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| - Shark is hovering along at a leisurely pace, scanners going full bore as he is on patrol and on the lookout for Decepticon activity. This area, the refinery, is neutrally owned at the moment. However the Autobots certainly are wanting to keep it that way. Goa sneaks along a sort of half-footpath he's found that brings him pretty close to the refinery -- he switches back and forth between modes, walking where he has to climb steps or switch routes, driving where he can (not to mention to avoid scrutiny with that drab roof). Close enough to watch some of the operations with a couple levels of zoom. He's been scoping this place out for about a decacycle now, only having located this niche a patrol or two ago ... It didn't take him very long to decide claiming or at least sneaking some parts from it would look good on his record. Now it was just a matter of getting familiar with the guard cycle, a matter of patience. The Decepticon has had plenty of time to learn patience. He perches in an alley between buildings in the refinery periphery, watching. Shouldn't be more than a couple of breems now, if the CPU is right... Shark 's scanners miss Goa entirely, thanks to where the fellow grounder is hidden away. He hovers toward the guards though to check up on them and see if they seen anything in the way of Decepticon activity. He pulls up to then, transforming into robot mode. "Good cycle." he offers to them, "Just seeing if you had anything to report." The guard captain is here, organizing the shifts. "Cycle," he returns with a wave of his heavy, glove-like hand. "Quiet as quiet gets round here, sir." The refinery /is/ kind of noisy. "Though we're having a problem with through traffic. Got a car that keeps bumbling through here the wrong way. Haven't seen the guy this cycle though." Goa shifts into a little darker shadow. This was good. Soon they'd mostly be congregated in one place and he could make a move-- wait, was that...? His antennae prick up. This could get interesting. Processing cycles start goes to analyzing the risk and reward of this raid, as he listens in on the guard's report... s/start goes/start going/ Shark inclines his head to the guard captain, "All right, well keep an optic out for the vehicle and if you see it bumble through again give me a radio and I'll deal with it personally." he states. The captain nods and Shark turns to walk away a distance, scanning the area around just to be safe before he transforms to leave. "You'll be the first to know, I s'pose. He's not any trouble, just blind, apparently." The captain thumbs toward one of the one-way signs directing traffic out of the refinery, then casually salutes and turns back to the roll call of sorts. Yes. This would be the time to strike, but Goa is distracted. His first instinct is to just hang back. Let this one pass him by. Not to rock the boat -- he has an understanding with the Autobot, and so far, that'd been very valuable. Second is reconsideration. This would look good, prove a point, prove that his contacts aren't a weakness. Letting it pass him by may not be his call, in the end. Shark's gaze passes over Goa's ... were these maintenance buildings? Offices? The Autobot is practically right there. He reflexively presses himself against the back wall. At least there was another understanding in play -- that war is war. Shark steps toward where Goa is hiding in the shadows. Oh yeah he spotted the fellow grounder all right. Maybe it was the movement, maybe it was his scanners, or maybe it was because Goa didn't dim his optics. Whatever the real reason, Shark stops just outside the alleyway, hands going to his hips as his green visored optics stare straight at Goa. "So you the one bumbling through?" he asks, voice kept low. Understanding. Goa was on a roll -- maybe he could use that to get out of this one without a trip to the med bay. He tries to take on a casual leaning, legs crossed, arms crossed, glare returned. "Does it look like it?" he says, in a whisper-hiss. Wait, where was he trying to go with that? Uhhh... His antennae flick out to the sides to distract from the silence while he thinks. Think, slag it, think. "I was watching. What're you doing?" Shark crosses his arms just under the curve of rear window upon his chest, "Not currently no, but I'm sure you have been." he states matter of factly, "Wouldn't be below a Decepticon to case a place before doing a full bore raid." then a little smirk, "Patrolling." 'Below' a Decepticon? Wasn't that just common sense? Goa quirks a brow, even if it's only visible in the glow of his optics. "... Good to see we're on the same page then." On the record, he refers to the patrolling, but he can't fault the Autobot's deductive skills. He pushes off the wall and uncrosses his arms, taking a step or two forward, thoroughly observant of Shark's response. "Don't mind if I leave. Got drinks to attend to." Shark uncrosses his arms, moving to stand in the way. "Oh no, not happening. You are gonna have to explain yourself like a good mech. Why are you really here hm? Or was I right on the mark with my statement hm?" As soon as the Autobot moves, Goa stops in his tracks, and unfolds his scythes in warning. He would fight his way out of this if he had to -- he had to, drive the point home. Of course he would. But if he could avoid giving the refinery any forewarning, all the better. But he grinds his dental plates. What could be said for himself? "Not all of us like sitting in a castle all off-cycle." He recalls the grease pits. For authenticity. "It gets dingy." Shark peers hard at Goa, assessing those blades that just came out a few moments. A little derisive snort given. He flashes a bit of his teeth at Goa as he holds his ground. "Oh boo hoo, I'm stuck with Megatron all cycle.. what am I to do." he mocks softly, then