Operation: Franklin Cross is a Stupid Jerk

Cybertronian Swamplands East

Stinging, acrid fumes rise like a dilute acidic mist from the 'waters' of the Swamp. Oily, iridescent blues and greens swirl through the murky grey chemical sludge that clings unpleasantly to anyone walking through it. A tower stands lonely and isolated on one edge of the swamp, dimly visible from here, while a dark, deserted crossroads lies at the other end. A drawbridge extends from the tower to the crossroads to stretch above the swamplands, which continue off to the west.

The cyberswamps are a miserable place. One would think this by the name alone, but still, it's one of those points that bears repeating. But, even as wet, smelly, and miserable they are, the swamps do have ONE redeeming factor...

They can hide a dinobot. Uncaring of the oily muck he's crouching in, Grimlock slowly makes his way through the cyberswamp, only his visor peeking out. He hmmms, and then turns- bringing one hand out of the mire to look at the crushed remnants of a Decepticon sensor beacon he's pulled along with him. He tightens his fingers, and crumples it up completely- the meager signal it'd been beeping out before suddenly cuts out.

Now, the question is, which Decepticons are on maintenance duty today?

Hubcap is following Grimlock through the swamps, but being a great deal smaller than the Dinobot, he can't actually /see/ anything. He only knows where he is because he's clinging tightly to one of Grimlock's T-Rex arms. He's not sure Grimlock's actually noticed.

"Haha, come check this -THING- out!" echoes across morasse. Fusillade is poking at a cornered razorsnake with one of her wingblades. Its eighteen glittering optics glare out from the mass of cables dangling from the comm tower not too far from the drawbridge. "Thing's NASTY sharp!" she comments, half-shouting over her shoulder as she holds up her weapon, a myriad of scratches from the nanometer-thin, honed edges of the unhappy creature.

Triggerhappy had been watching the grid, bored out of his insane processor. He hated monitoring duty. Really, he hated -anything- that didn't involve shooting someone. Or someTHING. He has been grumbling to an exasperated Blowpipe the entire time.

"Ughhh, this is SO boring! What are the chances the Autobots are gonna show up -here- of all places, anyway?" He groans, but right as he says that one of the sensors blinks out on the display. The targetmaster bolts up from his seat. "AHA! I -knew- it! Works every time!" he cackles. He transforms and flies out a port, headed straight for last coordinates of the sensor Grimlock has just destroyed.

"Here am plan." Grimlock doesn't look back at the minibot clinging to his shoulder-wing, and the orders may come out a bit garbled, what, with the sludge and all, but still. "This not for just smashing septi-cons. This mission am for making septi-cons SCARED."

And Grimlock keeps creeping closer- one can almost hear cellos going 'dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun' as he does so. "You Hubcap wait 'til 'septi-cons start screamings, then shut off them radios. Scarier that way." he bubbles, and then sinks below the water! Or, waterlike substance, at least.

"Only for YOUR quarters," Fusillade coos menacingly, recoiling as the snake splits its face into four segments, spitting at her before slashing itself free of the tangle of cables and whipping past Fusillade with a sinuous swimming motion. Fusillade rears back, screams, and splashes far to the side of the creature, before hmming to herself. "Hey, do you see something moving around up on the tower? Someone over there looks excited..."

Triggerhappy closes in on the coordinates of the destroyed sensor, descending from the skies and transforming just before touching down nearby. He's pretty obvious to the two Autobots, as per usual, as he stalks the area with his weapon held aloft, searching for the whoever had taken out the sensor.

"Come ooout, Autobums! You know you can't hide forever!" he taunts loudly, his footsteps coming nearer.

If he'd known it was Grimlock--well, actually never mind, that wouldn't have made a difference. Pretty soon he is going to start shooting randomly at everything if they don't show themselves.

Hubcap's grip loosens as he is surprised when Grimlock addresses him. Fumbling quickly, he resecures his hold. He tries to reply, but ends up with a mouth full of swamp. Whyever we have one on a metal planet. <> He radios instead.

Grimlock isn't exactly built for underwater operations- but then again, there are parts of the swamp bayou that are more solid than one would think! Still, Grimlock lurklurklurks- and, had he a mouth in this mode, he'd no doubt smile as he sees Triggerhappy settle down on the swamps. He can't see just WHICH Decepticon it is, through the cloudy oil-water...but really, does it matter?

Nope.

