Soundwave and his tapes go scouting

Soundwave is sneaking not too far from the entrance of Retoris tunnel. Why is the tape commander, intelligence commanding officer of the Decepticons is going on a recon mission all by himself? The answer is quite simple : he doesn't trust anyone his agents to get the job done correctly. For many hours now he observed the autobot defenses without being spotted but it's not time to gather more data and it's a task for... "Laserbeak eject. Operation : Recon. Rumble eject. Operation : Bodyguard." "Paul's Boutique" Cassette &lt;Rumble&gt; is swiftly ejected from Soundwave, transforming mid air to land on the ground. "Frazz a raffin, bodyguard? When we gonna bust some skulls Soundwave?" he complains before making his departure to act as the Intelligence officer's personal escort. Just where is Frenzy when all the crap jobs get handed out??? Crimson Red Cassette &lt;Laserbeak&gt; ejects smoothly from the DARK AND EVIL PITS of where ever Decepticons go when they're inside Soundwave's tape compartment and sails through the air before transforming into a red mechanical condor. Squawking in acknowledgement to Soundwave's orders, Laserbeak begins flying northward, being sure to not trip any obvious security emplacements while probing the area's defenses. The Tunnel of Retoris is a key part of the battle for Cybertron, so it is usual to see Autobots patroling it. It is less usual to see Autobots standing about reading from scripts. "HO GOOD SIR!" Raindance utters slowly as he reherses the lines from The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, a recently rediscovered shakespeare play. "THOU ART A KNAVE INDEED!" Decibel pulled the short straw this cycle and is stuck doing sensor adjustments. While he would much rather be in his office hooked up to the usual systems doing what he does best he knows that it's good to keep his skills up. Perhaps he would have an easier time of things if his audio sensors were not being flooded by Raindance reading a script. Shaking his head he tries to get the sensor checked out so he can flee and save himself the horror. Air Raid is a bit hungover from a previous night, and is squinting furiously at his script, the datapad mashed to his face. How he'd gotten coerced into this, he'll never know. "...Line. HEYYY ITUNES!" he calls when he sees Decibel. Fairway looks at the script in his hands with a frown. "This Sir Donald character," he says, "I am little bit uncomfortable with the disresepct with which he's treated by this Sir Walter." He looks up at Raindance. "Not that I want a larger part. But..." he trails off and drops the script in favor of his scram rifle. He points dramatically and utters the obligatory line: "Decepticons!" Soundwave delicates sensors are flooded by Raindance's reading, forcing the decepticon to adjust his audio filter. There is only one reason for such a horrible noise... they have been detected and this is an autobot assault! &lt;&lt;Laserbeak, Rumble, we are detected. Operation : Assault&gt;&gt;. Soundwave jumps out of his hiding spot and standing in front of the autobots, he pushes a button on his shoulder. His speakers suddenly emits a loud burst of sonic, specificly designed to target the autobot sensors. Reactively, Rumble pulls his hands up to his audio processors. "Hey, what's the deal yo? I thought we were a team bossman!" he growls out, then notices the sonic attack wasn't meant for him at all ... lowering his arms. Switching his arms into the pile-drivers, Rumble prepares to smack the ground with a ferocity ... but not just yet. Laserbeak quickly vacates the perimeter of the Iahex defenses, the probing of the Autobot stronghold's defenses were far from complete and the information gathered barely scratched the surface, not that they could do much intelligence gathering now that they've broken cover. A strong defense is an even stronger offense! That said, Laserbeak begins making his way back towards the other Decepticons, reducing the chance of being completely cut off, while surveying the current available Autobot presence in the area. "No Fairway that is not in the script!" Raindance admonishes, before Soundwave uses his horrid attack, scrambling the little Bot's sensors. "Argh!" he burbles, as he shakily aims himself in the direction of the Decepticons. "Decepticons! Get them!" He starts snapping shots of Soundwave for the Autobot newsletter Twice Fairway has encountered Soundwave, and twice he has had his sensors violently disrupted by this sonic attack. He staggers back, hands flying to his audials. All sound drains from the world. His processor disrupted, he sees everyone moving in slow motion. Not at all sure that anyone is really at the position indicated by his optics, he pops off a shot in Soundwave's direction. Air Raid is slow to react, to