Bruticus and Defensor fight in NYC



Onslaught lands on Wall Street right in front of NY Stock Exchange and immediatly starts to gives his orders : "Swindle, you go in there and reroute all the transaction to our server. Brawl, take care of the Police force. Vortex, patrol the area and warn us as soon as the Autobots show up. Blast Off, get ready to destroy this building as soon as Swindle is out." The combaticon commander does is part by destroying all the cars in the middle of the street to slow down all the poor non-flying bastards.

A plan that involves blowing things up -and- economic ruin. Finally, something that Swindle can sink his greedy little servos into. For once Onslaught doesn't even have to hassle him into action as he lands and kicks in the doors with one of his blocky heels. "Don't mind me folks, I'm just here to arrange a hostile take over~" Of course security guards pull there guns, but Swindle is one step ahead as he pulls out... a bullhorn? That's been electronically ramped up to eleven and produces a deafening concussive soundwave when he fires it, sending pretty much every human in the room toppling over and cluching their ears in pain.

First Aid leans forward, hunched over a blue metal desk in the Protectobot base with his elbows propped up on the desk and his chin resting on his hands. In front of him is a datapad that lists, in remarkable detail, Apocryphacius's injuries and the suggested methods. A lot of this is over his head thanks to First Aid's relative ignorance on Quintesson anatomy, but it seems the mystery sender took great pains to bring it down to a Transformer's level.

That's when it happens. It's a subtle shake of the ground that First Aid at first pays no mind. But then the klaxons start going off, and the doctor glances up from the text. No sooner does he do that than a big blue ball of enthusiasm bursts out of the training room, fireball cannons at the ready. "Hope y'all aren't tired from the last few hours of emergency drills, mechs, because we've got a chance to put our knowledge to the test!"

First Aid groans, joints still aching from the memory of the drills. The medical review was supposed to be him /relaxing/. With a sigh, he stands up, "Let me grab my medical kit..."

NOW... the ambulance cruises through the streets, sirens wailing and lights flashing. Up ahead he can see explosions and cars flipping over. Within just a few moments Aid finds he can't get any closer, and so he transforms into robot mode, photon pistol in hand to join his comrades in the charge.

Cybertronian Helicopter  is an animation error. (Or is he?) In any case, Blades is complaining to anyone who will listen (no one), "I just don't think that playing softball with orphans is a good idea. They aren't very round, and - " He cuts off as the Protectobot base suddenly reports multiple alarms going off, and also, there's Captain Can Do here to drag Blades's sorry skidplate off to do his job. "Oh, /slag/. Yeah, let's table this whole orphan softball thing. There's an emergency on our hands now!"

That said, Blades rushes out the garage door and off to the fray.

NOW

Blades circles around from behind, stalking the wild Combaticons.

Cybertronian Helicopter  transforms into his Blades mode.

Onslaught completes his task b not letting a single intact vehicule around the block. He then takes some time to see how Brawl is fraing against the police, like they have a chance. He quickly transmits to Vortex <>

Vortex : <>

Then to Swindle <>

Swindle strides through the building like he owns the place until he can find a proper terminal. <> Though even as he replies he's unpacking a piece of electronics 'borrowed' from Intel and wiring it up.

First Aid vaults over a parked car, landing and skidding behind a van which he can use for cover so long as he crouches way down low. Gripping his pistol tightly with both hands, First Aid peaks out quick enough to spy Onslaught finishing his task of annihilating any nearby cars. Come to think of it, that must be why the van is currently on fire. Ka-boom! Ka-boom! More cars go. First Aid doesn't reveal his presence to Onslaught, preferring to let Hot Spot deal with the Combaticon leader. The boss wouldn't have it any other way.

Ok, that's one Decepticon spotted. First Aid glances up, spying a helicopter circling around. *Negative boss*. Hmph, this is why Blades was the first choice, no doubt. <> First Aid says into the Autobot broadband. <>

First Aid aims upward, staying crouched to hopefully avoid Onslaught annihilating him. After training his weapon on the distant target for a few seconds, Aid squeezes the trigger. *VOZZZZZ* goes the photon pistol, and suddenly Vortex spins around wildly, blinded. So far First Aid has no idea that Swindle is even present--he's got too many Combaticons between him and the stock exchange.

Blades sees Brawl taking on the police. It's not a fair fight. It's not even close. Good, because Blades despises a fair fight. He comes at Brawl from the side, one blade drawn, and he tries to pin the thickly armoured tank-former to the ground through a hip joint.