"RAAAARGH!" Grimlock bursts out of the water, trailing slime (and possibly a minibot, if Hubcap doesn't let go) off of him like some sort of horrible swamp creature. "ME GRIMLOCK RIGHT HERE!" he announces, perhaps even louder and more boisterous than usual. Massive hands snap out, attempting to grab hold of Triggerhappy in a metal-mashing grip!

Boomslang squints, flipping up his eyehatch to peer into the distance with his aftermarket eye. "Looks like some minibot and Grimlock. I wonder what he's doing up here all on his... more or less lonesome. Wouldn't that be something to hang over the mantle, eh?" He pauses to watch Triggerhappy get snagged. "Oh, and it looks like he's coming right at us."

Boomslang glances at Fusillade, waiting on her call.

"Hmmph. Oh, ewwww," Fusillade says as she spots a purplish-pink sheen down by her ankles. She sneers, and pries off the astrotick attached to her, which begins to bob away, made buoyant by the energon it drank from her. She shudders and then tilts her gilded head as she hears the tremendous flume of water and bellow. "Oh, is that so?" she grins wickedly. "He does have a habit of roaming far and wide. Any reports of other Dinobots in the area? Sometimes he does these missions solo. Well, save for Minibots, whatever THAT habit is all about. Let's go tag him."

Space Going B-1R Lancer pchooooooooo! low over the murk, towards the approximate location of the commotion.

Boomslang flips the patch back down and shrugs with a wry "aye aye," taking off and transforming to take the wing.

With the usual ratcheting sound, Boomslang spins and flips and turns into a fighter jet.

Hubcap grimaces to himself as he lets go of his hold on Grimlock. Before the big guy starts mauling the Decepticons. He moves aside, happy to give Grimlock the space, as he monitors comms frequencies.

Was Triggerhappy startled by Grimlock's attack? It would be somewhat difficult to tell, as he simply laughs maniacally when the Dinobot grabs him and his gun goes off near the Dinobot's chest.

"Ooooh, Grimlock! So it's you! Not like you to hide in swamps like that. What's the matter, hm? You a little off your game this cycle? Hope you're still up for some fun, though! Hahahahahha!"

Vector Sigma this certainly beat watching the sensor arrays! He hasn't noticed Hubcap...YET.

Grimlock holds Triggerhappy at arm's length, grunting just a bit as he gets shot right in the chest. "Huh. You s'posed to be all scared and screaming. Hm." he grumbles, and then throws Triggerhappy to the ground- or at least the shallower part of the water- and Grimlock then raises one stompy foot, and attempts to put the boots into the near-psychopathic Targetmaster!

Grimlock does look up, however, as he sees more 'cons showing in the distance! "Hnnm." he rumbles, "More targets!"

F/A-18 Super Hornet  throttles up as he climbs, arming a GP bomb and laying the pickle over Grimlock. <> he sends to his wing leader. <>

 Fusillade says, "Grimlock's down there, if you can see him through all the cyber-foliage, what a mess! Get some napalm down on that to clear out a path for those of us without fancy-schmancy satellite hookups!"

"Grimlock's down there, if you can see him through all the cyber-foliage, what a mess! Get some napalm down on that to clear out a path for those of us without fancy-schmancy satellite hookups!" Fusillade grouses to Boomslang, but emits a whoop as he strikes the Dinobot. <> She admits this last bit to Boomslang with

If Grimlock's objective had been to frighten someone, he's picked the wrong Decepticon. It would certainly take a lot more than even Grimlock jumping out of the swamp to scare Triggerhappy. The fact that he doesn't much care for what happens to him so long as he gets to shoot people doesn't really help. He is still laughing over the sound of buckling metal when the Dinobot's foot connects with his chassis. The Dinobot seems to be distracted for the time being, so he gets up out of the swamp liquid and hovers up into the air a bit, the oily fluid dripping off of his frame. The targetmaster then transforms and banks sideways, aiming his photon pulse guns at Grimlock's back.

 Boomslang says, "Aye aye."

The sleek bomber rears up, wings collapsing onto hips even as the rear fuselage splits to form arms. The horizontal stabilizer slides up, the forward fuselage folds up accordian style, and Fusillade hops up on thrustered feet.

"Grr!"

Boomslang's bomb strikes home! The dinobot grunts- and this distracts him enough for Triggerhappy to escape! Fusillade's landing goes unnoticed for the time being, mostly 'cause she's not shooting at him. "Next time me Grimlock need find more scareder septi-cons." he murmurs. Thus far, Operation: Franklin Cross is a Stupid Jerkface isn't going as well as he'd hoped!