everything really, so he gets the full brunt of Soundwave's SONICS. It doesn't help his robo-headache. He can do little more than stand there and drop his script, waiting for someone to bark orders. "...Oww...the frag..." And suddenly his HUD is flooded with Raindance's horrid PICTURES. "Primusss alright alright!" He fires off some rotational pressure! Decibel gives a half-hearted way hearing Air Raid as he makes a final adjustment and locks down the access panel. "I see I was not the only one who drew the short straw." As his systems begin to register additional signals he sighs and draws a weapon of his own. With Fairway making the announcement of hostile forces on site Decibel looks to find himself some cover. He manages to make it three steps before the entire area is bathed in amplified sonic waves. Waves that wash over him like water off a ducks back doing little more than providing an annoying hum. "Still playing that elevator music eh Soundwave? That's almost as bad as musicals on tape..or any medium for that matter." Still yapping Decibel drops down behind the sensor station and takes a few random pot shots. &lt;no actual attack.&gt; Soundwave doesn't move as all the autobots' shots go wide, thanks to his clever attack! He turns his head to look at Decibel and replies, "Taunt inefficient. Sonic assault results prove its efficiency." Soundwave glances around to see wha the other autobots are doing but Decibel is the biggest threat and must be addressed first. The tape commander aims his legendary blaster at the communication engineer and fires a quick blast. Laserbeak takes advantage of all the indiscriminate weapons fire that are now filling the immediate vicinity, fortunately none of which are -intentionally- directed at him. A bank here, a dive there, and the small cassetticon manages to climb into a safe altitude where he can properly survey the entirity of the combat zone. A highly sensitive holocam emerges from within Laserbeak's forehead and it begins transmitting everything that the red mechanical condor sees to Soundwave. At that moment, Laserbeak discovers two targets engaging the Decepticon tape commander. Laserbeak studies the two target intensively... hmm... one of them is an ANGRY looking Aerialbot, very mean, very tough looking. The other one is... a blocky Autobot with a sauve beard on his chin. The choice is clear! Laserbeak begins sending data to his fellow Decepticon cassette bodyguard. "Hey, no one calls Soundwave drab and gets away with it!" Rumble calls out, aiming a pile-driver arm at Decibel. When the Tape Commander makes his target clear, the cassette withdraws and reasses his options. He could always tackle the Aerialbot or the floating triangle? Nah, picking on a techie will be much more up his alley. When the information trickles in from Laserbeak, Rumble exclaims with glee. "Haha, good one Laserbeak!" Moving to smack Fairway across the head with the pile-drivers, "Yer gonna crumble, when you mess with RUMBLE!" Raindance floats about like a leaf in the air as he tries to get his systems back in order. "Air Raid, watch out!" he cries as Air Raid gets nobbled by Rumble. "I shall protect you!" A white laser arcs out from his nozzle towards Rumble "Fraggin' GUN!" Raid smacks the barrel and crouches, hoping his double-vision clears soon. Raindance's heroic efforts in his direction are... noted, but not very helpful, because Fairway is getting NOBBLED. Raid targets Rumble now, stalking over to try and smack the tape in the kisser. Decibel isn't sure when he became a major threat to anyone, let alone somebody to be dealt with before others. As the fire fight gets into full swing he contiunes to randomly fire shots from his position. Popping up he is chastized by Rumble seconds before Soundwave levels a blast his way. Dropping back he is rocked as the sensor takes the brunt of the impact. "Man I'm going to have to fix that you know. Easy on the equipment!" Blaster in hand he leaps from cover and takes aim himself letting loose at the Decepticon Cassette Commander. Fairway struggles to keep his balance as Rumble rocks the ground beneath him. He just barely manages to stay standing...such powerful tectonic shocks generated by such a small mech! Would that he had such an ability... Seeing as how two of his comrades are flying to his rescue, when he manages to regain his footing Fairway turns his rifle on Laserbeak. Soundwave doesn't show any sign of emotion as he misses his target again but he sure feels it when he is struck by the feedback. His internal systems are all messed up as he steps back and proceed to reboot them all one by one. He quickly move behind a large piece of metal to take some cover while he's trying to shake off the effects of that attack. He quickly notices that his creations are outnumbered and he ceases the