Onslaught happens to be looking in Vortex's direction when First Aid shoots at him. The combaticon commander remains calm ans he transmits to his team <>

Brawl : <>. The combaticon is struck by Blades and replies by throwing a punch at him <>

Onslaught grunts as he receives Brawl's transmission, "Not that loser of Hot Spot again...". <>

Swindle lifts his head partially for a moment as his teammates start a buzz about Autobots. Nothing big, entirely expected. He goes back to work with his electronic wizardry, splicing a few more wires into place to directly bypass external lock-out measures. It's when Brawl starts bellowing about Protectobots that Swindle actually pays full attention to the growing ruckus outside, and lets out a sigh. <>

That's going to have to do it. Fortunately while he may be greedy, Swindle is not stupid. He expected inevetiable interruption as much as Onslaught did, and that's why he came ready to take the hands-off approach. With the last wire in place Swindle closes the case around the device, shoves it back under the terminal console where it shouldn't be noticed for some time while it works on codebreaking, and pushes the chair back into the spot to obscure view.

Then he gets up, adjusts his bolo-tie, and turns to walk back out... through a back fire exit. Because coming back out the front would just be foolishly obvious. The escape alarm going off would be overlooked at first though, presumed to be paniced humans fleeing the building.

FWOOSH! A fireball streaks over First Aid's head from afar, soaring unerringly towards the Combaticon Commander, coinciding approximately with the word 'loser'. One might think it was lucky that First Aid just happened to duck back down in time to avoid that, but in reality it's the result of working closely with Hot Spot for the past several million years. First Aid creeps around to the side of the van to allow more fireballs to blaze away at Onslaught. Glancing up, he can see that Vortex is already recovering and starting to fly right again.

So much so, in fact, that First Aid suddenly sees a huge globe of /goo/ dropping towards him. "Ulp!" First Aid says, hopping away. The glue splatters against the ground where First Aid was a mere moment ago. Still, when that stuff splatters, it splatters /far/, and First Aid feels a glob strike his leg. Looking down, Aid sees everything from the knee to his foot is pinned to the ground. "Oh great," Aid thinks. He has some anti-toxins that can deal with this, but a quick glance up makes it clear Vortex isn't going to let him wait around. Aiming upwards, First Aid sprays photon blasts at him, this time being concentrated and deadly rather than a mere light show. The helicopter veers off, but is quickly joined by another in the sky...

<> Swindle went out the back and so avoids First Aid. Lucky for Swindle. Unlucky for the Combaticons, they're outnumbered without everyone's favorite member!

Blades is hit squarely by Brawl's punch to his shoulder, and he grunts. He taunts, "Hey, big, dumb, and ugly! I got a gift for you!"

it is, of course, a dirty photon blast to the optics.

Do any of the other Protectobots need help, or can Blades continue tangoing with this palooka?

Onslaught turns his head just in time to see a fireball flying right towards him. He dives behind some wrecks, which partially block the fire, "Urrrrg. He gets back on his feet and fires a couple of sonic shots at Hot Spot. Come down and fight like a real soldier you coward!". <>

Brawl is blinded by Blades' shot and retreats towards Onslaught's position while firing wildly at the protectobot. At the same time, Blast Off passes over the battle on a straffing run.

<<Would you rather I just walked out the front doors and let everyone know I was in there?>> Swindle chides back over the radio. He's about to come out of the alleyway, but stops a half-step and turns to flatten himself against the wall as flashing lights and sirens go by as Streetwise vaults over a ruined car in a hurry to get to aid the stuck medic before he's dogpiled on.

Except moments later the already burning car detonates fully as Swindle pumps a round of explosive shot into it, the resulting shockwave likely doing little damage to the armored cop-mech but sending him reeling across the pavement.

It's enough of an opening for Swindle to hustle to the others, looking like he had been waiting in ambush the entire time. "I'd offer to sell you Shot In The Back Coverage, but it's only available to Decepticons!"

"Hey, you come into our city, you forfeit the right to whine about the heat!" comes the boisterous reply to Onslaught's taunt. With all the smoke everywhere, it's tough to tell if Hot Spot was hit by the sonic shots. He doesn't cry out in pain, but manning through a few hits--even major ones--is well within his capabilities. The fireballs keep coming, but from slightly different angles. Whatever Hot Spot's doing, he's definitely staying on the move.

