| abstract
| - Monday, February 20, 2012 Middle Atlantic States New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington D.C., New Jersey, and Maryland consist of rolling farmland and woods, ancient, worn-down mountains, wide rivers, and verdant valleys. New York adds the largest city in the country, New York City, and the breathtaking Niagara Falls. Pennsylvania offers the steel center of Pittsburgh and the coal mines of the northeast along with the historic port city of Philadelphia. Delaware is the home of Du Pont chemical company, plus food processing and automobile assembly plants. Washington, D.C., capital of the U.S., displays world-famous monuments, buildings, and too much governmental spending. New Jersey contributes the drab city of Newark, the gambling of Atlantic City, and the New Jersey Turnpike. Maryland includes the polluted Chesapeake Bay and the major seaport city of Baltimore. You had to give Wheeljack some credit, he was pretty quick on catching up with the times. It was great to see that the humans had advanced technologically that they didn't need the Autobots' help at every turn anymore. But every so often a particularly tricky issue would come up that needed some extra assistance, and having found out an old friend was recently back in action Chip Chase had made a request for the wily ol' inventor's help. A few hours later, a small band of Autobots were gathered at one of Chase Industries' testing complexes, gathered around what looked like a large tripod mounted drill with some sort of emitter aparatus instead of an auger while Wheeljack and some engineers were going over the hardware specs. "Using hypersonic emissions to deep mine utilizing resonate frequencies. Clever! The right wavelengths can tunnel through rock without disrupting the ore as long as it's a different bonding ratio.. oh wait." Wheeljack stopped and pointed at part of the schematic. "Here's part of your problem, the variable analyzor is rotating on the wrong coefficent bywave. That's why you're getting an inaccurate calibration." Impactor isn't listening to the science crap. He knows where his skills lie, and it isn't in the areas of technical expertise. Still, he knows full well how important the technological advantage is, and from all accounts this Chase has been a valued allied to the Autobot cause, and a primary reason Earth Defence Command has been as successful as it has been in fighting back the Decepticons. "Just make sure this contraption doesn't send us all to another fraking twilight zone, Wheeljack," he tells the inventor. Impactor's gotten genre savvy about this sort of thing, and he's already time/dimension travelled twice in the past six months. Hound is always ready to lend a hand to human endeavors! He's a little ways off from Wheeljack and the machine so he can direct his keen senses outwards, using his specialized training to keep watch for Decepticons. Although he keeps getting distracted. "I hope this mining is ecologically sound," Hound reminds Wheeljack, sounding a little worried. "I know that can be a problem with humans. They're much less tolerant of consuming drilling compounds than we are, you know! I read that on the internet." Amber MacKenzie is making minor adjustments to her camcorder and testing it by examining random bystanders, Autobot and Terran alike. She's off to the side, in the area set aside for photographers and journalists. No official recordings just yet; she's waiting an official invitation for the press to ask questions. Or a demonstration, one or the other. Viator flies wildly towards the area, intent on recovering the package intercepted by Fanfare earlier in the day. He has been rambling at Slugfest about how much he hates the sky and grass and also most books for several hours now. Hound looks shy when Amber's camera points his way. "Oh, not me, thanks, I'm really nothing to look at. Unless you really want to, I suppose. I just can't say no to a news-human, working hard to educate other humans! I wish we had something like that on Cybertron, but all our news is about war and metal and Decepticons and time travel." He sighs heavily and shakes his head at Amber. "Just once I'd like to read a magazine article about flowers and trees and fish and creosote bushes and centipedes and other natural growing things on Cybertron. A paper magazine, printed with ink made with love from organic compounds. Ahhh." "Should we try for the Outer Limits instead this time?", Wheeljack snickers over his shoulder to Impactor. Then nods a bit at Hound. "That's part of the idea, Hound. More precision mining means less energy usage and less wasteful material refuse." Leaving the more finite adjustments to the human engineers Wheeljack opens a slot just behind the emitter that takes the place of a drill and fiddles with the diagnostic settings. Would be really inconvenient for the Decepticons to show up, now wouldn't it? But then again, that'd also be a really boring episode... Impactor ignores all the humans from the press. Wheeljack didn't bring him along to play nice with the humans. Glancing up at the sky, he hmms. Atmospheric pressure is pretty good right about now. The Wrecker continues to ignore the humans until he spots and recognizes Amber. It isn't every day he remembers a human's face, and it's rarer still that he doesn't hate the person. Giving Wheeljack an annoyed 'hmph', the Autobot trudges over to Amber. "Mackenzie, right?" Slugfest is perched in the cockpit inside Viator, little feets on the dashboard. "Grass no is good," he says, "Bad for hiding in. Sand better!" Amber MacKenzie was just testing some features on her camcorder, so she raises a brow at Hound's display of camera shyness and enthusiastic discourse on war (Cybertron) and peace (Earth). "I suggest looking into National Geographic, sir, which has many articles about flora and fauna. Ah, and It is indeed made with paper and ink." Impactor's tromping footsteps draw her attention away from the sad, watery-eyed Autobot, and she has little trouble recognizing him, either. "Evening, Impactor," she returns cordially. "Yes, my name's Amber MacKenzie. Is there something I can do for you?" "Nah, not really," Impactor replies to Amber, not really giving the question much thought. The general assumption is that most humans aren't useful unless they're wearing an EDC badge on their uniforms. "How's life treating you since your trip to the past? Win a million awards for articles on it?" Impactor is just making small talk, because Alpha H. Trion this science is /dull/. Scorn just so happens to be in the area as well, though far off behind the cover of whatever the environment provides. In typical Insecticon fashion she's out without telling anyone, scouting for anything to satiate her appetite, and whatever the Bots are working on looks interesting enough. With pistols in hand she stays low to avoid detection while sidling up behind the building opposite the group. It likely wouldn't be too hard to detect her with the right equipment though as she peers just over