| abstract
| - Houston, Texas One of a handful of spaceports serving the Earth, Houston has quickly become a massive port of industry as everyone pushes into the final frontier. Trans-orbital shuttles, intrasystem transport, and even ftl-drive craft are among the tools of Houston's boom-town status. Like the other large cities of the world, it has begun to grow outward, and threatens to reach out and grab every other city in Texas in its hunger for more room. Somewhere near the outskirts of Houston, an air show is going on. The USAF shows off its fancy supersonic jets and their superior air maneuverability as a small squadron flies overhead in a V-shaped formation. A large, enraptured audience litters the park below, having sprawled themselves out on blankets and lawn chairs with their necks craned and their eyes trained upward. The jets soar out of sight, then quickly bank back toward the park again as the crowd watched in awe. Among the audience is a young boy is sitting on a fleece blanket with his parents, who are conversing quietly. He suddenly points to the sky. "Look mom, dad! There's two more planes!" Sure enough, two more aircraft had appeared in the skies above, flying behind the Air Force jets... MOMENTS BEFORE. Triggerhappy was bored. Bored and restless. He'd gone -way- too long without being allowed to shoot at something besides a training drone, thanks to the Olympics. Sure, he'd gotten some relief at the Decepticon Free-For-All event, but that wasn't -nearly- enough! He still had all this pent-up shooting that was just hammering at the inside of his trigger finger. But now that the Olympics were over, he and Misfire had gone looking for trouble in all the right places. It was a good thing trouble wasn't too difficult to come by these cycles, or Triggerhappy might just offline from boredom. Thank Primus such was not the case, because it was looking as if they'd stumbled across the perfect opportunity for Misfire to boost his successful hit rate to something that had a number above 0 in the hundedths decimal place... "Hey look, Misfire! Target practice!" Triggerhappy laughs as he spots the air show. NOW... The audience applauds, thinking the two new additions are part of the show. That is, until two of the USAF aircraft explode just as they are dipping as low as they dared over the crowd--after all, it -was- a show. People scream and scatter as burning metal and fire begin to rain down upon them... The robot Misfire seems to rise slightly in the air as his legs fold upon themselves and two large wings begin to appear the robot continues to fold into a compact plane. There is now a non-terran plan with two meancing spires. Twin-Nosed Jet comes roaring in next to Triggerhappy, Aimless firmly attached to the top of his cockpit. He performs a quick barrel roll as he comes up on Triggerhappy's wing. "Yeah! A little live target practice should help work out the kinks!" He emits. "You want the honors?" Sideswipe had been assigned to come to the Air-Show in Texas, part of a 'keeping an eye on things' type of thing that the Autobots were doing where there were large crowds gathered for public venues. They weren't putting it past the Decepticons to cause trouble and an Air Show was right up their alley, er...slip stream...whatever. Blades had flown in as well to join him, and he sat with several other show cars that were always on display at things like this, hiding in plain sight. He tried to make sure to take the open spot at the end in case he had to change fast and move. Heaven forbid he damage any of the other cars near him. He set his systems up to scan the crowd, the traffic, and the air. It wasn't until his mic picked up the small boy calling out about there being two more planes that he got a feeling in his tanks that something wasn't right. That wasn't part of the show. He had the show memorized off the borchure...how many planes in each grouping, all of that. He radioed Blades, "Blades? I think we got incoming...." He never finished his sentence as two of the jets blew up and debris began to rain down on the crowd. Transforming up out of his car mode, much to the shock of those standing and admiring him at the moment, he took off running, then using his jet pack made a short burst of flight to try and catch as much of the flaming, falling wreckage as possible and propel past the crowds and onto the tarmac where it could be handled properly.... Bell UH-1 Iroquois is along with Sideswipe to act as a guard and to... give helicopter rides to sticky-fingered