First Aid watches as the two aerial fliers get close to one another... and then are suddenly forced to flee as near invisible compressed air bursts threaten to rend each of them into itty bitty parts. Creeping out from behind the van, First Aid sees he could take a pretty glorious shot on Onslaught. But no, he resists. Hot Spot's going to want the Combaticon for himself, and so First Aid sneaks past him, staying low to the ground. Now on the other side of the battle, Aid considers who /would/ be down with an unfair fight. Spying the already blinded Brawl, First Aid aims with one first and fires his surgical lasers out of it. It's a perfect hit on the Combaticon's barrel, etching a hole straight through it. Does this answer Blades's question?

It's clear the Protectobots, for all their goody goody reputation, have no qualms about taking advantage of their numbers advantage. Alas, it is too good to last, and now Streetwise has about three Combaticons to deal with!

Blades manages to dodge Brawl, because he's a blind Combaticon, but he does not manage to dodge Blast Off, because Blast Off is an orbital sniper. It's funny how that works. He does not show it, but he is flagging. He takes a disgusted pot shot at Blast Off, but he knows it won't hit, as he rushes to relieve Streewise.

Onslaught gathers all the Combaticons around him while shouting at Hot Spot, "You won't be able to stop us Protectobot!". No, Onslaught is not a James Bond vilain who's dumb enough to tell Hot Spot that they already succeeded. "Let's see if you can save this city! Combaticons! Transform and merge into BRUUUTICUS!"

Swindle grabs the half blinded Brawl and gives him a shove in the right direction towards Onslaught as Vortex is able to veer away from the Protectobots thanks to Blast Off's timely intervention. All four of them converge on the boss's position as he gives the inevitable command, and you all know where its going from there.

Bruticus has arrived.

Swindle has left.

< First Aid is just thinking about what the best way would be to actually /hurt/ Brawl now that Blades has rushed off to save Streetwise. Sure the doctor can dance around him with photon beams and surgical strikes, but it'd take a good half dozen blasts from his decrystallizer to get through all that armour. Before First Aid can plan his next attack, though... "Swindle!" First Aid instinctively fires a surgical beam at the crafty Combaticon, but Swindle's already gone with his wayward comrade.

Turning, First Aid watches as the Combaticons converge on another in a terrifying transformation. The Protectobot sprints back to rejoin the others, stowing his photon pistol along the way. Even as Bruticus is drawing up to his full height, First Aid is already shifting, growing, and becoming blockier as he transforms into arm mode and rises up into the air.

< Defensor has arrived.

< Defensor stomps into the room.

< Some thing are just inevtable. Water wears away stone. Sand piles in dunes. Dunes become sandstone.

Bruticus and Defensor fight.

Blades grabs Streewise away from his peril, and they rise up together, shifting around into their limb forms. Piece by piece, Defensor is assembled. One Protectobot, united, and ready to show Bruticus a house divided.

< Blades has left.

< First Aid has left.

< Bruticus only has one real purpose in functioning. And one specific Autobot he wants to pursue that function upon, which just happens to be the gestalt rising up in front of him. Optics flash once, and then a growl emits from the behemoth as he steps forward and swings up a fist, then slams it into the side of a building to send assorted bits of window glass and masonary hurtling towards Defensor like a hailstorm of concrete. What is poor Defensor going to do about fighting a rampaging warrior -and- a city full of the humans he loves so much? "Even YOU can't protect an ENTIRE CITY!"

< As Defensor draws up to his full height, the Protectobot's optics are already lit and scanning the area. Onslaught annihilating those cars could have been far, far worse than it was. So long as he and Bruticus can keep themselves contained to this area--something he's only moderately confident of--he believes they can prevent further casualties.

Suddenly, something pops into his mind from one of his components. "Swindle..." he mutters. "/SWINDLE/!" he calls out, this time louder. "Did you think I wouldn't figure it out, Bruticus? Onslaught has you all fanned out around the Stock Exchange to protect it and cause mayhem, except for /Swindle/, who's conveniently missing." Defensor raises Blades's hand, pressing two fingers against his temple to concentrate. "There, I've sent NYSE Euronext Inc. my suspicions."

So Defensor is right about one thing, yet so horribly, horribly wrong about something else. Of COURSE Bruticus can cause further casualties. It's what a monster like him is here for. Bruticus swipes at a building, and Defensor is showered by concrete and glass. Raising one hand to protect his face, Defensor grits his teeth and advances. "Don't... /have/ to, Bruticus," he says, trying not to get too much gravel in his mouth. "I just have... to introduce you to... /the East River/."

