A Trip to Torqulon, Part 2

Barren Plains

The vast majority of the surface of Torqulon is an almost-completely barren plain. Winds constantly buffet the surface, sending dust and sand swirling around at high speeds. The only objects which prevent the plains

from being completely barren are a number of green and purple pyramids, which seem to rise from the surface, resembling stone webs.

Contents:

Rewind

Rumble

Soundwave

Decepticon Shuttle 

Rewind lurks among the rising strand mass of a web pyramid, visor scoping out the Decepticon Shuttle in the distance, the activity around it and the activity between him and it. He's been biding his time in a silent

predatory mode while keeping the web from reacting in a counter productive way to his plans. The lights in his chest twinkle dimly against its surface now and then.

Hinder shuffles idly about just outside the shuttle. Her Air Raid-sitting duties are finally complete, and she's waiting for Soundwave's next set of instructions for her. Of course, idle time is probably dangerous when Hinder

is concerned but so far she's done nothing more than explore the area within ten feet of the shuttle.

Stepping outside the shuttle, Soundwave is carrying a box with him. He opens it up and offers it to Polarity. "Your function indicates these items will be of assistance. Alert me if any further materials will be required. Be

quick - we must find our guide, then retrieve that autobot stowaway."

Polarity follows Soundwave out, stopping next to him when the tapemaster stops to open the box. "Oooo, I do love new toys~" Or tools, in this case. Cutting tools in this case. The Seeker snatchs them up and scurries

back to the chunks of metal he'd already pulled off the crate. "Won't be but a few clicks!" Proper tooling just speeds up the process, after all.

Meanwhile, inside Soundwave's chest, Rumble gets a high score on Galaga while waiting until Soundwave needs something wrecked enough that the indiscriminate little demolisher might be unleashed.

Rewind tilts his head to the side just a hair. The rodent. The monotonic meister. The magnetic sadist. And a box. Playing house around the shuttle. He /must/ reach the long range radio. He backs out of the pyramid web

mass carefully and moves around the back of it to the side, now on the ground in a runners crouch ready to move at a moments notice.

Pressing the button on his shoulder, Soundwave's tape door pops open. "Rumble, Eject. Operation: scout and support."

A tape ejects from the hatch, flips into the air and transforms, hitting the ground as Rumble with his right-hand laser blaster already detached from his back and ready to go. "Right! Takin' the lead!" he yaps, scurrying

ahead of the others to take point.

Soundwave nods to the little tape, then moves toward the plain, and points. "Beware, combat is forbidden on this planet. The groundwebs will retain us if we attempt it. Use extreme caution if the autobots are

encountered."

Rumble looks disgusted at the very idea of a "no-fighting" planet. "What're we supposed to use, man, harsh language?"

Rewind clenches his fist as Rumble is unleashed from the mechanical chest-womb of Soundwave. His red optic visor flashes bright and he gets to his feet. He starts stalking forward without a word. There will be no

tactical improvement for his situation he decides, so it is now or never and he does not hesitate.

Combat: Rewind sets its defense level to Protected.

Soundwave looks down at the other little Decepticon, who has been quiet thus far "Hinder, retrieve the detained Autobot AIr Raid from the shuttle." he then looks over at the generics. "When Polarity is finished, we will be

heading to the spaceport. You have your orders."

Polarity walks back over after a few more moments of working. Peers at Rumble for a moment, who wasn't here a few moments ago. "It's a good thing I made extras." He kinda figured Soundwave might be hiding more

of his horde anyways, so he's got several to stick to the various Decepticons present. Being able to magnatize the fake Autobot emblems so they just stick right over the Decepticon ones makes it all the easier. "There

we go.. oh, almost forgot." He pulls out two more and slaps them on his wings before he forgets. "Okay, -now- we're ready."

Rumble reluctantly puts his laser back on its mounting and tries on his new Autobot emblem, snickering over it. "I was gonna ask if these Torqulon guys is dumb enough to fall for this, but I guess Soundwave just

answered that!"

Rewind pauses in mid step and lowers to the ground, laying flat as he sees the Autobot emblems revealed for fitting. Those decieving Decepticons and their deceptive disguises. He resumes observing in his low and still

position.

The generics give one final salute to Soundwave, who then proceeds toward the dim glow of the spaceport. "Decepticons, we must find our guide. The quicker we find one, the quicker the Autobots will succumb to our

will!" He moves ahead alongside Rumble with a determined stride.

Polarity fusses a bit with the ones on his wings. Ironically it's -harder- to get them to stick to himself due to having his own magnetic field than it was to stick them to normal transformers, but it works. Finally he's

satisfied with being picky and falls into step with the other decepticons-in-disguise. Hey, they have 'decept' in their faction name for a reason! "Eeeehehehe. This is like trick or treating, but with all trick and the only treat is

our stealing something!"

Hinder did actually hear Soundwave's command about fetching Air Raid. She disappeared into the shuttle and is just now re-emerging after Air Raid. She's not wearing Autobot symbols yet, but her own Decepticon

symbols are so subtle that they're not sticking out like a sore thumb.

"What're we stealin' this time? I wasn't payin' attention," Rumble asks.

As Hinder arrives with Air Raid, soundwave immediately notices that he is no longer bound by the chair, the threats of the worker Decepticons with guns seeming to be the only thing keeping him in line. He begins

pushing them out of the way, trying to make a break for it. They crowd away from the door, successfully restraining Air Raid on the other side of the shuttle but leaving the hatch wide open.

Hinder chases after Air Raid and bites at his ankles to keep him from running away. "Nono! No running, you promised!"

Soundwave slaps a pair of electrocuffs on Air Raid then pulls him to his feet and slaps a magnetic Autobot symbol over his mouth before he can say anything. "Hinder, security measures inadequate!" he says, and gets

back to leading the other 'cons away from the shuttle toward the Spaceport.

Hinder cringes back from Soundwave at the scolding, staying hunched down until the entire procession is underway and she's left trailing after them still symbolless.

".. Oh, there you are." Knew he was forgetting someone! Polarity plops a couple of tiny symbols on Hinder before hurrying to follow after the others. And shooting a few dirty looks at Air Raid now and then. Or making

faces at him now that he can't yell back. Because Polarity is a jerk like that.

Rewind uses his limbs now, moving up from the ground. All fours move slowly and carefully, spread out and balancing his weight evenly. And then he is on the move for the Shuttle hatch as the Decepticon party walks

away to spread the evil.

Soundwave creates a hologram map of the Spaceport in front of himself, which he goes over with the other Decepticons as they walk.

Hinder startles at Polarity and cranes her neck to look at the magnets stuck to her shoulders, but then notices everyone else has fun red magnets so she mentally shrugs and scurries to catch up with the others. She

stops momentarily and tilts her head, thinking she heard something, but again dismisses it and catches up with the others a second time.

Rumble isn't paying attention to background noise. For one thing, Rumble's a bit deaf, and for another, paying attention to things is not his forte. Destroying stuff is his forte. "So we're goin' from here to... which direction

is North on that? Are we the arrow? I'll just go where you're goin'"

Polarity is in the same boat as Rumble. He's here to play guard and shoot things if it gets in their way... except you can't shoot things here... oh well, he can do things BESIDES shoot things... sometimes. "... Are we

there yet?"

Rewind slips in, knowing the shuttle layout because like everything else he experiences he has it memorized. He finds the com station, climbs up onto it because Cybertronians do not make things for anybody size '3' or

smaller, and quickly patches into the system. He transmits to Blaster across the vast cold darkness of space: 'This is Rewind, greatest of all Autobots. Blaster, my trusted one. I am stranded on Torqulon. The

Decepticons are here. Air Raid has been captured, the fool. I have managed to elude the incompetent Decepticons thus far. Come to Torqulon and bring forth my brothers. We have dark business on this insane world.

Acknowledge and make haste.'

Autobot Shuttle  cruises through space not too far away from the region where planet Torqulon can be found. Inside, Blaster sits in an elevated chair in the middle of the main compartment, occasionally

tapping buttons on the armrests the way Captains do. Only in Blaster's case he is actually channel-surfing local radio stations. "They really call it 'Country' out in space? Shouldn't it be 'Galaxy' or something? Oh hang on

a second! Rewind?? Rewind! Where you been little mech?! Nevermind that. Hang on, we're on the way!" He sits up straight now, pointing at the casettes in the pilot's seats. "Bots, I think we just found our long-lost bro

Rewind! And from the sounds of it, just in time. Set course for planet Torqulon!!" Then he surreptiously pushes a few more buttons on his own chair. Soon the Sarikus has entered Torqulon airspace and sets down for a

landing near the Conquest II.

Hinder hears the newly arriving shuttle as it comes in for a landing where they all just were a little while ago. That....does not look like friendly people arriving. She looks toward Soundwave, then hesitates to radio him

after the recent scolding, but then knows that that'll make him even angrier. So she tosses a quick radio blip. << Soundwave, unfamiliar shuttle arriving near the location of our transport unit. >>

From Autobot Shuttle , Foxfire is at the sensor station, sitting in the chair on his haunches with his front paws up on the console. His ears twitch and he looks up at the sound of Rewind's SOS, and he wags

his tail. "Rewind! You're okay!" To Blaster, he nods. "Yes, of course. Off to Torqulon!" As the shuttle comes in for a landing, he watches the sensors closely.

From Autobot Shuttle , Swift is sitting in the pilot's chair himself, looking at the controls more than actually using them. What do you expect? He's in his bunny form right now, and he is rather limited in what he

could do. "Right! To Torqulon!" Swift says before attempting to pilot the shuttle. Thankfully Blaster was controlling it.

"Hinder, return." Soundwave says, pressing a button and opening his chest. Hinder jumps in.

Hinder has left.

Soundwave takes Hinder.

Rewind shuts off the com link at the last of Blasters transmission in satisfaction, and gives the interior of the shuttle a surveying gaze as if he were a customer at a car sale lot. He then leaps off of the station and moves

to the exit hatch. He has a sky to watch and Autobots to wait for while the Decepticons make with their quest. And perhaps an Autobot/Decepticon spinny or even a commercial break later, the Autobot Shuttle arrives. He

growls in a pleased tone to himself, "Finally." He strides to the landing location and announces to the big ship. "Well met. It pleases me, despite my resourcefulness, that I am no longer a force of one. Now hurry,

Autobots! The Decepticons have a head start."

Blaster hurries off the shuttle, not far behind Swift. He gives Rewind an odd look, but with Decepticons looming, questions will have to wait. "Lead the way, Rewind!"

Rewind smirks under his mouth plate and goes into a run following the direction the Decepticons went off towards. "To victory!"

Torqulon Spaceport

Not very busy, this simple spaceport sees the occasional ship coming and going at irregular intervals. As there is no need for anything more complex, it consists of just a dark control tower constructed of native stone, a

single but adequately-serviced launchpad, a private terminal for charter ships, and a rarely-used public terminal. Oddly enough, the security subsystems are state-of-the-art, and seem to be designed to keep people in,

rather than out...

Contents:

Polarity

Rumble

Soundwave

"There." Soundwave says, pointing to the Spaceport's lounge. "That is where I calulate we should find a suitable..." he says, then pulls a small box out of subspace, "...and bribable guide. But first...we need to find an out

of the way area to secure the Autobot prisoner." all of this is in a low tone, as to not alert the inhabitants, as the place is not exactly alive with a crowded din.

Polarity ums for a moment, then snaps his fingers. "Stand him in a corner and let the guards surround him. We'll just tell anyone else it's for their own safety to ignore him. This place is full of kooks anyways."

Blaster hustles along in a veritable procession of tapes. His hulking form proves less than suitable for stealth work, however, so he transforms to let one of his much smaller teammates carry him for now.

Blaster transforms into his Boombox  mode.

"Hinder, Eject." Soundwave says, nodding to Polarity. "Operation: Monitoring." he says, and presses the button on his chest.

Hinder has arrived.

Polarity turns to the generic guards. "You mooks heard the boss, stick him in a corner, he's been a baaaaaad boy." He even gives the scolding finger waggle at Air Raid as the genericons surround him. "We don't want him hurting innocent bystanders after all, until we get a nice padded room for him." He's enjoying the charade way too much.

Swift does his best to catch Blaster once he transformed, carrying the boombox about as well as a black robo-rabbit can do. Falling back on his survival instincts, he sticks to the shadows as best as he could. He's not really stealthing, just keeping quiet and trying to stay out of sight. He is curious, though, as to what the 'Cons are up to.

Foxfire activates a hologram to blend into the environment, in the process staying close to Swift and remaining as silent as possible.

Hinder hits the ground lightly and bobs her head at Soundwave before shuffling over to 'plant' herself directly in front of Air Raid. She's got her back to the captive mech to watch everything else that's going on, but she's got at least one bit of her attention focused on the prisoner while she observes everything else that going on. Monitoring duty indeed.

Blight sneaks into the cabin of the shuttle, finally stopped munching on the shuttle. He figured if he was small, he could munch as much as he wanted and no one would be the wiser. So now he enters the area to see what was going on, attaenae twitching.

Rewind observes the spaceport as the party approaches, having not seen it during the Decepticon shuttles initial landing as Air Raid and himself were still inside a crate at the time. His loyal Tape-bots and Blaster here now on this ridiculous world, he has no doubt that the Decepticons will be utterly thwarted and dealt with. He says quietly, "They've taken Air Raid with them. A problem for us... but maybe for them as well."

Soundwave would roll his eyes, if it were possible, instead, he turns to Polarity. "A suitable Decepticon will need to find the guide. This will require convincing. I require a volunteer." he says, opening the box, revealing a rather large amount of galactic credits inside. Who knows what an amount like that could buy! "This box contains the credits alloted for a bribe. The volunteer may keep the remaining contents, but the guide's cooperation will be essential."

Polarity oohs. Because there's a lot of shiny in there for one thing! ... oh wait its not for him. Unless there's something left over. Alright then. He takes the box, and goes to pester one of the locals. "Heeey, have I got a deal for you!" Just got to think of it as a big trick, after all. Jangles the contents of the box. "All we need to do is show us where the strongest point of this planet's 'treatments' are." Gives a nod over his shoulder at the shackled and guarded Aerialbot. "Poor guy saw something he really shouldn't of seen, and he's been raving nutso ever since."

