Dragstrip continued to race forwards throughout the streets, paying little attention or concern to anything that came through his path as civilians haphazardly dodged to the sides to avoid the quick Decepticons. Even vehicles that actually were in his way, and came into contact, did little to impend his path, as they were simply flipped away and discarded, crashing into the nearby buildings or even crushing the unfortunate humans in its path.

Ha ha ha! Puny fleshings! Dragstrip shouted. Then, he heard a beeping horn from behind him, indicating he was actually being chased. Huh? he queried, and then activated his scanners.

It was a large cab rig carrying another vehicle, both of whom were pursuing him. And the Cybertronian armour and data they bore meant they were Autobots!

Ha, foolish Autobots! The first one to cross the finish line lives! shouted Dragstrip, tearing forwards throughout the street at a greater speed.

------------

The Autobot squad consisting of Prowl, Megas, Eternity, Windrunner and Tarantulus moved ever forwards, searching for the two Autobots who Megas had discovered earlier. However, it was evidently obvious that something was amiss through the sudden sounds of explosions and deafening screams that subjected the air. Something was wrong.

The two Cybertronians? Windrunner suggested.

Quite possibly, Im not sure, be wary- Prowls sentence went unfinished as he was suddenly thrown backwards, spinning, and landing crashing through the nearest building by a large, black tractor traitor.

Ahahaha! Motormaster shouted out, as two more sports car pulled up next to him, revving their engines in front of the autobots. It looks like we found the inferior Autobots sooner then Id thought.

Right! Wildrider said next to him, followed by a cheer from the other Decepticon, Breakdown. Its time to put these inferior models out into the trash!

Autobots Prowl spoke wearily, unsure of whether or not his allies would charge into battle or not, just as the three Decepticons vehicle parts shifted and moved, transforming themselves into their individual robot modes and aiming their weapons towards the Autobots

Shockwave cursed as Dragstrip accelerated away, leaving him for dead in the road. "There's no way we can match that!"

"Allow me." retorted Fusion as he reversed off Shockwave's trailer, tires screeching on the road as he landed. "Oh yeah, this is what I live for!"

"You can't take him alone!" shouted Shockwave as the Skyline roared past after the yellow car. "If he attacks you you could be in trouble!"

"Hey you don't know that!" exclaimed Fusion. "The guy's probably a pushover...besides, it's a race, not a battle!"

Shock was about to say something else, but he gave up, knowing his companion wouldn't listen. Instead, he activated his scanners, hoping he could be able to stay locked on to the two racers and catch up should they stop to fight. He almost jumped as his scanners activated and pealed out for attention immeadeately...lots of signals coming from just a couple of blocks over...the other Deceptocons that had come out of the sea? No, there were too many. Some of them might be though...in which case, who were the others...?

He slammed his wheel hard right, the rig tilting precariously and almost lifting up onto two wheels as it roared round the corner at full speed and accelerated down the road towards the signals. This had to be investigated!

============================================================

Fusion skidded from side to side as he dodged traffic, his sensors locked onto the yellow form ahead. The Decepticon had him in speed, that was for sure...that race car wasn't even street legal!...but Fusion definitely had the edge in handling! In these tight, sharply twisting city streets, Dragstrip had to slow down considerably for corners, corners that Fusion could take with a simple powerslide!

Dragstrip saw him behind and laughed. "Give up, loser!" he called. "You can't possibly win!"

Fusion didn't reply, concentrating on the race. The engines roared as both cars accelerated to top speed, charging through the city like bullets! The race was most deffinitely on!

Tarantulas slowly skidded behind prowl, removing himself from sight. 'No time to change my activation code, I'll have to explain later,' Tarantulas though to himself. "Tarantulas, Terrorize!" Tarantulas converted into his robot mode and hopped up onto the police car. Laughing maniacally he began firing his arm-mounted machine guns at the decepticons, drawing their attention and allowing the autobots to transform.

((Eh, feel like there's something wrong with this, no idea what.))

IC:
Windrunner transformed into her robot form, not very tall but she could move fatser than they could.
She was still completely white but now she was standing on her two legs, her head still very wolf like, giving an impression of an Egyptian statue of anubis. She skidded to Prowl's side and took up a defensive position. Firing off her own shots with Tarantulas'.
"You okay?" She asked in between her firing, wondering how long this fight would last on low energy...

IC:
Eternity dropped her stealth mode with relief, she wondered if the Decepticons were surprsied for a few moments then found she didn't really care.
"You'll pay for that." She growled angrily, too tired to change to her true form she charge at them head on, aware how low her energy was she couldn't be bothered to look at the risk, she just hoped she hit them hard enough to do some damage before she collapsed.

The combined assault by Tarantulus, Eternity and Windrunner achieved its intended target, for the majority at least. The three Decepticon Stunticons had been hit, but despite it, their armour plating was holding them up enough to be able to continue battling, and their own energy stores were vastly higher then the Autobots own.

