The Intergalactic Highway

"Let's finish where we left off, shall we?"

The beast was not all intimidated by the way it's target began to glow, nothing mattered but the thrill of the hunt then the kill. And the one the beast was looking at would be frist to sample it's claws and teeth.

It crouched infront of the glowing cat as drool dripped from it jaws as it was looking forward to ripping it's prey to pieces. It unsheathed it's claws and readied itself to pounce.

A loud concussive boom caused the beast to flinch and stumble sideways at the force of the shockwave.

((My sister has been super busy lately, but i'll send her a message to get her butt onto the site. She just adopted a cat so she hasn't had a lot of free time!)

"1, 2, 3...Fire"

Airazor!

Airazor saw Tarantulas' shot immediately, since she happened to be looking in that direction already. For once, her instincts were right! Without delay, she fired a round from her own weapon to intercept the cybervenom shot. The falcon felt like a trained marksmen as her bullet and the venom collided in mid-air, blowing them both apart in a small explosion. Although she hesitated to admire her own work for a second, she quickly realized it wasn't the best plan and rolled towards some trees for cover. Luckily, the Predicon's didn't return fire... yet.

Once she had a chance to take a better look at the battlefield, she realized why the preds didn't continue to hit her. The protoform had come and began to attack the predicons! She was glad for the assistance and also glad that it was not reprogrammed. Thankful for the help, Airazor used the time she was granted wisely. She inched out of her cover just enough for her to line up a good shot. Using her right arm, she activated her wrist-mounted missiles and acquired a target. Arachnitron. Target Lock Her computer's voice told her inside her head, and she proceeded to launch both of her missiles towards their predicon destination. A faint smile lit up the falcon's features before she returned to cover behind the tree.

---



Manterror noticed Rattrap jogging towards his location and decided to switch targets without actually thinking about any possible consequences of his action. His blades already held at the ready, he slung a series of razor blades towards the Maximal rodent. Within seconds, the predicon completely forgot about Wintersong. "BAHAHHAAHAHAH!!!!! DIE FUZZBALL!!!" He screamed in anger. Rattrap seemed to be the one who always took the annoying predicon down, so for once, he hoped to return the favor!!!

(( OOC: Lest we forget, DarkSpark, that the real Boss Monkey is in new "Godzilla". I'm so stoked! I can't wait to see it this weekend. Go Garry! ))

"Optimus!,"

He thought he heard his name between his shots at Inferno but he continued attacking the red ant relentlessly while he kept approaching him, trying not to give the Predacon any opportunities to fire back.

However, the blackened and beat-up Maximal leader stopped firing at Inferno when he was surprised to see Megatron retreating as well as Tantrum. Nexus appeared not far behind the pyro, which was a site for his sore eyes. Surely the Predacons still had more than enough fire power to do a lot more damage to their adversaries, but Optimus couldn't complain at this turn of events. Megatron had made certain that Nexus and Primal's crew weren't going anywhere now that the Akira had been obliterated and perhaps that's all he was really aiming for at this point. He did not doubt that the TransMetal t-rex would return to try and finish them off with more assistance at his side at a later time. The Commander wasn't even sure if Whitegrazer and Aurora had obtained anything useful from the ship before Tantrum had opened fire on it.

As the Predacons turned their backs and began fleeing, Primal holstered his gun to his hip and walked toward his Maximals and the Admiral to regroup and gather status reports. His large wound across the side of his chest was a nagging pain with every turn of his upper body as his arms swayed with each step, but feeling Whitegrazer's warmth from her spark helped sooth it to an extent. And he hoped that would help relieve any concern she had for him. He had no idea what other injuries Nexus may have sustained from battling Megatron, as well as Orcariner who had grown dangerously quiet. He caught sight of Silverbolt swooping over head and regrouping with the others as well. As the distance closed between himself and his mentor, Optimus' face grew concerned while he visually examined his horrible wounds. Although it was no surprise that Megatron had taken a toll on Nexus as the primary target that he was, it still fumed the Maximal to see his teacher in such terrible condition in such a short time after his arrival.

"Are you all right, Nexus?" Primal asked with worry. Knowing him, though, he'd probably brush it off and say he was fine or that he enjoyed the rough interaction with the Predacon renegade. Optimus never found any pleasure every time he bumped into the Predacon leader, but it had been some time since he actually fought him one-on-one; long before Megatron had a hand in blowing him up in space with Vok's planet buster. "There's no denying how bothered Megatron was just by your presence," he said in a lighter tone. He didn't think he could ever instill such fear into the tyrant like Nexus did. Megatron probably still saw Optimus as a joke and a minor nuisance, however, Primal was still there and in his way after all this time. "I'm... I'm sorry about your vessel, Nexus," he offered his condolences more seriously.

