"OC Episode #4"

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: Yeah, Preds, come on! I need me some fun with old Meggy-poo. ))

"Optimus the pod already did a scanning for a life form."

That was a relief. So the pod had been unharmed and running on its regular programming. Less to worry about, but now they needed to protect it from these greedy Predacons.

After flying backwards away from Nemesis, Primal landed beside the boulder he was about to use for cover and targeted her again before she dived behind a tree. Once she had, he didn't have a clear shot on her, and he moved his position behind the large rock. It was only high enough to cover him from his waist down, so he'd have to crouch for full cover. For the time being, he remained standing behind it, aiming at Nemesis.

"Back ups here to help Optimus."

"Dinobot, Maximize!"

Hearing Wintersong and watching her, Dinobot and Tigatron engage the scene, Optimus smiled at their presence, relieved for their support to have finally arrived. But his happiness was short-lived when he witnessed Nemesis' shots hit Frilla. While she was opening fire, Primal took the opportunity to fire back at the female 'Con, this time aiming at her chest and shoulders for deliberate hits. After he fired his shots, Optimus saw Frilla had been quickly taken hostage by the mantis. "Frilla!" he cried out, narrowing his red optics at Manterror. He targeted the mantis until he realized how serious Manterror's hold was on the Predacon-turned-Maximal. "Release her!" Primal demanded the insect. The Maximal leader remained focused on the hostage situation but hesitated to fire; he might harm the pod, and Frilla. Slag! Any wrong move and he was sure Manterror would do what he enjoyed most, torturing and killing the small Maximal. This was not what was supposed to happen. He told Frilla he'd watch her back and now she was in grave danger, just like Nightmist. They lost her, he couldn't lose Frilla! Anger began boiling inside of the leader.

-----

Seeing Nemesis hiding behind a tree, watching the Maximal commander, Tigatron broke off from his group and slowed down, stalking silently through the brush and trees, hearing all of the gunfire and hollering nearby. Stopping a few yards behind her, he whispered, "Tigatron, maximize," and he immediately grabbed his gun, targeted the Decepticon through the trees and opened fire on her, hoping to catch her by surprise.

-----

This is Icebreaker to Rattrap, it appears the situation was a misunderstanding,Cecaelia here seemed to think we were some sort of group out to get her. The Nomad isn't in any immediate danger other then drifting away, so I'd recommend performing a manual reboot of the system, it's the big red button that says do not touch, then while the computer reloads inspect Saber's head injury. If it exceeds what internal repairs can cover or the computer doesn't load, I'll be over as soon as possible.

"Cecaelia? Who the heck is that? What are ya guys best friends already?" Rattrap protested over their transmission. "Man, you know, I thought Optimus was the only one who trusted too much. Don't turn yer back on her!" Yeah, right. Firing at them was just an accident? A "missunderstanding?" Now she's all buddy-buddy with the Maximals? Rattrap wasn't buying it. Muttering under his breath, he did as Icebreaker suggested, pressing the infamous red button and watching the system beginning to reboot. Thank Primus for that much! Getting out of the chair, he hurried down the ladder and grabbed a first-aid kit, then dashed back up to the bridge and kneeled beside Saber-Fang.

"Come on, Saber, wake up," he frowned. Opening the kit, he began tending to her head wound. As much as he and the cat bickered, Rattrap was surprisingly careful and gentle administering the minor repairs to her injury. She was still a Maximal, after all. At least her vital signs appeared to be normal.

[NaitoKage]

A dark laugh was heard in the distance as Megatron came into view watching the scene Release that traitorous little lizard? No.. I think not Optimus Primal.. I'm going to enjoy this.. Predacons, TERRORIZE! he then shouted, transforming with a violent roar to his robot mode, Tarantulus following suite.

Megatron pointed his T-rex head towards Optimus firing a fusion blast towards the rock Optimus was taking cover behind causing a spray of rock on impact but the boulder was still there to a degree.

Tarantulus looked towards the Stasis pod, it appeared to be intact, he snickered This should be interesting.. he then said to himself, he'd probably have to reprogram the stasis pod in the middle of a battle, not an ideal situation. He then drew his missile launcher loading a missile into it aiming it towards Wintersong in the distance and fired it.

