Tools of the Trade

Warrens

If this sprawling industrial urban wasteland ever had a name it has long since been lost to time; it is now only known as the Warrens. One of the more permanent landmarks on Cybertron, it has been the site of many cities since the dawn of the Transformers. The result is a massive three-dimensional maze of dark and gritty streets, alleys, and tunnels. Since each city was built upon the last, only the upper levels receive what little light is available. At this level, broken skyscrapers pierce the sky, casting deep and jagged shadows under the two golden suns across tangles of decayed metal and fallen statues of long-forgotten heroes. As one travels to the lower levels, the Warrens becomes more and more dangerous: home to all manner of undiscovered creatures, traps, and for the lucky, treasures.

Contents:

Swoop

Sonicboom

Brontosaurus < Sludge >

Repugnus

Scattershot

Obvious exits:

Fly < Up > leads to Sky above Old Cybertron Highway.

South < S > leads to Cuprahex Sensor Outpost.

East < E > leads to Old Cybertron Highway < West >.

West < W > leads to Istoral Chasm.

The Warrens, once a metropolis of great wonders, a thriving city of expression, creativity, and most importantly, industry. Is it any doubt that because of its importance, this location was one of the first casualities of war? Now this place is just a graveyard site of buildings, most of the still standing skyscrapers here are but skeletal remains hinting at an architectural glory long since lost.

A large Cybertronian-sized underground service tunnel in the middle of one of the fractured streets is lifted up and shoved to the side. Two large hands emerges from underneath and finds support on the sides of the streets and soon a large Cybertronian lifts himself out of the ground. It's Fortress Maximus and he's brought a whole bunch of other Autobots with him. The Headmaster leader back down to the hole and speaks, "It's all clear up here, come on up. Just a few blocks ahead should be where one of my workshop is. We should find all of the specialized digging equipment that we need in there."

Repugnus pulls himself up soon after Maximus, appraising the Warrens with a dour look. "And what are we digging FOR? This place is a freaking mess. Hell, it'd be better off if the humans had nuked it like they were secretely planning to. You know, during that whole evil planet moving plot thing. The one you guys should have recalled me for sooner." The Monsterbot seems to realize he's rambling. "Ahem, but anyway, if there's something of value, I don't see the point in struggling to dig for it, ya dig?"

Sonicboom moves towards the end of the tunnel and peers up a moment to make sure all is clear. Having waited his turn he make a leap up giving his jump boosters a firing to carry him up and out without having to lower his rifle. As soon as he hits the ground he scans from one spot to the next as if expecting some hidden danger to leap out at him when nothing does he sighs a bit and rejoins the others. "Repugnus is right. This place looks worse than my room, and I can't find anything in that mess. I men yeah it looks more exciting than those tunnels but how are we ever going to...UGH! What the frag did I just step in? It's like Blot snot."

If Fortress Maximus can make his way through the Warrens, then Sludge certainly can. He follows behind the Headmaster and the Monsterbot, using his robot mode. He's been in it quite a bit lately, after a number of mistakes were made in Brontosaurus mode. He's a lot more dextrous and agile in robot mode, and can actually manipulate objects with his hands. "Uh . . . is what we look for durable? If we blast, will it be okay?"

Swoop isn't far from Sludge. Dinobots tend to stick togeather. "Me no sure anything is Durable down here." The blue Dionobot replies, also being in his robot mode as he looks around in mess of a place.

Scattershot climbs out of the tunnel, immediately pulls out his rifle and takes in the surroundings before following the other Autobots on foot. He keeps rifle readied and head tilting back to peer up at the sky almost continuously. "Workshop, huh? Hope you left a few heavy munitions behind in there too. Never can get enough."

"Iacon, Repugnus. Iacon. All of this is for the sake of reclaiming our city-state." Fortress Maximus replies as he kneels down and lowers a hand towards the service tunnel's opening, offering assistance to any Autobots that might want to get a quick boost up before getting back onto his feet and taking the lead, "Smokescreen has the right idea, but came to the conclusion several months late. The Decepticons already know about the tunnel that we used to retreat from Iacon and they'll no doubt have booby traps and other nasty sorts of surprises waiting for us if we're foolish enough to use it again." Hearing Sonicboom's latest comments, Fortress Maximus also decide to pay closer attention to the ground to avoid stepping on any... undesirables as he continues to explain, "That's why us in Autobot high command had come up with a secret plan to dug through a new tunnel all the way to Iacon. That was several weeks ago." The Headmaster leader then points towards an intersection to the north where many broken down vehicles and other stereotypical post-apocalyptic junk rests on the shattered streets in between. "You guys are finding out about this because we're literally at the end, but we need specialized equipment to keep the Decepticons' subterrain sensors from picking up what we're doing down there. It just so happens that one of my last projects before the civil war was to upgrade the Cybertronian underground transit networks and the equipments we had prepared is exactly what we need now."