Defensor reaches out with both arms, grabbing onto Bruticus and trying to force him back, step by step, down Wall St. It's a good several blocks to the East River, though, and already Defensor is radioing the local police with his intentions so they can clear the way.

< Bruticus is slowly forced back towards the river at first but a good soldier never let anyone trap him with his back to a river. "DEFENSOR WRONG! BRUTICUS DESTROY PUNY AUTOBOT!" As he speaks, Vortex's rotor starts to spins and the Decepticon gestalt slowly force it towards Defensor's throat.

< Being attacked with Vortex is nothing short of an insult, but Defensor has always been the better bot. He doesn't need to be snide in his attacks. He just needs to let his innate moral superiority shine through.

Defensor keeps his head, literally and figuratively, though his chest is torn up something fierce. He pulls out his Blue Fireball Cannon and tries to blast Bruticus towards the river.

< It's one of the few not entirely crappy uses Vortex has, let the poor guy have his moment. The rotor slash is enough to break the grapple and part the two giants, but before Bruticus can follow up with a nastier blow Defensor whips out his cannon and opens fire. So to speak. Bruticus' chestplate is left scorched and dark as the giant leers backwards, but digs his massive metal fingers into buildings on either side of the street to keep himself on his feet.

With a heave that scatters bits of debris to the street from wrenching his fingers free again, the giant's right arm comes up with drawing his own weapon. Brilliant design, making Blast Off the gun arm. Now if only Bruticus could use some of that sniping ability. Alas, no, the aptly named brute just thrusts the gun out, with nothing to say other than "DIE!" as he fires, the blast likely shattering every window within blocks and hopefully Defensor too!

< A wave of sonic energy bursts out in all directions from the sonic gun, but concentrating itself mostly on the Protectobot Combiner. The blast wave shreds buildings, instantly causing their buildings to shatter and send deadly glass plummeting down to the streets below. For his part, Defensor's chest plate first shows a crack, and then /breaks/ entirely, causing heavy bits of ultra-dense black armouring to land at his feet. The wave is enough that Defensor even loses grip of his Fireball Cannon and has to grab the side of a skyscraper to avoid being knocked over entirely.

"Nnnghghg..." Defensor wheezes, though his audio circuits are too burnt out to even hear himself. A few parts of his mind are starting to wonder if this was a bad idea. Cutting their losses and letting the Combaticons flee unscathed may have been the smarter option here, but there's no turning back now. Now that Bruticus is here he'll pursue Defensor and his component parts until there's nothing left of New York City! Stumbling, a huge over-sized motorcycle foot slams down on a parked Civic as Defensor manages to right himself.

Using the building he's holding onto to force himself back upright, Defensor glares at Bruticus. If looks could kill, they'd have to clean Bruticus off the pavement with a spatula. Balling up his hands into fists, Defensor charges towards Bruticus with obvious fury. Each pounding step causes the streets to shake as the Protectobots try to lay a pummeling double-fisted upper-handed smack to Bruticus's jaw. Defensor can see the East River over Bruticus's shoulder. Have to keep pushing him back!

< Bruticus stumbles under the assault but not enough to fall into the river. He does his best to move out of the way, with limited success. Bruticus would be more effective with someone to direct him but even alone, he is still a skilled soldier. "DEFENSOR GOING DOWN NOW!" He reaches down and grabs one of NYC's famous tourist bus. Wielding it as a weapon, he repeatedly swings it a Defensor, "DOWN! DOWN! DOWN! DOWN!"

< Defensor cannot shoot the weapon out of Bruticus's hands. There could be helpless humans trapped inside that tour bus, and he cannot allow them to come to harm!

No, Defensor has to take that bus off Bruticus's hands. Their fight has made a ruin of the surroundings around them, and Defensor sorrows at that, for a moment, falling on a knee...

...and reaching out an arm to wrap his fingers around a large piece of debris that happens to be shaped like a hockey stick. He thrust upward from his crouch and brings the improvised weapon to bear on Bruticus.

< Bruticus reels backwards with a thunderous crack of smashing rebar across the upper chest and face, putting a nasty rent in his mouthplate and dropping the now brutally battered bus back to the pavement. If the police were smart enough to listen to advice they've cleared all the most stubborn of rubbernecks out of the way of the brawling giants. But there's just so much possible loss of property values and infrastructure to prevent yet!

Meanwhile Swindle's device continues to tick away diligently, shuffling through portfolio records and exchange lines.