In fact, most of Tarantulus own blasts were off-target, and collided into the adjacent buildings, smashing the glass and structure of it. Fires sparked up, and the buildings wobbled under stress. Eternitys charge and pounce at Wildrider propelled him backwards into the building, where it collapsed upon him.

Ugh no! Prowl called out, shifting his body parts and transforming in order to get Tarantulus off from him. This surprised the Predacon, and his new wayward blasts missed their marks completely and set off nearby parked cars into small scaled explosions. We need to stop this! We dont have the energy for a full scale attack and we cant do it here with the humans around!

What? Ignore the humans, these Stunticons are a bigger danger! Tarantulus called out.

No way, we leave, drag the Decepticons out with us. Transform and roll out, Prowl commanded, hoping the troops would comply, but unsure if they actually would or not.

Tarantulas growled under his breath. "Uptight autobot scum." he said under his breath. Pulling out the large missle-launcher he sometimes carried with him, he aimed it at one of the Decepticons. Arming the weapon he pulled the trigger, launching one large unstable missle. "See if that get's his attention."

Transforming into motorcycle mode he sped past the the two decepticons hoping this might atleast get him into the autobot's good books.

"Yes sir!" Megas blew his horn in a taunt, the air horn rendition of La Cucaracha filling the air. "Catch me if ya can, suckercons!" Inside the cabin of the car mode, Megas' gearshift shifted into its highest setting, and with a roar of engines, Megas shot off towards the edge of the city.

IC:
Eternity felt herself crash into something hard and for a few moments lay stunned in the rubble, aware that she had hit a decepticon at any rate. Over the sound of firing she heard Prowl's orders and manage to stagger out from her position, finding her path blocked by quite a bit of building and to her horror a few humans.
Finally she escaped from the wreckage and swayed slightly looking to Prowl giddily,
"Yes...sir."
Shakily she started to move on picking up the pace, if she couldn't get out of this area, Prowl was right, more humans would be hurt, she could collapse in the nearest human free area.

"Why? Why do it?"

Fusion didn't reply as he focused on the road ahead, dodging a taxi that suddenly jumped into his way from out of a side-street.

"Why do you keep on trying when I'm obviously better than you!" continued Dragstrip, skidding off the road and cutting through a park. "Give up now and I may let you live!"

The constant berating was beginning to get on Fusion's nerves! It was gushing forth like a neverending stream...didn't Dragstrip have an off-switch somewhere?

The yellow race car chuckled as he roared out of the park and back onto the roadway. "Okay, I'm tired of this. Time to say goodbye." With a screech of tires he skidded round a cornerand accelerated up a long, sweeping ramp...up onto the highway!

Fusion would have gritted his teeth had he been able. in the city, he was just barely managing to keep up with Dragstrip...on the highway without any major corners? No chance! He had to stop him somehow, but it was already too late!

Unless...

Racing up the ramp, he saw Dragstrip's tailights dissapearing into the distance already, dodging the traffic as he went. Well, here goes nothing! It was risky, but it was the only way to catch him...Fusion opened up his nitrus valves.

The acceleration was gutwrenching...fortunately he had no guts. The surrounding world became a blur as his speed increaced...160...170...180...civillian cars were coming out of nowhere, and he barely managed to avoid them as he roared down the highway!

Dragstrip's tailights were getting closer!

"Okay, velocity boy...laugh this off!" Fusion roared past the yellow car like a lightning bolt, thundering along between lanes to avoid as much traffic as possible! Dragstrip let out a cry of supprise, then a roar of anger, and instantly he slammed the gas, accelerating as fast as he could himself! But Fusion had a plan!

"See if you can catch me when I make the rules!" he shouted, suddenly slamming his wheel hard to the side! The car jumped across the lanes of the highway, careering down the ramp into the financial district! Here, with lots of cramped, tight roads between tall skyscrapers, Fusion was hoping he would have more of an advantage!

"Get back here!" roared Dragstrip, screeching onto the ramp himself. He couldn't bring himself to admit defeat, he had to finish this upstart off once and for all! "You can't possibly win, you fool! Get back here now!"

Prowl began leading the assembled Autobots towards the outskirts of the city, avoiding a confrontation where the humans could be injured. Thankfully, the three Decepticon Stunticons were following them, intent on destroying the Autobots themselves, and didnt simply stay in the city, creating destruction, in order to attract the Autobots to fight and stop them.

However, although the Autobots pace was quick, their vehicular forms were simply not built for true speed like the Stunticons, and now, racing the streets, the Stunticons were having the advantage. They were playing with the Autobots, crashing into them and sending them sprawling all over the street before they could correct themselves, and then be jolted in the side once more.