the edge to get a glance at them. "National Geographic! What a grand name for a magazine," Hound enthuses, cheered. "I'll buy it at once, using currency in the form of sweaty, crumpled paper bills! I'll just need to exchange some energon chits with one of these- wait, I'm picking up Decepticon engine noise... Autobots, heads up, we might have company!" "FEET ON THE FLOOR!" More ranting about youths and blatant disrepect. The Seeker is rocketing towads the area, completely clueless that Viator's been detected by HOUND. Wheeljack closes the access point as another technician walks over and hands the Autobot a small holo-display. "Alright, looks like we're on the right track now. About ready to fire this up and see what she can really d--huh?" He stops in midsentance, light-ears giving an extra flash as he hears Hound, and pushes himself to his feet. "Aw, geez, there's one thing I was hoping -had- changed!" Sigh. He pulls out a generic blaster pistol and mentally switches off the saftey to his shoulder launcher. "Okay, get the crews back inside the complex! We'll keep their grubby actuators off the prototype." Amber MacKenzie shrugs. "I'm not in this field for awards, Impactor. Despite the Decepticons, it was an interesting time, but I never want to repeat it." She is about to tell Hound that he's odd when Decepticons are mentioned, and she makes a 360-degree circle to try to spot any lurking bad guys. Slugfest eeps and gets his feet back on the floor, scurrying to the deck plating. "Okay, okay! Feets no are that dirty." Impactor is about to tell Hound he's a f---ing moron when the Decepticons are mentioned, and she... uh... does the same thing Amber does. Only instead of holding a camcorder, he's holding his laser pistol. He immediately snaps into the leadership role. "Wheeljack, make sure that contraption's secure. If the Cons are here, ten to one odds say that's what they're after. Hound, alert Earth Defence Command and have them route the sitrep to Autobot City. Then do whatever the hell you do in combat that won't piss me off. Helping humans get inside the complex, I guess." The Wrecker is scanning the skies and general area, ready to shoot anything that moves. "Looks like you're going to win more awards whether you like it or not, MacKenzie." Scorn's antennas perk up at the mention of Decepticons, the femme wondering if they'd spotted her. But no, they seem to be looking elsewhere, mainly the sky. It's then that she looks up to spot Viator wheeling through the sky in the distance. With a grumble she turns on her local comm to radio them, <> Amber MacKenzie does the Autobot the courtesy of believing he knows what he's doing. She remains calm and urges her fellow press members to head for the complex. Whether or not they follow, she's going there herself, only pausing to smack an idiot photographer busily taking pictures upside the head as she passes him. "Take them *after* you're in cover, moron!" she hisses to him. Hound hustles around gently shooing the humans to safety. "Quickly, human beings! Decepticons are on their way and you could get hurt, since you're small and full of juice, like tangerines!" Viator says, "rages at Scorn over the Con broadband! <> Viator rockets towards the Autobots, accelerating for a frenzied battle charge! "Slugfest, these Autobots must have the stolen package! Show them the meaning of DECEPTICON VENGEANCE!" The ancient mech ejects the tiny stegosaurus towards the Autobots!" Slugfest is ejected from the plane and hurtles to the ground, cursing and yelling like a mad stegosaur. His chainsawplates are revving, and there's a dangerous red glow in his optics. "Autobots GIVE BACK WHAT STOLED!" he yells as he plummets. Wheeljack isn't worried. Impactor is a well-meaning hardass, and he knows that despite his oddities Hound is more than reliable. With weapon in had he takes a protective position over the aparataus, so he's also giving a bit of cover to the humans engineers hurrying back towards the main buildings. "Don't worry Impactor. They're getting this over my dead battery!" ... Okay, catching up on the technology, but someone needs to get him to update his lingo some. Wheeljack pauses a moment after realizing what he just said, and corrects himself. "Over my dead again battery!" Amber MacKenzie is already ahead of the pack; she wants the best seat in the complex! She pauses briefly to study the fancy building and then chooses her destination: a reinforced stair well with a medium-sized window, one of many windows along that wall. She ends up sitting on the steel railing next to the window, camcorder ready. Hound positions himself to provide cover to the humans with his bulky lower legs, unlatches and racks his machinegun, and arms his missile launcher. "You'll be safe as long as you stay out of the line of fire," he warns the bystanders. "I'll take care of you or my name's not Hound!" Scorn hisses softly at Viator's response, <> With the Autobots thoroughly distracted by the other two Scorn moves out of hiding, grinning as she sets her sights on Wheeljack right next to the prototype. "Step aside, Autobots! Galvatron would just /love/ this contraption you'd working so hard on!" She chuckles and dashes for the scientist, pistols in hand charging up before firing in his direction. Combat: Scorn strikes Wheeljack with her Plasma Burst Pistols attack! Impactor can hear the pitter-patter of humans evacuating. Hopefully Jack and Hound have that well under control. The former meanwhile has also given him his word that the doohickey will be protected. Excellent. That just means the only thing left to take care of is the Decepti-killing. Viator is the first one he spots (scanning the skies is instinctual, which helps Scorn until she charges for Wheeljack). "Hound, Wheeljack, take care of Slugfest and Scorn." With Viator screaming like a lunatic, he makes himself an obvious target. Decepticon vengeance?!" the Wrecker roars. "You dips---s wouldn't know vengeance if it blasted your cockpit off!" Impactor then tries to blast Viator's cockpit off (or whatever serves as one for Tetrajets). Combat: Impactor strikes Viator with his Vengeance (Laser) attack! "Wheeljack, look out!" Hound exclaims, projecting a hologram over the office the humans went into so that from the outside it appears to be a solid wall. With them out of the way, Hound dives for cover himself and pops up to pepper Scorn with .50cal machinegun bullets. Combat: Hound strikes Scorn with his Turret Gun attack! [Pulled -3] Once the little stegotape reaches the ground, he charges straight for Wheeljack. "YOU! WHERE MY BOX?"