Having provided such a long explanation, Fortress Maximus begins moving north. A large warehouse-like building can be seen just ahead.

Fortress Maximus replies in to the others in the meantime, "No Sludge, most things here have been left deserted for millions of years now. Don't break anything in my workshop, some of the equipments there will no doubt need to be maintained a bit before being put to use." He pauses for a moment though as if giving things some thought before continuing, "Although if we do run into Decepticons, give them a warning and if they don't listen... break -them-. Non-lethally." The Headmaster leader sidesteps yet another broken down vehicle as he replies to Scattershot, "Munitions, no. We were architects, we have no business having munitions. Although we do have some demolitions grade high-yield explosives, we better take some of that with us as well. Supplies are short, any little bit would help."

Sonicboom scrapes his foot clean with some random piece of scrap metal laying about as Fortress Maximus explains the mission in more detail. Uninterested for the most part he just gives a shrug, tosses the goo covered metal and retrieves his rifle. Falling in line he keeps with the others stopping now and again to check out a wreck or interesting looking site before catching back up. "Hehe, sure Maximus we'll give them the yellow flag alright." He gives the Dinobots a quick glance and nods. "Granted we'll prolly stab said flag through their chest but it'll warn somebody. So how far off is this place that we didn't grab a closer path onto the track?"

"Uh . . . what so special about Iacon? Autobot City much nicer. It have plenty of fish for us Dinobots." He's never really understood why so many of the Autobots, and Decepticons for that matter, feel so attached to Cybertron. He was created on Earth, and it's always seemed far more interesting to him. Rather than step around or climb over the broken down vehicle, he just jumps, engages his anti-gravity systems, and lands on the other side. And to Swoop, he asks, "Me no sure too."

Repugnus guffaws a bit at "non-lethal." "Are you kidding me? Non-lethal? Really? I mean, shouldn't we kill any Decepticons we see with EXTREME PREJUDICE so they don't report what we're doing?" He sighs. "Okay, fine. Fists are set to 'Brutalize,' which is a notch below 'Kill.'" As he hops over a waste canister, however, he mentally resolves to take care of any Decepticons in his own way.

Sludge shifts into his imposing robot mode.

Swoop also has little attachment to Cybertron. It doesn't help that one of his earlist exposures had his teammates kidnapped and turned into Slaves for Shockwave. "Not sure we can do Non-Lethal. Maybe kinda lethal. Maim with pre-judge-ticks?" He asks as he makes his way over the car as well

Fortress Maximus makes a pained wince as he takes a look at the mechs around him and realizing that tonight's team is comprised of some of the Autobots' more aggressive personnels before replying to them, "Well... some cooperation is better than no cooperation. I pity the Decepticons that might have the misfortune of finding us."

Soon the large warehouse looms just in front of Fortress Maximus. The warehouse itself has seen its share of structural damage, but unlike most of the other buildings in the Warren, it somehow managed to withstand the brutalities of war and survived millions of years of neglect. Approaching the warehouse doors, the Headmaster leader gently pats the right hand side of the wall, revealing a control panel underneath the layers of dust that had accumulated on it. The control panel blinks with lights, which is an impossibility up until recently thanks to solar power from the sun that bombards Cybertron with light now. Soon the door slides open, allowing entry into the warehouse.

Fortress Maximus steps in, the external lights mounted on his body frame flickers to life, assisting in illuminating the poorly lit warehouse, "Welcome to my workshop. The equipments should be inside the three storages rooms to the back."

Sonicboom stops near the doors and takes a quick look around before following in. Kicking his own lights on he starts checking the place out for anything that looks interesting. The stuff in the back rooms sounds like it might require heavy lifting, or any lifting for that matter, so he leaves that to the bigger mechs to handle. Spotting something glittering on the table he brushes the dust aside and picks up the odd multi-colored piece of glass. "Hey cool I found a...ummm...I've got a...I got one of these!" Having no clue what the glass went to or what it was for he keeps it in hand as he moves off in search of anything else cool to add to the clutter of his room.

If Sludge were a deep philosopher, he'd wonder how Cybertronian structures can survive millions of years of neglect, when human structures can barely survive twenty years of neglect, like in Chernobyl, but since he's not, he doesn't, and instead stares at the wall, appreciating it. It's grey. It's plain. Yeah, that's about it. With Swoop seeming to negotiate how lethal they can be, he continues to stare and follow, and be a good little, well, a good huge Dinobot. With instructions, he heads towards the back, approaching a sliding door, but it fails to slide. So he places his fingers at the entrance to them, and forces them open. He seems to have missed the sign on the door that says hazardous materials storage. ..

Repugnus hms as Sonicboom flicks on his lights. Of course, Repugnus has his own means of seeing in the dark. Transforming into creature mode, his huge green optics flare on, and Repugnus sees everything in a variety of wavelengths. "Nice place," he says, "What's left of it, anyway." He creeps into the workshop, following Sludge into the storage rooms.