"Status report, guys," he called over his comm. link to the mare and both Fuzors who were not too far from them but there was a lot of burning debris that crackled between them and left over walls of the lost vessel that were slowly melting and collapsing to the ground. "And where is Orcariner?" he inquired.

-----

With Landslide taking a heavy beating from Terrorsaur and Nemesis, watching his knee take a blow, Rattrap was on the verge of calling a retreat. The pod had been destroyed, which hadn't even one been of the Axalon's anyway, and it had either arrived empty or the protoform that may have survived was long gone or in hiding. Either way, as much as he had wanted to examine the mysterious pod's wreckage, they couldn't keep fighting these Predacons who seemed all but invincible.

"BAHAHHAAHAHAH!!!!! DIE FUZZBALL!!!"

"Fuzzball? I got the mange a long time ago, you psychotic bug!" the TransMetal rodent in robot mode shouted back at Manterror. Still running toward the mantis, Rattrap targeted him with his gun and fired repeatedly at his blades, knocking them off course and strafing the ones that hadn't fallen off their projected paths at him. Hopefully Wintersong had realized that the Spy was using himself as a distraction - which was working - so she could take him down from behind and force the Pred to quit and retreat. Granted, the tigress looked pretty well beat up, but he was certain she still had some fight left in her. If not, he had another demo charge he could use on Manty since Winter had plenty of boulders to find cover behind.

((Sorry for being long guys, just got back from Kansas Sunday and have been dealing with a severe migraine the last two and half days, going on three today. But will get posts in while I can.))

Wintersong was hoping the bug would give up the fight eventually, run out of saw blades, or she just happen to get a stroke of luck for an idea to get away and help her teammates who she could hear were still locked in their own fights across the battle field. She was annoyed and frustrated that the mantis was proving to be a pain in the skid plate right about now and so far nothing she did forced this slagging Pred to take a hint and run. There was nothing to fight for here! Closing her optics the transmetal tigress tried to think the best she could of a new plan of action but that was when she realized the saw blades no longer came her direction and Manterror was yelling at someone else.

Surprised,the tigress stood to see and couldn't be more relieved to see the usually annoying rat right about now. 'Couldn't have better timing rat.' She thought with an inward smile but now saw this was her chance to finally get a strike in. Hopefully this would be the final strike and the motivation Manterror needed to buzz off and retreat, hopefully with his comrades. "Beast mode!" Wintersong growled as she transformed and leapt over the boulder to ran towards Manterror who seemed to have forgotten her already which was fine by her. Tough as he was she was getting sick of being nearly chopped to small Maximal bits and thought it was time for a little payback as she rushed towards the mantis and let out a snarl as she lunged at his back, claws ready to dig into his armor upon contact. That's if he didn't dodge her by then.

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

"Not quite Octo-ninja, I prefer keeping my feet firmly on ground or nowadays moving through the waters on this planet." Spineback responded, chuckling slightly and glad that Umbra, unlike a majority of the Predacons, had at least some sense of humor which was a nice change compared to where she had originally been. Even as a Decepticon. For now though she was glad to be back on her feet and merely grinned, "Besides if I wanted to be among the clouds and flying around the tree tops I would have gotten an aerial form rather than this one." She added jokingly but paused as she heard Tarantulas calling for their aid, obviously from the Maximals no doubt coming around. So it was about time they met face-to-face with their foes and she watched Umbra once again taking to the air. "I'll be right behind you."

With that she began running towards the sounds she heard of the battle, raising her arm to prepare her primary weapon she had which was her Plasma Sphere Shooter, one that had served her well in the last war and hopefully in this one. Before long though she came upon where the pod had crash landed, or at least where it had been before it went up in flames and it was clear the protoform had indeed picked their allegiance. "Quite a shame." She muttered as she raised her weapon without hesitating a second more and began firing in the direction Tarantulas and Arachnitron had fired, aiming for any spots the Maximals might be though she soon saw the Maximal cheetah in her sights, just recovering form the explosion of the pod. "Ah, the kitty cat from the swamp." She smirked then as she aimed her attentions towards the cheetah, seeing he wasn't paying attention to others who might join the fray and began firing off in his direction since he became the most obvious target for her.

OOC: Here are my characters' posts. Again, sorry for the wait!

BIC:

Arachnitron was surprised to hear Tarantulas' response to her transmission.

“Negative, I'm faster so I'm meet you, be prepared though, the traitors Dinobot and Frilla will be in pursuit. Try to take out at least one of the maximals who've arrived at the pod while you have the element of surprise on your side, the others and myself will meet to back you up”

“Okay, I will,” she responded over her comm and then clicked it off.

She had decided not to stay in the area where the pod and the Maximals were so she had already traveled away from there, but she didn't tell Tarantulas that. She was expecting that he would need her help with the Maximals. She turned around and headed back to the location of the two Maximals at the pod. Arachnitron was just deciding who, strategically, would be the best to start shooting at when Tarantulas came up behind her.

