| abstract | - 7/8/2011 Patrolling Off Route Image:Doac jpg.JPG Blades vents hard as he pulls and tugs, then bashes the recently dead empty against a wall. He stops for a moment to scratch below the back of his helm before he applies both hands to wrench the corpse's arm out of its socket, and then he begins sloppily field-dressing the limb to get to the tubing and raw materials he craves. His shoulders roll as the sensors inside prickle. So, Cubicron is a little off their patrol route, but knowing the way in and out saved Crackshot's life, right? And after all the trouble with Vespa, it can't hurt to keep an eye on things for Lifeline, either. Dually's the mech for the job; rolling down the dusty, pockmarked road that winds through no mech's land. Crackshot was patrolling with Dually today, feeling much better and eager to return to work after the last patrol that had seen him disabled quite badly. He rolled along behind Dually, his wheels bouncing him over the potholes carefully "Ugh. My suspension is going to be aching for days after this." he mutters to his partner. Blades hears some voices and the rattle of suspension coming through the landscape, and he pauses. A few more firm tugs liberate the poor empty's cranium, which he tosses out as far as he can to try and deflect attention. His optics narrow and he keeps chewing. Dually snickers at Crackshot. "That's what you get for that low-profile alt mode. me, I think hover suspension’s always the way to go." He's keeping an eye out, but mostly for Decepticons, paying little attention to the empties that dot the street. "Yeah, but you don’t get blown off course." chortles Crackshot. He too noted the empties, but said nothing. Then he pauses "Hey, at nine o’clock almost to the left - what's that movement? is he - oh PRIMUS!" The shouting is enough to tip off Blades, who slinks back into an alleyway, dragging his prize with him. He stops after a few tugs to scratch deeply into a ventral seam, then starts trying to suck out whatever drops of energon are still in the arm he's been dismantling. His rotor twitches. "What? Where?" Dually skids to a stop, slewing around to his right to turn almost 180 degrees, looking back in the direction that had been his 9 before he'd moved forward. "Aw, slag- that's the empty that Slipstream attacked!" Crackshot shivers "Ugh. Is he EATING that other mech?? " asks Crackshot, somewhat horrified.”Should we stop him?" he asks, uncertainly. Dually hovers forward, a bit uncertainly. "Hey- hey you! Red! What are you doing with that mech?" Blades's optics are pinned down to slits as he realizes that he's been seen. He growls loudly in his engine, although the growl sputters in his coughing machinery. He hisses and crouches, spinning his rotors angrily. Running won't solve this one. Crackshot pauses "... I don’t think that mech is in a state to care anymore... That empty looks pretty dangerous." he transforms finally, staring in disgust at Blades "Easy there buddy... we're not gonna hurt you. What did you do to that guy there?" Dually transforms as well, holding out his hands ina 'no weapons' gesture, but staying carefully between the red mech and Crackshot- he carries a lot more armor than the car-former does. Blades tries very strenuously to look dangerous, but he has to settle for pausing to scratch up and down one of his side seams in the middle of trying to yank off the empty's other arm. He continues to glare and spin his rotors as he stands... to dig his servo tips into the back of his knee. He pulls the severed arm up to his mouth and starts gnawing on the plating. Crackshot ughs a little bit and doesn’t complain when Dually stands in front of him "Does he even understand us?" he asks softly "I don’t think he does... Dually shakes his head. "Dunno... he's cracked in the processor or something, chewing on that mech like that. What're we supposed to do now?" Blades tugs out the tubing in this other arm and puts it up to his mouth to try sipping coolant and energon. He gives up on fluids and starts chewing the cabling instead. Blades tugs out a tangle of wires with his denta and lobs the arm at his visitors. He pumps his forelimbs to tweak his elbows and curls his hands into fists. Crackshot frowns "I don’t think he's listening. We could leave him be or ... I dunno. My idea probably wouldn’t go over well, but could we let him just keep killing things? " he asks uncertainly of his partner. Dually shakes his head. "Well... Cubicron's not our job, really- just