Frying Pan To Fire: A Study

Summary: Arriving in the middle of a battle between Quickswitch and Peacekeeper, Sixknight has to face a new foe

'''Houston

''Where once there was a rich, prosperous land of oil and real estate, now there is simply a barren wasteland. Burnt out cars litter the smashed roads. Fires still spring up, and the earth itself is blackened and ruined. From this desolation towers the Cathedral of Primus, a tall spiring monument to the skies, jutting out of the dead earth, a beacon of hope in these dark times. Huge panels form its sides, smooth lines against the jagged ruins of Houston.

 Sixknight says, "What's going on here then! :)"

 Peacekeeper says, "PK just stabbed Quicky in the optics with a pair of her throwing knives and is currently hightailing it towards the Cathedral of Primus. Waiting on Quicky's pose now. :)"

"You've chosen no better place to meet your end," Quickswitch tells her calmly, all throughout, there's been a calmness to him, a patience and cohesion. He really had changed from the mech Peacekeeper had once known him to be, in more ways than one. He is unaccustomed to this--and it harkens back to something ancient, someone who had posed a situation to him similarly--This femme--Peacekeeper--she did not care about her fate. ALL beings desired or shunned their fates. A nanosecond of hesitation, of confusion, barely, and suddenly pain, status indicators color his vision for a milisecond before static, then nothing. The Sixchanger howls as the knives find their mark, reaching up to yank out the knives and writhe in furious rage. Still his bowed form shifts, a snarling animal behind her.

Peacekeeper,admittedly, would notice how calm Quickswitch is /if/ she currently wasn't running for her life--injuries and all! She, for her part, would only have brief bouts of emotion--flashes of her old self--before returning back to an emotionless, often cold demeanor soon thereafter. She meant what she told Quickswitch--she does not care what happens to her anymore. But it does not mean that she's going to just stand down and let him kill her either! Because, as all well know... everything has a will to live, no matter how small or fractured that will is. The only thing keeping her will to live actually alive is the full realization that, for all intents and purposes, she is the only non-Inquisitorian medic who is willing to help the New Americans and other factions (other than the Inquisitors)--even if she cares less for their fates than her own. Her job is to fix them and nothing more. But first, she has to get out of this situation!

A blink, a flash and from the misty skies come an echoing boom, as a familiar sky blue and white craft barrels through the sky directly towards the two combatants, twisting and turning as it plummets into the form of Sixknight, who although still at terminal velocity, lands with a barely audiable thud. The sixchanger straightens as the dust around him swirls and he approaches the two figures calmly. "Quickswitch sir, I... oh." He gives a slight scowl. "I see you are busy"

"This one still has her spirit left," Quickswitch utters ferally. He wondered how it would turn out. Sometimes the desparate had invention as a means of temporary escape. He peers at the fleeing Peacekeeper, leaping out after her on all fours, before leaping into the air and transitioning into pistol form. He aims and fires as the distance between them grows, as this one flees toward the giant structure nearby, "You prolong the inevitable! Don't make yourself or your kind suffer further!" Why he bothered speaking at all was cause to trouble him, there was no point in the communication. They lived or died. That was it.

Quickswitch succeeds in grasping Peacekeeper, throwing her off-balance.

Quickswitch shrinks down into his seriously pistol mode.

"What is it?" he inquires of Sixknight, then the gun nods in an aside, "Join me."

Peacekeeper shrieks as the blast strikes the back of her left shoulder and knocks her off-balance, sending her tumbling head-over-heels-over-aft until she eventually skids to a stop. She slowly rises, one arm clamped over her useless arm to keep it from flopping around, as she eyes the two Sixchangers warily. Fraggit, so close... /Figures that they move around in packs of two or more,/ she thinks as she starts to back away from the two. She almost finds it amusing that one Sixchanger is having so much trouble subduing a badly-wounded 'normal' medic. Almost.

