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A Short Distance from the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Lore-lock nodded, "You got it. I'll keep a low profile." After transforming and falling in behind Hot Spot, the scout decided to take in the scenery and do some thinking.

"This rock might be worth saving, if only for the natural serenity. But only Primus and Unicron know if it can be saved."

A Short Distance from the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Smokescreen materialized in the empty field alongside his teammates. Once Hot Spot was finished speaking, Smokey assumed his Nissan 350Z alt mode and activated his holomatter avatar. A young male wearing a red t-shirt and blue jeans appeared behind the wheel as the diversionary specialist drove across the field, following the blue fire truck out onto the highway. It wouldn't take long to reach the Stunticons' location. Soon Smokey would come face to face with the former Cybertronian racer he once admired before the war. It's time someone showed Drag Strip what a real racer looks like.

Smokescreen then pulled alongside Hound. "Hey buddy, we can try to flank their positions if you want," Smokey responded to the scout's earlier suggestion. "Although, somehow I don't think the Stunticons will cooperate with us, but it's still worth a shot. Whatever happens, be careful. Motormaster and his team might be a bunch of street thugs, but they can withstand a lot of punishment and are capable of some high flying stunts. Don't underestimate them."

A Short Distance from the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Hound materialises and follows his teammates, transforming and engaging his holomatter avatar, a man in outdoors clothes, apparently prepared to take his jeep cross-country. He guns his engine to follow Hot Spot, noting the larger mechs difficulty on the Earths terrain.

As Smokescreen pulls alongside, Hound listens to what the Diversionary Tactician has to say. "Well, Smokes, our main objective is to make sure they stay in one spot. If the five of them each scatter in a different direction, we'll never catch them before more innocents get hurt. Since we'll more about tricks than firepower, I think we should do that while Hot Spot and Lorelock do the shooting. I dunno, you're the expert."

A Short Distance from the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

In all his excitement to get this mission over with, Lore-lock forgot to activate his holomatter avatar. It wasn't until they had been on the road for a few astroseconds that he realized this detail. He opted for a young person with a tall mohawk, tinted in an array of bright colors, leather pants and a tight leather jacket.

He then opened a com to the team, >>Do we even have a plan of action, or are we just going to improvise?<<

Abandoned Drive-In Theater

"Haha? I won fragger, and the only reason you arrived first was because you cowards left before we could finish. You lost fragger!Hahahahahahahaha!!!!"

As the terrorist was about to talk again, Motormaster appeared, and he was angry. The Stunticon leader transformed into robot mode and planted one foot on the terrorist's hood. "What the frag?" Was all that Wildrider could think as he felt Motormaster's foot crushing him.

For a moment, Wildrider hestitated. He wanted to crush Motormaster, and make him pay for ruining his fun. Sadly, he was no match for his leader, so he had to obey. "Come on Sir, don't get mad!! I was just having a little fun. You have to admit that seeing as those meatbags crying and yelling for their lives was fun. The destruction was beatiful. Hahahahahahaha. But I assure you, it won't happen again."

He stopped for a moment, waiting to see if there was any way to make Motormaster forget about that, and stop crushing him. "Sir, who do you think created more destruction? Me, or that Yellow fragger that we call Drag Strip?"

Abandoned Drive-In Theater

They were stammering and pleading, trying to distract him. They were all wondering what the crazy bastard that led them was going to do. It was perfect. Restoring the proper level of fear to his team had been the whole point of this little meeting after all, and since they were still hundreds of miles from base and its' repair facilities, beating one of the Stunticons to the point they couldn't keep up would be counterproductive.

"Bah!" Motormaster growled, shoving off with his foot and sending Wildrider skidding a few feet. "I don't give a cyber-rat's chassis which one of you won your little race. You got me all hacked off and ruined my fun. You little glitches should know by now not to make me do things like this to you."