A pause, and he leans closer, holding up one hand to the side as he mock whispers after a shifty glance around. "On that note, never -ever- plug yourself directly into the Earth's 'internet'. There are horrors no being is meant to see there... and naked ones too!"

... Well, it's true isn't it?!

Boombox  says in an extremely low whisper to the other Autobots, "Soundwave. Comm's aren't safe with him around. Anybody see anyone else we need to worry about out there? Who've they got keeping watch on Air Raid?"

Blight's attaenae twitch as he scuries up and hears jangles. He flies into the air and lands on the box. He flutters more attaenae, walking along it's surface in an attempt to find an opening to steal himself some goodies.

Swift looks around a bit carefully, not fully sure who would be worth looking out for. Soundwave for sure, then there was Rumble, who could send them for a tumble. Then Polarity who... looked easy enough to confuse. And finally Hinder, who was looking observant. All of them dangerous in Swift's mind. Keeping Blaster, though, was keeping him from saying too much as it was.

Hinder stays right where she is despite the shiny and the jangles, looking about alertly and making a note of every stray sound she hears or movement she sees. She tilts her head and tries to make out what she /thought/ was a voice speaking faintly, but she doesn't hear it again, so isn't sure what to make of it.

"I don't volunteer," anti-volunteers Rumble, not raising either hand.

Combat: Tiny Stinkbug slips into the shadows and out of sight...

Transforming into cassette player mode, Soundwave hunkers down next to Hinder and Frenzy.

The 80's wants their altmode back as Soundwave transforms into his cassette player form.

Soundwave projects a small map of his plan which he goes over in front of Hinder, and Rumble, which is a diagram consisting of "<3 of torqulon + chair + lightning bolt hitting Air Raid = sad Rodimus face happy galvatron face

"I don't get it," says Rumble, scratching his head.

Hinder tilts her head as she studies the map, then cranes her neck to look back at Air Raid for a moment. But then she goes back to watching their surroundings alertly. Monitoring.

Rewind grits behind his mask plate and clenches his fists as he moves around the spaceport. A spartan place. Giant monkey-faced people seem to be the natives or dominant life forms govorning the planet. Something he must correct at some point ofcourse. To Blaster he replies, "Their weasel Hinder for one. And that wretch Seeker Polarity for another last I saw."

Tape Deck says, "The heart of Torqulon will attach to the Autobot Air Raid's mind. From there, we will be able to analyze the planet's abosorbed madness. My equipment will capture this and record it. Once recorded, I will refine it, and build a device on Earth to reverse it unleash it on the Autobots in its purest form. They will be reduced to gibbering pocket calculators." There is a touch of satisfaction in his tone."

Blight scurries across the box and reaches a cliff. He begins to climb the cliff despite the fact the cliff was infact, the finger of the seeker whom held his box! He knew he shouldnt bite a decepticon who can easily run off and tell on him, so he just scurries along the finger, tiny legs scraping the metal.

Hinder snaps her head to one side. She's sure that time she heard another voice besides Soundwave's, and is staring toward where she thinks it originated.

The disgusting looking creature's beady eyes go wide, and he makes an "Oooooh!" expression. He nods emphatically at Polarity, then hops down from his barstool, drink still smeared about his scaly green face. He grabs Polarity by the arm and heads out into the open area of the Spaceport.

"We've got a live one here!" Polarity yelps back to the others as the guy starts to lead him off. "... Eeew. Someone needs to fumigate this place," he adds as he tries to shake the bug off, mostly making the box jingle-jangle more as he does so. Its a teeny tiny little bug, he has no way of telling its an actual Insecticon!

Swift slowly moves himself forward, trying to keep quiet and doing so carefully, to get a better look at the plan as well. Rumble wasn't the only one who didn't get it, as he wasn't sure how shocking Air Raid would make Rodimus sad and Galvatron happy. Then Soundwave, in true Super Villain fasion (save for having the heroes stuck to his death trap), explains his plan.

Swift wants to cry out, make a sound, even rush in to stop the 'Cons. But he's still holding back some, not used to working in a group. He does try to gently set Blaster down, looking at the Autobot Boombox of Awesomeness. "What do we do?" The robo-bunny whispers.

Foxfire snarls. "Just stay calm," he tells Swift. "Calm..."

Boombox  hmms softly. "Well I don't think we've been made - yet. Unless anybody's got a better plan, let's follow 'em and see what else they're up to. Has to be more than just giving poor 'Raid a mindwipe. 'Course if it looks like they /are/ about to do our Bot, we go in hot."

The spaceport bustles with a din, and arriving ships are announced over the loudspeaker system every so often. The cassettes on both sides are almost stepped on several times.

Foxfire does his best NOT to get stepped on. He's hard enough to see even without his holographic disguise.

Swift hops around, avoiding being stepped on for now, and hopefully keeping out of sight still.

"Oh!" exclaims Rumble, a figurative lightbulb going on over his head. He even snaps his fingers. "Like a psychofraculator! Good idea, Boss. I always said you was smart."

Polarity shouts back at the other not-Decepticons, "You guys gonna follow or what?"

Soundwave transforms, and looms down at the Torqulon native, which leaps back in surprise when Soundwave grows to such a large size so quickly. He looks frightened for a moment, then steps forward. "You looking for heart of Torqulon, yes? Gruk will show you for credits. Lots of credits. Gruk want leave Torqulon, go to Monacus! Get rich!" He says with excitement. Soundwave straightens impatiently, and the little creature seems to get the message. "Getting to heart tricky, but Gruk know the way, build tunnel. Nobody know Gruk been there."

The small blue and silver cassette recorder unfolds and expands, transforming into the Decepticon Soundwave.

Polarity shakes the box of credits again to make it jangle some more. "So how's 'bout you show us where this tunnel is, hmmmm?". The money probably speaks more to the guy than the words do, but that just makes this easier doesn't it?

And then some fool in ahurry almost steps on Rewind... And the pint sized archivist snaps. "NOBODY DARES WALK OVER THE MIGHTY REWIND!!!" He lunges up at the busy and startled non-neutral persona person who hits him bodily in the chest and knocks him down.

Foxfire facepaws at Rewind.

Hinder has been managing to avoid getting stepped on, just barely at times but still successful. But then she hears Rewind bellow and yeeps, hopping in place and bumping into Air Raid's ankles. << Soundwave! Autobot activity detected! >>

Blight hangs on for dear life as Polarity decides to shake the box. When Polarity stops, he flies to the air and begins to look around. When Rewind declares himself, he flies into the air.

Air Raid shakes loose a bit, and the worker cons have to pull the restraint lines tighter. "Keep him under control! We don't want him...hurt" Soundwave says, looking around to make sure no one is eying them suspiciously. He then picks up on Rewind's voice, and looks quickly at the group, saying "We have company. Quickly, we must head for the tunnel."

"Hey, that guy just said he was the mighty Rewind," Rumble points out, indicating Rewind.

Polarity is practically shooing the alien to lead so they can follow at this point, especially when Soundwave warns that they have more company. "Com'n, lets go already!"

"I think trying to stay hidden won't be a good thing now..." Swift said, looking over at Rewind. The black robo-bunny doesn't try to move out of his shadows of comfort though.

Tape Deck says, "Hinder, Rumble. Capture Rewind!"

Boombox  hisses, "Rewind! What's gotten into you!" He hears Soundwave's orders and then adds, "Can you keep those two occupied? /Without/ getting yourself scrapped? The rest of us'll see if we can't spring Air Raid!"

Hinder ignores Blight's channel blather and then when Soundwave changes her orders to capture Rewind, she focuses on where she heard the Autobot cassette and starts bounding that direction, expecting Rumble to follow alongside. She weaves through the busy spaceport foot traffic with the ease of either lots of practice or a really bendy spinal column.

Rewind pokes a finger against the nose of the fallen civie firmly and says firmly, "Let this be a lesson to..." He's cut short by Blaster. "Ofcourse I can!" He leaps off the civie alien and moves out into the open. "You Decepticon scum will regret the day you thought it safe to step a foot out of New Crystal City, do you hear me?"

"Is it safe to let him do this?" Swift asked quietly, looking at Blaster and Foxfire. Being the newest tape could make things a bit hard in knowing if this is normal.

Soundwave picks up the little native and begins running for the exit, ushering the remaining Cons to follow. However, the workers are having to nearly drag air raid and egress from the station is slow for a moment. They finally give up and host air raid up on their shoulders, and the whole group begins moving toward the exit at a fast pace.

Foxfire's hologram has, by now, disappeared, as he figures it's pointless to keep it up. He eyes Rewind, then nods to Swift. "He should be fine."

Polarity eeews as he has to touch an organic, but thankfully Soundwave picks him up instead. "Com'n, lets just go look already." Last thing they need is more Autobots showing up... wait, they're suppose to be pretending to be Autobots. "Those guys are just as sick as the one we're trying to save, that's why they're here trying to take him away!", he blurts out to try and keep the charade moving even as he follows after the tapebox commander

"Right!" Rumble replies, socking his fist into his palm and sprinting towards Rewind eagerly, tripping an alien as he goes just for fun. "You're comin' with us, pal!" he shouts at Rewind, putting his shoulder down to try to tackle Rewind to the floor.

Combat: Rumble sets his defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Rumble strikes Rewind with his Flying Takedown (Smash) attack!

Blight notices a hologram flicker and reveal a familiar Foxy treat he once tried to eat. He flies a bit closer and then fires a laser beam right for a foxy ear, to try and make a hole in it so the foxfire can put earrings in it. And here people say Blight isnt the sort to help others.

Combat: Tiny Stinkbug appears from the shadows...

Combat: Sneak Attack!!

Combat: Tiny Stinkbug strikes Foxfire with his Disruptor attack!

Foxfire gives a loud, yelping bark as the laser beam pieces his left ear, leaving a quite visible (and painful) hole. He snarls with a hiss, placing a paw on the ear to staunch the flow of mech fluid. He whips toward Blight, spots the Insecticon, and relatiates with a laser attack of his own--the twin energy beams fly forth from his optics, which briefly flare as he does so.

Combat: Foxfire misses Tiny Stinkbug with his Optic Lasers (Laser) attack!

Rewind stands firm as Rumble comes at him. "You puny fool. You cannot-OOF!" Rewind gets sacked by Rumble, hitting the spaceport ground. "Intolerable! It's a little known fact that Rumble will be a soon dead 'King' of Tapes." Rewind scuffles back and to his feet, and then lets his chest light beacon pop, flashing at Rumble.

Combat: Rewind strikes Rumble with its Light Beacon attack! [Pulled -1]

Combat: That attack has temporarily limited Rumble's Accuracy! (Blinded)

 Saboteur Foxfire says, "Heh...wow, Rewind, I didn't know you had it in you!"

Swift quickly chases after Soundwave, not wanting to let the big Decepticon get away with Air Raid and potentially succeed in his actions. "Hey! Stop or I'll be forced to shoot!" The robo-bunny said. He really hoped Soundwave would actually do as he said.

Hinder reaches Rewind just a moment after Rumble does and skids to a stop as they both tumble from the football-esque tackle. She watches them for a moment, not sure what to do to help capture the cassette-bot. But the moment the separate and Rewind tries to blind Rumble, she darts in under her fellow Decepticon's legs to jump and bite at their quarry's face.

Combat: Hinder strikes Rewind with her bite you onna face (Punch) attack!

Rumble stumbles backwards, flailing around defensively with his fists while he's temporarily dazzled. "Agh, my friggin' eyes! I thought this was the guy who just talked about football all the time! Hinder, sic'em!"

Combat: Rumble sets his defense level to Protected.

Combat: Rumble misses Rewind with his Shadowboxing (Punch) attack!

Blight weaves around the optic beams and grows to his normal giant insect size. "I wonder how you taste." He says as he flies for Foxfire, trying to grab onto the small fox to take a munch out of him.

The robot shifts and folds himself into the giant robot stinkbug.

 Swift says, "Keep them busy Rewind! We'll save our friend!"

Combat: Stinkbug strikes Foxfire with his Munch attack!

 Saboteur Foxfire says, "Foxes. Do. Not. Taste. Good. Argh!"

Foxfire flinches as Blight bites into his neck. "Get off. I don't taste good!" Claws out, he swipes at the Insecticon in an attempt to dislodge him.

Combat: Foxfire misses Stinkbug with his Claw (Punch) attack!

Air Raid kicks and screams and makes a big huge nuisance of himself. "LET ME GO YOU ALL SUCK SO HARD AUUUUGHHHH! Oh hey! Tapes to the rescue! ...Aw slag."

Rewind masked mouth and visored optics are maw-clampified by the slinky Hinder and he back-stumbles by the thrown force of the Decepti-tapes weight as well, Rumbles blinded lashing out finds nothing but air at that time. But Hinder is a problem that must be dealt with. Oh yes. "You unworthy... little... vermin!" He tries to drive an elbow into the mid-body of the biter.

Combat: Rewind strikes Hinder with its Elbow (Punch) attack!

Boombox  hmms. "Things don't look good for team red. I'm sensing a distinct tactical difficiency here. Time to bring in some more firepower." His tape deck cover lowers and out flies...

Steeljaw has arrived.

Blight flies back to avoid claws and munches on what he bit of the neck. "Taste good enough for me, Autobot. Lets see about adding more flavor to you." He says turns his abdomen around, locks his legs, and spews forth the most horrible smelling goo which has been commented by hook to smell worse then blot on his bad days, the chemical eating whatever it touched as it is sprayed.

Combat: Stinkbug misses Foxfire with his Horrific Stench attack! [Pulled -3]

Hinder gets an elbow in the mid-body and her little claws scrape at Rewind. In other words, ouch. She REALLY tries to not let go of her chomp-hold on his face, though, hissing in reply and shaking her head to try and subdue the Autobot.

Combat: Hinder strikes Rewind with her shake it like a chewtoy attack!

"Come on now! Put him down! Please! I asked you nicely now..." Swift said. Frowning, he kept on running while his rocket launchers got ready, adjusting carefully. "HEY! UNCROZIMATIC BORE! LISTEN UP!" He said before firing off a rocket of paint at the Decepticon Tape Master.