Sixknight stands where he landed, calmly assessing the situation, his right fist starting to glow slightly, a bluish-pink energy dancing around it. "With due respect sir, if one rejects the gift you bring, then they do not deserve life. Stop toying with the wretched creature and put it out of its misery. It is... hollow."

The elder Six Changer responds clearly, quietly, "It was never extended to her. She may prove to be a suitable subject for the Inquisitors," either way, the result is the same. The pistol fires twice more in Peacekeeper's direction, shifting again into puma form and leaping, "Don't you understand," he tells Peacekeeper, "It is the /only/ way!" Claws stretched out, he leaps, his time as an Autobot long behind him, and now, the harbringer of a better age. A /neccesary/ one.

Quickswitch succeeds in grasping Peacekeeper, throwing her off-balance.

Peacekeeper looks at Sixknight in genuine puzzlement. There is a 'gift' involved somewhere? Up 'till now, all that's been going on is her getting beat up--again--and so soon after the last fight, too. There's been no mention of Quickswitch having any other intentions other than to kill her. And, at this point with the compounding damage from the earlier fight and now this attack, it might not take much more to finish her off. She continues to back away from the two Reapers, moving towards the Cathedral one step at a time. However, that too is stopped as Quickswitch again shoots her--this time directly in the chestplate, or what's left of it. She simply topples backwards from the shots, landing flat on her back, and doesn't even try to resist as Quickswitch pins her down. "What use is a medic within the Inquisitors? All of their technology... there is no need for me there, when they can fix others just as well or better than I can," she points out. "And what use is a Reaper medic--if such a thing is this 'gift ' that he," she flicks her dimmed gaze towards Sixknight for a second, "mentioned." She's hurt, and hurt bad, but she's not an idiot. "I already told you, Quickswitch. I don't care about my life anymore. But I /am/ needed /out here/, and that is enough to keep me going for however long I continue to live." Which, at this rate, isn't much longer.

"This world is dead" Sixknight utters, slowly walking towards Peacekeeper. "Killed by the savage apes you and your kind still profess to love and cherish. They burnt the skies, they turned the soil to ash, they filled the seas with poison. They are an evolutionary dead end and yet you and the New Americans still try to protect them and return to a past filled with death. We are the future. We are the only hope in this world of broken dreams. And no, we have no need of medics. But the people of this barren land do not either. You only prolong their suffering. You mean to be kind when you are in fact being /cruel/ in letting them live."

Laser Pistol  snaps his jaws. His claws digging in where they can, hindquarters braced hard against the ground, "Grrrrr, it is /neccesary/!" he repeats savagely, "They have more need of our determination than your own," he somehow manages all of this, "It is mercy." A mercy born out of harsh situations which would only grow worse and worse, were it not for them, for his people.

Faster than the eye can follow, Quickswitch transforms into a mecha-puma.

Cyber-Puma  snaps his jaws. His claws digging in where they can, hindquarters braced hard against the ground, "Grrrrr, it is /neccesary/!" he repeats savagely, "They have more need of our determination than your own," he somehow manages all of this, "It is mercy." A mercy born out of harsh situations which would only grow worse and worse, were it not for them, for his people. The Sixchanger is attacking in earnest. He HAD changed, somehow, somewhen in the past. His attention is on Peacekeeper, growling at her stilling form, pinned in his claws.

There is a shimmer in the air near the cathedral of Primus. Perhaps the God of the Cybertronians has answered the cry of one of his children? Is divine intervention really appearing? The air shimmers and a form solidifies out of nothingness as the newly detected Cybertronian deactivates his cloaking shield. And there, by the temple, hovering passively in the air is DepthCharge. The Autobot symbol is of course missing from his chest. But apart from this it appears to be the same old DepthCharge that was known hundreds of years ago. Who disappeared long ago also.

The old Aquabot looks at the scene before him and says, evenly, making his presence known in case his appearance out of thin air wasn't enough, "Mercy? Those who are without mercy should not speak of it."

