Jazz Gets Fired Up Pt. 3

AC Training Chamber

This stark, spacious chamber is well reinforced and shielded to stand up to the strain of many practice bouts. A gleaming training drone stands in one corner of the room, ready for work. The walls are sheathed in reflective alloys, allowing the combatants to observe their motions and progress.

Contents: Sandstorm Coriolis Dominator Training Drone - AC

Crosshairs had done his job. Brainstorm had done his job. And now it was time for Sandstorm to do his job. At least that's what Jazz was hoping for. The Intelligence Director had recently been fitted with a stronger tactical system, but he hadn't had the chance to test it.

Until now. Thus, the invitation for Sandstorm.

"Yo man! Glad to see ya again! It's been a while hasn't it?! Well, guess what?! This sleak and stylish machine is now a lean mean FIGHTIN MACHINE. Ya dig?!"

Jutting out his Porsche chest with a bit more vigor, it's obvious to see that Jazz looks a bit tougher. At least it looks like he's carrying a little more swagger than usual. "The reason I called you in was to see how this new tactical system works. Brainstorm said something about holding off on real combat I think, but he didn't say I couldn't fine tune this rockin' upgrade in here. What do you say homie?!"

Sandstorm pffffts, blowing a bit of exhaust steam between his lips. "Scientists -always- say that. Ain't had a thing break down on me yet... though I suppose giving it a test run for tweaking before busting some real heads wouldn't be a bad idea." Honestly, Sandstorm was just bored from the important but extremely dull defense patrols he's been on around Iahex, so was glad for a bit of a diversion.

The Wrecker waggles a finger at Jazz and smirks. "But don't think that just because we're testing stuff in the training room means I'm gonna go easy on you!" Then he crouchs a bit, shifting side to side a few times to settle his sense of balance. "Easy ain't in our vocab anyways."

The stylish one slaps his hands together as if it's Christmas morning on Cybertron and Shockwave's head is a tree topper. "Aww yea! I knew I could count on you Wreckers to lend a hand..or blaster..or whatever you're gonna try to kill me with. Let's get this show on the road!"

Jazz brings his tactical systems on-line for the first time since his upgrade work and immediately he lets out a grin. "I feel like I just poured a few Red Bulls into my fuel injectors! Let's ROCK! Woo Hoo!"

Withdrawing his coveted solar-powered photon rifle from subspace, Jazz executes a perfect backflip, landing and locking onto his friendly target. "Cross your fingers, optics, and whatever else ya got! Here goes nothing!" With that, the Autobot unleashes a few bolts of bright red energy.

One gets the impression that, for the sake of testing, Sandstorm doesn't bother with trying to dodge. Being the resident stuntmech he knows how to take a fall. They won't learn anything if the attack doesn't hit, either!

But it does, in a bright flash of energy against his chestplate. ".. Heh. That actually stung a bit.... but either you've been undercover again or it's doing something weird, your gun was shooting red instead of blue." Or maybe it was an animation error?

"I just hope they didn't muck with your threat recognition in the process." With a snicker he pulls out one of his heated knifes and flings it at the other Intel dude with a snap of the wrist.

Jazz takes a look at the end of his barrel as he hits the mark. "Hmm...maybe that's gonna change with the upgrade Brainstorm and Crosshairs put together! Don't sweat the red homie!" Just then, the Autobot's impaled by Sandstorm's thermal knife.

"Yo! I gotta get one of this things for next year's Robo-Turkey! That melted through my armor! Nice attack!"

The Autobot rolls to the side into a cart-wheel. By the way, who knew Jazz could make such a cheesy move look so cool? He rises up and aims his bright headlights at Sandstorm. "Flash ON!!"

"Got tired of only havin' my knuckles when chumps want to get personal," Sandstorm replies, twirling a second knife between his fingers before slipping it back into its concealed spot in his forearm. Rubs at the marks in his chest a bit with the other hand. "Okay, we know you can pack a bigger punch now." A brief pause, and then he smirks. "Let's make sure it still handles harsher conditions!"

The bright beams come on, but at the same time he's dropping to the ground and transforming. Followed by the revving engine roar and tires squealing as Sandstorm spins in place. The resulting upchurn of dust and smoke from his exhausts cancels out Jazz's light show, then sweeps outwards from his position to engulf the rest of the chamber. "Think you can still hit what you can't see?" With a quick flip and the roar of an engine, Sandstorm takes off in dunebuggy mode, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake.

Who knows where the dust came from in a completely metallic room, but we'll just blame that on animators taking some liberty to make the scene that much more cooler. "Oww! My visor! This is what that room looked like in Jamaica when I walked in and those guys were puffin' that green grass!" Stumbling around in Sandstorm's sandstorm, Jazz thinks it's time to bring out the bigger guns.