“Greetings...Cheetor is transmetal like myself and can fly now, but lacks firepower in that form, whereas Airazor, despite lacking his upgrades, has a flying robot mode. She's the more dangerous of the two despite his speed, so we should endeavor to take her out so she can't pick us off from the sky. You snipe the cat, I'll take the bird. 1, 2, 3...Fire....”

Arachnitron nodded to signal that she understood the orders and prepared her weapon to fire at Cheetor, but before she could, Tarantulas was shot by some kind of sound blast and knocked out of the trees! She noticed a large, white bat in the trees! Where did she come from?! She figured it must have been the protoform from the stasis pod.

Tarantulas frantically radioed for assistance from Umbra and Spineback and then turned towards Arachnitron.

“Get the bat Arachnitron!”

Arachnitron changed her target as Tarantulas barked out the new orders, but the instant that she did, one of Airrazor's wrist mounted missiles whizzed towards her. It knocked her out of the trees and into the brush below!

From her new position in the bushes, Arachnitron raised her cybervenom launcher and fired at Airrazor hoping that once she was knocked out of the sky, she could return her attention to the new Maximal.

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

Dinobot was a bit disappointed to have only gotten one good shot off in Tarantulas' direction. The eight-legged freak scurried off into the woods in front of them before he or Ironclaw could even do any damage to the Predacon.

"Perfect timing guys, unfortunately I didn't have many snappy comebacks to make the run. Or Rattrap's stench."

“And for that we are all grateful,” Dinobot responded with a sly grin.

"But I'd say we hurry and give the others back up there's no telling who else might be with that psychotic spider aside from Arachnitron or Blackarachnia."

Dinobot's grin faded. He, too, realized that Tarantulas was, without a doubt, headed towards the location of the stasis pod. Cheetor and Airrazor would need back up soon. And where there was one spider, there was bound to be another...at least. He half hoped that Arachnitron had been sent elsewhere and that he'd only have to deal with Tarantulas and Blackarachnia. After their last encounter with her, Dinbot and the other Maximals were privy to witnessing the mental deterioration of the young spider. She was confused and delusional, but worst of all, Tarantulas had somehow convinced her that she needed him. Dinobot could only guess that Tarantulas was to Arachnitron what Megatron was to Inferno....the fuel behind the fire. Tarantulas was mad enough on his own, Dinobot didn't need two lunatic Predacons to deal with.

Dinobot snarled in response to Frilla. “Affirmative. We should....”

But before he was able to finish his thought, Cheetor's voice came over the comms.

“Cheetor to Dinobot, I've arrived at the stasis pod. It seems to be empty.. But there's something moving around in the trees, we're going to investigate. Over.”

“Negative, Cheetor,” Dinobot responded. “it could be an ambush. Wait for back up.”

About two or three seconds later, Cheetor's voice could be heard over the commlink again.

“Cheetor to Dinobot, Airazor and I are taking fire from the spiders! Maximal protoform has been found, it seems to be helping us I think.”

Well, that certainly was good news! The protoform, thought to be lost, was found and was not reprogrammed! As far as he was concerned, mission completed! It was time to get out of there and back to base. It was pointless to keep fighting when the most important battle was won: The protoform. But Dinobot didn't want to call a retreat until he was sure that the protoform really was Maximal. They'd regroup at the pod's location, see the protoform's allegiance, and then retreat back to base together. They were leaving together this time.......

“Cheetor, we are on our way to your location to provide back up! Hold your ground until we get there!”

Dinobot clicked off the comm link and motioned towards Cheetor's coordinates.

“Let's go!” he said to the others and lead them to where the pod had fallen.

As he neared the location of the fallen pod, he sent a few warning shots from his eye lasers into the fray of the battle, not necessarily intending to hit anyone just hoping that the Predacons would scatter once they saw that reinforcements had arrived.

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

Inferno continued to dig through the debris for the Maximal leader.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are, Optimus Primal!” Inferno taunted laughing manically.

After a few more moments of searching, Optimus stood up from where he had landed. Inferno was a few hundred klicks away. He laughed again, but then noticed Optimus grab his gun from his hip and target the fire ant! Before he could respond, Optimus shot at the ant one shot after another after another.

The first shot knocked Inferno off his feet, he landed in a smoldering heap amongst the debris of the demolished Maximal ship. Inferno tried to stand up to return fire, but the next shot knocked him back down and damaged his flying mechanisms. He'd have to remain within the debris until he was able to fly again.

Allowing his internal computer to begin repairs on his propellers, Inferno grabbed the nearest piece of the fallen aircraft to use as a shield as more of Optimus' shots landed around the red ant.

"Attention all Predacons, return to base! We've accomplished what we came here to do, let the Maximals wallow in their misery for now, we shall return in force to finish them off later, Megatron out!”