trying to keep things safer for Lifeline, you know?" He says uncertainly. "But... maybe he didn't kill it?" His tone is hopeful. "Hey, red, you find that empty, or did you hurt him?" He glances over his shoulder at Crackshot. "I mean, he was scared enough of that Seeker femme to run from her when I pulled her off." "He's mine," Blades hisses as he plunges a hand into the empty's chest cavity. "Get your own!" He starts fighting with the body to liberate the fuel tank. One hand keeps working in the chest cavity while the other takes the earlier abandoned forearm from the empty to reach the dead servos to scratch around his rotor fittings, rather emphatically. "We don’t WANT him. We just want to know where you GOT him." blurts Crackshot. Dually looks at Crackshot. Now what? He turns back to the empty. "we don't want your uh, snack," he says, lamely. Blades is hungry, anyway, so maybe he can devise a better means of driving the patrol off. He grabs a creaking empty nearby and starts pounding it against the wall, much the same as he did with his current meal. A mighty heave launches the empty at the Autobot patrol. It takes some deliberate force to make the tickly itch in his dorsal seams from throwing off his shot. He elbows his sides ineffectually. Crackshot yelps as he ducks the flying empty, but he blinks as he catches sight of the itching. "Hey! That wasn't nice? " he then murmurs "That guys' scratching Dually. I think he has that rust thing." "Bet he does, Slipstream attacked him, remember?" Dually says. "Maybe we should comm Ratchet and see if he wants us to bring him in?" He looks doubtful. Crazy or not and sealant or not, that'd mean laying hand on the red mech- and those blades look pretty formidable. "Or, we could just... Hey, you- you need to go to Lifeline's clinic. You know Lifeline? You've- got - bugs." He says the last few sentences loudly, like trying to communicate with someone with audio sensors dialed way down. Crackshot grimaces "I don’t think I want to." he murmurs. He then adds "She can make you stop itching. That looks rather uncomfortable. She'll give you some 'food' too." he adds. Blades grimaces. "Skywarp said it, too!" he shouts back as he scrapes his shoulders. "So did Nova Black! Food and fixed!! I won't fight for you!" Crackshot blinks " We don’t want you to fight for us though unless you WANT to." he states simply "We don’t make people. IF you just want to stop itching and get some food, then that's fine, then you can go back to uh, doing what you do." "Lifeline's neutral. A medic. Doesn't fight anyone," Dually says. "Well, she took on that mob boss, but that's different." Dually steps towards the red mech. "Here, just put that down, and we'll show you where her clinic is." He reaches for the empty that Blades is clinging to. Stopping this miserable itch would be so wonderful, Blades realizes, but he's not much of a fan of anyone who might get close to his rotors. But still, they've been driving him crazy for so many orns... He startles at Dually's approach and drops the empty. The helo scrambles away backwards in a panic. Crackshot remains behind Dually "That's right. We'll show you." a pause "Maybe just have him follow us? We don’t want to catch that." he murmurs to Dually "Just follow behind us. We'll show you where she is. She'll spray you with something that'll help the itch." Dually steps closer to the other mech, holding out a hand. "Hey, don't freak out on me, just get up and let's go see Lifeline." Blades gets up and spins his rotors at Dually before taking off back down the alley. No, he's not going to give that patroller the chance to make good on what Skywarp and friends suggested. He starts climbing a wall in the end of a blind alley in an effort to vault it and get away. Crackshot blinks at that and puts a hand on Dually's shoulder "I don’t think he trusts us. Maybe he'll go to Lifeline's on his own. Too bad we can't just spray-bomb them all from afar. Think Ratchet would go for it?" Dually shakes his head but laughs. "Yeah, I bet. Or a spray gun! You could build one of those, right?" "That's Wheeljack's thing. But I think timid ones to go off with motion sensors would mean less bite marks." remarks Crackshot "Heh. Well... should we continue our patrol?" Dually asks. Crackshot nods "Yeah I guess so." he agrees, glancing to see where the thrown Empty had gone. Dually transforms and turns around, heading back up the road to continue the patrol.
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