For the Autobots, it seemed like this was not the greatest idea ever. In protecting these small, inconsequential humans, they were instead paying the price, and they were running deeply low on energy, they wouldnt be able to keep it up forever. And now, instead, they could be giving up their own lives in order to just protect the Earthlings.

Prowl realised this too. At this rate, they would never be able to reach the edge of the city without being destroyed before it. Instead, they needed a large enough area within this city, devoid of humans, to battle in, but that in itself proved so unlikely.

There! he cried out, and turned right, jumping off from the road and down the large hill to the side, surprising all of the Cybertronians involved. He had seen what would have been a river had it not been dried of water whilst repairs were taking place. It should have been large enough and devoid of humans for them to be able to battle in, and Prowl hoped that through their superior numbers, that even though they were low on energy theyd succeed. In here! Were going to take them out here and now!

About time! Megas shouted, and followed Prowls example by entering the area.

The rest of the Autobots and Tarantulus similarly followed suit, followed by the Stunticons.

Take these weakling Autobots out! Motormaster called out, and as he fell to the ground in mid-air he transformed, his metal parts shifting and relocking into place before he entered his robot mode, aiming to land straight onto Prowl.

Prowl, expecting Motormaster, similarly finally transformed into his robot mode. A large, white, humanoid-esque being, with large white shoulder and shoulder cannons. He withdrew his energy blaster, and preciously aiming the weapon, fired and hit Motormaster in the face, knocking him backwards slightly and forcing him to land on his back.

Wildrider and Breakdown also finally landed in the embankment, transformed and ready to do combat. This is the end of the road for you, Autobots. Youve got nowhere else to run to, now!

----------

Dragstrip was losing the race, and that was something that just couldnt be allowed acceptable. Fusion was cheating him out of his victory, and in that instance, Dragstrip would be willing to cheat Fusion as well.

As he fell down to the financial district, he transformed in mid-air. Aiming his energy blaster towards Fusion, he let off one solid shot, that impacted against Fusions back! Stunning the Transformer momentarily, Fusion skidded to an unexpected stop, as Dragstrip finally landed upon the ground next to Fusion.

Ha, lets see how well you race like that! Dragstrip shouted out, and then began running forwards whilst still in robot mode. In a fluid motion, Dragstrip seemed to jump forwards and transformed back into his race car mode in midair, and as soon as his wheels touched the ground had begun accelerating away from Fusion.

Dirty, cheating Decepticon! Fusion muttered in anger. The blast had stunned him somewhat but it wouldnt have made it impossible for him to continue. He still had the advantage in this area with so many tight turns, in fact Dragstrips attack hadnt shifted the advantage to the Decepticon, but rather kept things between them to a more levelled out playing field unfortunately. You wont get away with that!

----------

Shockwave rounded a corner, pedestrians jumping out of the way with the speeding rig shooting through the streets, searching for the signals that now seemed to come to a stop a certain ways ahead of him. He had to find them and ascertain whether they were Decepticons or Autobots no matter what!

Wait whats that?! Shockwave mentally thought to himself as his sensors picked up something else entirely! But, before he could compensate for him, a streak of blinding light came down from the street he arrived from, and smashed right into him! The blast forced Shockwave off the road completely, to crash onto his side and skid, screeching, a small way before coming to a complete stop. He was bruised and battered, but more then anything else, angry!

Disgusting Autobot, came the voice of the being that attacked him; the last remaining Stunticon, Deadend. He was a humanoid-esque red and black Decepticon warrior, crouching, whilst he had been aiming his weapon, a handheld compressed air rifle that had been the cause of bowling Shockwave onto his side. You carry the same name as a great Decepticon warrior, but you dont deserve it. Deadend practically spat these words out, in disgust. Youre a weak and pathetic, worthless copycat. How about you just lay low and be one with the Inferno?

"Megas, transform!" The red car leapt off the hillside into the ditch. Midair, electricity ran over various points, which began to split open. The hood flipped down under the undercarriage, as the trunk split into two longish arms as the hood split open into a pair of heavily-built legs. The windshield plated over with armor and the droptop canopy was sheathed in metal as well, a bright red Autobot icon appearing on his chest. The head rose up, a rectangular helmet which hid all but a pair of yellow eyes, until the faceguard withdrew, revealing a cocky smirk. The spliut second he landed, he sent off a pair of missiles from his shoulders, both homing in on Wildrider. Megas then reached behind him, pulling off what appeared to be his tailpipe, which shot a red blade of energy from the muffler. "Let's dance, rustbucket."

IC:
Windrunner went flying into the air and transformedinto he4r robot form, landing with ease and turning to face the stunitcons, she was tired, but fortunatley hadn't been bashed up at all on the way here because of her forms speed and agility.
Preparing for an attack she fired offa few shots before ducking over to Eternity's side, she looked like she'd need the most help in a fight.