"Dim your optics," Quickswitch tells her, more than he would have otherwise said to anyone, "It's over. It'll go quickly."

Sixknight looks up in curiousity, pausing slighty as he sees Depthcharge. "Ah Quickswitch, perhaps this could be a true challenge for your mettle. I will look over the Cybertronian if you wish to test yourself." He looks down at Peacekeeper. "It is a poor thing to die alone and unwanted. To know your very existance has been meaningless. I would ask you to reconsider our offer."

Peacekeeper looks at Sixknight emotionlessly, temporarily ignoring Quickswitch towering over her in his puma form. "I do not care about the humans. Once, I did, but not in any semblence of recent history," she replies flatly. "That was one reason why I did not join Grimlock's faction." She returns her gaze skywards, ruined sky or no. "Perhaps you have a point, Reaper. But even so, I would not be who I am if I was anything but a combat medic. And I would no longer be who I am if I became anything else, by my choice or someone else's."

She looks up at Quickswitch, not even grimacing at the claws digging into her shoulders, as her flat expression remains unchanging and her optics are still relatively bright. "As long as I am needed, I will still save those who are willing to be saved, if it is within the boundaries of my abilities." She narrows her optics. "If you will kill me, Quickswitch, I will face my death full on, not shuttering my optics in fear. But I have a feeling he," she cants her gaze upwards towards Depthcharge, "won't quite let you do that."

She sighs softly as she shakes her helm at Sixknight's continued words. "My life has not been meaningless. Every life saved, even in your version of cruelty, gives meaning to my life--even if I no longer appreciate it as I once did." She looks at Sixknight again. "As for reconsidering... I have never even heard you /offer/ anything. Only thing I have heard is gunshots and the sound of my vitals dropping every time I am wounded further."

Cyber-Puma 's claws lift, retracting slightly out of the torn and twisted mettle, "I was an Autobot," he responds as he lifts his beastial snout, The young Sixknight would not understand the affiliation, "Where would we be in even a few hundred years!" he snarls, having spent the better part of the century leading the Reapers closer to their evolutionary pinnacle, "Every core extinquished is a life no longer suffering, living in fear on dwindling resources until none are left," Quickswitch's beastial ears flick, eyeing the newcomer. Something about him appears familliar. The voice. The demeanor perhaps, though the name escapes him, "I refused to fight for a war we were all going to lose, then realized how to put an end to all of it." he still regards this newcomer, through faintly glowing optics.

"We offer you deliverance. Evolution, or death. Either way, freed from the shackles of yourselves and the world as you know it."

Internal anti-gravs deactivating, DepthCharge drops to the ground. Heavy Cybertonian feet cracking the ground on which he lands. He walks forward, showing no fear in the face of these Reapers Anyone with enhanced sensors could detect the power systems deep within DepthCharge's form actually all beginning to thrum with energy as they are prepared for action. His internal forcefield systems even begin to red line. Though on the exterior he is cool, calm and collected. Quickswitch's speach washes over him, but it honestly doesn't make much sense. But it never does with his kind. Zealots are always in a world of their own. Instead he responds, "I have my own evoltion, thank you very much. And if you do not begin to back away from the medic on this day it will be your core that is extinguished. This isn't a threat, it isn't a boast. It is a promise."

Sixknight kneels with one knee beside Peacekeeper, one hand running though the dry barren earth as his fist hums with crackling energy. "What Quickswitch is saying, in his roundabout way, is that you will join us, or you will die. To live as you are, broken and alone would be the ultimate cruelty. Those who are wrong never perceive they are so. Where you see the saving of lives as a blessing, you instead trap them in their dead bodies on this dead world. Join us, become one of six. Or help Praxis with his experiments to better the universe. Or die. Those are the only options left. It is your way, the old, Cybertronian way that has led to this path."