The Stunticon commander seemed to be calm and ready to leave, but then he spun, turning his ire on Breakdown and Dead End. "I didn't see or hear about anything from you you little whiny slacker. Next time I say lets have some fun, it means tear something up," he bellowed at Dead End, then glared over at Breakdown and continued, "And you - you little pile of scrap! You took your sweet time getting here! When I call for a meeting, it means drop whatever the pit you're doing and drag your sorry chassis here on the double time! Now get your scrap together and lets roll the frag out of here!"

With a silent chuckle, Motormaster transformed and revved his engines. Yeah, they'd all be treading lightly for a while - the crazy psychotic drill sergeant schtick should keep them from going too far off the chain for a bit, not to mention it was fun to do. If they feared him more than they feared anything else, then they'd do what he needed in the heat of battle. Keeping their edge was important, because despite what anyone thought, they were a crack unit. The kings of the road.

Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Breakdown stepped back as Motormaster gave him some harsh words. He was lucky it was simply that.

"Just making sure I wasn't followed boss... that's all." he said, knowing that if he didn't take the extra time to get rid fo the police before regrouping. He couldn't have them following him.

As Breakdown followed Motormaster's order, he transformed. but something was bugging him. He didn't know what... but it was something. He didn't like it.

>>"Hey boss, am I the only one getting this feeling that were not alone? It's like... something's out there. It's quiet... perhaps too quite, and giving me this bad feeling."<<, he said over the comm to Moormaster. He was certain Motormaster wouldn't beelive him. But he couldn't help but feel something else was going on. And it was getting to him that he couldn't figure it out.

A Short Distance from the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Hex materialized along with the rest of the haphazard team. Hot Spot, of course, made his speech about having their holomater avatars active while diving on the road. Since he bounced in behind the others, Hex was out of sight. The young mech rolled his optics as he watched the others transform and pull out after the Protectobot Commander. Hex let out a sigh before he too transformed and followed the others. So as not to get into any arguments, Hex activated his holomater avatar; a young man of about seventeen years dressed in expensive, age appropriate clothes and wearing dark sunglasses. The silver Chrysler ME 412 sped off at top speed.

It didn’t take long before Hex was speeding past the others to fall in behind Hot Spot. He was irritatingly close to the fire truck as they closed in on the Stunticons’ location. He then heard Lore-Lock’sannoying voice come in over the comm. line. Had he been in robot mode he would have rolled his optics, instead he decided to answer the mech’s question.

>>”Of course we have a plan. We’re gonna use you as bait. When the Cons are occupied pulling you apart we’ll sit off to the side until they finish you off. When they’re not looking we’ll take some potshots. If we get ‘em we get ‘em if not, at least there was no real loss.”<<

A Short Distance from the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Lore-lock could only chuckle to himself as the brash youngster replied.

>>"If that's your plan, Hex, then mayhap you'd care to get your chassis further aft of the action. Unless your logic circuits are completely fragged, in which case you might prefer a trip to the med bay. You may have been on this backwater rock longer, but I have had far more time suffering this Unicron spawned war than you have, so drop the bitter punk attitude. I could tell you of real atrocities..."<<

The grey scout countered. He then checked his telemetry against the data reading he took before the bounce, and opened a general comm to the team,

>>"I think we might be getting close to the objective. I suggest radio silence from here out, and keep your scanners active. By Primus, I hope this energon-fried-circuit of a plan doesn't get us all reduced to scrap."<<

Approaching the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Hot Spot only half paid attention to the banter of the rest of the group. He was working on his plan of attack. Maybe if he was working with the Protectobots he would be bantered back and forth with them, but he just wasn’t as familiar with these Autobots. That meant he was going to have to work and fight even harder to make up for that lack of the team element. That was fine with him though. He always pushed himself to his limits, this time he would just have to push past them.

He spotted the Drive-In up ahead. “Alright Autobots, enough chatter. I’m going to go up the middle and engage Motormaster myself. The rest of you try and encircle and pin the Stunticons in. That way we can limit collateral damage and keep them from escaping. I don’t doubt that they would ditch their teammates in a nanosecond if it came down to it so watch for them to try and flee. We work together here and we should take these thugs down once and for all.”