__________________

Rhinox soon came into the area noticing the ditch ahead, as he slowed down he noticed the stasis pod inside breathing heavily, or just out of breath. Rhinox..Maximize.. he then transformed to his robot mode, sliding into the ditch and going directly towards the stasis pod flipping up the monitor on it and typing into the keyboard to better understand the situation.

(And I shall re-watch the airazor episode to do this part right at least. )

[Wintersong]

"Terrorize." Snow Trix transformed and came from the foliage, watching the scene before she aimed her wrist launchers towards DInobot and began to fire, "Least we got here finally." She said aloud not giving a care if Megatron would get onto her about it.

Wintersong had turned her attention from Nemisis when the others ha her, becoming distracted by Frilla suddenly becoming a hostage. Growling she was about to go after Manterror that was until the other Predacons decided to show. Were they always this late? It surprised the tigeress they hadn't been there sooner or lying in ambush. Well it was better then nothing. Seeing the missile Wintersong leapt towards the side,"Maximize!" With a low growl she transformed, glaring towards the creepy spider, "That all you got spider boy?" She said in a challengingly, grabbing her smaller Laser Rifle at her side and firing back.

[New Moon]

Frilla gritted her teeth as Manterror just took her hostage, having no time to fight back before his claws at her throat and hip just making it too risky to chance moving. To make matters worse Megatron had arrived too. Swallowing she tried to think of something then her optics darted to Snow Trix, mind thinking back to the first time even others had come from their stasis pods those several months before. "It may be too late to change the code but that doesn't mean it could be a Predacon still. It's past, it's attitude, or even it's beast form could influence it's alliance. For all I know it could be a Predacon on it's own, Manterror." She said, voice cracking a little from fear.

But she wasn't lying that's for sure. Even the protoform inside could activate yet it wasn't a guarantee to be a Maximal since some bots didn't become one when they activated from their pods. "Even i chose to be a Predacon on my own when I was first reprogrammed then left to join the Maximals. Back on Cybertron I was a neutral before all this." She added quickly.

[Blazemane]

Cheetor watched Rhinox looking over the pod, trying to give him some time to figure things out. After a while, his curiosity got the better of him.

"What's the situation Rhinox?" he asked, hoping Rhinox knew.

((OOC: I'll post for Steelclaw and Dinobot, but I want to give Phoenix a chance to respond to the assault on Nemesis first.))

[Alak]

Orcariner watched as Rhinox looked at the pod. He noticed it was still partially submerged in rubble from the crash.

"Maximize!"

Transforming into robot mode, the tall maximal could feel the pressure from the energon radiation. Skimming the environment, Orcariner relented the fact that they were surrounded by energon geysers. The dampers were fairing much better than the mining mission, but this was still pretty bad in his eyes. Walking to the stasis pod, Orcariner grabbed the boulder that clamped the the vessel's door shut. Taking a deep breath, he heaved the rock over his head and tossed it aside a safe distance away. The orca continued to brush off the rest of the debris in attempt to give his superior a more comfortable working environment.

"Beast mode," he said as soon as he was finished.

The rest was up to Rhinox now. The killer whale's tail bobbed up and down in anticipation. Checking his radar, Orcariner saw several signatures approaching from the distance.

"Four Predacons inbound from about 0.94 kilometers away," he announced, "Establishing data-link now."

Uploading his radar imaging to his companions, Orcariner replayed the enemy's vector data. He chose not to utilize his sonar mapping due to the constant, erratic bursts of energon coming from the earth. Regardless, the present information was all they needed to know. The Predacons still had some ground to cover, but Ocariner did not know the severity of the pod's damage. He only hoped that Rhinox could work fast enough to bring their new friend up and about before they arrived.

[WorpeX]

"Release that traitorous little lizard? No.. I think not Optimus Primal.. I'm going to enjoy this.. Predacons, TERRORIZE!"