Peacekeeper studies the Reapers--one she once knew personally, and the other she knows little to nothing of. The offer is quite tempting... until she realizes what has happened to her old friends who are now bound to the Inquisitors. As hard as this world is nowadays, it is nothing she cannot deal with. "Aye, I could very well die out here and end up like the poor bodies left to rust in the Graveyard of the Gods," she acknowledges quietly. "But I care nothing for my continued existance save my work as a medic, and you have already stated that you have no such need for medics within the Inquisitors." She studies Sixknight very carefully, now that he's so close. "So, if I lose my only reason for living by joining your faction, what else am I left with but death anyways?"

Cyber-Puma  lowers his huge snout and settles his weight against his paws on her chest, or IN her chest, lowers close enough for her audial sensors to hear, to whisper in them with a feral edge to his words.

The Aquabot raises his right hand up, lining it visually in Quickswitch's direction. His forcefield system are fully primed and all he has to do is just /think/ about it and then the sixchanger will be dealing with someone who is actually able to fight back. But it appears that Peacekeeper is after answers and so the Aquabot doesn't act just yet. He waits. But he does intone, "Just give the word, Peacekeeper.." Two Sixchangers? Yes, DepthCharge thinks he can handle them both. As he said, he has his own evolution.

Peacekeeper grimaces as Quickswitch's paws do sink into her chest somewhat--since her chestplate has been destroyed by the continuous fire she's taken up 'till now. She moves one hand in a weak motion to DepthCharge that she heard him but wants him to wait a bit. She does not outright refuse the Sixchangers' offer, but she doesn't immediately agree to it either. Instead, she mutters something back to Quickswitch.

Sixknight stares at Quickswitch and Peacekeeper disparagingly. "If she refuses, do not force her. She will never fulfil her true potential if she cannot find balance in herself. It would be a waste of the process. We would simply have another Scorch..." He shakes his head, straightening up and staring at Depthcharge. "And you, stranger. What is your stake in this world of the lost and forgotten?"

Cyber-Puma  lifts himself off of the badly damaged form of Peacekeeper, but not before he whispers something to her a second time, before he regards the newcomer more closely, to address him, "She can wait, or expire," he informs Sixknight, listening to the other Sixchanger regard the stranger, "This world CANNOT sustain its population!" it is a rare, desparate tone, shades back when the Sixchanger was volitale, prone to rapid shifting of moods and thought processes faster than even he could sort them out, "You prolong the inevitable," his circuits crackle with the energy in the air, feeling it gather, "Sixknight is wise beyond his years," Quickswitch comments, pride creeping in. What had it been that Perceptor had long ago likened Turnover to... Something with human overtones, but... yes... a 'son.' He and Greatshot were almost like 'sons.' but also brothers, which really messes things up as something got twisted around somewhere! "So be it."

"My stake is none of your concern." replies DepthCharge. Hand still held aloft, ready for if Peacekeeper give the word. It is not his world, nor his fight. He happened to be passing and thought to even the score in remembrance of days long gone. They were better, simpler times. But the truth is time doesn't stand still and nothing ever stays just the way you want it to be. Things sure have changed around here.

And finally it seems that Quickswitch is backing away from the medic. That's all that DepthCharge really wanted. Once this situation is over with he will fade away into the darkness again and let the world move on, not remembering his name. Once again, Quickswitch's zealot ranting washes over an impassive DepthCharge. Him not even flinching as the air seems to ionise around them. He doesn't fear Quickswitch. In fact, DepthCharge comes right out and says it, "I do not fear you. You are tiny."

A very faint, sad smile crosses her face for the briefest of seconds. "Is that how it is, then? In that case... No, Reapers, I cannot accept," Peacekeeper states quietly, immediately making a small sharp motion for DepthCharge to assist her before they finish her off altogether. A pity, and here if she'd been given just a bit more time, she might've accepted.