With the orders given and the road ahead to the Drive-In clear Hot Spot throttled up, rapidly accelerating. The blue fire engine roared into the Drive-In. “Motormaster! You and your gang of punks are going to pay for all that you have done, on this planet and every other planet you’ve driven on!” The Protectobot leader aimed right for the Stunticon leader. He opened fire with his twin cannons, launching fireballs at Motormaster as he rapidly closed in on him.

Approaching the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Hound listened as Hot Spot gave his plan. Though the Autobot leader was new to earth and barely knew the group, he did seem to agree with the general consensus that the Stunticons had to be contained. Driving into a headon duel with Motormaster wouldn't be something Hound would have suggested, but he supposed Hot Spot had a better idea of what he could handle.

"You heard him, Smokescreen! You and I flank them on the left, LoreLock and Hex take the right!!". Hound split off to drive around the theater, and just before he came into view of it, images of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe appeared beside the scout. The three vehicles crested the hill advanced. Hopefully the eager Stunticons would be too distracted by the famous Autobot road warriors to make the connection between the simple scout and his abilities.

Approaching the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Lore-lock drifted to the right of the theater lot. Hopefully Hex, would be smart enough to use the dust cloud to his own advantage.

Perhaps, the scout thinks, this might work in our favor. An apparent advantage of 7:5

He slid to a stop roughly 135 degrees from the entrance, and idled his engine menacingly.

Approaching the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Smokescreen ignored the immature words of Hex. The young mech wasn’t funny and he certainly didn’t know when to keep his over-sized mouth piece shut. But that was his problem and his alone. Smokey would not let Hex’s comments distract him from the mission at hand. Instead, the diversion expert kept his focus as the drive-in came into view a short distance ahead. Hot Spot then gave his orders before going in to engage Motormaster head on. It was a brave move to be sure, even for an Autobot of Hot Spot’s stature.

Smokescreen then broke away from the main group along with Hound in order to flank the Stunticons on the left. “Yeah, I heard him, buddy! I’m right with you!” Smokey responded to the green scout as he quickly scanned ahead for one Stunticon in particular. Soon, Smokey spotted the unmistakable yellow form of Drag Strip and deployed his headlight guns, unleashing a barrage of laser fire directly at the former Cybertronian racer.

At the Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Drag Strip breathed a sigh of relief as Motormaster seemed to turn his attention away from him and towards some of his other teammates. It wasn’t that his leader had forgotten about him. Oh, no. It was more like Motormaster had found someone else to torment for the time being. Better them than me.

Once the Stunticon Commander had returned to vehicle mode, Drag Strip opened a private comm line to Wildrider: >>”So, you admit that I created more destruction out there? That means I won, right?”<< Drag would’ve smirked if he had been in robot mode. As it were, the yellow racer enjoyed the fact that the terrorist had basically called him the winner by trying to shift most of the blame over to Drag. Of course, it didn’t much matter to Drag what anyone said. He knew he was the best at everything and no one could tell him different.

As the Stunticons prepared to leave, Drag Strip noticed five vehicles heading right for them at a high rate of speed. At first he thought they were regular Earth vehicles until his sensors detected Cybertronian signatures coming from them. “It’s the Autobots!” Drag exclaimed as Hound and Smokescreen attempted to flank them on one side.

Drag Strip broke away from his team and was immediately met with laser fire from the Autobot’s diversionary tactician. The red and blue Nissan 350z fired shot after shot at the Formula One racer, but Drag wasn’t too worried as he avoided most of the blasts, allowing only one to graze him. “Is that all you got, Autobot!?” Drag bellowed as he increased his speed and drove up a mound of dirt, causing him to go airborne. He sailed right over top of Smokescreen and landed directly behind him.

“I’ve got plenty more where that came from Drag Strip! You can count on it!” Smokey responded as he slammed on his breaks and allowed himself to spin around until he was facing the opposite direction. The diversion expert then took off after Drag Strip as the Stunticon fled towards the wooded area that lined the back of the drive-in.