? He attempts to tapdance all over the Autobot mad scientist. Combat: Slugfest misses Wheeljack with his The pitter-patter of little FEETS - on your head! (Kick) attack! Viator howls in pain from laser burns and struggles to redirect himself for some good old fashioned Impactor strafing... "Blasted greaser taking potshots at your elders! Now, Autobot...you will GET OFF OF MY LAWN!" The seeker takes aim and fires, determined to remove these obstacles of successful package delivery! Combat: Viator misses Impactor with his Stinger Missile attack! Wheeljack half-turns at the shout behind him, just in time to ack and half-duck one of the shots going high. Another catchs him across the arm, partially do because he's holding it out to keep the sonic driller behind him and out of harm's way. "All the more reason to not let you have it!" Fortunately he was right about Hound's reliability as the scout peppers the femme for him. Good thing too, as he's got Slugfest trying to accoust him instead. "I don't have any boxes." He ducks the tape's attempt to land on him, then turns and makes a kick at the stego with one of his bumper-feet. "But I do have a big ol' boot!" Combat: Wheeljack strikes Slugfest with his Punting Soundwave's little monsters is a time honored tradition (Kick) attack! Amber MacKenzie focuses her camcorder on the cause of all this: the drill. Sound is going to be adversely affected by being inside, but there's nothing she can do about that. She zooms in first for a good look at the object, and then back out again to catch the surrounding fight. Sadly enough, this is becoming commonplace. Those Decepticons are a bloody menace. She closes her eyes briefly and sighs. Scorn is forced to pause as the shots rain over her, hands lifting to shield herself as she makes a leap for some cover, trying to regain herself. She looks down at her bullet-riddled chassis and narrows her optics, giving an insectoid skree as she quickly lifts off into the air on buzzing wings, transforming to her mantis mode. "You'll pay for that, Autobot! Hopefully your parts will fetch a high enough price to get these dents out!" Scorn hisses as she soars above them, brandishing scythe arms and clicking her mandibles threateningly. She tries to strafe Hound for a moment, ignoring Wheeljack for now, before parting her jaws and aiming a large wad of sticky, burning acid right at Hound's face. Combat: Space Mantis strikes Hound with her Molten Plasma Spit attack! Hound's paint peels as the sizzling acid etches his plating, but even though he is having a hard time seeing through the smoke, and he's hardly a warrior, he knows he has to stick to it. "You can never defeat me, because I fight for the Earth and all its creatures! Especially mammals!" Hound calls out, and with a shimmer of distortion, he takes on the appearance of Wheeljack, while Wheeljack is covered in a hologram that makes him resemble Impactor, and confusingly, the drilling machine seems to change into Huffer. Combat: Hound strikes Space Mantis , Slugfest, and Viator with his It's a Switcheroo! Area attack! Impactor manages to score several shots against the Seeker, but the mech is still coming at him. "Greaser, eh?" Impactor snarls. He leaps from his current location, landing in a somersault behind a large barricade that's used for bomb tests here at the facility. Viator's missile slams into the deck where the Autobot was a split second again, exploding with a deafening roar. Even from behind the barricade, Impactor can feel the heat. The very facility itself seems to tremble from the impact. "Haven't heard an insult like that in, oh, a good five million years," he mutters through gritted teeth as he twists and peers up from behind his cover, giving Viator a second once-over. He marks the subtle differences in Tetrajet design, from the under-wing missile pods to the inbedded laser cannons. He places Viator as being one of the older vets in service. "Aw hell," he says as he tries to draw another bead on the mech with his pistol. "I'm probably doing the Decepticons a favour by finally scrapping you." Combat: Impactor strikes Viator with his A Favour (Laser) attack! Slugfest gets booted! He hollers as he sails through the air backwards and lands on his pointy back spikes. "NO IS FOOTBALL!" he rages, revving his chainsaw plates in an attempt to get loose. Hound calls back to the humans, "Are you okay back there? Do you need first aid? I know first aid!" Hound adds, "I also know CPR! I took a class!" Viator would be glowing red right now if this was a boss fight in a videogame. He slams into the very barricade Impactor is taking cover behind and transforms uncomfortably. "Bah! Someone bring me my Bot-Gay! The joint pain is too much!" He struggles to stand, looking like he'll fall apart at any moment. ... And the tape gets stuck on his back because of those sharp plates. "... Soundwave must of let his quality control slip." He's just going to ignore Hound being... Hound, seeing as the hologram trick is helping! He points his pistol at Slugfest for a moment, but then lowers it. "Nah, I can't shoot a mech while he's stuck and humiliated." Crouching down next to the sonic-drill he reachs to the back of one leg, and pulls out an odd-looking, likely cybertronic version of a wrench. "But I can throw things at him!" Then whips the tool at Slugfest, wrench spinning end over end from the throw. Combat: Wheeljack strikes Slugfest with his C-Clamp Wrench toss (Punch) attack! Space Mantis stops in mid air, wings buzzing softly as antennas twitch and she cocks her head to the side in confusion when everything changes. "Err.. Damned illusions.. Where'd the prototype go??" She notes Huffer in its spot now, though he's not moving. And since Hound is nowhere to be seen now she just snorts and goes straight for the 'minibot' in a divebomb, latching onto the hologramed prototype with sharp blades and immediatly biting in, tearing off a large chunk of metal with her large pincers while the others are distracted by Slugfest. Amber MacKenzie has to catch her camcorder from falling off the window sill on which she'd just set it. Ah well, there's not a lack of journalists and their photographers doing the same. She holds tightly to the railing until the vibrations pass and then stores the camera away. There's a sudden, loud CRACK as her window breaks, a network of cracks spreading like the web of a spider, but at least the bullet-resistant glass doesn't shatter. She sighs again and leaves the window to find another that's still in one piece. Slugfest is kicking little feets rapidly, trying to dislodge himself! Wheeljack's wrench hits him and he falls over onto his side. From there he manages to right himself and charges at whoever threw the wrench. He doesn't care what the thrower looks like. He just wants to trample them! "Find box stoopid big plane stoled and GIVE BACK!" Combat: Slugfest misses Wheeljack with his stego tramplings (Punch) attack! As the aging Seeker smashes into the barricade Impactor was using, the Wrecker makes a note to look the guy up later. Not because he thought it was a particularly well fought battle, but because the guy was clearly old, and maybe they fought in the same battles over the past several million years. Might be worth a laugh or two with Whirl when he tells him about 'some old guy from the battle of Duxn that he just smoked'. Figuring Viator is dead, Impactor creeps around to the far end of the barricade. He smirks at Slugfest's plight. He knew