Gasket and Grommet > Fortress Maximus drops you.

Galen > Gasket and Grommet has left.

Gasket and Grommet has arrived.

You drop Gasket and Grommet.

Swoop follows Sludge, cuase someone got to keep the big lug out of trouble. "Me no sure you should be opening that." Swoop says as he spies the sign, reading isn't exactly a skill he is known for, but the symbol behind it looks to be not good.

The insides of the warehouse hasn't fared too well as the obvious signs of looting is apparent everywhere, datapads and other office equipment are scattered across the ground. It's almost like a tornado swept pass the warehouse and decided to redecorate the interior. Sadly, this isn't an uncommon sight as an unlooted building in the Warrens would an exception rather than the rule. However in the back of the warehouse are three large vaults, heavily fortified and visually spartan, with the exception of a square touch control panel on the doors of each vault. There are signs of attempts at forced entry, burnt marks, and even plasma cutter marks. It looks like during the course of the war, looters had also attempted to breach these vaults albit with no success.

The hatch doors of shoulder compartments on Fortress Maximus' shoulders slides open, revealing a trio of portable power generators of which the Headmaster removes and sets down on the ground. Meanwhile, down below, a compartment on each of Fortress Maximus' foot pops open as well, allowing his two remote drones to wheel out, "Looks like these vaults that I designed with my team stood up pretty well over the years. Looters have everything, but energon, to throw at them." He waves the other Autobots over to the portable power generators, "I'll need you guys to plug in a portable generator to each of the three vaults here. The password for the panel should be... '788-Sigma-91-Beta'."

Sonicboom begins to walk over when the multi-hued glass catches a bit of light and sends it scattering around the room as different colors. Spinning it a bit it turns the room into one big kaleidoscope. "Aww yeah, it's party time now." Half walking half dancing to some imagined song he slowly works his way over to the vaults. "Some toons and you could throw a heck of a rave here Maximus." Still dancing he leaves the generator which he can't hold while spinning the glass and approaches a panel and pauses, "777-Sigma-Beta-9 you said?" He starts typing.

You say, "788-Sigma-91-Beta, Sonicboom."

Sonicboom says, "Uh yeah that's totally what I said."

Sludge stops in the middle of opening the hazardous materials storage room, and looks over at Swoop, "Me no sure too." He lets go, but he's already managed to pry open the doors, through sheer brute force, and there's something inside, green, and glowing. "What that?"

Repugnus shakes his bulbous head at Sludge. "Henh. Don't explode anything. Since you already got this one open, may as well open the others the right way!" He creeps over to the portable generators Maximus sets down, and he transforms into robot mode, taking a generator and carrying it the back. He carries to one of the unopened vaults and begins hooking it up.

Swoop says, "Me no sure. Green not good color, me no think. Color of Constructycons. So cant be good color..." The Aerial Dinobot replies as he glances to what is inside the door."

Age has not been kind to Sonicbooms newly discovered strobe as the glass finally snaps under the strain of being spun around and crashes to the floor shattering into a millino tiny shards of glass. "Hmm well how do ya like that. So much for that idea." With nothing else close at hand to distract him he turns grabs a generator pivots and snaps the connections into place before punching in the key code in like he's a full time number puncher. "I think I'll take what's behind door number one." Letting the door unseal Sonic starts working on the third one. "Sludge man, considering all they did here was work on making buildings that's prolly the waste reclamation room. If something is green and glowing I would keep my distance."

"That thing..." Fortress Maximus turns around and takes a look at the green thing, his expression turns grim for a moment as if remembering some unpleasant memories, "That thing -is- the waste reclamation room. One of our clients didn't tell us we'd be working near a waste dump site and we had to take care of it as per city regulations. We tried to arrange for it to be removed." He goes forward and connects the last portable power generator to the vault doors before continuing, "Never did have the chance though. The civil war hit this place shortly afterwards." The Headmaster leader then begins typing in the vault as well.

Soon all three vaults makes a hiss as it slides open...

The vault that Sonicboom is in front of opens to reveals futuristic atom-smasher jackhammers. Repugnus will find some high yield demolitions grade explosives. As for Fortress Maximus. He'll find a bunch of random electronics survey equipment, but in the middle of it, is a sensor module.

Sonicboom moves forward as soon as the doors hiss open, "Woah baby! Jackpot! I bet you could do some serious damage with one of these bad boys." With a grin he starts unloading the vault handing the items to Gasket and Grommet so they can store them away for transport.

Scattershot appears at the rear of the Autobot group, peering from one fault to the other. "You got that right!" he enthuses. "Makes the sledgehammer look kind of...I dunno, low-tech."

Repugnus grins from audial to audial once he sees what's inside his vault! "Jackpot!" he echoes. "Let's just take all of these babies right now, throw 'em into a pile, and set 'em all off! That'll make a tunnel pretty quick. Or even better, make the tunnel, and set off all the bombs right under that casino!"