“Smokey? Is that you? Well, I’ll be slagged! I didn't even recognize you,” Drag Strip replied a bit surprised. Smokescreen's alt mode had changed, but his attitude was no different. “So, you still think you’ve got what it takes to beat me, huh? Well, let’s see what you’ve got, street racer!” The yellow Formula One car then burst through an old fence at the rear of the drive-in and sped down a dirt road that led into the woods.

Smokescreen opened a comm line to the other Autobots: >>”Drag Strip is getting away. I’m in pursuit.”<< Once his message was sent, Smokey raced after Drag with only one thing on his mind – beating his opponent.

Abandoned Drive-in Theater

Motormaster was momentarily surprised when a squad of Autobots came bursting through the gates of the drive-in and moved into attack positions. He wasted no time slamming his accelerator to the floor in an attempt to meet the attacking Autobots head-on. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.

Once he was up to speed, Motormaster was damn near an unstoppable force. The only problem was that he didn’t have the acceleration of a racecar, and he didn’t have nearly enough time to get rolling before Hot Spot’s fireballs hit. The first burst of blue flame hit him square in the grill where his armor was the thickest, and did little more than annoy the fearsome Stunticon, however the second wasn’t as direct a hit, and was much more devastating because of it.

Hot Spot’s second shot hit the ground a few feet in front of Motormaster, and exploded, sending a geyser of gravel, dirt, and flame into the air, and flipping Motormaster from his wheels. The big Kenworth rig rolled twice, looking for all the world as if it would break up from the crash, and had it been simply a human built machine, it surely would have, but Motormaster was made of far sterner stuff. He hadn’t even finished his final roll before he transformed, coming to rest on one knee and firing off a blast from his atom-smasher rifle directly at Hot Spot’s front quarter-panel.

“You wanna take on the King of the Road glitch!” he bellowed, “Well come get some!” The Stunticon commander was far too caught up in his own battle at the moment to issue anything like coherent orders to his team, but they’d worked together long enough that they all knew what to do – if they knew what was good for them they did…

**

Dead End, possibly the most perpetually depressed being in the known galaxy, almost laughed as Lore-lock rushed up in front of him, preening and revving his engine. As if the rev of a motor could scare him when he faced the RUST every day of his life. He knew how he’d go, slowly crumbling away into bits of red dust, and this little git was trying to intimidate him. It was almost worth that laugh. Not quite, but almost.

Instead, Dead End charged forward with all the acceleration he could muster. His plan was simple. Slam into Lore-Lock at full speed, and then if that worked, do it again. They’d all end up on the scrap heap one day, but he fully intended to make sure Lore-lock was there first.

**

OOC: Blackstrike asked me to cover for him for a few days until he gets back.

Now here was an opportunity to win and win big! With Drag Strip off fooling around with a single Autobot, and a second stringer like Smokescreen to boot, Wildrider had the opportunity to take out not one, but two of the Autobots top warriors. He cackled with poorly contained glee when he saw the so-called “twins” come roaring over the hill, and he wasted not a whit of time engaging - so little time in fact, that he never noticed Hound rolling along behind them.

He shot forward as if fired from a railgun, barreling across the gravelly ground at Sideswipe. He was going to perform the Autobot’s namesake, and hopefully take him out in the process.

Abandoned Drive-in Theater

Lore-lock took note of everything going on. Of everything going on the most urgent was the form of Dead End rushing toward him. He reacted by putting his energon where his armor was and charging the punk. His aim was less for a direct hit, but a glancing blow. If the decepticrumb wanted to play chicken, then they grey scout would be more than happy to oblige. As he raced toward this misguided pile of scrap he thought,

By Primus, I sure hope my armor can take a few rounds of this, otherwise I'll need to transform and use a more direct approach. I think my axe might be a good thing to pplant6 into this one.

Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Had Hex been in robot mode his face would have twisted in confusion at what Lore-Lockhad said, or at least tried to convey in his own outlandish vocabulary. Hex could only assume he had spent too much time on whatever planet and got his cranial unit bashed one too many times. It was either that or he was just nuts.

