
A New Direction: Part 15
A brand mission, a brand new world where many things are not as they same and thier true objective is not even known to them.
PART FIFTEEN
Caska drew her sword and went at the nearest Predacon, a dual beam saber weilding snake femme, whose movements were fast and erratic, creating a visual effect most familliar to our readers from the Autobot Blurr. Caska swung her giant sword wide, to keep the snake from darting in at her.
Penji, meanwhile, tried to figure out a way to deal with those roof gunners, as he blasted his scatter lasers in the general direction of a few oncoming Preds. The way he decided on, of course, involved large exposions. He drew his rocket launcher, and fired one missile each at the roof supports at the front of the stage, and another in the back center. Fortunately, the roof was light, just designed to hold some lights and catwalks, so it gave way easil. Also, this was fortunate because it was now falling on the heads of those fighting.
-Vinoc-
Vinoc rushed towards one of the bot's in front, his bo staff in hand He attempted to slam his bo staff into one of the bots, a male centapied., but it was blocked by a strange shield made of, in effect, what seemed like static on a television. The bot simply grinned, and raised his left arm. The hand retracted, replaced by a missile, which went flying strait at Vinoc.
Vinoc saw the missile, but didn't have time to duck, instead, he slapped it with his bo staff, the missile explodes, causing mid-level damage. Vinoc recovers quickly, and attacks hoping to penetrate the shield. However, the shield held, taking every shot. The bot jumped back, just before raising the other arm. His hand again retracts, but this one lets loose a powerful bolt of energy.
Vinoc had the time to dodge this one, however. He jumped to the side, dodging the blast with ease. He then looses an armor piercing missile, hoping it could get through the sheild. It doesn't, but it doesn't do much good for the shield either. Vinoc rushes in, stricking hard in the lower torso of the bot, sending him back several feet. Vinoc pressed his advantage, but the shield had regenerated by the time Vinoc got to him past the piles of dead LC and SiC bot's.
The bot's beast mode head then reared up over his bot mode head, and struck forward. Vinoc, seeing an oportunity, grabs the tail just past the beast mode head. He then lifted the bot off the ground, and sent it flying. By this time his missile had re-loaded, a normal missile this time, and the shield was down. He sent a missile flying strait at the bot.
However, it wasn't one of the best Pred warriors for nothing, it turned, and fired a bolt of energy at the missile. However, he underestimated the blast radius. The end result of the two explossions was that the bot ended up being a burnt bug.
-Tundra-
Tundra had rushed towards one of the bot's behind them, a medium female mantis. She attacked first with her gun, emptying it's twenty orbs very quickly. However, the shots went strait through thin air, the bot who had been the target then re-appearing in the same spot.
She looked at Tundra, and wordlessly raised a large, bazooka-like gun, which then proceeded to empty seventy laser bolts at Tundra in rapid succession. Tundra launched herself via her boosters, and landed on the other side of her. (The new version of Tundra isn't on the Approved list, I'll update her soon.)
She emptied the energy orbs again. The mantis again vanished, re-appearing after the shots ended. Tundra decided to stop screwing around, she opened her mouth, drawing a deep breath, and let loose a blast of sound. Again, the mantis phased out, or tried to, but found that the burst hit her still, but didn't knock her out. Tundra rushed her, blasting her with her gun.
The mantis was nailed by the entire barrage, but, afterwards, was still standing, she jumped back, bringing up two guns at her hips, emptying both of them very quickly at Tundra, who was hammered by several shots, which send her flying. She stands up and shakes herself, then launches another barrage of energy blasts, which, again, the mantis phases out of the way of. Tundra takes another shot with the Sonicator, knocking her down, she empties another set of energy orbs.
The mantis is nailed, then knocks the gun away from Tundra. She knocks her down, bringing a short sword into play, and places it at her chest. She slips her Vibro-Daggers out of their hidding places, and attacks. The mantis finds that her phasing ability was useless, the blades vibrating, making them able to hit her once she had phased out of the way.
Tundra and the mantis femme danced their deadly dance. Tundra's tail finally came into play, grabbing the mantis femme's sword arm, and ripping the sword out of her hand. She then rushed in, and shoved it up under the brest-plate puncturing the spark chamber, killing the femme instantly.
