"OC Episode #2"

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: Wow. It's quiet today. I certainly hope the Preds are taking advantage of this time to mine as much energon as they can while the Vok plays with the Maximals. ))

After missing his mark but still doing considerable damage to the flying dog's wing, the Vok flew up past her and stopped, hovering above in the air and watching her from below him. He continued swinging the mace in his hand while he took his time thinking about his next move. He could just shoot her right then, or drive the mace into her back between her wings, or grab a sword and try slicing off a wing.

Reaching the scene, Optimus skidded to a stop, his feet sliding through the dirt and kicking up dust, and immediately assessed the situation. Cheetor, he thought, noticing him on the ground. He didn't appear to be seriously injured but it might be wise for him to convert to beast mode before the energon fields got to his damaged circuits. Hearing Feralnight's howl, the gorilla looked up and saw several feathers falling from one of her wings. The clone must've just hit her but he couldn't see where he was now. "Feralnight!" Primal called to her, gesturing her to fall back. He also wanted to get the alien's attention, wherever he was. Icebreaker was nearby, hopefully ready in his position. All they had to do was get the clone down on the ground.

The Vok's optics darted to Primal's voice below. So the Maximal leader wanted to save his comrades, did he? Optimistic but hopeless. Ignoring Feralnight, the clone lowered himself to the ground, deactivating his prime jets and putting his mace away. Standing before Primal, he decloaked and spoke. "Optimus Primal."

Standing up straight in his beast mode, Primal looked at the clone, astounded by the accurate likeness. Hearing his name in his voice from another body was rather chilling. "Yes," answered Optimus. He continued, trying to keep the conversation going while Icebreaker could set up and make his move. "And how should we address you?" His eyes never wavered from his clone's, giving him his undivided attention.

"That is irrelevant," the alien replied, staring at the leader.

All right. Still keeping secrets. Optimus momentarily raised a brow at his answer. "Then may I ask why you are here?"

"It is simply experimental." The clone purposely kept his answers short without elaborating.

Simply experimental? What the slag was that supposed to mean? "So, injuring every individual you encounter is teaching you...?"

"Our reasons are no concern to you and your kind," the Vok broke in. "You are only interfering with what you don't understand. We don't answer to you, but we do watch. Closely." His optics narrowed.

We? So this alien being was speaking for his entire race? Who exactly were these aliens?! And why did they have so much control over this planet? Actually, why did they show so much interest in this planet? What made it so special? And why did the Maximals and the Predacons have to land here and deal with this, of all places? ...It had to do with something about the golden disk that Megatron stole... Apparently, Primal couldn't get any straight answers out of this clone, and watching his face change meant that his demeanor was about to go south. It seemed he didn't want to talk anymore. Optimus was ready to transform and defend himself.

[NaitoKage]

(They're kinda busy collecting their dead..er I mean repairing themselves. But they will probably start doing that.. among other things. Mwahahahaha..)


Icebreaker comes up behind some rocks leaning his head out slightly as he watches Primal.. and Primal. He glanced around with his red eyes looking over the area to access the damage. He looked at Cheetor, then Feralnight who seemed to be hurting. He listened as he remained quiet. They were being watched? And this random violence was a experiment? The penguin's large yellow eyebrows/crest flexed into a scowl as he leaned lower against the rocks moving his head out of sight. While he had no problem with the violence towards the Predacons, and knew that war was unfair and unjust, the actions of this individual creature who seemed to be backed by some cloak and shadow organization against some of the more peaceful members of the crew was unforgivable. He was merely a homicidal drone and he was not going to hold back on such a creature, at all.

He let out a quiet breath as he tried to quell his temper, not easy as his Macaroni Penguin beast mode was rather known for being a violent creature. He then activated his comlink for a moment in a encrypted signal to Optimus Primal, there was no voice or static, simply a quick quiet chirp to signal his position.