>>”What the hell are you talking about? I don’t think anyone caught the meaning of that. Me thinks you might need some time on Ratchet’s table for a well-deserved brain scan.”<<

Hex shut off his link to everyone but Hot Spot. He was here as a favor, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to take any orders from the likes of anyone other than the Protectobot Commander. He didn’t have to wait long before Hot Spot told his team what he wanted them to do.

The silver sports car took off in the direction of the cons when he heard Hound bark out his own orders. Damn, these jokers sure love to throw their weight around.

Hex decided it would be for the best, and to end this little party sooner rather than later, if he did as he was told. He swiftly banked to the right and came face to face with a wall of dust. Not only could the Cons not see him, but he couldn’t see anything either. Moron.

He came out of the cloud only to see Lore-Lock attempting to intimidate Dead End. It was actually comical. How could he think he’d intimidate a mech who’s not afraid to die? Hex let out a sigh as he waited to see what the outcome would be from Dead End’s charge.

Abandoned Drive-in Theater

Breakdown noticed the oncomming Autobots. He was right! Something was indeed amiss, yet none of the others seemed to heed his warnings. He just needed to slip out while he could, especially if he was to get the jump on some unsuspecting Autobot.

Breakdown took a moment to observe. Fortunantly, he had not been noticed yet, which was a good thing as far as he was concerned. Who was he going to pick off? Who was the weakest link? He saw Hot Spot engaged with Motormaster, Dead End engaged with some Autobot he'd never seen before, Dragstrip was already off with an Autobot in pursuit and Wildrider taking on three Autobots... if there were three, as he noticed Hound right behind Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. Breakdown had a devilish thought.

Wasting no further time, he droves in Wildrider's direction, on an intercept course with Hound as his target. He opened a comm to Wildrider >>"Head's up Wildrider! We got one Autobot inbound for the junkyard! Keep'em busy for a few seconds!"<<

Breakdown hit the gas as he sped for the Autobot scout, now set on a ramming course at a flanking position.

>>"Say your prayers Autobot!"<<, he screamed as he approached Hound.

Abandoned Drive-in Theater

Hound guided the Holographic Sideswipe around and towards the oncoming Wildrider. As planned, the eager Decepticon had taken the bait, now to up the distraction. The red warrior transformed and somersaulted over Wildrider's charge, before it and the yellow apparition began firing a wild and innaccurate barrage on the black Decepticon. It was only meant to keep him distracted, so Hound could start the real fireworks, with his missile launcher.

But this plan was cut short as Breakdown came at Hound from the side. Barely warned by the white cars shout, Hound was clipped as he dove out of the way, and landed heavily. The Holograms paused for an uncannily out-of-character second, as the autobot scout hurriedly transformed and drove away from Breakdown, hoping to get to rougher terrain before the faster cars caught up. The holograms began moving again, acting to cover the scouts manuver.

(OOC: Aetrius has approved me as the new Dead End player.)

Abandoned Drive-in Theater

This Autobot was proving to be quite a source of entertainment. Not only was he trying to challenge him in a pointless show of bravado but he was charging a bot made for such physical acts.

"You know I've never seen an Autobot so eager to get things over with and just die like you are right now. I'm almost inspired." Dead End says just before colliding with Lore-Lock. Dead End staggered back a bit from the impact. "Not bad Autobot, but I barely felt that. You might as well just give it up if that's all you got. Your death is inevitable even if you beat me. You'll die anyway, why not just give up now? I'll make it quick if you do." He says as he prepares for another charge.

Wooded Area behind the Abandoned Drive-In

Smokescreen raced down the dirt road with Drag Strip just ahead of him. The yellow Formula One car was picking up speed, but Smokey maintained the pursuit with ease, closing in on the Stunticon with each passing astrosecond. The two mechs had comparable speed and the desire to win. Therefore, it would be their respective driving skills that would determine the victor of this contest.

