"OC Episode #3"

[una]

Hah! For Rattrap, doing anything but sleeping or playing games on the computer bothered him. Purposely sighing loudly, he looked at Whitegrazer and said, "All right, fine." She seemed nice enough; very kind, in fact. He wasn't sure he'd get along with her because her sweetness was quite the opposite of his bitter sarcasm. As for Frilla, well, although she was female, he still didn't trust her as far he could throw her. "So this is the hangar, and this is our transport unit called the Nomad," he began. "You can get a ride in it later. Follow me an' I find ya some quarters," he said in a pivet turn and swinging his arm over as a motion for the two femmes to follow him.

Whitegrazer nodded with amused smile towards the eccentric rat, following his lead.

Frilla rolled her eyes at Rattrap's words, "Frilla Maximize." With a hiss she transformed to her robot mode, still slightly smaller then Rattrap and followed him anyway, despite how annoying he was already. But could she blame him for being so suspicious? Dinobot himself had been a Predacon and Frilla knew a second one wasn't always the best thing for a team. Sighing a bit the frilled lizard knew she'd have to deal with it for now.

She glanced at Frilla and just gave her a "It will be okay" look, she could still feel Frilla's frustration towards the Maximal who held distrust towards her. He had a good reason too though but she was confident that given time that distrust will fade.

"What do you specialize in, Rattrap?" she asked curiously and gave herself a tidbit towards the rat, "I'm a hand to hand combat expert."

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: I love your diagrams, NK. Thank you for always keeping things precise and clear. ))

"Yes, sir."

Studying Saber-Fang for a moment, Optimus gave a command for the lift to lower and he stepped on. He was still on duty, but she had the rest of the day off to rest. Figuring she might want some time alone, and assuming she wouldn't venture far from the base after their talk, the gorilla was lifted up inside and into the main control room. Stepping off of the lift, he glanced around and found the room completely empty and quiet. Nightmist's group must have all met up with Rattrap and Rhinox in the hangar. Safe inside the Axalon from the energon radiation, the leader maximized to his robot mode and made his way toward the other end of the ship. His side ached and was awfully sore from the damaged armor that his beast form could not mend on its own, but at least being out of beast mode stopped the head ache from those blasts Waspinator had hammered his chest with.

"Frilla Maximize."

Rattrap almost shuddered when he heard the lizard say that word. What was with these Predacons anyway? Can't they pick a side and stick with it?

"What do you specialize in, Rattrap?" "I'm a hand to hand combat expert."

"Yeah?" he said to Whitegrazer light heartedly. "Who needs that when you've got guns?" he snickered. In all honesty, however, Rattrap thought it was neat, and an advantage, to have someone like her on their team. But he preferred weapons. "I'm the demolition expert around 'ere. And a master marksman," he added with a boasting voice. He left out the spying part with the former Predacon hanging around them. So, it was just another quality the both of them were opposites with together. "You need somethin' blown up, just gimme a shout," the short Maximal grinned. He really was quite good at what he did, just like her.

Walking down the corridor, Optimus found Rattrap, Frilla and Whitegrazer. He stopped and smiled briefly at them. "Giving them the grand tour, Rattrap?"

"Yeah, and ya know, it ain't really my job... but," Rattrap glanced at Frilla, then grabbed Primal's arm and pulled him off to the side, "can I ask ya something?" The two females could still hear them, after all it was a narrow hallway, but the rat went on anyway. "What the heck do you think yer doin' lettin' another Predacon in here?"

Optimus knew this was coming. Might as well get it over with now. And he didn't much care if he would embarrass his short comrade in front of the two new Maximals. "It was Frilla's decision to leave the Predacons, Rattrap."

"Fine. But it was your decision to let her inta our group. I wanna know how you're so slaggin' sure that we can trust 'er and Dinobot. You gonna let Megatron in, too, if he gets down on his knees an' asks politely, batting his big red eyes at you?" Rattrap glared up at the commander, obviously displeased with this decision of his leader.

"Maybe," Optimus smiled at him, joking. "Look, Frilla is a data analyst, not a fighter. We could really use her skills," he tried explaining. "If Megatron abused her function, then-"

"She could be a spy, for all we know!" the rodent interrupted him. "You can't just let any Predacon into our ranks 'cause they 'don't fit in' with their own kind," he snapped.