[New Moon]

Feralnight sighed in relief to see Optimus and gladly obeyed the gesture flying down to Cheetor. It was painful on her damaged wing but for the tie being she would deal with it and shifted to her beast mode with a silent command flinching from the shift. "Hey Cheetor you alright?" She asked hurrying over, her chest also sore from earlier.

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

Frilla finally left from the main controls for the Levianthan, now wanting to do something other then stair at the scanner. "I'm heading out, if anyone is coming might want to move their tails because not waiting on any slow pokes." She announced before going down to the cargo bay and shifted to her beast mode, in this form she would be protected from the radiation and get tot he energon deposit faster. Raising on her hind legs she took off as fast as her form would allow.

From her times of wandering around before recovering Blackarachnia's pod and even just out and about she had taken the initiative to observe the beings of her form, seeing how they differed from each other and found she was the form of a woodland Frilled lizard. And the use of her frill seemed quite interesting to her, used mainly to show a threat towards a predator and be intimidating or also for courting. Intrigued by the information she had collected Frilla had continued to observe these organics out of curiosity and came to find these lizards had two meanings of locomotion,the bipedal being the fastest and most often used to run away or chase prey.

In this case Frilla often used this to run long distances or travel to certain locations quicker. So far it had proved to be useful and she hoped it would now.

[Blazemane]

"Rhinox," Dinobot said as he walked into the bridge in beast mode, "I have been reviewing the defense grid for the past megacycle, only to conclude-"

...it is here, but we're having difficulty defeating it. Optimus is requesting reinforcements for the energon mining in case the Predacons attack.

At last!

I'll keep looking things up here, You should take Saber and go meet up with Tigatron and the others.

"I, too, will join them," Dinobot asserted before turning to Valkyrie. "It appears they shall need every warrior they can get."

* * *

Cheetor waited for the alien to finish him off, but Feralnight's shot saved him the the pain. He got on a knee and a foot in a firing stance when his circuits started shorting out. But he had to stay up- he couldn't let his fellow scout fight alone.

He guessed that was exactly what she'd been thinking. They both wanted the other one to get out safely, but then returned because the other was in trouble. It was a cycle that was only going to be stopped by reinforcements.

Feralnight!

"Beast mode!" Cheetor shouted. Shortly after, Feralnight, now even more hurt, came to down to him.

Hey Cheetor you alright?

"Yeah, I'm fine," he responded. He looked past her to Optimus who was now somehow talking to the alien. "Hate to say it, but we've gotta go," he said in a hushed tone. "We're just going to get in the way now." He immediately turned around and started jogging for the Nomad.

* * *

Sonar was being sarcastically insulting, so he must have been in some sort of livable condition. But another glance at him seemed to indicate further that he wasn't ready for more exertion. Not that it'd be impossible...

Steelclaw acknowledged his comment with a simple head nod before looking back at the radar. Optimus was now facing the Vok and it seemed like they were talking too. Primal had surprised Steelclaw in the past, but that conversation probably wasn't going to last long.

[Night-Hunter]

Sonar watched as Steelclaw returned to watching the monitors. He figured that Opimus would soon be fighting the creature.

"Optimus would be a fool if he though he could fight that thing and come out like a shiny new penny." Sonar said as he patched himself up.

* * *

Waspintor dragged the second in command into the main room where Steelclaw and Sonar were located.

"Where can Waspintor put Pincher-bot?" He asked.

* * *

Saber walked into the control room in her robot form and heard the last part of what Rhinox had said.

...You should take Saber and go meet up with Tigatron and the others.

Saber's interest perked, she still felt a little groogy but with some fresh air that would soon ware off.

"I, too, will join them," "It appears they shall need every warrior they can get."

"Ok, why are we still talking about it? Let's go." Saber said going back into her beast mode.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

Receiving Icebreaker's signal, Optimus sent one back to him, notifying him that he was ready. His eye contact with the alien remained steady. "Then explain it to me!" Primal exclaimed, just keeping his clone distracted as he waited for the penguin to fire. "What wouldn't we understand?!"