-Rudau-
Rudau rushed towards one of the bots in front of them. Her sword flashed through the air where one of the bot's had been. HAD being the key word. She suddenly realised that the bot was beside her, just as the bot, a male bull, raised a chain gun. He let loose with a devistating barrage, but Rudau dodged the gun, moving faster than the bot could track with the chain gun. She came around behind him, and slashed at him. The bot vanished just before the blade passed though where he had been.
He then appeared behind her, and tried to fire the chain gun, but it whirled emptily. He threw it, and changed it for a sub-automatic machine gun. He emptied the gun, right into her back.
She was nailed by the shots, and fell to the ground. The bull walked over, very cofident that this fight was his, but the shots had missed her spark chamber, hammering her right leg, effectivly shatering it. She rolled on her back, drawing her gun, and took a shot, flicked the gun, thus reloading it, took another, and again, and again.
The bull couldn't teleport in time to avoid the shot, and ended up with a gapping hole where his spark chamber was. Rudau fell back, barely concious.
Croak fired his rocket launcher at Wraith, hoping to erase the kid early, but he knew that would be too simple. He knew this kid from the Maximal Council's files, he was good. Wraith leapt at the Predacon general and kicked on his ramjets in midair, crashing both him and Croak into a wall.
The Predacon brought his elbow down on Wraith's back and brought his knee up into his chest at the same time, savagely denting the wolf's armor with the crushing blow. Wraith dropped to the floor but seemed to almost bounce as he came back up and planted his fist firmly in the general's face. A series of fierce blows kept Croak reeling in the corner.
He was able to block most of the strikes, but the damn kid was on fire! It was like Primus himself had possessed the Maximal. Seing a sudden opening, Croak ducked to the side and brought a haymaker into Wraith's gut, making him double over. Kicking the Maximal out of his way, he pulled back to catch his breath. He underestimated the ghoster...that was something he wouldn't do again.
"Querion!" Wraith's voice shouted over the commotion. "Over here, it's Croak!"
Relic’s was a white flashed as it came out of its sheath, reflecting the beams of the stage light. Nearby bots recoiled thinking some sort of energy weapon had gone off in the assassin’s hand. With nary a pause Relic dashed forward and leapt, his gymnasts body sending him sailing over the heads of those at the front of the stage. A wiry looking bot, clearly one of the TM2 enhanced super-soldiers, stood on the grounds, firing blithely into the crowd from a high-powered pistol. The lithe bot was motley of yellow orange and red fur, his face vaguely feline, and that face took on an expression of shocked admiration as Relic neatly took the barrel off his weapon as he came to the ground.
Relic sat crouched for a just a moment, analyzing opponent, his blade held ready in front of him. The Wild Cat has quickly danced back several steps, and stood looking at the Assassin with a bemused expression. Whatever observations he had used the opportunity for made, Relic dashed forward, his blade drawing back for a strike. With a cheerful shrug the Wild Cat cast aside the broken bits of his pistol, and then dropped his hands in front of him.
Relic leapt to the side as twin blasts of flame erupted from his opponent’s palms, carving a smoking score into the parade grounds, ripples of flame still dancing about the edges of the scar.
The assassin’s leap turned into a roll, and that turned into a spring that sent him flying towards the Wild Cat. Before he could bring his Katana around to strike a palm had been levelled on Relic, and disgorged another shaft of flame. The assassin desperately through himself into another role, and the blast went past him, detonating some piece of equipment close to the stage and spreading the fires that seemed to be starting.
The two combatants rounded on each other, each preparing for another attack when three loud concussions made them pause and turn their heads.
Just in time to see the flaming rubble of the roof collapsing down on top of them.
Vinoc stood, looking at what was left of the centapied. He then heard the roof coming down on his head. He jumped, backflipping to avoid the rubble, hoping against hope.
-Tundra & Rudau-
Tundra activated her boosters upon noticing the colapsing roof, she was about to run for it, when she noticed Rudau, nearly out cold. She rushed over towards her, hoping to reach her before the falling roof.
