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| - Excise is already here! The triplechanger is fiddling around with the controls, trying to set this up as a space battle inside an asteroid field, though he doesn't know if Redshift and Fleet already have plans. But unfortunately he can't spell and so the computer keeps thinking he wants to fight asterisks. He slams his fist down on the controls in annoyance. Redshift struts his way into the training room, his armor clearly freshly painted and detailed... He seems to have added some intricatly detailed flame designs into his paintjob, inlayed with ribbons of gold. Real gold, or just painted on? Only time will tell. He also seems to have shed his old firearms, now with a sleek, space-ey looking rifle instead of his previous armaments. Fleet near on bounces in, a happy little spring to his step. He's his normal pale yellow and ice-cyan, nothing unusual about him, except for the cheerful little smile on his face. As he enters, he inclines his head towards Redshift. "Greetings, Redshift! We should get this started quickly... I'm expected on Earth to guard the tanker." He pauses by Excise, looks over the triplechanger's shoulder, then reaches in and taps in a landscape: razor hills, pre-solar system days. Excise looks over his shoulder, stopping his attempt at rigging the game, as Redshift makes his entrance. He gives a thumbs up, "Lookin' good, Redshift! I like the new decals." he exclaims. Excise may just be buttering Redshift up in case he wins, since that'll probably mean a complete change of Aerospace's structure in order to replace Fleet's cronies with Redshift's cronies. He steps aside as Fleet enters and makes the controls work the very first time (show off). "Good luck, Commander," he says, sucking up a bit. A Sweep glides into the room, to observe. He strokes his beard thoughtfully. "This should be quite interesting, yes," he purrs. Redshift's usual smirk spreads across his face, as he settles in for what should be a tougher fight than his bravado has made it out to be. Fleet /did/ win last time, afterall. "Yes, we wouldn't want to keep the tanker away from the watchful gaze of the Aerospace XO for long, would we? Come on then, do you worst!" Excise steps over and hangs out with Sunder because there's no other Decepticons to hang out with. "Boy oh boy, I haven't seen a real important challenge like this in ages! Out on the fringe worlds our challenges were over stupid things like who has to clean up the dead guys after the battle." Excise looks really excited to watch this, and he considers this a learning experience for the day when he (and mark my words, it will happen) makes his own challenge. Shockwave has arrived. Fleet has cronies? The Seeker shrugs. "If you insist," he answers, then leaps into the air, trying to fly over Redshift's head (and thereby keep the other flier stuck on the ground). As he flies, he fires of a quick shot... no where near his worst, in fact, but an early test of agility. Shockwave arrives from the officers' hall, with an eye to observe the battle. "Ignore me," he intones, standing behind the shorter Decepticons to watch the fighters. Combat: Fleet misses Redshift with his Deep-Freeze Ray attack! Redshift has cronies! If you count blueshift. Redshift's eye is drawn towards Shockwave's imposing frame, whether he wants to be ignored or not. His attention is snapped back to the impending fray as Fleet does as Fleet always does, try to gain control of the air. Redshift, although a master of atmosphere and space combat, is also pretty slick on his feet. He kicks off, leaping away from the incoming icy burst. His optics flash with red light, and he fires off a cyclops-ripoff of red eye beams! Combat: Redshift misses Fleet with his optic beams (Laser) attack! Fleet tries very hard to ignore Shockwave - orders is orders - but being fired at makes that easy enough, anyway. The Seeker ducks low, diving beneath the blast and towards Redshift. As he flies, he flips the hilt of his ice dagger out of his right forearm and activates the pale-blue energy weapon. "Hmmm - I may have to re-assess my recommendation that we be 'quick' about this," he observes as he attempts to stab into his opponent, dagger set to generate an excess of ice in order to root Redshift in place. Combat: Fleet sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Fleet strikes Redshift