Ep1.5 - Brawl - (Closed)

[Deleted]

“Look, I’m glad I’mma have backup an’ th’ chances’a me getting’ merced dead are gonna drop, but th’ Order a Solus is kinda…” Sideswipe made a kind of engine rumble noise mixed with ‘eh’ that somehow denoted precisely how mixed his feelings were on the subject without ever saying a word beyond. He swung a left at the edge of the DMZ, a flash of Andromeda Red in the Sahara yellow, sending a rooster tail of dirt up as he swung southeast and continued his patrol. It was not quite dusk, the sun still hung up above the horizon in the far west. It sparked a blinding sheet of gold off the curve of his windshield as he cut across the plain, engine roaring merrily, startling wildlife out of the way.

“Dunno. Cleaver seemed pretty sure we’re gonna get some people. If they need a base of operations here on earth an’ they anything like they were in th’ war, could really even shit out. They straight powerful, cuz. Durin’ th’ war – Order held down more cease fire agreements an’ negotiated more inter-faction treaties than any other third party… an’ I don’t just mean for Cybertronians.”

The Lamborghini slowed finally near a raggedy cluster of desiccated trees, their trunks snarled up from the ground into little scraggles of greenery at the top. He popped his driver-side door for Cat to exit, still intent on what had been a so-far five minute exposition on the Order of Solus, how it was miracle they weren’t all radioactive dust, and what their presence might mean… by which I mean, he had mostly been complaining about the fact that their being around for firepower might require better behavior on his part.

“Don’t get me wrong, they’re better’n a scraplet in the optic, but a bit, ya know, up tight.”


((Tag to Cat. May have them do a bit of dialogue before attack happens. :3 Will signal when Cons can attack.))

[Deleted]

"Up tight?" Catherine waited a minute before hopping out of his passenger side, going through some of the pictures she'd managed to casually take while leaning out his window. Pride's of lions weren't so scary when they were lazing in the sun, not to mention from the dash of a commando. "Like… OCD up tight, or by-the-book, or… bible-thumper?"

Once she settled herself in the kind-of shade of one of the trees (more like over-sized bushes), she raised a brow above her sunglasses at him, half smirking. Only not. Because if it was in Sideswipe's head that he might have to be better behaved for someone else, then it definitely seemed a cause for concern. "Cleaver never said anything about them before now; who are they, even?"

[Deleted]

The Murcielago popped at the seams, then came smoothly – almost lazily, like a cybercat stretching in the solar heat – apart and stood up into Sideswipe’s root mode. The commando stretched a bit, arching his arms toward the sky, stopping briefly to inspect the silhouette of his hand outstretched overhead. The residual heat against mesh felt good, the warmth in his tire-mounts, across his chest and back. He closed his optics a moment, letting the world filtered through his EM sensor array alone – the world spun out around him in frequency and electromagnetics.

“Like I said: religious order a weapon smiths an’ goody-goodies. Course they gonna thump – literally an’ figuratively. S’what they do.” Sideswipe dropped his arms back to his sides and pulled an energon scanner from his sub-space, boredly scanning what was the ground above a potential weak vein of energon. “I don’t mind the literally, I like th' literal thumping, that’s fine. They tooled up, cuz, trust. I got a problem with them yappin’ Code at me. I didn’t leave Bot Code behind me so I could get Order’s Code stuffed down my intake. Get me, fam? They guns are welcome. Th' lectures aint.”

[Deleted]

The rocks beneath the vegetation made for a remarkably comfortable seat, as far as sitting on rocks in the desert went, but she had no trouble leaning back against the relatively small tree trunk. And once her eyes were comfortably shielded, she removed her sunglasses to squint up at him.

"Huh." She grunted, mirroring his movement, only instead taking out a small hand held game, the sounds of trills kicking up from the thing soon after. Lectures about morals and do-good actions. Yeah, she'd heard those before. More than once. And had perfected the art of selective hearing during her younger years because of it. She doubted she'd be included in the circle of lecturing, but.. well.. she could definitely sympathize with Sideswipe.

"So they're like… nuns. …With guns." She paused, tilting her head to squint back up at him. Almost smirking. "…How many can I be expecting to lecture you?"