shakes his head, "Seriously though, gotta do better than that. Either you are looking for when the guards change shift or some other form of weakness," he pauses a moment, pointing vaguely at those blades, "Or you know my route because you been following me and finally want to see who's truly the better mech in a fight. So which is it Goa?" The mention of Megatron gets the Decepticon to narrow his optics and glower. Goa had been acquiring a lot of buttons lately -- they gnawed at him like space barnacles. Or maybe he was just rediscovering ones that had long gone unpushed. Either way, he fumes for just a moment. No slag the less time he was around the Emperor the better. He glances over Shark's shoulder, taking the nanosec to cool off ... hey, if the bot's already figured out why he's here, why not? And, of course, the gathering has dissipated. That shouldn't happen again for another cycle or four, he fathoms, and frowns. He looks back at the other mech, keeps frowning, then suddenly bursts into an incredulous, fanged grin. "Why would I do that, Shark? Got to beat the living slag out of each other before. That's good enough for me." Shark's toothy smile becomes a lopsided smirk, "Hmm, perhaps so." he states, "Though you realize that you basically answered my question anyway. So you got two choices, you can leave and not come back or you can fight and then leave injured. I'm thinking you are going to pick the former. Am I right?" Goa tilts his head back and observes Shark down his nosecone. This was not salvageable; unless he moved right now, the Autobots would get a report about this, and the already heavy guard would double, maybe triple. He wasn't going to kill Shark, not alone at least. But maybe he could silence him. That would be nice in theory, wouldn't it? "Why wouldn't I come back?" He tilts his chin back down to see Shark optic-to-optic. "I told you nothin', I'm the only 'Con that's been up here. I'll come back if I like." Decepticons go where they want. For now, he'll omit the clause of 'take what they want'. Not to mention avoid the question. Shark shakes his head a bit at Goa, making a soft tsking sound a few times. Then he slowly steps back out of the alley, standing next to the entrance just off to the side. "Don't come back here Goa. You do, then I'm going to live up to my name and bite you til you beg for mercy. Got it?" his tone stating clearly you get a pass /this time only.' Goa dims his optics for a moment, then brings them back on again. He bolts, he has nothing to show, at this point. He stands ground, he does his job. He removes suspicion. And he owes drinks. Decision made, he glances upward, then crosses his arms leans on the side wall of the alley, tire bouncing a couple of times. Smirking at Shark, he considers the ground. The skies are clear, but he knows how this Autobot fights. "Look, just 'cause you saved me a leg replacement you don't get to order me." Though he did owe for that. Owed a lot of things. "An' realized I'm not done. Go patrol, you know where to find me." He frees one of his hands to make a shooing motion. A corner wasn't the best place to stand ground, but it was familiar. And if nothing else, he could kinda-sorta-fly. s/arms leans/arms and leans/ Shark frowns a bit at the stubborn green mech before him. The sound of his weapons system powering up along with two of his visible weapons going online is heard. "That wasn't an order, it was a request. Leave. Don't make me ask again or we will have it out right now." he states firmly. Idly the Autobot wondering what Torque would think of the two mechs she knows fighting each other. Who would she sympathize with more... or would she even tell them both to take a hike. The hum of charged weapons is a convenient trigger for Goa's logic to power down and his motors to power up. He recalls he's been in this position before, given the opportunity to leave peacefully -- but this time it's different. He never had any intent of coming or going peacefully. The Decepticon lunges at Shark, boosting forward to quickly transform and ram him with his extended scythes. Shark was waiting for Goa to pull a move so when it comes he steps out of the way of the scythes and extends a foot out to see if he can trip Goa up. "Ah so it's fight is it?" he asks. Vehicles are notoriously hard to trip. At least with Goa's wheels it would be theoretically /possible/ to send him tumbling that way -- but Shark does not succeed. Goa skids around to face Shark again, now on his far side, blades still wide open like the maw of some murderous space beetle, and revs his engines. No witty reply from him just yet, this move is the Autobot's. Shark smirks a bit as the fellow grounder rolls past without tripping. Very well then. He transforms as well and charges toward Goa, intending to ram home the point that he ought to be leaving. Goa carries both the initiative and acceleration advantage -- as soon as Shark's transformation sequence begins, he's already blaring his engines, boosting forward on his afterburner's plume of fire. The Decepticon's blades plow into whatever's low enough to hit with the sickening scrape of metal on metal. When he can roll no further, the hinges of the blades sort of limply snap forward in an ill-fated attempt to retract them. Shark holds back the impulse to cry out in pain, instead using it to channel into other better used avenues... say making his black light rifle appear on the cab of his vehicle form and pointing it at the ground. "Bad.. move." he hisses softly, shooting the black hued light toward the other mech. A gun? What gun would do any good at this close range-- Goa displays less impulse control. Not so much in his shriek he strains to abruptly cut off, as the feedback from his blown-out optic sensor stabs his systems, but the whirr-down of a couple failed transformation sequences. In the