Scene #8720: Guilty or Innocent

Owner	Pose
Combaticon	Arrival on Cybertron through the most common method places one at Hydrax Spaceport. From here, a sleek red and purple jet aircraft collects those invited by Onslaught. The interior is nice, clean, and comfortable. Almost comfortable enough to forget that there is no obvious pilot. Once everyone is aboard, the jet's side door closes and the ramp retracts. It ascends vertically, orients, then flies southwest. The orderly spaceport below soon gives way to a war-torn metallic landscape. Eventually it cuts off at stark, jagged cliffs to what looks at a glance to be an ocean of murky brown water. A closer inspection reveals that the rolling waves are, in fact, a powdery red-brown substance. The Sea of Rust. Ahead, after a relatively short time traveling at top speed, the horizon ahead gives way to a towering, ruined fortress. The jet sweeps gently to the right, decelerating and banking then to the left to circle the main tower. By the holes blasted through it, it's a miracle the building is still standing. The courtyard around it, covered in craters clustered around a deep central pit. Walls, crumbling in places but mostly still upright. The gate, visible from here, blasted off its mountings and laying on the ground in several pieces. The jet's forward momentum ceases. The body noses up and the vehicle comes in for a feather-soft vertical landing. With engines spinning down, the side opens and extends a ramp for passengers to disembark. Onslaught is already here; over two meters of ocean blue with black and forest green highlights, his arms folded across his chestplate. To his right, a shorter black and gray robot in a permanently hunched forward posture, two pairs of blades extending off her back like downswept wings. To his left, a bulky white and black Autotrooper with no discernable face. Comparing the subtle microgestures of Onslaught and Vortex to the stock stillness of the Autotrooper belies its lack of any form of sapience. A mindless drone. Both of the Decepticons have red eyes with visible white pupils; the Trooper has only a featureless blue visor. Once all the passengers have disembarked, the jet emits a characteristic sound-- shrinking and reconfiguring its components into a purple and red humanoid configuration; also with the same red eyes and the same purple Decepticon symbol on his chestplate.
Combaticon	"Welcome to Cybertron; and to Quintessar," Onslaught states simply, his posture unchanging, "I am Onslaught of the Decepticon Justice Division. My subordinates Blastoff and Vortex will be joining us for this operation." At the first name mentioned, the robot who was the jet raises a hand. At the second, the black robot beside him dips her head in a slight nod. "This Autotrooper is a drone. Pay it no mind." Onslaught turns in place, shifting his hands to fold across the middle of his back below the cannon mounts. Like this, he passes underneath the cracked arch of the main gate, "It is how we will rouse the nest. Follow me." The four blades on Vortex's back fan out into perfect perpendiculars of each other and begin spinning, carrying the 'bot aloft, "I'll keep an eye on things from the air." Like this, she ascends over the wall while Onslaught and the Trooper pass into the courtyard. Riding on his thrusters like skates, Blastoff brings up the rear. From the ground, the courtyard is even more of a wreck, mangled machinery and once-great architecture broken and scattered like old toys. The dense scent of oxidized metal underlays everything else in the air; old smoke and ash, explosive residue, ozone, oils and silicon. From the pit in the courtyard center, the stench of stagnant water and old grease. "Sharkticons," the jetbot mutters, "Primus, I'll be glad to be done with this one. I lost an entire actuator last time we dealt with these little monsters."
Ishirou	Getting off the transport, Ishirou in his RESCUE gear looks around to see the damage done by the Sharkicons. He whistles because this is something else. "More like barracuda or paranas'..." he says with visibly shaken awe. The awe one might have for a disaster site, rather than respect. When the other Decepticons have arrived, Ishirou speaks up. "Hi, I'm Ishirou," he properly introduces himself. He follows with the others, but puts out a wide area search, looking for where the Sharkicons are at right now, and what is the best way to find them. "With any luck, once they're beaten we won't have any problems..." he says a little nervously.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite strolls down the ramp and, once she's clear of the craft, draws one of her firearms. The heavily modified rifle is opened and checked, the closed and lifted to rest against her shoulder. Safety still on, but she can switch that in seconds when the time comes so there's no need to be careless. The fox woman just feels a little safer and a little more ready having it already in hand. The other hand is used to lift her stetson in a polite tip to the Combaticons, as she already met most of them at the previous conference gathering. Despite her lack of stature she falls into easy stride with the others, her short but nimble stride keeping pace with the taller Cybertronians. "So, Onslaught, yer invite referred to the vermin in this place as 'techno-organic'. Can ya clarify that 'bit so we'all know what we're possibly contending with in thare?" Even while she's conversing her ears are twitching back and forth, cautiously alert of their surroundings.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine arrives in her usual attire, plus a few wickedly barbed harpoons strapped to her back and coils of rope on her hip. After disembarking from the jet, she offers a spear and rope to each of the other assembled Elites. "We need to catch one alive for Rita to talk to. That means having enough lines on it to hold it in place so it won't just bite her face off. The good thing about harpoons is if you miss you can reel back in to try again, just make sure to watch your back while you do. If we catch one of the blighters I doubt the rest will just stand by and watch."
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan has his face glued to one of the windows, staring out over the cover of a Power Metal album as it passes. He is still not great, having spent 3 full days dehydrating himself and pushing himself to the limit. His tail is not as energetic. His ears not as quick to move. Nose, perhaps, not as wiggly. "Uh, you have a robut that's not alive?" Aidan rolls that over in his brain. Is that racist? Is that weird? He guesses a toaster isn't alive, but a toaster doesn't look like a person. Where would you put the toast slots. GEARED UP, leather armored, armed with a gun and his shield, Aidan squints out over the water. "So, what is the thing we are trying to catch, exactly. Just, a robut shark?"
