(( OOC: Wow! Lots to catch up on. Sorry for the delay, I was busy watching the Oscars last night and it got too late for me to post again later on.
))
"Frilla!" "Help me avenge my humiliating ordeal. Do as I command!"
Watching Scorponok spring back up and ready to fire was not quite how Optimus planned that. He shouldn't have fired at the Predacon at all so he wouldn't have brought his attention to him and Frilla and make her choose on a whim where her loyalties lied, but he may distracted him from harming the new Maximal who had already taken such a rough beating on her first day on-line on this planet. Observing the situation carefully, Primal never took his aim off of Scorponok and never lookd back at the female lizard. If Frilla chose to fire at the leader, then so be it. But if she fired at her own comrade instead, then it was probably safe to say that she was leaving the Predacons.
"Do us a favor Scorpo-butt and shut up about your slagging pride! While you at it give the other Preds a message: I quit!"
Optimus stood as straight and still as he could during the whole confrontation since his crash. His outstretched arm targeting the scorpion started to waver when Frilla made her decision and shot at Scorponok, feeling the energon fields growing stronger. He certainly had been in robot mode for far too long.
"By Unicron's toes, this burns like the Pit itself!"
"Need a hand, sir?"
With the small Predacon retreating, the Maximal leader lowered his arm and looked back to frilled lizard.
"Welcome to the Maximals, Frilla," Optimus said warmly. That is, until the raw energon fields began surging his body. Growling from the pain, he was about to transform when a shot out of no where exploded on Primal's side, throwing him to the ground on his back with a thud.
"Argh!" Laying on the grass, he felt the burning sensation of the fire and he patted his hands over the wound to suffocate the flames. Primal's side was scortched with singed fur and melted "skin" right down to his armor. A cheap shot, and a quick burn.
"Frilla, get out of there!"
Optimus could faintly hear Steelclaw's voice, and then Dinobot's who proceeded to attack the Predacon bear. His body still suffering from the energon surges, he picked himself up, staggering to his feet, and said,
"Beast mode..." With that, he finally converted to his alternative gorilla form, immediately feeling the relief of protection from the energon. Unfortunately, Waspinator's impacts on his chest were connected to his beast mode's head, so his head ached. His knee was still feeling "sprained," his side looked the same as it had in robot mode from the bear's nasty shot, and his shoulder had a grazed wound from either Sonar's or Waspinator's firepower earlier in the air. Yeah, he was beat up but not nearly as bad as the new Maximal who had taken on Megatron and Starshadow. What a lousy first day for her; he felt bad. So Optimus didn't complain about his wounds. He didn't groan or cry. He simply sucked it up, hiding the pain as best as he could and took count of his Maximals while stood there near Frilla.
It seemed Megatron had retreated, leaving Nightmist to tend to the new Maximal's injuries. He was glad he had her come along, otherwise he wouldn't have known how to get the mare back to the
Axalon as heavy as she must have been, had she been seriously injured moreso than she was. Something about her seemed familiar to Optimus, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Perhaps when he'd finally see her face to face. In due time.
Dinobot was trampling Steelclaw, whom he watched fall to the ground, possibly unconscious. Cheetor was defiantly battling Sonar, who quickly retreated after Megatron's orders. That left Saber-Fang. Where was she? Searching the area with his optics, Optimus found her pre-occupied with Starshadow. Something about the fight seemed off, and the commander grew concerned the longer he watched.
"Starshadow, get out of here now!!"
As it seemed to escalate, the gorilla heard the saber tooth hollor and took a step forward before a sharp pain from his knee joint jolted up his leg; all because of that crash landing. Nearly falling to a knee, Optimus caught himself quickly and stood back up, noticing Saber-Fang's eyes illuminating a lot brighter than he remembered. Even from the distance he was at from them and in the daylight, her eyes glowed like lasers. Something was wrong.
"Not until I've killed every maximal ONE BY ONE!"
Did Saber's fur just
change color?!
"SABER-FANG!" Primal called out to her just before she leaped off of the small cliff and vanished, running off. Well, there was no way he was going to be able to catch up to her.
"Starshadow, leave it be! You go after it, you'll only met a savage end. It only knows how to kill and it doesn't know restraint or friend from foe. You'll have your chance just not now."
The gorilla quickly looked up at the bat, who had apparently stopped to speak with Starshadow but they were too far away for him to make anything out of their conversation. Did Sonar know something about what just happened? Did this have anything to do with Saber's disappearance the other morning? Again, with the secrets! Why didn't anyone actually SPEAK to Optimus?
"Cheetor, Dinobot, regroup with Nightmist," Primal ordered over his comm. link. It was time to meet their very brave new comrade, and introduce another new recruit.
"Come with me, Frilla," he said, glancing at her and motioning her to follow him as he got down on his knuckles and began limping with a back leg toward Nightmist's location. On the walk over to the horse and bird, he tried calling the saber toothed cat.
"Saber-Fang, do you read me? Where are you?" he asked over his communication link, extremely worried for her safety and well being. And it showed on his face.
-----
What's the matter kitties, don't like the water? Then don't come to the beach!
Turning around to Glowstick's voice, Tigatron growled, his ears flat back and lowered his head, twitching his tail.
Predacons! The white tiger jumped out of the way of the squid's tentacle, landing on all fours and sliding across the snow-covered ice. He dug his claws into the ice to slow down before saying,
"Tigatron, maximize!" Immediately drawing his gun, he witnessed his fellow Maximal get shot in the back by another Pred; Snow Trix.
"Two?! Oh great."
Two might be all they could handle on this ice, especially with this tricky fellow with the tentacles. Tigatron was still intrigued by Glowstick and his appearance. He seemed to be the intelligent type but this obviously wasn't a time to sit down and chat about it. The Predacons wanted a look at the crashed object as much as they did.
"Roger, we'll be there shortly. Orcariner might get there quicker, he's going under the ice,we're on route above it."
After firing two shots at Glowstick, Tigatron reported back to the penguin.
"Icebreaker! Wintersong and I are under attack! Glowstick and Snow Trix have crossed the ice and we do not have much room to cover ourselves with." Being so close to the edge of the ice was not a good place to be. There was no where to run and no cover to hide behind.