Scene #8706: Cybertron: Behind the Blast-2

Owner	Pose
Combaticon	What passes for Cybertron's wilderness is still nothing but metal and cables and wires. pillars formed from innumerable pipes reaching upward from the uneven steel 'ground' and feeding into bulky round condensers, cables running between them that hum with energy. A 'mountain' that appears to be a large automated treatment plant which periodically ejects huge canisters of water into space. In the shadow of the treatment structure is a cluster of buildings in disrepair; enormous hangers and quarters designed for beings some ten meters in height. Far too large for what Cybertronians are now. Some are collapsed, some are in the process of doing so; others still stand, precariously. Remnants of the old War. With walls and signage indicative of an arsenal and barracks and old, gutted-out defense turrets, this must be the garrison Onslaught mentioned. The bot himself stands in the shadow cast by the old arsenal building with his arms folded behind his back, neatly tucked up under the cannons he carries. None of the other Combaticons are present, so it seems he had to contend with this on his own-- hence, the request for assistance. Across from him, in the broad doorway, is a pair of 'bots. The first may look familiar; lanky limbs and a bulky torso, large shoulders and wing struts, all in beige and purple with a pale blue face and one optic that resembles a monocle; It is without a doubt Blitzwing. Beside Blitzwing and towering over him, the second 'bot is a hulking monstrosity of a machine who may even be larger and bulkier than Brawl on her best days. He sports a thick square jaw and a large singular crimson optic; the edges of his wrists are decorated in black and yellow warning marks, while his hands are simple two-claw graspers. This mountain of a 'bot, nearly three meters tall, must be Lugnut. Much like Onslaught, each opposing 'bot has a prominent Decepticon symbol displayed proudly in the center of his chestplate. "You are persistent, Onslaught. What business does the DJD have with us?" "THOSE WHO QUESTION THE GLORIOUS WORD OF MEGATRON ARE UNWELCOME HERE!"
Bowser	The often dark quiet world doesn't have much of a sky to blot out. What light comes from within, skylines and cities and forges that send light upward. Metal peaks provide a backdrop to this dim sky. Contrast is important. Thus, when the warpgate opens as the space bridge, the airships that come out are lit like festivals. Bowser's main airship, along with two smaller ones, disgorge out into the sky, propellers driving them along much to the dismay of actual physics. Seemingly without target, dozens of cannons across the armada fire, shooting cannon balls the size of minivans into the sky. They float lazily, the same disregard for physics sending them off at a steady pace. Standing over the figurehead of the forward airship, a lovingly rendered golden head of Bowser, is Bowser himself, fists on his hips, letting out a mighty GWHAHAHAHA!. Bowser stands taller than the Transformers do now, and the light casts upward, setting him in a villainous shade. He points a finger downward at Blitzwing. "YOU! NERD! Sit down and talk." The light's mission is soon evident. It grows dim again as the sky fills with a medium sized army. Wings of Koopas and Paragoombas flap off tempo. Magikoopas stand on each ship, wands at the ready, pointed down from the airship. Each airship suddenly fires. But, gravity seems to have no bearing on these shells, smiling Bullet Bills simply fanning out in all directions, turning the sky into a minefield. Finally, Bowser leaps off the edge of the airship. A white almost comically small floating ship scoots up underneath him, a smiling clown face painted on the front of the Klown Kar. It is a large but simple statement. The air is Bowser's.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	In contrast to Bowser's display of military force, Madeleine's entrance is subtler. She walked through the warpgate alone half an hour earlier and wound her way through the less colorful parts of Kaon, toward the city's outskirts. No churro trucks on the route today, unfortunately. When she arrives at Onslaught's location she looks like she just fought off a tiger, because she has. Thankfully, transformers are not amenable to fighting alongside creatures that leap out from their paint jobs, so she had some help when her curse struck her on her way from the spaceport. A line of parallel gashes across her face are still healing, but the claw-marks have already faded to scars and by the end of the day will be gone entirely. And so, Madeleine is already short on patience when Lugnut and Blitzwing try to test her. As the larger of the duo raves about the glory of Megatron, she grits her teeth and nearly snarls. "We're not here to question anything but you two freaks," she says, "about what you had to do with the bridge." No time for subtlety, especially when the IDs on the bombers were so positive. "We already have the evidence to... do whatever it is the DJD does to your lot," she says, tacitly admitting that she herself doesn't really know, "it's only a matter of convincing you to not make a mess of yourselves." The huntress folds her arms and taps a foot, impatiently. Then Bowser's army makes its entrance, and the sound of the cannon-fire makes her jump. She lands in a crouch, half turned around, spear in hand. Drogrung, the spear, appears to have been startled as well - for once, its reptilian eye is wide open.