"Tarantulas, Terrorize!" Tarantulas landed in the hollowed out river as he transformed. Aiming a large gun at one of the stunticons, Tarantulas laughed. The gun had a small iron arrow pointing out of it, the arrow was glowing bright purple and looked almost like it was surrounded by liquid.

"Eat cyber-venom you relic!" Tarantulas laughed as he fired it off. The arrow landed itself in the robot, and imbedded itself inside of it's chest. The venom spreading from the infection, the whole robot began glowing with purple energy.

Tarantulas laughed as it fell in a heap, turning to the other robots he began firing off his machine guns again, as well as his energy-blaster walking slowly towards them, hopefully holding them back at bay. Holding a small gun with a tiny spider at the end of the barell, Tarantulas looked at it as he walked, he needed to get in range to place the tracer. He needed to know where the Decepticons were.

Shockwave looked around quickly, slightly dazed from the massive blast. It seemed his problems were only just beginning!

Deadend was stepping forward, raising his gun again to fire. Well, Shock could do nothing on his side, and in this form! Quick as a flash, he transformed, his shape shifting as he morphed into his robot form.

Before Deadend could fire again, a massive metal fist launched out into his face, knocking him right across the street and into the side of a large office block, smashing windows and cracking masonry! He quickly dislodged himself from the creater his body had made, dropping back down to the floor with a CRASH.

Shockwave was on his hands and knees after transforming, considering the unusual position he had started the transformation in. While Deadend was extracting himself from the building, Shock looked around, noticing the crowds of people who had previously been screaming and running from his Rig form as it toppled onto it's side...now they looked even more terrified as they saw the two massive robots in the road...the fear in the air had become an all out panic as they turned and began to run for their lives!

So much for being undercover. Still, at the moment it was either transform or die! At least the Humans were getting out of the way. Slamming his fists to the floor and cracking the pavement in the process, Shockwave lifted himself to his feet, turning to face Deadend as he landed.

Shockwave was actually a good bit taller than the Deceptocon, and much heavier built, but Deadend didn't back down as he looked up at the towering form of chrome and black. He had an advantage...one that relied on Autobot stupidity.

And he was right...at that very moment, Shockwave was thinking the same thing: Despite his larger size, probable higher strength and bigger weapons, Shockwave was handicapped by the location of the battlefield...he didn't want to put Human life in danger, something Deadend would have no qualms with! He tried not to show his uneasyness though as he squared off against the challenger.

"Same name, eh? Remind me to get an oil bath when I get back to base, I feel dirty now I know that."

"The only base you'll be going to is a scrapheap, rustbucket!" retorted Deadend sinisterly. "Your death is going to be very quick, I'll see to that." Jumping forward, the smaller robot suddenly delivered a powerful blow to Shockwave's chest, making him stagger backwards! Shockwave reacted quickly, swinging his huge arm across and slamming Deadend across the face, but as he fell the Deceptocon managed to fire off another shot from his compressed air cannon! Shockwave was hit by the blast head on, sending his gigantic form flying through the air and landing with a CRASH some way down the road! As he struggled to his feet, he noticed he had landed an some parked cars at the side of the road, and his eyes narrowed. I hope nobody was in those cars!!!

IC:
Eternity had managed to reach the dried up place where they were to fight but then her energy failed her, she fell to the ground on her side and managed to transform to her robot mode, propping herself up she groggily waited for someone to attack, she'd have to conserve her energy for now.
As Windrunner dropped down besid her she nodded thankfully,
"Thanks Windrunner, I'll try not to get in your way."

Breakdown shouted out in anger, during the course of the battle he had already been hit and infected with some purple whatever it was! He didnt know exactly what it was, nor did he care, but it started to hurt! A growing pain shot outwards from his chest, the point of which Tarantulus cyber-venom had struck him. Breakdown would be sure to get revenge.

Yargh! he shouted aloud, charging forwards towards Tarantulus. Breakdown had a greater size about him compared to Tarantulus, and whilst Tarantulus attack might have completely immobilised a Maximal or Predacon, for the larger Decepticon or Autobot, it would take more time. Time, Breakdown would use to defeat Tarantulus. Take this, you irritating bug! he shouted, already upon Tarantulus at a greater speed then Tarantulus could react to, and with it, Breakdown swung his right robotic leg upwards in a great arc, smashing into Tarantulus and sending the Predacon flying backwards, almost like a football. Im going to squash you!

--

Windrunner, Eternity, take down Breakdown! Prowl called out, jumping backwards out of the way of an attack from Motormaster, who energo-sword narrowly missed impaling Prowls waist.

Foolish Autobot. You believe you can defeat me? Motormaster bellowed out a loud laughter. As the leader of the Decepticon Stunticons, he was the most powerful out of all of them and with it had the greatest strength. For him, it seemed laughable that Prowl himself, energy drained and weakened, could possibly hope to defeat Motormaster.

