| abstract | - Summary: The Quintessons gambit is revealed - they are reconstructing the cityformer Trokius on an even larger scale. An Autobot/Decepticon strikeforce is sent to take it out *blam* The reporter sinks slowly to the ground, head slick with blood. And then another figure looms onto the screen, that of Snaptrap. "Shows over kiddos" he roughly emits, before raising his blaster to shoot the camera, the screen dissolving into white noise. Sen'Sateo IV, planet of pleasure, land of the luscious... that is until a brutal civil war started over the world's resources, consuming it in fire. Below, the landscape burns, buildings are ruined, explosions still blossom along sidewalks. But what might interest any Cybertronian observers is the newscasts showing Seacons present on this world. And any sensor scans will show that this is more than just a pit-stop. There is a huge, sprawling encampment, Sharkticons swarming about, a huge sink-hole in the centre. And in that hole, over ten miles high, is a half constructed gigantic form of... Trokius, the legendary Quintesson city-former! Pile-Up looks out one of the shuttle portholes on the trip into Sen'Sateo "I'm reporting to you live today, to show that freaks and geeks have taken over downtown metropolis. Superman is dead, and The Flash has called in sick. But now a brief interview with Crazy Ernie. Earnie what do you have to say?" a puppet with a scraggly beard and a helmet pops out of his shoulder panel. "ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY TWO KILLS! NOT COUNTING WOMEN AND CHILDREN!!!" Pile-Up blinks "How can you kill women and children?" the puppet then responds, "EASY! DON'T LEAD EM SO MUCH! HAHAHA! AIN' WAR HELL!?" Atop Trokius' head stands Snaptrap, leader of the Seacons. Holding a news chopper above his head, he turns it upside down -- and then rips it in half, causing the crew to fall out -- into the rotors. As they're hacked into gory slices like so much hamburger meat, strange alien blood splashes back up onto Snaptrap, making him look like he's been attacked by paint vandals. "Ha ha ha!" he laughs, throwing the chopper away like a piece of trash, before drawing his sword and holding it aloft in the air, pointed directly at incoming enemy ships. "Ah, some real competition," he chuckles. Monstereo looks out as well and chants in a low murmur, "doomdoomdoomdoomdoomdoomdoom" He glances to the gumby pilot and says, "Make sure this is a round trip, thank you." Dee-Kal arrives riding high on Swoop's back. And nearly getting swiped lean off every time he turns his head! Snarl seems to fly towards the zone, his sword held out bravely infront of him. "You Swoop slow downs!" He roars in anger at his brother. "Me Snarl not dat fast, not as fast as you Swoop!" Decibel is rather calm in his seat on the shuttle as he looks over some of the scans the shuttle took during its trip. Looking out the window as the ship begins the landing so those that can't fly can make their way out and offer aid. Hoping the others don't get into too much trouble he closes the sensor log and gets to his feet as the pads make contact with the surface and the hatch opens. Dee-Kal quickly learns that riding Dinobirds isn't quite like riding detritus beasts. Perhaps a new stance is called for? She switches from sitting up to lying down along his back, and hanging on to some convenient units that double as hand holds over his birdie shoulders. Galvatron as usual is riding in style in Cyclonus' cockpit. "These Seacons seem ever-living! The Quintessons' cloning is getting out of hand, Cyclonus. It must be put to an end." Swoop looks back at Snarl and growl-caws. "Me Swoop carry sparkily Junk-girl and still beat you Snarl? You Snarl gone make Swoop cry!" There's a hint of humility in his vocalizer, though, since Snarl schooled Swoop in the training room earlier in the week. Dreadwind leans forwards allowing his body to fall towards the horizontal as his chest flips upwards concealing his head, while his legs pivot and his arms join to form the lower fuselage, to reveal a deadly F-16 Falcon. A Decepticon shuttle streaks overhead, and Soundwave leaps out the open back hatch to soar through the air. Arms outstretched, he reviews the carnage laid out before him and evaluates his options. "Quintessons have completely subjugated world." He peers at the looming form within the sink-hole. "EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! Quintesson city-former detected! Design matches that of Trokius!" Cyclonus cuts his engines back as he approaches the word of Sen'Sateo IV, curving himself to move toward the planet, before dipping down and making his way through the atmosphere. He drifts silenty, engines inactive, to lessen the chance of detection before breaking through the cloud layer and accelerating toward the source of the disturbance on this planet. "Nothing is ever living, My Lord. No matter how strong they seem to be all beings have a weakness." He pushes more speed from his engines and flies toward Snaptrap and the Quintession ship. Snarl roars up at Swoop, "Dat because me built to fight not fly!" He swipes a hand at his Dinobrother, but it's not offensive in the least. "Now me Snarl say shut up, and me Snarl say fight dem with what we gots!" With that, Snarl presses his arms to his side and tries to gain as much speed as possible. Pile-Up nods sagely to Monstereo and frowns, waiting for the shuttle to land. "Are we there yet?" Below, on the construction site is a thone, upon which sits the Quintesson Exterminatius. Slowly, his head turns, to that of Death. "Pathetic Cybertronians!" he spits. "That which I cannot subjugate, I will /destroy/. Sharkticons, protect the forcefield generator and /gut/ them. Seacons, bring me the head of Galvatron, so I may feast from it. At this order, a whirring comes from a large square device nearby, and a huge spherical forcefield descends over the half-built Trokius, as swarms of Sharkticons rumble out, some of them taking to the air, to face the Transformers head on. And they are not making any exceptions! Dreadwing finally appears at the shuttle hatch and drops stone like towards the ground transforming as he goes, pulling out of his death dive he flies up to fall in behind Cyclonus it almost seems as if he doesn't really want to be here, nah couldn't possibly be. "Oh great what a lovely garden spot i'm so pleased that i came, still it's as good a place as any to die horribly." "Hmmm... mmm... hm." Moving his sword from target to target as he selects just who to savage first, Snaptrap might smile if he actually had a mouth when he sees the Decepticon shuttle. Leaping into the air and activating his rocket thrusters just enough to enhance his jump into a staggering arc, he lands right on the hood of the shuttle, digging his sword into the hull. Kicking an atmosphere-proofed window until it shatters, he immediately dives in and begins opening fire on the