We are a literate, intermediate to advanced AU Transformers RPG Based off of the first season of TFP with dashes of other incarnations sprinkled here or there. Characters from any continuity are welcome however must be restyled to match the TFPrime universe.
Active, with ongoing plotlines, we are always willing to integrate new characters into storylines once incorporated into the setting.
Wheeljack crossed his arms, bemused at the mention of the Leaper in the basement. How exactly was Psi aware that there was a Con at the bottom of the building and yet had walked right past the Wrecker? He twitched a little when the aerial mention that it would be an easy flight to the Academy.
Ah yes, if only someone had dumped him here with the Jackhammer.
"You’re out of luck on this one," he replied dryly. "'m a grounder true and through and I'm really wishing Deuce had dropped me off here with my personal starship. As for my name, it's Wheeljack. I'm going to have to pass for now on the groping because the last strange mech that touched me dumped me on the other side of the galaxy. Ask me again in a couple of hours when I'm less bitter and paranoid about that and I'll say yes. My vehicle mode's a car, four wheels. Model's irrelevant since you've probably never even heard of the planet I picked it up on. "
Wheeljack turned his head towards the elevator shaft at the end of the hallway. "I'm not afraid to go toe to toe with a Decepticon," he said. "Hell, that's how I got myself into this mess, agreeing to take on a Con frontliner." He ran a servo over his frame, checking it in case there was some damage he hadn't noticed. While Skywarp sure had packed a hard punch, beyond a slight dent in Wheeljack's combat armour there was nothing further, no other evidence of their encounter. "Say, how'd you know that there's a Leaper in the lobby?"
His grin widened. "Heh heh. That guy. I got sent here like… I dunno, a while back to check up on a report that something had struck this tower. We thought maybe some debris had fallen out of orbit and hit Iacon. There's a ton of junk still circling in orbit around the planet. Wreckage and scrap. Even corpses. From that big battle during the Exodus."
Psi motioned for Wheeljack to follow him down the corridor.
"Anyway, when I got here I found the entire structure tilted, and a big hole in the outer wall," he said. "Turned out that Leaper was responsible. I dunno where he was hiding before this, but he is camped out here now. He's a mess, but he's still big and tough and nasty, and fast when he's got space to manoeuvre. I barely got out with my limbs attached."
His hand left smudges on the dusty wall as he patted his way down the corridor, one foot at a time. "Lucky for me those things aren't too smart. Guess the Decepticons didn't worry about installing them with anything outside of combat software. There's an old lift just down the end of this hall. We should be able to climb down the empty shaft. I hope you don't mind getting dirty or scratched or- wait. Hang on. Toe to toe with a Decepticon?"
Psi looked back over his shoulder. "Whoa. You can fight?"
Wheeljack absently nodded along as Psi described the Leaper, not that the other mech could see it. Sounded like a Leaper. Nasty things. Thick armor that was near invulnerable from the front. No point in fighting them head on. Hit them in the back though to cause the real damage. But in close quarters, giving them the slip could be an absolute nightmare. Generally, Leapers weren't all that bright but this one had a good thing going, taking up residence in the tower.
He followed Psi down the corridor towards the empty shaft he'd approached earlier. The Wrecker raised an optic ridge when Psi mentioned that he'd be climbing down with Wheeljack. The mech didn't need to come along, hell Wheeljack wouldn't begrudge him if he wanted to avoid the Leaper altogether and let the Wrecker make his own way out of the tower.
"Whoa. You can fight?"
Wheeljack laughed. "Pal, I could tell you stories. Wheeljack, of the Wreckers." He paused for a moment, well aware that the Wreckers had a rep for brute muscle and not much else. "Once upon a time, it used to be Wheeljack, engineer and inventor of Crystal City. Then a war happened and that was that. I'm pretty confident I can get to the bottom of this shaft and deal with the Leaper myself. If you'd like to sit this one out and wait for me to get out of the tower, that's fine."
Psi stopped dead in his tracks. He gaped in shock.
"Are you slagging me?" he said. "Seriously? Primus! I thought you guys were just urban legends. Like, the stories and rumours you heard about Wreckers always sounded larger than life to me, too psycho to be real. I always figured, no way can all of this be legit, this has gotta be some propaganda the Autobots cooked up to make themselves sound like a bunch of badasses. I never thought I'd ever get to meet an actual Wrecker. Ha!"
He laughed in evil glee. The sound rang down the hollow elevator shaft in soft and sinister echoes. Psi quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.