Still, Grimlock's ready to make the best of a bad situation- and he transforms to his heavily armored dinosaur mode! He tracks Boomslang's flight- and then spits out a steady beam of flame, aiming to burn him out of the sky!

With a grunt and a growl, Grimlock changes into a robot T-rex! Watch out.

Fusillade plunks down in the murk, hunching shoulders around her audials in uncertainty as she waves one wingblade in front of her, guiding stray cables and other obstacles away as she tries to catch a glimpse of the struggle. Up to her hips in cyberslog was not ideal for her by any means. She gags a little on the sulfurous stench of the swamp, and then perks up as the plume of fire announces Grimlock's position. She rolls one shoulder, and pops a magnetically shaped sphere of cyan-tinted plasma in her palm, and hurls it at the Dinobot. "Awrighty, this is more like it!"

Combat: Fusillade strikes Robot T-Rex!  with her Plasma Caster attack!

Hubcap's optics widen as he intercepts a rather worrying transmission. Grimacing, he throws his best efforts into flooding out confusing signals to bewilder the fancy-schmancy satellite types.

Fusillade then screams like a little girl, and trips over herself trying to get away.

F/A-18 Super Hornet  does a barrel roll! No, really, he does a barrel roll away from the roaring flamethrower, corkscrewing on the high side to get a little distance as he banks around and comes back towards Grimlock (and Hubcap, but that's purely incidental)with firebombs armed. <> he transmits to Fusillade. <>

Triggerhappy whoops. Everyone wailing on Grimlock. What fun this was! Clearly, the Dinobot has overestimated himself. "Not so tough now, are you, glitchead?" He taunts. The targetmaster continues laughing crazily as he has been the entire time, and decides to be a bit more liberal with the photon guns, spraying the entire area below, even though he might not have quite noticed Hubcap's presence, yet. Of course, he just enjoys shooting anything and everything. Autobots, Decepticons, trees, swamps, etc., etc...

Robot T-Rex!  endures plasma and photon and flame! It's unpleasant...but at the same time, not unbearable. "Grrrr." he snarls- the brief movement of Fusillade fleeing catches his attention...but then there's more 'cons to worry about! He crashes through the hanging cables and jutting crystals with all the subtlety one would expect from a dinobot- and then his eyes glow, snapping out bursts of laser fire which he scythes at the circling jet fighters! *kapew!*

Fusillade scrambles atop a slightly less-submerged platform and sulks. Her confidence without ammo is practically nil. "Uh, guys? I'm gonna reload. Hold down the fort! There will be obscene amounts of energon to the mech that can bring back either of his heads!"

Fusillade leans forward, wingblades whipping out to their full span, even as her arms lock backward in place as the rear fuselage. Her torso folds out to the become the cockpit of a Terran B-1B Lancer, ready for flight!

Hubcapis so busy trying not to get nuked from orbit, that he manages to overlook more local threats. Like bombs. Although he's not the target, Boomslang's attack sends him tumbling painfully across the landscape. Then Triggerhappy's erratic enthusiasm actually manages to sear scorch-marks on his armour.

<> Boomslang sounds dubious, at best. He flips up on the knife edge to let the laser bolts zing past, but that was too close. He knows better than to take Grimlock for granted; he didn't get to be King of the Dinobots by election. His lasers pop out of the sides of his fuselage and swivel to pop off shots back down at Grimlock while he maneuvers to start lining up another bombing run, but his confidence is clearly shaken without the big bomber at hand.

Triggerhappy banks and barrel rolls, but doesn't quite manage to avoid getting hit by the bursts of energy coming from Grimlock's mouth. But, unlike Boomslang, he is undaunted. That huge maw of Grimlock's looked like it needed a gun going off in it. He dives down right in front of the Dinobot and attempts to shove his weapon into his mouth and fire it. Blowpipe is going to hate him for this. Maybe even more so than for the refuse pile at that landfill last orbital cycle.

Robot T-Rex!  is peppered with more lasers! Though what REALLY catches his attention is the mouthful of photons, delivered courtesy of Triggerhappy! Now...here's the thing about dinobots- it's often a very, very bad idea to get into close quarters with them. Especially when Grimlock's aforementioned toothy maw is involved!

"RAR!" Grimlock snarls- and with smoke and flame still trailing from the corners of his mouth, Grimlock attempts to clamp his jaws down on some important part of Triggerhappy!