"I don't believe she's a spy," Primal disagreed with Rattrap, his patience now growing thin with the mouse. "I believe she's following her spark and doing what she thinks is right. She may have to earn our trust, but Dinobot has proven himself countless times, and I hope you would give Frilla the same chance." His tone grew firmer.

"I never said I trusted Dinobot. And I still think he'll betray us." The defiant and stubborn rat didn't step down from the leader's tone or stern posture. "Sometimes you trust too much, Optimus."

Optimus wondered if Rattrap ever thought he would be reason why Dinobot or Frilla would leave the Maximals to go back to the Predacons. But he was also right. It was a weakness of the optimistic leader. He did trust too much, and that might come back to haunt him some day. "Then that's the risk I have to take. Frilla's a Maximal now, and I expect you to treat her like one, whether you trust her or not. Rattrap, did you ever stop to think how she might be feeling through this great change she made?"

Rattrap grew quiet as the boss monkey made his point. He slowly lowered his head in thought.

I didn't think so, thought Optimus. "I'd appreciate it if you'd stop making small issues into bigger problems than they really are. I have enough trouble on my mind as it is." With that, he took his red optics off of Rattrap, glanced at Whitegrazer and Frilla, and stepped around the rodent, continuing his walk to the hangar.

Sighing as Primal left, Rattrap looked at the females and shrugged. "Guess the 'Great Optimus' has spoken." But he still wasn't going to apologize to Frilla. Not yet. At least, not in front of Whitegrazer. Moving on with their tour, perhaps a little less sarcastic about everything now, Rattrap asked the equine, "What kinda hand-to-hand combat do you know?" All right, he was curious. After all, if she could teach him a thing or two, he'd make himself a weapon so he wouldn't have to rely on his gun all the time.

Upon reaching the open hangar of the Axalon, Optimus saw Cheetor and found Rhinox inside of the Nomad. Almost everyone was accounted for, but where was Nightmist? He thought he had seen her earlier before he, Saber-Fang and Dinobot approached the base. It was unlikely she was inside anywhere, and he hadn't see her outside since then before he entered his ship. Puzzled, he asked the cheetah and rhinoceros, "Where's Nightmist?"

-----

"Ha, seems only more trouble for the Preds. I say let them deal with the Decepticon maybe we'll be lucky and the craft will crash. Two less Predacons to worry about."

Tigatron remained silent, and simply watched what was going on.

"Well this seems to be a big drawback. If it can remain airbourne I could go after the 'Con femme."

The white tiger was getting a bad feeling about this, but Icebreaker spoke up in hopes to keep the flying wolf at bay.

Uh I don't think you'll be catching up with her.. and that is a bad idea. Lets try to stick together so we don't get lost, okay? He looked towards the whale Hmm.. I guess we should have Wintersong and Tigatron ride on your back, or should I fairy them across when we get to the water?

Tigatron looked from the penguin to Orcariner, patiently twitching his tail.

..."She's heading towards the Axalon and the others Icebreaker." "Guess we are going to be looking forward to something more then a debriefing."

"The others might be able to hold her off and the radiation has to be getting to her by now." "Feralnight can't you scout ahead? You'd be there faster then any of us."

"Perhaps we should warn the others at the Axalon," the large white and black feline finally suggested in a concerned voice. If their comm. links couldn't reach anyone yet, they still had Feralnight's radio.

[Night-Hunter]

Saber followed him into the Axalon and found it freakishly quiet, she followed Optimus down the hall seeing how her quarters were down the same hall.

"You need somethin' blown up, just gimme a shout,"

Saber smiled a little at Rattraps comment.

"Giving them the grand tour, Rattrap?"

Saber raised an eye brow when she saw Frilla.

Wasn't she with the Predacons? She thought.

She shrugged it off, seeing how it wasn't her problem. She was going to say some thing to Optimus but stopped herself, she was already in hot water with him, she didn't want to draw any more attention to herself, she simply walked past him and headed for her quarters to rest.

[NaitoKage]

(Heh, I've pondered setting up maps with miniatures, but by that point I think you ladies and gentlemen would probably assume I went further off the deep end. )

Rhinox looked up towards Optimus, he was glad to see that he was okay. But he did pose a good point. She didn't come in with you? .. Strange. I saw her outside briefly, but she hasn't come inside yet.. Rhinox got up from his chair walking down the ramp It's probably nothing.. but I'm going check up on her. Beast mode. he then said transforming to his rhino form, then trudged out of the hanger with heavy step.