crew. Gumby seekers raise their arm cannons just in time to get hit by blast after blast from the Seacon butcher, Snaptrap's energy bursts ripping massive holes in their armor, causing them to vomit orange smoke and turn grey. Once the bridge is secured, Snaptrap sets the shuttle on a course directly for the sinkhole -- and proceeds to walk through the corridors of the ship, red alert klaxons blaring, murdering anything in his way with gun and with sword until he reaches the rear airlock of the ship. Decibel tromps down the ramp and begins a steady jog towards the signal being transmitted by the other Autobots. After a bit of scrambling through a rather large crater he makes a mental note to learn how to fly, or at least to remember to have somebody carry him next time. Pushing on though the gutted shell of a once towering building he pauses to get his bearing having gotten a bit turned about navigating the wreckage. As the familiar ping of tha transponders echos to him he nods and forges on. Monstereo exits down the shuttle ramp after it lands and transforms into truck mode for quicker mobility. Hooray for Generic Seekers, they can hide in the background, jumping out of the shuttle... .but then again.... One of those gumbies isn't a gumby She's green, true, but she's not exactly blending in... nor is Chimera staying with the rest of the dead to become a rain of metal upon the surface of the planet. She's going to hold back, and hope that the shuttle is more of a target than one insignificant seeker, whilest deciding where exactly she should shoot, hide, or otherwise find something useful to do. A group of Sharkticons breaks off from the main force, and with boosters roaring, blast after the Junkion contingent, teeth gnashing, transforming to shark mode as several round on Pile-Up and Monstereo. Revenge for the Junkions failing to continue to collect materials perhaps? Another few go after Dee-Kal, though it doesn't look like they have counted on Swoop Soundwave looks back at the Decepticon shuttle, watching as smoke begins to pour forth from the cockpit, and writes it off as a loss. He begins to descend, and, to counteract the swarms of Sharkticons before him somewhat, he opens his tape slot and ejects all of his gumby tapes! (See +bg/notes Soundwave/2 for a list of them.) As one, Soundwave and his tapes open up with a furious salvo of weapons fire against the Sharkticon swarm. Dee-Kal pats Swoop heavily on the back, to get his attention, and steers his head to view the attack on her kind by the Sharkticons. "Are you still hungry, Dinoswoop? I smurf dinner approaching! Yes I do!" Pile-Up looks up at the Sharkticons heading his and Monstereo's way, grinning a bit. "I know what you're thinking... did he shoot seven shots? Or Eight? Well I guess the real question you need to ask yourselves is... do I feel lucky? Well do yah? Punks?" pulling a discus like object from his waist, a laser emitter igniting around the edges, emitting a bizzare warbling snarl before a modulated voice similar to a child's comes out of his mouth "Want some candy?" Snarl watches and laughs as the Sharkticon horde flies towards him and his Dinobot brother. "Me Snarl munch dem Shark-tea-cons for breakfast!" With that, he rears his blade back, and slashes on of the helpless mechs in two. "Oh yes, se Snarl love to smash Sharks!" He bellows, and fires lasers about in all directions, trying to take out as many Quint soldiers as possible. Oh to be a Dinobot, one can never fully understand the joy of fighting like them. "Me Snarl shall destroy you all, and get PIE!!!!!" Sharkticons explode like firecrackers as Soundwave's tapes fire on them. Exterminatius waves a tentacle which clutches an ornate rod. "Sharkticons, I want them /dead/!" he mouths. "Failure is not an option!" From below, a group of Sharkticons start to wheel up a large cannon-like object, that blasts out laser flak-pulses at Soundwave, Dreadwind and Chimera F-16 Falcon picks up on the activation of a shield generator and the swarms of sea creature based enemies, "Oh great as if it wasn't difficult enough already they've got a huge shield, thousands of troops and it looks like we've lost our shuttle as well. We might as well just give up now, it's not like were going anywhere, even if by some chance we're just maimed not killed outright. I'm sure that thing down there is already operational and just waiting for us to get close enough to blast to pieces." That said he starts to fire on the Sharkticons his weapons melting and disfiguring those that don't fall from the skies as melted slag. "Ooooh! Swoop like dem things! Like them COOKED!" He breathes a huge gout of fire into the onslaught of sharkicons. Snaptrap exits the rear airlock of the shuttle, leaping recklessly out as the ship crashes into the sinkhole -- rather than exploding, though, it is subsumed by the mass of Sharkticons, disappearing into the nothingness, no doubt gone forever -- along with any hope of rescuing any survivors who didn't make a break for it themselves. Flying over the carnage, Snaptrap scans for his next target, covered with the viscera of over a dozen dead Transformers, a weapon in each hand. Cyclonus lines up on Snaptrap, ignoring Dreadwind's mutterings, as he begins to charge his weapons on the Seacon leader. "My Lord, I have a clear shot. Shall I engage?" Dee-Kal laughs happily and yays! Monster Truck accelerates as Sharkticons come forth. He cues a cavalry trumpeting sound bite and proceeds to pull a sharp 90 degree turn to drive across their path. "I dare you to cross this line!" He pulls away and circles back around to face them again... and they run rampant across his track lines. "Didn't see that coming." "Make it so," agrees Galvatron, cackling to himself as he clutches the almost entirely unnecessary controls. A gaggle of Sharkticons are confused by Monstereo's driving, but more and more swarm out, climbing over the bodies of the fallen like hungry ants as they roam, a slightly more rotund one leaping at Snarl with a cry of "Bah-Weep-Grah-Weep-Nini-Bong!" The Dinobot becomes more of an attraction to the horde, who start to run at it, teeth salivating. Perhaps he shouldn't have mentioned pie? Cyclonus says, "Dreadwind, add your firepower to mine, and target the Seacon leader. He will be the first to fall and then we shall mop up the rest of this mob. *Without any further comment Cyclonus aims his targeting system at Snapstrap's chest and begins to blaze with his lasers at that portion of his armor before turning sharply to the right and blazing by him.