The Vok didn't reply. He simply lifted an arm and targeted Optimus with his wrist cannons.

Primal swallowed, instinctively taking a step back away from the alien, ready to strafe, dodge or duck the shot; whatever came first to his beast mode's instincts if Icebreaker didn't fire soon enough.

-----

"Cheetor and Feralnight seem to be heading back to the Nomad," Tigatron observed on the radar as he relayed the information through his comm. link to Orcariner, Rattrap and Wintersong outside. "Optimus is with the alien," he added, somewhat grimly. He knew Icebreaker was there as well but he wasn't going to reveal that over the communications in case the clone could also tap into that.

[New Moon]

Feralnight looked back before nodding, "Yea right behind you." She replied an jogged after Cheetor, the wing on her right having an awkward angle when folded up on her back. It hurt too, more then her chest. Even with the self repairs from her beast form she knew there was going to be a while before she would be able to fly or even battle again.

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

Frilla finally arrived at the energon deposit and slowed her face going on all fours from there, carefully climbing down the slope to a small cluster of the crystals. Helping to mine these wouldn't be easy but none the less they needed the energon but they didn't seem to have all they had come for. "Terrorize!" With a hiss Frilla shifted to her robot form, glancing slightly to where the Vok Primal and the real Primal would be yet were out of sight from where she was and silently hoped the clone would not notice another Predacon out and about alone.

[NaitoKage]

The Penguin heard the signal, then suddenly transformed into battle mode(Facemask and visor equipped) swinging out from behind the rock, swiftly drawing his frost launcher from his hip twisting a dial on the side to max output as he pointed the gun towards the Vok Primal. A sudden flash of blue and white light expelled from the end of the weapon with a trail of frost rapidly forming on the ground under the path of the blast. The massive beam directed towards the evil clone's upper torso. (Okay, so reactions will probably be either this. You can choice from the list! If you attempt to dodge the blast, you'll still receive a minor ice coating, probably on the arm and shoulder and part of the chest depending on how the dodge is done, If you take the blast you'll freeze solid, and if you attempt to shoot the blast with your plasma weapon aka wrist cannons you'll repeat what StarShadow did causing a violent explosion and possibly set off some of the local energon crystals from the shockwave. ^_^; )

_____________________

Glowstick started to finish up his repairs on StarShadow, removing her damaged helmet he examined it, then looked at the hair on her head and raised an optic ridge. Huh.. Oh I see.. it's the heat sink for her oral cannon?.. But why would she cover it up with this thing?.. Hmm.. He then looked at the back of the helmet which had part of it shattered, if she wasn't wearing the extra accessories she probably wouldn't of gotten up as soon as she did he assumed. Then activated his laser, cutting the damaged jagged end off for a smooth finish, then cut and split a rubber tube applying it to the edge of the helmet. He then popped the modded helmet back on her head with her hair sticking out from the back from the newly cut space, much like Zero from Megaman Zero. He picked up his supplies then walking out of the room while stuffing them back inside his medkit on his back Maybe now she wont be so hotheaded now. he remarked. He assumed he managed enough that her internal repair systems could probably handle the rest while she was unconscious.

Entering the bridge, Glowstick looked towards Waspinator Ah, that'll be a fine spot to put him. You can go out and help mine the energon Waspinator, I'll be out shortly after I get this dope back online.

Glowstick then walked over to Scorponok, starting to examine him. His chest appeared to be partially collapsed from the shots he took, but otherwise seemed fine. He then started to open Scorponok up looking inside, speaking up to the others Star's going to be taking a long nap, so I guess we'll see about putting Terrorsaur and Scorponok back online.. Huh.. looks like some wires got knocked loose..? starting to plug a few of them in again.

[Wintersong]

Snow Trix watched the others before coming up to the main bridge since there didn't seem really anyone else but Sonar and Steeljaw. She walked to the radar and blinked, "Seems the Maximals have two in retreat and Primal seems about ready to fight that clone." She said wondering if the Maximal leader would prove a better chance then they had.