A familiar voice confirmed Manterror's suspicions that the rest of the Predicons were present and wanted the stasis pod just as much as he did. It seems there was already a well established faction here attempting to take over the world, a pity as that is what he had hoped to do on his own. Since it was Megatron leading that party however, perhaps he could join up with him. He did have the golden disc after all and had a much better chance of succeeding than the mantis did. Together, they had a good chance at being able to do so. To bad these pesky Maximals were here... it seemed they would be much trouble.

One of them in particular had his attention at the moment. He could sense the fear in her voice as she spoke, but for some reason, she refused to obey. Even though she was at risk of being torn to pieces, she spoke of absurdities.

"It may be too late to change the code but that doesn't mean it could be a Predacon still. It's past, it's attitude, or even it's beast form could influence it's alliance. For all I know it could be a Predacon on it's own, Manterror. Even i chose to be a Predacon on my own when I was first reprogrammed then left to join the Maximals. Back on Cybertron I was a neutral before all this."

As usual, the Maximal was trying to convince Manterror that what he was doing wouldn't work or was morally wrong. She spoke of garbage that he simply didn't want to hear, all he wanted was action and that was something she hadn't provided. While it was true that one could still defect to the opposite side, the chances of that were slim on a newly born protform. Manterror stopped paying attention to what the little lizard was saying halfway through her short little speech, he simply didn't want to hear it. After all this time the Maximal's were still stupid enough to question a Predicons actions. Even on Cybertron he had been questioned over and over again as to why Manterror himself defected. Truth was he didn't like the Maximals and when he was offered something greater - he took it. For some reason the Maximals couldn't understand that, and threw him into a stasis pod for safe keeping. The true definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, so perhaps all of the Maximal's were simply insane. That would explain quite a lot.

Tightening his grip on Frilla he replied after she finished speaking. "I'll not listen to your Maximal lies. Do as I say before I begin chopping parts off one by one!"

---

"Repair required before protoform ceases to exist in 7.1 cycles."

[una]

Whitegrazer was glad that the gang was together and with Orcariner's report, they at least were prepared for anything when the Predacons attack. She transformed into her beast mode. She didn't want an energon surge to overwhelm her now.

"At least this will give us time to formulate a plan as you guys work on the pod." She stared at the pod, wishing Rhinox the best of luck with it. She knew he could do it.

She looked at the surrounding again and nodded as a thought popped into her head, "Maybe one person should stay with Rhinox as me and another could meet the Predacons ahead to delay them. There are alot of cliffs and geysers we could use to our advantage. We could give them a surprise attack."

[Phoenix]

(ooc: wow, this game really tends to pick up whenever I get swamped down at work for a few days.Weekend shifts are evil. :p Hope I don't forget anyone..)

Having been focused mainly on Frilla and Optimus Primal, Nemesis was caught off guard as Dinobot's eye-lasers suddenly appeared out of nowhere and graced her left shoulder. Grunting from the pain, she immediately folded her wings around herself and rolled behind another tree for cover. Maintaining one knee in an upright position, in the event she would have to move again rapidly, she crouched down as best she could to be able to scan her surroundings.

The mantis had managed to sneak up behind Frilla and was currently holding her captive near the pod, which caused the remaining Maximals to withhold their fire on him and focus on Nemesis instead.

Good. It was an equal fight then.

Just then another pair of shots came in from another direction. Nemesis heard something approaching in time to whirl on that location, only to get hit by another blast in the lower right quadrant of her chest. This one came with enough force to knock her over onto her back, nearly causing her to lose her grasp on her weapon.

With a furious scream, the female forced herself back up onto her feet, quickly localizing Tigatron whom she believed had fired that last shot. She vaguely caught sight of Megatron announcing his arrival as well, yet she was too focused on the task at hand to really pay much heed to his presence.

Although she had a rift in her arm and a clearly visible wound in her lower chest, either location had a strange shimmer coming from them as the nanobots had already started the process of repairing her. Her left arm a little shaky from the wound, she still managed to swap her firearms to that hand and fired a shot at Dinobot. It was mostly a distracting shot, hoping to buy herself a few seconds.

A split second later she leaped into the air, only to land right by Tigatron with her sai angled at his weapon in an attempt to disarm him. At the same time she brought her leg up with full force, bringing her knee into the tiger-bot's abdomen.