*" Decibel ducks around a large chunk of debri and comes face to maw with the ponderous frame of a sharkticon almost bumping into the beastie. Diving to the side as the jaws snap shut he puts his hand out to keep from sprawling on his face. A few unsteady steps keep him on his feet but a hungry mutant pac-man is hot on his tail. Soundwave protects his face with his heavily protected forearms as he is buffeted by flak bursts. "By George Washington's beard!" Americon yells as he is flung from side to side in the air by alternating flak bursts. "Where's the US Air Force when you need it... In America!?" The back of Soundwave's hand silences him and sends Americon plummetting, which gives Soundwave an idea for how to get out of this situation. "Cassetticons, scatter, and descend!" Spreading out, Soundwave and his cassetticons make a dangerous trek from a rock towards a hard place, the hard place being the ground, namely. Elsewhere, one Decepticon female, who appears to have an ambulance alternate mode (it's an EVIL ambulance), leaps out of the shuttle just before it's devoured, and she chases after Snaptrap, holding somethin in her hand. Is it a bomb!? No... no, it's a disc! "Snaptrap! Snaptrap! WAIT! I... I have something for you! It's the disc that the Quintessons tried to buy at Xarbo, remember! We--I made a copy! Well, we want protection! Please!" Pile-Up continues to backpedal from the swarm, optics narrowed, throwing his laser disc into the masses, letting it fly on autopilot as the Junkzooka comes up and into play "And when the band plays Hail to The Chief! OOOooo they point the canon at you! It ain't me! It ain't me! I ain' no senator's son! It ain' me! It ain't me! I ain' no fortunate son!" sending curiously pie-shaped energy rockets into the throng while trying desperately from becoming a snack. Who's this? It's Blueshift, who seems to have popped out of nowhere, sword raised for a strike as he rockets up behind Snaptrap. "Pathetic Seacon, you are nothing to me, NOTHING!" he spits. "Prepare to become on with the sea!" With that, he swings his sword at Snaptrap's neck! As the laser flak cannon opens fire Dreadwind dives, wheels and jinks before he gets hit dead center by the first blast, it tears into his armoured skin. "Typical what a waste of effort, i just knew i shouldn't have bothered trying to get out of the way, i am never listening to any advice from Darkwing ever again. Oh great so i get to be destroyed by the Butcher great well at least he'll be efficient." Dreadwind pulls into formation with Cyclonus as best he can be bothered to manage and target locks on Snaptrap and sending two missiles streaking towards the target. Several Sharkticons leap up, eating Pile-Up's missiles hungrily, each gobbling them down and exploding. But others don't seem to mind this, and stare at Pile-Up, as the source of this new food. "MMMmMmMmmm" one of them mutters, transforming and racing towards Pile-Up, claws outstretched and grasping Snarl blinks, and thusly is now piled up on by the MEEELLLLIONS of Sharkticons. "Me...Snarl remember dis from rrufff fffff..." He tries to say as he disappears beneath the massive blanket of teeth and metal. For a moment, nothing happens. That is, until a group of the creatures go flying upward into the air. "Me Snarl smash!!!" Swinging his sword behind him, he charges at the army of Quintesson creations. As Snarl charges towards the Sharkticons, a squad growls, and charges towards him! They then change their minds rather quickly, and skidding as one, turn and run away in the opposite direction as fast as they can Monster Truck doesn't park, but he slows down so he's not appearing to be panicky or aggitated. His side panels slide open and speakers are deployed. His sound system starts playing Duettino - Sull'aria from The MArriage Of Figaro: Duettino - Sull'aria As the female ambulance begs an audience with Snaptrap, the Seacon leader turns, leaving himself open to attacks as he focuses his attention her way. "Give me the disc, and you'll get your reward," Snaptrap says coldly, putting his gun away. As the femme gives him the disc, Snaptrap pockets it. "Oh, thank you, Snaptrap, thank y--" she begins to say -- before he jams his sword into her belly, spinning around to use her as a shield from Cyclonus' laser fire. The lasers strike the ambulancette, who screams violently as the beams make smoking holes in her back. Then, Dreadwind's missiles strike a second later, causing her to /explode/ around Snaptrap's sword, the Seacon leader himself only minimally fazed by her gory robot death. In fact, he's coherent enough to whirl back around, swiping his sword for Blueshift's throat. Swoop lands and looks back at Dee-Kal. "You Shiny Girl! You get off back and stay behind Swoop and him Snarl! We pro-fess-on-alls!" he says, stumbling over the last word. Blueshift looks at Snaptrap in surprise as in one swift move, the Seacon leader /cleaves/ his head from his body, sending it spinning down into the ground, the body spurting forth a torrent of gory oil as it too falls with a sickening crunch Pile-Up continues his combat with the sharkticons, Junkzooka slung on his back to recharge while his laser disc continues to weave through the sharkticons on its lazy path. Bites and dents mar his armor, his left hand bent at an odd angle. Surrounded by an encircling horde, Pile looks up, lips pursing "No longer will July 4th be known only as an american holiday! We tell them we will not go into the night! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independance Day!" right hand sinking into his arm, a rather lengthy, jagged bladed, chainsaw dropping down into place, roaring to life. "Groovy!" Holding Blueshift's head in a distinctly Shakespearean pose, Snaptrap chuckles quietly before holding it aloft. "First blood... belongs... to the SEACONS!" he calls, taunting Cyclonus. He casts the head aside as the other Seacons convene on his position. Snaptrap points his sword up at the Decepticon leader and his lieutenant. "But now the only blood we crave is..." The Seacons fold and tumble into legs, which Snaptrap leaps onto, two more leaping up to join to the torso as parts shift and whirl, Overbite transforming into an awesome shark-gun as the guise of Piranacon is revealed, staring eye-level at the jet. ".../YOURS/." Snaptrap shouts, "SEACONS, MERGE to form Piranacon!" With a shudder of metal, the SEACONS undergo a stunning transformation and combine into the mighty form of Piranacon! Piranacon has arrived. Snarl just continues to charge at the Sharkticons. If one where watching from the side, you could just see a few of them getting tossed into the air. You can hear a joyous laugh ring throught the field from the Dino. Though that laugh stops....as the Seacons combine into Piranacon. "Me Snarl can match yous. ME SNARL TRANSFORM!" The Dinobots falls foward into his Stegosaurus mode. "Me Show dem stoopid see-cons." Soundwave is naturally somewhat perturbed by the apparently endless swarms of Sharkticons, but he sees an open spot which just so happens to be right behind Snarl! He lands somewhat behind the Dinobot, and his cassetticons follow suit. "Follow him, but not too closely!" he advises as he chases after Snarl, and he and his Cassetticons fire upon the Sharkticons as they pass by