[Deleted]

Sideswipe snorted. It was not, strictly, a Cybertronian kind of sound, but he did it anyway. He was getting a pretty good read off the energon vein out here. Cleaver had been scoping this set of tunnels as a potential next fuel tap, but couldn’t get a good fix below ground. He wandered about twenty more meters away from Cat, watching the data jump across the reader in his hand. Energon miner he was not and a technician he also was not. A sometimes pilot and gerryrigger of ships and general repair – yeah he could be that when he wasn’t being his primary profession: thrasher of Decepticons. He wondered if he was reading this thing right. It had been forever since someone gave him an energon scouting detail, and the last one he’d been given, he’d just bribed a technician into doing it for him while he acted bodyguard and played games.

“Close enough,” he said, crouching down on a harder patch of earth, smoothing down the long grass with his palm, like he was going to read anything out of the dirt by touch alone. “Sounds like it’s gonna be a good handful. No exact numbers, could just be passing though. Dunno. They helped a lot of people in th’ war though. I mean… they didn’t help STOP the war, but they helped. I dunno. Had less time for lecturing the working class on not being all saintly when the Cybonic Plague broke out too.”

He frowned at the scanner, glanced back toward Cat, lounging under her tree.

Sides opened a comm back to the base. “Hey Cleaver, I dunno if this thing is calibrated right or what. It keeps glitching out on…” Static. He stopped. That’s weird it was almost like his signal was being… jammed. Fuck. Sideswipe’s energon scanner hit the ground and the ex-Autobot was already running. “CAT! WE GOTTA GO! SOMEONE IS –!”

But by then, the Cons were on them.



((KB is welcome to pounce.))

[Deleted]

"Excuse me, but do you mind if I borrow this for awhile? Thanks."


He was instantly there.


Phasing into view with a shimmer of a disengaging cloak, the coal black metallic hide of Kickback snapped onto the scene, reaching down with one hand and snatching Catherine up off of the rocks she was using as an impromptu seat. His hold was firmly secure but not crushing or cruel - no need for that. At least not at this moment.

With a cheerful smile and a quick wave goodbye to Sideswipe, the Insecticon crouched and suddenly sprang backwards, lofting him into the air and putting immediate distance between himself and the ex-Autobot, clearing a third of a mile in one bound.

Landing with a jarring thud, Kickback attempted to cushion the human in his hands, preventing her from being shaken by the landing. He brought her up near his face to have a good look at her.

"Well hello there - "Cat", is it? It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Kickback and I'll be your captor for the duration of the sortie," he announced pleasantly.

He glanced back up to keep track of Sideswipe's position.

"I can assure you I have no ill intent towards you my dear, I'm sort of along for the ride on this one; I positively leapt at the opportunity to meet a human!" he grinned. "And might I say I'm simply enchanted. You are quite lovely to look at."

"Would you mind terribly if I tasted you? I tend to get more information that way."

[Deleted]

She heard him yell, saw him run, saw the look on his face. That was what startled her the most, that look. And before she knew it she was on her feet, the game in her hands now gone to some other place as she made a hesitant move for him, coming down off the rocks.

There wasn't any other warning, though. Only a disembodied voice, and the way the light bent and rippled around something so big it blocked out the sun . She turned so quickly that she slipped, only time for a short yelp that was quickly cut off by a sudden grab. What met her back wasn't warm and gravely. It was cool, metallic… restricting. Caged. For some reason the wind was gone from her lungs, voice gone just as quick, and it was all she could do to look at Sideswipe, eyes wide, scared and confused. Calling out his name with everything but her voice.

Then they were in the air.

Something about how they landed got her breath moving again, not quite yelping or screaming, but not speaking either as she tried to press herself as far away from its face as possible. Right back into its hands. Well this was an awful predicament. And in the back of her mind some part of her, that part of her that always looked on when she was examining her life choices, was a little bit offended that Barricade or someone she knew wasn't going to be the one to finally do her in in this fantastic robo-filled life she had.