Dysnomia	The moment the jet opens, fingers of mist seep through the open door to interrogate the carnage. Dysnomia follows down the ramp, her boots crunching over rusted metal underfoot. She cracked her knuckles, looking over the wreckage. Absently, she searched for bodies...But she supposed any of them would have been taken away. Or... ...Eaten? She glanced at the Decepticons. She normally wouldn't guess that metal was in these thing's diets, but considering what the rest of the planet looked liked? "That means having enough lines on it to hold it in place so it won't just bite her face off." Dysnomia's eyes flickered from Madeleine to Rita and back again, at 'talk.' "And I can help hold it down easily enough, too." A tendril--tail?--of smoke rose from the ground, smashing asided an oversized piece of debris. An echo of thought rang through Rita's mind, in Mia's voice. "You know she's a monster hunter?" Mia wasn't looking, but Rita could feel her focus lingering on Madeleine. She didn't wait for Rita's 'yes.' "What's your plan, if she reacts badly?"
Rita Ma	Most present don't know her by sight, but that self-conscious blonde girl in the corner of the jet must be Rita. She isn't much to look at: short, overdressed in a pleated-skirt-and-jacket combo, no notable gear, very early twenties at most. The others entering only get a meager smile from her, or a tiny wave if they're lucky. She hugs her leather messenger bag in her lap like it's a teddy bear. Performance anxiety? But she'd seemed so sure of herself on the radio. She doesn't speak up, and thus conclusively identify herself, until Madeleine. "Oh, it's fine if it's... well, nevermind. That should work fine, Ms. Cadrasteia." Rita sounds just as nervous as she looks, but she's keeping it together. She hesitates there, break eye contact to the side, and then finally continues: "The one I 'talk to' can be dead. But it's better if most of them are alive. Okay?" Disembarking, Rita does a double-take at the jet-that-isn't-a-jet-anymore, bows deeply in their direction with a hastily rote "Thank you for your service!", and then follows Onslaught into the castle. It doesn't take long for her to gravitate to the edge of the hole and peer in, hands on her knees- surprisingly bold for how tense she looks. Mia's words make her jolt, and just for a second dangerously teeter. For some reason, Rita doesn't trust herself to 'think' an answer back. Instead she turns around, smiles helplessly, and shrugs. Which probably means: 'Whatever happens, happens.' And might also mean: 'I'd deserve it.'
Combaticon	Ishirou's scan largely matches what he can see; this base had clearly seen a hell of a fight at some point in the past and is now mostly dormant. He does detect water at the distant bottom of that pit in the center; and a large number of things moving around under the surface. "'Techno-Organic' is the descriptor for this sort of organism," Onslaught states calmly without interrupting his pace, "Their biology is a mixture of circuitry and organic tissue. They were not modified to be this way; this is how they have developed as a species, and so would not truly classify as cybernetic." His head turns slightly, "Be cautious. They do also possess natural armor. Particularly on the head and face." Blastoff accepts a harpoon from Madeleine, pausing to examine it. After a moment, he flips his left hand inside-out and slots the harpoon into the barrel. He take a second one as well, "Here, I'll take this to Vortex." and with that, he's ascending on a plume of jet propulsion. "You are correct," Onslaught nods once when Madeleine suggests the nest won't just let them do what they want, "I am uncertain how this ability of Rita's functions. I intend to approach this as a standard extermination until the situation changes." When Aidan questions the Autotrooper, Onslaught stops and shoots a look back towards the squirrel, "It is a drone. There is no Spark in this shell." He gestures towards Ishirou, "Unlike those held by sapient machines." Dysnomia's smashing of wreckage is noted but-- not particularly responded to. He doesn't seem to care about the ruins here, only glancing her way briefly before resuming his walk directly towards the central pit. At the pit's edge Onslaught stops, peering down into the darkened depths. The AutoTrooper shudders to a stop beside him and rotates at the waist as if entering overwatch. Onslaught's posture shifts and he looks up as Vortex circles overhead; intentionally avoiding Blastoff who keeps trying to give her the harpoon and cable from Madeleine. "This site was once a fortress of the Quintessons. An ancient enemy of Cybertron who invaded in the midst of the Great War." He glances aside as Rita crouches down to take a look, "They would use pits like this to execute prisoners." His optics shift the other way towards the Autotrooper and his synthesized tone shifts. "Guilty or Innocent..." the robot's hand shoots out, catching the Autotrooper's shoulder. Roughly, he shoves the drone over the edge and into the pit. The white hull takes some time to fully disappear in the darkness, followed by a splash. Seconds later, the stagnant water starts thrashing and frothing with activity, "The result is always the same." Ishirou can see it first on his sensors. Countless organisms surging out of the water, climbing over one another, rapidly scaling the sides of the pit.
Ishirou	Ishirou detects the group starting to swarm the moment they kick the drone into the pool. Odd that people were getting attached to it, but then immediately threw his OPTIONs into certain death situations... like, literally threw them. He takes a breath and lets it go, it's fine... just weird and it's not like Aidan's done it specifically. Ishirou already spreads out his abilities. Specifically, his ability to inflict Debilitations on others ranged attacks in the form of little drones that hover on your left or right shoulder and fire downwind of where you're aiming them, and his sensor suite so that they can coordinate readings and scans of where the Sharkicon's are. Then, with that settled, Ishirou summoned the EXOframe with the flight attachments so that he could connect to it, and then take flight so that he could get a bird's eye view of the situation. Once up in the air, he fired a stream of energy blasts down, trying to pepper the oncoming Sharkicons and try and buy people more time to get ready.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite takes the offered harpoon, turns it over in her hand to look at for a moment, then nods to Madeleine. "Much abliged. Reckon just what to do with this." She doesn't elaborate farther, but she's already cooking up something in that gadgeteer brain of hers. She walks over to an open position along the edge of the pit. Leans over a little to look, and moreso listen, down into it. "Woowee that's a long way to go. Watch yer steps folks." She takes a couple of steps back, and pulls a small metal block out of her inventory and plunks it to the ground next to her. Click-clacking and cling-clanging very different from the sound the Decepticons make follows as the cube opens up and expands, gears and actuators visibly moving until they're covered by it starting to reform back into a generally cubical shape after deploying a quad of jointed legs from the corners. Followed by a sizable cannon unfolding from the front of it. It is some manner of turret drone, and probably less confusing to people maybe since it doesn't resemble anything 'alive' in appearance. Nor does it object when Corona reachs in to make a few adjustments to the cannon firing mechanism, tie off the line, and then slot the harpoon into it's cannon. "Now ya just wait for the right target and the signal." The drone bleep-bleeps an affirmative acceptance of the order. Corona nods and picks her rifle back up. "Good, then Ah ain't gotta focus on both spearin' our catch -and- fightin' off ev'rything else that's gonna try an' make a snack outta us in the meantime." With that she walks back up into the edge of the pit, which now has Sharkticons starting to climb up, using each other as stepping stones to do so. "Ick... Let us know when the thin' ya want comes out. In the meantime." She pulls her goggles over her eyes, flicks off the safety of her modified rifle and lowers it into a proper firing grip. Lifts it but not quite actually using it's physical sights to aim since that info is fed to her via her goggles HUD and analytical hardware affixed to her gunslinger glove. She lines up as square as possible on a Sharkticon's brow with how they're scrambling over each other, and when the HUD reticle goes from \|+\| to \|X\| she pulls the trigger. The rifle is loud when it fires, anti-recoil vents hissing out exhaust to compensate. But hopefully the sound of it striking it's target will be even louder. Turns out all those modifications are to turn it into an anti-material rife, firing an armor piercing explosive round.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine draws her spear from her back and crouches to hold it nearly flat to the ground. A sharkticon crawls up over the edge amid Ishirou's shower of gunfire, and begins to close the frightfully short gap between itself and the huntress... until Madeleine pulls up on her spear like a lever, launching the creature into the air. The pop-pop-pop of the POD drone's gunfire meeting the creature's soft techno-organic underbelly is followed by a SCHWUMP of tearing metal and flesh as Madeleine catches the creature on her upturned spear-tip. The sharkticon thrashes as she swings it around, battering others of its kind back into the pit. The huntress's gambit buys enough time for her to step hurriedly back from the edge as more of the monsters crawl up on either side of the gap she's made. She takes a defensive position near Rita, keeping the sharkticons at arm's length with strikes from both ends of her spear.