Dusty swore to herself as pandemonium broke out at the Predacons' arrival. Immediately she had her battlestaff fully extended, with its deadly twin energy blades ignited at either end. This fight was for keeps.
The copper and white femme dodged and weaved through the battle, never staying too long in one place, or focusing too much on one target. Wherever an opportunity to land a blow on any of the enemy came, she took it, then faded back out of reach again.
She had just made her way to the edge of the fight, near the back of the stage, when the roof caved in.
Penji was accustomed to using slightly more elaborate plans that just blowing something up, but in the sudden burst of chaos, there had been no time to formulate one.. Had there been time, he might have thought up a way to do it without the roof caving on his head. All he could do was transform to beast mode and hold his flippers over his head, as if that would help (well it helped him look cute, anyway). Usually doing that was enough to get him out of most scrapes like this.. but as for his Maximal teammates.. well he figured with 30 or so TM2s here, at least one of them had to have telekinesis or something.
"There," Querion pointed at a large Bear commando, signalling the target. A vague look passed between Querion and Timber, as they leapt towards the Predacon.
"Please don't try anything funny again," pleaded Querion, as a sheathed kodachi materialised around him, floating close to his waist. The wolf-bot drew the blunted short sword and entered battle-pose, the tip of the blade facing groundwards. Timber grinned wickedly as she removed her hatchets from their compartments.
"What? And spoil all the fun? What's so nice about sticking to battle tactics and stuff? Boring."
Timber rushed towards the large Bear of a Predacon, seemingly oblivious to the murderous look in his eyes. The opponent was massive, although not as large as Buster was, but still intimidating enough. A gatling gun was chained to his left hand, while his right was an grey claw of immense proportions, decorated with scars and sinewy wires. The claw moved swiftly, poised to strike at Timber. The she-wolf swerved abruptly, and felt the rush of air cross her face as claw crushed the ground she was on barely minutes ago. Timber's grin only grew wider.
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"Querion!" Wraith's voice shouted over the commotion. "Over here, it's Croak!"
The wolf-bot winced slightly, his face taking on a pained expression. It had been a bad memory, dealing with Croak, yet it seemed he had to again.
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"Arrgh!" cried the Predacon, as Timber's hatchet drew blood. There was the 'clacking' of the gatling gun, as bullets sprayed the air. The bear-bot nursed the gash at his side tenderly, as mech-fluid trickled out from the opening in his beast-flesh. The Predacon roared, and grabbed a screaming bystander, and hurled him at Timber. The she-wolf stepped easily aside, and clucked her tongue mockingly.
She was having fun.
"Go on Querion," she waved, "I can handle myself. Remember not to beat Croak up too bad."
Querion winced again. She did not have to rub it in.
A bat/scarab fuzor skittered out onto the stage. It was a twisted combination, a writing mass of leathery limbs beneath a blue crystal shell that seemed to shatter light into jagged shards and scatter them around the room. She hissed and lashed out at Rita with scythe-like claws.
Rita skipped to the side, drew her blasters, and made the mistake of hitting the half-insect's shell. The green discs were refracted by the carapace and sent whizzing through the air in all directions. High-speed airborne laser razors.
Catfish leapt off the stage and skipped through the ruins of the ceiling, looking for a way to contribute. An opportunity reared up in front of her and almost took her head off. The huge TM2 caterpillar reared back, bringing its war hammers up for another go, as Catfish bounced up and twirled out of the way.
She strafed and shot out her energy net, tangling it around one of the bug's four arms. Then she darted to his other side, drawing a long clean gash along his back.
Against all prior indication, yes, Catfish can fight.
The caterpillar snarled, twisted, and spewed acid, singing the fuzor badly before she could duck out of the way.
"Ouch!" Catfish rubbed the blackened, twisted metal, frowned disapprovingly at the caterpillar, and darted forward again.
Despite the fact that a fight had begun, Rubmur and Weede were discussing something between themselves. Or rather Rubmur was speaking to Weede. Both of them sat in a pair of folding chairs they had found and in Rubmur’s hand was a program for the speech. Rubmur was using the fact that a band called Weezer had a song, which included the name Jonas, so this Jonas guy had a cool name. Weede begged to differ, citing that Jonas sounded like “scrotum.”