“Impressive, Autobot, but ultimately futile. You will never beat me, not here, not ever!” Drag Strip shouted over the roar of their engines.

“Don’t be so cocky, Drag. It’ll be your downfall. There’s always someone better and that someone just happens to be me!” Smokescreen taunted back, pulling even alongside the Stunticon. The two racers zoomed down the roadway side by side, the distance from the drive-in growing increasingly larger as they went.

“A common street racer will never be better than me! I was a professional racer of the Cybertronian Raceway. I was a star! Millions looked up to me! You, however, were only ever good enough to race illegally in the back alleyways of Kaon. You never had what it took to reach the top and you never will!” Drag Strip turned and slammed into Smokescreen’s side in an attempt to force him off the road. The initial attempt was not successful, but he quickly followed it up with another strike. Smokey swerved and pulled back, allowing Drag to regain the sole lead again.

“I was one of those fans who looked up to you, Drag. You let me and the millions of others down once you joined up with Megatron and his Decepticon thugs. You may have been a star back then, but now you are nothing more than a common brute like your Stunticon buddies!” Smokescreen sped up and slammed into Drag Strip’s back end, causing him to fishtail. The yellow racer quickly regained control, but not before Smokey hit him again, using his momentum to push Drag forward. This time, the Formula One car lost control and spun out as the red and blue Nissan 350z zoomed past him, leaving the Stunticon in the dust.

“Arrghh! You filthy slagger!” Drag Strip shouted as he finally recovered and then sped on after his Autobot competition. The yellow racer swiftly caught up with Smokescreen and returned the favor by slamming into his back end, as well. “How do you like a taste of your own medicine, Autobot?!”

Smokey chuckled. “About as much as you’re going to like this, ‘con!” Without hesitation, the diversion expert unleashed a cloud of magnetized smoke from his tail pipe which quickly began to envelop Drag Strip.

“Hey! No fair! That’s cheating!” The yellow racer shouted as the smoke began to stick to his body. Unable to see, Drag Strip lost control and crashed through a thicket of underbrush, rolling down an embankment and into a small body of water. “Fraggit! I’ll get you for this, Smokey, you filthy little cheater! You can count on it!”

“I’m sure you will, Drag. In the meantime, enjoy the mud,” Smokescreen replied as he turned around and raced back towards the abandoned drive-in where he could rejoin his Autobot comrades and help them beat the rest of the Stunticons.

Meanwhile, once the smoke had cleared, Drag Strip managed to transform and pull himself back up the embankment. After he wiped the wet muck off himself, Drag then reverted to race car mode again and sped off in the direction of the drive-in theater, hoping to catch up to Smokescreen and give the cheater the payback he so richly deserved.

The Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Hot Spot let out a grunt as the blast from Motormaster struck his front section. It had hurt but it hadn’t done any terrible damage. The Protectobot leader was nearly as tough as the legendary Motormaster. It was going to take more then a single shot from the Stunticon’s rifle to stop him.

That said, the Protectobot leader wasn’t about to crash headlong into a battle with the Stunticon leader. He knew they were just about evenly matched physically, but Motormaster was liable to fight dirty to gain the upper hand, not to mention the fact that he had a sword at his disposal. Without those two advantages Hot Spot felt confident that he could take him down after a long, drawn out battle, but with those two edges he was going to have to play it smart if he wanted to make sure the notorious Decepticon didn’t escape again.

Since the Decepticons had already broken the infiltration protocol, albeit in a place where they were liable to remain undetected, Hot Spot had no qualms about transforming himself. He quickly changed to robot mode, brandishing both of his fireball cannons. “I’ll bring more then you can handle Motormaster! This is for all of the worlds you’ve helped to ruin!” Hot Spot opened up with both of his cannons, firing multiple shots at the Stunticon as he circled him. He hoped to do as much damage as he could now while he outgunned him before Motormaster turned it into a fist fight as his reputation led Hot Spot to believe he inevitably would.