opportunity to nail Air Raid while he isn't looking! Rumble freezes in his spot as the frinduzzler white laser blasts arc out and encompass him. Funny thing though, he didn't feel a thing! "Haha, you stupid blue triangle ... that didn't hurt!" he shouts off, trying to lift a hand and shoot at Raindance. Funny thing though, he can't!!! "Oh, yer gonna get it now ... wait till I can..OOMPH!" Rumble cries out in pain, as he's smacked right in the kisser by the Aerialbot. Sent backwards end over end, the blue/purple cassette gets back to his feet and clears some smudges from his visor. "Sonnuva! I'm gonna pay you back fer that!" he shouts out, charging right back up towards the blue guy and aims a kick at his undercarriage. It's hard to tell from the grit and serious expression, well whatever limited expression that a mechanical condor can make, that underneath all that Laserbeak is already fearing for his own safety especially since that seemingly harmless Autobot technician suddenly turns out to more violent that expected. The red mechanical condor makes a note of that on the list of people who are frightening powerful in Laserbeak's eyes... which is pretty much everybody who has fired a shot at him so far in his existence. Laserbeak squawks angrily at Fairway before fleeing further away, and quickly reevaluates his options here. Maybe an Autobot tape might be a safer adversary! The red mechanical condor glides into an attack vector towards Raindance and fires his laser cannons once an optimal firing solution presents itself. "No problem me saving you!" Raindance bleeps to Air Raid, unaware that it was actually Fairway he helped. The little tape does a loop the loop in the air, trying to keep above the fight since he is small and fragile. One of his shiny chrome missiles detaches, streaking towards Soundwave. "...What?" Raid gets KABLOOIED by a missile nigh pointblank. His shoulder somewhat explodes, and he's left ablaze and frowning. "GLITCH!" he screams at Soundwave, just before the boombox gets smacked with a proton missile. Dashing through the smoke, he charges Sounders with joined fists, swinging them up to meet his chin. Fairway frowns, though he isn't surprised that he missed Laserbeak. He ducks quickly for cover of a large hump of metal and glances at the readout on his rifle. He's in the yellow...conservation would be prudent. He stashes his scram rifle for now. Sneering furstration and inspired by Air Raid's continual boldness, he pops out from behind his cover and transforms, racing forward to try and ram Rumble! Decibel grins inwardly as his shot strikes his intended target forcing him back to reset his systems. He had hoped it would buy his fellows some time to regroup and recover after the initial assault. Saddly that was not to be as a plume of smoke soon rises from Soundwave as his shoulder launcher sends off a projectile at Air Raid. "Geez, where does he get all those wonderful toys? Minions, anti-gravs, an arsenal to play with. Sure beats the stuff I get to carry around, I'm going to have to make a formal complaint here." Mag-locking his blaster pistol to his hip he reaches back and draws forth his rifle quickly checking the charge before nodding to himself. Set to fire he holds as Air Raid charges into his field of vision taking the fight to Soundwave in a more physical manner. Soundwave is nailed by an autobot missile while he wasn't looking. He took it right in the middle of his back. Tiny pieces of metal are scattered around after the impact. A moment later he smashed by Air Raid and it makes him falls on his knees. He takes a moment to recover his balance and then he takes off from the ground, hovering above the metal piece behind which he was hidden. He suddenly goes up after Raindance. As soon as he reaches him, he attempts to squash him by joining his hands together and swinging them at the autobot tape. Rumble manages to leap up just in time to avoid the smash job from Fairway, landing on the ground with a *THUD*. Arms transform into the ever-familiar pile-drivers and the cassette shoots his Commander a grin. "One earthquake, comin' right up!" Laughing manically, Rumble beats on the ground with the twin drums in a haphazard manner of *THOOM* *BOOM* *THOOM* *BOOM*. If not immediately affected by the seismic assualts on their frames, the deafening sound would be quite hurtful to those caught up in it. Laserbeak squawks disapprovingly as Raindance redirects his attacks onto Soundwave once again. He sails pass the triangular Autobot, his pair of laser cannon bolts travels harmlessly over the Autobot cassettibot. If there's even such a term. Either way, the red mechanical condor isn't about to risk his own physical safety again to go on another attack run. Just one was enough to shave off a few eons off of his life span. Banking sharply to the