________________

Icebreaker nodded to Tigatron Sounds like a good idea. Feralnight, fly up and contact the Axalon!

[New Moon]

Frilla glanced towards Optimus once he was passing but at first paid no attention. But she listened to the conversation intently though her expression gave nothing away of her already growing frustration. Yes she had left, and for her own reasons, and yes it would take time to be trusted but that didn't mean she'd let Rattrap have a reason to show she'd return. Though Frilla remained calm and patient, for now at least. Looking towards Rattrap she had noticed how he had seemed to avoid saying some things. "If your a spy too rodent, you don't have to keep it quiet. But I'm surprised no one can smell your stench coming from a mile away." She remarked.

Frilla only walked ahead, lengthing her stride a bit instead of letting the rat take the lead. She trusted Whitegrazer yet held no liking to Rattrap as of the moment and decided to go ahead on her own.

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

Feralnight nodded, "You got it. Be safe you guys." She said then took flight angled towards the Axalon heading off away from them. She would be there before them but if she could hopefully the Axalon would get her transmission over the radio, "Feralnight Maximize!" She commanded and transformed taking out the radio. Yet she didn't stop going as fast as she could, "Feralnight to Optimus, I know you might be upset about this but we got the Decepticon heading towards the ship. Whether or not she's there already is beyond me but be on alert, she already has the Levianthan grounded." She said over the radio.

[Wintersong]

When they had landed Snow Trix made sure the Maximals hadn't tried to make a move towards them while the cargo bay door was being put into place but they had been distracted. "Guess for now Nemisis is the Maximals' problem for now." She said sitting back down.

[Alak]

(Heh, I've pondered setting up maps with miniatures, but by that point I think you ladies and gentlemen would probably assume I went further off the deep end.)

{{OOC: I wouldn't mind if we had people posting maps on what they think is going on. It would definitely help other writers have a better understanding where the poster is coming from and whatnot. For example, that Leviathan image alone helped me understand what happened because I was under the impression that she kicked through the floor of the ship.

Btw, I've been up in Phoenix for the past three days but have been trying to keep up with the RPG. If my post has contradictions, then feel free to chew me out.))

Orcariner turned and look up towards the sky as sparks flew from the escaping Leviathan craft. An aerial-bound vehicle jettisoned away from the ship and rocketed straight south. The Maximal was not good with calculating coordinates without his trusty radar. As such, he was grateful as Feralnight warned them that the object was heading straight towards the Axalon. Such warm feelings were quick to pass as he realized the danger that Optimus Primal and the others were in. Orcariner had hoped to break the news to the Maximal leader himself, but now the latter was going to find out the hard way. Sighing, the orca mech looked down to gather his thoughts as Icebreaker ordered the fuzor to go ahead to warn the home base.

"She doesn't have a lot of time," he said to Icebreaker and the others, "The Decepticon, I mean. Regardless of whatever plan she has in mind, her body is too expired to keep itself running out in the open with this much radiation. I give her a few cycles before she submits to stasis lock. Optimus and the others have the firepower and Sentinel to keep her at bay. Still, we probably should come up with a back up plan in case something goes wrong."

Transforming back into his killer whale form, Orcariner hovered onward homeward bound. He explained what he knew as the others followed.

"Decepticons and Autobots aren't any different from one another except for ideologies and faction symbols. It's these differences in principle that eventually led us to believe other differences such as 'Cons are planes and 'Bots are cars. That's just a stereotype; on an anatomical level they're identical. By accepting that they're physically the same means that we're accepting that their weaknesses are the same. The primary weakness to a Decepticon's body is heat, but the epidermal layer of their armor is specifically designed to protect them to an extent. Autobot firepower enables more penetration, but with the Maximal 'downgrade' a lot of our firearms won't be able to pierce her armor. Missiles and any type of warhead will do the trick since it allows the projectile to punch through the shielding and release heat from within; ergo, internal combustion. The second best weakness we can exploit is the Decepticon's vulnerability to cold. It's the same weakness that kept her in stasis lock until the Predacons managed to fish her out of the ocean. The bad news is that both of our ice-based Maximals are here instead of back home. Even in the event that she still functions once we get back, our cold attacks are too slow to keep up with her."

Orcariner motioned to Icebreaker.