Abandoned Drive-in Theater

Lore-lock would have had serious difficulty containing his laughter had he been in robot-mode. His thin armor wrinkled a bit due to the impact, but by Primus, the scout didn't feel it.

"I've gone over speed bumps that have inflicted more damage to my body work that you just did. So why don't you just take your glitched spark off the field, and go back to feeling sorry for yourself."

While he spoke, to Dead End, Lore-lock also prepared for the next charge. But his logic circuits had begun working on a string possible outcomes.Most of them did not compute as the gestalt team was in the process of being scattered. He was determined to keep them from combining, and Hot Spot's decision to transform gave him an idea.

Abandoned Drive-in Theater

"Feeling sorry? What's the point of that now? It doesn't change the outcome." Dead End says before beginning his charge. "Your still dead anyways. It's just a pity you can't come to terms." His hesitation was predictable, as the obvious attempts to out think his plan. This one was a thinker first, that much was obvious. Dead End had to be ready for his plan to work just in case.

At the last minute he transforms into car mode and hits the gas. "I'll get over it though." He says as he makes a suicide run, hoping his changing catches Lore-Lock off guard.

Abandoned Drive-In Theater

Suffering only minor dents and scrapes, Smokescreen was very pleased with how things had ultimately turned out in his race with Drag Strip. Smokey had wanted to test his skills against the former Cybertronian speedster for a long time, never having the chance to do so until the current encounter. It was very personal for the diversion expert as he always felt that it had been unfair for him to be denied entry into the Cybertronian Raceway just because of his street racing background. Yet the likes of Drag Strip was not only allowed in, but was groomed from the get-go to become a star. At least now Drag had been put squarely in his place, even if it required a little bit of cheating on Smokey's part to do so.

I guess old habits die hard, Smokescreen thought as he sped out of the woods at the rear of the drive-in. He immediately surveyed the battle scene before him and quickly spotted Hound in a bit of trouble. Both Breakdown and Wildrider had set their sights on the green scout. However, it seemed that the terrorist had mistaken the two holograms of the 'twins' as real Autobots. This was the chance Smokey needed to sneak in and make his own attack.

Smokescreen zoomed off in the direction of Wildrider, his headlight weapons deployed. The diversion expert opened fire on the terrorist, hoping to strike him while the crazy Stunticon was still distracted by the holograms.

***

Drag Strip reached the drive-in soon after the Autobot's diversionary tactician had arrived. Unfortunately, Smokescreen had already chosen another target and was speeding into the fray. For an astrosecond, Drag considered going after his cheating quarry and double-teaming him with the help of Wildrider. However, he thought better of it, wanting instead to pay back the red and blue racing mech in a one-on-one rematch. It would be far more satisfying that way.

Of course, Drag Strip still intended to give his teammate the heads up on Smokey's sneak attack. >>"Wildrider, look out! Smokescreen's coming up behind you! Make sure to smash him up good for me!"<<

The Formula One car switch off his comm line and looked for a new target of his own. Most of the Autobots were already engaged with the rest of the Stunticons, except for one. A small silver Chrysler sat idling nearby with no one to fight with. I'll change that, Drag Strip thought as he revved his engines and then zoomed at top speed directly at Hex. "Hey, Autobot! You looking for someone to play with? Let's play a little game I like to call Blast and Smash!" The yellow racer opened fire with his plasma energy blaster, intending to soften up his prey before smashing head on into the young mech.

Abandoned Drive-in Theater

As [b]Dead End]/b] shifted from bot to car, Lore-lock went in the other direction. He then activated his axe, timing was key. If he acted to soon, or to late then his goal would not be met. "Your life is less than meaningless." The autobot replied as he swung his axe at the 'con's hood. "In the end, there will be only the quick. It is unfortunate that you are but a half speed glitch. May Primus have mercy on your circuits." Lore-lock finished.

He then thought on a things for a few astroseconds, Terms, what terms are there that I have not come to grips with. This war sucks, I have nothing here I actually care for. Maybe I can get this little glitch of a 'con to defect and leave the war with me? Even if I have to beat his logic circuits into activating.