Dysnomia	<J-IC-Scene> Dysnomia says, "I'll try to get one." <J-IC-Scene> Dysnomia says, "Get ready to catch it." Dysnomia stared into the pit as shapes began to writhe at its bottom, where she stares. Then, she steps off the ledge. Smoke erupts around her as she plummets, spreading out like wings behind her. It was too insubstantial to bear her weight--or at least it should have been, but when the ethereal wings angled up, it carried her upward on the wind. As smoke poured out from her down into the pit, it was like laying on your belly and watching the fog roll in. As the shakicons rushed forward, gnashing their mechanical teeth, Mia's eyes locked onto one at the front. Mia held out her hand below her, clenched it into a fist. The fog twined, condensed twined around it. Became solid. With a sharp motion, she pulled her hand up. The fog made a violent lurch, and the fingers of the smoke tried to WRENCH the sharkicon up, out of the pit, writhing and biting in midair, trusting the others to make good on it.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan mutters, "That's weird. Everyone sees that that's weird, right? It looks like them." He peers at down the pit, only to flinch back as the sharks suddenly rush up the cliff face. "Oh. They can climb. Okay." Usually he's NOT weirded out, but Rita Ma mentioning 'whatever happens' sets him on edge. Aidan stands there for a second, bouncing himself up on his toes. He can do this, he can do this, this is a normal thing. He is a knight. Someone who stands up to monsters all the time. The squirrel's backpack hits the ground with a loud thud. Aidan reaches into it and pulls out a tow cable, strapping it through his shield. He has learned how momentum and his arm don't mix. A grin crosses his face as he loops it through both straps and tightens it. His fingers tighten around the cable just under the hook. Aidan spins around to the others, that happy grin that has been gone for so long back on his face. "I'm going fishing." He tilts backwards, falling into the pit. Aidan Breathes. The buckler on his arm radiates out, growing in size until it is a massive warrior's shield, the lion's head ROARING to life. Blazing air, kinetic energy, flows from the lion's mouth to the sides of the shield. Just as Aidan falls into the pit, the shield takes flight, dragging the squirrel behind it. Aidan flexes his form, rolling with the shield. A slight twist of the other hand, starting the cable spinning. "WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!" Aidan woops out as he throws the hook into the sharkticons, using the motion to tilt his shield up and fly up!
Rita Ma	Rita, from her spot at the very edge of the pit, is privileged to watch the bait machine plummet. When it hits the bottom and the shark-cyborgs stir, she doesn't flinch, but her face is still drawn tight. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, uncomfortably, "Hey." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Um." The wind stirs her hair as they rush up the sides. Her lips twitch with hesitation, but she carries on. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "I want to say something, before everything starts." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Whatever happens to me, whatever it looks like..." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "I'm okay, and it's still me." Surely she should've drawn a weapon by now, or at least adopted a fighting stance. It's heartbeats from impact. The only rationale is that- whatever's scaring her- it isn't them. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, miserably, "Okay?" Rita smiles forlornly at Mia and Madeleine. Her eyes flit along the others, more distantly. There are gunshots and clashes and mystical powers now, but she's just as limply ill-at-ease, and no more. "Thank you, Ms. Mia," she says sweetly, and leans forward over the edge to plunge her entire arm into the restrained sharkticon's chest through its underbelly. Her hand grasps for anything resembling a heart, and then she leans back to rip it out.