Gasket and Grommet both wheels forward, their transport compartments opens to allow the Autobots present to begin stashing the equipments inside.

"Hey, be careful with those things. We only use high quality things in our line of work. Those explosives are probably still live even now." Fortress Maximus warns as he see the glee on Repugnus' face. The Headmaster leader waves the Technobot commander and the two Dinobots over, "There's plenty of things to back up and bring with us back. Bring whatever you can back with you, everything's going to be useful." Having said that, Fortress Maximus begins venturing into the vault that he had opened. The sensor module sitting in the middle of the room catches his attention. After carefully inspecting the sensor module, Fortress Maximus' optics almost seemingly lights up in surprise as he picks up the device in his hands, "This! I can't believe it's still here!"

The large Autobot turns his head around and remotely commands Grommet to head over to his vault's doors, "This is Grommet's sub-terrain sensor module. It was an addon that I had accidentally left behind when I evacuated from the city with the others."

Scattershot looks up from where he's holding an relatively small pneumatic drill against his own forearm, making it slide forward to extend past his fist and then 'retracting' it again. "Sensor module, huh? Well..." he seems to think about what to say. "Better luck next time, Max. Maybe you'll find some nuclear turbines or a vortex cannon or something." Then he goes back to his find.

Triggerhappy has arrived.

Oh, look! Triggerhappy is now a bitchin' jet fighter.

Sonicboom finishes helping to empty out the one vault by handing off most of the items to the remote drones. A few other pieces he stashes on himself, mostly smaller items that won't get in his way. "All this stuff here just waiting, we should have come here sooner. I wonder what else is hidden around here?" Of the opinion that everyone has found something fun and to their liking in the vaults he starts looking around for anything else that might be of use in the place.

Swoop hearing Fortress, Swoop walks over to the big gathering at the vault. "So find what we looking for, finally?" He asks and looks over all the interesting little trinkets inside as he walks over to explore a bit to see what a curious Dinobot could find in here.

Off on the horizon to the west is a moving point of lightl;

Repugnus frowns, looking around the room for something to carry the explosives in. He scratches behind his head. "Yeah, sensor module. Uh, don't care? Also, I need some foam padding and a cart to move these things around in. Or maybe some straps at least. I mean, these things are still armed, right? Still dangerous, right? So we need to be careful when we drag them out."

Sunstreaker has arrived.

+POT Sunstreaker is now observing.

Scattershot emerges from Sonicboom's vault with a larger industrial jackhammer over each shoulder. "Maybe let the Dinos carry them," he suggests. "They're probably the toughest armored Bots here. Those things go off by accident, they might actually survive the blast."

Repugnus nods with a smile. "I agree. And they're expendable anyway, so no loss even if they don't!"

Off on the horizon to the west is a moving point of light. It's a flickering point of light, actually. Some hundred miles away or so, Triggerhappy is running strafing runs on the remains of one of Cybertron's rarest forms of life: A turbo-penguin. Obviously the creature was in the wrong place at the wrong time, as a small trench has been dug by Triggerhappy's photon guns around it from repeated strafing runs. Yet, he doesn't seem to be bored of it yet. Triggerhappy never gets bored of shooting! "GYAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!!! *CHUGGA CHUGGA CHUGGA*" Meanwhile, Blowpipe is sitting inside the Decepticon's cockpit with his sidearm in his mouth. It's not loaded, but boy, he wishes it was. He has been driven into such insane apathy by Triggerhappy lately that he forgot his ammunition back at base. It's probably a good thing. Either way, he sighs; and punches the control console.

"GYAHAHHAHA! . . . whut?" "There are some Autobot signatures there." "GYAHAHAHA!!!! AHHAH! HAVE FUN WITH GUN!" "No, idiot, we're going to take a look at them." "GHAHAHHHAHAH!!! THATS RETARDED." "Uh-huh. Can you manage to NOT shoot something?" "GHAHAHAHHAHA WHAT ME SHOOT SOMETHING HAHAA I'LL BE GOOD." Of course, Triggerhappy has his fingers crossed. He's in jet mode, but who cares? He leans on his left wing and begins to accelerate towards the Autobots; flying as low to the ground as he possibly can to try to avoid being seen right away.

Combat: Five Gun Jet Fighter of INDISCRIMINATE DEATH < Triggerhappy > sets his defense level to Protected.

Fortress Maximus begins grabbing other miscellaneous electronics before heading out the vault and stashing it into his drones' transport compartments, "Oh believe me, I feel like I've hit the jackpot here already, Scattershot. This thing has so many scientific applications and amongst other things as well" The Headmaster leader gives the Technobot commander a genuine smile. That's what happens when an architect finds his own toys lying around.

He looks over to his vault and takes a last look before commenting, "I think that's all the electronics that we need from this vault." He points at the explosives from the vault that Repugnus had opened, "Scattershot is right, and not for the reasons -Repugnus- stated. My drones are unshielded so even a stray shot can be bad. One more grab should be sufficient." With the other hand, Fortress Maximus points to the vault that Sonicboom had opened, "Gasket is at capacity now, Grommet can fit two more of those heavy duty equipments. Stuff it in and we can get out of here."