Combaticon	Bowser's airship flotilla arrives via Space Bridge and promptly establishes air superiority. It's enough to get Blitzwing to unfold his arms, staring at the projectile-laden sky with a tense frown. Lugnut is less impressed. He storms forward, sweeping his right hand forward and back in an arc that collides with his companion and sends the smaller 'bot head over heels, "WE SHALL NOT BE COWED BY THIS! IF YOU MEAN TO STAGE AN ARREST THEN SAY IT!" "Very well," Onslaught tips his head forward just a touch, casting his face in the shadow of his hat's visor, "In relation to suspected sabotage of Causeway 14; the primary land bridge between Kaon and Hydrax. I wish to bring you both in for questioning--" "Wait. I know zat voice--" Blitzwing's voice cuts Onslaught off as he regains his feet, his eyes on the sky. His face cycles out with a tinny transformation sound; replaced with the bulky armored chin and sleek red visor and pale red face of his more fiery-tempered self, "Zat overgrown lizard from last time! I will kick his shell into space!" His face cycles again; replaced with that ghastly sharp-toothed glowing red grin and eyes on an otherwise featureless black face, "Ahaha--! But zis isn't a race! Who vill I knock out of ze running!?" Thrusters roar to life from the smaller jet-bot's heels, hurling him skyward to meet Bowser's descent in the Clowncopter. Rearing back as he ascends, Blitzwing leads with a kick intended to tip the teacup-shaped vehicle over and spin it around, all while still wearing that face of madness, "So instead let's go for a ride! Haaahahaha!" "MY DECISION HAS BEEN MADE FOR ME!" Lugnut declares, raising both hands over his head, "I SHALL DEFEND MY FREEDOM-- IN THE GLORIOUS NAME OF MEGATRON!" With his arms up, the gun turrets on his flanks flip forward and open fire. The first tracks Onslaught, who dives for cover. The second swings towards Madeleine, launching bright pink-purple laser bolts in a steady rhythm that alternates gun barrels.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine takes a bolt to the leg before her attention's fully back on Lugnut, and yelps as she leaps for cover behind a partially collapsed wall. She takes a moment to grimace when she sees the color of Lugnut's lasers as the bolts sear the wall - did they HAVE to be hot pink? Either way she still has to contend with the barrage of suppressive fire. Normally she'd toss up a wall of ice, but energy weapons are especially suited for cutting through ice, so instead she breathes out a puff of vapor that grows, takes shape, and solidifies into a large wolf made of blue-white ice. The creature huddles behind the wall with her as she creates another, then two more - then she lets out a harsh bark as a signal, and the wolves move to attack. Three of them scurry around one side of the wall, while she and the fourth wolf take the opposite end, the huntress's hope being that Lugnut will instinctively direct his fire toward the greater number of targets and miss her entirely. She charges alongside the last ice-wolf and directs an upward thrust at Lugnut's shoulder turret, aiming to jam it in place or remove it entirely.