Sixknight slides a sword slowly from his back, the shaft glowing with a faint crackle of pink and blue energy from his hand, the blade planted firmly in the ground as he gazes up at Depthcharge with a smirk. "Stranger!" he quotes. "What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow, out of this stony rubbish? You cannot say, or guess, for you know only a heap of broken images, where the sun beats, and the dead tree gives no shelters." He looks to Quickswitch, down at the fallen Peacekeeper, now below his care, and then back to Depthcharge. "Let this land not be your grave, it is not fit to bury even a human."

Quickswitch finds himself frowning. What difference did it make, he chastises himself, whether these beings lived or died or where they went?! The Sixchanger rises, slowly, ready to move with all forms as he is able. They are anything but tiny beings. With a chuff, "You are eager..." And with that, the Six Changer moves.

With the motion from Peacekeeper given, DepthCharge acts; not even hesitating. Energy bursts forth from his extended hand; blue wisps of energy flickering out towards Quickswitch. Sixknight may have mastered the 'Tenchoken' but within DepthCharge beats pure science. Enhancements upon enhancements devised in the Autobot City lab centuries ago. He has his own evolution and he is much surer of it than whatever evolutionary path the sixchangers have chosen. he attack is launched, Sixknight's words of the land not being fit enough to bury a human in. Yes, that's when DepthCharge disappeared from all this. When they destroyed the Earth.

As the attack, a restraining forcefield, heads towards Quickswitch DepthCharge calls at Peacekeeper, "Peacekeeper, seek safety. I'll hold these two off."

DepthCharge strikes Cyber-Puma  with his Forcefield Restraint attack.

A fierce yowl. NOBODY had the energon for forcefields anymore! Save himself and the Inquisitors. He struggles, his servos straining to their limits against the tight forcefield, "Fine," he concedes brutally as he stops struggling for a moment, "In a few moments, stranger, you, like all the others, will lose your hold as your reserves run dry for such an impressive show."

"Do not interfere with us," Quickswitch warns--even from this position.

Sixknight stands, impassive as the newcomer unleashes an attack on Quickswitch. "Stranger!" he utters. "You may be powerful, but you are too sure of yourself. Pride comes before a fall, and it shall be your weakness. Know me, I am Sixknight. I am the air, the earth and the water. I am the robot, the beast and the impassive weapon. And here, as you stand above me in your place of power, I pity you." He slowly draws his sword, which glows with power. "...for you do not stand a /chance/." And with that his sword glows with Tenchokon energy, the atmosphere around him crackling as this rare power builds, and suddenly there is a blast of pure blue and pink electricity arcing from his sword towards Depthcharge.

DepthCharge evades your energy_sword attack

Peacekeeper nods once to DepthCharge, giving him a thankful look, and slowly forces herself to roll to her feet, her expression still quite blank but optics narrowed. She's trying not to show just how much she hurts but... well, getting your aft handed to you by a Sixchanger kinda HURTS. Still clutching her useless left arm to her side, she limps to one of many small, hidden bunkers she and Turnover have created in the area over time. She dissappears within, jury-rigging a few of the more critical repairs and finding some old metal to make some temporary replacement chestplate-armor. She doesn't want a stray shot to end up putting a hole through her laser-core, thank you muchly. "Turnover's going to have a fit over this..." She murmurs under her breath.

Optic visor flickers as DepthCharge's attention is spilt in multiple directions. He surveys the sixchanger caught within his forcefield grasp, and constantly looks back over towards the other one; the one who is free to keep on attacking. And attack Sixknight does. DepthCharge's right hand is still projecting the field around Quickswitch; but as Sixknight comes at him the Aquabot's left hand comes up and a forcefield projects out of it also. Invisibly halting the swinging sword before it can impact against him.

Oh what a pickle we have here, DepthCharge holding two Sixchangers back via his forcefields. He better start going all out. The field around Quickswitch suddenly begins to intensify and with a brilliant burst of light the containment field switches polarities and literally blasts Quickswitch back; the Autobot saying, "I am DepthCharge. I've lived in the water. I've conquered the air. And I've dug into the Earth. Neither of you hold any power over me."