Ill try! Prowl shouted back, Better yet, Ill win! With little hesitation, the two shoulder-mounted rockets upon Prowl shot forwards at a rapid speed away from the Autobots, cutting through the air towards Motormaster, but swiftly and with ease, Motormaster simply swung his energo sword in an arc in front of him. The blade cut through the two rockets and chopped them in half. Each half sailed past him, and crashed into the embedding drained river-bank around them, four explosions shaking the ground.

Prowl stared on in disbelief, the most powerful attack he could commit against the Decepticons having been so easily disregarded and defeated.

--

Wildrider laughed at Megas, a loud, continual booming escaping the Decepticons audio systems. You believe you can defeat me, Autobot scum? Trust me, you have little to no chance of being able to defeat me, Wildrider laughed, a wide smirk creeping up his features. Ha! he shouted, raising his scattershot gun and instantly pressing upon the trigger of it. A flurry of erratic, but powerful laser beams shot out from the weapon, aiming towards Megas, the erratic nature meaning the beams would capture a large area around Megas, and that there would be a little chance of Megas actually avoiding the attack!

Take that, Auto-jerk! Wildrider screamed over the buzzing laser blasts.

--

A loud crack of clashing metal echoed across the streets, as once more Shockwaves fist crashed into the whole of Deadends body, sending the smaller Decepticon flying more along the length of the street and onto a section of cars as well. Slowly rising up again from the impression he had left, he wiped the oil slipping from his mouth piece and glared once more at Shockwave. It was something he was becoming irritated of continually smashed by the great lugs fists!

There was one thing he particularly wanted to see the Autobot do and that was burn! His sensors moved away from Shockwave, and instead scanned the ground, the road itself, searching past the concrete, and finally, finding what he was after.

A gas pipe.

He turned, moved his body further away from the gas pipe that ran along the centre of the road, Deadends seemingly random movements confusing Shockwave as he stared on at the smaller Decepticons antics. He wasnt running away what was he-

Before his thoughts could conclude, Deadend aimed down at it, and releasing the strongest blast he could from his weapon, he aimed right at the gas pipe by Shockwaves feet. The blast melted down through the concrete and the rest of the floor, before finally coming into contact with the gas pipe, and sparking off the largest explosion he had seen in a long time (well, 4 million years to be precise)!

The explosions continued in a series of chain reactions along the length of the street, the road almost giving way and being blown upwards like a volcano, the sheer force of the giant, tremendous event shattering every unbroken glass on the nearby building into shards of deadly killing machines, falling towards the ground. The chain reactions of the gas line also, indirectly, combusted and exploded the nearby cars as well, forcing the scene to become one gigantic fireball!

Tarantulas growled as he was punted across the riverbed. "I'm a scientist, not a warrior!" he growled as the large robot came bearing down on him. Whipping out another large gun he fired a big globbing of cyber-web at the monster robot's foot. Slowing him down like a piece of gum. Firing another few globs, the robots feet were quickly stuck to the ground. Whipping out another gun, this one with a thinner nozzle, he aimed it at the heart of the robot. Firing off a thin web-line he laughed as it connected. Converting into motorcycle mode, the web still attached to his hindquarters Tarantulas began driving in circles around the giant robot.

The web-line was soon wrapped multiple times around the large robot. The cyber-venom, the web-line wrapped around him, and the webbing on his feet working together to keep the giant stunticon from moving. Tarantulas transformed back into robot mode and pulled out his blaster again. The predacon computer's voice echoed in his head suddenly. "Power reserves low, convert back to beast mode within 2 cycles or stasis lock will iminate."

Tarantulas growled and began blasting away at the large decepticon. "Just one more thing," he said to himself. Looking over at his two partners he growled. "Attack already!"

The erratic nature of the lasers also meant, of course, that very few would hit him. Megas stood perfectly still, deflecting any shots that came at him head-on with the sword. The rest crashed around him, and a couple hit. They stung of course, but not as much as if Megas had tried to dodge. "You done, scrapheap? YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Megas leapt high into the air and brought the sword crashing down at Wildrider's head.

IC:
Windrunner aimed at Breadown's head and started firing off her shots, in his mobile state the decepticon was in no condition to avoid them and they struck home...

"AAAAAAARGH!" Shockwave roared as he was physically blasted into the air by the powerful explosions, blowing him a good five storeys off the ground with their incredible power! At the same time, some of the gas pipes in the buildings nearby exploded as well, causing a chain reaction in their foundations that caused their support pillars to crumble!

The buildings to either side of Shockwave began to collapse inward, threatening to fall directly on top of him!