[Night-Hunter]

Saber's optics flickers for a brief before fully powering up and the first thing she saw was... Rattrap.

Well that's some thing I didn't want to wake up to. She thought as her vision became sharper.

"Oh, i'm dead aren’t I?" She asked trying to sit up.

Saber had the deepest respect for Rattrap and she knew that he respected her, but if he knew what she had done, that respect he had for her would vanish within seconds.

* * *

Sonar transformed into his beast mode and hung up side down in the corner to get some sleep, so he would be well rested for when they reached thier destination.

I have a feeling that this mission is going to be rather interesting. Sonar thought as he drifted off to stasis.

[Blazemane]

Dinobot's braced himself to handle the momentum of Nemesis' shot hitting his shield, and then he started advancing forward, prepared to chase the Predacon further into the woods.

So intent was he on this goal that he didn't notice Snow Trix' laser until it hit him on a diagonal from the left side. Reeling backwards, he managed to maintain his balance, and he faced his new foe, putting away his shield and running for her at full speed.

Steelclaw took a moment to assess the situation as he arrived. Everyone was actually paired off with one specific opponent, so he had to decide who was either the most likely to lose their fight, or needed to be done the fastest.

Tarantulas seemed a good pick- he was a programming expert, so he'd need to focus his attention on the pod as soon as possible.

Steelclaw set his rifle to firing standard rounds and pumped once.

That all you got spider boy?

"It probably is," Steelclaw answered aloud as he stepped out of cover. Then he fired for her chest. He pumped and fired again, and then did the same thing again, and again, and again, all the while advancing further forward, until he'd littered the ground with five empty shells.

By that time, he was standing side by side with Tarantulas.

"No offense intended," he noted quickly before turning his attention back to Wintersong to see if she was still looking for a fight.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

Release that traitorous little lizard? No.. I think not Optimus Primal.. I'm going to enjoy this.. Predacons, TERRORIZE!

That unmistakeable laugh caught Primal's attention like a lightning bolt. Megatron! Things were just going from bad to worse the longer this day went on. While he feared for Frilla's life, the Predacon leader stole the gorilla's focus when he fired upon him. Gasping at the bright blast blazing right for him, Optimus immediately fell to his knees on the ground, ducking behind the boulder, and covered his head with his arms. Pieces of rock flew everywhere, particles and dust blanketing his back. There was a nice chunk of his cover missing now. If Megatron continued to blow it to pieces, he'd either have to attack him head on or find another object to hide behind.

Standing back up, the dust and rock shards rolling off of Primal's back, he lifted both of his arms and fired both duel wrist cannons several times at Megatron's upper chest. Optimus would much rather help Frilla at the moment, but if someone could get a surprise shot on Manterror, maybe he'd let her go in reaction to being knocked off of his feet. On the other hand, maybe his natural reaction would be to snip with his claws first before falling, which would lead to a very serious and severe outcome for Frilla. Optimus growled in frustration, keeping his optics on Megatron.

-----

Stepping back from Nemesis' assault, Tigatron tried to follow her with his gun, firing at her as she leaped into the air unable to hit her, but he suddenly found his hand empty. She had knocked his gun out of his grasp when her sai came down. In fear and a little shock, he wasn't prepared for her next move. Letting out an, "Oof!" the female's knee was driven right into his stomach, knocking him off of his feet and landing on his back on the forest floor. In a little pain now, the white tiger shook his head, regaining focus on the matter at hand, and noticed his weapon within arm's reach to his right. Grabbing it, he targeted Nemesis' knees and fired a few shots.

-----

"Oh, i'm dead aren’t I?"

Rattrap smiled, happy to see Saber finally wake up. "I'm insulted," he snickered at her comment. "Hey, take it easy, Fangs. Don't move too fast." He held a hand behind her back just in case she'd black out from sitting up so suddently and fall back down. "You got quite a nasty bump and cut there. I got some bandages over it to keep it from leaking any fluids. How do you feel?"

[Night-Hunter]

"I'm insulted,"

Saber smiled she heard him snicker.

"Hey, take it easy, Fangs. Don't move too fast."