[Blazemane]

Steelclaw stared at the radar as he listened to Snow Trix, but it soon hit him that he could only interpret a small amount of information from dots on a screen.

"Computer," he said, "display visual surveillance of surrounding area."

The computer kept the radar on screen, but opened a small visual window in the top left hand corner. Steelclaw studied it for a second.

"Hey," he noticed out loud, "the Ghost has de-cloaked himself."

[Alak]

Putting on the last couple of cubes into the cargo bay, Orcariner stepped inside and read the scale that was on the wall. They were several hundred pounds short of the 3 ton target weight. With the size of the crew and required space to load in the drilling machine, the Maximal decided that it was time for them to begin wrapping things up. He received an update from the Nomad's bridge a few cycles earlier that reinforcements were on the way. It sounded as if a battle was going to take place soon, and it would be in their best interest if they positioned the cargo far form the field. Orcariner stepped outside and transformed to beast mode.

"Hey, Wintersong," he said, "Go ahead and bring the machine inside. It's easy to take apart, and I left a space in the back corner for you to fold it into. Rattrap and I will fill up two, maybe three, more storage cubes and that should do it for today."

Looking back into the field, Orcariner wondered how the others were doing.

"Funny," he continued, "I really would have thought that the Predacon were going to try something. I guess that clone is giving them just a tough of a time."

[Wintersong]

Wintersong turned off the drill and nodded at Orcarnier, "No problem. And good timing too, my dampers weren't going to last much longer." She replied and began to bring the drill back to the Nomad. But she had heard the transmission, still very concerned for her teammates even though Cheetor and Feralnight had escaped without serious damage. At least she hoped so. "Think we were lucky this time, that clone took out quite a few of them." Wintersong commented when she had gotten the drill onto the Nomad and went back to beast mode before the radiation hit.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: Nice. Thank you for the options, NK. I'm going to go with a dodge simply because I still want the Vok to be able to fly again. ))

With Feralnight and Cheetor at a safe distance, Optimus thought this battle was about to get rough. When Icebreaker shot his weapon, the gorilla couldn't help but faintly squint from the bright blue and white light behind his clone.

It wasn't Primal's squinting that gave the Vok an uneasy feeling. He could see the bright light bouncing off of the leader's body and hear some kind of a crackling sound behind him. Looking away from Optimus over his own shoulder, the clone was blinded at first by the penguin's weapon. AMBUSH! Instinctively he lifted his good arm to block his face as he attempted strafing out of the line of fire. Moving to his left, much of his lower back including his prime jets, the side of his torso and his arm were coated in ice. The freezing temperature of the substance sticking to him was an odd feeling. It was very cold and made him feel numb whatever the ice covered. These Maximals were certainly more problematic than some of the Predacons proved to be. Of course, this only aggitated the alien even more, even though it was his own mistake. Briefly stunned over this stunt, the Vok Primal lifted his other arm in a slower manner courtesy of the wound Feralnight gave him and began firing in Icebreaker's direction with his unfrozen wrist cannons. The pain using his injured arm caused him inaccuracy with his targeting.

Optimus had easily moved out of the way of Icebreaker's beam when his clone tried dodging it. Seeing that he was distracted with the penguin now and obviously bothered by what they accomplished, Primal took advantage of his ignorance and fell to one of his hands while in beast mode, throwing his body in a 180º turn on it and giving a powerful sweepkick to the alien's legs.

The Vok's shots were suddenly dispersed into the air and around on the ground when he felt his legs give way and fell forward on his chest with a thud and an "oof" escaping his mouth. The ice on his arm cracked and shattered when it hit the dirt; one less thing for the "Ghost" to worry about but that was the least of his concerns. Face down and vulnerable, this was unacceptable! In a panic, the clone cloaked himself and disappeared right before their eyes. Rolling away from Primal, he staggered to his feet and moved backwards, watching them in anger but remained silent and still for the moment.