Combat: Swift misses Soundwave with his Paint Rocket attack!

"Decepticons! This is more enemy than anticipated. Full attack. Do not let Air Raid escape!" Soundwave says, running into the fray himself, and ordering the gumbies to go ahead and get Air Raid out of here.

Foxfire is quick enough to dodge the glue, thank Primus! "Is that your best shot?" he taunts Blight. "Eat this!" He opens his mouth and spews forth a stream of flames which fly directly toward his opponent.

Combat: Foxfire strikes Stinkbug with his Fox Fire attack!

"Nobody calls Soundwave whatever it was that bunny just said!" Rumble shouts defiantly, transforming his arms with a rapid three-tone version of the transformation sound. He drops into a shallow crouch, steadies himself, and starts beating the ground. Any aliens who have not already fled stagger and fall to the ground, spaceships shiver on their landing legs, lights pop and glass shatters as Rumble starts to gradually build up what will surely be an almighty earthquake if no one can stop him first!

Combat: Rumble sets his defense level to Fearless.

Boombox  says, "More enemy than anticipated?" Blaster echoes. "You got that right, big blue and ugly. 'Cause you never anticipated -- this!" Blaster transforms into his own robot form, looming behind Swift. "I got this one, Swift - why don't you see if you can spring Air Raid! And Steeljaw, sounds like our Bot Rewind could use a paw back there!""

Boombox  transforms into his Blaster mode.

Air Raid doesn't look to be escaping very well. No, he just sits atop the crowd of gumbies with his hands bound, yelling his head off. "HEY! SOMEONE FRICKIN' COME SAVE ME! They're gonna' throw me in the looney bin!! RRGH!"

... And out comes a golden cassette. It quickly unfolds, growing larger, legs unfolding, a head clattering into existence. It flips over itself, and Steeljaw hits the ground hard. Claws dig into the ground, eyes bright as he growls. "It's about time! I'm eager to get my fangs into one of these Decepticreeps!" Claws hit the ground hard as he throws his back legs against the ground, lunging himself into the fray.

Combat: Rumble misses Steeljaw with his Richter 5.0 Area attack! [Pulled -3]

Combat: Rumble misses Air Raid with his Richter 5.0 Area attack! [Pulled -3]

Combat: Rumble misses Swift with his Richter 5.0 Area attack! [Pulled -3]

Combat: Rumble strikes Foxfire with his Richter 5.0 Area attack! [Pulled -3]

Combat: Rumble misses Blaster with his Richter 5.0 Area attack! [Pulled -3]

Combat: Rumble strikes Soundwave with his Richter 5.0 Area attack! [Pulled -3]

Combat: Rumble strikes Rewind with his Richter 5.0 Area attack! [Pulled -3] . Combat: Rumble strikes Polarity with his Richter 5.0 Area attack! [Pulled -3]

Blight gets burned, literally. He screeches in pain and just gives a bellow and aims his abdomen at Foxfire, and sprays more of the goo out towards the fox. Of course, with the way he was wildly spraying, he could end up hitting a decepticon, so lets if he hits or miss!

Combat: Stinkbug misses Foxfire with his Horrific Stench attack! [Pulled -4]

Soundwave runs at the little Tapebot bunny, hands outstretched. "I will crush you, and repurpose you into..." he says, then looks at Blaster. "You cannot help your inferior Autobot creation, Blaster. I will tear you both apart and repurpose your inferior designs!"

Soundwave lunges at Blaster, shoulder first.

Combat: Soundwave strikes Blaster with his Smackdown attack!

Polarity skids to a stop when Soundwave sounds for attack, while the gumbies are left to deal with Air Raid. "It's too early in the episode to be retreating, anyways!" ... Wait, what? Nevermind, by the time anyone gets a chance to think twice about that, the Seeker has already turned heel to face the encroaching Autobots. "Geez, who let the petting zoo from hell loose... Whoa!" The Seeker yelps as Rumble starts shaking things up as he was about to open fire at the same, and while he was gonna shoot the rabbit trying to chase Soundwave, his arm-machinegun jerks in the other direction as falls back on his aft, so it's more like just splaying randomly in Swift's general direction.

The gumbies get just fall all over themselves as Rumble pounds the ground. Raid gets tossed around like a rockstar but remains relatively unharmed, though they do manage to slam his head into a nearby light fixture a few times. Rumble receives a few choice curse words in Cybertronian.

Combat: Polarity strikes Swift with his Machine-gun Misfire (Pistol) attack!

Rewind growls as those jaws keep on trying to crush his face between them. "I command you to get off of me!!!" Rumble's signature move rocks the ground below his feet and Rewind falls once more, bouncing and rattling with the tremors. "Ungf!" He tries to put his feet between his body and Hinders to kick the Decepticon off.

Combat: Rewind misses Hinder with its Kick attack!

Swift is as his name says, swift, and even as Rumble starts to rumble, hoping and bouncing around, off of objects and generally just avoiding any kind of damage that could have come to his systems. He was built well. Even Polarity's shots seem to do little to slow the rabbot down, even as they strike and pierce his armor some. He wasn't about to stop though. He had to go help Air Raid.

Though Swift wasn't going to leave Polarity alone. He jumps up into the air, angling and 'flying' just long enough to get over to Polarity, and hopefully coming down on the Seeker with about as much force and effort a rabbot can give.

Combat: Swift misses Polarity with his Rabbot Jump (Kick) attack!

<Autobot> Slag says, "Where him dumb head Raid?"

Blaster takes the shoulder check to his midsection and goes flying off his feet, sailing over Swift to slide a dozen feet or so across the ground on his back. "Ooof! You been workin' out, Soundwave? I really felt that one." Blaster springs back to his feet in a quick kippup, raises both hands in a boxing pose. "But you're gonna feel this!" he promises, launching a series of jabs and hooks.

Foxfire dodges yet again, only to fall prey to Rumble's earthquake, and through his own skill he is able to keep himself from falling into a crevice (not that it matters, as he could easily climb or fly out). He glares at Blight. "I'll deal with you later...and for the last time, I don't taste good!" With that, he dashes off, straight toward Soundwave, whose ankle he snaps his jaws at in an attempt to latch on.

Combat: Blaster strikes Soundwave with his Punch attack!

Combat: Foxfire strikes Soundwave with his Bite (Kick) attack!

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "YOU ALL SUCK AT RESCUING."

"And that too!" Blaster adds, optic twinkling.

<Autobot> Blaster says, "Rescue? This is the diversion, 'Raid. We thought you could rescue yourself!"

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "NnnnRGH."

<Autobot> Slag says, "Why we Rescue him Air Raid? Did him whine and scream like hoo-min gain?"

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "Shut yer face!"

Blight flies after the fox and when he see's Blaster, he decides to change his target and aims his abdomen from above before firing more stink goo down onto the red autobot. Acid rain cometh.

Combat: Stinkbug strikes Blaster with his Horrific Stench attack! [Pulled -2]

The flurry of blows knocks Soundwave backward, and he falls on his posterior, trying to shake off the little fox cassette. "Nuisance! You will both feel the sonnet...of your /destruction/!" he says, then with his free arm, presses a button on his control panel, and a horrible shrill noise begins to emit from Soundwave's audio transmitters.

Beneath Steeljaw's feet, the ground begins to shake, rattle and roll. Even before the real impact of the shaking hits him, Steeljaw's sensors pick up where it's coming from and how quickly the waves are moving. He grunts, and lungs off of the ground, throwing himself practically up against some debris. Front feet touch on the debris briefly, just long enough for his back legs to touch as well. He uses the debris to push himself off again, practically pouncing off of the debris. And straight at Rumble.

"Shut your yap, or I'll shut it for you!" He growls, mid-flight for the other tape-con. And aims to slam into him with fangs seeking to latch into something vulnerable.

Combat: Steeljaw strikes Rumble with his Steel Jaws attack! [Pulled -2]

Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Rumble's Agility. (Crippled)

Combat: Soundwave strikes Blaster with his Sonics Area attack!

Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Blaster's Accuracy. (Blinded)

Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Blaster's Agility. (Crippled)

Combat: Soundwave strikes Foxfire with his Sonics Area attack!

Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Foxfire's Accuracy. (Blinded)

Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Foxfire's Agility. (Crippled)

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "Oh no! Foxy!"

Polarity snaps up an arm as Swift tries to jump on his head to catch the bunny-bot in midair. "Now now, a little teeny guy like you should just run away. None of this fancy heroic stuff." He then lets go of Swift to drop him. And then snaps a foot up to try and boot him on the way down. "Now I'll have to -kick- you out!"

Combat: Polarity misses Swift with his Punt The Bunny! (Kick) attack!

<Autobot> Let's Blow Scrap Up! Warpath says, "Who's picking on the foxy?"

Hinder keeps her teeth locked on Rewind's face, hissing and digging her little claws against his plating. The claws are not nearly enough to cause damage, but they're likely doing a number on his paint job. When he tries to kick her she simply flips her body over in a roll, dragging him along with her in an attempt to take some of the fight out of the tapebot.

Combat: Hinder strikes Rewind with her gator death roll (Punch) attack!

<Autobot> Saboteur Foxfire says, "Blight was trying to eat me!"

Laserbeak has arrived.

Swift may have been caught by Polarity, but he's not about to let the Seeker does as he pleases. "Why should I? You're trying to hurt my friends. I won't allow that! Especially since I have some now!" Swift spins and twirls around in mid-air, managing to barely avoid Polarity's kick as it scrapped by his metal skin. Barely any real damage. The bunny would smile now if he could, while he set himself up, gathering what data he could on Polarity.

"What, is it hurtin' yer poor li'l ears?" sneers Rumble, bowled off his feet and slammed to the floor by Steeljaw's pounce. "If you don't like that tune, I got plenty more beats!" Transforming his arms back, he wrestles with the lion clamped onto his shoulder. Instead of trying to get it off of him, he's actually trying to pull Steeljaw closer to his chest! His spools spin up to speed and a deafening, dizzying bass beat pounds out of his chest as he tries to shake Steeljaw apart.

Foxfire releases his hold and backs up, ears pinned back as he winces at the sonics, but manages to endure them. "C'mon, Blaster!" he declares. "Let's get this tape master wannabe!" He lets loose more flames from his mouth, which fly right toward Soundwave's face.

<Autobot> Steeljaw says, "Looks like Blaster woke me up at a good time. Let's scrap these cons."

Combat: Foxfire strikes Soundwave with his Fox Fire attack!

Combat: Swift analyzes Polarity for weaknesses.

Combat: Rumble misses Steeljaw with his Legend of the Ultimate Bassmaster attack!

<Autobot> Let's Blow Scrap Up! Warpath says, "Oh, I'll teach that slaggin' Insecticon, to BAM, chew on my fox!"

<Autobot> Swift says, "Hey. You're a loud one. I'm Swift!"

Rewind trembles with rage, not fear, as Hinder drags and rolls him about, still caught in that ugly mouth. He draws out one of his rifles and tries to jam the barrel under Hinder's jaw. "EAT! THIS!"

Combat: Rewind sets its defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Rewind misses Hinder with its Adhesion Rifle attack!

Polarity mockingly aaaaaaaws. "Now isn't that sweet and sentimental?" But then twists his expression into an even more mockingly sneer, oblivious to the little bunnybot sizing him up so to speak. "Which is just gonna get ya squished, rodent!" Polarity activates his magnetic projectors, and fires off a blast of repelling force aimed at hurtling the bunnybot across the spaceport!

Blaster reflexively braces himself against Soundwave's attack, but it's hard to protect yourself from a all-out sonic assault. The best you can hope for is to give back as good as you get. He bellows to be heard over the chaos of the battle.

"Your sound's so bad it hurts my audios AND my optics, Soundwave!"

Well, it's the thought that counts. Blaster stumbles a bit and then shakes his head, trying to overcome the lingering affects of that attack, then primes his own speakers. "Mine's a little smoother on the senses - but only if you're used to it! And I'm betting you Decepticons ain't used to this one yet! Cover your receptors, guys!" Blaster knows that unlike his team, Air Raid won't know how to avoid the affects of his high-frequency harmonics. Oh well, he's a tough little Aerialbot. He'll survive. Hopefully.

Combat: Blaster strikes Soundwave with his Jivetown Area attack!

Combat: Blaster strikes Rumble with his Jivetown Area attack!

Combat: Blaster strikes Stinkbug with his Jivetown Area attack!

Combat: Blaster misses Polarity with his Jivetown Area attack!

Combat: Blaster strikes Hinder with his Jivetown Area attack!

Combat: Blaster strikes Air Raid with his Jivetown Area attack!

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "SunnuvaGLITCH!"

<Autobot> Blaster says, "Aw, sorry 'Raid. Once we get you back to friendly territory, repairs're on me."

<Autobot> Jazz says, "What's shakin' Raid? Blaster?"

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "Gwwuuhhhghgh..."

<Autobot> Swift says, "We're rescuing Air Raid!"

Polarity mockingly aaaaaaaws. "Now isn't that sweet and sentimental?" But then twists his expression into an even more mockingly sneer, oblivious to the little bunnybot sizing him up so to speak. "Which is just gonna get ya squished, rodent!" Polarity activates his magnetic projectors, and fires off a blast of repelling force aimed at hurtling the bunnybot across the spaceport! "Ahahahahahahahahahaha!" And so indulgent in his own gleeful cackling that he can't hear Blaster blasting his musical racket, or something. Don't think about it too hard.

Hinder doesn't even get singed by the tapebot's attempt to fire his blaster into her mouth, but the extremely close proximity of the weaponsfire -- and the sudden onslaught of noise is enough to startle her into letting go of his face and go skittering for cover.

Combat: Polarity strikes Swift with his I'm So Repulsive attack! [Pulled -2]

Combat: Polarity's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Swift.

Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Swift's Accuracy. (Blinded)

<Autobot> Jazz says, "Ya'll need a hand? Teletran show's ya guys as being somewhere over the rainbow or something, but I can boogie towards a transport if ya need."

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "PRIMUS someone save the BUNNY!!"

Combat: Hinder sets her defense level to Protected.