Bowser	The sky erupts with blue light as the jet-bot drives forward, firing at full force to get in range of Bowser. A twist and spin in place and all that inertia has to go somewhere. It goes into Bowser's cheek, where all inertia is arrested immediately. Bowser glances downward at the foot pressed into the armor like hide of his body, the very slight indent in his cheek, then looks back up at Blitzwing. Sharp teeth flash as a grin spreads across his face. "What's that, bothead? You want to come up HERE? And have a fist fight with ME?!" The lights from the ground suddenly grow faint, as do the lights of every airship. Silohuettes fall from every angle over Blitzwings as Bowser shoves the foot away from his face. A sphere. A sphere of clear area. But on every other side, the energy sycophantic faces of minions. Glaring goombas and koopas, flying wings in unison, a subtle whisper of sound with every beat. Blitzwing gets a claw pointed at him. "Apparently you tin cans don't know who I am around here. So you are gonna learn. School's in session." He jerks a thumb towards himself. "And I'm the teacher." The Kopter rushes ahead, a steady 'thwop thwop' from the tiny propellor the bottom completely in contrast with the speed it can move. Bowser's arm rushes out, swinging in a circle to simply grab Blitzwing by the neck and HURL him into the wall of minions surrounding. "Oh yea, the subject?" "CAGE MATCH ONE OH ONE!"
Combaticon	Sporting fresh scorch marks, Onslaught puts a hunk of rubble between himself and Lugnut after the large Decepticon opens fire. Immediately his hand reaches to his commlink, then pauses. Right. The other Combaticons aren't here. He'll have to adapt to Bowser and Cadrasteia's tactics instead. The spearwoman is already on the attack with a pack of ice-forged wolves. Onslaught angles the guns on his back and opens fire, arcing purple artillery such that it explodes around Lugnut's position and blocks his vision with dust. The laser bolts go from focused to firing wildly out of the dust, creating openings that the huntress masterfully exploits when she rams the spear into one of his flank turrets. It sparks and goes silent. In the dust, the hulking silhouette of the Decepticon turns just enough that even through the obstructing chaff, that great crimson optic is clearly visible, "AHH! MY OPTIC SENSORS HAVE NOT FAILED ME!" There's a metallic ping as his claw-like pinsir hand snaps shit and the bulky robot spins around, swinging his massive hand and forearm in an uppercut right for the spear-wielding woman's torso, "FOOL!" The punch transitions into a lunge forward. Lugnut dashes out of the cloud of smoke-- straight at Onslaught's covered position. In the air, Blitzwing has found Bowser a lot more resiliant than expected. The Madness face transforms into the chill blue monocle-clad face when he raises his hands palms-outward, "Now, now. It need not necessarily be--" There's a supremely satisfying CLANG when the Koopa Copter slams into him, knocking the jet-bot out of the air and into the bottom floor of the spherical minion cage. He bounces once, flips, and reignites his thrusters to avoid a second bounce. At some point through this, his face has changed again-- it's the red-faced Hothead again, metallic teeth with a gap in front bared in a severe, furious frown and a thick Austrian accent, "If it's a cage match you want-- it's a cage match you get!" From his lower altitude, Blitzwing grabs at the Koopa Kopter's propeller; as comically slow as it rotates for how nimble the craft is, he's not exactly worried about his hands. And once he's got it, he swings the vehicle around and hurls both it and its occupant at the opposing wall, "We'll see which is bigger-- your brawn or mine!"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Lugnut can see well enough through the clearing smoke, but what he can't do is predict the future. His uppercut hits a target, certainly, but it's the target he was supposed to hit - one of Madeleine's decoys. The plastic huntress flies back under the force of the blow and shatters against a wall, while Madeleine herself circles in the dust cloud as Lugnut charges Onslaught. Madeleine blows out a puff of frigid air which rushes after the large Decepticon, forming a sheet of ice underfoot. "The bigger they are..." she mutters to herself, as Lugnut scrambles for purchase. Drogrung curves into a bow and Madeleine looses a few arrows, one at each of Lugnut's ankles, aimed to trip up the transformer completely.