He thought quickly...he had already sustained some damage from the explosion, and there was no way he'd be able to get out of the way of the collapsing buildings if he landed on the floor again! He had once chance...the probabillity of it working was scant at best, but it was the only option he had!

As he reached the highest point of his arc from the explosion, he began to transform, his huge legs folding in underneath his body and long, sweeping wings extending from his sides. He just hoped to goodness his engines were powerful enough!

There was a deafening roar as the SR-17's jets blasted to full power, it's nose pointing directly upwards into the sky! Gouts of flame and smoke were rising all around, and the two massive concrete walls of the buildings either side were steadily falling closer and closer as slowly...pinfully slowly...the jet began to climb! Deadend, who had run forwards after the shot, following the explosions he had caused, stopped and stared in disbelief at the massive plane as it began to rise like a black phoenix from the fires of hell! "No...!"

Shockwave's jets flamed downward, further incinnerating the now burnt out hulks of cars and trucks that had been parked on either side of the road and heating up the roaring flames into a firestorm as the powerful engines scorched the ground, melting the tarmac of the road like mud! He was climbing, but too slowly...too slowly! The buildings were collapsing in on either side...

With a WHOOSH the two towering concrete obelisks dropped past him, missing his wingtips by inches! A noise like a thunderclap roared through the entire city as the two skyscrapers collided with each other mid-air and crumbled into one another, impacting on the floor with an earth shattering BOOM! She impact caused a shockwave that ripped out from the scene, blasting Deadend backwards and once again implanting him firmly on his backside some way down the road! He grunted in anger as he stood, raising his eyes to look for his quarry.

Shock looked down, apalled. Had there been people in those buildings??? This was getting way too out of hand...he needed to draw Deadend away from the city before anything else happened...one Human death was one too many! Also, if he could get the Decepticon out of the built-up area, the playing field would be more in his favour, as he would be able to bring his own weaponry into play!

He arced his Blackbird form around, diving low over the tops of the buildings and the road that Deadend was in. "You're gonna pay for that, scrapmetal!" he roared in anger. "It'll take more than that to take me down! How about we settle this in a more even playing field, huh? I dare you!!!" There was a roar of engines as the Blackbird flew overhead, arcing to the left so as to set course for the city limits. As he turned, Shockwave looked back at his opponant carefully, hoping his words had sunk home. Comeon you fool...transform and follow me!

============================================================

Smoke screeched from all six of Dragstrip's tires as he skidded round another sharp corner, wheels spinning like aircraf propellers as he struggled for purchase on the road. Fusion was close behind...his wheels locked up as he entered the corner, skidding in a long arc sideways as he powerslided the turn.

"I have to admit, you're good!" exclaimed Dragstrip as the two of them drew side by side. "But I'm better! It's only a matter of time, puny thing!"

"For crying out loud, do you ever actually SHUT UP???" spat Fusion in disbelief. It seemed Dragstrips verbal diohrreah of insults and threats was completely limitless...he had been at it the whole of the race so far and showed no signs of slowing!

The yellow car laughed manicly. "What, am I getting to you? Oh I'm sorry, I guess your limited sences can only handle so much information at once. Can't concentrate on the race, eh?"

"Concentrate on this!" Fusion slammed his wheel hard left to take the next corner, and as he did so, he let his back end slide out, clipping Dragstrip on his front wheel! Going at such speeds, the result was collosal...Dragstrip was launched up on two wheels, almost turning clean over with the momentum, before crashing back to the floor and skidding from side to side to regain control! By then, though, the corner was almost past!

He two slammed hard left, tires screeching in protest at the sharp turn and incredible speed! He mounted the pavement as he screeched round the corner, mowing down parking meters and a bus stop, before slamming broadside into the wall of the building on the outside of the turn! He bounced off and quickly rejoined the road, racing after the Skyline as he pulled away, but he had sustained some damage! "Oh I'm gonna cut you so deep, insolent freak!!!"

"Sure man, whatever." retorted Fusion sarcastically. He had spotted something on his thermal scans that he was playing on, trying to buy time until it took effect...

Dragstrip's systems were running dangerously hot!

Suddenly the air filled with noise as two other veichles appeared from a side-street, skidding into the road and roaring up alongside the two racing veichles, lights flashing and sirens wailing above the roar of engines! Fusion looked around in supprise. Cops??? What were they doing here???

OOC: Just found out actually. Megas is a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, not a 1965 Mustang, so that's what I'm gonna refer to him as from now on. IC later.

Rapid shots and explosions erupted across Breakdown's head, the entire area being subjugated in flames and smoke, and for once, making it difficult for any of the assembled Autobots and Predacon to determine the condition and fate that had befell Breakdown. However, after a long pause, everything was made clear. Through the dissipating smoke, Breakdown's body lurched forwards slightly, the gravity forcing the large, giant Stunticon to fall down and crash completely, his fall shooting out even more smoke and dust in the air, and leaving an eerie sense of resolution.