Blight was busy having fun spraying Blaster when-OH MY GODS THE NOISE!!!! The music causes him to crash into the ground and he staggers, screeching as he tries to once again fly in the air, not trusting the ground with rumble about, and aims his vents to spray blaster once more with stink goo, the acidic smelly stuff flying at the autobot.

Combat: Stinkbug misses Blaster with his Horrific Stench attack! [Pulled -3]

Soundwave get sup shakily, almost knocked down by the horrific jams that came from Blaster's speaker system, but no matter - he's been waiting for this for a long time. Now it's time to be rid of that pesky fox. "Laserbeak, EJECT! Operation: Destroy Foxfire!" he says.

Still struggling with Steeljaw, and battered back and forth by Blaster's sonic assault, Rumble manages to get back up onto his feet and lets out another titanic booming sixteen bars of god's own backbeat. And not some wimpy modern nicey-nice forgiving god who might reincarnate you or send you a fluffy angel to watch over your morning drive, oh no. This is the beat that an Old Testament god would rock out to while murdering every firstborn child in a given nation.

Combat: Soundwave takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass]

<Autobot> Swift says, "owww... who said that... that wasn't a nice thing to do to me..."

Laserbeak's tape ejects, and, rather surprisingly...turns into Laserbeak. Truly shocking! The red-and-black Doombird flips aside with a quick screech, squawking out an affirmative at Soundwave as he banks away from the immeadiate area...and then comes zipping back, crosswise to the Annoying Firebreathing Fox, a pair of bright purple laser beams strafing the other tape's position as Laserbeak flies by, already starting to bank for another turn...Looks like he's aiming to stay nice and elusive while hitting and running!

Combat: Laserbeak sets his defense level to Protected.

Combat: Rumble strikes Steeljaw with his Old Testament Beats Area attack! [Pulled -1]

Combat: That attack has temporarily limited Steeljaw's Agility! (Crippled)

Combat: Rumble strikes Blaster with his Old Testament Beats Area attack! [Pulled -1]

Combat: That attack has temporarily limited Blaster's Agility! (Crippled)

Combat: Rumble strikes Rewind with his Old Testament Beats Area attack! [Pulled -1]

Combat: That attack has temporarily limited Rewind's Agility! (Crippled)

Combat: Rumble strikes Hinder with his Old Testament Beats Area attack! [Pulled -1]

Combat: That attack has temporarily limited Hinder's Agility! (Crippled)

Combat: Rumble misses Foxfire with his Old Testament Beats Area attack! [Pulled -1]

Combat: Laserbeak strikes Foxfire with his Laser Cannons attack!

Rewind scrambles to his feet only to be staggered and stumble to the ground again by Rumble's noise-noise-noise! He clutches his head and growls. "I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!" He draws out his second Rifle and points both at the obnoxious Tape.

Combat: Rewind strikes Rumble with its Adhesion Rifle attack!

Combat: That attack has temporarily limited Rumble's Agility! (Crippled)

Blaster is dusting off his hands from the results of his own attack when suddenly the ground starts rumbling. No, not just rumbling, it starts Rumble-ing. "Aww scrap!" He swears, noting Laserbeak joining the fray. "Oh it's like that?" he shouts at Soundwave. "You wanna see which one of us runs out of tapes first?" He flips open his own deck once again.

Nothing.

"Oh, uh...guess that'd be me." Blaster finishes in a much smaller voice, sliding the deck closed again. "But hey, I ain't too proud to call in a ringer!" With that he dives into the horde of gumbies carrying Air Raid, tackling a few, elbowing another in the face and lashing out with knees and feet to push aside a few others.

Swift took the blow from Polarity rather painfully, his optics going offline temporarily. The black bunny stumbles a bit, from where he landed, ears up as he tries to pinpoint Polarity's laughter. The con was going to pay for that pun. That awful pun. That terrible pun. That wasn't really said and heard, but felt. "There..." Swift said, hoping his ears weren't being tricked by the rocking out of Blaster and the awful harmonics of Soundwave as he fired off another paint rocket, right at Polarity's mouth.

Combat: Swift sets his defense level to Aggressive.

The Global Pose Tracker marks that Blaster has 'skipped' his action for this round.

Combat: Swift strikes Polarity with his Paint Rocket attack!

Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Polarity's Accuracy. (Blinded)

Jazz has arrived.

Foxfire is unaffected by Rumble's attack, but he yelps as Laserbeak's beams singe his shoulder, damaging the Autobot insignia on it. He watches the bird closely as his hip compartments shift and aim, then they release a pair of small rockets that speed through the air toward the enemy cassette.

Combat: Foxfire misses Laserbeak with his Rocket Pods attack!

"Your very VOICE hurts my senses!" Steeljaw manages to muffle out amongst a mouthful of Rumble armor. Those highly tuned ears catches the sound of ramping up bass, and he quickly releases his grip on the humanoid tape. Using Rumble to push off of, Steeljaw throws himself backwards rapidly. He hits the ground, where upon the twin cannons level down on Rumble. "You call that bass? You know NOTHING about bass!" And that's when a different sort of harmonics start to rattle at his internal sensors. And he immediately shuts them off, initializing methods to block out Blaster's own harmonics. He's Blaster's tape, after all!

But that doen't keep him from getting slammed from Rumble's next assault of horrifying sound! Steeljaw recoils away from the blast, his claws grinding down into the ground to keep himself from being thrown back into the wall. "Tch, I'm not impressed!" Re-leveling those blasters on Rumble, they begin to glow brightly as the solar battery surges energy into them. Then releases the charge in a torrent of high-powered pellets.

<Autobot> Saboteur Foxfire says, "I'm getting badly damaged!"

Combat: Steeljaw strikes Rumble with his Solar-Powered Pellet Guns attack!

Air Raid can't even cover his audials. He flops atop the gumbies like a fish out of water as Blaster's jives rock his frame something fierce. "NNrrghh! Dammit! Bwahh..." AND SUDDENLY Blaster takes his jive self and hurls it into the crowd of gumbies, effectively freeing him. "AW'RIGHT!" He whips out his rifle and aims straight for Polarity who gets thwacked with paint, apparently. "Rabbit giving you too much trouble?" he sneers, firing off some rapidly twirling pressure.

Combat: Air Raid sets his defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Air Raid strikes Polarity with his Torque Rifle attack!

<A-TAPES> Blaster says, "Swift! See if you can give Foxfire a hand with Laserbrain over there. 'Raid'll take care of that Deceptijet!"

<A-TAPES> Swift says, "Easily done!"

<A-TAPES> Foxfire says, "Hand, heh...try a paw!"

<Autobot> Slag says, "Me Slag wanna smash sceptycons..."

<A-TAPES> Blaster chuckles. "Well at least your sense of humor ain't been hit yet."

<Autobot> Slag says, "Why him Air Raid get fun when him dumber then him Sludge."

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "What!?"

In the history of all music, Michael Jackson's "Beat It" might be one of the top 5 catchiest songs. And the song HAAAAAD to start playing over the shuttle's sound system just when he was heading out with his Autobot team.

"Beeeaaat it!!! Beeeaaaat it!!! No onnnee wanttts to beeee defeeaaatedd!"

Alright, so maybe Jazz wasn't the greatest of singers, but he certainly was a lover of great music. Why did Blaster have to bring the best songs for long trips like this. It just didn't make sense. Thse great jams would be good around base.

Wait a minute, Jazz was trying to remember something. Somwhere he needed to be.

Hmm, something about the Autobots.

A mission or something...

"Oh SNAP!!" shouts Jazz as he leaps out of his seat and heads for the exit, bobbing his head to Slash's guitar mastery in the process. Once down the ramp, the Special Ops Commander spots his pals in the middle of a huge fight. "Yo Bots!! Sorry, I'm late. Hope you didn't start the party without me?!" Drawing his Solar-Powered Photon Rifle, Jazz tries to get a grasp of the situation before he lets loose with the first of many stylish moves to come.

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "Just you wait 'til we get back..."

Scorponok has arrived.

Scorponok transforms into his Scorpstation mode.

The Global Pose Tracker marks that Jazz has 'skipped' his action for this round.

<Autobot> Slag says, "you going whine like hoo-man when you get back?"

<Autobot> Blaster says, "Look out Bots, Big Scorp's crashin' the party."

<Autobot> Swift says, "That doesn't sound good..."

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "Don't worry B-man, I'll take that slagger DOWN!"

Rumble suffers a debilitating one-two punch, first glued in place and then peppered with Steeljaw's solar-powered machineguns! Those leave a lot of nasty little holes. It's the small wounds that tend to sting the most. At least Steeljaw shot the glue off. "Why did they give the lion guns?!" he protests, running to hide in Soundwave's shadow and blast away at Steeljaw with what he HOPES will be suppressive fire. He doesn't know if you can really suppress an angry lion. At least Soundwave makes good cover for something the size of a tape. "Soundwave! Soundwave, I need my tape spliced! Gimme a patchjob here, they're beating the snot outta me!"

<Autobot> Jazz says, "Check it, the bigger they are, the harder they fall!"

Combat: Rumble sets his defense level to Protected.

Combat: Rumble misses Steeljaw with his High-Intensity Pulse Laser (Laser) attack!

As Laserbeak banks around, chortling in amusement at the hit...there are rockets. The cowardly bird-tape lets out a squawk of outrage, flipping over and firing his engines up, diving behind a nearby bit of building to avoid the whole 'rocekty doom'. A moment later, he pokes his head around the corner, glaring at Foxfire, and edges a single laser cannon around. There's purple Pew Pew Pew, then, as the bird-tape attempts to tag that horrid little fox with more laser.

Hinder had scrambled behind the base of a pillar to hide from Rewind, but then Rumble's latest ground-pounding knocked the pillar over, squashing the ferret-tape before she could scramble clear. She squeals and yelps as loudly as she can, having never truly experienced this level of damage before. She's trapped and she's scared!

Combat: Laserbeak strikes Foxfire with his Laser attack!

Combat: Hinder sets her defense level to Neutral.

Combat: Hinder takes extra time to steady herself. [Pass]

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "Run, Foxy!"


 * SPLAT* "Augh!" Polarity staggers backwards, pawing at his face with his hands in a vage attempt to clean the paint off that's horribly overreactive. "It's in my optics!" Then sputters. "Now it's in my mouth! Eew!" And then while he's busy flailing about, Air Raid gets loose and shoots him in the back, sending the Seeker spinning. "Who the slag is shooting me when I can't see?!" Spinning around again, he raises both arm-guns and starts firing off laser bolts at random, just as likely to send the gumbies that were guarding the Aerialbot scattering for cover as he is to actually hit Air Raid. "Idiots! Move out of the way so I can shoot him! ... Not that I can see anyways... Besides the point!" Great, now he's arguing with himself, too.

Combat: Polarity sets his defense level to Aggressive.

Combat: Polarity strikes Air Raid with his Firing Blind (Laser) attack!

Blight was busy flying when he saw the shuttle come in and he begins to fly after it. When Jazz makes his appearance, he just screeches as he aims his abdomen at the special op and releases a spray of the stinky acidic goo to the autobot.

"Decepticons, head for the tunnels! Scorponok: Operation: Stop the Autobots!" Soundwave barks hastily. Backing up, he turns to Blaster. "Examine one of my superior designs, inferior red 8-track!" Soundwave says.

Combat: Stinkbug's Horrific Stench attack on Jazz goes wild!

Combat: Stinkbug strikes Polarity with his Horrific Stench attack! [Pulled -3]

Combat: Soundwave misses Blaster with his Missile Launcher attack!

Overhead, something large is coming.

It has been in high orbit for some time now; hidden among a belt of radiation. Now, it is descending quite rapidly. As the atmosphere begins to burn around the falling object, it begins to gain a fireball. The fireball grows longer and longer as gravity takes hold and it continues to drop, a bright falling meteor if one has ever seen one. It roars audibly as it approaches on a steep descent and then. . begins to slow, revealing it to be the shape of Scorponok's battlestation mode. Antigravs come online in a soft landing as it touches down, sonic batteries coming online and folding into place as his ramps drop down.

"DOOM, AUTOBOTS!" THe battlestation thunders.

Polarity then gets sprayed with bug stink juice as well! "WAUGH! FRIENDLY FIRE IS AN OXYMORON!" he wails to no one in particular.

<A-TAPES> Swift says, "Uh... do you still want me to give a paw to Foxfire with Laserbeak here?"

<A-TAPES> Blaster says, "It's gettin' a little hectic out here, but yeah! We've gotta stick together! Watch each others' backs. Steeljaw's kicking butt as usual, and Jazz can help get Soundwave off of me. That just leaves Foxfire!"

<A-TAPES> Swift pose sounds a bit cheerful here, "So, ignore the thing that just declared our doom. Okay!

<Autobot> Slag says, "Him Scorpinok weak!"

Air Raid gets blindly lasered right in the chest, and stumbles back over some gumbies, which he angrily bats out of the way. He looks up just in time to see Blight spray his stink all over the unfortunate magnetic seeker. Aaaand Raid busts out laughing. "AHAHAHA!" He pauses to vent some air, then continues, "AAAAHAHAA! What teamwork! I am /inspired/!" Then Scorponok touches down and bestows doom upon the Autobots. Raid's smile quickly fades. "Hnn. First things first!" Twirling his rifle, he fires off a barrage of laser blasts, quite content to keep his distance from stinky smelly Polarity.

Swift, for now, decided to ignore the giant base that had just declared the doom to the Autobots. This isn't anything too new, even if his metallic gut says "run!" He does run, though, straight over towards Foxfire and Laserbeak. "Hey! Bird! Leave Foxfire alone! He's done nothing to you!" *Yet...* Swift kept his optics locked on Laserbeak, quickly grabbing what data he could and sending it over to Foxfire to use.

Combat: Air Raid misses Polarity with his Laser Barrage! (Laser) attack!

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "YOU SLAG WEAK."

Combat: Swift analyzes Laserbeak for weaknesses Foxfire can exploit.

Rewind looks up and sneers beneath his face plate. "YOU DARE NOT UTTER 'DOOM' IN MY PRESENSE, SCORPONOK! I AM YOUR DOOM!" Geezus, Rewind. The wee speck of nothing runs towards the station as it comes down and then plants his feet. He crouches, and then lets loose a flash from his chest of his Light Beacon.