Combaticon	The hovering Vortex stops goofing off with Blastoff when the pit activity starts. Her thighs open up, producing large handheld pistol-sized blasters. Snatching one in either hand, she aims downward and fires short three-shot bursts of purple lasers into emerging shadows. Blastoff, having given up on equipping his teammate, instead swerves. When Dysnomia sends a Sharkticon to the sky, it drags several others with it; Blastoff is the one who intercepts this mess. Except he doesn't want to touch any of them. Instead, he makes a noise somewhere between 'Gross' and 'Terrified' as he twists and lashes out with his heel jets; spin-kicking one of the rotund creatures right out from over the pit. Deprived of the one they were hanging onto, the rest of the chain falls back into the darkness, leaving only one for Rita to deal with. Onslaught has turned his back on the pit as the Sharkticons begin climbing, stalking away from it. At first it seems like he's just giving space to everyone else to fight; the guns on his back suggest he is also a ranged fighter. What actually happens is-- after a distinctive sound-- the Combaticon leader's body unfurls, contorts, and expands into that of a large Roadmaster truck with an artillery gun behind the cab and an empty flatbed trailer. It was Onslaught that Blastoff was aiming at; the gravity-thrown Sharkticon slams into the flatbed, bounces off, and rolls to a stop several meters behind the Combaticon leader. Whether it is dead or just dazed is currently unclear. The eyes are still glowing; one is cracked, like a pane of glass, and it has lost several teeth. The overall mass of Sharkticons has started to breach the lip of the pit; black and gray creatures with large, glowing yellow eyes. Arms with three claws, distinctive shark-like back fins, stubby legs, and tails that end in spiked mace balls. Some sport slashmarks of blue, purple, or red on the lighter gray parts of their bodies. All of them sport a singular distinctive feature: A huge mouth filled with massive triangular teeth. Each one is about the size of a very large dog; or maybe a motercycle. The blend of metal, circuitry, and organic tissue is so gradiated that it's tough to tell what parts are which; where one stops and the other starts. Corona's armor-piercing round blasts through one beast's face, through its body, and out the other side; right into the face of the one behind it. The first drops immediately, the second staggering, flailing, grabbing on to the first as it falls and dragging them both back over the edge. Madeleine successfully baits and impales one, wielding it as a mace against the others near her. Sharkticons either back off or get knocked away, showered with the glowing purple liquid that serves as their blood. Aidan joins Dysnomia by causing havoc in the pit itself, dragging a cable and scraping Sharkticons off the walls. Scores of them tumble back down into the water far below. Ishirou's gunfire contributes to keeping the rim mostly clear-- for now, between his suit's blasters and the support gunfire from his options aiding the rest. Rita plunges her hand into the gravity-restrained Sharkticon in a spray of glowing purple blood, itself a mixture of water, energon, and organic cells. The insides of the creature feel all kinds of Different. Muscle and metal fibers; tubes and arteries; bone and steel rods. She finds a fluid pump, an obvious mechanism, deep within the thrashing beast. Behind that, a tiny filter, and-- a fleshy beating heart laced through with delicate wires and flexible piping.
Combaticon	While Rita performs unlicensed surgery on a hostile creature, it's thrashing and slashing at her with its feet and hands, snapping at her with that enormous maw, trying to curl around enough to bash her with its tail. Only when she's wrenched far enough that all its connectors tear free and the heart is removed does the creature stop. Aidan's stunt with his shield and the tow cable is successful! For a hot minute. As he dislodges Sharkticons trying to climb up, the cable he's holding onto jerks, then lurches. One of the little beasts has latched onto the cable itself and now climbs hand over hand towards him. Further down, another clamps its jaws down on the braided steel, severing him from his anchor point. Dysnomia, also in the pit proper, has a slightly different problem. Sharkticons falling down along the edges are not a threat; but it has caused several of the climbers to take notice of her. One just won't stop staring at her with those glowing eyes as it climbs, until it suddenly wheels around and kicks off the wall straight for her with clear intent to bite. Ishirou, Vortex, and Blastoff have a bit of an advantage in the air; at least at first. Vortex shoots Ishirou a warning chirp though, "They aren't gonna tolerate us up here for long! Be ready to evade!" She's already sliding sidelong in that way helicopters do, ejecting spent e-mags from her blasters and loading a fresh set in place. The Sharkticon answer to aircraft becomes readily apparent when two of them who've made it to the surface wheel around to face Vortex, open their mouths, and fire rockets from openings on the insides of either cheek. Another pair open fire on Ishirou, sending small explosive projectiles his way. Sharkticons begin surrounding Madeleine as she drives them back with her weapon, keeping a cautious distance like spooked animals. One opens its jaw and lets out a growling sound. On the opposite side of the circle, another one finally jumps in, snapping at her heels. A third lunges, leading with its claws in an overhead slash. Corona's got some distance, and having holepunched a handful of the beasts, definitely has garnered some attention herself. The fox finds her position approached by several toothy varmints, and her rifle shot is returned with a pair of missiles fired from the mouth of the leading techno-organic monstrosity.
Corona Arclite	This is quickly escalating into a situation where Corona can't spare the length of time it takes to properly load and prime the anti-material rifle for another shot, so it's slung across her back. Even as she's using the boosters in her boots to start moving. The wily fox was prepared for a counterstrike, though not necessarily a ranged one, but she was prepared all the same. She bolts to the side and drops into a slide, skidding behind some rubble of the previous structures just in the knick of time. One missile hits the ground, the other slams into her makeshift cover, the two blasts sending debris arching into the air and raining down on her. The shockwave rattles through her, even with the cover. While hunched there she takes a moment to draw her personal sidearm, grab an ammo cartridge from her belt and slam it in. Locked, loaded and ready. She puts her back against what remains of the rubble, ears twitching to listen. She doesn't need to immeadiately look, instead using her exceptional hearing to listen to the Sharkticons moving around. It's not until they've come within range that she turns and half-stands to aim over the debris and fire off a few quick shots. The Arclite Bolter barks loudly with each shot, though these rounds have less of a punch... at least, at first. It doesn't take long for the real effect to show as the impacts release a highly corrosive agent from the shells that will start to eat through metal or organic material viciously fast.
Dysnomia	"You know what to do." She answered Rita, utterly unsurprised by her brutal takedown. "I've got your back." As the sharkicon takes notice of her, Dysnomia bares an obsidian-toothed smile. When it ran for Mia, she didn't dodge. Rather, she flew INTO it. She shoved her hand into its outstretched mouch, and its metal teeth closed HARD. Mia couldn't help grimacing as steel tore through flesh, releasing a strange, smoky blood from her body that dissolved before it could even hit the water. It had her in its teeth now, just like it wanted. Now-- --What were those lights on its back? Five lines of plasma ripped through the sharkicon, and with an flick of a wrist halfway to the cybernetic creature's stomach, neatly bisected it in a shower of flesh and circuitry. Dysnomia's hand burned with plamsa claws, each of them as long as she was tall. The wounds on her shoulder began to knit (or flow?) shut, and Mia extended her wings, letting loose a roar as they carried up and out of the pit, into the sky, leaving a violet trail behind her.