Swoop says, "Would think Bug be better at carrying. Seeing as Bug easily beat in fight. More expendybill then we Dinos.""

Sludge hasn't broken anything, caused a commotion, or injured anyone. Which usually means he's either starring off into space, or he's found something to occupy himself. In another part of the workshop, well away from the group, there is the noise of something being pulled, awkwardly. It's the sound of metal scrapping against metal. In this case, it seems he's found some kind of modular, portable conveyor belt. He's holding up two large pieces over his right shoulder, a single but bigger one over his left shoulder, and seems to have put his foot in so he could drag a fourth piece with him. "Uh . . . maybe we could use this?" Oh dear, it seems like it might need some minor repairs, but otherwise it's in good order. But did it need the repairs before or after Sludge found it?

Fortress Maximus scowls a bit, "No one under my command is expendible, perish that thought." He then stuffs the sensor module into his shoulder's storage compartment before turning around to look at vault with the heavy duty digging equipment, "Hmm... grab that matter shunter on the left. That one will be very useful." The Headmaster leader turns around to see Sludge as he hears the Dinobot's inquiry, his optics brighten with approval again, "Definitely, that conveyor belt will speed up our efforts tremendously. The ones we're using right now are slow and efficient." He then narrows his eyes at the conveyor belt's state of disrepair, hmm... was that damage recent? Oh well, who cares! Fortress Maximus shrugs before hurrying the Autobots along.

Triggerhappy flies in towards the Autobots low and stealthy; following every curve of the ground and managing to fly a more or less perfect Nap-Of-Earth path towards the deconstruction site. Even Blowpipe is impressed. The Targetmaster is even silent except for the sound of his engines, which will likely be heard now and precede his arrival by about ten seconds -- though the sound cuts out as Triggerhappy hovers behind the long-rusted wreck of some ancient building. Silently, he and Blowpipe take in the process. The Autobots are salvaging heavy equipment! "Hmm..." says Blowpipe. "That's . . interesting. That's odd, even. Why would the Autobots want that junk? By the way, nice job, it's nice to know you can go two minutes without being a retar...."

It's at this point that Triggerhappy spies Repugnus and the moron goes right to his head. "GAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BROUGHT GUN FOR FUN WITH UGLY FACE!!!!"

Blowpipe considers putting his sidearm in his mouth again as Triggerhappy corkscrews out of hiding, flying over the explosive-carrying Autobots and spraying gunfire everywhere in the way that only Triggerhappy can do. Little cyan shots impact all over the place, but fortunatly, by dint of some miracle, no explosives are hit as Triggerhappy the subtle bears down towards Repugnus. The sounds of photon charges and jet engines are everywhere.

Blowpipe, around the barrel of his sidearm sighs: "You're going to get us both killed, oaf." Only insane laughter comes in reply.

Combat: Five Gun Jet Fighter of INDISCRIMINATE DEATH < Triggerhappy > 's Photon-Pulse Guns attack on Repugnus goes wild!

Combat: Five Gun Jet Fighter of INDISCRIMINATE DEATH < Triggerhappy > strikes himself with his Photon-Pulse Guns attack!

.... what was that about explosives not going off? Something very, very large goes off underneath Triggerhappy as a stray photon charge hits it and he is momentarily eclipsed under a huge blast of smoke, fire and shrapnel. Good job, Triggerhappy. Blowpipe's prediction might prove true!

Repugnus grins at Swoop. "Come on, dawg, Predaking was there! He wrecked out s*** up. Anyway--" He goes silent as the roar of engines sounds overhead. "Ah, crap. Get these explosives out of here before the Decepticons blow it up. I'll be outside!" And as soon as he does, Triggerhappy shoots at... himself? Repugnus stares up at the sky, mouth agape as Triggerhappy blows up for no apparent reason.

Scattershot drops one of the giant jackhammers to take up his rifle. "What was that? Who's shooting? Who's shooting?! Everybody hold your fire!"

The sound of jet engines and weapons fire snaps Fortress Maximus to attention, "None of us here have jet engines, it's got to be the Decepticons! Alright, leave the rest behind and carry out what we have." The Headmaster leader dashes outside, followed along by his two remote controlled drones; both of which are filled to the brim with heavy duty equipments and electronic geographical survey devices. "Quickly! Get to the service tunnel! If they shoot up our cargo, everything will have been in vain!"

Having said that, Fortress Maximus delegates the controls of his two drones to Galen, who then promptly sends the drones towards the direction of the service tunnel that the Autobots had originally arrived from to the south.

Swoop says, "Dinobots no fraid of Predyking..." He says as he too hears the jet engines and then the sound of an explosion. "Probably shouldn't let bug handle it on own, likely will get squashed. Can't leave teammates behind, even stupid annoying ones..." He says as he looks to Fort Max while the good start to be gathered."