them, adding even more dead bodies to the ones left in Snarl's wake. Cyclonus does, as has been said before, flies past Snaptrap as the Seacon leader uses the hapless femme as a shield before flying behind Snaptrap's back as the order is given from them to merge. Cyclonus moves some distance away as Piranacon forms, sounding contemplative, as he address Galvatron. "We may need reinforcements, My Lord." Exterminatius's heads click round again, to view the battle above. "I told Astracius we should not have used the Junkions. Power over stealth . Power! Piranacon, SHOW THEM THE MEANING OF POWER!" Monster Truck checks to see if his 'music soothes the savage beast' strategy is working, checking his mirrors to see what the Sharkticons are doing as he drives around them. The Sharkticons that Monstereo are driving around have started to... claw out their own audial systems to escape his assault, as they writhe on the floor, energon spurting from their heads as they stagger about, off-balance F-16 Falcon is almost pleasantly surprised that his missiles hit something, "Oh great now he's using living shields, we'll never be able to target him from this range, if we get closer we're just going to get swamped by the Sharkticons and torn limb from limb and slowly devoured. Our end will be excruciating no matter what we do." As he wheels around for a second attack run the Seacons merge into Piranacon, "Things just went from bleak to dire, any further resistance will be futile." That said he opens up with his thermal melters on the gestalt. "For Sharkticons?" scoffs Galvatron. "Those sorry mass-produced excuses for robots? Surely not." He adds, as Piranacon merges, "But it would be wise to stay out of Piranacon's grasp." Monster Truck thought that soothing diddy was pretty soothing at the time. "Sharkticons from Bizzaro world... Neverland Ranch." He drives over these self destructing Sharkticons to put them out of their misery with hsi monster truck tire crushing action by Hasbro tm. He cues up a different tune. Something nagging him in his otherworld spirit animal regions to play Don't Fear The Reaper, so he plays a cover version instead: The massive Seacon combiner grows giddy as the carnage continues around him. "Ha ha haaa," he cackles, a massive bellow that rises deep from within his belly, like a cancerous cough. "Cyclonus, you /speck/," Piranacon says with a twisted grin, "tell your /master/ not to /hide behind his lieutenants/ like a whipped /dog/." Another cackle erupts from the monster as he lunges, attempting to grab Cyclonus and rip his cockpit open. Piranacon succeeds in grasping Cyclonus, throwing him off-balance. From bleak to dire eh? For as the battle slowly gets closer to the Cityformer, the forcefield that surrounds it starts to slowly collapse, enveloping it in a glowing aura that fills out the outline, stiching together the half completed structure, one arm and one leg completely composed from scaffolding and parts, with a forcefield shell protecting it. The creature roars its birth pangs as slowly it climbs from its sink-hole, gigantic lasers from its eyes striking out towards any Transformers nearby, heat-seeking missiles from along its shoulders streaming out Pile-Up looks up at the sight of Piranacon, jaw dropping while he drags his chainsaw out of the face of one Sharkticon, and his left arm out of the mouth of another. "By the power of grayskull!" Cyclonus is fast but this time, it seems, is not fast enough as Piranacon's hand reaches out and grasps him before squeezing his massive metal fist around him. Cyclonus starts to pour all his power to weapons and engines in an attempt to melt the armor of Piranacon's hand in front and behind in an attempt to make the massive gestalt release him. "My Lord, you should remove yoursef!" Galvatron pulls the ejection lever and blows the canopy, launching out of Cyclonus' cockpit as he arcs through the air towards the ground. "Hiding? Is that what you thought, Piranacon, with your simple brain? By no means was I hiding behind my lieutenants!" He hits the ground on two feet and one hand, sweeping his cannon across the terrain to carve a path between himself and the rogue gestalt. "My only thought was to give you a SPORTING CHANCE!" Galvatron transforms into his artillery mode, to bring his heavy weapons to bear. Galvatron strikes Piranacon with Fusion Cannon (excessive output). Piranacon falls apart from the magnitude of the attack! Piranacon separates into the individual SEACONS. Seawing loses consciousness from his injuries. Soundwave halts dead in his tracks once Trokius activates, tearing up the countryside and obliterating any hapless gumbies that have the misfortune of getting too close. That, and with Piranacon here, what chance, if any, do they have?... He watches out of the corner of his eye as Pirancon is blasted apart by his leader. Oh, ok. That takes care of one problem. However, beating Trokius will be so much harder... Glitter, the tape fairy, pokes Soundwave's shin, as if to remind they're still in a sea of Sharkticons. Fusion Artillery snaps backwards into his cannon mode and fires a beam strong enough to peel the paint off of everyone facing it, the equivalent of a second-degree robot sunburn. "This has been a long time coming, Seacons!" he shouts over the sound of the MMMMMONSTER KILL. "But I am ever-forgiving of my prodigals! Kneel before me now, Snaptrap, and I will spare your life!" F-16 Falcon continues on his flight pattern lining up for another attack on the gestalt, "Oh great Cyclonus and Galvatron are dead they're being crushed out of existance i'll be next i just know it. Oh somehow Gavatron has fred himself maybe i was wrong maybe for once we're going to.." Dreadwind's oratory is cut short as a barrage of missile impact with tearing through his already damaged body Dreadwind starts to fall from the sky. As Trokius starts to stride across the landscape, his huge form crushing Sharkticons as he moves, not really caring what he smashes. And then he starts towards Galvatron's cannon mode, a swarm of angry Sharkticons racing there too, intent on devouring the now energy-drained Decepticon leader Swoop draws his sword. LET THE BATTLE BE JOINED as he chops up some Sharkicons in some rare ground to ground combat. Monster Truck turns his attentions towards the cityformer. He radios his fellow Junkions: "Oh no! Its Godzilla! Think think think think think... Can we turn this mother out, serve his liver with some fava beans and a nice chiante? Calling all yall its a sabotage!" As Overbite is /murdered/, Snaptrap and the rest of the Seacons fall to the ground in a heap. Snaptrap picks himself up and stares down Galvatron, bloodied but unbowed. "You can't kill me," Snaptrap spits, oil leaking out from under his faceplate as he speaks. "You don't know what I am now, Galvatron. You don't know how powerful my new leaders are. You don't know how far beyond even the wizardry