"Slag," he said. "Sorry. Hope our big tenant in the lobby didn't hear that. Look, you go down first. I'll follow you. Don't worry about me. I know I don't look like much, but maybe I can act as a distraction so you can gut the bastard. I hate Leapers. I want to be there to watch this one go down."
For a frail robot, Psi did not look terribly frightened. He shuffled out of the way to give Wheeljack room to approach the shaft.
Wheeljack shot Psi a smug grin. It was always nice to be recognised and appreciated. As opposed to being barely and attracting side ways looks all "Ugh, not the Wreckers." Opinions tended to be divided on them. They attracted their share of admiration as well as revulsion for the level of sheer destruction they'd caused. And you knew you were down to your last chances if the Wreckers were sent after you.
"Oh, we're real alright. Dealt with the jobs the other Autobots couldn't handle and everything."
And paid the price for it too.
He gave Psi a deadpan look when the aerial got a little too excited. The Wrecker approached the open shaft and crouched down at it's edge. He hadn't exactly had the opportunity to get a good look at it before, due to the hurry he'd been in. Wheeljack had thought it scalable then and was pleased to discover that this was so with the better and more detailed look he was getting.
The Wrecker mapped the location of a number of handhelds beneath him. He could almost see the hints of a path down there. Well, as far as he could see, which wasn't that much. He charged his blaster again and brought his arm over the open shaft to illuminate it with the glow of his rifle. The light didn't penetrate that deep in the gloom.
It was a long way down after all.
But it was enough.
The shape of the shaft was uniform overall. Undoubtedly there were bits and pieces missing but the underlying architecture would remain the same throughout.
Wheeljack glanced up over at Psi.
"I want to be there to watch this one go down."
"If you say so," Wheeljack accepted simply.
With that, the Wrecker dropped himself down to the beam beneath him. His hands grasped at the wall for balance. The fall yawned beneath his pedes, only centimeters away. He ignored it, pressed flat against the wall before dropping down to the next beam.
Only the slope of the shaft spared Wheeljack from a deadly plunge. It was tilted enough for him to keep his balance against it, if he kept a firm grip on whatever purchase he could find. His feet would still skid on the metal walls, and he would need to use his legs to brace himself. It was a hard climb, but deftness of hand and foot would allow him to slowly traverse downwards.
Even with his training and agility, it would be hard to keep from knocking against the walls. Each clang of metal on metal would reverberate downwards. At one point a security light blinked on below him, buzzed weakly, and died again. No other sign of life could be heard within the building.
Meanwhile, the air was choked with dust. The lower he went, the thicker it became. The air grew cold and sharp. It was very still. Not a single draft stirred the motionless motes of dust. They whirled sluggishly behind the Wrecker as he descended.
And then: a problem.
Directly beneath Wheeljack lay a blockage. Metal beams, tangled wire, and crumpled rebar lay collapsed across the shaft, as if a missile or a crashing ship had torn through the building and left a trail of destruction in its wake. It was too dark to make out many details, but it looked as if some of the heavier debris might support his weight. And there were holes in the blockage too, perhaps large enough to squeeze through.
Light glowed through those holes: a strange deep-sea blue illumination, dim and faint. Further below, beyond the wreckage, lay the lobby.
That seemed to be where the light was coming from.
From somewhere overhead a gong echoed down the elevator shaft, followed by a muttered curse. It sounded as if Psi was making his own clumsy decent. At least as a flier he could hover to assist himself.
Braced against the shaft wall, Wheeljack frowned. He used the glow of his cannon to illuminate what was going on with the shaft.
Hmmm….
He peered down thoughtfully. Looked like there were chunks of debris that might support his weight. The mess of rebars and metal beams created an interlocking mesh of dubious integrity. One wrong step and…
Hmm...maybe it wasn't the far to the lobby. Light was also escaping up through the holes in the blockages.
Perhaps the bottom level had power.
Unlikely, the more cynical part of Wheeljack's processor insisted. The color of the light was closer to the glow given off by his own weapon systems. But Leapers didn't have ranged weaponry. They were melee combatants all the way through. Having near invulnerable armor allowed them to simply power on through until they reached their enemy.
How odd.
Well here was nothing to be gained ruminating on it any longer, he wouldn't find the answer from up here. Wheeljack dropped himself down onto a chunk of debris he thought was secure enough to bear his weight. The Wrecker glanced down through a nearby hole. It looked like there was a bit of a fall, not too far for him and the lobby did lie a couple of levels below. The hole also did look large enough for him to scrabble through, if he didn't mind scratching his paintjob.