children to raise money for charity. This is one of the worst thing ever. Especially given that one of the human volunteers working with him duct-taped over Blades's internal speaker to keep him from calling the children 'larvae' and 'spawnlings'. So he hears Sideswipe's radio, but his reply is something like, "Mph mph mph!" He lands back on the tarmac, in the safest-looking area, to let the children out. Oh boy, this is bad... just the job for Blades! Weaving through the aerial traffic, Misfire and Aimless fire laser barrages which manage to the surprise of no one, miss everything. Misfire emits a cackle as his IFF suddenly blows up with a familiar designation. "Triggerhappy...I think we may have more than we bargained for..." He continues to barrel roll through the human planes, laser fire scattering everywhere, still missing everything. Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter laughs when he notices the Autobots. "Ooooh, goody! Autobots! Slag, this'll be like, the first -real- fight I've had in a while!" He'd expected that the Bots would show up, but this time they were actually already there! Meanwhile, the humans continue screaming and running chaotically in all directions in a mad scramble to get away from the park, and it escalates even further when Triggerhappy turns his photon pulse weapons downward, firing wildly upon the Autobots and humans below. Combat: Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter misses Bell UH-1 Iroquois with his YAY! AUTOBOTS! (Full-Auto) Area attack! Combat: Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter strikes Sideswipe with his YAY! AUTOBOTS! (Full-Auto) Area attack! Bell UH-1 Iroquois just barely manages to dodge Triggerhappy's shot to get the children to safety. He rises up into robot mode and draws his much-loathed photon pistol, taking aim at the dastardly duo. Blades sighs, "The sad thing is that looking in a mirror hasn't already blinded the both of you." Bell UH-1 Iroquois transforms into his Blades mode. Combat: Blades strikes Twin-Nosed Jet with his Photon Pistol Area attack! Combat: Blades misses Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter with his Photon Pistol Area attack! Being the brave and noble Bot he is, he manages to capture two of the large chunks of debris that are falling and knock them onto the tarmac, away from the crowd. There is still falling bits, burning fuel and such but at least no one is getting crushed by flaming tons of steel. He can only hope the pilots ejected and werent' trapped in there. He grunted as he landed and turned to look back at the humans, "Run for the nearest exit, that way..." he points back towards where the military is starting to scramble a few of their people together to protect the crowd of humans that has already fled. "MOVE IT N..." Before he can finish, he feel the photon pulse weapon hit him in the back and stagger him forward. Hopefully he blocked some of the shot towards the human with his body but that was just not nice....not nice at all! He recognizes the one jet and scowls, then turns, lining up one of his flares to shoot towards Trigger happy. Combat: Sideswipe sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Sideswipe strikes Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter with his Magnesium Phosphorous Flares attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter 's Accuracy. (Blinded) Twin-Nosed Jet gets blasted square in the nosecone by Blades attack, causing the hapless targetmaster to go into a flat spin. "Argggghhhhh!" He emits, as he is forced to revert to his robot mode, hitting the ground with a thud! Laying on the ground, Misfire lets out a moan as Aimless walks over and kicks him! "Get up fool!" Misfire holds his head for a moment before springing up, scooping up Aimless, who reverts to his cannon mode. They wobbly take dead aim at Blades. "Hold still! Both of y'all!" Aimless emits, "There is only one of 'em..." The Non-Terran Plane quickly begins to unfold. The rear engines slide down and form two bulky legs. The arms unfold from underneath the plan's body. The front spires on the cockpit slide up the back and sit above his head. Where there was once a plane there is now Misfire. Combat: Misfire misses Blades with his I got One for the Both of ya! attack! [Pulled -4] Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter is having the time of his life. He knocks out another human jet, sending its remains hurtling toward the ground, as well. He cackles like a maniac, though he manages to barrel