with his Ice-Dagger attack! Combat: Redshift has been temporarily incapacitated. Yes, Fleet has cronies. If he doesn't then he's being a pretty lousy leader. Excise looks over as Shockwave arrives and nods, "Yes sir, Shockwave." He ultimately doesn't follow the order, however, as he was just about to launch into his great Shockwave joke had he not just shown up. The triplechanger watches as Felet hops into the air (as any good Aerospace Commander ought to), and the battle begins. "So... care to lay odds?" he asks Sunder. Redshift's main strength is his speed and agility, but Fleet's stab from the frosty knife takes away Redshift's agility with one fell swoop. His armor is pierced by the knife, and his limbs fill with ice and frost that even his burning desire tow in can't melt. Sunder chuckles at Fleet. "I think you have me mistaken for my brother Brigand," he says, "I would not wager, I think. This looks to be too even of a match thus far." Shockwave also declines to wager. Shockwave is not a betting robot. He observes and calculates the odds. Excise tsks at Sunder. Sunder probably just doesn't want to burn his bridges by betting on the wrong horse. "I'm thinking Redshift has the best shot." The hell possessed him to admit that? The world may never know. Combat: Shockwave runs a diagnostic check on Fleet Once the attack hits, Fleet twists away, a pirouette in the air as he tries once more to put distance between him and Redshift. As he opens up the flees, he turns to fire back, this time making use of a higher energy level, now that his opponent is vulnerable. Combat: Fleet sets his defense level to Guarded. Combat: Fleet strikes Redshift with his Deep-Freeze Ray attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Redshift's Agility. (Crippled) Twists and pirouettes are one thing, but it's the freeze-ray not the footwork that is doing in Redshift. More ice encases Redshift's frame, covering up his flashy gold flame inlays with boring old ice crystals. His special lubricants sieze up, slowing Redshift to a crawl as he plods towards Fleet. He engages his rifle... A far cry from his old ballistic-based one, this one seems to fire contained bolts of plasma. He takes aim, and opens fire on Fleet in the age-old battle of hot vs cold. Combat: Redshift sets his defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Redshift misses Fleet with his turn up the heat! attack! Fleet 'leaps' a bit higher, avoiding the shot, and smiles faintly. After an opening like that, no one will be able to accuse him of not putting in effort. He starts to take a more standard flight pattern - one that'll make it easier for him to fight back with - and starts to circle around to Redshift's right, once more employing a low level blast. Also, ice crystals are not boring. :(Combat: Fleet sets his defense level to Neutral. Combat: Fleet strikes Redshift with his Deep-Freeze Ray attack! They're always hexagonal, that's boring! But they're /sparkly/! Shockwave likes hexagons. :/ Combat: Shockwave runs a diagnostic check on Redshift Shockwave's calculations complete with an audible clicking sound. Having predicted the winner of this bout, he turns on his heel and returns to his office. Redshift's red optics trace Fleet's movements as he tries to pry away the ice on his armor with his free hand. Another frosty blast impacts Redshift's armor, leading him to think he should've spent less money on his paintjob and maybe on some armour enhancements instead. As Fleet turns to a more offensive stance, so does Redshift, flipping up into his spacecraft mode and flying towards Fleet. The small ship pulls up at the last moment, opening it's bomb bays to drop some blindingly-bright flash bombs. Redshift transforms into his sleek spacecraft mode and takes to the air. Combat: Red Spaceship misses Fleet with his Phosphorous Bombs attack! Excise shakes his head at the battle so far, "This isn't even close... Redshift's pretty badly outclassed." Looks like he bet on the wrong pony. Fleet cuts off his antigravs /and/ his optical feed and drops down for a fraction of a second, moving out of the way of the flash bombs entirely. Then he re-activates both, frowning faintly as he overhears Excise. Oh, no... can't go that route, either. The Seeker has no chance to chase down the space ship in robot mode, so instead he transforms - where he still won't be able to keep up, but at least