Which, of course, the Wrecker most certainly didn't have a problem with.
Wheeljack didn't immediately climb through the hole, he studied the gap in the blockage. He wanted to get through it as quickly as possible and not risk getting caught on the protruding rubble, given that there was a hostile possibly waiting on the level beneath him. Once he had gotten a good look, he squeezed himself through the hole.
The Wrecker twisted himself through the air as he fell towards the lobby. One hand flew out to help him catch himself when he hit the ground. He landed in a crouch with his feet spread apart and knees bent to help brace himself with one servo against the ground. The other was already transformed into a blaster. It'd take him a few moments before he'd recovered enough to scan the area.
His feet slammed down with a resounding thud. A cloud of dust and ash flew up from the impact and swirled around him.
When it settled, Wheeljack would get his first look at his surroundings.
He stood in the bottom of the elevator shaft, within the rusted mechanisms of the anti-grav unit that had once powered the lift up and down the tower. The lift itself was missing - perhaps it was trapped at the topmost suite of the tower. The glass doors that slid open to admit habitants into the lift were missing, long since torn away. Beyond the gaping hole they left behind was the spacious lobby floor of the tower.
Once, it had been had been an airy, elegant space, with glossy floors polished to a mirror sheen and tall, graceful windows that overlooked the street. It had been decorated in black and grey, and moodily lit with sleek blue panel lighting that followed the contours of the room. What looked like the remains of a lounge and bar stood in one corner. Monitors were inset into the walls to provide the wealthy inhabitants of the tower with up to date datafeed coverage of state-approved news across Cybertron.
Now, the beautiful floor was coated in dust. The monitors were cracked and dark. Debris lay beneath collapsed holes in the ceiling. Broken cerulean glass glittered around every window, which gazed out upon a street scene of grey and hopeless ruin.
Oddly, some of the panel lights were flickering. They filled the dark lobby with a watery blue light, just enough for Wheeljack to see by.
He would not need his optics to hear the bellowing roar that rang out as soon as he hit bottom.
Beneath his feet the floor trembled.
Something huge and strewn in dust was rearing up behind the bar to his right. Its single violet optic blazed into life and zeroed upon him.
Wheeljack's first, immediate impulse was 'Leaper' and "I'm boxed in on three sides." He didn't have time to get a good look of the lobby, he'd dashed forward, out of the elevator shaft. He hadn't even checked which direction the roar had come from. Wheeljack had wanted out of the shaft because it was arguably the worst place to get caught by the Leaper. A game over before the fight had even started.
Once he was out of the shaft and in the lobby, he was able to catch sight of the purple optic glowing to his right. The Wrecker turned to face the Con fully. The lobby had space, room to manoeuvre in. Good. He was going to need it.
Warily, he backed up and circled around on the spot. He would let the Leaper charge and attempt to dodge out of its way, so he could attack it from behind.
Shedding dust, the Leaper rose up to its full height.
It was a massive brute. When it lurched upright it stood nearly four times taller than the Wrecker, its boxy armour wrapped around the dense power-core of its spark like the chassis of a tank. Enormous joints whirred as it stomped through the bar, sending dust and debris flying everywhere. Its bio-lights glowed a venomous purple in the gloom.
But a second look would reveal that the destruction of Cybertron had taken its toll. The Leaper's frame was deeply scarred from head to foot, chips of paint scraped away in places to reveal the dull metal beneath. The cruel hooked spike on its left forearm was missing, ripped off at the root. One of its thick legs spit gobs of sparks whenever it put weight on the knee joint. Grime and exhaust streaked its plating.
The Leaper kicked a stool out of its path and swatted aside what had once been a chic piece of lobby sculpture. Its wedge-shaped head tracked Wheeljack from between its heavy shoulders, the violet optic glowing.
"AUTOBOTTTT," it roared.
Its voice boomed out, slurred and full of static. The air hazed with heat and fumes behind it as the giant engines on its back spooled up to full power. The Leaper ducked its head and raised its forearm and blasted after Wheeljack, skimming through the lobby wreckage in a single charge that kicked up a huge tail of dust in its wake.
Aaaand there it was. Psi hadn't been kidding when he'd said the Leaper was a mess. But that didn't mean that it was any less of a threat. Curiously, Wheeljack briefly eyed up its damaged leg. Something to target, perhaps? He'd come back to that if he had the opportunity, for now he'd stick with the tried and true method of shooting them in the back.
The air hazed above the Leaper's back. A warning sign that it was about to charge. The Wrecker tensed and prepared to dodge out of its way. The Con abruptly propelled itself across the lobby towards Wheeljack, in that eerily smooth motion that allowed Leapers to cover ground frightfully fast.