roll out of the way of Blades' photon pistol. However, he wasn't watching Sideswipe, and a phosphorus flare strikes him in the cockpit. Bright spots flash across his optics, but he is undaunted. "Hahahahha! That's right, Autobums, save your little fleshy friends!" he calls out as he transforms, and the humans' panic dials up even further as it is now quite clear that the other jets had been Decepticons. He draws his compressed air cannon from subspace and turns it on Sideswipe. Triggerhappy reverts to his root form. Combat: Triggerhappy sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Triggerhappy strikes Sideswipe with his Compressed-Air Cannon attack! [Pulled -2] Blades corrects, "No, there are totally five of me. We'll merge to form Defensor all up in this house." He draws his blade and tries to stick run Misfire down and stick him right in the wirst. Matrix knows, it can only improve his aim. Combat: Blades strikes Misfire with his Rotor Blade attack! [Pulled -4] Thinking he's gotten a good shot off and managed to blind Triggerhappy, he turns to make sure that the humans are in deed running away from the fighting and that the military is starting to rouse and get themselves organized. He sees Misfire spin out of control and plow into the grassy field beyond the tarmac, then see Aimless get up and kick him. He shakes his head and sighs. Not real bright. How can he even attack the hapless Con. Now Triggerhappy, oh hell yeah, Misfire...he's gonna have some issues, ... maybe. Maybe not. He was about to turn back and verify that the last few humans were evacuated and that emergency squads were helping those wounded when he feels the Compressed-Air Cannon hit him, sending him flat on his face. With a snarl, Sideswipe rolls onto back onto his feet and turns, takes few running steps and then triggers his jetpack, getting him to his target faster. "Gotcha on the ground..just where I wanted ya..." And with that, he clenches his servos into fists and aims for TH center mass. Combat: Sideswipe strikes Triggerhappy with his Piledriver Arms attack! Letting out a yelp of pain, Misfire flings Aimless into the air as Blades' blade strikes through his right wrist. "SLAAGGG!" He curses loudly as he staggers backwards, pain radiating through his body. Misfire ends up collapsed on the ground, hitting head first, dazed and confused. He looks over at Blades. "Now I see Five..." He mumbles. As for Aimless, he is flying through the air, letting lose a blaze of laser bolts. "Damn, Misfire...I didn't know you could flip like..." As Aimless goes spinning end over end, he notes Misfire on the ground. "ARGH! Misfire, how many times do I have to tell you to keep a firm grip on the shaft..." He bellows out loud, then pauses. "Wait, that didn't come out right..." Laser blasts continue to go in every direction, until Aimless lands on the ground. Squawkbox's scanners picked up some Decepticon activity, and seeing as he was in the area, he's come to investigate. He flies through the air with his arms at his sides, optics looking forward and slightly down. When he arrives at an Air Show, it doesn't take long to determine that the Decepticons are attacking, but why, what's the target or goal. If he were a more bloodthrusty Decepticon, he'd start randomly firing too, but for now, he holds in mid-air, content to watch and observe until he can get his bearings. Combat: Misfire strikes Sideswipe with his Flying Aimless - Aerial Laser Light Show! Area attack! Combat: Misfire misses Blades with his Flying Aimless - Aerial Laser Light Show! Area attack! Combat: Misfire misses Triggerhappy with his Flying Aimless - Aerial Laser Light Show! Area attack! Combat: Misfire misses himself with his Flying Aimless - Aerial Laser Light Show! Area attack! Blowpipe ughs at the fact that Misfire has not yet managed to hit anything or anyone. "Your friend is pathetic." He emits from Triggerhappy's hand. "Shut up, Blowpipe, he has good high-grade!" As if that had anything to do with the situation. But this is Triggerhappy we're talking about. Triggerhappy grins as Sideswipe is knocked flat on his face, cackling more. But then Aimless's wild shots are flying everywhere, and he is forced to duck and dodge. "I told you so!" Blowpipe calls out. Suddenly, a pair of piledrivers are going into his chest. This wasn't good. The red Autobot was certainly stronger than he was and had a clear advantage in close quarters combat. "Ew, get off of me Autoscrap! You're almost as ugly as Repugnus! Almost." Combat: Triggerhappy strikes