Inferno heard Megatron's orders over his comm link and decided to turn to retreat, but he noticed another Maximal blocking his path! Inferno attempted to shoot the Maximal blocking his path out of the way, but Optimus shot the weapon out of his hand!

“It's your turn to burn, Maximals!” Inferno shouted from his place behind his shield. He pulled out his flamethrower weapon and lit the surrounding debris on fire!

The fire must have worked to deter the Maximals because all at once, the shooting stopped! The flames around Inferno did not allow him to see that the shooting had stopped because Optimus had turned his attention else, so feeling proud of himself, Inferno dropped the shield to utter his usual, “FOR THE ROALTY!”, but the flames around him engulfed him in just a few seconds!

Screaming in pain, Inferno ran from the flames still unable to fly. Greatly damaged by the big ape's firepower and burnt to a crisp, the red ant fled the battle and headed towards the Predacon base leaving a trail of smoke behind him!

OOC: Edited to include Inferno's post!!!

Starshadow was knocked to the ground by the bomb's shockwave but it was not enough to turn her attention to the rat. She stood up and focused on Saber again, directing the electricity flow to her claws and run towards the sabertooth, swiping it on her face. ((Sorry, not much to post for Star.)

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"Spineback, Umbra, we require backup on the double, the protoform has assumed the form of a bat and has chosen a side...Poorly."

Xychona avoided the blast with ease and narrowed at the larger spider.

Cheetor to Dinobot, Airazor and I are taking fire from the spiders! Maximal protoform has been found, it seems to be helping us I think.

"I should correct you that I am not a Maximal neither am I a protoform. Terrorize!" she transformed in mid-air, landing on her feet in between the Maximals and Predacons and stood up with a serious look on her face. Her fur was white, her armor was silver in color, optics were glowing in a color of pastel yellow and her lips were glossy teal.

"My name..is Xychona, but you can call me Banshee. I am a Predacon and a member of the Axalon exploration crew," she looked at both factions and sighed quietly, "even though I'm a Predacon, I abhor violence. Now stop this little brawl of yours and return to your respective bases before I'm forced to cripple you."

((OOC: LOL ))

Whitegrazer noticed that some of the Predacons were withdrawing and looked at Aurora and Silverbolt with a smile, "The Predacons are retreating." She held a sigh of relief, but she watched as Inferno fired the area around Optimus and Nexus with flames. It was hard to see them two as the walls were high and scattered around. She went into action as she pulled out the cryodriver to try at least to lessen the burning flames as she heard Optimus calling them, "Orcariner is with us. Aurora has been busy fixing some damage he had sustained. Aurora, Silverbolt and I are all right. How are you and Nexus?" She asked with concern as she still couldn't get a good visual on them still. She felt bad about the destruction of the Akira as she wished she had done better to secure it, but she held a gratefulness to it as it had protected Aurora and her while it was still functional.

((OOC: Still don't know about BA yet. XD I will post something maybe when I'm not so mentally exhausted. XDDDD Been so busy on working on a novel for a contest and I didn't realize how exhausting it can be. ))

Dinobot wrote:“Cheetor, we are on our way to your location to provide back up! Hold your ground until we get there!”

Cheetor heard Dinobot respond, looking around as he stood up, only to notice a bright ball of light flying at him from the woods from Spineback's plasma sphere shooter, looking almost like the plasma globes from Spensers being fired at him. Cheetor rushed out of the way as the shot came near and passed him, striking some trees behind him. He kneeled down taking cover behind a tree, bringing his arms together about to attempt firing back as he then noticed the white bat had transformed and landed in the middle of the battlefield.

Xychona wrote:"I should correct you that I am not a Maximal neither am I a protoform. Terrorize!" "My name..is Xychona, but you can call me Banshee. I am a Predacon and a member of the Axalon exploration crew," "even though I'm a Predacon, I abhor violence. Now stop this little brawl of yours and return to your respective bases before I'm forced to cripple you."

Cheetor blinked for a moment listening to Xychona. Another Predacon? At this rate there were more predacons coming out of the stasis pods then Maximals, though the name did seem familiar to him. But another Pred that disliked violence.. it wasn't exactly the same as Onyx or Frilla, but for the situation he'd take what he could get.

He then unlinked his arms from their 'gun' configuration and sprung forward from his crouch behind the tree, darting across the battlefield to Xychona. These guys don't listen to reason Xychona! We're just an open target out here, come on! Cheetor then took one of Xychona's hands trying to lead her from the center of the battlefield.

___________________________________

Umbra landed down in the tree tops, then drew his rifle as he noticed the female bat had landed in the opening and transformed. HIs own camo kicked in, taking the pattern of the leaves around him as he brought his Gauss rifle to his shoulder, about to look down his scope as he then noticed the laser blast come up from behind his position.

