast with her own body. The ermine fuzor merely covered down as close to the ground as she could as the explosion erupted behind them, barely even noticing that Whitegrazer had thrown herself on top. The shockwave passed quickly, briefly engulfing them in an intense layer of heat before passing on.

"Aurora, Whitegra-!"

The sound was faint, muffled, almost completely drowned in the sounds of the explosion. Not daring to move for a couple more seconds, the now soot covered white fuzor peeked out from her shelter, first settling a pair of weary green optics on Whitegrazer to make sure the other female was okay. Then her ears suddenly flattened, some fur standing on edge on her neck.

Optimus..?

She stood up shakily, her legs threatening to collapse beneath her, and looked around.

The immediate area was covered in burning debris and dust that had been whirled up by the explosion, the once majestic Akira now little more than a smoldering pile of parts.. It all felt surreal.

"Aurora, stay with Orcariner and do what you can to provide him support as well as repair some of his wounds if you can while I will go deal with Tantrum and Buster. I will lead them away so you two can focus on helping the others."

The soothing and reassuring sound of Whitegrazer's voice quickly snapped her back to reality. Aurora wanted to protest, not thinking it wise that the white mare go up against two adversaries by herself right now, but she simply nodded as way of response. Hopefully her fellow Maximal knew what she was doing.

Some burning debris from the ship had landed very close to where the fallen orca lay, so Aurora used all her strength to toss it further away as she started looking for any obvious injuries that Orcariner had sustained.

Nexus did not stand still as Megatron once again went on the offensive, sidestepping the incoming beam as it scorched the side of his already dented and ripped armor. In fact he moved quite effortlessly for someone of his age, as if the old admiral for a time forgot to take care, only to regret it as the slight limp he had when walking returned moments later. And for a brief moment he even appeared to smile, almost showing signs of enjoying this encounter. Even to someone who knew the old Maximal this behavior would perhaps seem a bit perplexing.

Then the admiral did something even more confusing. Raising his spiked mace, Nexus suddenly lunged at Megatron, striking his mace against the tyrant's weapon with a speed, strength, and precision that even someone half his own age would have been jealous of. Again and again he struck, apparently oblivious to his own injuries, his body in a rapid continuous motion as he delivered one forceful blow after another. And he did not stop. The expression on his face was almost unreadable, alternating with pure rage to enjoyment to almost dutiful.

That is until the a deafening sound coming from where the Akira had been caused him to halt in his tracks, forcing him to take his optics off his target for a few moments.

"Hey, while I got you here in my personal space, dere's somethin' I've been meanin' ta try."

Nemesis stared down at the little Maximal with a look of bewilderment. So this pathetic fool wanted to play games in a situation like this? Very well.. There wasn't much he could do against the likes of her anyway, being the force of nature that she was, so she let him speak his final few words. Who knows? Perhaps she'd even find some amusement in them..

"See, I got a theory on yer nanotech, and it goes like dis...!"

Nemesis felt something poke her abdomen, instinctively bringing her free hand down to push the object away. A sudden sharp jolt caused her to withdraw that hand quickly, glancing down to see a glimpse of the taser, only to gasp in surprise and pain as Rattrap forcibly shoved the weapon against her for a longer period of time. She could feel the nanites scattering away from that particular region, some of them temporarily paralyzed by the sudden urge of electricity passing through her. Optics narrowing, she swiftly withdrew from her perch on top of the rat, her free hand now covering the affected area. The tingling sensation was making her feel sick to her stomach, though fortunately the effects were nowhere near as devastating as they would be if she'd been standing in water like she had been last time she got electrocuted.

"Good effort, rodent," she told him as she staggered backwards a few steps, a few surges still running rampant through her systems, "But ultimately futile. You've just exchanged one demise for another."