"FINE!" Bruticus bellows as he throws a quick jab... That proves to be a fake-out as he spreads his fingers to grab Defensor by the head at the last minute, "BRUTICUS don't NEED a weapon," and shifts his weight to, in lack of a gestalt sized turnbuckle at hand, slam the other gestalt down into the closest tall building instead! "TO DESTROY!"

< As Swindle's device works its magic, the authorities are at least aware of Defensor's suspicions and can try to block it. Now it's a matter of Swindle's ingenuity vs the economic security procedures of the United States of America. Ehhhhhhh...

"Couldn't... pick a military target, could you?" Defensor growls. His own voice still sounds tinny and distant thanks to the earlier sonic wave. The Protectobot's optics dart left and right, trying to see if there's anyone in the way of their brawl. He concedes, though, that there's a zero percent chance that he'll be able to spot everyone. When Bruticus throws his job, Defensor blocks it neatly with his left hand, parrying the fist away. But the fake-out works, and Bruticus grabs hold of Defensor's head, driving it and the rest of the Combiner face first into the bottom six stories of a Manhatten skyscraper.

Concrete and glass explode as Defensor's weight obliterates it. Crushed vehicles, street lights, and sidewalk carts are quickly crushed by Defensor's landing. Though a devastating blow, Defensor isn't known for being willing to give up. Twisting around while still on the ground, he grabs hold of the asphalt with both hands and uses it as leverage to deliver a crushing spining kick with his Groove foot in an attempt to annihilate both of Bruticus's knee caps. "Always a crowded, urban centre! What /cowards/!"

< At First, it seems that Bruticus is going to block the incoming kick but for unknown reasons (unrelated to Blast Off not being willing to take the blow to protect Brawl and Swindle), he hesitates a mere second, which is enough for Defensor to strike his left. The behemot falls on his back with a grunt of mixed pain and anger. "BRUTICUS DESTROY WHAT BRUTICUS WANTS! DEFENSOR CAN'T STOP BRUTICUS!" The Decepticon gestalt gets back to his feet... in fact he leaps into the air and aim his elbow at Defensor as the falls back towards the ground.

< Defensor flips to his feet with the agility of someone who is a slow, lumbering hulk of a machine. His joints creak and crack with every movement, but Defensor refuses to let himself be slowed down. Not when there's potentially so many lives on the line. When Bruticus leaps into the air, Defensor cranes his neck to look up at him. "I CAN stop you, Bruticus," he mutters, not shying away from the plummeting Combaticon. Getting in a defensive stance, the Protectobot meets Bruticus's elbow, trying to block it with his left hand while decking Bruticus with his right. Should the latter connect, it will have all the power that Bruticus's elbow did.

For his part in the collision, Defensor's already wounded chest crumples. The black outer layer is gone, and Hot Spot's own natural powder blue armouring has been heavily dented. Still, he will not give up so long as there's still energon flowing through his circuits. "And I WILL stop you!" Defensor shouts defiantly.

< Not to say the economic departments aren't capable of doing their jobs. They've got plenty of flagrant attempts at breaking into digital depositories to flag and stomp out of the networks. The question will be if they can counter Swindle's ingenuity at paying off one of the better hackers to include several more subtle interfaces while those hack attempts have their attention and shifting through less obvious connections to several front companies Swindle keeps operating for just sort of occasions. Money laundring in the modern age. Plus there's the actual physical device to actually find, too.

But who cares about that background matter when there's two metal giants beating the screws out of each other in the streets. Defensor's counter-strike is a heavy enough blow to force Bruticus backwards, slamming heavily into the building he originally struck and knocking the rest of it over beneath his bulk, equal bits of foundation and gestalt arm careening upon the pavement. It takes a moment for him to get his bearings, dragging his heels to flex his legs and then wrench himself free from the wreckage to stand. Despite a few sparking wounds and damage in general the monster hauls his mass up with the implaciable pace of a destroyer, leaving the question of not if he's going to crush someone, but simply -when-, optics burning like angry red embers just waiting to ignite an inferno...

< Don't worry. Hugh Jackman from Swordfish AND Keanu Reeves are already on the case.

Defensor winces as Bruticus falls back into another building. The Combaticons do this on purpose, he suspects. They do it to *personally* aggravate him. Defensor can imagine Onslaught, sitting in his Primus-forsaken lair somewhere, crossing off the military objectives that aren't going to piss Defensor off sufficiently.