Umbra twisted 180 degrees at the waist as he looked back though his rifle towards Dinobot, Ironclaw, and Frilla heading towards the battlefield. He activated his comlink Warning, 3 Maximals are flanking our position from behind. I'd advise spreading out.. otherwise we're putting ourselves into their pincer strike. Turning off his comlink mic, he then focused his aim on Dinobot.

Assuming the dinosaur was leading this party as from his past experience, Dinobot seemed fit for the role from his display of intelligence and strength. Had Dinobot still be with Megatron, Umbra wondered if the Predacons would of had better chances of assured victory, though Megatron himself seemed to have issues with keeping competent soldiers under his command..

Umbra fired off his rifle, sending a near silent poison tipped spike down range at Dinobot. Though the damage and poison weren't that strong,it'd atleast slow him down abit.

((OOC: Orcariner and Buster are back, and feeling a little disappointed with Godzilla. They will now resume their duties in the RPG to distract them from the feels that they got from seeing a movie that didn't live up to their expectations.))

BIC:

Whitegrazer wrote:"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,"

Orcariner murmured, "What is she..."

That was a ludicrous idea. Whitegrazer was not durable enough to go toe-to-toe with someone as immense as Tantrum. Even the giant orca was barely capable of holding his own the last time he fought the Predacon to a stalemate. He wanted to rush to her aid, but the ship's explosion had caught him off guard and forced him to the ground. Aurora, the smallest of Maximals, was doing her best to address his injuries, but to him they were irrelevant at the moment. Whitegrazer's safety was his top priority and he would not stand to see her throw away her life for him.

"Thanks," he said to the fuzor, "But I have a fight to... finish?"

Much to his surprise, Tantrum had transformed and retreated. Orcariner's jaw had dropped seeing Whitegrazer still boldly standing. He had no idea what she said or did to the Predacon, but he was now running away.

That's... remarkable.

Walking up to the equine Maximal, he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know what you did, but you need to teach me that sometime."

"Orcariner is with us. Aurora has been busy fixing some damage he had sustained. Aurora, Silverbolt and I are all right. How are you and Nexus?"

The large sentry turned and stared at the wreckage. Looking at his scanners, it appeared that all of the Maximals and Predacons within the vicinity were still alive. Whether the fight was over or not, however, was yet to be known.


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


Buster was shocked to see Tantrum transform and roll away from the battlefield. Running after the large tank, he tapped his knuckles on the cow's thick armor.

"What was that all about?" he frantically asked.

It appeared that they were going back to the Predacon lines.

"We had them on the ropes! We coulda smoked 'em into oblivion! We coulda been some pretty hardcore Predacon heroes!"

Granted, Buster had the opportunity to stay back there and continue the fight himself. Yet, without Tantrum's dominating presence, the llama was less than enthusiastic about taking on the horse Maximal alone.

(ooc: You actually had high expectations for a movie about a giant lizard ?)

Aurora drew a silent sigh of relief as her rather large patient got back on his feet, all his important functions apparently online which only left a few minor details that still required repair.

Orcariner wrote:"Thanks,""But I have a fight to... finish?"

Unable to hold back a smile at the utterly confused look on the orca's face, the little fuzor glanced over to where Whitegrazer now stood by herself, the bovine tank having retreated already. "Oh he of little faith," the smaller Maximal teased, albeit her little quip may have sounded more confident than she herself had been mere moments before. Fortunately the Predacon behemoth had decided against harming Whitegrazer, for reasons she wasn't entirely sure of. Perhaps the white mare had gotten to him.. somehow?

Optimus Primal wrote:"Status report, guys,"

The sound of Primal's voice helped ease the uncertainty of the situation further. So far it appeared most of their team had avoided serious damage, which was a huge relief after past experiences.

Whitegrazer wrote: "Orcariner is with us. Aurora has been busy fixing some damage he had sustained. Aurora, Silverbolt and I are all right. How are you and Nexus?"

Aurora glanced in the direction the Predacons were heading to, pondering if the retreat could possibly be part of a scheme Megatron had come up with to take them all off guard. So far it didn't look like it, however, but to be safe Aurora did a quick search for nearby radio signals. Mere static greeted her attempt. Perhaps the Predacons were indeed retreating..

Optimus Primal wrote:"Are you all right, Nexus?"

The old admiral gave his younger colleague a quizzical look as if the question surprised him. It was true that his encounter with the Predacon tyrant had not left him unscathed, however the wounds likely looked much worse than the warrior felt.

"He barely scratched the surface of my armor, old friend," Nexus replied with his most reassuring smile, well.. that had been his intent anyway but he felt as if it came across as a bit more of a grimace than what he wanted. Seeing the obvious concern on Optimus' face, Nexus quickly added, "It probably looks much worse than it is. Please don't worry about me, I'll be fine." As if to prove his point, he moved closer to the younger leader and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.

