Area 51Divebomb was somewhat happy with the fact that
Swoop’s wing appeared to be damaged from his last attack. However, it seemed to only be a small tear and nothing major that would cripple the winged Dinobot. “I see that your wings are just as fragile as before, dear Swoop, just as my visual sensors are also just as acute as you may remember. I can see that tiny tear in your wing. It can only get worse as our battle rages on!”
Ignoring
Swoop’s own taunts, Divebomb watched as the pterosaur turned towards him and let loose more missile waves. The Predacon turned to face Swoop and his projectiles head on, not worrying about the possible consequences. “More rockets? How original…” Divebomb began as he avoided the first two waves. “…and how boring. Must we continue along these lines? Perhaps a change is in order.” Divebomb then fired his lasers at the last wave of missiles, striking each of them and causing a large mid air explosion that seemed to grow larger as each one detonated.
Without hesitation, Divebomb flew directly into the fireball and quickly emerged from the other side a bit singed but otherwise in full operating capacity. He accelerated towords
Swoop, seeing that his opponent was ready to strike at him again with those talons. As the Predacon approached, he pulled his body upwards, exposing his own razor-sharp talons underneath. “Time you felt my sting!”
Divebomb closed in and lashed out at
Swoop’s head with his claws, aiming for the Dinobot’s long beak and face, hoping to cause some damage or even blind him in one optic. Immediately afterwards, the aerial Predacon ignited his rocket thrusters on his back and shot straight up to avoid any retaliation from Swoop’s own claws. But before he had achieved any great distance from the metal pterosaur, Divebomb shut off his rocket pack and turned back down and fell into a steep nosedive. Heading directly towards Swoop, the Predacon drew his wings in close to his body, which allowed him to gain more and more speed as he rapidly approached his winged target from above.
Divebomb extended his vicious talons just as he shot down past his old rival and attempted to slash at
Swoop’s slightly damaged wing, hoping to make the tear wider.
**********
Sludge became more and more agitated as he slashed at
Swindle with his energo sword repeatly. The small Decepticon was quick and able to back away in time to avoid the Dinobot’s attempts to cut him in half. “Hold still, little one.” But the ‘con was not cooperating. Instead, Swindle fired more shots from his gyro gun, this time striking Sludge’s right arm. The same weird sensation from before began creeping through the Jungle Warrior’s limb, but this time he fought against it. He could not allow his right arm to become useless, as well.
Trying desperately to hold on to his sword, Sludge looked up and saw that
Swindle was aiming his other weapon directly at his face all the while boasting about how great his gyro gun was. “You talk too much, ‘con.” With no other options available to him, the large Dinobot then charged forward suddenly, knocking into Swindle and ruining the aim of his scatter blaster. The weapon went off harmlessly, missing its intended target by a wide margin.
Sludge then backed away from the Decepticon arms dealer, still struggling to hold on to his sword. It was then that the Jungle Warrior noticed that feeling had begun to return to his left arm. He could now move it again, if only in limited motions. It wasn’t at full strength, but it was currently in better shape than his right. Without another thought, Sludge reached down and retrieved his laser pistol that he had previously dropped. Using his improving left arm, the Dinobot fired off a steady stream of shots at
Swindle, hoping to keep the ‘con busy long enough to allow his right arm to recover.
**********
Smokescreen smiled as
Bumblebee and
Wheeljack finished speaking to him. “No worries, guys. I understand completely. Getting
Slag back online is more important. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be all right for the time being.” And with that, Smokey watched as his Autobot comrades returned to digging the last Dinobot out from underneath all that rubble. He wished he could help his friends, but in his current condition the red and blue mech would be lucky to even stand up for two astroseconds let alone heave chunks of debris around. Smokey would just do what Wheeljack suggested and keep a look out for any Decepticons that might come down the hole. At the very least, the diversion expert could still fire a gun so he wasn’t totally useless.
It was then that Smokescreen received a trasmission from a familiar mech:
Roadbuster wrote:"Autobots, this is Prowl. If anyone is seriously injured but still functioning, send me your coordinates and I'll be right there to get you out. Ratchet is on site and I'll do what I can to get you to him. I'll also provide backup if need be."
Smokey’s eyes lit up at the sound of
Prowl’s voice and quickly opened a comm. link to him:
>>Prowl, this is Smokescreen. I didn’t know you were on Earth! Good to hear your voice again!<<Smokey knew the Military Strategist from way back before the Decepticon uprising. They first met when
Prowl was forced to arrest the diversion expert for cheating in a local Cybertronian casino. Cheating was a nasty habit that Smokescreen had picked up while racing on the underground circuit and it was one that got him into a lot of trouble back in the old days. Between the cheating allegations and the illegal street racing, Smokey ended up seeing a lot more of Prowl than he had wanted. Regardless, Prowl was always fair to Smokey and treated him with respect, all the while trying to steer the red and blue racer down the right path. Later, once the war broke out and Smokey had joined the Autobots, the two became good friends.
>>Yeah, I’m pretty banged up, Prowl. I’m down at the bottom of the big crater. I’m low on energon, but I’m not about to expire. So, help out the other ‘bots that are in worse shape first. I’ll be fine. Besides, I’ve got some company down here in the form of Bumblebee and Wheeljack.<<**********
Skywarp sat on top of the crippled building and watched as
Thundercracker and
Aftershot fought high above. The downed seeker wished he could be up there with them, but his internal repair cycle was still trying to fix his systems, which had been badly damaged by the Autobot flier. On top of that his one wing had a hole in it and his tail fin was melted, making it impossible for him to fly in jet mode. “This is taking too long. I have to get back into this. I can’t just sit here,” the seeker muttered in frustration.
Forcing himself to his feet, Skywarp approached the edge of the roof and looked down over the battlefield. He peered off to the right and saw an airstrip on the other side of the compound in the distance. This gave Skywarp an idea.
Hmmm, perhaps they’ll have jets over there. Damaged or not, they could be a source of spare parts that I could use. It’s worth a shot.Skywarp leapt off the top of the building and, using his foot thrusters, landed easily on the ground below. The purple and black seeker then began trekking through the ruins of the human base towards the air field.