right, Laserbeak comes about and perches onto a nearby support within the devastated tunnel. The ledge barely supports the weight of the Decepticon operative, grinding and groaning as it threatens to give away at any moment but it's just enough time for Laserbeak's keen optics to analyze Raindance's structural flaws and transmit it to Soundwave. "Nooo!" Raindance is hit by Soundwave, and little bits of him fly off. "Avenge me Air Raid, avenge me!" he cries as the nasty cassette leader muderizes him. As he spins out of control, he spots Rumble attacking his friends, and so in a desperate effort, lets off his second large chrome missile at the evil foe. "That's how it's done, Doc!" Raid stands akimbo, looking far too smug. Suddenly, poor Raindance gets smooshed. Ah well, he's a triangle, he'll be okay. "Avenge yerself!" Apparently he's mad at Raindance for putting that pic up on deviantart. Before he can think to switch up dance partners, Rumble's shockwaves rack his frame, again and again. "Aaaghh!" he yowls, staggering backwards to fall among the shattered ground. It takes him a good moment to get to his feet and transform, struggling to gain altitude. Swiveling around, he takes aim on Rumble. "Cheep cheep!" DeLorean &lt;Fairway&gt; only manages to avoid Rumble's signature attack by engaging his jumpjets and boosting himself into a midair transformation. Another burn of his jets keeps him airborne until the aftershocks dissipate, and then he drops into a crouch and activates his energo blade. He covers his optics as Raid's sparrow missiles explode within feet of him. And then, with a growl over clenched dental plates, he lunges from his crouch to try and impale Soundwave. Fairway was a robot at the time. Pffft. Decibel having gotten a bit of advance warning about the impending unnatural disaster was quick to scramble to a better position. With the sensor already having taken one solid hit he clambers on top of it a rides out the ground pounding. Hoping the others were able to take advantage of the warning as well he takes a moment to glance around to check on their status. While doing so he is able witnesses Soundwave trying to pulverize Raindance. "Hey! Nobody turns our triangle into scrap." Distraction provided Fairway lands a good solid hit on blue and blocky. Decible then pivots to take a shot at the condor circling the area, "And I've had about enough of you and them peepers of yours." Soundwave goes back down after smashing the poor little tape. Fairway's energo blade strikes him but barely slice into his left foot's armor. The tape commander chooses to ignore him for the moment as he lands near Rumble, "Stand still for emergency procedure." he simply emits as he starts to work on Rumble's wound. &lt;&lt;Laserbeak, provide cover.&gt;&gt; While keeping an optics on the autobot around him, he quickly patches Rumble's wounds. Rumble is decemated by the combo of Raidance's armor shattering rockets and Air Raid's Sparrow missiles. A big explosion before the cassette is sent sailing through the air, only regaining composure/stability right before impacting with the ground. Landing, he's about to dash off when Soundwave comes calling. "I was fine, jeez ... no need ta play mother hen on me Soundwave!" Rumble complains, before getting the go ahead to head back into the fray. His arms already changed back into regular appendages, the cassette warrior aims a laser pistol at the sound engineer who's had enough of their meddling. Laserbeak leaps away from the rusted metallic beam that he had been using as a ledge moments earlier just in time as it crumbles away at last, but it has served its purpose regardless. The Decepticon operative has received new orders from Soundwave and reluctantly follows through with it, can't have the two things that's keeping him from getting turned into a scrap heap from getting junked. Laserbeak reaches the two Decepticon and then begins flying in an aggressive manner in circles while the other two are occupied. Every once in a while, the Decepticon operative spies an Autobot trailing too close and fires off shots to dissuade any further advances. "Hey... HEY! I JUST-! Grrr..." Raid sputters at Soundwave screwing up his handiwork. He circles like an angry jay and finally dives to fire off some sidewinders in blue-and-blocky's direction, contrails helixing. "Tapes don't need fixin'! Heads up Fairway, you got a bird on ya'!" "Yesss!" bleeps Raindance as he strikes Rumble, flying above the battle and taking time to smack-talk Air Raid over the Autobot channel. He dives slightly, heading towards Soundwave. "This guy is a tank, take him down!" he bleeps out. "We can pick off the little tapes afterwards!" With that, he gets as close as he dares, a taser wire shooting out at the evil Decepticon. Fairway wishes he was tenacious and confident