the gap will be less. As he gives chase, dropping all defenses to do so, he fires after the other Decepticon. Fleet transforms into his Fleet mode. Combat: Fleet sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Fleet strikes Red Spaceship with his Persistent Freeze Ray attack! While Redshift's vehicle mode is built for speed, but when attacking he acts primarily in a more head-on manner. He was hoping Fleet would stay in his pale yellow robot mode longer, but he'll have to make due. He guns his engines, speeding around the perimiter of the training room until a good opening presents itself, and opening fire with his array of lasers. Combat: Redshift sets his defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Red Spaceship strikes Fleet with his Laser Array (Laser) attack! Fleet attempts to dive out of the way of Redshift's laser attack, but this time fails, taking the blasts along his back, lining his 'shark fin'. Once he's out of immediate fire range, however, he pulls up and circles around, this time not attacking, but rather taking a moment to assess his opponent. Combat: Fleet analyzes Redshift for weaknesses. Red Spaceship reverts to his robot mode, but maintains his aerial position. His rifle gripped tightly in his hands, he watches Fleet's movements. The tetrajet seems to be preparing for /something/ but Redshift doesn't know what. Either way, he'd better be ready for what's coming next. He takes evasive action, staying away from the tetrajet that's circling like a hungry shark, and fires off a few quick bolts from his plasma rifle. The sleek red spacecraft transforms into the winged warrior Redshift. Combat: Redshift sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Redshift misses Fleet with his Incinerator Rifle attack! Excise tsks and shakes his head as Fleet backs off, circling around. "Fleet, stop toying with him!" he calls out, starting to feel bad for Redshift. No Decepticon warrior deserves to be humiliated that much. Well maybe Astrotrain. "I'm not toying! I'm assessing my options!" Fleet complains, tilting beneath the incinertor attack before diving at the now robotic Redshift, attempting to clip the other with his wing. Combat: Fleet misses Redshift with his Razor Wing Slash attack! "The correct option is to shoot him!" Excise shouts in reply, cupping his hands to his vocalizer so he can be better heard. Honestly, the brass just doesn't always have the same know-how that the regular grunts do, sometimes. Redshift smirks as Fleet dives in, easy to see coming and muc heasier to sidestep than say, bullets or lasers. He pulls to the side and ducks, as the wing blade goes over his head and wings. "A Waste of time! You're too careful, too plotting. you need more ACTION! More PASSION!" Redshift shouts, flames escaping from his flamethrowers and licking arounds his arms. He points his free hand at Fleet, letting loose the flames of PASSION from his palm. Combat: Redshift sets his defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Redshift strikes Fleet with his The flame of PASSION attack! [Pulled -5] The flames scorch Fleet's underside as he pulls up, causing him to cry out in pain before transforming. He twists back towards Redshift and snorts, annoyed, "'More passion'? Been listening to G'don, I take it?" With that he darts in despite the damage that he's now showing, firing another quick, low power attack. Fleet transforms into his Fleet mode. Combat: Fleet strikes Redshift with his Deep-Freeze Ray attack! Combat: Fleet's attack has damaged your Accuracy! Redshift thought Fleet's time-wasting, patient analysis of the situation was wasted when the yellow guy missed, but it seems he was just saving it for a rainy day; This latest blast of the deep-freeze ray blasts Redshift off his feet, cracking his exterior armor and playing havoc with his internal systems. He cringes as bits of his armor flakes away from the assault of rapid freezing, but Fleet has played into Redshift's hand by transforming! Redshift lunges forward and transforms, ice falling to the floor. his engines roar, and he tries to slam his nosecone into Fleet's frame. Redshift transforms into his sleek spacecraft mode and takes to the air. Combat: Redshift sets his defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Red Spaceship misses Fleet with his Full Speed Ahead attack! Excise claps as Redshift manages to get in a good hit against