Her voice grew colder as she said those last few words and as she spoke, she swiftly exchanged the sword for her firearm instead. She then proceeded to take aim, only to realize her arm felt numb and heavy. Groaning as she realized the electric jolt had forced a number of her nanites to reboot, temporarily leaving her unprotected and feeling weak and miserable, not exactly the ideal condition to continue to fight. She did a quick survey of her surroundings. It appeared that Terrorsaur had gone down, leaving her effectively without backup against several Maximals. Contemplating her options, Nemesis slowly lowered her weapon.

[Mystrea]

Dinobot was giving out orders to the team. Airazor and Cheetor were closer to the pod so they were on their way to it. Then Dinobot looked at Ironclaw and made his day. Backing up Frilla would get him close to the Predacons. He wanted nothing more than to put the odds further onto the Maximal side. His hands were flexing, his eyes scanned the surrounding forest as he anticipated the coming conflict. Ironclaw looked around and could feel the weight of the darkness over forest. His spark became infatuated with it and his mannerism was reflected. He wanted nothing more than into melt scenery and hunt the unaware Predacon.

[NaitoKage]

(OOC:

(( OOC: Whoa, whoa, whoa, NK. Ease up with Landslide saving everyone in a single post. Not even I do that with Optimus. ...Except when he saved the whole planet. ))

Heh, sorry. I just figured I'd use that as a distraction for Rattrap, since admittedly Landslide's weapons aren't suited for pinpoint attacks.. his Anti air guns and grenade launcher are all AOE damage, though his grenade launcher could still be fired, just not remotely detonating the grenade.. but that effect would feel like being hit by a baseball from a pitching machine I'd imagine since it's a low pressure projectile.. Not much damage, but might confuse Nem.

As for the virus and technical stuff, you did fine. Hm.. should I add the stungun to Rattrap's profile? I know he used it before in the show. )

"You better work on your bargaining skills there, 'lad'" ".. given your weapon of choice is just as likely to cause serious harm to your little buddy as it is to me."

Landslide's dual visor slits narrowed, keeping the launcher trained on Nemesis. You'd be surprised what ya can fire out of one of these..

"Hey, while I got you here in my personal space, dere's somethin' I've been meanin' ta try." Subtly and carefully, Rattrap opened one of his forearm compartments which ejected a small but powerful taser that he caught in the same hand as he continued. "See, I got a theory on yer nanotech, and it goes like dis...!"

Landslide smirked under his faceplate as Rattrap escaped, as he had hoped. His arm followed Nemesis's movements as he overheard Rattrap. Nanomachines?...
Landslide was surprised to hear such technology was on this planet, which was mostly banned even by predacons as too dangerous after the events of the swarm ravaged the galaxy wiping out an entire planet and moon,nearly taking the Earth with it! And yet it appeared on earth once more.. Such an unlucky planet.

"Good effort, rodent," "But ultimately futile. You've just exchanged one demise for another."

Landslide took a few steps forward with his arm still pointed at Nemesis I think yer callin' a bluff lass.. The offer still stands.. Now git! he raised his left arm pointing his thumb back behind him.

[Blackrosefencer]

OOC:

Sorry for the wait, I was waiting for Ironclaw to post so I could respond to Dinobot, but I wasn't intentionally waiting to post for all my characters at the same time, it just happened that way this time. As I explained, we only have one computer right now since my fiance's computer crashed. We have to share mine (which doesn't really work all that great either) and he takes priority since he sometimes has to remote in to work.

((OOC: Gonna wait for more interaction on Banban's side since I still need to think on Star's post anyway.))

Well, she was still watching from the shadows last I read and hadn't interacted with anyone else yet. So I think we're all waiting on you to reveal her.

BIC:

"Inferno, give me cover fire, don't give Primal a chance to help his precious mentor any further"

"Yes, My Queen!" Inferno said with a salute.

His first shots on Optimus had sent him flying, but the gorilla regained his footing pretty quickly. The Maximal leader took to the air, fired a few shots at Inferno, and then flew like a bat out of Hell towards the Akira. Inferno didn't have time to react to the shots, but just about every single one of them landed short of their target. Inferno laughed at the Maximal's blunder, not realizing he had been goading Inferno to attack and not really trying to hit him. The red ant took off following the transmetal ape.