Hound would make himself useful (cough). Upon hearing a loud ~crack~, he whirls, pistol aimed, at the shattered window. It's a vivid reminder that there's humans here. Impactor may not be the protecting type, but he knows what would happen to the Autobots if they royally pissed off the humans. "Hound!" he shouts. He jabs a finger at the cracked window to alert the Autobot to the possibly dangerous situation. Now coming around to the other side of his barricade, Impactor advances upon Scorn, trying to blast the flying femme from behind while she tries to kill 'Huffer'. Combat: Impactor misses Space Mantis with his Huffer's Revenge (Laser) attack! Amidst the commotion and everyone shooting the place up it's easy to overlook the Terrorcon who finally got off his robot ass and showed up but it's only a matter of time before he makes his precense known. Sinnertwin arrives in robot form but immediately transforms into his beastly alternate mode and charges full-speed (which, honestly, isn't very fast) towards the Wheeljack. The lights on his head make for a real attention grabber so it's really his own fault for making himself a literal flashing target. "Look at the big man throwing wrenches at cassettes. How about you fight a REAL Decepticon!?," Sinnertwin bellows, throwing all his weight at the Autobot scientist. Combat: Mechanical Orthrus misses Wheeljack with his Body Slam (Punch) attack! Viator crawls away from Impactor, muttering about rules of engagement or something of the sort, and props himself against the building that contains AMBER. He glances at the window she's been filming from and his face twists. TWISTS OF IDEAS! "A human! Human! I will use you to trade for the package the Autobots have stolen from me!" I command you, in the name of the Decepticon Empire, to be my prisoner!" "Oh no, the humans! If any of their soft organs get hurt I won't be able to live with myself!" Hound yelps in alarm, spinning around to try to get a missile lock on Viator. "Get away from that, Decepticon- or you're gonna get it!" Combat: Hound analyzes Viator for weaknesses. Wheeljack makes a slight miscalculation, thinking the femme is coming after him and ducking out of the way. Unfortunately she wasn't even aiming at him and thus latchs onto the machine-disguised-as-Huffer. And bites it. "Damn Insecticons! That's not a buffet table!" He grabs the controls of the device (it looks like he's grabbing Huffer's arm due to the controls) and throws his weight so that when he jumps over Slugfest's charge he spins the holo-ed device around, hopefully turning Scorn into the path of someone else's attack in the process. But it turns out landing on the other side of where he stood wasn't such a good idea, as now he's got the two-headed ugly trying to attack him too! ".. Hey, I remember you. You insulted Snarl's dancing!" Nimbly sidestepping the rush Wheeljack does the logical thing in response. He sticks out a foot to try and trip the Terrorcon as runs by, and maybe knock him into the tape too. There's probably some funky geometric math going on here to try and run them into each other, but that'd be excessively boring to actually spell out. Combat: Wheeljack strikes Mechanical Orthrus and Slugfest with his Have a Nice Trip! See Ya Next Fall! (Ruckus) Area attack! Amber MacKenzie almost gapes in disbelief at Viator's little speech, but she's hardly inexperienced at being used as a hostage by Decepticons. She doesn't bother answering the Decepticon (he's mental!); instead, she heads further into the building, looking for as claustrophobic a cluster of metal beams as she can find. Surely if they have mining equipment here, there should be a lot of reinforcements... Viator punches into the wall after Amber, waggling his arm around trying to capture the terran. Out of the corner of his optic, he notices Hound. "Too late, Autobot! The human is mine!" His arm is stuck. Hopefully no one notices. With his free arm, he throws a chunk of building at Hound. Combat: Viator strikes Hound with his Grab attack! Hound topples over backwards, pinned for the moment under a big chunk of reinforced concrete. "Oh, if only Brawn were here!" he laments, struggling to get free with his relatively limited strength. The Insecticon munches loudly on the chunk of metal in her woodchipper of a mouth, swallowing it with ease and clicking her jaws in delight, "More delicious than I thought!" But she eventually comes back to reality, remembering there's a battle happening around her. But thanks to Wheeljack spinning the device she's moved out of Impactor's line of fire, the femme hissing at the two of them. She thinks of going after the scientist, but she decides against it now that Sinnertwin is on the scene. So with a smirk she takes another quick bite from the device and leaps off, scuttling around to face down Impactor. "Well well, fancy meeting you here, handsome." She chuckles, rubbing scythes together. Scorn rears back a moment before lunging forward towards the Wrecker, blades at the ready and head outstretched with waiting jaws aimed directly at his face or neck if she manages to latch onto him. "How about a kiss??" Combat: Space Mantis strikes Impactor with her Kiss of Death (Punch) attack! Amber MacKenzie wistfully wishes there were a nice vat of molten metal that she could push Viator into, a la Terminator 2. Unfortunately, all she can do is scramble nimbly through the dense cluster of beams, the Decepticon's reaching hand following her until there's just no more space. Not only that, but he's stuck! It's hard, but she resists the temptation to mock the git. Retrieving her Blackberry from a pocket, she makes a quick call to Impactor. "The old coot is stuck," she mutters quietly. With that done, she continues further in, hoping to find a way out. Viator waggles his hand at Amber, trying desperately to get at her, and cackles at the trapped Hound. "Now...You will die for stealing the package, Autobot!" He opens fire with his Seeker arm laser thing! He's old though, so it sort of smells weird. Combat: Viator strikes Hound with his Laser attack! Just as Wheeljack intended, Sinnertwin trips over the scientist's foot and topples over, landing on both his faces and colliding with the stegosaurus with a loud 'CLANG'. Defnitely not his proudest moment (though it might be the funniest.) He shifts back into his robot mode and reels around to face the Autobot that dared to humiliate him. "You're dead, Wheeljack-off!" he roars, pulling out his grenade launcher. He thinks for a moment before firing and adds. "..AGAIN!" Combat: Sinnertwin strikes Wheeljack with his Armor-Piercing Rocket-Grenade attack! Hey, Impactor warned Hound. Now it's up to the lousy Earth-lover to deal with it. Impactor is about to help, but he quickly becomes aware that everyone's favorite mad scientist is about to be overwhelmed by Slugfest and... Sinnertwin. Impactor's optics narrow. "A 'real Decepticon'..." he hisses in a low, questioning voice. The Wrecker rises up to his full height as he advances upon Sinnertwin. "Is that