…And the second he finished speaking, it all came rushing back. A dozen reactions flitting across her face in a mili-second before settling on fear-fueled-rage. "YES I fucking MIND." And despite his reassurances to the contrary, she didn't find herself eased. Sideswipe's face wouldn't have looked like that otherwise. "You realize we're in DMZ territory, right?" Sideswipe should be about on them by now… "Whatever the fuck's goin' through your head, you're 'bout to get your ass handed to you!"

[Deleted]

BLAM!

The shot struck home at the armor seam at Kickback’s right upper arm, where the rotorcuff met bicep, a high-impact armor-piercing round. Powerful enough to shear the arm off entirely, but the shot was so long distance it hit off the mark at half the power, sliced a line of molecular fire through only about half the fuel and hydraulic lines that bound the mech’s larger, clawed arm to his upper body. There was an ignition of blue, a ripple of mirage heat a third of a mile back – the distance in which Sides had pulled his gun, lined up the shot and taken it – then Sideswipe’s jet mod hit MACH 1 and put him ten meters away from Kickback in splits of seconds.

He stopped short, skating to a mid-air halt in front of the Insecticon, stabilizers on his back flaring to hold him steady, kicking up dust around him.

“Let. Her. Go.”

The rumble of the jet-mod holding him stationary and aloft came in as a low roar just below the sound of the commando’s voice. Sideswipe dropped to the dirt, optics burning white phosphorous blinding in the metal of his face, and stalked forward three steps before stopping. In his hands was the still smoking sniper rifle he’d used to take the Insecticon’s right primary arm with, still leveled at the mech’s head. He shucked the spent plasma shell from the chamber, the auto-assembly whining in his hands as he took a firing stance about twenty meters off from the Con.

“Let th’ femme go or th’ next one goes through ya goddamn head. Dis range, bruv? There won’t be ‘nough a’your ugly face left for Knock Out t’salvage. Not askin’ again, Deceptifuck.”

The English was for Cat’s benefit, steady on so she knew what he was doing. Internally, his systems were racing, aggro-tech and instinct telling him that everything he could do to fucking kill the Con in front of him… would almost certainly kill Catherine as well. He didn’t know this glitchfrakker. What the hell he was doing out here breaking the DMZ, he didn’t know that either. He swapped fluently to the click-buzz static of gladiatorial hate-speech.

“I will feed you your own spark chamber, bug.”

[Deleted]

"Tsk tsk. Such language from such a pretty femme. It doesn't suit you at all, Cat. Though I will say, I do enjoy the rebellious little crackle in you tone," Kickback purred.

"Oh, and just to be clear - you weren't technically in the DMZ - you crossed the line before I picked you up."


BLAM!

The sharp strike to his second shoulder caused it to slip from its position folded to his back, the bladed, clawed limb flopping to the ground as it lost power and hydraulic pressure. Kickback's optics flared open, brightening, and the grin on his face pulled back into a hair-raising Cheshire Cat smile.

Reaching with his free standard hand to the weakened middle limb, he closed black fingers around the semi-severed shaft, and wrenched it free with a quick snap, snapping wires and fluid lines that still pulsed, spitting energon with arterial throbs. His shoulders and antennae twitched; he was momentarily silent, eyes fixed on Sideswipe as he adjusted the hold on the upper shaft of the severed leg, tangling fingers into the wires and forcing it to straighten into a spear-like implement.

Kickback held Catherine so she could see Sideswipe, intentionally turning her back to him. He kept her close to his mouth, close enough that the heat of his internals could oppressively gust against her back. Close enough that she could smell the pungent chemical solvents and hear the soft whine of saws and tiny blades that sounded all too eager to help themselves to her soft pink flesh.

"You're a very good shot, I'll give you that. But I wonder -- can you shoot me without killing your lady friend? A second question to consider, gladiator -- Can you shoot me before I turn her into my first native rust stick?"

As if to emphasize the point, the tip of Kickback's glossa slid past his lips and grazed up Catherine's back, neck and head.

Coated with a neutral hyperconductive lubricant, the intent behind the gesture was just as he'd requested before - a taste, with no physical harm being done. No guarantees on the recurring nightmares later on, however.