DepthCharge strikes Cyber-Puma  with Forcefield Pulse.

Sixknight gives a slight smile as his blast is deflected, his fists glimmering now, almost transparent. "Then you are a fool, as are most of the survivors on this ruined world. The things I speak of are not to be conquered, they are to be understood, and it is through this understanding that the centre point can be reached." He holds out his right hand, palm towards Depthcharge. "This is my centre point, stranger. Understanding of Tenchokon. It comes from the inner calm. I invite you to test it." With that, a ripple from the air itself forms around him, and a blast of energy flares out at the floating mechanoid

You strike DepthCharge, which is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Quickswitch's feral optics go wide, suddenly recognizing the name. But it is not for long before he is thrown back, shifting into pistol mode and landing roughly against the ground, skimming it, before transforming up again on all fours. He glances around himself. The backward formed one was gone... gone somwhere, no doubt, to wait and suffer til the end while they still existed.

Peacekeeper doesn't dare peek out of the bunker she's currently hiding in, although she hopes that DepthCharge will be alright. It has been a long time indeed since he's seen the Aquabot, and silently promises to repay the favor should they meet again sometime in the future. Even though she has not accepted the Reaper's 'gift', they have given her plenty to think about. So, she carefully begins making her way to her 'base' by using the bunkers as a 'tunnel' of sorts. She needs to rest--badly. Especially after this very interesting night.

The strange power of Sixknight's blasts over DepthCharge; the Aquabot staggering back as this unknown substance washes over him, blasting into him. His armour is strong, but whatever Sixknight just shot him with is an unknown. And as such DepthCharge is certain he doesn't want to be exposed to any more of it. It could be deadly.

Peacekeeper appears to have gone, and Quickswitch isn't a threat at the moment. Leaving just him and Sixknight. DepthCharge could take this oppertunity to retreat. . but. . why? He is sure he can take down Sixknight. Why not do the universe this one last favour?

The Trident that he always has with him is detached from the Aquabot's back and with a twirl it is thrust towards Sixknight as DepthCharge runs. "Nice ability." He does acknowledge to his enemy, "I'll be sure to take it from you when I dissect your carcass."

DepthCharge strikes you with Energised Trident for 8 points of damage.

Sixknight turns as the trident hits him, crackling over his armour as he scowls. "So, you show your true colours, 'Depthcharge'. My power comes from my inner spark of life, and from the universe around me. It is the power of the heavens, and not quantifiable, dissectable or measurable. I am far beyond what you think of as science, you would to best to remember that." His wrist communicator at this point starts to bleep repeatedly, but he ignores it for now, pushing back against Depthcharge, forcing a blast out from his left hand.

You strike DepthCharge, which is like shooting fish in a barrel.

The blast impacts with DepthCharge's armour, cracking it at the point of impact. But for the most part it seems to have been absorbed without causing too much damage. And the fight continues, the Trident held ready for another blow "I beg to differ. Anything advanced enough can appear as mysticism to those who do not understand it. And believe me, I will understand it. In time. And your ability /will/ become mine. That is evolution my friend. Not the twisted path you and your like have chosen. 6 modes? Wasteful. All my abilities are concentrated in a single mode. Why, with my own robot mode I can reach the heavens. You are misguided. And I pity you. But I will be able to take what I need to make myself stronger." The Aquabot moves to strike again, but something holds his hand. Just as readily as he started the fight, he steps back. Glancing over towards where Peacekeeper once resided to ensure that the one time Autobot really did have a chance to escape.

"We shall continue this another time 'Sixknight'. Just you and me. But for now, I depart." and suddenly the Aquabot fades away from view. His cloaking device activating again.

Sixknight stares up at the sky as he sees Depthcharge disappear. "Indeed, stranger" he mutters. "And I will be waiting for you. And your pride will be your downfall." Clutching his fist, he looks down at his communicator and starts to recieve orders. "Another time..."