Optimus flew quickly towards the downed vessel. Inferno fired his rocket launcher weapon after him, but none of his shots reached the Maximal since he was out of range.

Suddenly, Optimus changed course. Instead of flying above the Akira, he nose dived to fly in lower. Inferno had been too far away to see what had caused him to change his direction, but he nobly followed the Maximal in order to comply with Megatron's demands. As he neared the conflagration below him, Inferno could see the newer of the Predacons, Tantrum opening fire on the Akira.

Inferno heard a loud rumble and suddenly the Akira exploded underneath the Maximal and his pursuer. Optimus, who was much closer to the explosion than Inferno was, was sent tumbling to the ground below them. Inferno, who had been speeding towards Optimus' position, was not nimble enough to steer himself away from the fire. He flew headlong into the aftermath of the explosion and was blasted by the flames. He shielded his optics from the fire that lapped up out of the ship at him. He was unable to remain in the air with the smoke and flames that rose from the ground.

Charbroiled and gagging on the smoke, Inferno landed on the soft grass next to the Akira. He noticed Tantrum and a few Maximals engaged in battle near by, but his orders had been to keep Optimus occupied. He had lost sight of Optimus after the explosion, but he had to find him again. Leaving Tantrum and Buster to deal with the Maximals for themselves, he headed off to search the debris for the fallen Maximal leader.

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

Arachnitron continued her trek through the tree tops to the fallen stasis pod. Having come across none of the Maximals stopping her from reaching the pod, she arrived at the fallen pod with ease. From her place in the trees, Arachnitron could hear the voices of Airazor and Cheetor.

Cheetor and Airazor circled around in the sky before landing in the area. She watched them approach the pod. She pulled her weapon and was about to open fire to keep them from getting the protoform when she heard Cheetor's voice.

"Empty?.. Did the Preds get here first?" he asked himself aloud.

Not having any back up, that she knew of, Arachnitron thought it best to put away her weapon and not engage the Maximals. There was no way she could take both Maximals down on her own, so she quietly turned back to assist Tarantulas with the Maximals that he was dealing with.

She thought it odd that the protoform wasn't there. Cheetor thought that the Predacons had gotten their first, but she hadn't. As far as she knew no one else from her party had been to the pod, but maybe Umbra or Spineback had been there and left with the protoform. Another possibility was that the pod were empty. Suddenly, the tarantula's voice came over her comm link.

"Tarantulas to everyone, have any of you reached the pod yet? Is it secure?"

Arachnitron clicked on her comm link. "Arachnitron to Tarantulas," she responded. "I've been to the pod, but the Maximals got there first. The thing is....the pod is empty. They don't have the protoform and neither do I. Perhaps Umbra or Spineback retrieved the protoform, but they weren't at the pod when I was there. I'm heading back to your position, unless you have other orders. Arachnitron out."

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

Cheetor gave a nod, "I'm on it!" he responded, turning in the direction of the coordinates given by Airazor, he spoke up Vehicle mode! transforming to his cheetah mode with his cyber thrust wings popping out of his sides, he took to the air giving a snarl.

Dinobot nodded and watched the young cheetah race off to assist the falcon with the pod. Dinobot turned towards Ironclaw.

"Let's go," he said as he raced off in the direction of the missile shots that he could hear from a clearing in the forest.

When he arrived at the scene, Frilla was engaged in battle with Tarantulas. The spider was sending return fire her way. He was more skilled than Frilla, but Frilla, though small, would be able to handle herself against the spider. With Dinobot to back her up, they should be able to neutralize the situation.

Dinobot was uncomfortable not knowing how many Predacons there were in the area. With Tarantulas here, Arachnitron was sure to be near by. So there were, at the very least, two Predacons in the area. Megatron would not have been such a fool as to send the two back stabbing spiders by themselves. There would be at least one more trusted Predacon to watch their every move! He or she would either be headed towards Cheetor and Airazor or headed to Dinobot to back him up. He was sure they would find out soon enough how many Predacons there really were in the forest.