F/A-18 Super Hornet  strafes the King Dinobot as he passes overhead this time, autocannon shells chewing up the vile swampwater in a stream towards the target. <>

No, it certainly wasn't a very good idea, but since when did something have to be a 'good idea' for Triggerhappy to act on it, despite Blowpipe's warnings and obvious misgivings? He was certainly one to be pegged as a madmech, but wise? Doubtful. <<State? Oh, I'm just fine, Boomslang! Couldn't be better!>> he says enthusiastically, even though he doesn't quite -look- the part.

Now, when Grimlock's jaws clamped down on the Targetmaster's hand while it was still near his mouth, that certainly hurt. Energon spurts in all directions as he yelps and jerks away, again taking to the air above the Dinobot. Blowpipe is -really- going to hate him, that is as soon as he wakes up.

Despite the damage he's taken, Triggerhappy doesn't even try to give himself a break. As soon as he's climbed to a good height, he dives straight back down toward Grimlock, hoping to spear him in the head with his streamlined jet form.

Robot T-Rex! <Grimlock> grunts! He's smashed into by a jet, and strafed by another one! "Grr. Shoulda brought Swoop." he mutters- and takes a moment to glare over at Hubcap, as if the minibot's lack of flight were the problem!

Grimlock soon transforms, however- and he brings up his double-blaster, firing away at the two jets with another spray of heavy duty firepower! So maybe this hasn't been as complete a success as he'd hoped- he still has the chance to shoot stuff anyway!

There's a flurry of moving parts, and Grimlock changes to his robot mode!

Hubcap frowns to himself and thinks. What chaos /can/ he sow that might help... Oh, oh yeah. While he tries to avoid the physical fray, fragile as he is, he has other weapons available.

<Decepticon> Boomslang says, "Grimlock's messing around out here. Not sure why. Be nice if we could bring back his head in a box but I doubt it'll be today."

<Decepticon> Shockwave says, "Is he making a run for Polyhex?"

<Decepticon> Boomslang says, "Negative, sir. Seemed to just be lurking until Triggerhappy engaged him."

<Decepticon> Shockwave says, "Either scouting or looking to satisfy his need for combat, then."

Triggerhappy is, once again, in serious need of repairs. Like serious enough that if he doesn't get them he will certainly leak out. His armor is mangled and his inner circuits are showing with his energon leaking all over the place. And again, he doesn't seem to care much.

"Hahahah! Not going exactly as you planned, eh? Oh wait, you Dinobots are too stupid to plan, I forgot!" he laughs, though his voice crackles with static.

Not that Triggerhappy himself is usually one to plan things, either. But it's not that he can't, he just don't prefer it, right? Right. But, as much as he'd like to stay and see the end of this fight, Blowpipe might actually desert him if he got the both of them knocked into stasis lock AGAIN, for the second time this mega-cycle. On top of dumping the Nebulan into a refuse pile and shoving him into Grimlock's mouth, that is.

<Decepticon> Garbled voice Hubcap says, "I'd suggest you withdraw and observe, but... Triggerhappy."

<Decepticon> Shockwave says, "Identify yourself, soldier."

<Decepticon> Garbled voice Hubcap says, "I'm just your average Decepticon, not in any way a binary-bonded- Oh."

<Decepticon> Triggerhappy says, "Oh, yeah? Well I'll have to ask him about that one."

Grimlock grunts, and watches Triggerhappy streak off! Well, he's not dead...but he's close! And that's a victory, isn't it? Grimlock hnnms, and looks over at Hubcap again. "Okay. This good for FIRST TIME raid. Me Grimlock do something bigger next time!" he says- and with that, Grimlock transforms to his dinosaur mode, and wades back into the mire! He's not exactly built for aquatic operations...but somehow, he manages through sheer stubborness, his massive form sinking into the bog, a long shadow visible beneath the oily water, headed steadily southward!

With a grunt and a growl, Grimlock changes into a robot T-rex! Watch out.

<Decepticon> Shockwave says, "Decepticons, be aware that our broadband frequency has likely been cracked by the enemy. Restrict all important communication from the channel."

F/A-18 Super Hornet <Boomslang> withdraws as well; Grimlock retreating looks a lot like Grimlock just lurking to jump out and grab you! And he's not up for that, not unless it's part of a plan. A good plan.

Hubcap scowls at the radio chatter. That Shockwave is too damned smart. Wait, Grimlock's leaving? This is not a good place for a fragile little guy to be alone. "With a charming smile, he says "We were just leaving." Before he quickly follows the Dinobot.