[ti]Ep 3.5[/ti]Bridges Away (Open)

[Crescent]

Episode 3.5 | Week 1 | Day 4
Continuation of Hell on Earth

And so, they had emerged victorious.

Arrogance had been the Decepticon's downfall. Thinking he could overpower both of them on his own, without any help. But as the smoke cleared, and their foe was nowhere to be found, Crescent realized that "help" could possibly be on the way. At any moment. They needed to act fast. 

But there was also the small matter of his stabilizing flap. He couldn't exactly leave without it.  A searing pain flared around the gap in his wing, further motivating him to hurry. But how could he be two places at once?

Right. Luna.

He tried not to dwell on the implications of having his own animal companion retrieve a piece of himself as he prompted her to transform and sent her off to search for the object in question amongst the snow. He'd apologize to her later, even if she wouldn't understand him. It was a bit unsettling on principle, but well...things were a bit dire at the moment.

Wasting no time, he would activate his comm system, and attempt to reach base.

:: Crescent to Omega One. I need a bridge. Please respond as soon as possible. I have another Autobot with me and we are both injured.::

[Hellion]

Under the cold night sky, Hellion remained on alert, right arm and blaster raised ahead of her as she surveyed the area. Their foe had seemingly departed, with only tire tracks in his wake, but he’d already proven himself a tricky opponent that truly lived up to the deceitful idea of the Decepticon name, and Hellion wasn’t going to allow him to get the drop on them again. But as time passed and cold winds whipped at Hellion’s frame, she came to accept that perhaps he was gone for good.

The femme had been so focused on Nokta that she’d neglected her new ally. Crescent had already proven himself trustworthy enough that she wasn’t constantly looking over her shoulder, but in her hyperfocus had now graduated to seemingly overlooking him completely. Lowering her arm, she turned to face the mech, though not without a minor degree of difficulty.

Wounds from her landing and the fight with Nokta still plagued Hellion, but she’d manage - She always did. And even so, as a Wrecker, she had a reputation to maintain. Any sign that she was struggling or in pain was deftly masked, perhaps all too literally by the faceplate obscuring much of her expression.

Hellion’s optics trailed Luna as she flew away in search of something, before turning to Crescent. It seemed the mech was arranging a rescue over comms, which was finally some good news. It would be nice to get out of the cold, and hopefully some medical attention.

“Seems our shadow has retreated.” She noted as Crescent finished his request to Omega One. Hellion’s tone was flat and gruff, and though her words didn’t indicate such either, she was grateful for the mech’s assistance in fending off a foe who might otherwise have made prey of her. The best that a femme like her could offer was a nod of respect, which punctuated the end of her statement.

[Jetfire]

He waited a moment.

And then a moment more.

There had been no instantaneous response from the console, nor any indication that anyone else was rushing in to save the day. Of course, Jetfire had only charted all of this within less than half a second. Moments to him. It was all formality. He would have rushed to open the groundbridge regardless. However, it was certainly fortunate that the former-seeker-turned-scientist had been close enough to receive the call.

A large thumb depressed the unmute button from the console's audio receiver, sending a focused and reassuring voice through the line.

:: Omega One copies. Stand-by for groundbridge. ::

Hopefully the two (three, technically) of them weren't too terribly injured. Jetfire was more than capable of physically ferrying them through the breach himself if needed. However, his true concerns revolved around their current medical capacity. Namely, a lack of it. Poor Crescent was quickly establishing himself as a glutton for punishment, in his short tenure as an Autobot. 

Jetfire wasted no further time. His long digits glided across the bright keyboard below, initiating the bridgeforming sequence. Thankfully, he hadn't actually damaged the poor thing too badly with his last modifications. Otherwise Crescent, Luna, and their plus one would have been walking home.

As soon as the capacitors' charge read FULL, Jetfire triumphantly yet lightly pressed FIRE.