"Let's see if my heat-seaking missile can find you in this slop! Don't give me an easy target pal!" A large missile appears on the Autobot's shoulder and it takes only a second to locate the Wrecker's energon signature.

"Here goes nothing! To infinity and beyond and all that jazzzzz!!"

Followed by the oh so familiar mechanical sound, and as the cloud starts to whisp off as it spreads out thin, the Wrecker pulls into the air in his chopper mode... kinda a low flight ceiling.. at least until the simulation systems do the whole 'illusion of distance thing'. "Considering where the Cons like to go, lets try an aerial target, eh?" Even as he's bringing around his nose to light the air with the muzzle flash of the small gun beneath his front end. "Normally this is where I would be yelling WRECK 'N' RULE!, but that ain't so hot against other Bots." Jumping to the air, Sandstorm twists around rapidly, rotors whirl to life and he takes off in his helicopter mode.

Jazz ducks under the darts of laser fire, tumbling forward fluidly into his alternate mode. "You're right Sandy! I think something more like LETS PREEETEND TO WRECK AND RULE!! might sound better, but just my two slips of energon!" The white Porsche accelerates forward, but not too far with the limited space within the training room.

"Let's see if we can pack a little more punch when I go VRRRRrrrom VRRRrrroom! Ya dig?!" A second later, the insides of the metallic cave start rattling with the thump of deep bass. It's hard to tell exactly what artist it is, but whatever it is, it's LOUD. "This was just a demo back in '85! These guys rock now a days!" !transform 2 Break it down! With a flurry of sounds, Jazz drops down into a Porsche 935 Turbo.

Sikorsky S-61R Copter  whoas, veering to the side as Jazz brings out his sound system that would make any pimped inner city ride jealous. He manages to avoid getting knocked about by the sonic blasts, but he can still feel the air vibrating a bit against his metal exterior as he navigates. "Dude, that bass is really banging now!.. but it's a little unfocused with the power boost. Spreading out too much, leaving.. you could say..."

He trails off as he transforms, and in abruptly dropping out of the air above, right down towards the sports car. ".. pockets. Geronimo!" Unbothered by the free-fall, he fires a less abrasive shot from his rifle on the way down! With a lightning fast flip and twist, Sandstorm lands in his robot mode, ready for action.

It's a goo thing the extra power hasn't made Jazz any slower in his Porsche mode. Easily able to avoid Sandstorm's fire from above, the Autobot goes from car to robot in another flash of whirl of parts. "You're right on Sandy! Looks like I gotta fine tune these tactical systems here....uh..timeout or something!"

Running away from the friendly foe, Jazz raises his forearm and taps a few commands into a tiny pop-out screen. "Alright...cuttin' back on the power output by 10 percent and maybe that'll be the perfect balance so I can keep my rock-steady aim. Ya dig?!"

Swirling around, the Director pulls his favorite weapon out again for a precise blast. Hopefully the recalibrating had worked. "Let's give ya the blue beam homie!"

Sandstorm hits the ground and executes a near perfect duck and roll to absorb the impact of landing. Few people would be able to dot hat and still keep an optic on their opponent, but Sandstorm is one of them with his sharp wits and keen attention. Enough so that he can aim his tumble so he comes out of it smoothly into kicking off the ground and lunging at the withdrawing Jazz.

Only to have the latter turn at the last moment, smooth and stylish as always, and fire! "Oomph!" The blast strikes dead-on this time, with enough force to throw the Wrecker out of his leap and skidding backwards across the floor, smoke trailing off his chassis. "... an appropriate ow is in order here." He half sits, propping himself up on one arm and waving some of the smoke out of his face. "I think that last couple of tweaks there got you set, Jazz... feels like it at least."

Jazz walks over to his comrade and offers him a blue hand up (no winch this time!). "I think you're right man! That felt really good. Didn't feel like it shook my aim too much and felt like I had some more power to pack too! Awesome dude! It was really cool of you to help me out with this project down here."

Stowing his weapon back into subspace, the blue-visored bot offers his standard grin as he motions to the door. "Tell ya what. Why don't we celebrate with an energon-shake in the repair bay? It'll be my treat...we can bust out the finer stuff and all!"

Jazz heads towards the exit with his Autobot friend, "Just wait 'till those Decepti-cawns get a load of the NEW JAZZ!! They're gonna be flippin' out!"

Sandstorm accepts the helping hand up, then gives Jazz a slap on the back with the other before hanging it over his shoulders buddy-like as they turn to walk out. "Ahahaha. Now I remember why I like sparing with you... you know how to throw the party afterwards too!"