"Cheetor, have you arrived at the stasis pod?" Dinobot asked over the comm.

Dinobot aimed his eye lasers at Tarantulas as he waited for a reply from Cheetor.

[DarkSpark]

OOC: I feel like a newb for asking this, but is Megatron's tailgun a fusion cannon like G1 Megatron's or is it a plasma cannon?

Blackrose wrote: Arachnitron clicked on her comm link. "Arachnitron to Tarantulas," she responded. "I've been to the pod, but the Maximals got there first. The thing is....the pod is empty. They don't have the protoform and neither do I. Perhaps Umbra or Spineback retrieved the protoform, but they weren't at the pod when I was there. I'm heading back to your position, unless you have other orders. Arachnitron out."

"BLAST!" Tarantulas hissed, hating the idea of having gone to all this trouble for nothing, though despite his anger he knew in the back of his mind that the missing protoform could still be in the area, and may or may not possess its maximal memories and programming, much like Quickstrike, so there was still hope to salvage this mess.

"Spineback! Umbra! Did either of you retrieve the protoform? If not, be on alert, we don't know if the protoform in question will retain its original programming or not." Tarantulas informed his other underlings, even while he continued to fire at the maximal lizard pestering him.

Blackrose wrote: Dinobot nodded and watched the young cheetah race off to assist the falcon with the pod. Dinobot turned towards Ironclaw.

"Let's go," he said as he raced off in the direction of the missile shots that he could hear from a clearing in the forest.

When he arrived at the scene, Frilla was engaged in battle with Tarantulas. The spider was sending return fire her way. He was more skilled than Frilla, but Frilla, though small, would be able to handle herself against the spider. With Dinobot to back her up, they should be able to neutralize the situation.

Dinobot was uncomfortable not knowing how many Predacons there were in the area. With Tarantulas here, Arachnitron was sure to be near by. So there were, at the very least, two Predacons in the area. Megatron would not have been such a fool as to send the two back stabbing spiders by themselves. There would be at least one more trusted Predacon to watch their every move! He or she would either be headed towards Cheetor and Airazor or headed to Dinobot to back him up. He was sure they would find out soon enough how many Predacons there really were in the forest.

"Cheetor, have you arrived at the stasis pod?" Dinobot asked over the comm.

Dinobot aimed his eye lasers at Tarantulas as he waited for a reply from Cheetor.

Tarantulas hissed in pain and surprise as Dinobot's eye beams struck his stomach, the spider returning fire with his cyber venom blaster as he nursed the burn mark on his abs.

"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" Tarantulas instructed Arachnitron as he fired one last barrage of missiles at his two attackers before returning to beast mode and jetting away across the rough and wet terrain of the forest as best he could on his wheels, sticking to as many dry spots as possible.

"Spineback, Umbra, lock on to Arachnitron's and my own coordinates, Dinobot and Frilla should not be far behind and who knows who else, we'll confront them first and then seek out the missing protoform" Tarantulas commanded, deciding killing the competition first would be more prudent than searching for the missing protoform aimlessly while the enemy was interfering at every turn.

Phoenix wrote: "Good effort, rodent," she told him as she staggered backwards a few steps, a few surges still running rampant through her systems, "But ultimately futile. You've just exchanged one demise for another."

Her voice grew colder as she said those last few words and as she spoke, she swiftly exchanged the sword for her firearm instead. She then proceeded to take aim, only to realize her arm felt numb and heavy. Groaning as she realized the electric jolt had forced a number of her nanites to reboot, temporarily leaving her unprotected and feeling weak and miserable, not exactly the ideal condition to continue to fight. She did a quick survey of her surroundings. It appeared that Terrorsaur had gone down, leaving her effectively without backup against several Maximals. Contemplating her options, Nemesis slowly lowered her weapon.