Breakdown was defeated.

----

Megas' sword swung down in a large arc, the blade slicing through the air and cutting it cleanly followed by a loud rush of wind and finally, before Wildrider could react through dodging or countering, the blade landed, cleanly imbedding itself in Wildrider's head, crushing and caving metal inwards. Sparks shot out from his face, and he stuttered backwards, his words a series of incoherent mumbling. The attack had done a significant amount of damage, but not enough to have actually totalled the Decepticon and send him off-line.

"I-I-I cannot beeeeee deee-feat-ed." He mumbled, the tone of his voice lowering and becoming higher once more, incoherent, all over the place. It was enough to almost send Megas insane.

Wildrider lifted his weapon once more and tried his best to aim at Megas, but the Stunticon's optical sensors were damaged and almost practically damaged. As he fired, the multiple energy blasts shot out randomly, missing the Autobot and crashing into the landscape around him, creating small explosions that shot forth more dust and debris raining down the battle field.

Megas charged forwards, ignoring the wildly firing and missing shots. He swung his blade around and prepared into a position, such as when he finally got to Wildrider, he was stabbing the Decepticon, peircing the Stunticon straight through his chest.

"I hope this peirces your twisted spark," Megas spoke out. "Enjoy the inferno!"

Wildrider's damaged optical sensors glowed brightly once more, and then dimmed and fainted. His weapon stopped firing, and it collapsed from his hand, imbedding itself into the ground. There was no more activity from Wildrider.

----

Motormaster was, although focusing the majority of his attention on this small segment of Autobot's leader Prowl, not oblivious to the rest of his surroundings and the results of the smaller battles that took place. The two other Stunticons here, Wildrider and Breakdown, were defeated. Lying inactive upon the barren river bed, the Autobots had defeated them... and he was now fully aware that he was outnumbered. 5 to one were not appropriate odds.

"Well, count yourself lucky, Autobots," Motormaster spat out, looking at Prowl but turning his body around as he prepared to leave. "Through some miracle, you energy drained saps managed to defeat these idiots... but I shouldn't be too surprised after all. We're suffering energy fatigue too."

The gathered Autobots and Predacon all looked towards Motormaster. As it was, it looked as though the Decepticon Stunticon was going to flee, but they could do little to stop him. They were all energy drained, and a continuing battle was not what they desired. They outnumbered Motormaster, true, but were too weak to carry on. And the ever-nearing sirens signalled the approach of human intervention.

Motormaster suddenly laughed.

"It was interesting playing with you," Motormaster laughed. "But, to tell you the truth... this was nothing more then a distraction."

Prowl's senses seemed to stop completely, as he was faced with shock. His optical sensors beamed a bright yellow. It was all... a distraction?

"What are you talking about, Motormaster?!" Prowl shouted out.

Motormaster smirked, and then turned away completely, walking away from the Autobots and climbing to the top of the river bank, back onto the street.

"Like I said, we're energy drained too. This fight was little more then a distraction to keep you busy while we stole this primitive planet's energy." Motormaster transformed. "It's been fun, if hardly stimulating. See you fools later."

Motormaster left the area, his form dissapearing from sight, although not the Autobot's sensors. Prowl wished they could follow, but they couldn't... it was simply too risky.

"What do we do about them? Take them with us?" Windrunner asked, pointing to the unmoving bodies of Breakdown and Wildrider.

"I wish we could, but we're low on energy and can't carry them. The humans are coming near too, we simply need to transform and get out of here, back to the Ark section we fell in." Prowl explained.

"What about the other two Transformers Megas met? And the other Stunticons?" Eternity asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Hopefully we'll meet them on the way and that they're on our side. Regardless we need to go... to the outskirts of this city. I can sense one Cybertronian there." Prowl comanded, transforming into his patrol car form and speeding down the dried out river.

----

Deadend looked to the sky, his sensors trailing Shockwave's dissapearing body. A smirk creeped up his mouth.

"Idiot, we Decepticons don't play by the rules or fairly, we do what we want. There is no even playing field, only one in the Decepticon's advantage." Deadend stopped, and then surveyed his surroundings. The city, the humans. "And it looks like I just found your weakness, you big lug."

"Motormaster, Deadend, Breakdown, Dragstrip, Wildrider. This is Decepticon sub-commander Soundwave reporting. The mission is a success, and I have obtained the energy from the Earthling's power plant. You are now authorised to return to the Nemesis base." a report beeped into Deadend's mental thoughts. His smirk dropped to that of anger, and his gun suddenly rose up in a curve, and the trigger was pressed, shooting a powerful amount of force down the street, where it impacted upon the enarest unscathed building, transforming it into rubble.