"I'm alright." She said but she didn't push him away when she felt his hand on her back.

"You got quite a nasty bump and cut there. I got some bandages over it to keep it from leaking any fluids. How do you feel?"

"Like I've been bashed several times over the head with the control panel. Other then that I'm great." She said resisting the urge to put her hand on the side of her pounding head.

It's just another injury, nothing to worry about. She thought, she then went silent as the rodent began cleaning her head wound.

[NaitoKage]

Rhinox heard Cheetor but remained quiet for a moment as he lifted the hatch to the stasis pod, his body surging from energon resistance in the area. " Warning, energon concentration in danger zone" his computer stated, he then responded Divert power from weapons array to field dampers, maximum tolerance.

He looked over the protoform inside, then looked towards the blank snow like effect on the screen while hitting a few buttons to try to make the pod reboot. Activate protoform, begin DNA scanning sequence.. he then said, with the pod responding "Activation sequence damaged, DNA sequence offline. Repair required or spark will cease to exist in 7.0 cycles"

Rhinox then said to himself No... It had become one of the worse situations he could imagine for a stasis pod. He reached to his side pulling out a laser cutter, then started to cut open a pannel from the pod and pull it off, then put the device away pulling out a small grabbing tool and using it to reach inside and pull out what appeared to be a fried locking chip.

Rhinox then looked towards Cheetor to finally respond to him... This is bad. This stasis pod is horribly damaged and the spark is dieing.. The locking chip is fried and I can't get the DNA sequencer online.. if I don't do something fast.. the protoform's spark will be extinguished.

_____________________________

Megatron was suddenly taken back by the attack from Optimus Primal, stumbling from the hits to his chest as he raised his left arm to block, he then let out a growl as his hip blasters came online spraying wildly towards Primal and his rock cover.

Tarantulus leaned out of the way of the shot, then heard Steelclaw and rolled his optic visor Don't waste my time with your sentiment, just give me cover while I move in Mammal. as he responded, probably the nicest way Tarantulus could respond to such a situation.

Tarantulus then moved towards the stasis pod looking towards Manterror Hrm..an insect? Heh heh.. How quaint. Keep that and any other maximal away from the pod no matter what, I'll deal with the programming..

Tarantulus then moved closer to the pod flipping up the keyboard while leaning low to use the Stasis pod as cover, he then started to work on it.

__________________________

walking towards the beach, Icebreaker transformed to his beast mode, diving into the water and swimming towards the Nomad rather swiftly, moments later he was seen entering the side hatch of the Nomad looking towards Rattrap and Saber Er.. Wow, you two got close while I was busy.. Alright.. as for my Report,from what I can tell, Cecaelia is a Predacon possibly escaped from prison or did some sort of crime and assumed we were the police. She tried to slag me in the water but seemed to change her mind while we were talking..and seemed to do a 180 in her personality when my visor and faceplate retracted.. kinda acting like a swooning school girl at a rock concert..Not sure how I should feel about that.

Anyway.. I don't think she's a major threat, she seems more like a panicked cornered rat..which is dangerous in itself...So, what should we do Rattrap? I don't think the axalon is really set up for keeping prisoners..but if for some reason she joins Megatron we'll have a worse situation on our hands.

[Wintersong]

Wintersong growled as the first shot from Steelclaw caught her chest, only having time to raise her arms as another caught her chest, and one more grazing her arm to hit her shoulder and the last two just barely missing. 'Wasn't expecting him.' Wintersong thought, glaring at the two Predacons but unfortunately it seemed Tarantulas had found the pod to occupy his time. And there was no way to stop him or help Frilla without chancing her being harmed or being shot at again by Steelclaw. "Beast mode!" Transforming WIntersong charged at Steelclaw almost head on before turning a few feet from the bear, coming to is side and transforming again to fire a few shots with her rifle.

Having got Dinobot's attention Snow Trix prepared for his next move, seeing him beginning to charge. Grabbing the coiled energon lasso at her side she grasped the handle and brought out to her side, for now having it out more like a whip. "Bring it on Dinobutt!" She growled and when he grew closer snapped the whip forward, trying to strike at the raptor.