The Wrecker threw himself out of the Leapers path. As soon as he recovered and got back to his feet, Wheeljack came up shooting, both hands swapped out for his own inbuilt weaponry. His target: the exposed back of the Leaper that now faced him. Wheeljack also began to weave backwards, putting space between the two combatants again.
A chorus of metal thuds and swearing echoed down the elevator shaft.
"God damn it!" yelled Psi. "Frag! What is this slag I just hit?! Is that the Leaper I hear?"
The Leaper bellowed.
One of its rear engines crackled with unstable energy as the volley of shots struck home. The Leaper tried to skid to a halt. It slammed into a wall hard enough to send debris crumbling down from the ceiling. An instant later it screeched as the engine blew up with a violent eruption that pitched it onto one knee.
But the brute wasn't stupid. It staggered up and pivoted into Wheeljack's line of fire. Shots spanged off its heavy plating as it shook dust from its shoulders and fixed its malevolent gaze upon the Wrecker. Now protected by its armoured front, there was no hurry in its manner as it bore down upon him with slow, deliberate strides, intent on pinning Wheeljack into a corner. It flexed its good arm and raised its spiked forearm into a striking position.
There was a crash from the elevator shaft as Psi finally hit bottom.
One of Wheeljack's optic ridges had flown up in consternation when he realized that he'd forgotten to mention the blockage to Psi. Aside from that, he paid no further attention to the other mech. After all, the aerial was in a much safer position than he was, at the moment.
The Wrecker's scarred lip curled briefly in dark pleasure when one of the Leaper's engines exploded. Then Wheeljack's expression melted back into neutrality once more when the Leaper turned to face him. He let the last few shots die in his blasters as the Leaper began to move forward towards him.
Alright then. He didn't fancy letting the Con gain ground or crowd him towards a wall. Wheeljack transformed his cannons back into hands and unsheathed his blades in one smooth motion. His battle-mask drew up.
Nowhere in the 'How To Defend Against Leapers" handbook did it recommend charging one.
So Wheeljack charged the damn Leaper.
He ran forward then jumped, high in the air, bringing his blades in front of him. Wheeljack didn't angle them down to stab at the Leaper, rather they were crossed defensively in front of him to protect against the Leaper's spike. His jump would carry far enough to collide with the Con's massive chassis. Against an uninjured Leaper, Wheeljack probably wouldn't have attempted such a move but he was brazen enough to try and see whether his weight and momentum would be able to knock the Con off-balance, given its damaged leg.
When crossed, the point where the swords overlapped one another covered only a tiny fraction of Wheeljack's bodymass.
The spike narrowed to a point. And the Leaper could aim.
It did not flinch at his charge. It let out a rumbling chuckle and lowered itself in readiness over the thick pillars that were its legs. Its arm swung back, and the big talon positioned itself to swing upwards in a lunge that would get beneath the swords and knock them aside before punching into Wheeljack's chassis and spark case-
The Leaper froze.
Its optic flared.
It struggled to move. Its legs were rooted to the floor, its arms locks into place. In the dim light of the lobby a faint blue glow surrounded its body, as if it were outlined in moonlight.
Wheeljack slammed into the Leaper.
It staggered back with a bellow. Its bad leg swung back as it tried to catch itself, and crumpled. The brute dropped to one knee. It screeched and thrashed in place, straining to move its arms. The unarmed limb tore free, and the Leaper immediately swung its massive fist at Wheeljack in an attempt to smash him back.
By then, Psi had crawled out of the elevator shaft. He stood in a slouch within its empty doors with a look of concentration on his dour face, his head cocked.
Wheeljack had been re-adjusting his grip on his blades, to reposition them better to catch the spike at its base. But then the Leaper had froze-
And was it glowing...?
He slammed into the Con, knocking it backwards. Wheeljack hit the ground and lay there, stunned for a moment. Primus those things were fragging solid. Then the Leaper got an arm free. Wheeljack's optic caught the limb flashing towards him and the Wrecker forced himself to roll backwards to his feet.
Once up again, he wasted no time to circle round the Leaper, stowing his blades to his blades to his back and switching over to his guns again. He kept out of reach and charged his weapon systems up. Wheeljack momentarily flicked his optics over to the aerial by the door before returning his gaze to the enemy in front of him. Whatever was going on, he didn't intend to speculate on until the Leaper was dealt with.
As soon as Wheeljack could see the Leaper's back, he'd start firing.