But if Defensor is pained by their surroundings, he is at least relieved to see that Bruticus is slow to get up. Is it too much to hope that the behemoth is slowing down? As much as his own hydraulics ache, Defensor is unwilling to give Bruticus time to recover. Doing that means prolonging this affair.

Forcing himself into overdrive, he charges the Combaticon just as he gets up, arms outstretched as he grabs Bruticus at the mid-section. It's a perfect football tackle, but in this case Defensor is trying to use his momentum to drive Bruticus back, back, /back/ towards the edge of the water.

< Bruticus is caught off guard by Defensor's attack. This kind of brutal tactic is unsual from the protectobot gestalt. The Decepticon behemot falls on his back, dragging Defensor with him on the ground. They crash on the river bank, raising a cloud of dust. Freeing both hands, Bruticus grabs Defensor's head, "THIS IS OVER! DIE!" he screams as he attempts to crush the other gestalt's head.

< So close! Defensor thinks. At least here, on the riverbed, there are no major buildings that can be... Defensor extinguishes that thought before it even leaves his processor. Of COURSE Bruticus can still annihilate huge swaths of the city. He'll never truly be far away enough to be safe. With Defensor on top of him, Bruticus grapples with him, gripping his head and squeezing. Defensor grits his teeth, closing one optic to avoid it getting gouged out by Bruticus. "My... thoughts.... Exactly!" Acting instinctively, Defensor grabs onto Bruticus's head, trying to squeeze and tear out the monster's optics with his fingers. It is an uncoordinated and vicious retaliation, but this was never going to be a clean fight.

< Bruticus lets out an aggrivated snarl as Defensor tries to do the same thing in return! He would probably look very very made and equally very very pained if he actually had more facial features to show such bitter, seething hatred within. There is only one course of action at this point though, so prehaps for the first time in the fight Bruticus actually uses his head!

That is to say, he uses it as a blunt instrument of pain, jerking himself up while yanking down on his grip on Defensor's noggin at the same time to put their heads together.

< Defensor squeezes his optics shut to stop Bruticus from getting his fingers in there. There's a pained hiss coming from the back of Defensor's vocalizer as he grapples with Bruticus on the riverbed in a most undignified fashion. Both of them are getting covered in muck, but at least they aren't swinging each other into skyscrapers anymore. Then Bruticus reverses tactics and YANKS on Defensor instead of just trying to claw his head off. The Protectobots are taken completely by surprise, and as a result Defensor's forehead strikes Bruticus with a resounding KA-RACK! that can be heard in Brooklyn.

Defensor's optics go wide as his grip on Bruticus loosens. Head wobbling, Defensor pathetically rolls off the Combaticon, stunned by the sudden maneuver. "...ergh..." he wheezes, staring up at the sky as he rests on the riverbed. What was he doing here again? Something... New York? Stock Exchange? No that's silly, Transformers don't play the stock exchange! Turning his head, it all snaps back into place as he spies Bruticus. Desperation is sinking in for the Protectobot, and he awkwardly tries to lift Streetwise up and bring him around hard enough to kick Bruticus into the East River.

< Bruticus stumbles to his feet, all his body showing a fair amount of battle damage. Slowly, he raises his stun gun with the obvious intention to obliterate his opponent. He sees Defensor launching his foot towards him. He attempts to block it but he's too slow. The kicks connects and Bruticus falls back towards the river but before he hits the water, he breaks appart. The combaticons hovers over the river as Onslaught calls the retreat, "We're done here soldiers! Retreat to position alpha-gamma-zulu."

Bruticus has left.

Defensor lets out a gasp of relief as Bruticus falls towards the water and disassembles. There's one terrifying moment as he sees they're all still functional, and Defensor fears he cannot withstand them should the Combaticons attack him separately. But Onslaught orders the retreat, and this is Defensor's cue to slump back again, resting his head in the muck as he stares upwards into the sky again. There's the distant sound of sirens coming from all directions, and Defensor will struggle not to have nightmares about how many deaths they represent.

Swindle manages to avoid getting wet!... By landing on top of Brawl, whom gets a faceplate full of that horrible East River mud, so his annoyed cussing is thankfully censored. Until Brawl finally stans up, with Swindle somewhat awkwardly sitting on his shoulders. "Thanks for the save, bro." "GET OFF ME OR I'M CHARGING YOU FOR THE RIDE!"

That gets Swindle quickly scrabbling to the air and flying off with everybody else.