Sideswipe with his Get offa me! (Punch) attack! "Thing is," Blades says, "You're gonna wish your arm could merge back with your body when I'm done with you." He goes for a shoulder slash on Misfire, easily evading Misfire's poor shooting. It's almost too easy. Blades might get bored! "Sideswipe, you holding up all right? Gonna get all jet judo in Triggerhappy's grill?" Combat: Blades strikes Misfire with his Shoulder Slash attack! [Pulled -3] Sideswipe slams into Triggerhappy, giving him a one two punch to the tanks, and then feels himself struck in the side by a laser bolt. Hissing in pain, he flinches and its enough of a break for Triggerhappy to get enough space between them to punch back. He rocks back with the punch. There's a hole in his side now, a few wires sparking as fluid leaks down his side. "Fraggit." He spares a quick glance over to see Misfire on the ground. It was Aimless that did the damage and he's gonna have a little 'chat' with that fragger someday soon...maybe some contaminated energshine or something some day. Looking back at Triggerhappy, he grins at the Con as he wipes away a little bit of energon that leaks form his lip where he'd been punched, "Oh, I'm doing fine Blades. Just fine. This fraggers going down...." And with that he takes a couple of running steps and attempts to ramming tackle TH to the ground. Combat: Sideswipe strikes Triggerhappy with his Ramming Tackle! attack! The Blade smoothly slices through Misfire's shoulders invoking another scream of pain from the Targetmasters. "Ohhh Slag!" He crab walks backwards until he gets enough purchase to get back on his feet! "Fist to cuffs?" He then shadow boxes for a moment as he lets a grunt of pain. "Ugh..." He then lunges at Blades, swinging his fist towards the Protectobot's face. "Let me make you pretty!" Meanwhile, Aimless reverts to his humanoid form, pulling out a flask and begins to sip it. "Yeah Misfire! Get him!!!" Aimless looks over towards Blowpipe and Triggerhappy. "Hey, if Misfire dies, can I get a ride back to base with y'all?" Combat: Misfire strikes Blades with his Punch attack! It seems Triggerhappy has gotten lucky with Aimless' wild shot to Sideswipe's, well, side. He grins as his fist connects with the Autobot's face. Taking advantage of the time it's bought him, he attempts to get away from the stronger mech but finds himself getting ram-tackled. Fortunately, it doesn't hit him as hard as he'd thought, since he manages to roll sideways a bit and just slip out from under the red bot. "Ooooh, so you wanna play the ramming game, huh? I can play that game." Not that well, as he'd realized at the Olympic demo derby, but it was worth a try. He leaps into the air and transforms, then flies straight at Sideswipe, hoping to slam him into a large public restroom facility located near the edge of the field. Triggerhappy transforms into a blue and white Cybertronian aircraft. Combat: Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter strikes Sideswipe with his If you needed a bathroom break... (Ram) attack! [Pulled -1] Blades gets punched by Misfire, which makes him laugh! He calls out, "See!? Guns can only betray you! Fists are better. But you know what's better than fists?" Yeah, he's going to stab Misfire again. Blades is somewhat predictable. This time, he goes for a puncture wound to Misfire's lower arm. Combat: Blades strikes Misfire with his Stabbing Is Always The Answer attack! [Pulled -2] Sideswipe had tried to hold onto the slippery Con and was unable to as he slipped between his hands, rolling up and transforming. As he got up onto his feet he snarled, figuring the Con was flying away, only to see him turn and come soaring back. "Oh...Scrap!" was all he could manage before he felt himself hit in the middle and slammed into the public restrooms...well more like the huge line of porta-potties. They exploded as he flew into them and landed on them, spraying blue chemicle and worse...EVERYWHERE. The shear embarassment of the whole matter just made Sideswipe see....red, not blue. Staggering up and doing his best to try and shake the chemicle off of him, he snarled, "You're going to pay for that you fragger!" And with that he took a flying leap, triggered his jet pack and tried to slam into the jet with both fists from the underbelly. Combat: Sideswipe strikes Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter with his Gutt Punch Special Coming UP attack! The Tip of Blades' blade pierces through Misfire's forearm, destroying the wiring in his left arm. His left hand