Their small spat was interrupted as two large hands pushed them over. The two hands had spikes in them that contracted for a moment before going back inside the black Porcupine TMII’s hands. Weede quickly hid behind the folding chairs while Rubmur lay on the ground. The enemy leapt and landed easily upon Rubmur, beginning to slash him on the face with his quilled hands. Using his powers of squirming, Rubmur freed himself and backed over to the folding chairs and the TMII stood up.
“Hey Porcu-bot, don’t take me please,” Rubmur winked at Weede, “Here!”
With a swift arm Rubmur whipped Weede into the Porcu-bot’s grasp. During the same motion though, Rubmur managed to bring out his Jitterbug Bubble and blew them. The bubbles flew, popping on the quill hands. Touching the button on his chest “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses hit. Responding to the music the quills began to go in and out, not only that the Porcu-bot began to bang his own hands against his chest like Tarzan.
The Jungle=Tarzan
Always
Weede stumbled backwards and took out his Weedarang and threw it, chopping off some of the quills on their chest-pounding foe. Rubmur on the other hand used his hands, brass knuckles equipped, to sink more fists into Porcu-bot.
The roof coming down wasn't noticed but solarflare took notice. The finch's Arua exploded all around him discentigrating a by stander... It was at full strength more then over. The Flames lept in the air above melting the pieces of the roof he could, to save who he could but it probably wasn't enough. "MAXIMALS FIRE UP NOW!!!" Gaul yelled. Some of the maximals turned and began to fire slugs into the air busting up more pieces.
Mimi looked up a little too late. She saw a piece of steel and then nothing. THe piece impaled the Predacon she was fighting and landed on her back knocking her unconsiuos. More pieces slammed into the maximal team. SOlarflare made a note to kick the @#%$ out Penji when the oppurtunity arose.
Gaul manged to avoid the falling roof and had was clashing his warhammer against a huge Elephant Pred with a war hammer of his own. THe two hammers clinked together casusing a ear piercing noise. The two Hammers clapped togehter again and then Gaul's Ax end slammed into the Elphant's chest. He pulled the Ax out but then the wound healed instantly. "@#%$." Gaul stated swinging again.
Solarflare was at it again. He ran up behind the Wild cat Relic was engaging and Drop kicked him in the back. The wild cat turned and send flames at him but it hardly pahsed him. Next the WIld cat found himself impaled by Relic's blade. The maximals seem to start gaining the upper hand but thats when the other 14 troops with concusion rifles and Ion cannons entered from the Oppisite side of the hall and began to cut their way through the hall.
SF turned and saw the next team coming in and began to run towards them to perhaps slow them down with a wall of fire. Next thing he knew he was slammed in the head by a chunk of ice. He turned to see a polar bear with Ice covering his whole body. The Finch ignited his Arua and punched the Polar bear in the chest. He pulled his hand back to find a chuck of ice covering his hand. "What the hell?" His question was answered with a bear hug. THe Polar bear picked him off the ground and began to cover the finch with Ice. His own element was weaking and he could feel his internals freezing. He could really use his partner right now, he could really use switchblade...
-Tundra & Rudau-
Tundra got to Rudau, and managed to get her out of the way of the falling roof, but was forced to leave her as the second team of Preds attacked. She looked up. "|)@M|\| it!"
A large male White Tiger Pred had rushed her. She jumped over him, brining one dagger down, only to find that it had impacted with thin air, but it looked to have hit the tiger. "$H!+" Said Tundra, turning just in time to get a slashed across the face by a set of energy claws in the tigers knuckles.
Tundra went sprawling, hitting a nice sized piece of rubble. She was sent through the piece by the force of impact, only to land with her body wedged in between two more pieces, one arm caught wedged under a rock, the other free, but the tiger didn't know that.
The tiger walked up, brought a claw up, ready to strike the killing blow.
Tundra slashed at him, hitting him in the leg with the dagger. This backed him off enough for her to get free. She stood back up, only to look around and find seventy of the exact same tiger around her, all thristy for her mech-fluid.
-Vinoc-
He had managed to avoid all the pieces that could have hurt him, but found himself face to face with a large Wolf-bot. He drew his bo staff, ready to fight.