of Unicron the Quintessons have progressed. You can shoot me. You can destroy my shell. But you can never, ever, ever kill me." Snarl watches as Piranacon is blow into it's component pieces. Which Snarl laughs at. "Dem so stoopid, dey no can take him Galvtron's shoot. Even me Snarl can take on shot from dat." Though, he looks up in the air as Galvatron floats so majestically. "Me Snarl have idea!" The Dinobot rears back and transforms into his robot mode. Then, with a mighty leap, he jumps up and grasps Galvatron in his hands. "Me Snarl make you all pay for da flying base tingy!!!" He then proceeds to hold Galvatron at his side, and slam his fist down on the Unicronian tyrant. Hopefully, this will send powerful fusion blasts about the field and Snarl's enemies! Pile-Up gack!s as Troikus begins to stand... and decides the ground is less safe. "HOLY BUTT CAKES BATMAN!" transforming to his vehicle mode... and heads towards Galvatron. Decibel has been playing hide and seek with a few sharkticons having picked up more while attempting to avoid the first. Darting around a pillar he takes a chance slashing out with a laser cutter at one closest before kicking it over and rolling it at the others. "Maybe they will eat their wounded." Not waiting to see, in case they don't, he turns and makes towards the shuttle he recently left with all haste. Cyclonus transforms as Galvatron blows his cockpit free and escapes, crouching in the grip of that metal fist, before drawing his sword and kicking at the weakened steel his engines has softened. This causes the fist to uncurl just enough for Cyclonus to slice his way free and flying into the sky before transforming and blazing skyward away from the Seacon gestalt. Do Sharkticons eat their dead? Sadly for Decibel, they do not, as seeing one of their colleagues murdered, a squad races towards the Autobot and his shuttle, intent on devouring him like a delicious Transformer kebab. As Trokius II starts to approach the gathered Cybertronians, the very ground starts to shake, quakelines spreading out and threatening everyones foothold Swoop looks up from a pile of Sharkicon parts and twitching corpses. He sees Snarl attempting something he knows is Not Very Bright. "Why you do this, Snarl?" he asks as he drives his sword into a Sharkicon's head without changing his gaze. Changing tatics, he transforms and takes to the sky! Fusion Artillery reflexively blows up another several dozen Sharkticons when Snarl bangs him on the back. "Stop that, you cretin!" he snaps at the Dinobot, transforming back to his normal state and ducking out of the way of another bonk on the head. "Snaptrap, you are deluded. Your thinking has been poisoned. You forget... there are worse things than death! Like being a Quintesson's slave!" Monster Truck drives on the rumbling ground and cranks up his speaker volume to 11, focussing their output towards the ground itself as it threatens to break apart... He has the crazy notion. "Digging a-a hole, dig it. Digging a-a hole. Hole! You got to go dig those holes." F-16 Falcon spirals down towards the ground trying furiously to transform, "NNhhh why did i even think that it was all going to work out, it never does it only gets worse." Finally Dreadwind manages to transform and kicks in his flight systems, unfortunately not quick enough to stop his fall he lands heavily on top of a sharkticon crushing it into the ground before he kick skywards again. "Oh great i suppose we have to kill that thing now as well, it's either going to swat us, stomp on us or blast us from the skies, either way we're all going to die painfully." Soundwave glares at Snarl as he becomes like a gigantic monkey on Galvatron's back. Such a wasteful distraction to deal with Dinobots at a time like this. But, he figures that Galvatron can handle himself, and that he should focus on following Galvatron's orders. "Cover me," he orders his cassetticons, who form a circle around him and begin to shoot to pieces anything that gets too close. And Soundwave listens very carefully to radio transmissions from the Quintessons, their source, and who's transmitting them. He figures that he'll be able to pick up on whoever's leading this attack soon enough. His efforts are distracted, however, by Trokius' heavy footfalls, which send him to his knees now and then, and knock over his tapes. Junk Rocketcycle rumbles up, wheels splitting and forming hover jets. "You Snarl get clear! Him Troikus! Him Bigger than Dinobots!" a magnetic grapple coil descending "Galvabooby! Climb aboard! You're useless agains't em dead!" yes thats right... Pile-Up helping Galvatron... and he managed to speak at least some -basic- english. "I'm not a slave, Galvatron. I earned my freedom. Unlike you." Snaptrap chuckles. "Because even as we speak... the disc containing all of your precious information, all of your... flaws, your weaknesses, your pressure points... all the things that can and will /bring/ you /down/... that disc is in the hands of the Quintessons. And they will pore over every last detail and use it all against you. Face it, Galvatron. You're a child, throwing a tantrum. You're kicking toys around while the /adults/ are in another world entirely." Snaptrap drops his sword, and throws his arms out, baring his battered chest. "Go ahead. Shoot me down. But you've already lost. You all have." Swat or stomp? With an inhuman raw, one of Trokius's hands, covered in scaffolding and fizzling with forcefield energy, swoops across to try to swat Dreadwind out of the air, eye-beams blasting out in an attempt to fry him and anyone else in his way. More Sharkticons continue to get crushed, turned into a fine paste underfoot, but there seems to be a limitless supply of them. Snarl looks up, as Trokius II nears them. "Me Snarl no back down!" He then raises his energo-sword, and fires a laser at the huge metro-former....as it does nothing. "Uhh, me Snarl fall back to tink of better plan do'h!" Yes, even Snarl is smart enough not to attack the city former. Though, he does something that looks familiar. "Swoop, we kick it's but, like stoopid Uniplanetcron!" Tentakil waddles up behind Snaptrap, having finally scrambled up onto his tentacle feet. "Snaptrap," he hisses, rubbing his leader's shoulder with a tentacle soothingly. "Galvatron doesn't seem so bad... maybe we should invite him to the lair for dinner sometime?" He looks back and forth with his squid face, obviously a little confused as to what's going on. Snaptrap slaps Tentakil across the mouth like an abusive husband, and offers no response beside. Tentakil goes spinning away with a metallic CLANG. "Oh my!" He wraps a tentacle over his face and curls into the fetal position. Seawing just lies on the ground, his eyes little X's Galvatron lowers his cannon and scowls at Snaptrap, holding out a hand towards Pile-Up to tell him to pause. "I would be lying if I said I did not want to kill you, Snaptrap, but