On command, a swirling green vortex of safety and warmth materialized a few quick footsteps from Crescent and Hellion's position.

His brow furrowing, Jetfire turned his attention to his end of the funnel, waiting.

[Crescent]

"Retreated...for now. Nothings to say he won't come back with friends." Crescent let out a light hiss as he spoke, once again plagued by a sharp pain from the gap in his wing. It only served to make him more aware of what was missing. He squinted, optics scanning the snowfield for his cassette, and or the missing piece of the limb. It took him a moment to spot her, but sure enough, she was coming back. And she had located the missing stabilizer flap. What a good bird. She'd be getting so many scritches later.

As the owl neared, he grabbed hold of the piece of metal, and turned to Hellion. "By the way dear...I'm not mad, because I know you were trying to fight for your life, but please make sure you're not punting part of my wing the next time you see metal on the ground. I do need to keep those in working order." He let out a soft laugh, seeming relatively unbothered by the situation despite the nature of what had happened. Oh well. It'd be something to laugh about later. After all, he'd been through much worse.

When the ground bridge flared to life, the seeker let out an audible sigh of relief, and hurried towards it, motioning for his companion to follow him.

"Come along, we don't have much time."

Upon crossing the threshold, he found himself back in the base, face to face with none other than Jetfire. Oh...poor, poor Jetfire. How many times was this mech going to have to save him from certain doom? He was starting to feel a bit guilty about it.

His wings dipped in embarrassment, but he moved forward to greet his fellow aerial bot despite his inner turmoil. "Jetfire. Thank you. Hellion should be here shortly."

[Hellion]

Crescent’s retort belied a cautious outlook, and that was something Hellion respected. Their foe had proven himself nothing short of a master of stealth and misdirection - it wasn’t unwarranted to remain vigilant. Perhaps he was waiting for his opportunity to return and strike, or perhaps he truly had left. By now, Hellion was leaning towards the latter, but the only closure they would get in that regard was when they finally left.

The femme’s optics narrowed as Crescent hissed in pain, though she didn’t seem to make any other recognition in that regard. There was no outstretched hand offering comfort, no shoulder for him to lean on or offer of aid. Just a sort of cold observation that Crescent was in pain, and only recognition that he was going to have to deal with it. Hellion had been injured too in the fray, shot at and stabbed, but she refused to make any display of it beyond the obvious wounds across her chassis.

Even as he spoke, all she offered was a nod of acknowledgement. But the mech seemed to be taking things in stride, even shrugging off the pain with a laugh. It seemed that was the kind of person this seeker was. A mediator, soft-spoken and seemingly easy-going in the face of adversity. Like herself, in some ways. Different, in so many others.

Admittedly, the femme had gotten quite carried away. It had been some time since Hellion had been in a fight, and add to that her rough landing and just how quickly Nokta had begun his assault on her not long after said landing… well it had been quite the thrill. An exhilarating entrance, and one that the femme had found herself swiftly swept up by. At the time, kicking Crescent’s stabilizer back into the smoke, boldly refuting the Decepticon’s mocking offer of mercy, it had seemed like a good idea. Even now, it still did. But with the haze of combat no longer shrouding her gaze, she recognized that at the least, Crescent had every right to be upset. And yet he didn’t seem to be.

Her gaze darted suddenly towards the Groundbridge vortex as it erupted beside them, expanding and swirling rapidly, spewing green and blue against the seemingly endless white canvas of the snow tundra. It had been some time since she’d seen one, or at least, something like it. She waited for Crescent to make his move, then followed, only to stop after a few steps.

“My apologies.” Hellion replied, after a moment or two of silence, motioning to Crescent’s wing. The hesitation wasn’t out of some kind of pride, or her own misplaced blame, but rather that these words didn’t come easily to her. She wasn’t quite sure what to say. And at the end of the day, they would have to do. Hellion didn’t care much what Crescent thought of it - maybe he would think her too prideful to apologize, maybe he’d see where she was coming from, maybe he wouldn’t even pick up on it at all. It hardly mattered. The road ahead was open now. And she would walk it.