The Wolf jumped, bringing a spear out of his back, and came down on his head. Vinoc jumped to the side, rolling back to his feet. The Wolf rushed him, his spear going strait towards his head.
Vinoc blocked the shot with his bo staff. He brought it up, and into the Wolf's stoumach. The Wolf went flying back, but hit a piece of rubble, and jumped towards him. The spear came strait towards Vinoc's spark chamber, Vinoc couldn't get him with a missile, and his bo staff couldn't block that spear at this speed.
Just as Vinoc was about to be skewered, another staff, tipped with a blue energy blade, flew into his field of vision and knocked the spear away, then belted the wolfbot over the head. Vinoc caught a quick glimpse of Dusty giving him a wink, twirling her staff around in one hand, then she darted off elsewhere before the wolfbot could properly retaliate against her.
"Hello Croak," smiled Querion, dropping in front of the Predacon general. "It's been a while hasn't it?"
Croak began to shake, violently at first, but seemed more subdued after he realised he was trembling. The Predacon snarled menacingly, but he could feel his teeth chatter uncontrollably. By Primus' breath. He was afraid.
Querion twirled his kodachi nonchalantly in a hand. It was a different blade that Croak remembered, but the threat was still there. The frog-bot held his arm close absently, as though afraid it would be torn from its tendons again.
There was a sharp whizzing, as energy discs filled the air. Querion deflected them effortlessly, flicking his wrist towards the direction he wanted them to go, at the same time moving closer to Croak.
It wasn't working.
The tongue whip came next, snaking out in a flash, aiming for the wolf-bot's throat. Croak felt the wolf-bot pull, yanking him closer as though he were some fish, and the kodachi the rod. The Predacon general unwrapped his tongue from Querion's blade.
It wasn't working.
What now? The rocket launcher? But it would blow himself to smithereens at such close quarters. No matter. Anything to keep that monster away from him. At least he would die by his own hand.
"It won't work," smiled Querion, shaking his head sadly. The wolf-bot moved quickly, stabbing Croak's rocket launcher with the kodachi. There was a soft 'fizzle' and 'crackle', and the Predacon knew the launcher had been disabled.
Querion's smile looked particularly menacing under the light.
Croak’s mouth went dry as his last new weapon dropped to the floor of the arena. A wave of adrenaline and near panic swept through him. For the love of Primus… The wolf was enjoying himself! A Maximal, and every bit as sick as Grapple!
Querion took a careful step forward, Kodachi raised against physical attack and the possibility of another e-disk barrage. Breath now coming in ragged fits, it was all the hardened bullfrog could do to back up as well. Around them a fierce battle still raged. Croak, however, could see only the other Maximal.
Suddenly, inexplicably, the Pred’s long hard life flashed before his optics. In his mind’s eye he could see himself as a child, staring up at the proud forms of a Predacon soldier; he could see himself as a cadet in that same army, and later as a newly commissioned grunt. He saw years of fire and blood. He saw years of effort and hard work passed over by the advancement comities – his promotions going to younger and more ingratiating. And then he saw himself as a General, finally, in Endport, in the Brig struggling as a renegade piece of Maximal filth tore him limb from limb. A taste like bile rose in the back of Croak’s throat. He saw other images too. He remembered the surprised face of Tripredacus Councilman Ramhorn as he repeated the “Council” orders given to him directly by fellow Councilman Cicadon. He recalled with a gut wrenching twist the bitterness that had accompanied the realization that he was to die as the result of some petty disagreement.
He remembered what it was like to have his entire world turned upside down, and then shattered into a million pieces.
It all took less than an instant, after which a single thought entered his enraged nural net. “Not like this,” it whispered. “You can’t let it end like this. You were supposed to die proud, not cowering like some green kid. No, not like this,”
Croak launched himself forward with adrenaline fueled speed. In one swift motion the Predacon threw his forearms outward, beating Querion’s sword arms apart for a brief instant. Caught off guard the wolf ‘bot twisted instinctively. It was fast, but not fast enough to disperse the full force of Croak’s fierce body check. The Maximal flew backward several of feet, staying upright only through sheer determination. Expecting a counter attack, Querion pivoted and crouched, whipping his Kodachi up into a wide-angle block. Croak, however was not there. Needless to say, neither was his attack. A flash of green, retreating through the crowd, was all that was left of him.