Bowser	The walls AREN'T the problem. The minions are more than eager to simply weave out of the way of the kopter. Still, GRABBING the kopter and swinging it around is enough to jostle the mighty King. The steadfast resilient nature of the Koopa King only goes so far as the Kopter swings around, nearly throwing him out of it. He slams back against the side of it, rattling his head against his own shell as the mighty swing hurls him into his catching minions. "PLATFORMS!" Bowser roars angrily. The minions part and floating platforms suddenly link together, wood bumping up against wood, locking steadily into a growing circle. Surely not a safety net in case Bowser actually falls. Surely not. The Kopter rights itself on the other side of the 'arena', Bowser glaring across. "Stop. MOVING!" The other side of the Arena suddenly starts shrinking, minions converging in on Blitzwing from every side. Even if they are weak, there's many, darkening sight until... They suddenly spread apart. A wave of smiling bullets appear, filling the area around Blitzwing with a deadly grid. They come from every side, bottom, skyward, left, right, both ends of the z-axis. A smiling army of deadly explosion munitions.
Combaticon	"Get off of me!" Blitzwing demands as Koopas and Goombas swarm him. He thrashes, tossing turtles and mushroom guys and all sorts every which way. There's just a ton of them, far more than he can manage with his bare hands. There's a sudden blast of flames from within the pile of Koopa army troops. When they start scattering, a damaged Blitzwing sweeps his shoulder cannons in an arc, spraying fire after them, "You are puny, I will crush each and every one of you!" His face changes back to the cool blue one when he realizes he's surrounded in all directions by projectiles, "--Oh. You have been busy." Angling his shoulder cannons downward, the Decepticon lets loose a chilling, icy blast at the Bullet Bills converging on him from below. Before he can capitalize on that, the rest of them collide with him and the 'bot is engulfed in explosions. On the ground, Lugnut finds his relationship with friction compromised. Arrows bite into his stubby legs. It's not enough to knock him down-- the 'bot is far too large for that. But it does jam one of his actuators and this, combined with the ice, sends Lugnut sailing past Onslaught instead of through him. The Combaticon commander straightens, his forearm splitting open and his blaster flipping out into his waiting hand, "In one piece or several, you are coming with me." Lugnut, by some miracle, manages to avoid falling flat on his face by the time he's stopped sliding. As he turns around, he stamps his heavy feet, crushing the arrows lodged in his joints as he does so, "I HAVE NO REASON TO SUBMIT MYSELF TO THE MERCY OF THE DJD!" His arms raise over his head again, "ROOOOOOOOOOOAH" Leaning forward, Lugnut slams his hands into the steel ground in front of him. Multiple panels on his exposed back slide open, exposing dozens of red-tipped missiles. In waves, the projectiles launch out in all directions, then curl mid-flight towards their various targets. Clearly a technique to use when surrounded. It might be overkill when he only has three foes in front of him.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Missiles, and lots of them, sail toward Madeleine. The huntress hastily breathes out a dome of ice around herself, but there's no time to protect the ice-wolves. The time the first barrage of missiles lands and only one of the wolves is not completely shattered by the blasts. Lugnut, however, has made a mistake. He's immobilized, however briefly. It's long enough for Drogrung to flex back into a spear, and for Madeleine to line up a perfect throw. Drogrung soars through the air and strikes square on Lugnut's heavily armored back. This doesn't do very much damage on its own; even though the spear's head buries deeply into the armor, the plates are thick enough to prevent damage to any vital components. But Drogrung wasn't finished. Not a moment after it lands one of the spear-head's "wings" grows, and twists, changing shape into a gigantic clawed hand. From its prime position on Lugnut's back, Drogrung's arm begins to tear away layer after layer of armor, savagely ripping apart Lugnut's protective shell.