goes limp immediately. Misfire stares at his now useless left hand. "Primus...." He staggers backwards, his arms shredded now though his multiple stabbings. He finally stops, "SLAG IT!" Misfire launches into the air, reverting to his plane mode, making a beeline towards Blades, his engines getting up to full speed, in a short amount of space. Aimless lets out sigh, looks like Misfire is his ride out after all. He face palms as he looks at Misfire flying towards Blades. "MISFIRE! How many times do I have to tell you, never wreck our ride home!" Aimless lets out a sigh. The robot Misfire seems to rise slightly in the air as his legs fold upon themselves and two large wings begin to appear the robot continues to fold into a compact plane. There is now a non-terran plan with two meancing spires. Combat: Twin-Nosed Jet strikes Blades with his Foolish Courage! (Ram) attack! Squawkbox has finally gotten a sense of what's going on, and he decides to help out Misfire. He actually had an idea of what was going on long before that, but he thought it more interesting to simply hover in mid-air, observing them. Both Triggerhappy and Misfire seem to be ill-equipped to handle their responsibility as warriors. He'll have to make an inquiry later on how they ever graduated from whatever academy they attended. But that's for then, and this is now. As Misfire seems to be the more hapless Decepticon, Squawkbox raises his arms and begins emitting a powerful soundwave, that would shatter glass, and carbon, if it hit, but has he timed it right and can he make it accurate enough to hit the Protectobot, but leave the Targetmaster unharmed? Let's find out. Combat: Squawkbox sets his defense level to Neutral. Combat: Squawkbox strikes Blades with his Sonic Boomers attack! It seems that even though Misfire's shooting doesn't work, his fists and ramming do just fine. "Hey, maybe you should focus more on melee, Misfire! Seems you're better at it. Capitalizing on your strengths, you know?" Triggerhappy asides as he smashes Sideswipe and himself into the restroom facility. He's not humiliated like Sideswipe is, though, since he doesn't actually know what it's for, even though human excrement is no doubt flying everywhere. But the Bot got the brunt of the damage, since Triggerhappy is in the air. While he'd been talking to Misfire, though the red Autobot had swung and hit him in the fuselage from below, knocking him out of control. "Unnghh..." He does a few 360s in the air before recovering and directing his photon pulse guns at his attacker. "Vector Sigma, what IS that smell?!" he exclaims. Combat: Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter strikes Sideswipe with his Is that human feces?! attack! Blades gets slammed into by a speeding jet, which just makes him smile more. "Oh yeah, close combat is definitely your thing, Misfire! Better send your Nebulan back to Nebulos, hah!" Actually, Blades is pretty messed up by that attack now! And then Squawkbox's weirdo sonic waves break one of Blades's knee-guns. This means it is time to deal with them /both/. Combat: Blades sets his defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Blades misses Twin-Nosed Jet with his Hate You All (Ruckus) Area attack! Combat: Blades strikes Squawkbox with his Hate You All (Ruckus) Area attack! Sideswipe lands back on the ground and staggers as eh's hit by the blast from Triggerhappy. He winces as he holds his side where Aimless hit him earlier. "Fraggit..." he says, still dripping with blue gunk and Primus knew what else. He was going to need to be hosed down before they left here. He looked back up at Triggerhappy who was out of his range right now and growled. He didn't hit worth crap with a gun and this was a jet...it'd be like spitting Energon into the wind and wasting his time. That's when he noticed a new force had entered into the fray. Snarling, he turned and fired a flare off at it. "Dirty Cons!" Combat: Sideswipe strikes Squawkbox with his Magnesium Phosphorous Flares attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Squawkbox's Accuracy. (Blinded) Misfire flies through the Protectobot emitting as he passes. "I have tried! Command is vague on if I can get a new one!" Aimless yells at Misfire. "I HEARD THAT!" Misfire circles back around to Aimless, transforming to his robot mode. Misfire holds his badly damaged right hand out, his left hand is still useless. "I have no time for games, we got to blast our way out!" Aimless sighs and launches into Misfire's hand, electricity crackling through