"Even your frost launcher can't hit a target that can obtain supersonic speeds in a nanoclick. That's where weakness number three comes in: overwhelming brute force. It's not even much of a weakness, just a principle rule in nature. I'm like what... somewhere between five to six meters in height. That's comparable to smaller Autobots who took on the forms of civilian automobiles. Primus knows that I pack more mass in me. When I analyzed the body, I noticed that the Decepticon was unarmed. Even as a flyer, she won't be able to touch me without getting close, so maybe I can goad her into engaging me in a fist fight. All I need is to be able to get a hold on her to prevent her from escaping, and we can freeze her back into stasis lock. Again, this is all assuming that Optimus doesn't kick her to the curb first."

[Phoenix]

Nightmist struggled as best she could, attempting to kick the much larger Decepticon and to twist herself out of its grasp. Yet the more she struggled, the tighter the femme seemed to be gripping her.

"Primal.. Maximal base, come in!," she desperately called through the radio frequency, hoping that someone at base would hear her despite the problems she had been having with radio transmissions lately. She assumed the Decepticon was somehow related to the other object they had picked up, yet had no idea how she had come to life or here. "If you have time to spare, a little assistance would be greatly appreciated!!"

The female Decepticon merely snorted at the Maximal's futile attempts to summon help. "Don't waste your precious time," she taunted. About to continue, a sudden drop in her shields caused by a massive energon surge, dropped her on her knees. "Mmmph," she grunted, having to use her free hand to support herself.

What was going on?!

Although her original intent had been to use this lone Maximals as bait to get the parts she needed to repair the rest of her systems and get some firepower, that plan appeared to backfire as her left leg suddenly locked up as a result of the energon surge.

Noticing the Decepticon's troubles, Nightmist's caring nature set in. "I'm a medic," she whimpered, obviously in pain from the tight squeeze, "I can help you if you.."

A agonizing scream interrupted her.

Nemesis clutched her abdominal region with her free hand, having burned much of her limited energy reserves making it this far. And now her shields were no longer protecting her from the effects of this planet, causing massive failures throughout her systems. Yet even now, this creature who identified herself as a medic offered to help.. Unfortunately for Nightmist the offer did not have the desired effect on Nemesis, who had spent a large portion of her life as a test subject for the scientists behind the project that made her what she was today.. and they too frequently had attempted to assure her they were medics who only had her best interest in mind.. Their idea of her best interest which involved countless painful experiments, with a majority of the test subjects dying during the procedures..

Clutching the Maximal even harder, in a fit of rage, terror, and pain, Nemesis summoned what strength she could master. "No.. I'm never going back!" She brought her other hand up to grab a better hold of the squirming creature, separating the Maximal at the midsection in the process.

Nightmist's, who had been keeping her radio channel open all along hoping the Maximals would pick up on her plea for help, limp and lifeless form dropped to the ground, her body split in two from the extreme force exerted on her.

Moments later the Decepticon collapsed next to her, the energon surge having built up to intolerable levels. In an act of desperation, Nemesis reached out and grabbed part of Nightmist's leg. Surge after surge of energon rushed through her, and her nanotechnology was going berserk as a result. Just as she was about to black out, she saw the familiar glow of her nanobots spreading from her to the severed Maximal in front of her. She could feel the implementation process beginning, alterations being made to her system, yet she had no control over what was going on. For a brief moment, Nemesis blacked out.

As she awoke again moments later, some changes had been made. She still felt weak.. dizzy.. confused.. but had regained some strength through whatever process she had just gone through. Nemesis forced herself to her feet, realizing she was in no condition to fight right now if reinforcements were to come for that medic she had just killed. She took a couple of staggering steps, kicking the bird she had killed earlier to draw the Maximal's attention out of the way as she did.

Odd..

That bird seemed quite a bit larger now than it had been..

Glancing over at the severed remains of the Maximal she realized that she too appeared much larger than before.

What the..?

And the same went for the forest she was standing in.

The harsh reality of the situation truly started sinking in as she did a quick check-up on herself. Her armor looked essentially the same, arms and legs were intact, her wings.. had feathers now?! Oh no..

Again Nemesis' scream echoed in the forest.