Not wasting a moment more Querion darted off after the target ‘bot, making his way amid a chaotic jumble of fighters.
***** *****
“I’ve got Primary-One!!” bellowed one member of the Predacon strike-force, a middle size ‘bot, modeless, with a green visor like optic plate. Though smaller than his companions and a Beast Warrior at that, he held a sub-commander’s badge that suggested he harbored other skills that more than made up for the differences. Leaden in heavy over-armor (but moving as though he weren’t wearing any) he threw himself off the stage at a preoccupied Grapple.
Grapple aborted the shot he’d been aligning on a vicious raven Pred and turned just in time to fire at the incoming Pred. His shot was dead on, but it was the same trick he’d used on Rhapsody – shoot first and sort out the pieces later, if at all. In a strictly literary sense, he should have known it wouldn’t work twice. The sub-commander took the blast full in his external chest armor, and kept right on falling. The two collided with at bone jarring crash.
“GRAAAHH” Grapple yelled as he hit the floor. The tortoise ‘bot shoved his fists up beneath the other Pred’s neck and began clenching them to fire. The Beast Warrior was too fast, however, grasping his opponent’s wrists just below the shotgun port and wrenching them upward. The blasts downed two of a group of SiC ‘bots attempting to subdue a TMII raven beating them back with a hail of deadly feather flechetes. The distraction was just enough to let the raven massacre the rest. Seeing his sub-commander he moved forward to assist.
The univisored Pred drew a wicked looking knife in a flash, plunging it toward Grapple’s spark chamber. Grapple reacted equally fast, locking onto the other ‘bot’s forearm and pushing back with all his might. The point of the dagger (which Grapple belatedly realized was vibrating) sank closer and closer to his spark as the commando pushed his surprising strength to the max. At the last moment Grapple jerked his knee upward into his attacker’s gut, throwing him to the side. He rolled to his feet only to realize that the sub-commander had beaten him to it. From somewhere the strangely talented Pred had produced a wicked looking silver hand weapon. Grapple dove flat out to the right into a group of dueling Transformers, narrowly avoiding a pair of bright yellow laser bolts. High intensity bolts, he knew, and utterly lethal.
As he struggled to regain his footing Grapple looked up at the ‘bots he’d fallen into. It wasn’t on purpose, but in retrospect, he was glad that he had. One, lying dead on the ground, was an unidentified member of the assault squad, his face unrecognizable from a myriad of chest cannon blasts. The other was a heavily built Maximal panther ‘bot - Jungle. The two locked optics for a fraction of a second, long enough for a look of recognition to cross the ex-slug’s face. Jungle’s wrist blades flashed to the fore in a killing stroke.
Grapple blocked…barely. Now he had two opponents to worry about.
“Great,” he thought, “Just great.”
A large reptilean Predacon was making his way through the sea of Lightning Corp and Confromists, easily knocking them aside or smashing them with his club. He grabbed an unfortunate Predacon by the head ans squeezed until the head popped like a pimple, the body dropping to the floor, spilling mech fluid on the ground. Suddenly, the Predacon felt something on his back and shoulders, then something pressed against his head. Trance smiled to himself as he pulled the trigger, the plasma energy ripping through the Predacon's head. Trance jumped off the large body as it fell to the ground with a slight tremor. He landed and looked around before looking up in time to see a small spider Pred fall on him, tackling him to the ground. Trance kicked the Pred off, which transformed in air and landed on his four feet. Trance got up to one knee, putting his shotgun away and pulling out his pistol, and took aim at the Pred, firing three shots. The Pred smiled as he spit out a piece of webbing. The webbing hit the shots and they exploded right in front of him. Trance's optics narrowed as he put his pistol away and stood up. The Pred, meanwhile, reached behind himself and pulled four swords from his thorax, and twirled them around with his four arms.