Five Gun Jet Fighter of INDISCRIMINATE DEATH < Triggerhappy > must have been firing through a gap in the roof or something, or perhaps it was an animation error because someone screwed up between the scrip and the inking of the cells. Nonetheless, only insane laughter comes from Triggerhappy by way of response as he rockets out of the smoke and fire under full afterburner; corkscrewing hard towards the sky and rising a few hundred feet before he cuts the engines and transforms to hover there -- still trailing smoke and bits of burning stuff that fall away from his now-somewhat mangled frame.

"GYAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!! HAHAH!! . . . ow . . . GYA! HAHA HAA HA! FUN GUN FUN GUN AUTOBOTS AHAHAHAHAHA GYAHAHAA BOOM FIRE KABOOM HAHAHAHAH GYAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!" Blue droplets of Decepticon droop are flying in every direction as Triggerhappy aims his cannon more or less in a random direction. Unfortunatly or fortunatly, the cannon is Blowpipe, who is recording just about everything that he can. "GYAHAHAH! BWAH! BWA-YEEEAUGH!"

Oh, look! Triggerhappy is now a robot!

Combat: Triggerhappy strikes Repugnus with his Compressed-Air Cannon attack! [Pulled -4]

Decepticon -DROOL-. Decepticons do not droop.

Sonicboom had been lagging behind rumaging through a few desks when he took notice that the group was heading out. Not wanting to have to head back on his own he and hearing they are under attack he leaps up and rushes to the door. As salvaged items hung all over him clank and jangle he struggles to get his rifle out for those 'just in case' emergencies. "Make way, coming through." Dart and weaving past some of the larger and slower bots Sonicboom heads for the tunnels. "Plan B! Plan B!" He yells as he goes, plan A being Fortress Maximus' non-leathal ways to deal with things which means plan B can only be right up Repugnus' alley.

Sludge manages to carry and drag the components of the mobile conveyer outside the workshop, when he looks up and sees the pretty fireworks. Wait, those aren't fireworks. It's a Decepticon. He sets the conveyer down, careful not to damage it any further, and turns his head to look at Fortress Maximus, "How lethal we allowed to be again?" He's forgotten whether they can be kinda lethal, or have to be non-lethal.

Repugnus stands outside the workshop, and is so flabbergasted by Triggerhappy's debut that he doesn't react as Triggerhappy fires at him with a bit more accuracy... and less insanity. "Unft," he grunts, taking a dent in his chest from the compressed-air gun. "Right. Plan B it is. Swoopie-poo! Since you're so keen on proving yourself to be the most manly mech that ever lived, howzabout you go up there and bring Triggerhappy down to Earth... so to speak? Or not. I mean, I dunno, I've heard you're just full of talk anyway." He fires a light blast up at Triggerhappy. Not likely to hurt much, but Repugnus never really cared for guns anyway.

Combat: Repugnus sets his defense level to Fearless.

Combat: Repugnus strikes Triggerhappy with his Laser attack!

"You're right, Swoop, we don't leave our own behind although in this case I think Triggerhappy's going to be the one worrying about his own safety." Fortress Maximus replies calmly to Swoop before looking over to Sludge, "As long as he doesn't turn white or explode, Sludge. Here, hand me that conveyor belt and give Repugnus cover." Fortress Maximus then hollars over to the other Autobots, "Make sure the things you're carrying aren't damaged!"

Swoop says, "Septicons not bright, but can be lucky sometimes. Never know when they get winning streak." Swoop replies and looks to Repugnus, the Dinobot didn't have to prove anything to the bug, he was one Autobot's top warrior and had a gold medal to prove that. He rushes outside of the lab and takes to the air, pulling out his trusty Thermal Sword, since even he wasn't stupid enough to use his missiles while explosives were near. "Stupid Septicon, Should know better then come alone!" He says and slashes at Triggerhappy, with his flaming sword of justice."

Scattershot is the next (and probably last) one out of the workshop. "Need a little double-A out here, huh? I've got just the thing." He sets down the goodies he brought out, then moves a few steps away from the workshop (and other Autobots).

Scattershot transforms into his Battlestation < Scattershot > mode.

Combat: Swoop misses Triggerhappy with his Thermal Sword attack!

Combat: Battlestation < Scattershot > is size 7, a lot smaller than you.

Triggerhappy feathers his thrusters to the right in an effort to dodge Repugnus' flimsy little blast, but it fails and he is struck dead center. "AUGGGHH!!!!!!" He bellows, flying backwards and belching fire from his boot-thrusters until he realizes. . wow, that didn't do much damage at all. He cheerfully ignores the fact that he managed to completely over-react and look completely retarded. Mostly because he's looking retarded already, but he's too busy laughing at this point to realize it. Moral of the story, really, is that Triggerhappy is just a straight out moron. He proves it by looking in the direction that Repugnus is talking.

