"More Than Meets The Eye: Part I"

[Mystrea]

Dirge listened to his master and understood his orders. He understood them without needing them to be directly told to him. The giant robot move towards the hanger door getting ready for combat. No matter what he would see when that door opened, he would destroy it. Vital systems were all operational, not much perpetration was needed after that.

[admiralgrim]

((OOC: I am just going to put my post from earlier here for simplicity. I did change and add a few things based on the recent posts.))

As the Ambition began landing procedures, Night Terror prepared himself for a possible fight. He checked all his internal systems, he tested the balance his sword. He checked everything. This new form needed to be battle tested. He was practicing with his sword when the ship's sensors alerted him to incoming Predacon signatures.

"It would seem that some are still up and about. The Predacons have sent a welcoming committee, shall we introduce ourselves Dirge?" Night Terror said while rubbing his hands together.

He grabbed the controls and turned the ship to face the oncoming Predacons. Now let us see exactly what these Predacons are capable of.

Mystrea wrote:
The giant robot move towards the hanger door getting ready for combat. No matter what he would see when that door opened, he would destroy it.

As dirge made his way to the hangar, Night Terror turned the Ambition towards the Predacons approaching. Four signatures were detected, one land unit, and three are air bound. Night Terror paused. He checked the reading again. Are those two flyers carrying someone? He couldn't believe it. That is tactically unwise. All I would have to do is take out one flyer and the one they are carrying would likely fall. He was so tempted, he wanted to fire so badly. He couldn't though, they were Predacons, he needed to at least give them a chance to stand down. He fired a few warning shots at them, he knew that won't stop them, in fact it would probably provoke them. He smiled to himself. Let's see how disciplined Megatron's troops are.

[DarkSpark]

OOC: Just so ya know Grim, we're nowhere near the maximal base yet, we just left pred central in our last post, so I don't think you should be able to see & target us yet. Alak hasn't posted for Buster yet either alas.

[admiralgrim]

((OOC: SLAG! Sorry about that. I was going off the fact that the Preds were already on their way. I seem to keep posting a bit too early. Ah well, I will get the hang of it eventually.))

[DarkSpark]

((OOC: SLAG! Sorry about that. I was going off the fact that the Preds were already on their way. I seem to keep posting a bit too early. Ah well, I will get the hang of it eventually.))

OOC: no worries, we all get used to it eventually lol

[Phoenix]

(ooc: Well.. for the sake of progress, one of the teams should probably arrive soon. I thought your post was great, grim. Now if only OOP, Alak and others would post..)

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: I will post soon! I was gone all weekend visiting friends in Pittsburgh. I'm just trying to decide what to do with Optimus... Decisions, decisions... ))

[DarkSpark]

OOC: I'll give Alak one more day to post for Buster & then I'll get Team Terrorsaur & Megatron moving again tomorrow if he doesn't post by then. Sorry for the wait Phoenix.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

"Sorry to disappoint you," "But I have no intention of going back in that cell!"

As Rhinox watched Sonar raise his hand that held something in it, his chain gun whirled to life but it wasn't until Sonar threw the object toward him when he let loose on a firing spree down the corridor at the escapee. When the item shattered and clouded the air to the point at which the rhinoceros could no longer see Sonar, he stopped firing and stepped back. At first he thought it was just a smoke grenade of some sort but then the gaseous substance started to mess with his vision or mind... He couldn't be sure of which. Suddenly everything appeared to be a hundred feet away from him and as he looked down at his feet, his fear of heights made him panic. Rhinox dropped his weapon causing a loud bang on the floor and threw his back against the wall with his arms spread out as if he were standing on a ledge and trying not to fall.

Upon hearing the shots fired, Optimus moved toward Rhinox but stopped when he saw a cloud filling up the hallway, seeping past the engineer and into the command center. "Rhinox!" he hollered to him and heard the clang from his gun falling.

"Stay back, Optimus!" he told him in a very distressed voice full of panic. "Stay back!" he repeated.