Fleet. "Alright, now that's more like it!" He doesn't seem to be rooting for one Con over the other. He just wants a more entertaining battle. Have you ever seen ancient Greek artwork depicting bulldancers? Fleet, for a moment, looks something like that, as he vaults /over/ Redshift, heels over head, hand almost, just not, touching the nosecone that would have done him such harm. He doesn't land, staying in the air, then ducks and spins towards Redshift, firing off another low-powered blast. Combat: Fleet misses Red Spaceship with his Deep-Freeze Ray attack! Red Spaceship blasts on forward as he misses, an all-too-familiar feeling. Most transformers don't try to /dance/ thier way out fo it, though! He knows a quick counter-attack is coming, and banks sharply, so when Fleet turns to shoot he won't be where the Seeker thinks he is(although the roaring engines might give him away). His manoever keeps him free of more ice, for now, and the red and black(and gold) spaceship fires off a rocket filled with more white-hot reactive metal-filled bombs. Combat: Red Spaceship 's Phosphorous Bombs attack on Excise goes wild! Combat: Red Spaceship strikes Fleet with his Phosphorous Bombs Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Fleet's Accuracy. (Blinded) Combat: Red Spaceship 's Phosphorous Bombs attack on Fleet goes wild! Combat: Red Spaceship strikes Fleet with his Phosphorous Bombs Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Fleet's Accuracy. (Blinded) Combat: Used up 1 WP_Bombs. 1 remain. Sunder's been mostly quiet as he observes the combat, but the latest salvo from Redshift causes him to stroke his beard a bit more contemplatively. Americon has arrived. Excise says, "You know who would have a great time watching this? Americon." Fleet seems... almost oddly slow to dive out of the way as the phosphorous bombs hit home, blinding him and covering him with burning metal, causing him to screech in pain. He takes to the air, flying wildly to throw off attack, but obviously blindly, and his return blasts, done in an attempt to keep his opponent from closing, are equally wild. Combat: Fleet sets his defense level to Guarded. Combat: Fleet misses Excise with his Deep-Freeze Ray attack! Excise isn't moving. One of the bombs flies over his shoulder and explodes. "Honestly, he'd have a great time." Fleet, blinded like doubly so, nearly freezes Fleet (ironic given the Autobot scene right now) Excise into a solid block, but instead the terrain next to him becomes a skating rink. Why is Excise not worried? Cause it's the training room! Any by God, who walks into the room just now? "Heeeyyyy everybody!" Americon says, waving cheerily. The live studio audience goes nuts! Americon frowns at them. "Hm, holoprojector must be glitching again. Computer, MELT the studio audience!" And the poor audience screams as it melts away in horrific, Raiders of the Lost Ark fashion. Red Spaceship is thrown for a loop when his heavily-laden rocket goes all crazy, throwing flashes of white hot phosphorous and burning slag all over the place... Although really, it was his intent for the blast radius directed at Excise /would/ go crazy and hit Fleet as well, he's just shocked that it /actually worked that way!/ The spacecraft weaves around the pockets of still-burning metals, and dives past the flailing and screaming Fleet to slice him up with razor-sharp wingblades. Combat: Red Spaceship strikes Fleet with his wing razor attack! [Pulled -4] Excise looks over at Americon, waiting patiently as the live studio audience is cleansed by fire. Once done, he says, "Whoa, I was just talking about you! Redshift challenged Fleet to a duel for the XO spot of Aerospace!" He points at Fleet and Redshift just in case Americon is braindead and can't see them. When Americon turns around, he looks directly at Excise, instead of looking where he's pointing. "They are!? Where?" He looks about, seeming to notice Fleet, first, but he says, "I don't see Redshift, though! Are you messing with me, Ex-eyes?" Excise says, "He's the red one!" And what a fight it's been, hasn't it? What with the underdog coming from behind to cease victory at the last moment? And there's no way at all any of that could have been intentional! Fleet is knocked out of the air as he's struck in the back by the razor wing of Redshift, and he falls into the razor hills setting that he himself had chosen, taking