Standing up straight on his feet, the Maximal leader's eyes frantically searched the ground when his clone vanished. NO! he thought just before he was about to maximize and take him head on, but he should've known that when he was backed into a corner, he would cowardly cloak again. He watched the dust that was kicked up from the alien's roll but lost him after that. "He has injuries," Optimus said to Icebreaker without looking in his comrade's direction. He observed as much as he could while he spoke with his alien clone. It was nice to know that this being wasn't invincible; a bright side to their short-lived attempt at defeating him. "His left shoulder is damaged and he has some cuts on his chest," he explained, his eyes scanning the area. "Can you spot him?"

(( OOC: I hope I'm not moving too fast for you, NK. ))

[NaitoKage]

Icebreaker turned his body and leaned forward, his feet digging into the ground as the shots hit his shoulder shield deflecting along the sides with burn marks seen on the feathers covering it. He then twisted his body looking forward, looking around pretendingly, the mixture of intense cold and heat radiating from the clone made him visible, clear as day to his sensors. Oh no I don't see him.. he then kicked up one of his legs, his left hand moving to catch the grappling hook from it and loading it into his gun, then fired it off into the distance in an upward arc past the clone having it hit some rocks behind him. Sparks sprayed from the side of the weapon as Icebreaker was swiftly pulled off the ground through the air by the cord towards the Vok clone, his shield shifting to his back as his left arm swings out grabbing the clone by the chest slamming him into the ground and dragging him head first into the rocks Icebreaker was being towed to at high speed. Psyche! the penguin then shouted, the cord cutting as they impacted, Icebreaker using the clone to take the brunt of the hit.

Icebreaker then swiftly got up holstering his frost launcher on his right leg, his shield sliding over his left shoulder as he then drew his massive survival knife, being little over half the size of one of Optimus Primal's swords with a bowie shaped style to it. He was too close range to use his frost launcher, but his skills with his knife easily made up for it. The name's Icebreaker.. I've shown you the ice, how about now.. I show you how I break sneaky punks like you for picking on children?

(Too fast for me? Ha. )

______________________________

Glowstick looked up at the main video screen as Steelclaw spoke, his optics dimmed with a half shut look as he saw the battle with Icebreaker suddenly showing up. He took one of the marines with him?!.. Somehow I think I'm going to pity the Alien...Oh, Steelclaw. Can you use one of the manipulators to move that cart full of energon into the hanger? he then stated,looking back to repairing Scorponok.

[Blazemane]

"Well, let's see how this goes," he spoke to himself. He had never familiarized himself with the tools before.

Looking at the control interface, he activated the tentacles' cameras. He turned one slowly to the right with a simple button push and watched its video feed show him new ground. He then followed suit with the other, moving it to the left.

On the left and right side of the interface were small rotatable disks which controlled the positioning of the of each tentacle. He moved the Starboard tentacle's base around slowly, but found that the end of the tentacle hardly moved as a result. But there were separate disks for the mid-section and end, and after some toying with these, he managed to get the tentacle to face the same way the ship was.

He didn't want to take as much time with the port tentacle. Maybe if he rotated it's base a bit faster, the sudden change in momentum would bring it to the front. But he didn't want to go too fast or else he'd-

WHAM!

Steelclaw shook his head, chuckled disparagingly and looked down at the floor.

-smash it into the side of the ship.

Well, at least it was in the right spot now. Turning the port tool's front to the right and the starboard's to the left, he soon managed to get a visual on the cart from both cameras. The port's tentacle was, rather fortunately, mere feet away.

He quickly got out of his chair to reach for the control necessary to open the hangar's front door. Then he sat back down, got the cart with the claws from the port side and sloppily put it inside.

"Glowstick, should we get another hand out there? The alien is hurting the Maximals right now, but they got a pretty good head start collecting the energon."

* * *

Dinobot walked to one of the platforms and took it down. He stepped off as soon as it stopped moving and started running. As Saber had pointed out, there was no reason for stalling.