Primal grabbed his gun from his hip and ran into the corridor ignoring his friend's warning. The cloud engulfed him as he ran through it and toward Sonar. Passing Rhinox and kicking his gun and empty bullet shells aside, he was already beginning to hallucinate, so by the time he saw Sonar it wasn't the bat he saw. Instead, it was what his imagination had created of what the Vok's appearance might look like and he stopped dead in his tracks and swallowed, his spark racing, staring at what was really Sonar but looked like a very powerful alien enemy to him. "We've suffered enough because of you!" he screamed at him in anger and fear and opened fire, baring his sharp teeth.

-----

"Don't be surprised if you two get grounded with overnight shifts."

Grounded? Hah! thought Rattrap. It'd never last.

"I doubt it. He'll take one look at our pleading eyes and all will be forgiven."

"Believe it or not, I don't think dat works for me," the rat on wheels joked.

Taking notice of where the unidentified ship was going to land, the Spy kept his team's distance from it and lead them to a safe location out of reach of scanners and possibly watchful eyes since it was nightfall now. Pulling up to stop in a nearby forest, he maximized quietly and knelt behind a bolder motioning to the others to follow up behind him. He panicked for a moment when he heard shots but as he watched the ship through the trees, it wasn't firing at them it was firing at something else. The Preds maybe, if they were already on their way? He couldn't tell; there was too much distance and objects' silhouettes between them during the shots' flashes.

"What do you think, guys?" he asked them in a low voice that was almost a whisper, looking for their opinions. "I can't see what it's shootin' at but it doesn't look like a friendly ship."

(( OOC: The Preds can catch up easily but I figured the Maximals would get there first since it's closer to the Axalon or at the same time. Who cares as long as everyone shows up. ))

[Alak]

Feeling that the hangar bay doors were too slow, Orcariner tried to awkwardly wedge himself through as they gradually separated. With an impatient grunt, he forcibly grabbed them with his hands and pushed as hard as he could to widen the entrance. The door mechanisms whined with resistance and the orca was reminded by how weak he was in comparison to the hull of the Axalon. Nevertheless, he eventually got through and proceeded to race across the bay and into the main corridors. Noise echoed easily throughout these hallways, and Orcariner was already hearing a wild mesh of voices up ahead towards the bridge. Realizing that stealth was no longer an option, he proceeded to break out in a full sprint. It was difficult enough to fit inside of the ship's passageways and Orcariner found himself occasionally bouncing his broad shoulders off of the walls. His thunderous footsteps probably shook the vessel, as well.

"Optimus?"

The scene he stumbled upon appeared to be quite a mess. Rhinox was leaning on the wall as if it was the only thing supporting his considerable weight. Optimus Primal was, for whatever reason, trapped in state of rage that instilled a sharp chill within Orcariner's spark.

"What's goin-"

An odd cloud took Orcariner by surprise as he was so distracted by what had afflicted his comrades. Everything in front of him became hazy and distorted and soon even the sounds coming from Rhinox and Optimus faded away into silence. With a groan, the titan took a few steps backwards. Not even realizing that he was still inside the Axalon, the Maximal bumped his head on the ceiling and cried out in surprise.

"Guys? What happened?"

Gripping the top of his head, Orcariner spun around only to see that he had bumped his head on a tree branch. His surroundings were becoming more clear as the hallucinogen settled into his processor. He could not believe what he was looking at. The orca was in the middle of some sort of jungle. It was as if he had somehow teleported from the Axalon to out in the middle of the wilderness. A sense of dread creeped towards the back of his mind in the midst of all of his confusion.


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


Buster was still cleaning his gun when he felt something hoist him off of Tantrum's back unexpectedly.

How ya liking the view new guy? Don't worry, this is the ONLY way to travel! RAWK!

He was temporarily at a loss for words as Tantrum and the rest of the ground became smaller and smaller. Holding tightly onto his precious gun, the llama almost shed a tear as his cleaning brush fell out of his gasp towards the earth. Buster's mouth opened from his state of shock but nothing came out expect a silent scream. The urge to lubricate himself followed but thankfully he was able to hold it in. It was only after a few seconds of terrifying flight that his silent scream lost its silence.

"GAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Even as the Predacons continued to fly towards their destination, the poor Predacon continued to scream as loudly as he could in a futile attempt to stop this nightmare.

[DarkSpark]

OOC: I couldn't remember how many preds we had at base presently so I just had Megs order everyone after Nemesis to give our pred players something to do, except the spiders since someone has to stay and guard the captives lol...& Legs just got karate kicked by an ex-decepticon so...lol

Alak wrote: He was temporarily at a loss for words as Tantrum and the rest of the ground became smaller and smaller. Holding tightly onto his precious gun, the llama almost shed a tear as his cleaning brush fell out of his gasp towards the earth. Buster's mouth opened from his state of shock but nothing came out expect a silent scream. The urge to lubricate himself followed but thankfully he was able to hold it in. It was only after a few seconds of terrifying flight that his silent scream lost its silence.

"GAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Even as the Predacons continued to fly towards their destination, the poor Predacon continued to scream as loudly as he could in a futile attempt to stop this nightmare.

"Holy slag, check this out Waspinator, is he screaming silently? Seriously?" Terrorsaur questioned as they carried Buster higher and higher as they traveled to their destination, wondering if his screams were so high pitched they couldn't be heard...He bet Sonar could probably hear it if it were true, or the new bat Banshee.

Then Buster finally screamed for real, and WOW, was it hilariously sad to be heard, even the vermin Rattrap wasn't this shrill when he lost his cool.

"Ah, the majestic shriek of the rare and elusive new guy, music to my audio receptors, hehehehehehah!" Terrorsaur crowed, enjoying every minute of their little prank as they drew nearer and nearer to their destination.

"Suck it up newbie, or else Wasp and I might lose our grip...Whoops!" Terrorsaur teased, pretending to slip for a split second before catching Buster right away, the poor sap never going near the ground, but he imagined for a flightless bot even a split second of freefall must have been terrifying.

However, the fun and games came to an end, as the three of them suddenly had to pull up further to avoid getting shot by enemy fire, the firepower appearing unlike the autoguns utilized by the maximal base.

"Well, guess we can confirm that the newcomers aren't friendly" Terrorsaur mused, disappointed that his fun had been interrupted already, picking up the pace as they drew nearer, diving down low to use the mountainous terrain surrounding the maximal base to keep out of sight of the airship until they had a plan.

Nemesis wrote: “I didn’t do it,” she told the spider meekly to get his attention, the tone of her voice sounding so defeated it sickened her. She both looked and sounded younger than her years due to the eternal youth that had been imposed upon her through the implementation of her nanotechnology, a fact she both welcomed and detested at the same time. Right now she was leaning more towards the latter of the two, since she felt quite ridiculous uttering those words like a frightened teenager.

She attempted to smile briefly, testing the strength of her hands by clenching her fists a few times behind her back. By now she was completely healed up and the shackles were barely even holding in place. Deciding she might not get another chance like this, she suddenly pulled her hands apart which caused the once powerful shackles to easily snap under the force exerted upon them. Once free, she planted a clenched fist straight into the spider’s face, immediately following up with a powerful kick to the torso to make him lose his balance. Smirking a bit, the other leg came flying towards the side of Tarantulas’ face. Once it impacted, Nemesis flipped backwards several times to avoid any retaliating fire.

As long as she kept moving, the spider was unlikely to keep up with her. Of course she was moving towards the exit, since it was very unlikely that she’d be able to take on all the Predacons present and get away with it. Nor did she especially want to, some of them had fought alongside her ever since she had joined the beast wars. Sentimental nonsense? Perhaps.. But it had been a long time since Nemesis had a family so this dysfunctional crew was all she had.

"Not my concern either way my dear, you're only guilty if you're dumb enough to be caught, hehehehehahahaha!" Tarantulas replied to Nemesis' pathetic plea, honestly not caring about her innocence, she was not important to his own plans so he wasn't about to stick his neck out for someone who was careless enough to be caught in the act or framed for something she didn't do...One must always be alert to survive amongst the Predacons.