enough a warrior to be disappointed that Soundwave has chosen to ignore him for now. But, to his own shame, he is no war machine. He finds Soundwave powerfully intimidating. He starts to slink away, but Laserbeak's attack pins him in place. He barely evades, and when he regains himself he manages to find the courage to lash out at Soundwave. "Thank you, Laserbeak," he smirks, drawing his scram rifle to fire on Tall, Dark, and Gruesome. Decibel groans as his shot goes wide, failing to blast the bird out of the sky. Optics to the sky he's caught unaware as Rumble fires a blast of his own his way. Detecting the energy discharge at the last second Decibel tries to dodge out of the way which ends up with him not only being shot but also falling off the sensor he was perched atop of. Quickly getting to he feet he softly mutters, "I'm ok. I'm ok don't panic." Checking his wound to make sure he's not leaking anything vital he decides to return the favor taking aim at the cassette. Maybe it's the fact that he secretly wants a mini-army of his own or maybe he's just disgusted at the outdated recording technology they represent. Either way he opens fire. Soundwave completes his work on Rumble despite him arguing, &lt;&lt;You are back to satisfactory operational status.&gt;&gt; Then he turns his attention back towards the Autobots but it's too late. He gets nailed by a missile while his energon reserves are being drained by that annoying little tape (how come Blaster didn't recycled him yet?) He's about to retaliate when he's also struck by Fairway's attack. He stumbles but remains on his feet. Reaching for his shoulder, he ejects another tape, "Wiretap, eject. Operation : Repairs." Soundwave turns his attention on Air Raid, firing a focused sonic blast at him. As Soundwave's tape deck opens, a pale blue cassette is ejected into the air. Not one of Soundwave's typical warriors, this one serves a different purpose. The cassette quickly transforms into a large blue ferret with bright pink eyes, who quickly attaches herself to Soundwave. Wiretap, as this cassette is known, is relatively useless as a combatant, but Soundwave is in dire need of her other talents. Sinking her claws into claws into Soundwave's exterior, she begins to enact a few critical repairs with her small, deft fingers and the multiple tools housed in her tail. Laserbeak breaks away from the defensive perimeter he was maintaining as it becomes evident that Soundwave has completed whatever quick fix he had intended to do on Rumble. The cassetticon flies closer into the fray as he attempts to get more accurate readings of the Autobots in the vicinity. Too bad with so many of them running around in such close proximity and the various weapons fire that's flying here and there makes it hard for Laserbeak to do much. Eventually the red mechanical condor concedes and treks further into the fray where he finally sees an Autobot that stood long enough for him to get an accurate data read out. Moments later the data upload goes out and straight to Rumble. "Hey, what's the big idea? Ya wanna pick on someone, try Rumble!" the dimunitive cassette-con shouts out, when Decibel's ranged attack impacts onto his chest plate. Knocking him back a step or two, Rumble looks up at the sky and to Laserbeak. "Hey, a little help here Beaker?" he calls out, taking a couple of steps forward before taking to the air. His right arm transforming into a pile-driver, Rumble aims a devastating blow at Decibel. "Take that you Autojerk!" "Ugh Soundwave just gave birth!" Raindance whines as he sees Wiretap come out and undo all their good work by repairing Soundwave. "He is invincible!" With that, Raindance loops around, seeing Rumble attack Decibel, and shoots his taser lines at the cassette, trying to suck out some of Rumble's devastating power. F-15 Eagle &lt;Air Raid&gt; abruptly jerks to one side, feeling the vibrations of the sonic blast graze a wingtip. "BOOYAH! Ain't got jack, mech! Hit me again! C'mon suckas!" He swoops down at a break-neck speed, a cloud of vapor forming on his frame. "Time for some Vulcan! Live long and prosper!" With that terrible line, he spins his gatling cannons and lets loose a barrage of high-powered bullets that streak towards Soundwave's glassy chest. Fairway grins as his attack finds its mark, but his inward celebration is shortlives as Soundwave appear unfazed. He uses his jumpjets to boost away and try and find a better position from which to launch his next attack. "That new cassette," he says to his comrades, "...Wiretap. It seems to be serving to repair its master." With this mostly meaningless observation, he activates his wrist blaster and fires at Wiretap. As soon as his last shot was fired Decibel was already on the move. Swinging around to try and get a clear bead on the one calling all the