Combat: Rewind sets its defense level to Protected.

Foxfire is shot right in the face! He paws at his optics as if trying to relieve a burning sensation, then sets the paw back down on the ground, spreading his legs in an almost frightened crouch as yet another newcomer appears--none other than Scorponok, declaring doom. Isn't that lovely. By now he is badly damaged, but not yet ready to give up the fight. He shoots Swift a quick, grateful look before turning his attention back to Laserbeak and firing another pair of rockets.

Combat: Foxfire sets his defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Rewind misses Scorpstation with its Light Beacon attack!

Combat: Foxfire strikes Laserbeak with his Rocket Pods attack!

<Autobot> Slag says, "ME SLAG SMASH YOU AIR RAID!"

"Oh no you didn't!" Blaster shouts at his nemesis, after somehow managing to shimmy aside and let that missile pass by harmlessly. Until it detonates in the middle of some poor unaffiliated alien's shuttle way behind him. "OH NO YOU DID NOT--" He booms again, adding some amp to make his voice thunder across the battlefield in a boom that puts Scorponok's to shame.

Then his voice grows softer, dropping to a normal conversational tone. "--just call me an 8-track." He finishes. "For real, did you just try to talk trash with me? You? Soundwave? Is the world ending? They hook you up to the machines in this place?" Blaster suddenly casts a quick, worried look in Rewind's direction. "Anyway, just so happens I did get a good look at your missile." He points a thumb back behind himself. "From the back. After it missed." Really driving the point home there, Blaster. Then he turns around. "You hear that boys? They're falling back! We got 'em on the run now!"

Combat: Blaster inspires Foxfire, Steeljaw, Swift, and Rewind with lofty and patriotic words!

<Autobot> Air Raid sounds extremely 'winded' and pissed off, "I AM GOING TO BREAK OFF YOUR HORN AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR AFT!"

Wait...Missiles? Explosions? AHGLEKJGLESJLESFJEDANGERDANGERDANGER! Laserbeak, having been /horribly damaged/...reacts as one might expect, if one knows the evil little Decepticon. Namely, he dives right towards Foxfire, setting up for another attack run...and then keeps going. After all, he got /HURT/. See, his armor is even more blackened and all. And it hurt. A lot. The cowardly Decepticon cassette continues his flight. Automatic systems engage, and he bravely turns back into a tape, returning to Soundwave's subspace storage until repaired. GO GO COWARD BIIIRRRDY!~

Combat: Laserbeak begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit.

"Hmmm, decisions, decisions. Wonder who wants to dance with the Jazz-Man?"

Just then, the blue-visored Bot notices Blight winding up to unleash a toxic blob of acid. Immediately, the Autobot looks around and lines himself up with Polarity.

"Bright it Blight!"

Then, just as the goo is about to hit him, he pulls off an amazing limbo move to leave the attack heading for Polarity instead. "Aww yea! That's what I call tough love Decepti-cawns! Hah!"

Leaping forward in a flip that would make ninjas jealous, the Autobot ends the maneuver with his rifle aimed at the Decepticon Tape Master. "Yo Sounders! Why don't ya take a hint from that bird brain of yours and beat it? Ya dig?!"

<A-TAPES> Foxfire says, "HAH! I got ol' Beaky on the run!

Combat: Jazz sets his defense level to Guarded.

Laserbeak has left.

Soundwave takes Laserbeak.

Combat: Jazz strikes Soundwave with his Solar-Powered Photon Rifle attack! [Pulled -1]

<A-TAPES> Swift says, "Glad I could be of help!"

<A-TAPES> Foxfire says, "Yeah, heh. Thanks a bunch, brother!"

<Autobot> Slag stomps is heard.

Giving a lion guns, best idea ever? Very possibly. Steam rises from the twin pistols on either side of Steeljaw's body, but they don't fire again. It appears as though that out of direct sunlight, they need a bit of time to recharge. "Aw, going back home to daddy? I don't think so!" Fearlessly, Steeljaw charges after. He's not going to let his prey get away quite so easily at all, even though Rumble is heading straight back to Soundwave. But Blaster's praise is good enough to encourage the little gold lion to do anything! Mouth opening wide, the gold lion attempts to bite down on Rumble's ankle. And clamps down. HARD.

Combat: Steeljaw strikes Rumble with his Steel Jaws attack! [Pulled -2]

Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Rumble's Agility. (Crippled)

<Autobot> Jazz says, "Chill out Slag! You're messin' with my game! I just lit up Soundwave!"

Well, it helps somewhat that getting sprayed by Blight's stuff helps burn the paint off... Polarity just now stinks as it burns his paint as well, thanks to Jazz's fancy moves. Peeeeyooh! At least he's getting back what little senses he has after that. And while not a coward, the air commando does know its bad to be in middle of a firefight, even with his defenses. "Okay, sure, falling back," he retorts as he launchs into the air to avoid Air Raid's laser shots punching holes in the wall behind him.

And then lands on one of Scorponok's weapon stations as they're deployed. "But that doesn't mean retreating!" He grabs the controls, swings it around towards the Aerialbot. "Yer gonna be a test subject even if it has to be in pieces!" The only thing to drown out his cackling is the sound of the sonic guns firing all BOOM like. You can probably see the sound wave rings even though it shouldn't be possible, because this place runs on weird cartoon physics!

Hinder is still half-crushed by the pillar, still squealing and carrying on like someone's trying to pull her teeth out one at a time. And she's not just laying there, either. Her little front feet are scrabbling at the flooring frantically, but to no avail. She's stuck and stuck good.

Blight flies to where he hears Squealing and see's a trapped Hinder. He then begins to eat the pillar which has her trapped, munching at it so the little thing can get out.

Combat: Stinkbug takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass]

Combat: Polarity strikes Air Raid with Scorpstation's Sonic Cannon attack!

Polarity is STILL losing pieces from that torque gun in the process, too.

<A-TAPES> Swift says, "Okay now... who next?"

"Decepticons, use Scorponok!" Soundwave says, and backs off, dodging heavy fire as he goes. Landing on the pillar, he ejects Laserbeak quickly, then turns, grabbing the cannons and swinging them around at Blaster. "I will use your speakers in my machine, against your own allies, once your spark is extinguished!" he drones at Blaster, knowing the enemy Autobot's hearing is quite acute.

Combat: Soundwave strikes Blaster with Scorpstation's Sonic Cannon attack!

<A-TAPES> Blaster says, "It ain't easy sayin' it, but we might need to team up on Scorponok there. He's packin' a lot of heat."

<A-TAPES> Foxfire says, "Blaster, I...urgh...I don't think I can hold out much longer."

The Scorpstation looms over the battlefield in the way that battlestations are good for; Rewind's shot striking a giant bird that had been flying between him and the station instead of aiming true. It's not that he missed a stationary target, just that bad luck happens. Meanwhile, the multiple turret batteries of the Scorpstation are bellowing their earth-shaking magic at the hands of multiple Decepticons. However, down below; a repair bay opens and a tentacle of sorts swings out and attempts to capture Rumble and drag him into the bay for a hasty patch job and then fire him back out into the battle after some seconds!

Combat: Scorpstation quickly patches up some of Rumble's minor injuries.

<Autobot> Swift says, "So... who wants some data on this battlestation?"

Hinder hisses at Blight when he appears in her line of sight, but then when he starts eating the pillar to free her from it she just goes back to scrabbling her claws against the floor to pull herself free. At least the squealing has stopped. Finally enough of the pillar is gone for her to scooch out from under it and she has clear damage to her back. She tries to scramble/skitter/run for Scorponok, but her back legs are twitchy and uncooperative.

<Autobot> Jazz says, "Hook a Bot Brotha' up Swift? I'm cookin' up something for these Decepti-chumps!"

"This is outta control, I'm gettin' outta here before this lion takes my leg off!" Rumble exclaims, limping away with Steeljaw hanging off his ankle while he bangs on the lion's heavily armored head. "Whoah! Tentacles!" But they seem to be the good kind of tentacles, and before he knows it they've deposited him back on top of the battlestation looking somewhat less bent out of shape. "Maybe this'll turn the tide," he muses, considering one of the turrets. Settling into it, he powers it up and unleashes the awesome might of the turret on his shiny golden foe!

Combat: Rumble sets his defense level to Neutral.

Combat: Rumble strikes Steeljaw with Scorpstation's Sonic Cannon attack!

<Autobot> Swift says, "Right away, Jazz!"

The heavy fire from the battle has left the front of the Spaceport a ruin, large holes are left in the once smooth exteriorof the spaceport's dome. An unfortunate spacecraft was smashed like a pancake during Scorponok's landing, and several others have been damaged beyond repair, an upright shuittle falling into one docked next to it. It is hard to tell if the battle spread outside, or if inside became outside purely by the amount of damage to the walls.

"Scorponok will repair you, go!" Blight screeches to the little tape and looks along the playing field. He did his good deed for the day, now he can probably eat a meal in peace. He looks about, twitches an attaenae and unleashes full force sprays as he tries to hit Jazz once again.

Combat: Stinkbug sets his defense level to Aggressive.

Combat: Stinkbug strikes Jazz with his Horrific Stench attack!

Hinder looks up at Blight when he tells her to run for Scorponok and scrambles toward the giant base...thing as fast as she can. She's regaining coordination in her back legs, but is still way slower than normal and making unhappy sounds the entire way. "Ow ow ow ow."

Combat: Hinder takes extra time to steady herself. [Pass]

By now Foxfire is sparking, smoking, and leaking from several different wounds. He struggles to remain on his feet, mechfluid trickling from a head injury into his damaged right optic. He glares with his good optic toward Scorponok, and with the little bit of strength he has left, he breathes another flaming stream from his mouth toward the monstrous Decepticon as fluid drips onto the ground beneath him.

Once Laserbeak turned chicken, Swift quickly turned his attentions to the next target. Of course, with the giant battlestation of DEATH right there, it really makes the next target all the better. Of course, Swift wasn't going to leave himself open now, working at protecting himself while he gathered the precious datas on Scorponok. A quick ping, and then he began to sends his data off to Jazz this time, hoping the hopping bot could make the most use of it, based on the radio response. "Here ya go! Show them those smooth moves dude!"

Combat: Swift sets his defense level to Protected.

Combat: Foxfire strikes Scorpstation with his Fox Fire attack!

Combat: Swift analyzes Scorponok for weaknesses Jazz can exploit.

<Autobot> Steeljaw grrrf. "These munitions are too much for me. Scanning for weaknesses."

While Steeljaw is courageous, he's not stupid. He doesn't follow Rumble towards the station. He lets go after a few seconds, realizing where the sneak is heading off to. And he was so close to getting another ankle to his collection, too. Growling, he keeps at some distance from the station, prowling back and forth to wait for his prey to come back. Except that his prey, instead, finds a bigger weapon.

Bits of hanger explodes around Steeljaw as the weapon is fired at him. He scrambles to try and get away, but the blast catches up with him, ripping away at some of his armor. He doesn't stop moving though, and scrambles up behind a bit of debris for cover. Growling, he glares at the station beyond the debris, his tail lashing from side to side. "Grrr... That station's munitions are too much for me. Scanning for weaknesses." Eyes flickering, he activates his highly sensitive scanning hardware. It quickly begins to scan over the station, looking for any little nook or cranny that some ammunition could get into. And transmits it to the nearest big bot. That being Air Raid.

Although Jazz is in the middle of a heated fire-fight, it doesn't mean the guy can't multi-task. Afterall, when you're the Intelligence Director, you better be able to juggle a lot of things at once. With that said, Jazz starts recalling Slash's amazing solo on "Beat It" for a second as he sizes up the Autobots' tactical situation.

"Beeeaat It!!" he shouts as he lifts his arms up for an air-guitar rendition of the famous fret work. While he's doing this, his internal computer chimes in with an update.

"Yo good lookin'! You've got mail!"

Jazz sends Swift a thumbs-up just before he's blasted from behind with a horrific stench that Blight just cooked up. "You're lucky I didn't bring my economy-sized can of RAID today you over-grown roach!" Then an idea comes to the Autobot as he looks at all the Decepticons starting to crowd around Scorponok. "But ya know what?! I got the next best thing!! Ya ever play a game called HOT POTATO?!"

Withdrawing a small device from sub-space, Jazz fumbles it around like it's on fire for dramatic effect. "Oww! Owww! Hot Potato!! CATCH!!" A second later he launches the small device towards the mass of Decepticons.

Combat: Steeljaw sets his defense level to Guarded.

Combat: Steeljaw analyzes Scorponok for weaknesses Air Raid can exploit.

Combat: Jazz strikes Soundwave with Hot Potato's Small Explosion #9855 Area attack! [Pulled -2]

Combat: Jazz's Hot Potato is destroyed!

Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Soundwave's Agility. (Crippled)

Combat: Jazz strikes Rumble with Hot Potato's Small Explosion #9855 Area attack! [Pulled -2]

Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Rumble's Agility. (Crippled)

Combat: Jazz strikes Scorpstation with Hot Potato's Small Explosion #9855 Area attack! [Pulled -2]

Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Scorpstation's Agility. (Crippled)

Air Raid is caught standing idle, as he does when he's arguing on the Autobot frequency, and for this, he gets nailed with some seriously heavy fire and is sent sprawling to the ground. He is literally a ball of smoke for a good few moments, struggling to get upright. When he does, he shakes an angry fist up at Polarity. "COWARD! Fight without FEAR, or don't fight at all!" Leaking copious amounts of energon, he springs into a transformation and jets up high above the battle. From Primus knows where (and he doesn't rightly care) Raid receives some handy data! Perhaps a bit too early, he drops a few bombs and screams a silly warcry.

Air Raid shifts and twists, pieces sliding into place to form his F-15E Strike Eagle mode.

Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> misses Rumble with his SPLOOOODE Area attack!

Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> misses Soundwave with his SPLOOOODE Area attack!

Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> strikes Polarity with his SPLOOOODE Area attack!

Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> strikes Scorpstation with his SPLOOOODE Area attack!

Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> strikes Jazz with his SPLOOOODE Area attack!

Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> strikes Blaster with his SPLOOOODE Area attack!

Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> strikes Hinder with his SPLOOOODE Area attack!