Terrorsaur, battered and bruised but still functional, finally pried himself out of the rock and returned to the sky, spotting Nemesis having difficulties with Landslide and Rattrap.

"Payback time bug" Terrorsaur whispered to himself as he jetted forward and fired his eye beams at Landslide's grenade launcher, intending to leave the bug vulnerable for a counter attack by Nemesis, or at least giving her a chance to get out of the way so he could bombard the bug with his missiles

Phoenix wrote: Nexus did not stand still as Megatron once again went on the offensive, sidestepping the incoming beam as it scorched the side of his already dented and ripped armor. In fact he moved quite effortlessly for someone of his age, as if the old admiral for a time forgot to take care, only to regret it as the slight limp he had when walking returned moments later. And for a brief moment he even appeared to smile, almost showing signs of enjoying this encounter. Even to someone who knew the old Maximal this behavior would perhaps seem a bit perplexing.

Then the admiral did something even more confusing. Raising his spiked mace, Nexus suddenly lunged at Megatron, striking his mace against the tyrant's weapon with a speed, strength, and precision that even someone half his own age would have been jealous of. Again and again he struck, apparently oblivious to his own injuries, his body in a rapid continuous motion as he delivered one forceful blow after another. And he did not stop. The expression on his face was almost unreadable, alternating with pure rage to enjoyment to almost dutiful.

That is until the a deafening sound coming from where the Akira had been caused him to halt in his tracks, forcing him to take his optics off his target for a few moments.

Megatron cursed as Nexus managed to evade his blast despite Megatron having shot up the ground around his feet before hand. The maximal had been scorched and had a limp, but that didn't stop him from rushing the predacon tyrant and attacking him with his mace, Megatron forced to counter with his tail gun yet again, using it to block and counter Nexus blow for blow. The maximal was old and already wounded, yet fought with a strength and ferocity of a much younger bot, perplexing Megatron nearly as much as it enraged him, reading his enemy's face and its ever changing emotions, wondering what this old war horse' story was exactly, was his outdated frame just in that good of shape? Was he insane? Or was there something more going on that met the eye...Either way, as long as he could be the one who ended his story it would all be the same to Megatron in the end.

Finally however, Megatron saw his opportunity to end this annoying stalement as the maximal berserker was distracted by the sound of his own ship going up.

"The Admiral should go down with his ship, yessss" Megatron spat as he snaked a clawed foot behind Nexus' to trip him up, punched him in the face with his free hand, and then fired several beam shots right at his torso.

[Phoenix]

The brief distraction from the exploding ship provided Megatron with the opportunity he needed, his cannon centering in on the chest of the older combatant.

"The Admiral should go down with his ship, yessss"

Hearing Megatron's words, Nexus immediately looked back just in time to realize his mistake. But it was too late, the cannon had already fired, and the impact forced the admiral to stagger back several steps as he grunted in surprise and pain. Immediately bringing his free hand up to cover the surely now gaping hole in his chest, Nexus sent the tyrant an exasperated glare. It quickly faded, however, as the thick smoke from the crash site began drifting towards them. His hand still covering his chest, refusing to show Megatron the extent of the damage he had inflicted upon him, the admiral maintained a standing position.

His optics narrowing, his shoulder mounted cannons moving into position, Nexus addressed Megatron a final time.

"Do not mistake this for a victory. This battle is far from over."

And with those words he fired his dual cannons at Megatron, making sure to aim for both his chest and his knee to prevent the Predacon from blocking both with that shield of his. As soon as he had fired the shots, he then transformed and sped off towards the crash site. He'd lost sight of Optimus and his precious ship now lay in a smoldering heap. Anger began to overwhelm him as he sped closer.

This was not happening!