even more damage in the process. He almost gurgles as he crawls to his knees, scanning the area, and finally locating Redshift again. He lifts his arm to fire a blast. Strangely, he smiles. "Heh," is all he says, and then, he fires. Combat: Fleet sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Fleet strikes Red Spaceship with his Deep-Freeze Ray attack! Combat: Fleet's attack has damaged your Strength! Red Spaceship is the red one, yeah. With black curvy wings? Like blueshift only COOL? Combat: Excise sets his defense level to Neutral. The spaceship that is so much like Blueshift only better in every single way gets blasted once again by Fleet's more-powerful-than-it-sounds Deep-Freeze Ray, covering Redshift's intakes and flight surfaces with ice, sending the ship crashing into the simulated-but-still-painful ground, scattering the terrain with little shiny bits of Redshift. He struggles to transform, and only manages to halfway turn into his robot mode, leaving him with only one good arm. The arm that's holding a plasma rifle. The sleek red spacecraft transforms into the winged warrior Redshift. Combat: Redshift strikes Fleet with his burninating the countryside attack! Americon frowns at Excise. "Well, then, where's the Blue One? Also, is there a Yellow One? Those are the primary colors, you know!" Excise looks back at Americon, missing Redshift taking Fleet to task with his plasma rifle. "Wait what?" Fleet is the yellow one! He automatically throws his arms over his head to protect himself from the flames, and they burn at paint, at armor, melting away portions of circuitry beneath... and still, Fleet still functions. It's hard to tell through his ruined face, but he seems almost irritated with this. "Is that... the best... you've got..." he croaks, his voice more mechanical than normal due to vocalizer damage. He returns fire, defiant! But, due no doubt to his damages and not any attempt to throw the fight, this last attack is so powered down, it almost seems to have no bite at all. Combat: Fleet strikes Redshift with his Deep-Freeze Ray attack! Redshift struggles to complete his transformation and get on his feet, just as Fleet lets off another shot. Redshift turns his back on the seeker, letting his (fairly extraneous, really) wings take the brunt of the attack. Panting, low on Energon and down to his last few functioning servos, he closes the distance between himself and Fleet. "Not the best.. But enough to put down a pastel-painted pansey like you!" Putting on one final burst of speed, shedding ice and broken armor as he runs, and lunging at Fleet, lasers firing wildly from his eyes. Combat: Redshift strikes Fleet with his Disruptor attack! Combat: Fleet falls to the ground, unconscious. Americon points at Fleet. "Well, yeah, he's yellow, sure. But he's a Seeker model and not a Shift model. I mean, surely there's a Yellowshift around here somewhere?" Americon scratches his chin. "Hm. Doesn't have the same ring to it. Buttershift, maybe?" Sunder wasn't sure who would win, but somehow he had the feeling in the back of his processor that Redshift's notorious speed would tilt in his favor. And it seems that has come to pass. "Congratulations," he murmurs. He cocks an optic brow at Americon. Excise says, "Listen Americon, we have two Shifts. One of them is a pretty hopey frood, but the other one is a gigantic dumbass who's stupidity is known across every sector in the galaxy - and I'm not kidding, either. Remember, I was assigned out there. Now as you may know, I'm also a statistician in my spare time, and those odds mean we have a 50 percent chance of creating an ok Decepticon, and a 50 percent chance of us wanting to gouge out our audio circuits with a cosmic rusty pitchfork. Lets be thankful we only have two, huh?" Americon laughs agreeably at Excise's comment. "Yeah, I know what you mean! We got so many Decepticons on our team with mental disorders and disabilites, it's a wonder we manage to function at all... IN AMERICA!" Fleet is struck full force by Redshift's eye beams. It's almost like he's not even /trying/ to dodge. With that, he collapses forward, impaled on one of the razor spikes of the simulation. And then, moments later, it's over. The simulation fades, and Fleet is well again. The Seeker gets to his feet and smiles at Redshift, but there is something unsettling tucked beneath that smile. "Congratulations, Aerospace