[NaitoKage]

Rhinox had looked around as he heard the signal, then started to run. His eyes widen as he heard a scream from the forest, starting to move as fast as he could ramming through some of the trees knocking them to the side as he charged. Rhinox battle mode! he then roared violently transforming to robot mode. His red optics scanned over the scene with horror and rage as he viewed the sight of Nightmist on the ground, split in half and mangled, parts of her body appearing to be cannibalized.

He looked towards Nemesis as his optics narrowed, noticing the Decepticon insignia brandished on her chest. He didn't know or understand how or why for the situation, all he knew was he needed to act. This.. drew both of his chain guns pointing them towards Nemesis Is unforgivable! he then let out a beastly roar as he started firing at her.

[Alak]

((OOC: Just wanted to ask: did anyone else see that coming, because I didn't. Not sure if that particular scene was discussed before hand because I feel awkwardly surprised at this turn of events. I should have figured Phoenix would have found a way to get a Predacon body without Megatron's help, but wow I didn't think she'd kill off Nightmist that fast. I'm shocked... I really am. Good job, Phoenix. My feeble mind nearly exploded just now from that last post

Is this the first time anyone's OC has died in our RPG?))

[Night-Hunter]

((OOC: Holy crap, I didn't see that coming at all, I was starting to like Nightmist. And I think this is the first OC to die in our RPG. Wow.))

[starshadow]

((OOC: *screams like a lil girl as Nem kills NM* OH MY ****ING PRIMUS! SHE'S DEAD! SHE'S DEEEAAAAAAADDD!! I really didn't see that coming!))

[Wintersong]

(Whoa, definitely not expecting something like that.)

[una]

((OOC: Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh My Goodness!!! NO!! NIGHTMIST! )

"Yeah?" he said to Whitegrazer light heartedly. "Who needs that when you've got guns?" he snickered. In all honesty, however, Rattrap thought it was neat, and an advantage, to have someone like her on their team. But he preferred weapons. "I'm the demolition expert around 'ere. And a master marksman," he added with a boasting voice. He left out the spying part with the former Predacon hanging around them. So, it was just another quality the both of them were opposites with together. "You need somethin' blown up, just gimme a shout," the short Maximal grinned. He really was quite good at what he did, just like her.

The rat seemed to get around in the destructive areas of combat, it reminded her of that mission she...crap, she was remembering it again, "I used to carry alot of heavy machine weapons during my days as a soldier." she patted the pistol on her waist, "Now I travel light which is pretty liberating for me."

"Don't worry about that, you will be the first bot I call." Whitegrazer chuckled.

Optimus Primal came their way and she flashed a smile at him. She wondered if everyone was here now? She was impressed about the size of the crew. She liked that. New faces. New people to meet.

Whitegrazer wasn't a person to eavesdrop but it was hard not to when she could hear the conversation since it was still close to her and Frilla. Rattrap was pretty distrustful for Frilla and he still wasn't even convinced as Optimus explained it to him. She understood such distrust but she hoped the rat wasn't to stubborn to see in the future that Frilla won't betray them. It was interesting to know that Frilla wasn't the only one...Dinobot was one too. Very interesting for the Maximal commander to do. All the others she had met would kill a Predacon without mercy or chance which she always looked down upon.

She was glad Optimus wasn't like that.

Sighing as Primal left, Rattrap looked at the females and shrugged. "Guess the 'Great Optimus' has spoken." But he still wasn't going to apologize to Frilla. Not yet. At least, not in front of Whitegrazer. Moving on with their tour, perhaps a little less sarcastic about everything now, Rattrap asked the equine, "What kinda hand-to-hand combat do you know?" All right, he was curious. After all, if she could teach him a thing or two, he'd make himself a weapon so he wouldn't have to rely on his gun all the time.

"Diffusion. Have you heard of it?" she asked Rattrap, "It's an old Autobot self-defense style."

[Phoenix]

(OOC: Heh, I'll make another Maximal, don't worry.. I had a couple of reasons for this turn of events. One being that with the limited amount of characters, I did not want to end up with two birds. Also the Maximals had at least 3 medics which seemed a little bit excessive. And finally there was just no way Nemesis would ever agree to do the "upgrade" or "downgrade" to beastie form willingly. If she had any choice in the matter, why would she want to give up her size and extreme speed of her alternative mode? She was a spacecraft after all, so she could simply have taken off into space to avoid the change she feared so much. NK was aware of my plans, since I talk to him on msn quite a lot, but otherwise I don't think I mentioned it to anyone.)