the connection. The pair emit screams of pain. "Ugh..." Misfire meekly attempts to shoot Blades again! Combat: Twin-Nosed Jet misses Blades with his Billionth Time is the Charm! attack! Squawkbox may regret entering into this fray, as he is struck by some debris flung by Blades. It scratches his left shoulder, and leaves a bit of a dent. He isn't the largest of Decepticons after all. "Everyone's a critic. Well, if you don't like my soundwaves, how do you feel about my compression waves?" His arms transform, and suddenly new devices appear on them, these are less like speakers and more like lasers, but they emit a similar pink wave, narrow beam, that hits the ground first, creating a small trench, as he uses it as a cutting tool, trying to get Blades in his sights. Combat: Squawkbox strikes Blades with his Compression Cannons attack! [Pulled -3] So Sideswipe had decided to go after Squawkbox instead. Oh well, Triggerhappy was getting bored of the same target, anyway. He needed more variation to spice up his life! He transforms and touches back down to the ground behind Blades, firing at his back. Triggerhappy reverts to his root form. Combat: Triggerhappy strikes Blades with his Behind you! (Laser) attack! Blades is distracted because there is a human paramedic desperately waving at him! Misfire still can't hit him with a gun, but Squawkbox does more of that sonic weirdness, which breaks one of Blades's optics, and Triggerhappy manages to shoot Blades in the /other/ optic. He stumbles over towards the human paramedic, who quickly explains that one of the airshaow watchers has had a heart attack due to panic. Oh no! Can Blades medevac the person to a hospital /right now/? ... "...yeah, sure," Blades says, and he tranforms. The paramedic hurries the heart attack victim into Blades, and then they are off! Blades transforms into his Bell UH-1 Iroquois mode. Combat: Bell UH-1 Iroquois sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Bell UH-1 Iroquois begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Twin-Nosed Jet Sideswipe sees Blades being waved down and then sees him transforming....wha?! He looks back, and sees three Cons. "Frag me...." he grumbles as he clenches his servos into fists and looks for the first target. Since it seemed Triggerhappy wasn't paying attention, he'd see if he could do a little jet judo on him still. He triggered his jet pack and flew skyward, hoping to land on top of the jet, attempting to grab ahold of his wings. Combat: Sideswipe strikes Triggerhappy with his Bad Touch (Grab) attack! Squawkbox, if he were split, would be squawking about having crushed that Protectobots optics with nothing but energy, but he's not. In their combined mode, he is far more reserved. A simply gruff, "Just as I expected, foolish Autobot." Next, he pivots in mid-air, and brings his arm guns to bear on Sideswipe. "Perhaps you would like a taste of what I gave your friend, mmm?" His arms suddenly ignite, sending off a soundwave, aimed at the Autobots head, and of course, those precious audio receptors. "How do you like the sound of that?" Combat: Squawkbox strikes Sideswipe with his Sonic Boomers attack! Triggerhappy hits Blades in the head right behind his optic, but the Protectobot apparently had priorities with his human friends. Pff, Autobots. He never did get why they acted like they -owed- the humans something, or...something. Blowpipe is getting tired, though. "C'mon Triggerhappy, haven't you had enough? There's only one left, anyway." Triggerhappy is reluctant but Misfire is leaving as well. "Ugh, -fine-." He groans, and begins to fly off. But then Sideswipe has launched himself into the air and is now grappling his flight form. "For the last time, get -off- of me Autoscum!" he shouts, speeding up to attempt to throw the Autobot off. Triggerhappy transforms into a blue and white Cybertronian aircraft. Combat: Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit. Sideswipe gets the full blast in the audios and cries out in pain about to let go to clap his servos around them when Triggerhappy takes off at a high rate of speed and tries to throw him off. It works and he slips off the back of the jet. Trying to trigger his jet pack he only manages to slow his decent slightly as he hits the ground with a 'thud'....groaning. "ow...." He watches as both Misfire and Triggerhappy head for the wide blue yonder and leaving Squawkbox still. Pulling himself back to his feet, he looks at the last Con standing and pulls out his pistol. Leveling it at Squawk, he