"GYAHAHAHHAHA! BAHHAHA! GYAH! GA HA . . . guh? Guh? DINOBOT GET GUN! GUN IS FUN!" Laughing uproariously, Triggerhappy then points the gun at some Autobot salvaged equipment and pulls the trigger again!

*BLART*

"GYAHHAA . . blart?" "MORE PUMPING, OAF!" "GAHHAHAHAHAH BAAHHAHAHA GHAHAHAHA . . . oh, roit." Frantically, hovering in midair and trying to dodge fire that he knows is coming, Triggerhappy pumps Blowpipe up with a super-soaker style compressed air pump.

*THUBBA THUBBA THUBBA THUBBA!"

"GYAHHAHAHAHAHHA BWAHAHHA!" Triggerhappy mocks as he pumps his weapon. "SWOOP CAN'T HIT NOTHIN!! BAHAHHAHA!" He hasn't noticed Scattershot yet, but boy, he's probably going to shortly. Either way, he takes a shot at Swoop with his rifle!

Combat: Triggerhappy's Compressed-Air Cannon attack on Swoop goes wild!

Combat: Triggerhappy misses himself with his Compressed-Air Cannon attack!

Triggerhappy realizes that he's holding Blowpipe BACKWARDS. Fortunatly, the shot goes over his shoulder. "GYAHAHHAHAHA!!!!! . . . whups." He bellows, as he flips the weapon around.

Repugnus watches with slightly narrowed optics as Triggerhappy narrowly avoids shooting himself. "Right. Okay. You know what, Swoop? Since you're so awesome, I'll just be over... here. You should be fine. I mean, look who you're up against." He leans up against the wall of the workshop.

Sludge picks up the modules of the conveyer belt, and carries them over towards Fortress Maximus, pretty much handing them to him. With Maximus' bigger hands though, he shouldn't need to drag one of them the way Sludge was earlier and repeats now. By the time Sludge is done handing the valuable mining equipment over, the Decepticon seems to have nearly blown off his own face. "Him bad. Bad even for a Decepticon." Now, with hands free, Sludge flies up into the air, going into the firing line of Repugnus. It seems he took the order to give Repugnus cover literally as he fires off a few rounds with his gun.

Combat: Sludge misses Triggerhappy with his Electron Cannon - Light (Laser) attack!

Sonicboom darts about as he leaps over wrecks long since fallen to ruin as he makes for the service shoot. Five paces from what was one a transport he hears a blast slam into and looks back to see nobody even paying him any mind. "Geez this guy is a menace. I'm not sure sure if I should worry more about him taking aim at me or not." Mere yards from the tunnel he stops and waits to offer support to the others if they need it making their own way over, though by the looks of things thier assailent will have killed himself before doing much harm.

With both arms extended, Fortress Maximus completes the hand over of the conveyor belt's modules before stuffing the smaller portions into his other shoulder compartment while hauling the larger parts portions with him as he makes his way over to the service tunnel. Gasket and Grommet is already awaiting the Headmaster leader by the time he arrives. Soon Fortress Maximus drops the conveyor belt's modules down the service tunnel before lowering his two drones down as well. Once lowered, Galen takes command of the drones once more and sends them on their way.

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

The Global Pose Tracker marks that Battlestation < Scattershot > has 'skipped' his action for this round.

+POT Scattershot is now observing.

Swoop grwols some as he misses Trigger happpy but smiles as his fellow Autobot joins him. Now Trig was in trouble. "Septicon just more intrested in hurting self then letting others do it. Maybe hurts less that way?" He asks mostly to himself as he tries doign this more the old fashioned way and just beating the 'con to an oily pulp.

Combat: Swoop misses Triggerhappy with his Dino-Beating attack!

Triggerhappy is learning! He doesn't have to be reminded by his weapon to 'reload' this time, and working that super-soaker handle like a pro he zips left and then right; dodging a shot from Sludge and then moving out of the way of Swoop's own attack with surprising luck. Unfortunatly, he pumps his gun so hard and so fast that the handle snaps off in his hand -- leading to a startled "OUCH, YOU DUMB OAF!" from Blowpipe and a look of horror on Triggerhappy's face.

"GYAH . . gyah . . ha . . ha . . GUN NO WORK NOW?!" A look of almost pathetic sadness crosses the Targetmaster's face. "OH WELL! GYAHAHAHHA! DINOBOT SO STUPID NOT EVEN NEED ONE!" Feathering his jets he attempts to grab Swoop as he flies and redirect his path to Repugnus. "HYHAHA HAHA GHA HAHA HA HA HA HA AH AHA HA AHA!!!! DUMB AFTS! GHAHAHA!!!!" He seems to remember something though, and yells down at Repugnus. "HEY UGLY FACE!! GHAHAHA! HAHAHA! WHY ARE YOU HERE, HUH?!" Yeah, turnabout is fair play!

