(( OOC: Phoenix and I were working on a joint post late last night. We were both eventually falling asleep, so I'll just post what we accomplished and go from there. ))
"Right. Understood,"
Rattrap was still at a loss for words. He had glared at Ironclaw when he pushed Whitegrazer out of his way, and although she seemed to brush it off, Optimus clearly disapproved and the rodent saw a moment of fury in the ape's eyes. Bewildered by the entire situation, the Spy simply nodded with the mare in agreement and acknowledging Primal's orders.
"Aurora, I know how hard this is. It would be rough, but the only thing you can do is to follow Optimus's instruction and cure this virus that is plaguing our friends. As I will do my duty to make sure our friends come back here safely and that the Predacons don't try anything." "Don't worry. I will make sure Optimus and Nexus are okay. I will do it to the best of my ability. I promise."
Whitegrazer's words sounded confident and hopeful enough to Rattrap but they seemed transparent to Aurora and he frowned at her reaction. They were well aware of her connection with Optimus through their sparks but they would still need to develop a plan in order to get him and Nexus out of the
Darksyde safely. Other than finding out who this Darkwind person was, that was probably going to be the most difficult mission to accomplish, and he didn't care to be the one in charge to make it happen. He had no idea how all of this was going to work if it could at all. Most of it depended on Megatron not killing them immediately, but Rattrap assumed that if he did, he would notify them and gloat all about it in order to strike fear in their processors and crash them.
"No, you don't,"
Primal's expression grew sorrowful at Aurora and her unsteady voice that was about to fall apart. He knew how she was feeling and it crushed him inside.
"Megatron will kill you first chance he gets, and then he will come after the rest of us to finish the job he started earlier.. When we're in shambles, just like before. Please don't do this! We'll figure out some other way, we'll.. storm their base,... something!"
"I don't believe he will," Optimus told the Fuzor but failed to explain why because he did not want to fill her head with unimaginable images and horrible imaginations. Last time had been too easy for Megatron to watch him fly into the Vok's weapon and explode. He couldn't touch him from where he was. This time, Megatron could make him suffer by his own hands for a long time, break him down and wear him out. Brutal interrogations to get information and threats to emotionally shatter him. This time, the pain and abuse would linger. And although it would be quicker to just make the suffering end abruptly the way it had before, it would be the coward's way out because Primal knew he'd have to hold on as long as he could to give his Maximals time to rescue him and Nexus.
"This is the only way to ensure that Cheetor's and Banshee's lives are spared," he debated with Aurora, but those optics of her's that were so full of despair, anger, sadness and uncertainty gripped his spark and squeezed it. He didn't want her to suffer anymore or be upset but this was the way it had to be. After all, he wasn't dead yet. Where was her faith?
"No, he does not have to go! It's way too dangerous,"
Looking down at her with her pleading expression and voice in regards to Whitegrazer's words, it seemed as though she was already giving up hope. At this point, she sounded more angry than anything and Optimus was saddened to see her so. Aurora was right, though. It was incredibly dangerous of him and Nexus to do this, and he knew what the consequences might be, but he had hope that something would interfere and turn things in a favorable motion for the Maximals. He always hoped. It was what had gotten him and his crew this far through so much.
"Come on, Ironclaw, we got our orders..,"
Optimus had reached out to Aurora with his hand just as she had turned away and started to jog off toward the base. Slowly, he lowered his arm as she left him there somewhat coldly, offering him nothing for a good-bye save for a pause in her steps and a glance back at him where his lost and emotionally pained optics met her's in silence before she continued on.
Watching all of this, Rattrap could see that Primal was searching for more but what could he really expect? The odds were in Megatron’s favor and it was highly unlikely that he and Nexus were going to survive this.
"She's just angry and upset," he said, breaking the quietness around them.
"We'll look after 'er. She'll be okay," he tried assuring their leader, but carefully shot a warning glance to Nemesis afterward as if to tell her to stay away from the young Fuzor or else. Carrying his own gun as well the monkey's clubs, Rattrap turned and walked away a little bit before stopping and turning around to watch them in the sunrise, giving the rest of them privacy and waiting for Ironclaw and Nemesis to follow.
The Maximal Commander nodded lightly to the rat's somewhat comforting words before turning to Whitegrazer. As the nanites continued to diligently work on containing the virus within him, he was no longer contagious, not that he knew he that he was in the first place, and without thinking much of it, he walked up to the white mare and pulled her close to him, kissing her softly and then wrapping his arms around her in a tight embrace.
"I know you'll take care of them," he whispered in her audio sensors.
"Guide them and protect them. Bring us home because we are not going to give up. It doesn't end here." Optimus looked deeply into her optics with a firm and serious expression before pulling away and walking over to Nexus.
"I suppose I could disable them," "There. I overloaded the circuits so the weapons are disabled now. If the Predacons scan us upon arrival, they should be able to detect that."