"Great." Trance remarked as he took a step back. At the same time, the Pred lept into the air and came down onto Trance, the four swords pointed downward. Trance rolled to the right, but felt one of the swords slice through his leg. He grabbed one his disruptors and threw it at the Pred. the Pred easily knocked it aside with one of his swords and spit some webbing at Trance. It barely missed Trance, but it exploded on impact with the ground, a piece of the ground flying up and hitting Trance in the head. Trance swore as the spider pounced on Trance again. As he came down on Trance, Trance quickly grabbed on of his disruptors and held it above himself. Luckily, it was too late for the spider to react and landed on Trance, the disruptor connected to his chest. It's body spasmed violently before going stiff. Trance quickly pushed the body off of him and pulled out his shotgun, unloading two blasts into the spider's body before retrieving his disruptors and walking away from the motionless body.
Seeing Rita in trouble, Filch abandoned his first, familiar instinct to run away and vaulted over a pile of chairs, drawing his arc welder. He pulled the trigger and bolts of electricity writhed through the air towards the scarab femme fighting Rita, slamming into her shell.
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Weede and Rubmur kicked a Pred in the stomach at the same time, causing him to double over. Nodding at each other, they each grabbed a chair, folded it up, and slammed a chair into either side of his head. He slumped to the ground, unconscious. Weede and Rubmur went for a high-five, forgetting they were still holding the chairs.
KLANG
They dropped the chairs, stumbling disorientedly, and made off for other targets.
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Buckshot was having a grand time, beating the crap out of anyone that moved, when he finished ramming a Pred's skull into a concession stand and turned around. Mimi was trapped under a beam.
"Holy...Mimi!! Hold on!!" he yelled. The rotweiler shoved several Bots out of his way and scrambled to her side.
"Mimi? Girl? You alright? Oh s**t...hold on, it's gonna be...ungh...okay..." he grunted, seizing the beam and slowly lifting it.
Querion ran, covering distance with every step. Croak ran too, desperately trying to throw distance between himself and the wolf-bot. Running. Running. Running. Querion watched Croak run, watched the fear in his step, watched the anxiety in his gait. The frog-bot was afraid, and Querion could smell the fear.
The rush of the chase filled his head. It had been a while since he had hunted. Too long. He had almost forgotten what it felt like. Now Querion was taking his time to recall, and remembering how fun it was. Tearing down on the prey, tearing its throat out. It was a bestial instinct, and the wolf-bot was embracing it. His emerald eyes were starting to cloud with a dark red.
Querion sucked in a deep breath, shaking his head in disgust. His eyes returned to their normal colour, the exhilaration quickly disappearing. He continued to run, but it was different this time.
He was in control again. Not the Berserker.
Jungle and Grapple…
Jungle hopped back, creating a couple foot gap between him and the larger tortoise. Chaos was ensuring all around, yet the dark warrior keeps his focus on his prey – a demonstration of great discipline. “Go.” Jungle states in a tone which would create icicles on most ‘bot’s backs. Grapple’s first reaction is one of disbelief. “I’m giving you a chance to leave. You’d be wise to take it.” JJ continues on with, even stepping aside to give Grapple a clear path to the exit…
After only looking at Jungle cockeyed for a moment, Grapple bolts past the panther. He didn’t know what this Maximal’s deal was… but at the moment it didn’t much matter…
… Grapple… doesn’t get too far… as he falls victim to JJ’s drop-toe-hold, effectively bringing the big man down. Tis was a mind game, effectively granting Jungle the mental edge… 1/2 of the ingredients needed to win a battle…
Quickly capitalizing, the ex-slug grabs the Pred’s leg and wraps himself around it, in a limb breaking maneuver – remove a big boy’s vertical base and he ain’t so big anymore – the instructional MSP lesson which surfaces in J’s mind…
“FILCH! STOP! You idio…”
Rita was cut off as she was hit by some thousand volts of electricity, focused and reflected by the fuzor’s crystal shell. The initial impact lifted Rita off her feet. She seemed to hover in air for a moment, glowing like a strobe light and shooting off festive sparks as essential systems short-circuited.
The moment passed and she flew backwards, crashing into the opposite wall and sliding limply to the ground. Her optics flickered on and off and various programs fizzled in death throes of varying intensity.
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