(ooc: Will post for Nem and Aurora as soon as Rattrap and Tantrum have replied)

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

The once shiny, blue and silver gorilla was now burnt and covered in black soot. As he slowly came to surrounded by some trees that survived the blast, his bright pink eyes flickered on-line and blinked as his internal system started running diagnostics, and he could feel Whitegrazer's presence again. Optimus groaned lightly as he started to move and regain consciousness, realizing that the battle they had all been engaged in might still be in full force. It sounded quieter for the moment now that the Akira and its weapons were completely blown to scrap, but that reminded him that he never saw his Maximals escape the vessel from his angle in the air, Orcariner had also been nearby it when it blew apart, and Nexus might still be battling Megatron. And where was Inferno? Did he get caught in the fire ball as well? All of these revelations pushed him to pick himself up.

Moving his arms to place the palms of his hands on the ground as if doing a push-up, he nearly fell over to the left from a shot of pain that numbed his left arm. Using his right side, Primal sat up and examined his wound. There was a piece of shrapnel from the Akira lodged into the side of his upper chest, just below his arm, but without hesitation, he grabbed it with his right hand and yanked it out. Growling deeply from the pain as he clenched his teeth, trying to keep quiet using some of Whitegrazer's techniques to cope with the anguish so as not to draw any attention, Optimus threw the shrapnel aside and covered the gash with his hand. Taking it off of his wound, he looked at his hand and saw only a little bit of mechanical fluid on it. That was a relief. Nothing vital had been hit but it certainly felt painful with every move he made. Over all, he looked worse than he was. Getting up on his short legs, he looked around his surroundings. Every twist with his torso, every stretch with his chest or arm pulled on his wound but he inhaled and exhaled deeply and pressed on, trying to ignore it. His pain didn't matter, he had to continue leading this fight and make sure the rest of his team was all right.

Maximizing, the wound visible no matter which mode he was in, the Maximal leader stepped lightly around the trees until he came to a clearing and observed the rest of the burning wreckage and what little was left of the legendary ship. The sight saddened him but he could only imagine what Nexus must be feeling now. That ship had served him for many years only to come down to this, a burning slap heap on a prehistoric planet never to be seen or flown again. Primal spotted Aurora and Whitegrazer not far from his location, which was a huge relief for him, but Orcariner looked as though he may have been injured in the explosion. And was Whitegrazer about to take on Tantrum and Buster by herself? Not on his watch. Optimus was about to dash off and help her with them when he spotted Inferno near some burning wreckage, the heat and smoke skewing his body. Was he still searching for him? Time for the predator to become the prey, he thought, growing intolerant of this battle as he watched one Maximal after another taking damage. Someone else was traveling quickly toward the Akira's final resting place, and a wall of smoke blocked his vision, but judging by the sound, it was likely to be Nexus in his alternate mode rushing in to mourn his lost vessel.

Optimus started walking toward Inferno, almost casually. Then he grabbed his gun from his hip and lifted it up with his right arm - his good arm. The Maximal targeted the tall, red Predacon and began firing at his legs and torso as he continued to walk toward him, one shot after another and another and another and another and so on.

-----

Rattrap might have looked as almost surprised as Nemesis did when she freaked out about the taser and jumped back off of him. It was a miracle! And it didn't take him long to jump on the opportunity of scrambling to his feet, grabbing his gun with his free hand and getting out of her reach.

"Good effort, rodent," "But ultimately futile. You've just exchanged one demise for another."

Standing back, he watched her deny what was really taking affect with her, trying to threaten him with her gun as he stood there aiming at her as well, but it didn't last. Rattrap's chin must have hit the ground as he witnessed, rather unbelievably, Nemesis look around and then lower her weapon. Was she surrendering? About to retreat? Or was it just a distraction?

"Well, well, well. Big bad birdie has a weakness after all," the rodent said as a smile slowly grew on his face.

I think yer callin' a bluff lass.. The offer still stands.. Now git!

Rattrap was about reinforce what Landslide said to Nemesis when he noticed a silhouette in the sky and then an attack on his new friend. "Landslide!" he shouted and motioned with the taser in his hand toward Terrorsaur so he wouldn't have to take his aim off of Nemesis. After all, he knew how much she enjoyed pouncing on unsuspecting and vulnerable victims, like a cat.