Ishirou	Ishirou nods towards Vortex. "Roger, thanks for the heads up!" he says, and the moment they go for him, he flies straight up to avoid them trying to grab him and drag him down to the mass below. When they get too numerous, he uses a sword to stab forward into one's head and backs up. This won't keep them at bay /forever/, but it'll at least buy him a few more moments. This lets him send information to Rita's OPTION, giving her information on the body layout of the monsters she's currently engaged with. To Aidan and Mia, he sends a power surge through their OPTIONs, aiming to let them keep their current push against the Sharkicon going. Ishirou then flips out of flight mode into humanoid mode again, as missiles line up across each side of the RESCUE unit. They fly out, aiming to try and hit the bottom of the tower they are trying to build up to him and the other Decepticons.
Aidan Proudpick	"WHY DO THEY HAVE ARMS AND LEGS!!!" Aidan whips the first Sharkticon up out of the pit. He isn't proficient in whips, because who is, but he is able to at least flick it up and slam it down onto the ground, HOPEFULLY disabling. That's a people on land problem. A burning searing pain lances down through Aidan's calf as the Sharkticon rips through the leather greave, sinking claws into the fur and flesh. Blood gushes down the leg as the Sharkticon climbs up higher. "GET OFF!" Aidan lifts his other foot, slamming it down on the nose of the Sharkticon, but he is, however, not that strong. He's been working on it, but there's a difference between 'can do 50 squats while holding a chair overhead' and 'kick off a big fuck you robot.' Another lance of pain, eyes watering. He'll just have to use physics. With a flex that would make any well trained pole dancer jealous, Aidan brings his legs up, hoisting the robot up and letting the shield stop burning. The option robot helps just in time, giving the shield a sudden BURST of speed that lets Aidan complete his somersault at high speed, launching the robot shark off of him and into the side of the pit. A pit. With a defined space. Aidan completes the graceful twirl, aiming himself upward to ROAR back up into the sky, pushing high above the pit. He smirks over at Ishirou. He's in his element now. Aidan sucks in a large breath, leaning back. Both arms thrust downward, palms flat. A wall of air suddenly forms over the pit, a circular swirling plane of white air. Is this dumb. He's gonna sound dumb. But all those Kamen Riders do it and they are so cool. What do I even call this. "PISTON!" The shield drags Aidan downward, rapidly building up to the speed of sound. Aidan's flattened out hand pushes the wall of air with him. The wall flexes, bending as the speed builds, air forcing upward. The air slams into the sharkticons at all sides of the pit, a single mighty plane of air to shove them back into the water. "PREEESS!"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine glances at Rita, and almost drops her spear in surprise as she sees the girl reach inside a sharkticon and rummage through its organs. The other beasts are almost upon her when she remembers her situation. With the sharkticons closing in, Madeleine pulls a grappling hook from her waist and tosses it to a higher ledge inside the ruined castle. She hauls herself up, hand over hand, as sharkticons begin to climb the cable after her. Once she gets to the top she unhooks the grapple, letting it - and the procession of biomechanical critters - fall crashing to the ground.
Rita Ma	Shoulder-deep in a shark's viscera, nearly surrounded, and off-balance over a deep pit, there's no possible way for Rita to dodge the claw swung at her head. Maybe she's tough enough to take it. Maybe someone can get to her in time. Maybe-- Her eyes widen, but she meets the moment with resignation. Rita stops being Rita, and blossoms into something else. Skin and clothes and hair unravel into thirty-foot-long tentacles, whickering through the shark as they blossom like a whip through butter. They pass unnervingly close to Mia on one side and Madeline on the other, near-invisible for their speed but audibly whistling inches past ears. Other sharks fall to clean pieces in their wake. What's left behind where Rita stood, in the center of a ring of purple gore, is something else. It has her hair, almost; her face, mostly; one still-human eye; her little hands and her girlish bearing. That's about it. Alien fish-flesh is woven in with the residually human so invasively that it's hard to tell which came first. She looks down at the shark's still-beating heart in her hand, probably the biggest chunk of it left, and her face is hard to read. Fogged with hunger, tinged with wistful hesitation. She spares one more glance to Madeleine and mouths 'sorry' before the former wins out, with an utterly inexplicable ferocity. She chows down on it like she plans to shower afterwards. Nearly as much drips down her chest or between her fingers as goes into her throat.
Combaticon	Settled in vehicle mode and not currently having techno-organic creatures thrown at him, Onslaught rotates his artillery gun on its mount and elevates the barrels. This close, they have to be almost vertical to do any good; releasing their shots one after the other with a throating THUMPOW--THUMPOW that sends twin streaks of violet high into the sky. When the parabola reaches its peak, they swing around and begin descending. Corona manages to land hits on several of the creatures advancing on her. Each one that's struck recoils or bolts, only to recover and resume their approach. One by one, those beasts that were shot collapse as a limb melts off or something vital gets compromised. The one that reaches her first has lost most of its lower jaw, having taken its shot square in the teeth. It seems to recognize it can't bite anymore, so when it's close enough, it instead spins around and takes a swing at her with its mace-ball tail. Dysnomia brutally sexsects the Sharkticon that had the temerity to bite her after deigning to allow it to taste her flesh. It drops in six neat pieces to the bottom of the hole while she ascends out of it, with the eyes of multiple creatures following her movement. At the lip of the pit, one leans back, firing a pair of missiles at her from its mouth. Ishirou breaks loose, sending Sharkticons tumbling and crashing back to the metallic, corroded ground. Bombarding the formation with missiles scatters them further, amidst flying limbs and tails and other body parts. Twisting in midair on a strafing run, Blastoff catches one of those mace-ball tails, signalling to Ishirou with a "Thanks!" and resuming his flight, now harassing ground-bound Sharkticons with his new melee weapon. Vortex, keeps her more lazy maneuvering going, growing more selective with her gunfire. When the moment seems right, her calf opens up and she drops a bomb into the swelling ranks of the horde. She then speeds up, leaning forward trailing jet exhaust as rockets are fired up from below at both her and Ishirou, "Ground fire, watch out! > "WHY DO THEY HAVE ARMS AND LEGS!!!" "Why wouldn't they?" Onslaught's response to Aidan's question is rather dry. After a struggle, he frees himself of his nasty passenger, sending the offending Sharkticon crashing into its siblings on the pit's wall. As he opts to manipulate air pressure, many of the creatures still climbing get squashed against the walls. While many are still trying to move, the great majority is at least temporarily immobilized, which should make life easier on the surface. At the upper edge of the hole, though, some of them have started to fall off; losing their grip, breaking their hands, passing out, it could be any number or combination of things. What this means is that Aidan, still in the hole, has to deal with a vaguely conscious and sometimes bitey hail of large carnivores. Madeleine escapes, causing a whole chain of Sharkticons to tumble back to the metallic ground in a messy heap. The ones on the bottom get crushed by the ones on top, who scramble and struggle to right themselves. Once right-side-up, the creatures pursuing the huntress open their mouths; firing rockets at her up there on the battlements and out of reach. It's at this point that Onslaught's artillery shells impact on either side of the pit, scattering Sharkticons and Sharkticon pieces and knocking scores of them off the walls.