Executive." Combat: Fleet resets himself. Redshift stands tall(well, as tall as he can. He's short!) and proud as the holographic damage fades from his frame. His classic smirk is on his face, although perhaps he's being a bit too confidant for his own good. "A good show, Fleet. A credit to your model number." He replies, eyeing Fleet's unsettling smile, before breaking his gaze to look at the peanut gallery. Hopefully that show of superior agility and power is enough to keep the grunts from getting too big for their britches... But it won't help when Fleet comes looking for his job back. "Hate to burst your bubble there Excise, but actually there are FIVE of me. I'm the /best/ and original shift, of course, but there are three others, discounting the blue buffoon. Nova, Starshot, and Quasar fill out the rest of the clones." (it's true, check +bg blueshift) Catechism has arrived. Excise grins at Americon. He idly takes out a sword and begins testing out how sharp it is on his hand. Ow, it's pretty sharp! Ok now he starts testing the sharpness of another sword. "Yeah, you said it, Americon!" Then Redshift comes over. What the, is the bout over? Who won? Redshift is talking like he did, so... maybe him? "The others aren't stupid, are you?" Americon starts clapping. "Way to go, Fleet! Great job!" His face goes blank. "...you won, right?" Fleet will only come looking for his job back if Redshift does something moronic, like give it to Blueshift or Americon. Or, well, probably Excise. He dips his head low at Redshift's compliments. "Thank you," he says politely. Boy, he's taking having lost his position well! Fleet waves an absent hand towards Americon. "Oh, no, I lost." Catechism thinks she hears a commotion down this way, keeping her away from writing very important (read: boring) budget reports. And what is this? Why, this is practically a party! She strides in, hands on her hips, and she demands, sounding somewhat amused, "And what is this?" Redshift would have to admit that the end of the fight was a little anti-climatic, but come on, there was lots of yelling and gun fire, how could Americon miss it? "No, only Blueshift ended up being several curcuits short of a processo-..." Redshift ends his jibe abruptly, turning as Catechism arrives. Perfect timing! "Perfect timing! Catechism, I have just challenged Fleet for his position of Aerospace Executive officer. A pity you missed the festivities, but suffice to say, I have won." Americon has an attention span that can be described as being better than a rock's... barely. "What are we doing, again?" Fleet inclines his head forward, smiling faintly and a bit unsettlingly. "Redshift is correct. He bested me in fair combat, and is now your Executive Officer." Catechism tilts her head to one side and looks to Fleet to confirm Redshift's words - Decepticons are a pack of liars, after all. Howver, she does clap politely, and she prods, "Ah. Redshift. Congratulations. Now, I understand that you had some plans for Planet Junk, under Ramjet? I'd like to see them put into action. I'd also like you to draft a proposal to hit the EDC's extra-solar holdings." Down to business at once. Excise huhs and rubs the back of his head, "Wow! Er, I mean, I always knew you had it in you, Redshift. Or should I say, Commander Redshift!" Or whatever the rank is for him now. "Congratulations." To Americon he whispers, "Sucking up." Fleet leans over towards Redshift and adds further congratulations. He mutters to Redshift, "... remember... is still... too.... maybe keep... around... time to... don't... it's... in... long." You sense Fleet leans over towards Redshift and adds further congratulations. "You may want to remember that Trypticon is still in space, too. And if you could maybe keep up the habit of moving NCC around from time to time? I don't think it's good to let her sit in one place too long." Redshift inclines his head to Catechism's strict orders, flourishing into a slight bow. "They shall be on your desk within a planetary cycle, Catechism." He replies, rising up and giving a sidelong glance to Excise. "Trypticon's return to active status would be an asset when it comes time to squash the human's adventures in space. Now, if you all will excuse me, I have business to attend to." Redshift goes to put fancy gold plaques on his office again!
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