Rewind looks up to the heavens and shakes both his fists at the sky. "My Empire for a Cannon!" He claws up a block of landing pad, tarmac layer and ground clump beneath, and hurls it back down to the ground, then proceeds to stomp on it. "DIE! DIE! DIE!"

Combat: Rewind takes extra time to steady itself. [Pass]

Blaster gets blasted off his feet once again, this time by Scorponok's sonic cannon (courtesy of Soundwave). "Uhh!" He moans, before lurching slowly, painfully to his feet. No graceful kippups this time. Then he gets blasted back to the ground again, this time by Air Raid. Well, maybe he deserved that one. Blaster puts a hand on his head before he realizes that ringing isn't some afteraffect of too many hits to the head. It's the continued sounds of battle, as the Autobots begin unleashing massive firepower. His own rifle makes it's first appearance of the fight, but the scope is twisted and useless. And eyeing the multitude of Decepticon targets - with so many of them bunched up on one particular place, namely on that big honking Scorpstation there - Blaster thinks he has a better idea. He affixes a rifle grenade on the end of the rifle's barrel and angles it carefully before letting fly. The projectile shoots off with a *fump!* noise to sail in a high arc and come down on top of Scorponok's hull. When it detonates, it sends visible energy waves pulsing out in all directions.

Combat: Blaster sets his defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Blaster strikes Scorpstation with his SONIC rifle grenade Area attack!

Combat: Blaster strikes Soundwave with his SONIC rifle grenade Area attack!

Combat: Blaster misses Polarity with his SONIC rifle grenade Area attack!

Combat: Blaster strikes Rumble with his SONIC rifle grenade Area attack!

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "YEEEEEHAWWW!"

<Autobot> Blaster sounds a little woozy. "Uh...yeah you go Bot."

<Autobot> Swift says, "Hey! Air Raid! Watch those bombs!"

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "Heh heh, sorry!"

<Autobot> Slag says, "Him raid get to blow up bots and sceptycons?!"

Hinder finally makes it across to where Scorponokbase is, just in time to hear his words on the channel. So instead of trying to hide in the base, she stumbleskitters over to lean against Soundwave's ankle.

Blight flies up after Air Raid and good thing too, the bombs began falling. He twitches a large attaenae and aims his vents and releases full stream at the autobot, intending to bring the plane back down to the ground where it belonged.

The Scorpstation's ramps suddenly begin to fold up as firepower begins to bounce off of it's armored hull. The blast doors that cover the western repair bay barely have time to cover before Blaster's grenade bounces off them; exploding with a concussive boom and blackening the door. Then Jazz's hot potato strikes an upward folding landing ramp and it detonates with a *WHUMP* somewhere inside Scorponok's reconfiguring carapace. Then, finally, Air Raid's blast strikes Scorponok's control tower with a hellish explosion. Armor plating crumples and crackles; blackening away and falling like so much shed skin under the full power of the blast. A cascade of blue sparks falls away, and then Scorponok has arrived; towering over the battlefield as a giant scorpion.

"ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHH!"

He bellows; one cybertronian sized claw pounding the tarmac with enough force to buckle ferrocrete and send little chunks flying around him in a storm. "FIRE! DEATH! DEATH! DESTRUCTION, AUTOBOT COWERS! RETREAT OR /DIE/!!!!!!!!"

Scorponok is pissed. He's blackened; obviously damaged and still sparking in places. His tail raises upwards, and a bright cerluean blue glow begins to form in the monolithic cannon mounted there. A trio of laser beams emerge from a small turret at the very top of the Scorpion-like tail, seeking Jazz, Air Raid and Blaster. Is this it? Is that all that is going to happen? No! If it touches anyone, the laser brightens into full power and reveals it's true purpose -- to burn an ionized path in the air for raw electricity.

KRAKTHWAKWHAKCRAKBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Scorpstation transforms into his Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> mode.

Combat: Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> sets his defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Stinkbug strikes F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> with his Horrific Stench attack!

Combat: Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> strikes F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> with his The STING of SCORPONOK Area attack! [Pulled -4]

Combat: Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> strikes Jazz with his The STING of SCORPONOK Area attack! [Pulled -4]

Combat: Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> misses Blaster with his The STING of SCORPONOK Area attack! [Pulled -4]

<Autobot> Swift says, "I think we're going to need a bigger boot to squash this bug with..."

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "GAHH!"

<Autobot> Blaster sounds a little clear-headed than he did before. Though that's still not saying much. "Talk to me Bots, everybody still in one piece?"

<Autobot> Saboteur Foxfire says, "Sort of..."

<Autobot> Steeljaw grrr. "Still here and in less than three pieces."

<Autobot> Jazz says, "*GRRRZZZZ* Uggghh...now I know what one of those glass balls with electricity flashing inside feels like..."

<Autobot> Swift says, "Still here, still in one major piece. I think I might have a few smaller pieces of armor around, but nothing that bad."

<Autobot> Air Raid says, "Hrrnnngghfffff~"

Soundwave rolls off of Scorponok and runs in a random dorection, finally grabbing on to Rumble to try and get a safe bearing as to where he's going. "Decepticons...brrgh...Retreat to behind Scorponok!" he says, barely capable of keeping up with little Rumble. Blaster's attack combined with the jarring of the transformation has Soundwave seriously damaged in several places, and cracks line his exterior from every angle.

Combat: Soundwave takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass]

Rumble leaps off of the battlestation in slow motion as explosions burst all over it and demolish the turret he was in. He catches one of the blasts to the back and gets slammed into the side of a nearby wrecked spaceship, tumbling to the ground and crawling under the spaceship to fire small bursts of automatic laser out at the Autobots.

Combat: Rumble sets his defense level to Protected.

Combat: Rumble misses Jazz with his Automatic Laser Bursts Area attack! [Pulled -3]

Combat: Rumble misses Blaster with his Automatic Laser Bursts Area attack! [Pulled -3]

Combat: Rumble misses F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> with his Automatic Laser Bursts Area attack! [Pulled -3]

"DUCK AND COVER DUCK AND COVER!" Polarity at least has the sense to do that, diving under the turret he was manning when the Bots start slinging bombs. It's enough to shield him from the sonic shockwave rattling the station instead, and Jazz's bomb is tossed at the other end of the platform.

"Is that i--Eep!" He ducks back in again, but as several of Air Raid's bombs go off right on top of the platform unlike the other attacks, and he gets all sorts of blastback and debris flung pelting him. ".. Ow." When the Seeker staggers out of his spot again, he's still noticably burned up and dented. And stinking. As Scorponok starts to transform he kicks off into the air, flipping around and transforming into his own jet mode to blast off overhead. "How convenient we BROUGHT THE ROOF DOWN! Nyahahahaha!" He loops high up into the air to avoid the other attacks being flung about, not wanting to get stunk another time.

Then at the apex he abruptly drops down, going into a dive almost right towards Air Raid! He twists to the side at the last moment to avoid an actual collision, but the high speed passing still leaves shockwaves of his magnetic field in his wake. "Die you wannabe knockoff!"

Combat: Polarity sets his defense level to Fearless.

With the familiar click-clacking sound the Seeker becomes a F-15E Strike Eagle jet!

Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle <Polarity> strikes F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> with his Magnetic Field attack!

Hinder yeeps as Soundwave seemingly FLEES the moment she reaches him, going tumbling and ending up sprawled on the floor somewhere between Soundwave and Scorponok. She's too startled and freaked out to really do much more than just lie there. She can't even muster up the wherewithal to squeal anymore.

F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> is too busy cackling to avoid getting sprayed with that godawful STANK. "ARGHH!" He spirals aimlessly back towards the ground, only to get a fierce sting of Scorp's tail laser up and down his fuselage. It trashes his thrusters and he struggles to stay aloft... Luckily Polarity is there to bounce him back into the air and smash him into a nearby wall. But Raid's a stubborn aft, and he trails back after Polarity, streaming energon, smoke and sparks. His charred pylons fly open and fire off two sidewinders.

Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> strikes F-15E Strike Eagle <Polarity> with his Knockoff THIS!! attack!

Combat: Hinder takes extra time to steady herself. [Pass]

Swift continues his analyzing ways on Scorponok, running around and hiding behind what rubble he can while he continues to feed Jazz his info. "Come on now... there's got ot be one, big spot that we can strike easily here now..." The rabbot says, focusing.

Combat: Swift analyzes Scorponok for weaknesses Jazz can exploit.

Rewind points at Blaster. "I command you to destroy Scorponok now! See that joint? ANNIHILATE IT!"

Combat: Rewind analyzes Scorponok for weaknesses Blaster can exploit.

Blaster somehow manages to roll aside (more like flop aside, really) in time to avoid the Sting of Scorponok! and the motion also serves to take him behind a pile of rubble that probably used to be some rich alcoholic alien's galactic pleasure yacht in time to shield him from Rumble's laserfire. With information on Scorponok's weaknesses suddenly flashing through his processor, Blaster climbs the mound of debris and balances his rifle over one forearm, zeroing in a spot above one of Scorponok's optics. "Here's Electro-Scrambling in your eye, Scorpo!..." He pauses before taking the shot, then looks to the right and left. "What? It's late, I'm running on fumes here. That's all I got!"

There comes a time in every tape's life to know when to stay out of a fight. Despite Steeljaw's instincts urging him on to rush out and bite down on something, he eyes the ordinance flying around out there. And quietly hopes that no one noticed that he hunkered down a little more when the explosions started to fly. But now that the air is clearing (Somewhat), Steeljaw pokes his head out again. Crouched low to the ground, he creeps forward, like a cat prowling after its prey. Though this time, as he exposes himself from his cover, it's not tracking down rumble. But a errant weak spot that he thought he saw. Scanners switch into overdrive, the resulting data continuing to be beamed up to Air Raid.

Combat: Blaster strikes Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> with his Electro-Scrambler Gun attack!

Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Giant Scorpion <Scorponok>'s Accuracy. (Blinded)

Combat: Steeljaw sets his defense level to Neutral.

Combat: Steeljaw analyzes Scorponok for weaknesses Air Raid can exploit.

Just as Jazz watches his HOT POTATO crash the Decepticons' party, he's flung backwards by the force of Air Raid's aerial bombardment. "Yo Raid! Check your fire! You've got my ears ringin' like it's the 4th of July or something!"

Peeling himself off the ground, the Autobot checks his armor over, noticing he's got a fresh set of blast marks covering most of his frame. "Man! I just got waxed the other day! Looks like I'm gonna have to freshen up before our big after-party tonight! Hmmm...what's that cool lookin' blue light...why's it movin' all aroun..."


 * GRRRZZZZZZZZZZ*

A few moments pass and the next thing Jazz knows, he's looking up at the sky through his blue visor. That's when he realizes he's been completely flatened by Scorponok's vicious sting and as a result his armor is still smoldering. "Uggghh.....where's Smokey the Bear when ya need him?!" After stop, dropping, and rolling for a bit, Jazz picks himself up off the ground with a shoulder-mounted missile at the ready. "You're about to get served Scorpy!"

Foxfire is still very damaged. In desperation, he searches for cover, and upon finding it, flees to hide until the battle is over. In the meantime he'll lick his wounds!

Combat: Foxfire begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Rewind, Jazz, Swift, F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid>, Blaster, Soundwave, and F-15E Strike Eagle <Polarity>

Combat: Jazz strikes Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> with his That's A Spicy Missile attack! [Pulled -1]

Soundwave manages to stand, and out of the corner of his optic, spies Blaster's firing off of the Electro Scrambler...he turns and is about to fire his concussion weapon but...no. Scorponok will make the difference between winning the battle, and winning the war. He turns and flies toward a panel that is sparking heavily, taking glancing laser fire as it comes. His hand turns into the trusty welding torch, and he begins repairs.

Combat: Soundwave quickly patches up some of Giant Scorpion <Scorponok>'s minor injuries..

Blight turns in mid air and begins to head down towards the scorpion and noticing several tapes scanning him. He heads towards the closest one, a delicious morsel which he hopes tastes like those chocolate bunnies humans like. "Lets see you melt, Autobot!" He screeches as he sprays Swift.

Combat: Stinkbug misses Swift with his Horrific Stench attack!

F-15E Strike Eagle <Polarity> wheeeehaaaas as he pulls out of the dive, skimming the ground and back up into the air. "That'll show that --"

He's cut off by the missiles being heat-seekers and already being locked onto his red-hot jet engines doing the same maneuvering and blasting him from behind! "OWOWOWOWHOTHOTHOTHOT!" The Seeker rocks uneasily in the air, trailing smoke from scorched and burning wings and fuselage behind him. But manages to bank around and come back towards the other jet. "Yeah, well."

The F-15E unfolds back into robot mode. "Unlike you cheapos, I don't need to stay in jet mode to fly!" It's true! Raising his arms and charging his magnetics, trying to catc the Aerialbot between the fields of opposing charges so he's tossed and twisted about between them!

The Strike Eagle jet rearranges into the magnetic Seeker Polarity!

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!"

It seems that the Autobot's massed fire is actually having a pretty severe effect on Scorponok, as the multitude of scanner-guided shots find weak points in his armor plating. He is bellowing almost incoherantly in pain; sparks shooting from several of his joints. The sheer volume of fire has actually forced the giant scorpion to take a few steps back; body twisting to re-distrubute his mass and regain stability. He still can't see worth a damn, but that's never really stopped him from destroying things in the past as his weapons lock on to what he thinks are Autobots-- but he can't really be sure. Either way, he seems to be firing more or less at random from his tail cannons, and is hitting as much of the spaceport as he is Autobots. It's certainly becoming an unfriendly place to be.

Combat: Polarity strikes F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> with his Magnetic Distortions attack!

Combat: Polarity's attack has strange and mysterious effects on F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid>.

Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> falls to the ground, unconscious.

Combat: Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> misses Jazz with his Random Tail Cannon Fire! Are you UNLUCKY enough to be in the way? Area attack! [Pulled -9]

Combat: Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> strikes Blaster with his Random Tail Cannon Fire! Are you UNLUCKY enough to be in the way? Area attack! [Pulled -9]

Combat: Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> strikes Rewind with his Random Tail Cannon Fire! Are you UNLUCKY enough to be in the way? Area attack! [Pulled -9]

Combat: Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> strikes Steeljaw with his Random Tail Cannon Fire! Are you UNLUCKY enough to be in the way? Area attack! [Pulled -9]

Hinder flinches and curls up into a little ball at all of the ordinance flying about, but then realizes all she's doing is setting herself up to get stepped on. So she looks around quiclky, locates Soundwave, and makes another stumble/skitter dash to lean against his ankles for protection.