Alas, even one as cunning and cautious as Tarantulas could not have predicted that Nemesis would not only regenerate her ruined limbs, blown apart by Megatron mere moments ago, but would somehow break her bonds, designed to restrain even the strongest of Cybertronian servos, and proceed to attack him! Tarantulas was normally one of the most agile of the predacons, but this had been so unexpected he soon found himself flat on his back, moaning from the quick and brutal blows the larger predacon had dealt him as she made her escape.

Megatron's eyes went wide with rage and shock at this turn of events as he resisted the urge to bellow out to all his troops to pursue the traitor, but he was able to think clearly enough to activate the Darksyde's defense system instead, reconfiguring the array of autoguns that lay scattered throughout the perimeter of his base to target Nemesis' energy signature & recognize her as a foe rather than a friend, meaning they'd fire on her the same way they would any maximal who entered their territory.

Said perimeter guns activated and turned to face Nemesis, firing mercilessly in her direction, following her every move as they'd been designed to do, soullessly carrying out their purpose of destroying anyone Megatron deemed unwelcome in his realm.

"All of you! Man your battle stations, fire the ship's guns at her, I'd rather we be able to interrogate her & learn what she's been up to with the maximals, but I'd rather her be DEAD than slip away to rejoin her allies! MOVE!" Megatron bellowed, expecting those gathered to man the ship's guns as well, hoping to box Nemesis in, with the perimeter guns outside blocking her escape from predacon territory and the ship's autoguns to her back, she'd either be shot down, slagged, or forced to surrender, either way, she would not escape!

"As you wish...Megatron" Tarantulas moaned woozily as he forced himself to his feet after the pounding he received, manning his own station & directing the guns under its control to target Nemesis, firing on her as best he could as he shook himself back to his senses & tried to ignore the pain.

[Night-Hunter]

((OOC:*german accent* Let the chaos begin! *evil laugh* Oh, if you haven't guessed yet. Sonar's greatest fear... Karma. Lol.))

Sonar grinned at the look of terror on Rhinox' face before his vision blured. Was he going blind again? His vision cleared up a moment later and what he saw nearly caused his spark to stop, he was shakled to a white wall and to his left, a number of wickedly sharp instruments. He could smell the disinfectant, he could even taste it!

No, no! This can't happening! His mind screamed.

His eyes widened in fear when the door opened, he couldn't see the other's face it was some how veiled in shadows. It didn't clear as the mech came closer, heading straight for the tools on the silver tray.

His spark raced as the white robed mech picked up an energon scalpel and examined it.

Back in reality, Sonar was on his knees screaming terror as his tormentor, who turned out to be Primal who was busy having his own hallucination at the time.

"We've suffered enough because of you!"

Sonar of course, heard something completely different and screamed again as one of the shots fire hit his shoulder while the hallucinated scalpel was plunged into his chest.

Without even meaning to he fired a sonic blast at Optimus/tormentor and bolted from the hall way only to trip over Saber's unconscious form. He was on his back writhing in hallucinated agony as his tormentor continued to cut him open.

It wasn't just Sonar tripping over her that woke Saber, it was the smell of mech fluid that roused her. She opened her optics and screamed in bloody murder when she saw the mutilated body of an unknown Maximal. She looked down at her hands and screamed again when she saw that they were covered in blood! She made the mistake of looking up... Even more blood splattered the floor and walls, there were body parts every where!

Saber screamed even more, she was on her knees at this point, gripping the sides of her helm.

"NOT AGAIN! PLEASE, PRIMUS, NOT AGAIN!" She wailed as tears streamed down her face.

The beast had taken over again and like the colony she had mercilessly slaughtered those who had trusted her! SHE WAS NOTHING BUT A MONSTER!! A MURDERER!!

[una]

((OOC: All right! Just wanted to make sure, OOP. Also, guys, don't forget Blackarachnia is n the Pred base too. LOL ))

"I doubt it. He'll take one look at our pleading eyes and all will be forgiven." "See?"