Optimus Primal wrote:"There's no denying how bothered Megatron was just by your presence,"

"By my presence..," Nexus mused with a slight chuckle, "I think he was more upset by what my presence represents than anything. Bots like him have been fighting for a reversal of the current leadership for some time now, but the Maximal forces are durable to an extent Megatron and his cohorts did not expect."

He grew silent as he contemplated for a moment.

The admiral truly did not recognize himself in the many stories that had been bestowed upon him, upon his honor and legacy. In truth his own troops had no doubt exaggerated his achievements when telling others, but being a living legend certainly did have its perks.

Optimus Primal wrote: "I'm... I'm sorry about your vessel, Nexus,"

A pair of caring, yet tormented optics settled on Optimus. Where his voice was devoid of any saddened emotions, his eyes betrayed him all too easily.

Deciding it futile to hide his frustration over the loss of his ship, Nexus merely nodded knowingly.

"She aided me well during our many adventures, but alas all good things come to an end."


He paused again, this time to glance over at the smoke that was still rising from his beloved Akira. At the same time his hand finally slipped off Optimus' shoulder as he clenched his fists tightly together in remembrance.

"Her loss is admittedly a temporary setback," Nexus continued, straightening out a bit as he spoke. The large wound in his chest was blatantly obvious, the edges uneven and partially melted from the intense heat created by Megatron's weapon, yet it did not appear to bother the intended victim much. "But in the end, that bond that has kept Maximals in control for all this time will prove to be stronger than anything the Predacons have at their disposal to cause harm. We will prevail.. and Megatron knows it. "

Nexus again turned to face the younger commander, a trace of a genuine smile noticeable on his features.

"It appears that our foes have retreated. With your permission, I would like to return to your base with you. It's been a long trip and I'm not as young as I used to be. I could use a little rest..," the old warrior admitted grudgingly.

Landslide wrote:Yer about as much of a lady as I'm a "gentlemen" lass..

This response extracted a laugh from the avian female, her firearm clutched in her hand as she watched every move the giant insect made. His feeble attempt at an insult didn't phase her at all, in fact it was a much kinder statement than most that had been used about her both here on this planet and during her life on the run prior to it.

Her amusement only grew as the bug readied his sword, which appeared to double as a chain saw of sorts, a rather large and evidently durable, yet heavy and cumbersome weapon. No doubt that it was capable of causing quite extensive damage, even to someone like her, if the Maximal had the speed to catch her that is..

Landslide wrote: I'll give ya one thing "lady", you got bigger bearings then Needle nose there.. I wonder how long yer repairs can hold up though..Since that must eat alot of energon and resources..

"Judging by the size of your belly.. so do you," she responded a bit teasingly, readying herself. And sure enough, moments later the larger Maximal lunged towards her with his sword raised. The speed of which he launched his attack was surprisingly quick, however nowhere near the kind of speed that Nemesis herself was capable of. Landslide was larger, bulkier, more heavily armored, all of which slowed his movements down, whereas she was nimble and swift, built for elegance and speed. As the Maximal came closer, his sword raised and ready to strike, Nemesis quickly rolled out of the way and leaped back on her feet just as the heavy sword impacted with the ground. She smirked as she whirled out a leg, placing a well-aimed kick to the back of his left knee. At the same time she aimed her weapon, still loaded with the acid ammo, at the joint on the back of Landslide's other knee. She fired several rounds at her target at close range, keeping her movements up just in case the foolish hero decided to make another attempt at hitting her.

Megatron wrote:"Megatron to Nemesis, come in, status report, now!"

Great timing..

Nemesis was slightly annoyed at the sudden distraction, so she made another quick roll to put a little more distance between herself and the giant insect before responding.

"Currently engaged in combat with one of the Maximal's newer recruits," she responded, leaving the details for later unless Megatron had a good reason for contacting her at this time.

(I actually enjoyed Godzilla. Yeah Pheonix it is about a giant lizard, and what? )

Ironclaw had seperated himself from Frilla and decided to get a different angle on the Predacons. He moved off to the side and went between some trees then came across the edge of the clearing. It was surrounded by tree line with a thick wall of branches and leaves which kept his presence hidden from those within. The badger crept forward and took in the situation that was unfolding infront of him. Ironclaw could see Cheetor in the centre of of it with the protoform. She started speaking, too much for his liking. She the word ' Predacon' in the correct context, which was the only thing he cared about. His cannons deployed and his posture change, conveying the intensity of his emotions. He was ready, she just had to make the wrong move.

Once the ringing in the Beast's ears faded, it turned its attention back to Starshadow. The beast snarled in pain and reared onto its hind legs as claws raked it's face just missing it's eyes. The electric current brought with the attack only served to anger the beast further.

After going back to all fours, the beast launched itself at Starshadow, claws out and ready to tare the smaller cat to shreds.