what I want more is for you to return to the fold. You are not yourself, you are a Quintesson thing. Free of the bestial nature of Piranacon I know that you possess an cunning intellect, you must realize that you have been used by our erstwhile masters! They have no moral ground from which to rule, they have only craft and science. If they possess techniques which we lack, we should TAKE them, for THAT is the Decepticon way! Not to bow to slithering quasi-organic masters!" Swoop screechs agreement, the sound terrifyingly inhuman. "Let us Dinobots show citybot why we Dinobots break t'ings best!" Who is controlling Trokius? In Trokius's chest, on the far right hand side is a small porthole, through which can be seen Exterminatius. The Quintesson, rod in his hand chuckles as he directs the Cityformer onwards. "Snaptrap, /kill/ Galvatron! We have Trokius, we have the disk, and soon we will have both the Autobots and the Decepticons on their /knees/." But not the Junkions, cause Homey don't play dat! "So what?" Snaptrap replies, throwing his arms out again, still daring fate. "I should bow to /you/ instead? Ha. Don't be absurd. I have more power on my side than you could ever steal." Listening to Exterminatius, he lowers his hands. "So be it," the Butcher of the Bogs, says, reaching for his rifle-- Cyclonus meanwhile has flown fast and low in the general direction of Trokius in order to avoid detection as he scans for signs of Quintession life. His powerful sensors do manage to pick up the presence of Exterminatius, faintly, inside the massive metal monster and so he turns in that direction as he homes in on the signal. Cyclonus activates his radio and communicates with Galvatron. Tentakil stands up, and suddenly sprints towards Galvatron. "No, Snaptrap! Don't kill my friend!" He reaches out for Galvatron with his tentacles, perhaps for a hug? It's hard to read the expression on a walking squid-thing. Junk Rocketcycle just kinda hovers, floating over the lot, interested to see how this will go down. Galvatron's face drops into a grimace. "I see that we repeat the old drama again, Snaptrap." He raises his cannon- but Tentakil approaches! "Tentakil? Have you regained your senses?" Snaptrap strikes Tentakil with gauss. Snaptrap misses Tentakil with his gauss attack. Snaptrap strikes Tentakil with gauss. Snaptrap misses Tentakil with his gauss attack. Snaptrap strikes Tentakil with gauss. Tentakil falls to the ground unconscious. Dreadwind flies over above Galvatron's position blasting away at any nearby Sharkticons, "Galvatron we are in an untenable position, we must either make a move now or we will be destroyed by the behemoth. We can't stand up to him we will be crushed and then used as spare parts, unless we are finally going to give up and face excruciating termination." Snaptrap shoots at Tentakil until he stops moving. "Sorry," Snaptrap says. "They can be a bit moronic sometimes." Tentakil continues to advance. "I just want to be friends, Galvatron, I--" Tentakil seizes up as a number of gauss slugs rip through his abdomen, his chest exploding outwards in a spray of energon and fluids. He blinks, looking down at his wounds, before tumbling forward, a smoking heap of tentacles. Galvatron kicks the smoking body of Tentakil off of him. "You see, Snaptrap? At least SOME of my Seacons still have the good sense Primus gave them. As for you... you won't find your end this time so easy." Galvatron deploys his shock mace and swings it, charging Snaptrap in a duel to the death! Galvatron strikes Snaptrap with Morningstar. A hand on a spring pops out of a panel on the rocket cycle, pointing at the scrap that was Tentakill "DIBS!" Cyclonus raises himself up above the surface as he closes in toward the Quintession cityformer, the signal gradually increasing in strength as he closes the distnace, before raising himself high enough that he is now visible to the weapons of the cityformer but is also lined up on the source of the signal. His internal capacitors charge before he blazes out with his strongest beam weapon attack toward Trokius. Soundwave listens to the transmissions that Exterminatius sends to Snaptrap, and his rifle snaps up and fires a shot--at Trokius, he realizes to his dismay. The blast patters harmlessly off of the shield. But the shot formed a straight line from himself to his target. If there was nothing else in the way, that would've hit! As Snaptrap is charged, he doesn't seem to put any particular emphasis on defending himself aside from raising his cannon to try and block the blow. Naturally, the mace smashes the gun in half and embeds itself in Snaptrap's chest besides. "Hughhhgk," Snaptrap grunts as he grips the shock mace's chain, frying himself a bit in the process, and attempts to pull Galvatron into a sucker-punch. Snaptrap misses Galvatron with his punch attack. Monster Truck cues Invincible by PAt Benetar: ... and focusses the soundwaves up at Trokius... they reach as high as his lower shin. Damn that giant! Trokius roars the roars of a thousand terrible storms as laserfire peppers his chest, Exterminatius grinning five evil grins at Cyclonus as the blasts fizz against the forcefield that protects him. "Pathetic!" his modulated voice moans. "Utterly pathetic. The power of Trokius will set us up above the GODS! How can you mere creations of ours, billions of years outdated, hope to prevail?" As the beast continues to walk, huge cracks form in the earth, as it shakes under everyones feet Snarl roars, and slams his feet into the back of Trokius' aft end. Though, it seems that Grimlock in his Dinomode was much more solid than Snarl's robot mode. "Me Snarl tink me need to do better!" He begins to slash his sword, trying in vain to actually do some damage to the gigantic enemy. "Me Snarl smoosh Tro...tro STUPIDUS!" And then Galvy breaks into a melee with the Seacon, deciding close proximity a mistake, Pile-Up jets up out of range, circling, looking for those who might need aid. Galvatron twists aside and steps in to follow the chain's pull, bringing his elbow across towards the side of Snaptrap's head to box his ear (if he had an ear). "Have you learned so little even with your life extended far beyond the normal span, Snaptrap? For all your leaders' vaunted power, they could not make you more than what you are- a Decepticon! And I am the greatest and foremost of all Decepticons!" Galvatron strikes Snaptrap with Side Elbow. Dreadwind sighs heavily as once again his astounding words of wisdom are totally ignored by one and all, "Why do i bother? They never listen, all they do is tell me to shut up. Just look at Cyclonus if he'd asked i could have told him to attack from behind or to try and trip it by entangling the legs but no, so we're all just going to get smashed beyond all recognition." Swoop carpet-bombs the area of Trokius's lower back with air-to-air missiles. Trokius's aft fizzes as Snarl's huge sword cuts through