smirks, using his other hand to wipe away energon dripping from his mouth. "Go ahead, try it and I'll blast you into little pieces. Now get outta here..." Combat: Sideswipe takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Squawkbox never was standing, per say. He prefers to hover in mid-air. Decepticons can fly for a reason, and although Sideswipe has a jet pack, it's just not the same. Arms still raised, they begin to emit a louder, and larger field of energy, threatening to envelop Sideswipe and anything nearby. "Then blast you must" he declares, as he emits a powerful concussive force. Combat: Squawkbox strikes Sideswipe with his Compression Cannons attack! Sideswipe had been hoping to bluff the Con into leaving, not attack him. There was little left to him at all and when the Con called his bluff and blasted him, he felt himself flattened back to the ground. He was wounded in a few places but most of the damaged seemed to have been caused in other ways, internally. He staggered to his feet, snarling and with a last ditch effort, took a few staggering running steps and hit his jet pack, and reached out to throw a punch at the annoying thing. Combat: Sideswipe strikes Squawkbox with his Piledriver Arms attack! Squawkbox flies down after he knocks Sideswipe flat onto his back, but he's still surprised by the piledriver response. As the impacts hit him on his component parts, he shatters, and dies, or does he? Breaking into two pieces, he transforms, becoming simultaneously a Gorilla and a Bird of Prey. The Gorilla begins wailing on him with mighty fists, while the Eagle pecks at his shoulder joints, trying a separation of his own. Leaping into the air and lowering to the ground, Squawkbox separates into an Eagle and an Ape. Combat: Eagle and Ape strikes Sideswipe with his When Animals attack! Combat: Sideswipe falls to the ground, unconscious. Sideswipe was a bit surprised really when the Con broke in two? Did he kill it....And then it changed, transforming into two Cons and the fists and beak begin to peck at his shoulder. With a cry of pain, his optics blink out as he goes into stasis lock, causing him to offline. He falls to the ground, unable to stop or slow himself....and lands with a crunch. Beastbox continues to pound into Sideswipe, he's not even asking questions, not that he does too often, but he doesn't actually have a question to ask. Squawkbox separates Sideswipe's arm from his shoulder, and then the rocket launcher is disconnected. He says, "What's this, it looks neat, I wonder if it'd be compatible with our systems, should we take it, it is an Autobot design, probably not worth it, but it looks cool." Beastbox stops pounding to look at Squawktalk, even he can barely understand the buzzard. As he often does in such situations, he merges, it's the quickest way to get Squawktalk to shut up. And, a moment later, Squawkbox looms over the Autobot. He picks up the rocket launcher, briefly posing with it on his shoulder, before he fires it, indescrimintly into one of the airplane hangars. "Barely worth the effort," he remarks, before dropping it on Sideswipe's chest, and flies up into the air. While hovering there, he radios Triggerhappy, "You can come back now. People are dead." When there's no response, probably because he's out of range, Squawkbox simply flies away. Sideswipe was thankfully not online for any of what was being done to him. It's probably very good that Sunstreaker wasn't about or there wouldn't be a Con left alive by the time his twin was done rampaging around. But Sunny wasn't here...hadn't been here lately and Sideswipe was paying the price for missing his other half. He lay there now, in a bit of an indent in the dirt, dented badly in places, a large chunk of his side blown out with exposed wires and cabling fritzing and spitting sparks with energon dribbling out of it. His right arm had been ripped off, the rocket launcher torn off of it and then both dumped back down onto his body. His optics were dark, showing no sign of awareness. The cons have left the area and military personnel are beginning to swarm the base, searching for survivors, helping the injured ...that thankfully were few other than those that got banged and bumped around by rushing crowds. Oh and the few that got caught by what was left of the falling plane wreckage that Sideswipe couldn't knock away from them. Those were the worst injuries but it could have been so so much worse. The damage to the tarmac and the field beyond was bad, and there were four jets now lying