The pyromaniac had set himself on fire. Talk about irony. With Inferno fleeing the decimated scene, Optimus felt more at ease.

"Orcariner is with us. Aurora has been busy fixing some damage he had sustained. Aurora, Silverbolt and I are all right. How are you and Nexus?"

The Maximal leader was quite relieved and satisfied with Whitegrazer's report. "We're alive," he answered.

"He barely scratched the surface of my armor, old friend,"

Primal's gaze deliberately lowered to the Admiral's chest with a raised brow showing him how unconvinced he was. As serious as his injury appeared to be, Optimus took it as such and didn't bother returning a smile to him.

"It probably looks much worse than it is. Please don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

That's all the Commander did in this war was worry, especially when a friend was wounded. How could he not? He seemed more skeptical when Nexus stepped closer and placed his hand on his shoulder. The burnt leader still wasn't buying it and didn't see the reasoning behind the denial or shame in being so critically injured, but he sighed and let it go. His own injury, a gash not nearly as severe as his mentor's, was dripping a little fluid from it that barely trickled its way down the side his chest to his abdomen. It was nothing lethal by far, just a constant nuisance in its location, but it would eventually require repairs. Perhaps it would be good practice for Aurora's medical skills.

"By my presence..," "I think he was more upset by what my presence represents than anything. Bots like him have been fighting for a reversal of the current leadership for some time now, but the Maximal forces are durable to an extent Megatron and his cohorts did not expect."

Primal fell quiet and simply took in the Admiral's words, and he remained that way in his own musing when Nexus also went silent for a few moments. Then he noticed an emotional change in his teacher's optics when he had offered him his condolences on his fallen ship. This time, Optimus reached over and briefly placed a comforting hand on Nexus's shoulder while the older bot still had his hand on his.

"She aided me well during our many adventures, but alas all good things come to an end."

His attention followed his to the wreckage, and as Nexus finally removed his hand from Primal's shoulder, it took with it some black soot as it smeared off of him. He noticed his hands clench into fists and frowned with empathy.

"Her loss is admittedly a temporary setback,"

Temporary setback? Primal thought. He did realize that he was stranded here now with them for Primus knows how long, didn't he? Nexus didn't seem to have anything else but Optimus, his crew, and the Axalon. His orange optics couldn't help but glance below at the Admiral's chest wound again as he straightened himself, seemingly barely bothered by the pain he must have been feeling. Primal knew agony from wounds like that, and no matter the meditation Whitegrazer could teach him, it would still hurt and feel immensely uncomfortable. So his face grew puzzled, wondering how Nexus was coping with it so well. Had it simply been years of experiencing such wounds and scars that perhaps he had lost some feeling with permanently damaged nerves and data processors?

"But in the end, that bond that has kept Maximals in control for all this time will prove to be stronger than anything the Predacons have at their disposal to cause harm. We will prevail.. and Megatron knows it. "

Maybe he was right. Maybe that was Megatron's greatest fear and that was why he chose to take lives and grow more powerful, trying to channel his own trepidation into the others. In any case, this didn't make him feel any better about their situation.

"It appears that our foes have retreated. With your permission, I would like to return to your base with you. It's been a long trip and I'm not as young as I used to be. I could use a little rest..,"

"Of course, Nexus," Optimus agreed and started walking with him to meet up with the others. "Our CR chambers will be able to easily repair you," he offered him.

Catching up with Whitegrazer, Aurora, Silverbolt and Orcariner, their burnt leader managed a smile to greet them, joyful that they were all relatively okay with minimal damage. Nexus probably looked the worse out of all of them. "Back to Base, guys. There's nothing left here for us," said Primal, but he wasn't entirely disappointed, after all, they had all survived and were leaving with another addition to their team. "Aurora, Whitegrazer, did you manage to salvage anything useful from the Akira?" he inquired as they walked together in the direction of the Axalon.

Phoenix wrote: Great timing..

Nemesis was slightly annoyed at the sudden distraction, so she made another quick roll to put a little more distance between herself and the giant insect before responding.

"Currently engaged in combat with one of the Maximal's newer recruits," she responded, leaving the details for later unless Megatron had a good reason for contacting her at this time.

"It had better not be their NEWEST recruit" Megatron grumbled back to Nemesis, adding "Have you secured the stasis pod? If not do so and return to base! Megatron out."


The maximals had already gained one new ally today, one who was arguably worth more than several protoform recruits, Megatron did not want Primal to gain anymore additional forces to complement the addition of Nexus to their ranks, not that he planned on allowing the old fossil to live for much longer, but adding even more fuel to the fire simply would not do, no.

Opening up his coms again as he drew nearer and nearer to base, Megatron contacted his other field officer and hoped the less than trustworthy arachnid was fairing better than the bird.

"Megatron to Tarantulas, status report! You better have results for me spider, you're skating on thin ice with me as it is..." Megatron snarled, not having forgotten the incident with the mine.