Rumble fires off a few quick bursts at a couple of the more-exposed tapes from the relative safety of the starship wreckage. "This ain't goin' so hot! Soundwave, what are we doin' here again? I forgot in all the exploding and hurting and lions!"

Combat: Rumble misses Swift with his Defensive Blaster Fire Area attack! [Pulled -3]

Combat: Rumble misses Rewind with his Defensive Blaster Fire Area attack! [Pulled -3]

F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> unfortunately cannot use the handy data Steeljaw tosses up to him! Just as he turns to focus on Scorponok, Polarity smacks him with some funky Magneto moves! Raid is very aware is life is in danger... right before getting smashed between magnetic forces. It is no pleasant feeling. His innards are quite literally stretched apart and warped, and his taxed systems simply knock him out. Down he tailspins, crashing somewhere near Blaster.

Swift acks as he gets attacked, the spray hitting his protective cover and forcing the rabbit to run. Of course, as he runs, he's shot at even more by Rumble on Scorponok. There really isn't so much of a spaceport left, and all things considered, he isn't about to test out his ability to fight against Scorponok. Instead, he continues to analyze and send the info to Jazz, "Come on now guys! I think Air Raid's not going to be rescued at this rate!"

Combat: Swift analyzes Scorponok for weaknesses Jazz can exploit.

Rewind nods. "Yessssss, Blaster. It's a little known fact that, unlike some other warriors, you never fail me." He folds his arms just in time to be blasted by Scorponok's tail cannon, lifting the little librarian gone mental off the ground, hurling him through the air as a smoking ball of folded metal, and crash-rolling into the ground once gravity claims him completely... coincidentally this spares him from Rumble's Bill Paxton like firing. He groans, pushes himself back into proper posture and then climbs to his feet. "no-o-o-bodyyy...." He doesn't even articulate a complete sentence. He just runs at the big huge bug monster with an old guy inside his head and starts throwing punches...

Combat: Rewind sets its defense level to Neutral.

Combat: Rewind strikes Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> with its Tiny fists a-knocking (Punch) attack!

Blaster gets perforated by quite a few of Scorponok's blasts, and one arm falling limply to his side. Unable to fire his rifle now, Blaster scans over the remains of the spaceport worriedly. All the Decepticons on this side, and all the Autobots over here - well, except for Air Raid...and that's when Air Raid's magneticly-mangled frame comes crashing down right next to him. Hmm, well okay, that makes things a little simpler. Shifting to a cross-legged position, he crows out, "Don't worry, Raider! We'll give 'em one for you!" The large speakers in his legs shudder slightly, then suddenly glass throughout the Decepticon side of the spaceport shatters. But Blaster didn't see little Rewind charging bravely into close combat! Oh no!!

Combat: Blaster strikes Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> with his Subsonic Pulse Area attack!

Combat: Blaster strikes Soundwave with his Subsonic Pulse Area attack!

Combat: Blaster misses Polarity with his Subsonic Pulse Area attack!

Combat: Blaster strikes Rumble with his Subsonic Pulse Area attack!

Combat: Blaster strikes Rewind with his Subsonic Pulse Area attack!

Hinder just sticks to Soundwave's ankles like glue, more than ready to hide and let this chaos be over with.

Combat: Hinder takes extra time to steady herself. [Pass]

Even though Steeljaw tries to throw himself out of the way of the blast, he doesn't quite make it. The laser blast pierces through the upper portion of his body, sending him sprawling to the ground briefly. Metal is warped and smoldering a little bit, but even then he still gets back up to his feet, even if he is growling in pain. Then stares, as he has the perfect vantage point to see Rewind make a brave (stupid) charge in.

Teeth bared, Steeljaw lungs after Rewind. That little bot is going to get him offlined, and Steeljaw isn't going to be having any of that! So instead, the heavily armored lion makes a dash for Scorponok. "Rewind, get out of here, it's too dangerous!" Despite this, Steeljaw attempts to play diversion, to a small degree. By opening his jaws, and attempting to clamp down on the nearest thing that looks like a leg on Scorpinok.

Combat: Steeljaw misses Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> with his Steel Jaws attack!

He's burnt to a crisp, but he's still got a little juice left in him for a few more acrobatic moves. As Scorponok unloads a barrage of tail cannon fire around the area, Jazz leaps up to avoid one blast and then he lands only to cart-wheel out of the way of another incoming volley. "This is like playin' DDR back at base with Bumblebee! Hah!"

Then comes /another/ nifty data stream from Swift.

"Aww yea Swift! Remind me to hook ya up with some bling bling later homie!" Jazz's blackened frame leaps back into action as he takes off in a dead sprint for his most stylish and bold move of the night.

Jumping high into the air with the help of his hydraulic lifters, Jazz swings around a lightpole and sends himself at Scorponok with his pair of metallic boots aimed right for the beast's ugly mug. Once that move is complete, the Autobot falls back to the ground, sending a spinning kick to Rumble and Soundwave in the process. The intricate maneuver might have been pulled off before in a Jackie Chan movie, but that was just a movie. This was the real deal.

"Haawww Yaaa Decepticreeps!!"

Combat: Jazz sets his defense level to Aggressive.

Combat: Jazz misses Soundwave with his Jazzie Chan Area attack! [Pulled -1]

Combat: Jazz misses Rumble with his Jazzie Chan Area attack! [Pulled -1]

Combat: Jazz strikes Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> with his Jazzie Chan Area attack! [Pulled -1]

Blight screeches as he chases after the rabbit. "Come back here bunny. I just want to tear you to pieces and eat you." He screeches out to the rabbit, his flying resembling the rabbit's hopping to try and catch up and take a bite out of Swift

Combat: Stinkbug misses Swift with his Munch attack!

Polarity takes a few moments to enjoy the sight of Air Raid tailspinning in a wreck, and even throws in a point and mocking laugh for good measure. "Looks like you've been grounded! Nyahahaha!" Then clutchs his midsection as he cackles gleefully.

It takes a few shouts over the radio to snap him out of it and remind him there was still a fight going on. "I spy from high in the sky..." Oh look, something bright and shiny and gold! "Golden cat is watching you mutilate!"

Drifting closer to the ground, he flicks an arm out to the side and with a metallic *twang* a random pipe is yanked from the rubble and into his hand. "There's more tapes here than you can shake a stick at!.. Let's do something about that." Then tries to thwack Steeljaw over the head with said 'stick' while still cackling like a madmech at his own bad jokes.

Combat: Polarity misses Steeljaw with his Gone Clubbin' (Punch) attack!

Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> is so beside himself at being rushed by Rewind that he actually forgets to defend himself against anything else for a moment; multiple attacks bouncing off of his armored hide in the progress. Rewind's tiny fist plinks off of one of his armored legs and leaves a dent. Scorponok is blinking at the audacity of it all; but he sees Jazz coming at the last possible second. He transforms; wading into melee combat like the expert at it he is. The first thing he does is get kicked in the head by Jazz, but as the other mech tries his Jackie Chan move, Scorponok attempts to whack him with his shield for a home run. Not to be outdone, though, he lifts a -GIANT- foot and attempts to stomp Steeljaw and Rewind into the ground at the same time!

Giant Scorpion <Scorponok> transforms into his Scorponok mode.

Combat: Scorponok strikes Jazz with his Jackie Chan Meets Scorp-Fu Area attack! [Pulled -4]

Combat: Scorponok strikes Rewind with his Jackie Chan Meets Scorp-Fu Area attack! [Pulled -4]

Combat: Scorponok strikes Steeljaw with his Jackie Chan Meets Scorp-Fu Area attack! [Pulled -4]

"I'll take you all on!" shouts Rumble, blazing away with his blaster, until Jazz kicks the partially-collapsed shuttle he's hiding in over and Blaster finishes collapsing it. He only barely makes it out, retreating towards Soundwave. As durable as he is compared to most other tapes, he's had enough.

Combat: Rumble begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Rewind, Jazz, Swift, Blaster, Soundwave, Foxfire, Scorponok, and Polarity

Soundwave, his weapons damaged beyond immediate repair leaps off of Scorponok, turns, and charges the target of his fury - Blaster, the one who brought all this 'support', who built these infernal foils to his own devices, and the bane of his prized project. Optics glowing red, he leaps for Blaster, arms outstretched, droning loudly and disharmonically, "Operation...TERMINATION....Destination...OBLIVION!"

Combat: Soundwave misses Blaster with his Smackdown attack!

Rumble changes his mind and retreats in some other direction than Soundwave.

Hinder startles as Soundwave suddenly charges back out into the fray and for lack of anything else to do races after him as best she can. He seems to think this Autobot has earned a stern scolding, so she does what little she can to help. As Soundwave leaps for Blaster, she does the same, but aims to chomp on the Autobot's ankle. She knows her limitations.

<Autobot> Blaster says, "Whoa! I think I just saw my life flash before my optics. It needed more reggae. Uh, uh...how we doin' heroes? We thrown everything we have at them, but looks like they still got some fight left in 'em."

Combat: Hinder misses Blaster with her anklebiter's speciality (Punch) attack!

<Autobot> Swift says, "Doing alright, more data coming your way here Jazz. Slam him one for me!"

Swift runs and moves just like a rabbit, which means that he zags when Blight zigs, and the bug misses again. The black rabbot continues his movements, even as Scorponok comes out into robot mode, watching the battle as best as he can. Seeing Blaster being attacked then, by his evil doppleganger (because to Swift, Blaster came first), Swift did what he's been doing and does best, which has been to analyze, and send the info off. Soundwave's weakspots direct to Jazz's systems, for ease in bashing the evil tape master down. "You won't win Soundwave!"

Combat: Swift analyzes Soundwave for weaknesses Jazz can exploit.

<Autobot> Air Raid groans.

Blaster sees Soundave rushing at him, and just manages to scrabble backwards to keep away. Flinging his legs up over his own head, Blaster rolls over backwards, somehow coming to his feet and still a few steps ahead of Soundwave. "That's the spirit, Swift!" he calls, then pivots on one foot, the other leg swinging around for a spinning back-kick. "WaHAA!" he adds in a high-pitched voice.

Rewind rattles and falls to his knees as Blaster's sounds rock his world. "Blaster! I take it back, you do sometimes fail me! Nyugh!" He shakes his head to clear the ringing in his audials... and thats when the shadow of Scorponok's foot comes down ~CRUNCH~ Down Rewind goes, joints groaning, armor cracking, and optics bugging out behind his visor. Rewind scrambles out from under the behemoth headmaster and raises his fist. "This isn't over, Scorponok. I will have my revenge!" He gazes at the Autobot forces and declares, "You may stay and 'have fun', my troops. But I will fight another day and bring an even grander army. One that won't give the Decepticons the slightest hope of victory." With that, Rewind turns away and tries leaping into the air. He falls to the ground, ofcourse. "Damn it!" He gets up and runs for it.

Combat: Blaster misses Soundwave with his Sabot Festival (Kick) attack!

Combat: Rewind begins retreating, leaving itself vulnerable to parting shots from Jazz, Swift, Blaster, Soundwave, Scorponok, and Polarity

For about 10 seconds, Jazz looked like the coolest Autobot ever. Then Scorponok swings his mighty shield and sends the Autobot flying through the air for a humbling homerun. "Woaaah!!! I'm goinnnn....goinnn...." And he crashes into a heap of rubble.

"....gone..." emits a voice wearily from beneath the cover of flying dust and debris.

For a moment, there's not a sign of life from the mound of of rubble.

Another few seconds pass.

Then a blue hand pops out from under the heap! And then another!

"I didn't hear no bell Bots! Ya dig?! Let's boogie these bad-boys outta here!"

Dropping down into his alternate mode, Jazz hits the gas and peels out in the direction of Soundwave. "Ohhhh Sounddddy!! I've got the PERFECT JAM for ya to check out!!"

Electricity sparks and crackles across Steeljaw's back as he forces his legs to move. Just not fast enough though. He moves fast enough that he manages to avoid getting outright slammed by the massive foot, but not fast enough to keep his back end from getting partially crushed. Metal crackles and pops just like the sparks of energy on his back, but he forces himself back up to his legs. Just in time to avoid getting beaned upside the head by Polarity. But only just barely.

But now, the lion is pretty well pissed. Mostly in pain, but also pissed. His back legs don't seem to want to work properly to lunge him to a more strategic point to attack Polarilty. Instead, he aims for the closest thing. The wrist of the hand that tried to bean him. Jaws open, Steeljaw aims to clamp down on the wrist with all of his might, emitting only a harsh growl.

At least Rewind got away, even if Steeljaw is in serious levels of hurt.

Combat: Steeljaw misses Polarity with his Steel Jaws attack! [Pulled -1]

Break it down! With a flurry of sounds, Jazz drops down into a Porsche 935 Turbo.

Combat: White Porsche 935 <Jazz> strikes Soundwave with his Justin Bieber Sings attack! [Pulled -1]

Scorponok lays about him; driving his foot into the ground with ferro-crete shattering force. He's even managed to clobber Jazz, and Rewind is in retreat. Steeljaw is locked in combat with Polarity; meaning that Scorponok is free for the first time this entire battle. His rifle appears out of subspace in his hand; a terrifying and orange thing as he begins to stalk around, looking for that thing that he knows is there. It's going to be. Around here somewhere. The Autobots have just been hitting too accurately. A brief movement is caught out of the corner of his eye, and Scorponok levels his rifle and presses the trigger. A dull whirring sound is heard as pebbles begin to lift off the ground around him as an anti-gravity field forms around him while the cannon's capacitor cycles to full charge. Then the fusion reactor is unleashed in a tremendous.... ..... of magenta energy. Was it just a shadow Scorponok shot at?
 * BZRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!*

Or was it....

Combat: Scorponok sets his defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Scorponok strikes Swift with his Anti-Gravity Fusion Cannon attack!