vernacular, he's stuck. While he collects the resolve to switch into reverse, he folds out his grenade launcher. Maybe Shark will do the work for him if he thinks Goa will use it. Shark hits his mark and snorts, but that grenade launcher popping up gives him pause as he hovers in one place. Hmm, wonder how good Goa's scanning array is.. that's what he's pondering right now. Slowly he hovers backwards, keeping appraised of that launcher. "Still got a chance to leave Goa. Don't make me regret letting you off easy." Goa pulls free of the other vehicle and immediately transforms, clutching at his optics, and hissing through his teeth, while turned aside so he can keep the artillery locked onto Shark (and keep his hands free). Where Shark's supposed to be, anyway -- since the hover car did him the favor of speaking, Goa's aim is spot-on. Chance to leave? Letting off easy? The Decepticon growls and pulls one dented-up blade from his shoulder, stalking sideways toward the Autobot. It's too late for those concepts to have any meaning to him; to fight, he focuses on a target, hunts it. Today's target is the point that he is not to be trifled with. Shark backs away some more, keeping out of range of the blade and the launcher both. Stupid Shark.. talking like that.. gotta be sneakier than that if you want to live to see your veteran days. Transforming would cue the fellow grounder as well.. only the quiet hovering is all Goa has to go off of until that blinding affect wears off. Well, may as well go for broke. He revs the hover jets to full blast and plows toward Goa, intending to ram him. Goa's optics remain dark, only barely-red where the light from the refinery hits them. But his hearing is acute, or trying to be, from the way his orange audial slats attenuate to movement. He hears an engine burst and goes the one direction he knows is a surefire dodge -- up. The sound of his own engines, his new boosters distributed over his frame as they are, blinds him more completely ... so he can only hope Shark doesn't start shooting at him until his vision comes back. He checks. A little bit of static coming from the feed now. At least self-repair was sort of working. Wait, why was he hoping? He turns his grenade launcher backwards and fires a frag grenade straight down, not so much to hit anything as to confuse the battlefield. Though perhaps he should be more cognizant to avoid the attention of those nearby... Shark hovers just past Goa as the mech manages to just barely dodge his charge. The odd trajectory of the grenade though makes him wonder if that was on purpose though. He turns around and considers his options. By now the guards are cheering on from where they stand, which is a good distance away. The triple changer transforms back to robot mode, perhaps Goa would like an up close and personal moment with his teeth hmm?" So he rushes the other mech, going for a hold first. Goa drops to the ground, quickly cutting his engines so he can listen around. Based on the sound of transformation, his smoke-and-chaff bomb didn't have much more effect than dinging a bit more of the shell off his back. Was that coming from the right direction though? Did he spin in midair and his gyroscope didn't register? He looks left and right and starts to move backwards, whatever good any of that will do. Shark comes from the wrong direction entirely, catching the Decepticon rather stunned. The jolt jostles something in one of his optics, though, which stutters online ... oh, slag ... Shark gets into the position he wanted as Goa moves to try to avoid him, sliding his arms under the grounders and placing his hands behind the mechs' neck, effectively doing a kind of wrestling move there really. Then while he has him held, he goes for the neck and bites it! Sinking his metal teeth right on in there. Hickey? Nooo.. might look like it though... maybe. Goa roars and thrashes, first side to side without much success, then forward, trying to throw Shark over himself. As the maneuver only sinks his teeth in further, snapping a fuel line, he thinks better of it and just stumbles awkwardly on his feet with another yell. He has a scythe in hand, but what can he do with it? The one still at his shoulder flaps uselessly, save a scratch or two, against the Autobot's armor. Sort of like an electrogator, they can punch /out/ with explosive force, but the motors are nigh on useless the other way around. The 'Con struggles more creatively, first trying to transform -- with the same cable-rending effect at Shark's grip -- then spinning his tires, even if there's no traction on the underside. He brings one of his afterburners on and kicks to flambé the mech with it. "Let GO!" he gurgles, apparently finally finding some words to say. Shark makes a literal impression upon Goa, teeth digging into the grounders neck. Luckily for Goa he doesn't hit a energon line or there'd be a squirt like you'd not believe. The transformation frees him from his bite and Shark takes several steps back, jumping off just to the side to evade that afterburner flame. He points his pistol at Goa, "Get the slag out of here now Goa!" and fires off a shot meant to wound him enough to get him to skitter on home. Goa staggers and transforms right back into his cozy, neck-less vehicle mode. No wonder Chimera hated this guy, unmaker's sake, he was competition! The shot stings against the side of his shell, and he accelerates with alarm, drifting about again to face Shark. He pauses just a moment. This was an even match. His point was made. And this raid was slagged. He rolls backwards just a meter or two ... then lobs a parting shot of two grenades at Shark before speeding away down the road. Shark catches one of the grenades right in the chest, sending him flat to his back with an audible clang. Goa can run away now.
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