Naitokage wrote: Cheetor blinked for a moment listening to Xychona. Another Predacon? At this rate there were more predacons coming out of the stasis pods then Maximals, though the name did seem familiar to him. But another Pred that disliked violence.. it wasn't exactly the same as Onyx or Frilla, but for the situation he'd take what he could get.

He then unlinked his arms from their 'gun' configuration and sprung forward from his crouch behind the tree, darting across the battlefield to Xychona. These guys don't listen to reason Xychona! We're just an open target out here, come on! Cheetor then took one of Xychona's hands trying to lead her from the center of the battlefield.

Tarantulas cursed, annoyed by the addition of yet another pacifistic predacon to the maximal ranks, eager to wipe her out before she became a nuisance like the raptor and the lizard, and hopefully the bratty feline as well.

Tarantulas fired another barrage of missiles after Xychona and Cheetor, several of them blowing away the stasis pod they'd been using for cover while the rest chased after the moving maximal targets.

It was then that Megatron's message came in and Tarantulas cursed again at the tyrant's timing and said "The mission was doomed from the start Megatron, the protoform had been a predacon from the start, a predacon who willingly serves the maximals!"

"SLAG!!! Just how many wishy washy predacons were stationed on that maximal wreck?! Terminate the traitor, Tarantulas, do not let it join the rest of the turncoats in Primal's employ!" Megatron bellowed before ending the communication.

"I don't need you to tell me that, Tin Tyrant" Tarantulas spat back to no one but himself, as he fired several cyber venom shots after the maximal duo.

OOP wrote:
"Fuzzball? I got the mange a long time ago, you psychotic bug!" the TransMetal rodent in robot mode shouted back at Manterror. Still running toward the mantis, Rattrap targeted him with his gun and fired repeatedly at his blades, knocking them off course and strafing the ones that hadn't fallen off their projected paths at him. Hopefully Wintersong had realized that the Spy was using himself as a distraction - which was working - so she could take him down from behind and force the Pred to quit and retreat. Granted, the tigress looked pretty well beat up, but he was certain she still had some fight left in her. If not, he had another demo charge he could use on Manty since Winter had plenty of boulders to find cover behind.

Leaving the giants to slag each other, Terrorsaur descended from the clouds and made a beeline for Rattrap, figuring he'd be easier prey than the beetle, especially since he was busy with Manterror.

"Surprise vermin!" Terrorsaur crowed as he landed right in front of the rat and punched him square in the face, before drawing his swords and pressing his attack.

"Funny thing about all this? Dinobot will probably regret not hacking you to bits himself after he sees what I've done to you mousy! HEHEHEHEHEH!" Terrorsaur bragged evilly as he slashed at Rattrap with the ferocity of a serial killer.

( I dunno if I trust a Godzilla movie without a man in a rubber suit.. but I've heard mixed reviews on the new one. As for the Tristar one.. if it wasn't Godzilla it probably would of been a better film, honestly the worst Godzilla film is Godzilla's Revenge.. )

Nemesis wrote:"Judging by the size of your belly.. so do you,"

Landslide didn't respond, as the joke about his size mostly went over the beetle robot's head. After slamming his sword down, he noticed Nemesis had swiftly dodged the sword strike and switched weapons back to her assault rifle. Seemed now she didn't want to try melee combat, and while his Chainsword was powerful, it's size and weight did reduce it's speed, however with her acrobatics it was unlikely he could hit her with it without disabling her first.

A loud solid clang was then heard as Nemesis's leg kicked into the back of his left knee, though surprisingly the tree truck thick leg didn't buckle, probably feeling like kicking a bulkhead to a battleship to the smaller female. Landslide turned his head to look at her as he raised his sword, only to find his right leg buckled under him with a surge of pain. Ug! What the..

Landslide crouched down, his right knee sparking profusely as he looked down to examine it for a moment. Structurally his joint showed alot of pitting and corrosion, however it wasn't enough to destroy the joint. The acid itself had seeped into his joint, eating the seals and wires causing his knee servos and circuits to short out. Unlike Terrorsaur, who'd been hammering at the hardest points of his body with higher powered attacks, destroying plate armor up to 10 inches thick at some points... Nemesis was attacking him tactically, aiming for weak points and getting around his defenses which normally would of been alot harder to take on swiftly.

Landslide put his sword away lurching slowly up as his right leg started to spark again. Well.. I must say lass.. It's been a long time since anyone has breached my shell.. he grit his teeth under his faceplate, then turned pointing his right arm towards Nemesis as his grenade launcher extended.

He fired off two grenades on either side of Nem, one landing on the ground to her right flank, one still in the air to her left as they remotely exploded, which Landslide then did something unexpected. He activated his thrusters rushing towards her taking some of the explosions head on and attempted to grab and tackle the avian predacon down to the ground.