shots. Midway through his repositioning his sensors go crazy as they detect the scanning being done by Laserbeak which he knows is not going to lead up to something good. Moments later Rumble drives a piledriver into his frame. "Ow! Hey did you dent me? No wait, no dent. A scratch yeah but still oww. Ya no good punk." Up close an personal like this Decibel decides the best course of action is to simple punt the blue cassette warrior away. The kick is up, is it good? Soundwave is expertly repaired by Wiretap but that aerialbot jerk comes back for more. The bullets strikes his chest undoing half the repairs done by his creation and the tape commander decides it's about time to but an end to Air Raid's bravado. &lt;&lt;Acquiring target.&gt;&gt; he takes all his time to aim at the agile jet and once he's evaluate that his chances to hit him are at their maximum, he pulls the trigger of his missile launcher. Rumble laughs as the pile-driver makes impact with Decibel, the celebration cut short by the horribly aimed entangling taser and kick. Backing away shyly with both fists held up in front of his face, optics beneath the cool shades darting between the two opponents. Everyone just wants a piece of Rumble today! "Punk? I'll show you punk, you lame laser-cored lilly!" Clearly not his best day at insulting others. Either way, he aims a punch for Decibel's face. A piece of Retoris' tunnel breaks off as weapons fire crashes into the remaining stand walls near Laserbeak, sending football sized building fragments straight into the Decepticon cassette. The red mechanical condor is sent crashing down into the ground, a victim of dumb luck once more. Fortunately Laserbeak remains perfectly conscious, but startled, and is now in the process of wiggling out of the debris on top of him before he's stepped on. The small, lithe frame of Wiretap crawls down Soundwave's leg, and ducks behind the tall blue Decepticon for cover when Fairway opens fire on her. Soundwave's damage has been repaired as well as Wiretap can manage, and the others seem to be within operating parameters. While not designed for combat, she can still do her best to offer some suppressing fire against the Autobots. She fires a few small blasts of lasers from her hip-mounted turrets, before scampering back under cover. Raindance twirls in the air again as he misses Rumble like a bit loser. "No Decibel, don't die!" he cries. And then Soundwave missiles Air Raid. "No! He owes me money!" Raindance flies straight towards Soundwave, his Frinduzzler firing into life again, this time at the big blue meanie Soundwave does a damn good job of ending Raid's zeal. A missile strikes his fuselage hard and sends him spinning. Desperately attempting to stabilize, his nose cone scrapes along the ground, showering sparks as he slows to a smoldering stop. "Frrrag." Decibel missed. How exactly he was able to fail at such an epic level given the close range he's not sure, all he knows is that Rumble is not sailing through the uprights. Thinking that perhaps that fall off the sensor may have messed up his targeting system he's about to take a moment to recalibrate when two things transpire that quickly change his mind. The first being the detection of the shrill whine of a missile being launched. A missile that streaks off to detonate against Air Raid, the second being Rumble leaping up to strike him square in the chest. "Hey quit it you're going to scratch my screen." Lifting his rifle up he snaps the selector switch onto the setting he wants and pauses to gauge his shot. Turning away from the cassette-icon for a moment he locks onto his target wasting no time pulling the trigger before turning back towards Rumble, "Now it's your turn." Fairway watches in horror Soundwave blasts Air Raid. He's so distracted that he almost leaves himself wide open for an attack from Wiretap! He evades at the last second; he rolls to the right, ignoring Wiretap for now, and trying to get to Raid's position. "Stay still, friend," he says as he slides to Raid's side and produces his patch kit. Soundwave is struck by ...something as he was about to finish Air raid. All his systems are shorted and he find himself unable to move and he is soon struck by a burst of sonics that further damage his hydraulic system. The tape commander grunts in pain but as soon as he see Fairway going to Air Raid's help, he spring towards him and launches a vicious punch at the medic's head. "Do not interfere autobot." Wiretap's gaze shifts to the moronic blue triangle, the worst transformer ever. "Raindance, you will pay for your insolence!" Wiretap snarls through bared teeth. Leaping from her meagre cover, she flies towards Raindance, a cat-like bundle of claws and teeth and hissing and biting. "First mistake, ignoring me!" Rumble chastises Decibel as he raises another fist ... only this time transforming it into a pile-driver. Bringing the weapon down, he attempts to smash the Autobot on top of the head and into the ground, if possible. "Thanks," Raid murmurs, having no trouble remaining still. He sees Soundwave approaching but before he can utter any warning, the boombox decks poor Fairway in the head! "HEY!" Patched, Raid transforms and strides up to slug Soundwave in the proverbial gut. "Lay off the medic!" Fairway quickly completes the patch job on Raid and stands up into a nice solid punch in the mouth that sends him stumbling backward. "I tire of your drollery," he sneers at Soundwave, "and I tire of you!" With a yell, he charges Soundwave, his right fist sliding into his wristguard to be replaced once again by his energo blade. Decibel doesn't have time to enjoy the fruits of his shot as he still must deal with Rumble, the smaller mech not giving him much of a chance to recover before again engaging him in a physical assault. This time however Decibel was fast enough on his feet to avoid being struck. Skipping back the larger white framed bot floats like a butterfly and prepares to sting like a Bumblebee. Shifting his weight he leads with a balled up fist. "I didn't ignore you, I just wanted you to wait your turn. Besides I'm not sure if you're tall enough for this ride." Raindance is hit by Wiretap, and starts to spin again. "Away with you, vermin! I am here to defeat your master!" He keeps close to Soundwave, attempting to taser the large robot once more. "Soundwave, your doom is nigh!" he bleeps. Soundwave is double teamed by the Autobots! Too damaged to attempt to dodge, he raises his arms in front of him in an attempt to protect himself. He takes a few hits but mostly manage to slowly retreat unharmed. He's hoping that some reste will allow him to recover enough energy to retaliate but he's drained once again by Blaster's tape. Raising his head he looks at Raindance. "Blaster will have trouble to fix you." he simply states before firing his last missile at the autobot tape. "You need a hand bossman?" Rumble asks, half distracted by dealing with Decibel. Knocked away by the punch, the cassette flies through the air ... not out of his own volition, colliding with the ground and sliding about ten feet. "Damn, packs a punch ... don't he?" he remarks to no one in particular, firing off another blast at the Autobot. Wiretap growls at the rediculous blue triangle once more, hoping to grab Raindance's attention. "Come on, afraid to fight me? You can only put up a fight when you're all ganging up on Soundwave, is that it?" Her pointless little hip turrets open fire again, tryingto pepper Raindance with low powered purple lasers. While all the fighting is going on and titanic robots were smashing each other silly, a non-descript pile of debris on the floor had been rocking around. At last, a large piece of debris is pushed to the point where it rolls down the side and a thin sheet of metallic wing breaks through! Freedom at last! For the longest time, Laserbeak had been trapped in a clastraphobic space beneath the debris pile and can't be more than happier as he finally digs himself out, both of his wings outstretched in victory... that is until he realized that he just broke out of hell hole and landed right back into the line of fire between the Autobots and Decepticons again. ...crap. Laserbeak takes to the air again wearily. Air Raid isn't through with Soundwave just yet. He backs away to let Fairway go all Rambo, and gives a small shrug as Raindance gets asploded by missiles and lasers. Then, he makes to circle Soundwave and deliver a roundhouse kick to the back. Tank indeed! Decibel watches the smaller blue bot go flying and crashing down into the ground. "Perhaps you should go and give him a hand. He's starting not to look so good." Casting a quick glance at his older evil blue cousin Decibel turns back in time to easily sidestep the disrupter fire coming his way. "Go on, scoot." Trying to emphasize this he fires off a short blast of his own. Raindance detatches his taser with a cry of triumph, as Soundwave then hits him, the little triangle spinning nearly out of control. "I've still got you Soundwave, you're going down! We're gonna use you as the jukebox in the Autobot rest room!" Then Wiretap hits him, the little tape spinning somewhat. "That's because no-one cares about you, we only care about Soundwave!" he snarks back, firing his stun laser with wild abandon Fairway backs away, surprised at his outburst, but he can't lose momentum now! Decidedly less resolute, he attacks in concert with Air Raid, aiming a kick at the side of Soundwave's leg to try and bring the big Decepticon down. Soundwave is kicked by Air Raid. The smaller bot doesn't do much damage to him but he took quite a beaiting so far and all those