"Believe it or not, I don't think dat works for me," the rat on wheels joked.

Whitegrazer laughed softly at Aurora and Rattrap, "You might been given a softer sentence, Aurora, but Rattrap, on the other hand..." She continued to laugh before she realized she needed to focus on the mission as she saw what they had been sought to find.

Whitegrazer kept herself in beast form with Aurora behind her, allowing herself to not draw too much attention to herself.

"What do you think, guys?" he asked them in a low voice that was almost a whisper, looking for their opinions. "I can't see what it's shootin' at but it doesn't look like a friendly ship."

She agreed with Rattrap's assessment. Though, she wondered if they were firing on maybe Predacons? Did they sent a team too? Especially when the ship was close to their territory? And they still couldn't get a read if the passengers on that ship were fellow Maximals or Predacons. If Predacons, why were they firing on their own people?

"We still are unsure if they are Maximals or not, especially if they are firing on Predacons. Maybe we should wait if we can get confirmation on who they are? If the ship gets shot down and they are Maximals, we can provide a surprise attack to drive the Predacons off if necessary. But if they are the enemy, we can make sure they head back to their own territory and don't try to start something here." She looked towards Rattrap wondering what he thought before she looked back at Aurora and Nexus, interested in what they have to offer.

Her spark tightened like it was suffocating. Her head got clouded for a moment before she felt a heightened sense of alertness and fury. Her optics made a slight glance towards the direction of the base. Optimus... Her voice was calm like a gentle breeze, wondering what was going on there.

[Mystrea]

Ironclaw continued following the trail until he came to an opening in the tree line. Here the greenery stopped. It was a desolate land ahead of him, no trees or grass. He knew that the Darksyde was at the heart of this land. The remembered bit ms and peices from his previous infiltration of the Predacon base. However, he was aware that things had changed since then so he would tred carefully. While Optimus fled to base and stood around talking and wasting time, Ironclaw would go and deal with this himself. Optimus made the mistake of thinking that this all rested on his shoulders. The badger wouldn't let the Preds' just take two Maximals like they did, it was unacceptable.

He climbed to the cliff face and his goal was in sight. The Predacon base. It seemed like they were already on high alert. Then he saw the female Predacon, Nemesis, fly out in quite a hurry. She was followed by a stream of weapons fire. Drama at the Pred' base? Nothing unusual about that but he couldn't help but be a little curious about what Nemsis may have done. She was a worthy opponent, Ironclaw wouldn't hesitate because of it though, she will die just like the rest of them. The badger waited at a safe distance, preparing his next move.

(I don't plan on Ironclaw getting infected. Mainly because he's no where near the Axalon and I guess he can play a part in curing it. Maybe he can team up who ever does the sciencey bit. Plus it would be great for his character, what I have in mind for him anyway. So what about this exchange? Can it even happen with Optimus in that state and then with the Predacons getting infected, possibly even Megatron. Just saying, I'm up for a rescue )

[Phoenix]

"Believe it or not, I don't think dat works for me," the rat on wheels joked.

Whitegrazer laughed softly at Aurora and Rattrap, "You might been given a softer sentence, Aurora, but Rattrap, on the other hand..."

Aurora was not able to run as quickly as the other Maximals were moving, so she had allowed herself to use the magnetic grapple hook she had recovered from Icebreaker's room after the penguin had been ripped away from them so unexpectedly, and attached it to the fast moving rat on wheels so that she could merely kite behind him. Although she had initially disliked flying, taking advantage of her butterfly wings in such a way certainly made travelling faster.. and more fun. On the downside she had to almost shout for any of the others to hear her as she glided gracefully through the air.

"Even so, it would be hilarious to watch!"


Suddenly the sound of weapons firing caught her attention, causing her to retract the grapple hook and glide to a slightly less smooth landing on the ground below. She looked up, her optics settling on a dark ship against a night sky background in the process of landing, in fact the ship was difficult to see had they not been preoccupied firing at something in a different direction. Aurora glanced over at the others.