[Wintersong]

((Finally have a chance to post but still waiting on Worpex to post for Manterror.))

"Wait wouldn't a water route be faster than..."Before Spineback could finish her protest she found herself scooped up by Umbra and having to hang on to the cephalopod as he began jumping through the trees. For a creature meant for the water he was rather nimble moving through the tree tops where as Spineback knew she'd be faster on land or water. Her form wasn't built for this kind of traveling and not like she would have had a choice in the matter. The femme was just along for the ride for now.

But as she heard Tarantulas over the com. links she was surprised to hear the word traitors in that sentence. The Predacons already had traitors in this war? She certainly had missed a lot but would certainly enjoy teaching them a lesson or two when it came to the pod. "Well, this mission is finally getting exciting hopefully. But I think I'll leave the tree traveling to you and the spiders Umbra. This isn't quite what I had in mind for quick travel." She said, sounding partially excited and slightly nervous with being this high in the air. She wasn't scared of heights but that didn't mean being high up made her uncomfortable.

[New Moon]

Frilla growled as she ducked down behind a tree trunk for cover, trying to avoid her body decorating the landscape next. Though another perk of being small was you could sometimes be a hard target to fire on. Even then though it never was a guarantee to work all the time. Leaning around the corner the frilled lizard managed to fire a few shots while she could, figuring by now it had given her teammates enough time to get to the pod first. But a hiss escapes her as a few shots blasted into her shoulder and arm causing her to lose her grip and drop her blaster and forcing her to take cover yet again from the firing.

A short minute later though she heard the sound of Tarantulas racing by but not before someone blasted him. Standing and looking from her cover Frilla looked with relief to see Dinobot and Ironclaw arrive in time. "Perfect timing guys, unfortunately I didn't have many snappy comebacks to make the run. Or Rattrap's stench." She said with a faint smile but glanced back to where the spider had gone, "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."She said in a more serious tone as she retrieved her blaster and transformed back to beast mode.

Though Frilla began to wonder if she should resort to her Electro-scrambler for this mission. After seeing what happened to Nemisis, despite being an enemy, it somewhat made her hesitate to use it again.

~~~~~~~~~~

Feralnight only nodded and allowed Rhinox to work with whatever needed to be done. She didn't complain with anything but it did make her angered that she was basically being a spy for the Predacons without being aware of it. Of course, not like it wasn't new to her really just annoying that she had no knowledge of it for this long and Primus only knew what they had heard. Trying not to think of it the femme fuzor waited patiently for the rhinoceros to finish before looking over when the virus was gone and her communications returned to normal.

But his mention of traumatic memories or ones of being repressed she merely shook her head. "No it's fine Rhinox. I'm sure it's nothing major to worry about, and honestly I sometimes wish memories could be modified at times." Feralnight assured him but mumble the rest to almost being inaudible but it was obvious in her pained expression there was some things she wanted to forget. But that was likely to never happen so she was quite satisfied to just have the virus gone. So she slowly sat up, wondering if that was all that was needed. "Guess Primal won't be ecstatic to hear about that virus though. I can only figure it happened with my encounter with Glowstick, he was the sneaky type." She said, suspecting that was the only way she got the virus.

[starshadow]

((OOC: FINALLY OUT OF WRITER'S BLOCK! HERE COMES FEMALE SONAR WITH BLEACHED FUR!))

Saber escaping a swift death was indeed a disappointment to Starshadow. The catbot pouted and dived down to the sabertooth while she was distracted with Nemesis. Adjusting her thrusters' position, she charged up her right foot with a high voltage of electricity and set the thrusters' power to the maximum, landing a hard kick on her jaws, breaking one of her long front teeth, "letting one's guard down is one of the huge mistakes a maximal could do when I'm around.." Noticing the tooth that was lying on the ground made her smirk.

"What do we have here? A souvenir! I'll take that as payment for your dental treatment. Hm...then again, I could just make it an accessory," and with that, she burst out laughing.