The rough language and various threats of bodily harm were apparently brushed off. Kickback's own field enveloped him in a thick heavy fog of indiscernible Insecticon frequencies - readable to those who understood them as eager but restrained.

"Now. As I said, I'm here to see a real live human up close, and learn a little bit more about them. I happen to like this particular one - she tastes amazing by the way - and I do return things I borrow. Such vitriol from you! I take it perhaps . . . she's more than just a tag-along to you?"

[Deleted]

"…I what…?" There was the damn feeling again of losing all breath, sucked out like a vacuum along with all rage and anger. Something ice cold crept up from her gut in its place. Ice cold and heavy as a mountain.

Crossed the line before I picked you up.

Crossed the line…

She got a horrible feeling, just then. This sickness that combined horribly with the ice in her veins, all combining together to tell her that something was wrong. But that was the problem with instinct, she mused. Sometimes you never really knew why until it was right in your face. And she got a feeling this bug wasn't going to be the only thing wrong with their day.

BLAM![/b]

Ice turned to fire turned to ice again. She shielded her face from the worst of the heat of the blast, turning instead to reach out over the top of the creature's hand only to be restrained. Instinct, maybe. She might have yelled something; she wasn't sure. She might have been terrified; wasn't sure about that either. Might have been dead, she guessed, that was a possibility too. Or on a beach in Italy, but the sun was a bit too close for that.

For a few seconds that seemed like eternity all she could feel was the cold metal of a hand-shape, and know that it wasn't what the ground should feel like. And then she remembered she could see, though there were spots in her eyes. But her ears were ringing long enough that she could only see, not hear, the arm being ripped from its socket. Could kind of understand that South London accent Side's adopted, but not all of the words. She thought she heard 'Deceptifuck' somewhere, and the dubstep click-whirr combination of their language.

And then it all flooded back. Once dull senses floating out around space suddenly collapsed into focus so fine and razor sharp it was dizzying.

Explosion: oh, right, Sides had shot him. The same Sideswipe that now stood in front of them, looking murderous, and for a second she thought she could feel the rage rolling off him in waves. She could see his optics; they should be blue, full of mischief. They were white-- white hot daggers. She could see how his finger itched on the trigger, and somewhere in the back of mind must have understood how easy it would be for him to just pull it.

She thought she could hear something rasping, shaking. The sharp focus of an adrenaline high brain brought foreword a number of suggestions: small motors, blades slicing air.. were those buzz saws? Swirling together with this sick, otherworldly smell she didn't know how to describe, and a heat buffeting the air in time with language. Words. Words, it was speaking.

But there was something else… was that, 'Me?' Her breaths were coming out shallow, shaking, she was shaking, inhaling just the same. Her eyes stung, lungs stung. Limbs felt stiff and like jelly at the same time.

So that's what a Cybertronian shell is like up close. 'Grip. Get a grip.' Grip what? Anger, rage, shouting… the usual fall back seemed natural enough. Fit like a glove. "HEY!" Was the first thing out of her mouth, because it was the simplest word that seemed to fit that she could shout. 'Fuck' did also, but that would come later. "You want to learn about us? Start by not licking us! Fucking gross!" Her accent was thick, her expression finally under control enough to resemble defiance. Sideswipe, though, might know better.

[Deleted]

Sideswipe’s finger tightened, that hair-trigger quick-twtich instinct to put that bullet through the Con’s skull, take his chances that the mech’s hydraulic impulse could not outrun the bullet he’d put through his cranial case. But then he could see Cat, see her face, the way she kind of wobbled and the darkof her skin was too pale and her eyes didn’t follow – the signs of shellshock. He could pull the trigger, blow the mech’s brain module out eh back of his head. But that could kill Cat. He could attack. Cut across the distance between them, put the molecular steel of his combat blade through the Con’s chest. He could electrify it, put enough voltage into the Con to blow fuel line. But that would kill Cat.

His panic was a slug of liquid nitrogen in his chest.

“She’s wit’ me, bug. I’d say yur bustin’ th’ DMZ but I don’t think Lord Buckethead gives a fuck. I, however, do. And my givin’ a fuck leads direct t’ your head split all th’ way open so let her go or I will straight dead you, fucker.”