"What do you think, guys?" "I can't see what it's shootin' at but it doesn't look like a friendly ship."

Nexus had transformed back to his robot form, having remained almost eerily quiet for most of their trip here, and was now looking in the direction of the unknown vessel. In fact he almost seemed to sigh for a moment, even if he showed no visible signs of concern.

"It's not," Nexus stated matter-of-factly, breaking the silence he had maintained for most of their trip. "Maximals do not fire first and ask questions later," he then added, correcting himself, as he moved closer for a better look. He didn't make much of an effort to conceal himself as he peeked out between some plants, appearing as if he wasn't concerned at all about the fact that the strange ship had just opened fire on.. something.. Judging by the direction they were firing at, it seemed more than likely that it was indeed a Predacon search party.

His face completely unreadable, he merely walked off towards the now landed ship, making no attempt to wait up for the others or even exercise caution as he approached the ship.

"All of you! Man ... battle stations, fire .. her, ... maximals, ..DEAD than.."

As Nemesis sped through the Predacon base in her beast form, wings retracted as far as she could to be able to maneuver the narrow hallways, Megatron's order ricocheted against the walls as it rapidly faded with the increased distance until she could only hear bits and pieces before it disappeared altogether. Not that she had any problems putting the rest of the sentence together, knowing full well that there was no way the tyrant would let her leave after what had just transpired. He had already made his point loud and painfully clear and Nemesis certainly did not plan to stick around for another lesson. Where she was going, she wasn't entirely sure yet, her thoughts too focused on merely escaping this place alive.

Not surprisingly the Darksyde's autoguns popped down from the walls and ceiling, barely giving her time to roll in order to dodge the first wave of incoming blasts. She swept down to narrowly avoid one of the automatic guns that suddenly appeared right in her path, tilting sideways as the gun rotated to fire a steady stream of deadly fire at her, doing the best she could to make her flight pattern as unpredictable as possible. The strategy worked for the next several weapons, the floor and walls behind her taking damage in the wake of the brutal attacks, the avian female remaining unscathed thus far.

Not much to go now..

She angled herself to the left as she rounded one of the last few corners before escaping the base. Once outside there was no way they'd be able to follow her, her speed unmatched by anyone aside from perhaps Terrorsaur and he wasn't even here right now. The thought of said freedom overwhelmed her for a moment, distracting her long enough not to notice the autogun that popped up underneath her. Targeting her, the weapon wasted no time and fired. A sharp and sudden pain caused her to howl out as the shots burned through her wing, sending her crashing onto the floor. Nemesis swiftly transformed back to robot form just before impact, the forceful blow of hitting the ground hurting nearly as much as getting shot, and the speed she'd been going at sent her rolling uncontrollably across the floor before finally coming to a stop.

Face down, her wings spread out like a blanket, one of them smoking from the large wound and the other one with a large gash in it from the impact, her joints aching in pain from the abrupt crash, Nemesis lay perfectly still for a few moments before she shakily attempted to push herself up with a groan. The transmetalized feathers covering her head and neck were facing in all directions, blocking her view, so she wiped them away from her face wish a brisk movement of her arm while she struggled to regain her equilibrium. Her knees threatening to buckle underneath her, she cast a glance at the gun that was now pointing directly at her, knowing full well that Megatron was surely watching her on one of his monitors.

Very slowly she raised her hands up in front of her, remaining still as the glanced up at the camera. Her wounds were already shimmering, her ever faithful nanites working at impressive speeds to heal her back up, and within moments the blue light faded to reveal that the damage had been repaired. A slight smile spread across her face as she gave the camera a quick wink before suddenly making a run for it. Obviously the guns proceeded to shoot at her again, but Nemesis flipped into the air and transformed to avoid them. She didn't even bother to retaliate with shots of her own, not wanting her actions to be mistaken for further proof of treason, and within seconds she passed through the opening and sped off into the night sky. The outdoor guns were firing at her as well, but she did not stay still for long enough for them to get a chance to lock on.