Stepping through the Groundbridge and into Omega One, Hellion’s eyes widened at the sight of the base. A metal bunker carved into rock, she’d seen its like once or twice before. Not man made mind you, but the kind of Decepticon holdouts she’d raided on other worlds after Cybertron fell. The femme made sure to exit the groundbridge, her pedes pressing down onto the concrete flooring below her, discarding small flecks of snow onto the stone surface.

Blinking slowly, the femme reined in her gawking, eyes narrowing as her gaze quickly moved to the large, white elephant in the room. Jetfire. With her stature, Hellion was used to looking up to meet the gaze of other bots, but it wasn’t so often that she had to tilt her neck quite so much as she had to in order to even glimpse above the seeker’s chest. Moving to raise her arm to greet Jefire with a wave, she winced slightly as it agitated the wound on her shoulder, a little trickle of energon dripping down her arm.

“Greetings.”

[Jetfire]

Two beings, alike in alignment yet disparate in aesthetic, emerged from the roiling energy-door he had thumbed into existence. Jetfire frowned immediately. He couldn't fault his pattern-seeking brain from seeking patterns, trying to adaptively increase his survival chances while also making him a bit nosy in the process. But, it was becoming increasingly apparent that any time Crescent used a groundbridge, Crescent was going to leave even more wounded than when he'd entered. Disconcerting, especially considering the state of their medical staff. And their lack of a chief medical officer. And the nurse.

The other one was less known to him, but vaguely familiar somehow. He hadn't not seen the short, stocky femme before, that much Jetfire felt he was certain of. Unfortunately he had seen a great many people in his short span of existence, and thus was unable to appropriately connect a name to accompany the face. He didn't feel too bad about it, as they were about to be properly acquainted soon enough.

The Room's Tallest Mech strode out from behind the main console, groundbridge gate swishing itself back into empty air with a hiss of air and flash of light behind them. Jetfire assumed things had gone "well". Wounds were apparent on both of them, although they were both fit enough to traverse a bridge under their own power. No losses, either. Two had gone in, three had come out. Net gain. Ultimately, the wounds were minor compared to the 'gifts' a serious battlefield could provide.

"Welcome back, you two." He offered a reassuring smile and nod to Crescent and Luna, before aligning towards Hellion. "And of course, I extend Omega-1's warmest welcome to our newcomer as well."

The mirthful expression slowly flattened into one of total seriousness. Jetfire was happy to have his friends return, although Jetfire the Officer had business to get down to. "So, tell me how it went."

[Crescent]

After some thought, Crescent felt the need to verbally acknowledge the 'elephant in the room'...A saying he'd picked up from the humans. "How many times does this make that you've saved me from certain doom? I apologize Jetfire. I don't intend to make it a habit." That much was true. He didn't enjoy putting his life in others' hands.

As the other seeker inquired about how the impromptu rescue mission had gone, he would hum in thought.

"Well, this planet is determined to punish my wings every time I intake-" To emphasis his point, Crescent would briefly pause and lift up the detached stabilizing flap that Nokta had ripped off of his body. "-But other than that, I suppose it went well. Both of us are still standing. I think our friend let his guard down because he didn't see our numerical advantage as a threat. Typical Decepticon arrogance." He rolled his optics slightly as he made this statement, annoyed by the thought.

"We left before any reinforcements could arrive. I’m just glad that neither of us are severely injured. But we will still need to pay Blades and Skirmisher a visit.”

Turning his attention away from Jetfire for a moment, Crescent's optics met Hellions. "Thank you for trusting me, by the way." It may have come across as an off-handed remark that wasn't entirely relevant to the conversation. But, trust was the reason the two of them currently standing where they were. Teamwork had been their saving grace and their foe's downfall.