Bowser	Minions 'go down'. That is to say, some of them simply are launched back, spinning. Others are flattened against another and simply poof into nothingness. There is a very clear 'they are defeated' line, yet no blood or screams come from any of the blasted minions. Ice fills the makeshift arena, a freezing mist that quickly drops the temperature of everything around it. Blue blankets dozens of bullet bills, keeping them from outright destroying Blitzwing. The ice falls across Bowser and the Kopter as well. Blue jagged shards suddenly swoop upward from the bottom of the Kopter as the mist engulfs it, sliding around it. The propeller suddenly stops as Bowser wipes chips of ice from his eyes and looks downward. "What di-WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY KOPTER!?" The clown face rapidly changes from smiling to frowning as it tilts backwards. Bowser's scramble out of it is harried, claws grabbing at the edge of the Kopter to pull himself out of the death trap. But that just leaves him standing on top of it. Bowser leaps, kicking off the Kopter. He sails towards Blitzwing, the powerful push making him nearly fly towards the jetbot. "Pop quiz, jabroni!" He grabs at the Jet to drag him downward out of the sky in a mighty plummet towards Lugnut.
Combaticon	Drogrung bites into Lugnut's back and starts tearing away metal. A blasted Blitzwing is grabbed and sent groundwards in the most ludicrous piledriver Cybertron has ever witnessed. A thrashing Lugnut becomes the impact epicenter of Blitzwing's landing, courtesy of King Bowser. Any lingering smoke is scattered by the pressure wave. Onslaught shields his face briefly. Once the wind dies down, he aims his blaster again. Blitzwing sparks, twitching and crushed in places. Lugnut, as a testament to his sturdy construction, is still upright. He straightens his posture, using Blitzwing's body to knock Drogrung off of his shredded back armor. Still clutching his comrade, Lugnut braces his feet and rears his free hand back. The hand transforms, pincir claws sliding back and exposing a massive red impact detonator. His elbow opens, revealing a rocket, which promptly ignites. His arm shakes as he resists the building thrust. "ALL! HAIL! MEGATRON!" Before Onslaught can act, Lugnut ceases resisting his weapon, driving the impact trigger on his fist into the metal ground at his feet. The entire area is promptly engulfed in a massive explosion. The nearest structure finally gives up the ghost, collapsing as a result of the blast. In the chaos of it, there's a blast of thrust and a particularly huge piece of debris is ejected from the fireball. Smoke bleeds off around Lugnut's damaged form. As he reaches the peak of his parabolic arc, the Decepticon transforms-- reorganizing and unfurling and expanding his body all in one fluid process-- into a twin-engine bomber. With Blitzwing on board and the Koopa fleet in disarray from the force of the blast, the pair soar Southward at low altitude. The fireball subsides. Smoke begins to clear. With a metallic creaking sound, Onslaught shoves a piece of debris off himself and regains his feet. The blaster folds away as he scans his surroundings, "King Koopa, Cadrasteia, report." His commlink chirps, drawing a surprised pip from somewhere inside him. Reaching up, he taps the side of his head, "This is Onslaught. ... " He taps the side of his head again, and suddenly Brawl's voice becomes audible, "Go ahead." "Well, it was Madeleine's idea, sir," the tankbot's voice sounds tinny coming from Onslaught. His exterior speaker has trouble dealing with her timbre, "I've spent all this time digging bomb fragments out of salvaged scrap to see what kind of explosive was used. I got news for you." "This wasnt Lugnut's. It wasn't Blitzwing's either. I can tell you for a fact this didn't come from any Decepticon. It's that slag-sucking Autobot, Cloudcover." "You are sure about this?" Onslaught's optics narrow, his gaze swinging southward, then glancing back towards Bowser and Madeleine. "I've been shot by these missiles before."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	In the aftermath of the blast, Madeleine wanders over to pick up Drogrung and scratches the back of her head. "Cloudcover's bomb may have done the bridge in, but that doesn't clear the two Decepticons. Blitzwing tried to sneak out of the bar as soon as the bridge came up in conversations, right Bowser? They may've been accomplices. I know how easily some folks can be convinced to help the other side, under the right pressures. Think collusion is a possibility? I'm sure there's autobots who miss the war as much as Lugnut seems to."