Observing the sparks and smoke, Optimus was satisfied with the Admiral disarming himself and agreed that it would be enough to suit Megatron's conditions.
"Hopefully he's done his homework because he failed miserably last time he attempted to babysit me."
"Someone in your position, Nemesis, would be wise to hold their tongue. I may be able to keep the peace between my Maximals and your presence while I'm around but for the duration of my absence, I'll have no control over their conduct," Primal warned her.
"And if you harm any of them while they reluctantly assist you with your current predicament, then you will end up in the same place under the same conditions in which we found you." Frozen underwater and in stasis lock. Pulling out the taser again, he gave himself one more jolt with a little more voltage to the part of his chest that looked almost normal except for the blue glow that suddenly grew brighter. He cringed at the feeling of the sharp electricity as it shocked him and fled throughout his body in a matter of seconds, along with the slithery and crawling feeling of the nanobots. Optimus then handed the taser to Whitegrazer before returning to Nexus Prime's side, ready to depart.
"Someone in your position, Nemesis, would be wise to hold their tongue. I may be able to keep the peace between my Maximals and your presence while I'm around but for the duration of my absence, I'll have no control over their conduct,"
Nemesis tilted her head, unable to hold back a slight smile at that last statement. The scenario she had just witnessed only proved to her that Primal was not only willing to listen, but that he was actually fully intent on giving her the benefit of the doubt. Although she, too, had doubts about this plan of his to simply hand himself over to Megatron, but she wasn't about to throw her life away to oppose it. Her reason for being here was to take down Darkwind and reclaim her spot within the Predacon ranks and she would do what it took to achieve that. Even if it meant tolerating these sentimental fools for a while.
"And if you harm any of them while they reluctantly assist you with your current predicament, then you will end up in the same place under the same conditions in which we found you."
Nemesis tried, she really did, and failed miserably at hiding her growing amusement. Having regained some of her confidence, and along with it the attitude, she felt much more at ease even if she was in Maximal territory. Opening her mouth to respond, she was distracted by Optimus zapping himself with a taser. Intrigued, she eyed him for a long moment. She didn't know exactly what he was trying to achieve by zapping himself, but her answer came quickly enough when the affected area started to glow. Optics widening a bit, she now knew for sure that she hadn't been imagining seeing the change earlier.
"Oh come now, Optimus," she said after a brief pause,
"You, if anyone, should be able to appreciate how difficult it is to harm someone with the gift of regeneration." She gave a quick nod of recognition to the familiar bluish glow on his armor. He didn't have to say it, she already knew.
As the glow faded back to normal, she finally tore her optics away.
"But you need not worry, for I have no reason to harm your precious Maximals. That is unless they attack me first, of course, since I will defend myself naturally. And you cannot hold me responsible.."
Her statement was cut short as strong fingers suddenly wrapped themselves around her throat, squeezing it tightly. Immediately shutting her mouth and shifting her focus to the old warrior she'd come to know as Nexus, she let out a half-choked gasp as the admiral lifted her up with a single arm. Feet dangling off the ground, Nemesis tensed, memories of Megatron's abuse still all-too-clear in her mind.
Nexus' optics were narrowed, seemingly not affected by the effort of holding her restrained in such a position, merely holding her like that for a few more seconds until dread once again had inserted itself as Nemesis' dominant emotion. Unsure of what the Maximal planned on doing, Nemesis' self-preservation set in and she immediately grabbed for her sai. Such a gesture was welcomed with a rough impact with the ground, her sai gripping arm held in a steel grip by the larger male while his foot pressed her down against the dirt.
"If I may suggest you take Optimus' suggestion to heart and stay on your best behavior, this will go by so much more smoothly." His voice was calm, but not without holding a certain edge to it. There was little doubt that he could easily snap her arm from this angle should she try anything, and his tone revealed doing so was certainly an option. Nemesis decided not to test this theory, merely letting the sai drop to the ground and remain still.
Primal saw her snark smiles, which were not helping her in anyway, and he began to realize how little he truly trusted her and how likely she was just using them to her advantage. If he wanted to, he could care less about the whole situation as she failed to take it seriously. Fortunately, Rattrap had enough paranoia to watch her carefully and question everything she would do, say, and facially express. There was a part of him, however, that feared for their lives. Couldn't this all just be a bad dream?
"Oh come now, Optimus," "You, if anyone, should be able to appreciate how difficult it is to harm someone with the gift of regeneration."
"Difficult but not impossible. Regeneration does not deem one invincible," the Commander said as a matter of fact.
"I, however, have been through death and brought back to life." Which didn't take the ability of regeneration, just a really intelligent and resourceful scientist, some unique equipment, and a special bond that was unbreakable even beyond the Matrix. This time his gaze didn't follow hers to the bluish glow, he just watched her optics widen and recognize what was going on. Dead, alive, and now held the same regeneration ability as her own? He left that information up to her own conclusion, attempting to make her second guess his abilities.