what you are, Sinnertwin? A 'real Decepticon'. Impactor kneels briefly, returning his laser pistol to its ankle holster. He stands up again, looking down at the Terrorcon. "All brute force, no brains?" But before he can deal with Sinnertwin in the only way a fist and harpoon can, Impactor has an entirely differentr problem to deal with. "Out of the way, Insecticon. I don't have time to deal with your s---." He raises his hand to smack her out of his way, but Scorn is too fast for him, evading the slap and grabbing onto his mouth and neck with her jaws. "Mmmph!" Impactor manages to emit, staggering back with Scorn still attached. He then receives a phone call from Amber. If you think getting a phone call while in the shower is bad, I assure you this is way worse. The Wrecker routes the call to Hound, who's probably in the best position to deal with it: The old coot is stuck. Impactor's face twists into one of rage as he resists. Using both his arms, he shoves Scorn off of him. Unfortunately, with the Insecticon's razorsharp jaws still latched onto him, ninety percent of Impactor's face goes with it, leaving a ghastly, skull-like visage remaining. His lower jaw is torn off of one hinge, leaving it hanging awkwardly by the other. This doesn't slow the Autobot down, though, and he brings his forehead down, trying to smash the insect's face off with a vicious headbutt. Combat: Impactor misses Space Mantis with his Wrecker Romance (Smash) attack! "Ouch!" Hound complains. "Stealing the what?" Recoiling from the laser impact, he kicks the rubble off of himself and comes up on one knee, lowering his missile over his shoulder. "And I told you to get AWAY from that!" The missile leaps out of the launcher and flashes across the courtyard in search of the laser marker Hound is projecting onto Viator's gimpy knee. Combat: Hound strikes Viator with his Missile Launcher attack! "STOOPID TERRORCON GET OFF! ARE TOO HEAVY!" comes a strident little voice from underneath Sinnertwin. Viator gets blown across town and finds himself inside of an evacuated Future Macys. But did the missile hitting the building put AMBER in DANGER?! Hound claps his hands to his cheeks as he realizes the detonation of his missile's warhead might've damaged the building Amber's in! "What've I done?!" Wheeljack mutters and busies himself for a moment with splicing back together some of the wires left split and sparking from the chunk Scorn ate out of the contraption's body, shoving them back inside afterwards. "Can't bypass enough for full power," he mutters under his breath, but at least it's jury-rigged for the time being. Not that lowering his voice really hides that he's talking, considering the flashing headpieces. Except that he's paying more attention to that than the Decepticons still itching to fight around him, and takes a rocket-powered explosive to the back. It explodes in a raucious display of smoke and fire, pitching the inventor forward over the machine and crashing to the other side. "Oow!" A few moments later he grabs onto one control grip and turns the device on its stand as he gets up, grabbing the other controller. And pointing the device towards Sinnertwin. "Well, this is as good of a demonstration as any!" As the emitter spins to life it's prongs actually act more like a pair of tuning forks, generating a focus of sonic vibrations between them that, once it builds up to a certain point, emits a bassy boom as the concentrated hypersonic pulse is fired! If it works right it should resonate right through the target's armor and gives his insides a good shaking up. Combat: Wheeljack strikes Sinnertwin with the Wheeljack-forged Hypersonic Beam-Drill attack! Space Mantis pretty much has a mouthful of face after Impactor pushes her off and her serrated mandibles take most of his grisly looks with it. Once pushed off she leaps back on her four spindly legs to avoid the mech's headbutt, cackling as she dashes to strafe around him, "Who knew your kisses tasted so good, Impactor? Now let's see if the rest of you is just as good!" Scuttling quickly the femme gets behind him, crouching a moment before leaping at Impactor's back with a feral skree, shining blades poised to stab him right in the back where it's hard to reach. Combat: Space Mantis misses Impactor with her Plasma Sheathed Blades attack! Amber MacKenzie isn't the only one in the building; most of the evacuated Terrans are also there, though not in the same area as she is. The trapped hand behind her is suddenly, violently ripped free along with the mech attached. While the missile itself didn't hit the building, the retreating arm damages some of those heavy support beams. They shudder and beeeeeeeeend. The rest of the building creaks and sways as the weight falls on the remaining beams. They also begin to buckle, and Amber sprints out of the way like a bat out of hell. Fortunately, only one section of the building collapses, and it goes slowly enough that people can get out of there in time. "I've got to act fast!" declares Hound to no one in particular, rushing to hold up a beam with each hand. "Get out of there, human friends!" Amber MacKenzie is slowed by the number of supports in this area, but at least they are correspondingly slow to collapse, plus Hound is there to provide his support. Literally. Once she reaches an open area, she manages a more than respectable burst of speed, motivated by the imminent threat of dire bodily harm. A few seconds, and she's in the clear, but what about that poor hippie Hound? Impactor spits on the ground and then wipes his mouth with his forearm. "Better for you than it was for me," he growls back, furious. His voice is slightly slurred due to half his jaw being removed. It's also causing mechanical blood to ooze from his mouth. One of his optics is scarred, and isn't glowing anymore like most Transformers' do. Despite this, Impactor is as defiant as ever. His remaining optic focuses as best as it can on Scorn. The Wrecker pivots, making sure he's always squared off against her as she tries to circle around. His body tenses, knowing what she's going to do. The only question is whether he's fast enough to beat her down. Finally, Scorn makes her lunge, and Impactor's fist flashes out, smashing into her and knocking her to the deck. Without hesitation, Impactor leaps, trying to pin her to the ground with his knee. This leaves his two arms free. His harpoon arm is slammed down, either into Scorn or into the floor right next to her. "You think this is FUNNY, Decepticon?!" He roars, now throwing his fist down at her face. He's still slurring from the damage. "You think you can come flying around, screwing with MY people, and won't get BEAT DOWN for your trouble!?" His harpoon lashes out again. "Well that IS funny!" Fist. Harpoon. Fist. Harpoon. He continues to wail with all his strength. "See how fraking AMUSED I AM?!" Fist, harpoon, fist, harpoon. Either Scorn's face is in trouble, or the floor is. "NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO, DECEPTICON! WE AUTOBOTS WILL