He’d meant to shoot the Con’s arm clean off, but his sloppy take-off and the scramble to line up the shot that far and that fast had fucked up his aim. That and the knowledge if he did it wrong – it would kill Cat. Sideswipe’s optics flickered only slightly when the Insecticon turned his blender-tooth smile on him and calmly tore his own arm off, like he were molting the superfluous limb, something that most Insecticons did not – in Sideswipe’s experience – do and he’d fought more than a couple. The air stank like smelt and motor oil, the corrupted stink of bio-matter and energon rotting itself to fuel in the other mech’s innards, the raw energon onzone smell of a wound as the con bleed fuel clotted with repair nanites.

He could hear himself talking, but as if from far away, the false humanity of his voice masking the holocaust burn of his EMF, burning in an acrid arabesque around him. The whole world was tiny – it was Cat, the Con, and him and the space between and how long it would take a bullet to cross it. He didn’t see anything else. The sky and the rest of Africa and the universe didn’t fucking exist. He was going to take the Con’s head off. He could do it, kill him before he could kill Cat. He could do it.

“Last time I’m askin’…”


((OOC: Arma is welcome to attack him, or CAG can tag with KB and puppet Dreadheart and an Eradicon seeker dropping outta the sky to attack. Cat's welcome to try to warn Sides if Arma's maybe looming out from behind an outcropping of rock or something. ))

[Deleted]

Red one was too busy with KB right now, to even think about anything else. Or, to think, that maybe they weren't the only ones present. Arma had been hiding in the middle of bigger outcropping, to observe DMZ, if some bot visitor would by chance use his wheels to leave the area, giving her chance to track him down. This wasn't quite what she had expected, but still, it would be good chance to get rid of some traitorous material.

Rocks were enough big to hide even her, while crouching, and the trio before her wasn't too far away from her. With her main cannon, and by surprise element, she could blow the neutral into scrap, but from this distance, it would damage even Kickback, and pretty surely kill the human, which insecticon pretty surely wouldn't like. Not that she would've cared too much though. If she would try to warn Kickback, even through communication, it could create a disturbance for Sides to attack. No, she should get his full attention first. The sniper rifle he was holding, would do pretty mean damage, but Arma calculated that her main armor should be able to take the shot without penetration. Of course, she should also calculate the possibility, of Kickback using the opportunity to damage him, when getting the chance.

She had to act, even though slowly. Turning her turret into an axe, and , she slowly left her hideout, stepping as lightly as she could, not to make any additional sound. Getting almost halfway there, without noticing, at least no-one acted as they had noticed her, or then lambo was trying to arm a trap with his human pet. Now was the time, she could act before he could get a good shot on her. "Die you traitor scum!" Arma said with high voice, making sure to gain his attention, before firing couple of very bright flares towards him, to make his aiming more difficult, as she dashed towards him, rising her axe hig above her head, mowing it down on as soon as she would get into the distance. She just hoped that this would give KB the chance to act, and that he would use it also.

[Deleted]

Last time I'm asking'…, he said.

She thought she was feeling her body settle down. High on adrenaline, sure, but settling and ebbing back from the near hysteria she felt moments before. But no sooner did the words leave his mouth when she felt as if she were tilting foreword to some edge she couldn't see, her consciousness following his words like a wave gently lulling her out to unknown depths. Time seemed to slow again, but her mind was left racing so that she couldn't get a definite grip on reality, couldn't get a clear concept of time.

Breath caught in her lungs, the terrifying sound of buzz saws curiously fading away until she only saw down the barrel of his rifle, charged an intimidating. Her mind wanted to push past that threat still, and looked to his optics instead, like she was trying to remember something, recall something important. Something they needed to know. She was getting warmer, it was on the tip of her tongue… her eyes edged past him to the landscape, to something moving. Something.. crossing the line.

'Oh shit.' She remembered what she was trying to say now.

"SIDESWIPE!"

Pop! Pop!

Sick. She felt sick. Horrified; but the light burned so bright it hurt her eyes; she couldn't see. Couldn't see if those were shots or cannon fire. 'God, please, no.' She wanted to see him, had to see him because he had to be okay.