Scorponok bellows thunderously. "JAZZ, BLASTER YOU IDIOTS! PICK UP YOUR JUNK AND FLEE! OR DIE!"

"Relentless Autobots." Soundwave says, withdrawing. "You will cease functioning! This will be your..." he trails off, staggering backward. "Yes...That one will do." he says, turning to Swift, and fires a massive blast at the little tapebot.

Combat: Soundwave strikes Swift with his Concussion Blaster Gun attack!


 * CRUNCH* Fortunately, that's just the pipe Polarity had been swinging that gets shattered into metallic splinters due to the tape's mighty jaws! He holds up the chunk still in his hand to peer at it, and then cackles as he tosses it over his shoulder. "And that is why you stay in the car. Hehehe." Despite being battered and beat and missiled to heck, Polarity still manages a unstable looking grin.

But then it turns to a confused look, and after a few moment moments, a scowl. "Dangit, I can't think of any more good cat puns! Oh well." He tries to grab Steeljaw by the hindquarters with a magnetic wave and yank him into the air, butt end first.

Combat: Polarity strikes Steeljaw with his Magnetic Wedgie attack! [Pulled -1]

Combat: Polarity's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Steeljaw.

Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Steeljaw's Agility. (Crippled)

Hinder hesitates in trying to chomp at Blaster again when Soundwave doesn't press the attack, watching the bossman to see what to do next. The Decepticon's attention is turned to the little black rabbit and she hisses. If there weren't big angry mechs firing big mean weapons at the bunnybot, she'd go chase him down right now and bite his ears! Because! But she IS staring at him intently, ready to do exactly that if Soundwave tells her to.

Combat: Hinder takes extra time to steady herself. [Pass]

Metal crunches and pops as the magnetic forces begin to take ahold of Steeljaw's frame. Unfortunately for Steeljaw, he's not actually made of gold. It might not have had as much of an effect on him if it was gold. But in this case? The poor tape cat is yanked tail first into the air.

Though if Polarity was expecting a chastized cat, he's far off. What he gets is one pissed off looking feline. A pissed off looking feline with a pair of guns that are leveled /directly/ at Polarity's face. Granted, what they fire isn't the solar charged pellets that the cat's guns are known for, but instead a disrupter beam, aimed right at his eyes.

There is only so far that a rabbit can run before it would finally run into a deadend. And while there isn't much left standing to create such a deadend, Swift certainly would find himself in such a position. Apparently the Decepticons finally realized that they shouldn't be dealing with those dishing out the pain, but rather, the one that is making that pain a reality and even more painful.

Scorponok's blast slams home first, the anti-gravity shot making it nearly impossible for Swift to really move at all. Soundwave was next, tearing away at whatever armor that was left remaining with his concussion blasts. The combined assault mananged to send the poor black rabbot flying, landing with a thud and skidding along the ground. For a while, it looks like he is out but good.

Slowly, though, Swift picks himself back up, gears and servos pushing themselves to the limits just to keep the bot moving. "I... I think they found me..." He says. Rather than stick around, and knowing that Blaster and the other 'Bots would rather he survives regardless of what he might think, Swift makes haste as fast as he could for the Autobot shuttle, hoping to stay out of the firefight now that he was pretty trashed.

Combat: Swift begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from White Porsche 935 <Jazz>

Combat: Steeljaw sets his defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Steeljaw strikes Polarity with his PEW PEW PEW goes the angry lion with the guns! (Disruptor) attack!

Content with filling Soundwave's audio receptors with Justin Bieber's incredibly horrible music (even by Jazz's standards), the Porsche swings back around on two tires for another pass at the Decepticons. This indeed was quite the endurance test for Jazz and now the question was: Just how long could he keep this up?

"Yo Blaster! I'll give 'em the FLASH and you give 'em the BANG!! Let's do this!!"

Revving up his already-sputtering engine, Jazz powers up his headlights for one heck of a high-beam display. FLASH! FLASH!

Combat: White Porsche 935 <Jazz> sets his defense level to Guarded.

Combat: White Porsche 935 <Jazz> misses Soundwave with his Hi-Beam Hangover Area attack!

Combat: White Porsche 935 <Jazz> misses Scorponok with his Hi-Beam Hangover Area attack!

Combat: White Porsche 935 <Jazz> strikes Polarity with his Hi-Beam Hangover Area attack!

Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Polarity's Accuracy. (Blinded)

Blaster watches as two of the Decepticon heavy hitters send vicious attacks at poor Swift, then Polarity follows up with a dastardly one on Steeljaw. "That's it!" he barks, actually not grinning for once. "I had it with you mecha picking on my Bots. You want to pick on somebot, come get me!" He lurches a few steps around Soundwave, but it's mainly just to get in better position. Then he turns off his optics and falls to his knees, raising both arms to the sky like Willem Defoe in Platoon right before the bombs come falling...then Jazz calls out. One of Blaster's optic winks back on, and his lips crease into a smirk. "But first, come get some of /this/."

Combat: Blaster strikes Soundwave with his Rock and Roll Will Never Die Area attack! [Pulled -2]

Combat: Blaster strikes Scorponok with his Rock and Roll Will Never Die Area attack! [Pulled -2]

Combat: Blaster misses Polarity with his Rock and Roll Will Never Die Area attack! [Pulled -2]

Scorponok has seen better days certainly; though he does not look quite ready to fall. In fact, he's still looking mighty irritable with steam billowing from the barrel of his fusion cannon. He stows the thing; claws clanking angrily as he begins to move forward. He's a frightening looking thing, sparking and leaking energon, claws the size of many Cybertronians upraised and ready for destruction.

He's lumbering slowly and purposefully towards where Steeljaw and Polarity are fighting; the tape-cat's shilouette reflecting in his optic visor. "Ignorant, useless wretch. /WEAK/ technology. I will /squash/ you like so much an insect." Slowly, one of those giant claws closes in the immitation of a mouse in a trap.

"Then your beloved Blaster, and every single Autobot that stands in my way. Why are you still here?! The only thing that awaits you is DESTRUCTION!"

Meanwhile, Jazz sucks so much that Scorponok doesn't even notice him -- though, Blaster's sound buffets against his armor.

Combat: Scorponok sets his defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Scorponok strikes Steeljaw with his The Mind-Killer attack!

<Autobot> Blaster says, "Jazz-man, I been thinking 'bout our next move here. We got Air Raid back. Kinda. But some of us are runnin' on empty. (like me)"

<Autobot> Blaster says, "We keep this up, the rest of us'll end up scrapped too. No upside in it."

<Autobot> Jazz says, "I hear ya Blast-man! We got Raid, so let's roll!"

<Autobot> Swift says, "Owww... I think I left my tail back there..."

<Autobot> Jazz says, "Auto-cats! Get to the shuttle and let's split!"

<Autobot> Swift says, "Already there... though not in any condition to start it... if I knew how to properly..."

Turning with a defeated frustration in him, Soundwave takes another exhausted charge at Blaster, attempting to tackle him. "Autobot...I will find your destruction, even if it extinguishes my spark to do it!"

Combat: Soundwave sets his defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Soundwave strikes Blaster with his Disruptor attack!

<Autobot> Steeljaw grrr. "Working on it."

F-15E Strike Eagle <Air Raid> bleeds. :(

"WAAAUGH!" Polarity gets shot in the face, -again-. This time with the shattering sound of his visor being blown off. He paws at his face for a second time, dropping his focus and thus dropping the mag-hold on Steeljaw to boot. He whirls around as he staggers... Only to come face first into Jazz's blinding blaze LIGHTSHOW OF DOOM! "AAAAAUGH AGAIN!", he howls, flailing and stumbling backwards and tripping over a chunk of rubble. "OW!" It's the rubble that gets blown up by Blaster's sonic blast instead of him, at least. "I'm gonna put your lights out for good for that!" But it's mostly just pissed off and totally blind shooting vagely in the direction that the flash came from.

The way he's flailing and shooting off machine-gun blasts randomly in Jazz's direction, it almost look like the EPIC FLASH gave him a robotic seizure or something.

Hinder sees the black and white car actually daring to try and do something mean to Soundwave and hisses at it. "Go away! Meanie!" She jumps at the hood of the vehicle, possibly throwing herself clear of the blinding headlights, and tries to hook her claws around the edge of the car's hood before hissing straight at the windshield then doing her level best to gnaw on the windshield wipers. Take that!

Combat: Hinder sets her defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Polarity strikes White Porsche 935 <Jazz> with his Spastic Gunning (Pistol) attack!

Combat: Hinder strikes White Porsche 935 <Jazz> with her I'm really mad now! attack!

Even the greatest of party people knew when to call it a night. Thus was the case for Jazz. Polarity's wild-fire blasts off part of his fender and Hinder adds insult to injury by yanking off a windshield wiper.

This had certainly gone on long enough.

"Yo Bot-Crew! It's time to kick the tires and light the fires! Let's get to the shuttle for the after party! Ya dig?!" Swerving a bit to remove Hinder from his battered frame, the Porsche backfires as it makes a bee-line for the shuttle at best possible speed.

"Don't call us, we'll call you Decepti-cawns! Peace out!"

Combat: White Porsche 935 <Jazz> sets his defense level to Protected.

Combat: White Porsche 935 <Jazz> begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit.

There is a briefly smug grin on Steeljaw's face. Just about before he's dropped uncermoniously from the mag-hold. Somehow, despite all the damage to his frame, he manages to hit the ground on all four paws. Mind, something sickeningly when he hits all four paws, but he still manages to land on all fours. "Serves you right, freak" He growls, glaring up at Polarity. Should have stayed in the car! The 'mean treatment' doesn't seem to have effected the cat much. But then again, he's a cat. He glares back at the scorpion, eyes narrowing.

Before the cat instead turns tail, and starts back towards Blaster as quickly as he can, despite a distinctive limp in a back leg.

Combat: Steeljaw sets his defense level to Protected.

Combat: Steeljaw begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from White Porsche 935 <Jazz>, Blaster, Soundwave, Foxfire, Scorponok, and Polarity

Blaster takes yet another shot from Soundwave and stumbles back, tripping over Air Raid's inert form. "Ugh! Sorry 'bout that 'Raid." Blaster picks up the smaller bot and slings him over his own shoulders in a fireman's lift, then limps back towards where the Autobot shuttle is parked. "But the good news is, we're gettin' out of here. You can kiss planet Torqulon goodbye! Uh, when they reactivate you I mean." Casting one last look at the scene of horrendous destruction, and the angry Decepticons still left shooting, Blaster lurches off, pausing to pick up any Casettes that need a lift on the way.

Combat: Blaster begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from White Porsche 935 <Jazz>, Scorponok, and Polarity

Soundwave disharmonically gurgles, leveling his rifle at Steeljaw.

Combat: Soundwave strikes Steeljaw with his Disruptor attack!

Hinder is shaken off of Jazz's car hood pathetically easily, but she picks herself up and chews that windshield wiper to bits in a fit of spite, hissing and stomping one little foot the whole time.

As the last of the Autobots finally begin their retreat; Scorponok maintains a steady barrage of magenta-beams with his Fusion Rifle to make sure that nobody thinks that it is a good idea to turn around and begin the push again. He looks like hell, too. Armor is broken and cracked, he is leaking energon from multiple breaks and cracks and though he doesn't seem like he's going to fall over, he's going to require some serious repairs.

Finally though, he ceases shooting, and can be heard to bellow for Astrotrain over his comm.

"Decepticons." He then says; the broken and burning wreckage of the airport reflecting in his optic visor. It's been a good day. "Pick up our junk, and let's get out of here."

Soundwave collapses to his knees and slumps, then throws the expended rifle a few meters into the distance in the retreated Autobots' direction.

Polarity gets up, shaking his head a bit to clear it. Though he's still seeing spots thanks to all the shots to the face he's taken. "Ugh, it's all that stupid radio's fault!" he snarls, and manages to churn up enough power to light his anti-gravs and zip, haphazardly, a bit into the air. "I'm gonna crush ya all-" *CLONK*

Somehow, there was still one overhead rafter remaining. And somehow, that one rafter is the one Polarity jets up into, and falls back to with a thunk, facefirst.

Decepticon Shuttle <Astrotrain> arrives not too long afterwards, no doubt due to CONVENIENT PLOT DEVICE having him somewhere in the area not all that far off. Cutting down towards the spaceport, the triplechanger whistles to himself as he takes note of all the destruction to the place, "Why the frag do I always get to miss out on all the -real- explosive parties?" Of course then he takes note of the condition of quite a few of the locals left behind. "...course maybe this time it wasn't such a bad thing." He takes no small amount of pleasure in seeing Scorponok all shot to slag, though noting to himself with some disappointment that his head seems fine. It isn't long before he's taxiing to a stop, engines powering down as his loading ramps start to extend for the Decepticons to get on board. Out of coincidence he happens to roll to a halt near Soundwave as he throw shis rifle, "Lookin a little testy there, Sounders. Maybe ya oughta consider startin to drink."

ZOTT. Laser fire strikes Steeljaw in the backside, sending him briefly sprawling on the ground. But he just as quickly gets back up and keeps retreating. Tacticaly retreating, that is. And now that limp is even worse. So much for the lion.

Hinder finally tires of taking her anger out on the bits of windshield wiper and shuffles over to Soundwave then skids chin-first to a sprawl directly in front of him.

Soundwave stands up, collects his rifle, and heads into the ramp of Astrotrain, giving the obliterated Spaceport one last look. "Soon, Autobots...I /will/ have your undoing." and steps into the shuttle.

Polarity manages to get up and stumble over to Astrotrain before collapsing inside. "Man, what a RUSH that was."

Scorponok transforms into his Scorpstation mode.

Combat: Scorponok prepares Soundwave for surgery, his COMBAT flag has been waived.

Combat: Scorpstation expertly repairs Soundwave's injuries.

Combat: Scorpstation is able to repair some of Soundwave's internal systems damage.

Combat: Scorponok prepares Polarity for surgery, his COMBAT flag has been waived.

Hinder watches Soundwave ignore her yet again and gets back to her feet, shuffle-limping slowly after him toward Astrotrain. Begin pouting mode now. She steps just barely far enough inside to be out of the way of the door when it closes, then transforms haltingly and maglocks herself to the adjacent wall.