"But you need not worry, for I have no reason to harm your precious Maximals. That is unless they attack me first, of course, since I will defend myself naturally. And you cannot hold me responsible.."
"If I may suggest you take Optimus' suggestion to heart and stay on your best behavior, this will go by so much more smoothly."
Optimus folded his arms across his chest as he watched Nexus take it upon himself to put Nemesis in her place, her sai falling from her hand with a thud to the ground. He made no motion to stop him or tell him to back down, he simply stood there with a blank expression and asked her,
"It's a shame we can't all get along. It would make everything so much easier for everyone. Is there anything else you'd like to add? More condescending insults and smirks perhaps? Whatever my Maximals may do to you, you can rely on your regeneration to aid you instead of your weapons, since you enjoy boasting so highly of it."
-----
Rhinox, ever so cautious about the unpredictable and infected Sonar, hesitated to make his final move when he watched the bat's optics widen in suspense or terror. And then, as if he were possessed by another being, the Predacon's head appeared to be knocked violently to the left by an invisible force and fell limp laying on the floor. Feeling dizzy again, the engineer used the wall as assistance to lower himself to the metal floor beside Sonar and examine him.
"Ah," "If only Sonar were always that cooperative."
As much as Big Green agreed with Dinobot, he was actually concerned for the bat's well-being. Checking his vitals, Sonar was alive with his processor still functioning but he was unconscious and he didn't know how long it would last. Frowning lightly, the robust Maximal carefully lifted their enemy into his arms and tried keeping his balance as he stood up and his surroundings fluctuated and looked warped.
"Lead the way,"
"I've got this, Dinobot," Rhinox said now that things were made a lot easier for him aside from the whole hallucination business.
"Go ahead and return to the bridge. We don't need anymore surprises or problems today." With that, the scientist carrying the other scientist headed toward the medical bay with a million things running through his head. Or trying to. Optimus and Nexus were about to turn themselves over to the Predacons and he didn't know if they'd ever get them back. On the bright side, Cheetor and Banshee would be returned to them, but with one relief of their safety and survival, another was replaced with fear of losing their commanding officer yet again... And this time it would be for good. Not to mention also losing the legendary Nexus Prime who had taught Optimus so much long ago on Cybertron and would've been such a valuable asset to them in this war against Megatron. There was still the matter of this hallucinogen, and with Sonar K.O.ed, it was going to take them even longer to figure out a cure, if it could be cured at all. Rhinox could sure use Aurora's help with it and he hoped she was doing all right and would return to the base soon to begin helping him.
Reaching the med bay without incident, the large Maximal laid Sonar down on his back onto a medical bed and used its straps to tie down his wrists, ankles and waist so that he couldn't hurt himself or others. Rhinox had trouble simply hooking up a few sensors to him as his vision played tricks on him; it was like trying to thread a needle and his hands kept missing their targets. Once he finally had them attached in the proper places, he turned on a monitor to watch his vitals and anything else unusual that might come up. For now, that was all he needed to do with the bat.
Landslide to Rhinox, repairs finished.. I'm lookin' at Orcariner's work station.. is there somethin' goin on? The bridge looks like a warzone..
Landslide? Thank Primus, another individual's help they could use who was not yet plagued by this virus.
"There's a lot going on," Rhinox told him with a slight tone of urgency over their transmission as he moved about in the infirmary looking for tools and syringes and setting up other machines and testing mechanisms.
"Sonar escaped the brig and released some kind of awful hallucinogen that a few of us have been exposed to," he paused as he gathered things in his arms and turned to walk only to trip over a stray wire on the floor, dumping everything in his arms across the floor. Grumbling on his hands and knees, he started to pick everything up and continued talking to Landslide.
"Optimus, Orcariner, Saber-Fang, Sonar and myself have been infected but we've apprehended Sonar. Until I know what we're dealing with, I highly recommend that you stay away from us in case it's contagious." Getting back to his feet, he carried the medical and scientific instruments to a table and laid them down on it and started to segregate them, making sure nothing was broken or damaged in his clumsy fall. Continuing again, Rhinox said,
"Saber-Fang is running loose outside; we lost track of her. Megatron has captured Cheetor and Banshee, and Optimus has agreed to exchange himself and Nexus for their return. He recently took off to find out about a Maximal distress signal nearby but I haven't been given any updates on that yet. That's all I know at the moment. So things are a bit messy and chaotic right now."
(( OOC: N-H, Sonar can break those restraints if he has the will and strength to do it. Just FYI so you don't think I had him chained to the bed permanently without your permission.
))
) to write. Of course, I finally was able to get myself to write at least a few hundred words before I let myself free to do anything on this RP. 
))