SMACK YOU BACK DOWN! I don't care how!" WHAM! "Often!" HACK! "I!" WHAM! "Must!" SLASH. "TEACH YOU!" Combat: Impactor misses Space Mantis with his Brutality attack! Sinnertwin ignores Impactor's totally rude comment because he's the bigger mech and also because he cares more about blowing Wheeljack to pieces than he does Impactor right now. When his grenade explodes all over the Autobot's back, he gives a fist pump and a holler like he was the coolest guy ever. "Hey Wheeljack! Maybe you should build something that makes you suck less! Bwahahahaha! Hahahaha! Haha..ha..ahh..." Sinnertwin's laughing wavers and eventually stops as the device is turned on him and suddenly his entire world is rocked. The blast feels like it's penetrating his very soul and his entire body rumbles from the pulse. Then he starts to throw up. Like, a lot. Vile nastiness just shoots out of his mouth and all over the ground in large, splattery chunks. "O-oh Primus..W-what-BLAAAARG!" He continues to blow chunks all over the place, staggering back and forth. "I don't feel so good..." Viator finally gets to his feet, pulling a pile of mini dresses off of his face. "Kids these days with their clothes." The Seeker takes to the sky, transforming into jet mode to return to the fray! Viator lifts into the sky, and transforms into an old Cybertronian classic with a terrible color scheme: a brown, yellow, and white pyramid jet. If it weren't for the Decepticon insignia, he'd look like he flew for UPS. The little stego is still flattened... Wheeljack has seen a lot of weird and disgusting things in his technically two lifetimes, but that display still gets the engineer to turn his head for a moment in disgust. "That's just sick and wrong..." But at least the Terrorcon is busy dealing with an upset energon converter or whatever he actually screwed up for the moment, giving Wheeljack a bit of breathing room. Swiftly he swings around the sonic machine, taking advantage of the moment to turn towards the complex and seeing that the humans have already gotten out of that section, aim the device at the chunk Hound is holding up. Taking aim, he makes a quick adjustment to the settings to lower the power some, and syncing into the right resonate frequency. The device spits out a smaller, more focused hypersonic beam, aimed to just outright vaporize the piece of structure Hound is stuck supporting like Atlas. A bunch of dust isn't going to hurt anyone falling down, compared to chunks of metal and concrete. Granted, he's standing there like a big target while helping his fellow Bot out. Scorn's insectoid face in her altmode gives the best 'oh shit' expression it can manage when Impactor gets in a swing at her and knocks her flat on her back, body curling up a bit like the bug she is and legs flailing. Biting off Impactor's face was probably the best thing she could do though, hindering his aim and allowing her to roll between his stabs and punches, the fist and harpoon slamming into the ground instead of her. Scorn hisses threateningly up at the mech, jaws clacking with small shreds of his face she didn't eat yet still hanging off. "Back /off/!!" She punctuates this with another wad of acid at his exposed face, trying to buy herself some time to scramble out from under him. Combat: Space Mantis strikes Impactor with her Molten Plasma Spit attack! Hound tries to let the ceiling down slowly, supporting a crossbea'm across his shoulders. "Got to... hold on for... oh!" To his surprise the ceiling just disintegrates into a cloud of dust above him as Wheeljack turns his weird science on the problem. "Thanks, Wheeljack! Now I'll return the favor!" His projector hums into action, and replacing the previous scenario, he projects a hologram... onto Sinnertwin! A swirling, bewildering hallucinatory landscape impinges on the poor sick Terrorcon's vision as Hound tries to capture him in a WORLD of ILLUSION. Combat: Hound strikes Sinnertwin with his Trippin' Balls attack! Amber MacKenzie's escape route, such as it is, is back towards the front of the building through the hole left by Viator's retreating arm, putting her back in the combat zone, but that's easily remedied; she dodges the grisly remnants of Sinnertwin's technicolor yawn, runs around to the back of the building, and slips inside a back door on the undamaged side of the complex. Sinnertwin stands bent over, his hands on his shaking knees as he just about finishes up showing the entire world the contents of his stomach. Suddenly, an idea creeps into his mind. An idea for...revenge! He reaches down and scoops up a chunky mass from the barf puddle around his feet and winds up before chucking it at Wheeljack like a really smelly baseball. It's pretty hilarious in Sinnertwin's mind so he starts to laugh. And laugh and laugh... Until Hound torments him with possibly the trippiest hologram ever. Everything is spinning around and soooooo bright! "W-woooahhh..." the Terrorcon groans, putting his arms out to grab at all the strange things he's seeing. He takes a step forward to venture into this totally psychadelic world he's seeing but he slips and lands in his regurgitated food pile with a splash. Combat: Sinnertwin's Barfball attack on Wheeljack goes wild! Sinnertwin strikes Space Mantis with his Barfball (Pistol) attack! Impactor's harpoon slams into the deck, burying it all the way to his wrist. That just as easily could have been Scorn's head. His fist quickly follows, but the Insecticon isn't quite pinned enough, and she manages to roll away from each of the strikes. Impactor grins. It's a vicious grin, accentuated by the lack of mechanical skin on his face. "I'm not hearing anymore of your faux romance quips /now/, am I Decepticon?" he hisses. He's practically thrilled at the hiss and screams from her. This is a Decepticon that's starting to show the proper amount of /fear/ when fighting against an Autobot warrior. But while the hissing is great, the wad of acid less so. It strikes him dead on, sending Impactor scrambling back to his feet and off of her. He takes several steps back, clawing at his face. It's imposssible to tell what's happened, exactly, with his hand and harpoon in the way, but the sizzling of melting durasteel and toxic smoke that's drifting between his fingers suggests it isn't pleasant. Finally Impactor lowers his arms, revealing burnt circuitry and wires. His previously scarred optic is completely missing now. In the background he can hear the din of fighting. Hound is shouting something. There's the sound of Seeker jets screaming. Sinnertwin throwing up. Unmindful of it all, Impactor braces himself and fires his shoulder cannon at the Insecticon... ...this is likely only the second worst thing to happen to her this round. Combat: Impactor misses Space Mantis with his Shot Through The Heart attack! Viator soars through the air, determined to recover the stolen package that these Autobots actually know nothing about. But first...it's time for some payback. The Seeker closes in on the distracted Hound, and opens up with the