Combaticon	Rita has shredded one of the creatures and consumed its techno-organic heart like it was the last meal she'd ever eat. Other Sharkticons near her are given pause, as if they aren't sure what to make of this suddenly revealed to be large, fellow carnivore. In the air, Blastoff twists and stops himself in a hover, "Huh. I didn't know organics could transform too. Cool." His eyes wander from Rita to Madeleine, then the other way towards Corona, "Can they all do that? No, probably not or they would've by now, huh..." Blastoff's thinking-out-loud is interrupted when he's struck square in the chestplate by a Sharkticon rocket. This is enough to bring him back into the matter at hand and, trailing smoke, the jet Decepticon gets back into the fight. Out of the clearly uncomfortable Sharkticons around Rita, one of them finally gets up the gumption to attack her, snapping with oversized teeth. A second later, another one takes the first beast's lead, pouncing at her from another direction.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine looses a volley of arrows, some of them striking missiles out of the air and others pinning Sharkticons in place on the ground below. She sees the monsters encroaching on Rita and switches back to her spear. With a big running start, she leaps halfway across the battlefield to come crashing down into the midst of the biomechanical horde approaching the... girl? the monster? Approaching Rita. "I knew you could talk to monsters, but this? This is a whole other level!" Madeleine shouts excitedly. "Were you saving the surprise just for me? I'm flattered," she adds as she stabs and sweeps and clobbers sharkticons left and right with her spear.
Ishirou	Ishirou is suddenly forced into a dogfight, trying to get out of the missile lock range before they acquire their target and knock him out of the sky. It's hit-and-miss for a little bit, missiles are tricked into the side of buildings, shot down by stray shots from the weapons, and diverted into the Sharkicon's themselves. However, he has to deal with two that won't get off his tail. He can't shake them completely, and he turns around to fire. The explosion rocks him, but not enough to shake him out of the sky, and the fireball burns around him. Not harmlessly, but he's no worse for ware. Taking a breath, he turns towards the group of robots one more time. He gets a game plan together. Mia's output needs to be continued, so he sends another surge toward her OPTION, to try and keep her going a little more and keep the pressure up on these bots. Then he turns towards Madeline, to whom he sends an array of data. She'll start to see his predictive capabilities at work, trying to tell her where each sharkicon will be at each step in combat so that she can maximize her strikes and her resources. This finally ends in sending a bit of this info to Rita, trying to capitalize on Madeleine's rush. All the while, Ishirou takes pot shots into the group of Sharkicons, aiming to try and keep what he can suppressed, or if they stick their heads out, full of holes. To the other Decepitcon's he gives them a thumbs up. "Keep it up, we almost got this done."
Corona Arclite	There's no time to admire what the holy hell Rita is doing in that elderitch form she's taken. Not a bit deal, Corona has seen equally weird things in her time. After her shots Corona is already on the go again, having long since learned her best fighting strategy is to be a moving target. She's more than nimble enough to crouch-sprint along to keep using the debris as cover for as long as she can. But it as all good things must eventually come to an end. Though with some of the creatures focused on her, it's time to string them up and out to fry. No that's not a misprint. You'll see in a moment. Corona is moving towards where she had left that turret drone, but as she reachs the end of the broken wall and rubble she's out of cover, and when she vaults over that final piece is when a Sharkticon manages to intercept her and swing it's spiked club tail into the smaller fox. Fortunately her armor lined duster keeps the spikes from punching through and into her, but the impact is enough to send her skidding and rolling across the ground. But it also knocked her closer to the turret drone. Corona scrambles off the ground and towards it. "NOW. FIRE!" she barks. There's an audible THMP as it does as commanded, firing the harpoon, cable being unreeled behind it. When Corona had tied it off she'd used something a little sturdier than the rope that had been provided. At the same moment the vixen engages her boot augmentations to leap into the air, using a combination of double-jump and air-dashing to vault over the harpoon so it plows right into the Sharkticon behind her, preferably piercing through it and into any others still standing behind it thanks to how much momentum the cannon can put into that harpoon. Corona behind the turret, having holstered her bolter during the acrobatics so she can draw a different weapon from her inventory. A rifle with glowing conduit tubes and a front end like a tesla coil instead of a gun muzzle, giving it a very retro 60s sci-fi vibe in appearance. It starts to glow and spark as she pulls the trigger to get it charging. "Ah reckon yer gonna find this down rawt revolting. EAT WEIRD SCIENCE FISH BITCHES." KRAKATHOOOM The sound thunders as arcs of electricity erupt from the weapon and channel into the cable, and into any Sharkticons speared on it!
Aidan Proudpick	It is raining men. Well, sharks. But Aidan is ALWAYS prepared for it to be raining men. Sharkticons both whole and damaged suddenly darken the skies. Teeth flash white and fill Aidan's entire vision. Glimmering fangs all poised to tear out his flesh. Just as Aidan gets to the bottom of the pit, he flexes once more, a skillful somersault in place that puts his shield above his head. The shield's flames ripple again to life, the ROAR filling the pit. Red shines up the walls, glowing off the sharkticons. The first shark hits the shield and simply slides right off, like a leaf hitting a waterfall. The red winks out and Aidan pushes his foot down on the robot's snout, just above the teeth. He nimbly pushes it with his foot, kicking off towards the next Sharkticon. He's not exactly a martial artist, but he is a SQUIRREL. Climbing, leaping. He grabs another Sharkticon midflight, pushing it towards another, lifting himself over it. Aidan continues upward out of the pit, kicking and twisting off each Sharkticon, using his budding gymnast build to its fullest extent. The shield keeps lifting him up until he's high above it. He feels that high. That power. Moving effortlessly and feeling like he can achieve anything. Even feels a little sexy, damn it. His grin falters as he twists, just in time to see Rita, her body a mass of tentacle, horrific flesh. Where does the body start, where are the parts of her body he should be able to recognize. Flesh twists. In fact, the single part of face left makes it WORSE. Knowing that there is a tiny piece visible. "Suff-o-cate me," Aidan lets out as a curse of horror.