Combat: Triggerhappy misses Swoop with his WHEEE (Ruckus) Area attack!

Combat: Triggerhappy misses Repugnus with his WHEEE (Ruckus) Area attack!

Sonicboom gives a final look to the wiff-fest in the air before moving the last few yards to the escape tunnel. "Well Maximus looks like things are well in hand here I'm gonna beat feet back to HQ. No point hanging around where I may get blasted buy a got not even trying to blast me, that's just sad." With a final salute he pivots and drops down into the tunnel to get his share of recovered goods back to to the techs.

+POT Sonicboom is now observing.

Repugnus peers at the tips of his fingernails as if he was examining his nails. Triggerhappy's shot ricochets off of the wall above his head, and Repugnus looks up, as if reminded Triggerhappy is still there. "Oh, you're still here," he says. "Well, you see, we were gathering up all the explosives we can, and once we had them all, we were going to set them off under Darkmount and make the whole city go kaboom. Satisified?" This is a lie, of course, but maybe Triggerhappy will believe it.

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

Fortress Maximus gives Sonicboom a quick pat on the back, "It looks that way, keep my drones covered and stay safe, alright?" He then makes his way back to the other Autobots now that the first batch of equipments have been dropped down into the service tunnel. His optics narrows as he sees Triggerhappy taunting the Autobots, "I have to hand it to this one, he's either genuinely insane or he has some solid steel bearings." Being the kind of fellow that's not too keen on using force, Fortress Maximus tosses in his own commentary in addition to Repugnus to make the whole act more complete, "Repugnus! That's supposed to be classified! What have you done?!"

Repugnus appreciates that Maximus is playing along. And of course Repugnus doesn't have to put much effort into acting like he doesn't care what the other Autobots think of him and what he does. "What the frag do I care, that plan wasn't going to work anyway? And you dumbafts didn't even consider MY plan..." He goes back to examining his "nails."

Sludge's tactics fail twice. First, he fails to hit the target, and secondly, he fails to defend Repugnus. But in the old Dinobot way, when he can't hit something, he HITS something. Flying up, he spreads the wings on his back, and kicks his anti-gravity into overdrive, fist first, heading towards the reckless targetmaster, "Uh . . . you more dumb than Dinobots!"

Combat: Sludge sets his defense level to Aggressive.

Combat: Sludge misses Triggerhappy with his UPPERCUT! attack!

Swoop is starting to get annoyed here. He should be able to hit this glitch, he never misses this often. He once more goes for his sword and begins to slash wildly at the annoying jet. "Stay still so me can carve you like turkey Jazz is always talking about!"

Combat: Swoop strikes Triggerhappy with his Thermal Sword attack!

Triggerhappy twists away to the right to dodge something that he thinks is coming from Scattershot and Fortress Maximus, only to go right into Swoop's thermal sword. The weapon slashes across his torso, buckling armor plating and setting it alight as it goes; leaving a glowing red gash. Triggerhappy seems to be made of some pretty stern stuff though in addition to being a dodgy bastich, because it doesn't seem to bother him that much -- even when he's already got a crater from Repugnus' weapon and various blast marks and shrapnel cuts across his body from his little oops when he flew upon the little scene. It's hard to say if he's actually hearing what Repugnus and Fortress Maximus are saying, let alone it sinking in, because he is busy laughing at Swoop.

"GYHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAA HAHA HA HA HA HA AHAHAHHAHA AHHA BLOWPIPES MOM HIT HARDER THAN YOU! GHAHAHAH HAHAHA HA AHAHAHAH SEE YOU IN SKY LATER, DINO-LOSER! GHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!!!" This is a hint that -maybe- -possibly- -perhaps- Triggerhappy fell for it. Either way, he punches his afterburners and books it as hard as he can.

Oh, look! Triggerhappy is now a bitchin' jet fighter.

Combat: Five Gun Jet Fighter of INDISCRIMINATE DEATH < Triggerhappy > begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit.

Fortress Maximus watches as the Decepticon Targetmaster vacate the area, before looking back to the rest of the Autobots, "Let's hope he bought it. Good thinking earlier though, Repugnus." Did he just praise that crazy bot?! He then kicks aside a piece of debris in front of him before heading towards the direction of the service tunnel, "Come on, the excavation crew is still waiting for these things. Let's get a move on. Iacon awaits."

Swoop glares to the Decepticon as he insults and runs away, Insulting Dinobots doesn't tend to be good for one's health... He's tempted to chase after him and blast him from the sky, but as Fort Max calls, Swoop turns his attack back towards the mission and places his sword away. As least he carved into the annoying jet thing.

Repugnus pushes off the wall and shrugs. "Eh, I do what a spider can. Or whatever I'm supposed to be." He smirks as he follows after Maximus. "Yep, pretty productive day. Fought off Triggerhappy single-handedly, gave false intel, and we got a ton of bombs! It's like someone up there likes us!" He stares up at the sky. "Thanks, Zeus!"