DISRUPTER BARBS! Combat: Viator misses Hound with his Barbed Pulse Emitter attack! Slugfest is unlucky enough to be in the barf path. He kicks little feets angrily. "Stop that!" he shouts at Sinnertwin. The swirling hologram angers him and he charges at the most intense part of it, sawing away in rage at the ether (and whoever may be behind it). Combat: Slugfest misses Hound with his little stego rammings! (Punch) attack! Wheeljack gives Hound a thumbs-up, but the celebratory moment is sadly short-lived. "Aah slag!" Ducking the wildly sprayed barf he kicks the release level on the tripod, and with a clank and hiss the device itself is released from the stand. Slinging the mcguffin onto his back, Wheeljack looks up at the sound of jet engines to see Viator swooping in with strafing guns, and scowls. "I think its time to beat these punks at their own game." Compartments slide open from the inventor's arms, extending a pair of rocket boosters as the grey panels on his back that you thought were just kibble swing down into a wing-like position. Two plumes of smoke and exhaust flame later and Wheeljack launchs into the air towards the Seeker. No it's not a pilot plothole folks, Wheeljack really does have Flight in his stats. It's right there in his tech specs too. Geewun gimmickry at it's finest! Fortunately while he's got to use his arms to steer his Rocketeer impersonation, he can still aim with his shoulder cannon as he levels off towards Viator. "Hey! Ya flying geometric obscurity. Leave my buddy alone!" A shell fires from the launcher, arcing just over Viator's flight path then detonating the casing, resulting in a shower of armor piercing spikes hailing towards the Seeker. Combat: Wheeljack strikes Viator with his Shrapnel Needle attack! Viator shrieks in pain, spiraling out of control into the clouds. "GFDGDF ARFG!" The ancient Seeker's systems are enough of a mess already- Wheeljack has possibly caused some serious damage! For instance, 'GFDGDF ARFG' was supposed to be 'Autobot Germ.' Still, Seekers rule the sky, and the courier manages to pull it around to gun down the Autobot inventor. Combat: Viator strikes Wheeljack with his Barbed Pulse Emitter attack! Once Impactor reels back with a face-full of acid Scorn manages to right herself, clambering back onto her feet and getting ready for another lunge at him. Well, at least until a large handful of vomit comes sailing her way, nailing her right in the face. "Augh! Dear Primus!!" She gags, stumbling back and narrowly missing Impactor's cannon as she wheels in disgust and tries to wipe at her face with the non-sharp bits of her scythe arms. The femme gets some of it out of an optic finally, the Insecticon brimming with fury at both the Autobots and Sinnertwin. "I thought I'd get a simple meal, but this is too much, so screw this! I'm out of here!" Not wanting to jeopardize herself she's quick to retreat, wiping off some more vomit before scuttling off and taking flight as fast as possible to get away from the fight. Hound looks proud of himself as he stands by and admires Sinnertwin flipping out. "Normally I hate to see someone in distress, but I feel pretty good about- augh, you again?!" Viator is back, and he's shooting little taser dart things at Hound! "I thought you'd given up already! Take this, oldster!" Dashing for cover, Hound pulls out his machinegun and opens fire, tracers raking the sky. Hound also steps over Slugfest as part of his epic dodge. Combat: Hound strikes Viator with his Turret Gun attack! Impactor's good optic focuses and refocuses on Scorn. If he could ever have a shred of pity for a Decepticon, it'd be now. Unsurprisingly, though, he doesn't. The femme wipes off the Terror-puke as best she can before flying off. Impactor sends several more blasts her way, but his aim is way off at this point. He also hears Viator shrieking in pain, followed by another round of Seeker engines going full tilt. That's two. After sending some notes to his fellow Autobots over broadband, he turns, trying to find the others. Sinnertwin and Slugfest are the two unaccounted for, but he can't find them. He stops to listen for them instead. Wheeljack yelps and swings his weight to corkscrew out of the way of fire, but he's not as good at DO A BARREL ROLL! as Fox McCloud and one of the barbed pulses smacks him in the side. How do you barb a laser, anyways? Doesn't really matter, as it sends Wheeljack haphazardly out of flight. At least his gimmicky little wings give him a bit of gliding leverage so he doesn't -crash-, but his side is smoking from the shot as he stumbles a few steps on the ground.. and then falls right on his aft. "Oof... well, any landing you can walk away from..." Retracting the rockets back into his arms, he pulls out his little generic blaster and fires a few random shots at the Seeker. "Go-on, get outta here already!" Combat: Wheeljack misses Viator with his Generic Autobot Blue Laser Beams! (Laser) attack! Wheeljack yelps and drops to a knee as his side sparks and smokes some more afterwards, clamping a hand over it. Oh, -that- is why it's called a barbed pulse. Viator has been around long enough to know when to get. And right now, the gettin' is good. Completely forgetting how angry he was at Scorn for bailing, Viator BAILS on Slugfest and Sinnertwin. Third star on the left and straight on till Trypticon! Slugfest finds that Viator is fleeing. "Guess find package later," he says, lifting off into the sky behind the old UPS plane. "Wait up! No has nuff energons make it back self!" Sinnertwin fights his way through his hologram induced trip. Literally. He is punching and kicking at things that aren't even there. This goes on for a bit before he finally loses it, transforms, and starts burping fire all over the place. He has no idea the other Decepticon's are ditching him and he also has no idea that the swirly tree he's attacking is actually a hunky Wrecker. Combat: Mechanical Orthrus strikes Impactor with his BAD TRIP MAN BAD TRIP attack! "I think he might be getting the fear," Hound remarks.
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* PHOTO-SENSORS DAMAGED *** "No s---," Impactor mutters in an incredibly slurred voice as the damage report scrolls past his vision. He takes a step and nearly stumbles. Reaching out with his hand instinctively, he grabs onto the barricade he originally used to protect himself against Viator's missile strike. Seeing as how that was just the first of its uses, it's seen better days now.