Bowser	An explosion engulfs Bowser. When it is finally gone, Bowser's shell is there, leaving Bowser to slowly uncurl with it with a grunt. "Stupid... tin can... just got a lucky shot." He glares over at Madeleine as if daring her to deny this fact, especially because she's not looking as shabby. Bowser slips into the thinking sprite as Madeliene talks. Deep inside his brain, two neurons bump together slowly, conducting electricity between them. Hmmm... "I know! We get them all together. And then..." He slams his fist into his palm.
Combaticon	> "They may've been accomplices. Think collusion is a possibility?" "Knowing Lugnut; I doubt it," is Onslaught's cool response, "But I will not discard the possibility out of hand." "Wait, Lugnut?" Brawl's voice sounds incredulous, "It was Megatron who told the Decepticons to agree to ceasefire with the Autobots. You think Lugnut would ever go against Megatron's word?" > "I know! We get them all together. And then..." Onslaught pauses, bowing his head slightly in thought, "I do not know him as well as you do. I will defer to Brawl's judgement-- for now, we will table the matter with Lugnut and Blitzwing for later investigation." "He's an alright 'bot. I bet he's just takin' care of Blitzwing." "Gather all evidence and return to DJD headquarters, Brawl," Onslaught's eyes slide sideways, as if he were looking at the commlink itself, "We will have to present this to Warpath and get the APB involved. Renegade Autobots are outside of DJD jurisdiction." "Got it." Onslaught ends the transmission there, lowering his hand from his head. There's a creaking noise and he pauses, giving his shoulder a slow roll until something pings and a piece of metal shoots out at a random angle. Then he drops his arm fully to his side. "We may as well see this to its conclusion," he states evenly, "Shall I notify you when the Autobot Peace Brigade accepts the case handoff?"
Bowser	"You got that guy who has the chicken wings? Have him there." Bowser nods, waving his airship back through the Space Bridge. "Good guys are dumb anyways, don't worry about it."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"Sure thing. I'm this far in, might as well see it through." Madeleine idly kicks at a piece of armor that Drogrung tore away from Lugnut's back. "Ugh, you lot are no good for haruspicy. If he had real blood I'd be able to track him down for you wherever he went, but all this is just scrap metal."
Bowser	Bowser is INCHES away from picking his noise with a pinkie when Madeleine suggests that. "What? Yea, yea, hold on." He cups either hand to the side of his mouth and bellows up at the sky. "HEY, NINJI! GET YOUR PAJAMA WEARING BUTTS DOWN HERE!" Out of the shadows come several star shaped minions, clad entirely in some sort of black onesie so that only black eyes are showing. "We hear and obey.""and obey.""obey.""HERE BOSS!" "So there's this big guy who sounds like he is always talking in all capital letters and likes to punch stuff, GO FOLLOW HIM." The ninji stand there, eyes cast up at Bowser, staring silent. "THE ROBOT!" Immediately, the three foot tall little star creatures jump off into the shadows.
Combaticon	"I will see to it that he is present," Onslaught knows what Swindle is capable of, after all. Of course he's the one who furnished food for Bowser on a planet that normally doesn't have any such thing. Madeleine kicks scrap metal around while lamenting, and Onslaught's eyes close for a moment, "I cannot help how we are constructed. All I can do is apologize." He almost seems to frown, pensively, while mulling that over. After a moment, Onslaught unfolds his arms and begins to twist-- unfold-- expand-- reconfigure-- into a Roadmaster truck with heavy guns in the bed instead of a trailer notch. Invitingly, the passenger door opens. "For now I will get you back to... 'civilization'. It seems King Koopa has solved the matter of locating Lugnut."