the energy-shield and into parts of him. But the creature has a rather big aft, monsteriously huge in fact, and the result is like trying to kill a man with a very very small toothpick The elbow smashes in part of Snaptrap's helmet, chips of black metal falling to the ground. "You're a fool," the Seacon rasps, doubling over and feigning more pain than he's really in... to cover the unloading of an energy-shiv from subspace. "You're the king of a sandcastle... and it's finally time for the tide to come in." Lunging forward, he attempts to shiv Galvatron in the belly. Snaptrap strikes Galvatron with Blade. Monstereo gives up the futility and transforms. He jogs over to a cluster of cowering damaged Sharkticon survivors. "Anybody got a deck of cards? No? Well, need a fix up then? The doctor is in." Cyclonus is undaunted by the failure of his initial weapons attack...after all, Cyclonus is a warrior, and warriors do not throw in the cybertowel at the first replused attack. Cyclonus keeps flying toward the large cityformer, still on a direct course for the section where the General's signal is coming from, as he increases power from his weapons to his engines as he slams straight into that portion of Trokius at full thrust with a shout of "For the Decepticon Empire!". Soundwave gestures up to the sky for the sake of his cassetticons, and they all take flight into the sky. Realizing that he has no chance of damaging the huge Cityformer, Soundwave aims his scanner at it and starts to take some readings. If you can't destroy something, then learn about it until you can. One Sharkticon thrusts out a deck of cards at Monstereo. Then he does a double-take, seeing who it is, and leaps for him! Monstereo leaps at the Sharkticon in a colliding hug as uplifting orchestra string music is cued up. ' Galvatron winces slightly as the knife bites in- Snaptrap is as strong as any Dinobot, and his strikes carry enormous force. But he turns the wince into a snarl and raises a knee towards Snaptrap's elbow as he drives his own arm down towards it in an attempt to disjoint it. "And where would you be then, Snaptrap? Foremost among minions of the Quintessons? You cannot hope to control that tide. You can't even control yourself. You are not your own master." Galvatron strikes Snaptrap with Shell Cracker. Junk Rocketcycle notes the activity of his fellow Junkion, and charges in, jet engine roaring, the William Tell Overture playing from his speakers "HI-HO SILVER!" Exterminatius's laughing sneer turns into one of shock as he sees Cyclonus heading straight towards him. His head clicking round to the 'surprised' face, he drags a Quintesson clerk in front of him, hovering back into a lift that starts to raise him up... And Cyclonus cracks through the shielding and straight through Trokius like a bullet to the heart, the nosecone of his spacecraft mode picking up a hapless Quintesson clerk as it travels. Explosions start to blossom alongside every surface and suddenly... the forcefields holding up Trokius's unconstructed parts flicker and die, sending a suddenly confused cityformer crashing towards the ground, scaffolding flying off him, his shadow falling towards everyone still on the ground! Dreadwind lets his arms drop to his sides the futility of it all has finally got to the point where he's not going to do anything, well it's not as if anyone is bothering him to do anything or even attacking him anymore. "Why bother? Why fight the inevitable, better to wait here for the end, it will be here soon enough." He stares blankly at the large city former and waits for the end, typically fate steps in once more and the huge transformer goes down in flames leaving Dreadwind to carry on his tortured existance. Dreadwind calls out to the skies, "It will never end will it." Monstereo drives the not-hugging Sharkticon to the ground as Trokius' construction parts start avalanching down all around, covering the viscious little dirtbag with his own body as a shield. He shouts, "What would Springer say in a situation like this? I know, something cliche! The bigger they are the harder they... um... how does that go again?" Soundwave flits out of the way of the collapsing city-former, continuing his scan. Is the shield still up? Is Trokius destroyed? Is Cyclonus dead? (He hopes so!) Cyclonus keeps flying as he slams through the armor of Trokius, even if he misses the target he was directed to destroy, before bursting through the other side admist the shattered pieces of armor and the bright flames before Trokius falls to the ground. He transforms after he exits, the impaled Quintession falling away from him, before he turns away from the very dead clerk and turns to look back at the falling Trokius. Cyclonus is too cool and marketable to die! Snaptrap's arm breaks off entirely, damaged from the defeat of Piranacon. Laughing coldly, but falling to one knee, he seems resigned to this, as if it were destiny. "If I am foremost among the minions," he says, oil oozing from his wounds, "Then it's better to reign in hell." Drawing his sword with his one arm, he attempts to make one last, desperate attempt to slash at Galvatron's throat. Snaptrap strikes Galvatron with Energy_sword. Galvatron also wonders if Snaptrap's comment earlier was a jab at the shape of his head. :/ Swoop squeeks as the cityformer's tumble nearly knocks him clean out of the sky. "SNARL, YOU LOOK OUT!" he bellows. This all just became Serious Business. Snarl lands on Trokius' back, and rides him like an oversized surfboard. "Me Snarl did it!!!" He roars victoriously!" Though the upsurge of wind, probably is too loud for anything from the Dinobot to be heard. Yet, he stands on the still leaning cityformer, with his arms held up in total victory! Swoop flits and lands next to Snarl. "Dat still only counts as one!" Snarl pushes his Dinobrother slightly! Is Trokius down? The Cityformer crashes, bouncing as it smashes into the earth. One huge arm reaches up, as if to try to lift him from the ground... and then it blossoms into flame, exploding, fireballs blasting from each direction, threatening to engulf any unwary nearby Transformers. From the centre of the flames blasts a tiny escape pod into the air, containing one rather traumatised looking Exterminatius, who watches as the centrepiece of months and months of toil and effort explodes beneath him. Galvatron stumbles backwards as the sword cuts the side of his throat, clutching the wound with one hand. "Hhhh! Snaptrap, you poor fool!" he hisses, storing his mace and drawing his plasma blade. It flares into ignition with a snap-hiss. "I send you to your next incarnation with this thought: only ONE being is fit to rule hell." Galvatron strikes Snaptrap with Decapitation Strike. Snaptrap falls to the ground unconscious. Junk Rocketcycle buzzes past Monstereo "I think the word would be 'TIIIIIIMBEEERRRR!" "It is I," says Galvatron, looking down at Snaptrap with