Dysnomia	Dysnomia continued flying in a high arc, trying to veer out of the path of Rita's tentacles and hoping to take herself out of range of the things' teeth, at least until Rita could manage to-- She didn't have a chance to finish the thought, the missle crashing into her back and detonating in a rush of fire and smoke. A vague figure bathed in violet-teal fog plummetted back to the ground, landing with a loud SPLAT behind the group. More of that fluid scattered around it--no, her--hissing like steam. Rita's wish for a battle without her friends' blood wasn't meant to be. With a sluggish lurch, the mist-shrouded figure forced herself back up, clouds swirling around her until she regained her sillouette. She held out her hands, even as her face started to show again, and the mist around them contracted, roiled. Like a living thing. An angry thing. There's a deep roar from nowhere, (or everywhere?) as the mist lashed out, coiling around the party, more solid than ever. It thrashed outward, trying to push the sharkicons over the edge.
Rita Ma	Glassy-eyed, not stopping to breathe, Rita shoves the last remains of the monster's heart down her throat more than swallows it. It's a good thing her organic 'dress' is waterproof: monster blood splatters nearly her whole body from the eyebrows down. Though she's on her knees and seems barely conscious, her tentacles still respond to attackers: the first sharkticon to charge her is gored straight through as if by a spear, and the second is coiled around, picked up, and slammed into a wall. Rita falls onto her hands and heaves for breath now that her airway's clear. But her body shivers when a certain scent reaches her: Mia's blood. The little flame of her consciousness is already guttering after the feast, and that dims it further. Rita lurches to her feet, seamlessly assisted by her tentacles, and slowly staggers towards Mia as if sleepwalking. No attack comes- not from her, and not from the surviving sharkticons, which seem suddenly paralyzed. But the look on her stained face is harrowingly vacant, and it stays that way for several long seconds. What's going through her brain? Is anything? "I knew you could talk to monsters, but this? This is a whole other level!" Rita's head snaps around to Madeleine abruptly. For a moment her gaze is still glassily sharklike, hollowed-out by the hungry ache. Then a light flicks on behind her eyes. They widen in horror. She looks to Mia in silent, terrified apology, and slowly backs away from both of them. Wait, was that praise? "It's nnh," Rita starts, and something else's blood bubbles up from her throat. She coughs. Her tentacles curl in around herself defensively. "It's not like that. Please. I'm sorry."
Combaticon	When the air pressure relents on the walls of the pit, large numbers of Sharkticons lose their purchase and fall; providing plenty of platforms for Aidan to use in his valiant escape. Unfortunately, climbing and crawling all over techno-organic carnivores isn't going to hurt them very much. Some even snap at him, though he's quick enough for them to only chomp at air. Ishirou and Madeleine keep the pressure up on those Sharkticons that had reached the surface, alongside the aerial Combaticons. Onslaught's cannons bound back from their own recoil, ejecting smoking artillery brass out either side with heavy thunks. Corona vaults free over a harpoon, impaling one creature and then cracking the rest of her pursuit with a bolt of handmade lightning. Dysnomia has herself a rough landing and forms a defense of thrashing mist. And then-- Rita. Something thrums through the amassed Sharkticons and the assault winds down suddenly. The creatures either just stand there or, in some cases, they start milling around aimlessly. Their golden, gormless eyes seem somehow even more unfocused. As the Sharkticons mill about, one by one, their eyes start flickering from yellow to aqua in staticky, blinking flashes of flickering light. The radius expands rapidly, centered on Rita. It doesn't enslave every Sharkticon, though that hardly matters. Those out of range, in the pit, start hissing and squealing. Ishirou's sensors tell him that large numbers of them are just letting go of the wall and dropping back into the water. Those still on the surface whose eyes remain unchanged are soon torn apart by those who sport the new coloration. Vortex descends, her armor smoking in places, and lands on top of Onslaught's truck cab. A few meters away, Blastoff skids in for a landing, staggers, but remains upright. "Impressive," Onslaught's voice comes from the big rig artillery vehicle, "I do not know for certain what I was expecting. This was not on the list." The truck's airbrake hisses. A moment later, the flatbed's ramp separates, unfolds, and lowers into a ramp. "Shall we load them up, then?" "First thing's first," Vortex stamps her foot to get her boss' attention, "Shouldn't we assess casualties?" She glances up, raising her voice, "How are you all doing? No missing servos? No broken actuators? Our medic can probably fix you up!" "She isn't here, Vortex." Blastoff objects, "Am I expected to shuttle them to HQ all on my own or something?" "Yes, actually."
Ishirou	Ishirou comes in for a landing once the Sharkicon's /stop/. He pauses, hovering for a few moments to wait for it to take hold, and he keeps his eyes open on those deeper in the hole and somehow 'outside' of the radius of their new queen. Once the colorization in their eyes happens, he finally lands and pauses. He isn't sure what to say, he's known the truth about Rita for a while... probably longer than some, but he's told himself that there is one thing he needs to know. How Rita makes herself appear is how she is. Period. She is how she wants them to see her and nothing else. So he waits for her to turn back to how she wants to look and then walks towards her. "I think that does it, those farther down don't want to come back up.." he says and looks towards Vortex. "I'm fine, nothing that can't wait to get back to HQ myself. Though others don't seem to have faired so well..." he side-eyes Aidan. "You might want to take Vortex up on her offer..." he says to him, with a small smile. "How is everyone else?" he asks, looking at the others.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine nearly impales another sharkticon before she sees its eyes flicker to blue and its aggressive movements halt. As Vortex counts the injured, Madeleine calls out, "I am blessedly little worse for wear." Then she turns to look Rita in her one remotely-human eye. "It's not like what?" Seeing Rita's defensive posture, Madeleine raises her eyebrows in concern. "What are you sorry for? This is... this is remarkable!" She walks around Rita in a slow circle, examining her form from every angle. "I've not seen anything quite like you before. Do they have more like this, where you're from?"