[Deleted]

Sideswipe spun and fired twice, blind, calculating the enemy’s position from the origin of her shout. He didn’t even know if a single shot had landed. The sudden bloom of hate-soak frequency hit him a split second before the Con’s battle axe did. He twisted into the momentum of the strike, defected the body-cleaving brunt of the blow with the butt of his rifle, heard the stock split and the warning whine of a core breach in the ammo chamber. Swearing, he threw the weapon at Arma, and dove away from the resulting explosion, hoping it had done her some damage… only to roll and feel his back slam into something solid that had not been there two seconds ago.

Then, his shoulder dislocated and Sideswipe realized he hadn’t checked the skies for incoming aerialists.

He smashed his head back into the Seeker now standing behind him, spun, tried to put scythe through the base of the con’s throat, hook and rip out the main fuel line but the other mech was too quick. The Seeker axe kicked him to get away from the blade, but not before Sideswipe laid open the front of his armor at the abdominals, ripping minor coolant lines and circuitry before he hit the dirt. Swearing, he smacked the ground and went rolling for a good forty meters before snagging a fistful of earth and stopping his violent end over end roll. Shaking static and dust out of his optics, Sideswipe tried to comprehend who the fuck was attacking him. Decepticon badges caught yellow edges in the African sunlight. The tank-former he recognized by appearance alone – the heavy-hitter who interrupted his fight with Warcry. The flyer…

“Dreadheart,” he gritted, “I didn’t even know you were planet side.” The seeker just looked at him. “And still not over Polyhex. Okay then. Got it. You’re off th’ grid getting’ even. Fine, but let the human go.”

“Why?” said the Insecticon perfectly fucking calmly. “You just lost the only long range heavy armor weapon you’ve likely got and Dreadheart just broke your arm. I don’t have to do anything, Bot, but… you’re right. I should let her go.” Sideswipe didn’t move an inch while the bug-bot moved to lazily drop Cat like a doll on top of a tall butte of stone, about eighteen feet from the ground. “There, just stay put.” He turned back to Sideswipe, all three of them now giving the once-Autobot their full attention. “You don’t want to miss it when we rip your guardian limb from limb. Arma, cut him down. Dreadheart, ground him if tries to fly.”

[Deleted]

Arma was that second blinded by her own flares, but she had calculated that she should have her vision back soon enough. Fast, but not that fast that she would've seen where her axe hit. It wasn't Sides torso, that was sure, it gave in too easily. As her vision started to return split second later, she saw blurry figure, noticing right away that she hadn't hit him, but had split his rifle, her audio picking the same warning sound as he did. 'Scrap...' Arma lifted her left arm immediatedly to cover her faceplates, as the rifle blew up, forcing her to take few steps back.

Quick check with the damages, and she was again ready for rumble. Armor had taken slight damage, and minor hydraulic leak at the joint, but nothing really serious. She dropped arm covering her faceplating, just to notice that "battle", had already came to it's end. Dreadheart had taken his turn, dislocating Sides shoulder. Neutral didn't give up easily, and was sent flying by seeker, and when finally stopping, he started to realize the situation. Really, even Arma hadn't had the idea about Dreadheart being in the area. She lifted her heavy axe from the ground, resting it against her shoulder, while listening Sideswipe's demands about them letting human go. Arma's optics moved to the Insecticon, listening his statement, about Sideswipe losing his only ranged weapon, that could've damaged heavier armors, not to mention Dreadheart broking his arm. Still, he decided to let human go... kind of. Placing her to the place she could not escape that easily, and what Arma thought, she would be easy target on top of the stone.

Next, insecticon wanted to have some fun. Arma partly disagreed, but the situation was what it was thanks to Kickback, so, she decided to do it his way. Neutrals would pretty surely come looking for missing member, but if they were fast enough, they could have their fun. "I'd much rather blow him up right here, and now, but fine... let's have it your way." She lifted her axe high over her head, before bringing it heavily down, targeting her strike to cut Sides spinal cord, wanting to make him unable to move, and to resist.