an expression of grave disappointment and perhaps... regret? Soundwave rises up as Trokius explodes, and he turns to Galvatron, his mouth moving, but it's unlikely that Galvatron can hear anything he says over the sound of a cityformer blowing up. Snaptrap is cleaved in two, the blade slicing down the middle of the Seacon, vertically splitting him. As circuits spark and die, he only has time to whisper, "It won't ever end..." before the two pieces fall, leaving his innards open to the air, electricity coursing through them visibly like a death rattle. Snarl blinks and is sent /flying/ as the city explodes. "AAAHHH MAKE WAY FOR ME SNARL!!!" The Dinobot is launched right up, flying over Exterminatius in a mock-comedic way. "Me Snarl coming for yous next!" He bellows, and crashes into the ground. His body rolling violently, as he tries to stop himself. Cyclonus transforms again, back into his starfighter mode, before he blazked forward toward the escape pod until he is close enough to slam into it like he did with Trokius. He does not do this, however, as he transforms into his robot mode and lands atop the pod before drawing his sword and stabbing down through the metal with it. Cyclonus takes off and flies suddenly forward to cleave the top of the pod in two. Is that... Exterminatius shaking a tentacle at Snarl as the dinobot flies over him? Maybe. As the Cityformer explodes, the chain reaction is violent enough to cause splits in the Earth -- into which Snaptrap's two halves fall. Swoop is blown clean directly up into the air, makes a graceful arc, and lands beak first into the ground much like a lawn dart. Galvatron's plasma blade hums quietly as he holds it at his side, only now really taking the time to look up at the towering city-robot and the Autobots, Dinobots and Decepticons battling it. The cracks in the ground roll towards Galvatron like a tsunami and he springs into the air, flying up on antigravity to let it pass beneath him and entomb the cryptic Snaptrap. "What was it that he meant when he referred to supreme power in the hands of the Quintessons?" he muses. "What is it that they have that gives them such a hold over him?" Their champions and leaders gone or dead, the remaining Sharkticons start to scatter as fast as their legs can take them, swarming away, some of them leaping down into the cracks in the now charred earth. The one underneath Monstereo is still trying to eat his head however! Monstereo peels himself up off the squirming bite-monster and pushes it away before it can get a fang in. "Life debt. You owe. Here, free pizza coupons for next time you get to Arakis." He tosses a book of coupons towards the Sharkticons and makes a quiet tip toe sneak away. The grim specter of gloom and doom is engulfed by the billowing clouds from the destroyed city former, Dreadwind's dull shape can just be made out in the dark clouds, a place that he feels oddly at home in, even if it is still too bright. "Another ending, the futile struggle of life goes on, the pains will continue and grow, there is no end, agonies for all eternity." Junk Rocketcycle buzzes Monstereo again, magnetic grabbles dropping "Think happy thoughts!" Monstereo swats uselessly at the passing Pile-Up Junk Rocketcycle. "Yo momma comes to mind!" Junk Rocketcycle just hovers over Monstero's head, grapples still extending "Cimb aboard! Roads? Where we're going, we won't need... roads..." Cyclonus lunges again toward the general's escape pod with his sword, slashing diagonally across the escape pod, as he finishes off the sword stroke with a kick to the metal. "What's the matter, coward? Afraid to hatch from this egg and face your doom?" Soundwave takes up a position besides Galvatron in the sky, stating his own musings on the matter. "It is the same trap that all traitors fall into, Lord Galvatron. They allow themselves to be too enamored of short-term benefits while not seeing the ultimate consequences of their decisions." Hence why, despite his own treacherous nature, Soundwave has historically been loyal, for the most part, to Megatron/Galvatron. "Snaptrap is lost to us, Lord. He is the Quintessons' permanent pet. I urge you not to concern yourself with him, other than how to destroy him permanently." Monstereo leap-grasps and grapples his way up the line. "We can't leave without the rest of the crew! Last time we left them behind they ate eachother!" Junk Rocketcycle bobs as if to nod, circling the field "Eye in the sky! Eye in the sky! Find em soon and we can fly!" engine rumbling a little louder As Cyclonus slashes his sword across the escape pod... he will find it shimmer, his sword carving through thin air. Exterminatius inside starts to laugh, a cackling, mocking laughter, as the holographic pod dissolves into thin air. Obviously there was more than one escape route Swoop pulls his beak out of the bedrock and transforms back into a robot. He nurses the big bent 'owie' on his beak (now on his chest, of course). "Me Swoop tired of battling big things. Can us go fight t'ings smaller dan us naow?" Galvatron glances back at Soundwave, crossing his arms and hovering. The slash on the side of his neck is already cinched off by internal valves and has ceased to bleed fuel and lube, although a trail of it runs down his chest. "Many of our best and brightest have perished, Soundwave. Even Starscream, that filthy traitor, was capable of being more valuable than a thousand line troops. I am not yet ready to consign Piranacon to the Quintessons' control. Even if Snaptrap is lost another core member could be found or created to replace him." Monstereo mentions to Pile-Up as they ride, "I feel just like The Dirt Bike Kid and Elliot rolled into one." He keeps a look out. "Mmmmmppphh mmrrrg! Snarl comments as his head is stuck in some rubble. Slowly he raises his feet up, and finally dislodges himself. For a moment, he stumbles, trying to keep his balance. "Me Snarl no know! Who cares do'h? We Dinobots fight, WE DINOBOTS CRUSH!" He then pulls out something that he made himself, a tiny pole with a flag on it. On the flag....is what Snarl considers the greatest of all things...A PIE! He then spikes it into the ground, and stands triumphantly next to it. Junk Rocketcycle vrooms "Pile-Up... Phone home..." Snarl roars, "PIE!!!!" Swoop wipes a small tear of lubricant out of one optic. "For Pie." he says, softly. Soundwave nods eagerly to his leader. "An excellent point, my Lord. If we cannot convert him, perhaps the other Seacons can be? Tentakill seemed to be interested in such a thing." He then wonders what they'd do then. Build a new Decepticon using a recycled lasercore? Redesign an existing Decepticon into their leader? It would be quite an interesting challenge, especially to make sure that the resulting gestalt was still functional. Monstereo says out of nowhere, "Its!" Monty Pythons Flying Circus theme cues.
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