in ruins. It was yet unknown if all the pilots managed to jetison before their planes were hit. The chopper had already taken off with its human cargo of a heart attack victim leaving the red lambo left which he now lay like nothing mroe than a pile of junk almost in the center of things. Several military personnel were slowly making their way towards him, cautiously as if afraid he might jump up and go 'boo' at any moment. Brainstorm had been idly in his laboratory, messing with something or other when he heard an Autobot distress call. Although he was hardly the closest Autobot, he may very well have been the fastest. Dropping what he was doing, he pressed a button on his lab. A panel opened up, big enough for a Cybertronian to fit through. He jumped through it, leaping into the air and transforming into his Cybertronian Jet alternate mode. Flying first up, so as not to deafen everything in the vicinity, he first coasts, before building up speed, going supersonic. He could probably make it in 19 minutes, but out of respect for his fellow Autobot and humans, it takes him slightly longer, probably close to half an hour. As he approaches, he decelerates, making a thunderous noise when he comes out of supersonic. First, he enters a tailspin, heading straight for the Earth. But towards the end, he pulls up, only to transform into his robot mode, and land, with a parachute, which pulls back into his shoulders. Seeing no Decepticons, he looks around for his comrade, "Sideswipe? Sideswipe!" Rushing over to his fellow Autobot, he immediately begins some diagnostics, trying to determine the damage. Yeah, he wonders why Perceptor is a Wrecker and he's not too. Brainstorm shifts into his imposing robot mode. Combat: Brainstorm prepares Sideswipe for surgery, his COMBAT flag has been waived. Combat: Brainstorm expertly repairs Sideswipe's injuries. Combat: Brainstorm is able to repair some of Sideswipe's internal systems damage. Combat: Brainstorm runs a diagnostic check on Sideswipe Within half an hour of the distress call things are well and truly getting organized now on the base and Sideswipe is being 'guarded' by a handful of military personnel if nothing more than to keep onlookers and gawkers away from his battered body. When the jet arrives, they go into panic mode again and all guns are aimed at Brainstorm until its identified he's wearing the autobot symbol and lands carefully, calling out for the downed Bot. Sideswipe lays there, of course not able to answer... Brainstorm is no friend to meatball surgery, but he is a competent field medic. He does enough to Sideswipe to get him up and running. In fact, he probably does enough that Sideswipe would feel up to chasing after Squawkbox and the rest of the Decepticons to do Primus knows what to them. Closing the panels he had opened up, it is only then that Brainstorm seems to pay attention to the security surrounding him. He feels somewhat like Gulliver. "Uh, sorry, there, I didn't mean to startle you. My name is Brainstorm, and this is Sideswipe." Being new to Earth, he doesn't know how much of a celebrity Sideswipe is here. Sideswipe groans as he feels himself finally brought back online again. "Did anyone get the number of that B-52 that flew into me...and then the number on that highball train?" He looks up at Brainstorm. "I lost, didn't I..." Brainstorm sushes Sideswipe with soothing noises, "There, there, everything's going to be all right." He does try to discretely move the rocket launcher, which has 'you lose' written in energon on it, Sideswipe's energon by the looks of it. Combat: Brainstorm compares his Agility to 100: Failure :(Sideswipe sees Brainstorm moving something and blinks, trying to sit up a little, "Hey..wha?" And then he slaps a servo to his bare shoulder, "Those FRAGGERS!" he snarls, and then winces as he feels how tender and sore his arm is. It might have been put back on but it doesn't mean it's 100 percent. "What the..." He looks suddenly and utterly exhausted. "Look..just...get me outta here. I'm sure I'll be seeing my defeat all over the news and the internet within hours." Brainstorm says, "Sideswipe, I'm afraid that I am not equipped for transportation of Cybertronians . . . if you want to go, you're going to have to be able to hang on to my wings, or fusilage." Sideswipe groans and sighs, "I kinda figured. Just...help me up. I'll find my own way back." Brainstorm helps Sideswipe to his feet, but is careful, as he is a doctor in this case.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)