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* PHOTO-SENSORS REBOOTING. TIME REMAINING: 60 ASTROSECONDS *** Impactor puts on his grumpy face (which is extra grumpy thanks to Scorn). With his vision out, Impactor can only hear the stomping and flame belching coming for him. "Sinnertwin?" He mutters. "Sinnertwin you rat bastard." It's tough to tell what he's saying, but there it is. A blind mech versus a tripping one. The battle we've all been waiting to watch. As Sinnertwin hurls fire at him entirely by accident (sort of), Impactor lunges in the direction of the heat, harpoon and fists flailing angrily. Combat: Impactor strikes Mechanical Orthrus with his Justice is Blind attack! Wheeljack looks at mangled Impactor. Looks at mangled tripping Sinnertwin... And gives them both a wide berth as he makes his way around towards Hound. "I was going to go offer to patch his face up buuuuuut I don't think I want to get in the middle of that." "Let me help you with that, Impactor," offers Hound, switching ECM modes so he can start transmitting position and status data on Sinnertwin to the Wrecker. Wheeljack adds, "You can help better from over here, anyways." Wheeljack idly unmagnetizes the hypersonic drill from his back and looks it over. "Well, the bug dame took a chomp out of it, but not anything that isn't repairable... and it turns out to be pretty good for demolitions, too." Mechanical Orthrus is almost positive he burnt that bastard tree to the ground but it turns around and starts beating the crap at out of him. The big burly branches, which are actually Impactor's big burly fist (and harpoon) smack and slice both his faces over and over again, forcing the beast to take a couple steps back and transform. He brandishes his grenade launcher like an axe and starts to wail on Impactor with it, screaming. "THE TREES THIRST FOR MY BLOOD! HELP ME, DECEPTICON BROTHERS!" They don't. Combat: Sinnertwin strikes Impactor with his Lumberjacking (Punch) attack! Impactor is normally good for matching Decepticon battlecries with some of his own, but he doesn't have a good retort for Sinnertwin. This is because Sinnertwin is a psychopath high on holo-smack. As his photo-sensors continue to reboot (that timer is never accurate), Impactor suddenly receives a new message.
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* VISUAL LINK-UP DETECTED. ORIGIN: AUTOBOT HOUND *** Impactor grins, quickly completing the link-up and allowing him to view the fight from Hound's vantage point. This doesn't help him in time to avoid Sinnertwin's swing, though, and the grenade launcher is smacked against his burly chest, causing the Wrecker to audibly grunt. Taking a brief moment, Impactor uses Hound's information to survey the battlefield. The Terrorcon seems to be the only Decepticon remaining, the humans are safe, and the Con objective is safe. Fantastic. Now all that's remaining is beating some sense into Sinnertwin. Impactor uses an uppercut for this. Combat: Impactor misses Sinnertwin with his When Trees Attack (Punch) attack! "I'm starting to feel kind of bad about this," says Hound. Wheeljack tooks to look at Hound. "Bad for -who-?" "Both?" "Works for me." "Should we.. hmm. What should we do, Wheeljack?" Hound asks. Wheeljack shrugs his shoulders. "The humans are safe, the device is mostly in one piece... this is really kinda irrelivant now other than entertainment value." As Sinnertwin's 'axe' cuts into the 'tree', a swarm of bees fly out of it and begin to swarm around his head. Some of them land on his body and start to crawl into the nooks and crannies of his armor while the others wiggle their stingery butts in his face. The look on his face is best described as 'horrified' and he starts to slap wildly at the insects with both hands, screaming nonsense the entire time. That boy aint right. Combat: Sinnertwin strikes Impactor with his Slappo (Punch) attack! Hound circles around the fight to try to shoot up Sinnertwin from a flanking position, so he doesn't hit bulky Impactor. Combat: Hound strikes Sinnertwin with his Turret Gun attack! Wheeljack tilts his head to the side slightly at the transmission. "Well, I guess that answers that." He shifts the sonic drill to cradle it in the crook of one arm, then reachs up with the other to brace his shoulder cannon as it chambers a new, fully explosive shell into it. He waits for Hound to circle around to one side, then fires from his side to keep the monstrousity flanked and pinned between them. Combat: Wheeljack strikes Sinnertwin with his Shoulder-Mounted Cannon attack! [Pulled -2] Impactor continues to slug it out with Sinnertwin. For both of them, the fight is very, very different. For Impactor, it's him against evil. For Sinnertwin, it's him against... uh... um. Well, a different kind of evil. Impactor has to watch through Hound's eyes as he gets slapped repeatedly, and so once Hound and Wheeljack have shot Sinnertwin, he tries to grab onto him and throw him helluva far. Combat: Impactor strikes Sinnertwin with his Throw You Helluva Far (Punch) attack! Wheeljack grumbles at the sparks in his side. For as much of a loony old mech that Seeker was, his weapon wasn't to be trifled with. For a moment Wheeljack ponders digging out the barbs right there.. but then remembering there's still other things going on snaps him out of curiosity. While Impactor is taking out the final trash he dials a different frequency on his comm, to let the company engineers know he was going to take the driller with him back to AC to fix it. Sinnertwin gets shot from all sides and at first he thinks it's the bees (obviously they are evolved and super intelligent to the point they can weild firearms) but then he realizes what's really happening: that asshole tree got some of his tree buddies to join in. "WHAT'S THE MATTER!?" Sinnertwin shouts, clenching his fists. "CAN'T TAKE ME ON YOUR OWN? NEED YOUR BUDDIES TO HELP YOU OUT?" He swings a fist but punches only air just before Impactor grabs him and sends him soaring through the air like a giant, ugly frisbee. Even with a sharp eye, the Terrorcon eventually disappears from view and becomes just a speck in the distance. Impactor watches as Sinnertwin is hurled off the battlefield. Looks like Team Terrorcon... is blasting off again. He then turns towards Hound and Jack. "Good work, you two. Jack, take care of any emergency repairs and lets get this thing back to Autobot City where it's safe. Let the relief team worry about clean-up." Then, as an afterthought. "Any casualties amongst the human population?" As she's inside the complex with her fellow human beings, Amber can't answer that question. They've all moved to the most structurally sound portion of the building - as suggested by the engineers among them - to wait out the fireworks. Staying close to the exterior walls has proven to be too dangerous, though a few courageous volunteers check the windows once in a while. "Yeah, speaking of." Wheeljack walks over and activates a tiny electro-probe from one fingertip to resync Impactor's optical relays. "And not that I'm aware of. They all got inside, and Hound kept that part of building from collapsing on them." Considers for a moment. "With how much time Chip spent around us in the old days, I bet the company has emergency Decepticon attack evacuation drills right up there with fire and tornado alerts." "Good old Chip. He's my favorite human with wheels," Hound agrees, and goes to find the other humans and see if they need anything, like rides home, or just to talk about their feelings.
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