little wounds are starting to add up to slow down the tape commander. He doesn't have enough time to recover that he is struck by Fairway and stumbles back. "Autobot offensive inefficient. Defeat unavoidable." he emits before swinging both hands towards the aerialbot. Wiretap falls over, her curcuits sizzleing as she is overcome by Raindance's frunduzzler thingie. "ACK! I'll get you for that!" Laserbeak takes notice of Raindance's threat towards the Decepticon tape commander and acts accordingly as expected of all loyal minions. Of course, what villian would Laserbeak be if he doesn't adhere to the crucial rule of absolutely ruining your grand sneak attack by announcing it in the most obnoxious of manner? That's right. Laserbeak comes in flying behind Raindance, squawking angrily moments before firing his laser cannons. Rumble is pelted with the laserfire again, getting quite perturbed with the one sided battle that's made itself known. "We gonna stick around fer much more bossman? I'm gettin' sick of the laser light show!" he declares, firing off another miniscule blast ... only this time at the Aerialbot. "Noooo!" cries Raindance as he is shot to bits by Laserbeak. "Avenge me!" he shouts as he plummets to the ground :( Air Raid yelps as his helm crumbles a bit and gets jammed into his shoulders. He stumbles back, dazed, willing his knees to stay rigid as they try to buckle. Energon streams down his armor now. Rumble's laserfire connects with his already smoldering armor, and he staggers to one knee. Well, there goes Raindance! Felled by a turkey. Raid lines his shaking rifle barrel up with Soundwave's helm and squeezes the trigger.  "Primus," Fairway cries, "Raindance!" Fairway rushes to his comrade's side, but there's no patch to be done here. The blue triangle will need a more thorough repair job done, and this is not the place to do it. In anger, Fairway cracks off a shot at Soundwave with his wrist blaster.  Decibel is able to land another blaster shot against Rumble and it seems like the others are holding up well against the other Decepticons as well. Well that is they were holding up well until Laserbeak killed Raindance with a strafing run. As the blue triangle plummets to the ground Decibel snaps his rifle up and fires off a blast at the bird again. "You killed our triangle! You bird flu carrying miscreant." Soundwave is analyzing that situation when he get struck by another laser blast from Air Raid which makes a smoking hole in his shoulder armor. Upon completing his analysis, he decides that they gathered all the data they could from the autobot response, "Wiretap, Rumble, Laserbeak : retreat." Following his own orders, he takes off and heads west towards Darkmount. Rumble aims his laser blaster at Air Raid for another shot, but then the call comes into retreat. "If you say so bossman, but I had that Seeker wannabe ... dead to rights!" he intones, drifting off into the air on the heels of his Tape Commander. Wiretap rolsl to her feet as Raindance's curcuit-frying stun gun wesrs off, and finds herself the last one left on the battlefield! Pity she lacks any rue Wiretap rolls to her feet as Raindance's curcuit-frying stun gun wesrs off, and finds herself the last one left on the battlefield! Pity she lacks any true combat weapons to keep the Autobots at bay with. Her little butt rockets fire, and the weasel flies away! Laserbeak is very thorough in his strafing run, each blaster bolts finding its way onto Raindance, before the proximity to his target forces him to pull up to higher altitudes once more. The red mechanical condor banks away and clears the area quickly after the deed is done, he knows only that his attacks landed but didn't afford himself to time to look behind to realize the potency of his assault until the Autobots cry out for their fallen comrade. That, and a blaster rifle shot slamming right into his aft plating. This alone was enough to send Laserbeak into a panic and break into a retreat. Thankfully this coincides with Soundwave's decision as well, making it seem like Laserbeak was calmly falling orders when in fact he'd be sweating out nuts and bolts out of fear if it were physically possible. Air Raid straightens and watches Soundwave finally retreat. "...Oww. This is no way to recover from a hangover. Th' frag were we rehearsing a play for anyway! Here Doc, I'll do the heavy lifting." He grabs the triangle by a corner, with little care. Decibel watches the retreat begin and lowers his weapons to begin taking stock of the damage done. Raindance is down for the count and Air Raid doesn't look much better. The sensor station is also shot to hell, but they were able to hold. Hurrying over to lend a hand with getting everyone back to a more secure area. "Let me get that Air Raid, you look like you are lucky to be standing as is."