Corona Arclite	Vortex shouts a check-in, and a moment later Corona stands ontop of her turret drone and waves to be seen. "A few bruises but nuttin' worse than any other ol' day on the range here!" She hops down after and gives the drone a pat. "Good job." It's one of those instances where it's not a sentient machine, it's just an engineer talking to it because that's what engineers do. "Now pack up so we can mosey on home 'fore somethin' else crawls outta that hellhole." The drone frees its anchors, retracts its cannon, and folds back up into the small metal cube it originally was. Which Corona picks up and stores back in her inventory. Then meanders back to the group, electrocution weapon resting on her shoulder much the same way the anti-material rifle was when she arrived. She does give a sympathetic glance up to Blast Off though. "Sorry pardner, air space 'round yer planet is still hard to come by so my ship's outta range of teleporters without bein' near a terminal or warpgate."
Dysnomia	Dysnomia staggers back as she sees the look in Rita's eyes. For a moment, she isn't looking into the eyes of a sweet little girl, but a yawning, terrible hunger. It's as though she'd wandered out of her little shoal and into the deep water, and had found the eyes of a hungry leviathan, the moment of realization before-- When Madeleine's voice tore Rita's eyes from her, something ancient and vestigial in Dysnomia shuddered, a memory of humanness remembering the days spent huddled around the fire, watching the dark, not because they feared what lived there, but because they knew. It whispered; you are prey. It pleaded, hide somewhere safe. It begged, get OUT of here! Dysnomia's body reformed, mostly, her hands half-transparent. "Fine," she snapped to Vortex. "I'm fine." When Rita turned to her again, the girl's spirit was looking back The look she gave Rita was hard to describe. "Stars," she muttered, shaken, She vanished into smoke, trailing up into the sky, up and up and up, until nothing more could be seen of her at all.
Rita Ma	Mia's glance back rips the air from Rita's lungs. Her mouth hangs open and eyes widen in heartbreak. "Wait. Ms. Mia! I'm--" One hand reaches out futilely as Mia ascends. Tentacles unconsciously follow, reaching into the air after her forlornly. Rita stares at the sky for an aching moment after,and then shuts her eyes and swallows more than blood. I finally scared someone away. Wouldn't it have been a relief, a long time ago, to get proven right like that? Why don't I feel relieved at all? "... sorry." That burns off most of the timidness she'd normally have for Madeleine's inspection, but she does still deflatedly flinch from it. "You're very nice to me, Ms. Madeleine. Nicer than you ought to be," she murmurs. The jelly-blue translucent tentacles squelch back around herself when Madeleine circles behind her, cocooning Rita securely in their weave. They camouflage themselves back to her old appearance- human skin, cute clothes- and it'd be perfect again, eerily convincing, except for the shark blood that thinly beads and oozes from the disguise's spiral seams. "Do they have more like this, where you're from?" "No," Rita says with a glance behind her, half telling the truth. "Thankfully. But they have lots like you, Ms. Madeleine. People who are too kind for their own good." She seems to regret saying that, because in the next moment her shoulders slump. She steps away and shakes her head, then straightens herself up with a breath to address the others. "I'm fine, Ms. Vortex. And Mr. Ishirou. Thanks to everyone, I didn't get hurt at all." The blue-eyed sharkticons start to gently crowd around her now, as if they could comfort her with their presence. She doesn't pay them any heed in return. "Thank you, Mr. Onslaught. But I should go down for the rest of them. Now that I've- tasted, one, the rest shouldn't be any trouble. Everyone else can go." But for the moment she looks quietly exhausted. Her head comes to rest against one monster's armored snout, as if she were petulantly resting her cheek against a wall.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan has to shoot himself to the side of the pit, landing haphazardly rather than his previous grace. He staggers on his feet, ankle still bleeding. But it appears to only be a flesh wound. "Wh-" He glances down, remembering his ankle. "Oh. Yea." He fishes out a scrap of fabric, staggering towards Blastoff. "That sounds..." An ear swivels. The slightest tilt of the head to look back. A predator is back there. Worse yet is the transformation back. Watching how the sausage is made, as it were. Seeing how every piece fits back into place, but the gore still remains. A vision he will not forget in any short amount of time. "Yea, that sounds like a good idea."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine narrows her eyes. "Oh, I've been too kind for my own good before. This isn't it. And I doubt your world has anyone entirely like me." She raises a hand to tap the corner of her eye as she shuffles out of the way of the sharkticons huddling around Rita. "Everyone can go... but you said there'd be snacks after? And besides," the huntress says, rummaging into her backpack, "I know you said I shouldn't bring anything but I saw these at the spaceport and couldn't resist." She pulls out a paper bag full of churros, enough for everyone.
Combaticon	Rita expresses that she'll take care of things on her own. Vortex and Blastoff exchange looks. After a moment, Blastoff puts his hands up, "Don't look at me. Ain't no way I can carry that many Sharkticons even if they're tame. We'll have to call in Stratosphere for that one." Onslaught lets out a thoughtful sound and then--with that distinctive noise--compresses and unfurls his big rig vehicle form back into his human-sized robot mode. Without hesitation, he holds his arms out to catch Vortex, then sets her down while completely ignoring the indignant surprise on her face. "We are leaving," the Combaticon commander states evenly. He shoots a look at Blastoff, "All of us. Rita Ma will remain and finish what needs to be done." Lifting his arms, Onslaught folds them behind his back, "It seems we will be able to report this particular nest completely eradicated after all." With a sigh, Blastoff lifts his arms in a shrug and shakes his head, eyes closed, "Fine, fine." He then raises his arms and twists at the waist, expanding and unfurling his body into his jet form. After a moment, the ramp extends and the side door opens. Without wasting any time, Vortex boards. Onslaught waits near the ramp for the rest and clearly intends to board last. "All aboard who's comin' aboard. Next stop: Hydrax Spaceport."