"You cheated me, Soundwave!" he shouted, not transmitting to the Decepticon himself, but keeping it to his thoughts. "And you, you big Autobot coward, this isn't over!" he shouted, although it would be impossible for Shockwave to hear him. "I will kill you slowly, in due time..."

Deadend transformed, and retreated back to the shoreline.

----

"Bah, stupid Soundwave, he doesn't understand the importance of this!" Dragstrip shouted. Fusion heard the frustrated Stunticon shout aloud, but didn't understand why exactly he did. "And you stupid Earthlings, for Primus' sake, shut up!!!"

Dragstrip suddenly turned and breaked, his vehicular form turning around to face the pursuing police. In a flash, he had transformed, and then leapt in to the air over the chasing Police cars. As the vehicles passed underneath him, he let loose a volley of blasts down at them, the laser blasts impacting and detonating the patrol cars, shooting forth a stream of explosions that enblanketed the entire area.

"Autobot, don't think that this is over. Consider this... a pit stop. I'll beat you next round." Dragstrip spoke aloud, and then quickly transformed and departed to the shore as well.

Tarantulas eyed the two stunticons on the ground. "Time to work," he laughed maniacally as he approached the heads of the two stunticons. "Quickly now." he pulled out his large buzz-saw weapon and let it spin for a short while, he moved it so that it cut cleanly through one of their heads, leaving a clean open wound in the robot's head. Reaching in, Tarantulas placed a wire from within his being inside the Decepticon's head. Pulling out a controller he pressed a button on it, causing the wire to transfer the robot's energy into Tarantulas.

"Dinner is served." Tarantulas laughed as the stunticons energy was transferred into him, what little he had left would be more useful to Tarantulas, who conserved energy much more efficiently than the giant decepticon. Converting back into motorcycle mode, he charged after Prowl, now feeling much more refreshed.

Fusion's tires locked up and he spun round, staring at the wrackages of the police cars littering the road behind him. "Holy Motherboard of Mainframe!" he exclaimed, watching the plumes of smoke ascend into the sky like ghosts leaving the shattered remains. "What did they do to deserve that???" Dragstrip roared off down the road, and Fusion spun his wheels, launching off after him. "Get back here, you freak! I'm not done with you yet!!!" suddenly though, his vision blurred and flickered, and he had to slam on his breaks as he almost lost control!

WARNING: Power levels citical - recharge now!

Stopping brought his vision back, but he felt drained, weak. He didn't have enough energy to find Shockwave, or anything else for that matter! He eased himself to the side of the road, parking up by the pavement, and sent out a signal to any Cybertrons in the area. Risky...very risky considering the Decepticons were so close, but he had no choice. Hopefully Shockwave would find him before them, and use his transporter form to take him to somewhere he could recharge.

Then he heard the sirens. More Humans, more police. If they descovered what he really was he could be in trouble...thank goodness he was in car form. He wasn't sure he had the energy even to transform!

But then again, the pedestrians nearby had seen him and Dragstrip racing, and could ident him to the police...and with those burnt out police cars and their dead occupants not twenty feet away, they wouldn't be friendly!

And there was no way he could escape...!

============================================================

Shockwave had lost sight of Deadend very quickly in the mass of skyscrapers, so all he could do now was hope that the Deceptocon was following him! He continued to fly low, hoping Deadend would be able to track him, but his energy was getting low now...he didn't dare use his sensors to make sure he was there.

Coming to the outer limits of the city, he dropped to the floor again, transforming back into robot mode, and turned, waiting for Deadend to arrive.

Time passed.

The fool! He didn't take the bait! Shock was sure that the insult had been forceful enough, insulting enough to be irresistable to any pompus Deceptocon! So where was he???

Despite the worry of power drain, Shockwave risked his scanners, looking out to see if he had indeed been followed as he had hoped.

Nothing. Wait, signals further outside the city limits, headed this way. Decepticons? They were coming from the wrong direction for that, surely. Still, the possibillity was there!

They were close...Shockwave turned, scanning the horizon to see if he could see them. Then he picked up the homing signal, a steady, persistant bleeping coming from somewhere in the city...

A Cybertron of some kind...in trouble...and any other Cybertron for miles around would also have felt it! Wether good or bad, whoever it was sending the signal was taking a major risk!

Why did he get a sneaking, niggling worry that the signal was going to be from Fusion?

He would have to check it out, but the other signals were too close...better to wait and see what those were before moving out. In fact, looking into the distance now along the one solitery road that passed through the area, he thought he saw something moving towards him at high speed...

Inferno was sick and tired of picking up after his queen's grunts. Could they not just serve the royalty effectively and without disappearing into thin air? Could the spider not simply work from within the base like the rest of them? Instead of scuttling off into his little cave and working on all matters of experments. Begrudgingly, the crafty little arachnid was Inferno's creator.

Inferno looked at the keypad in Tarantulas' hidden lair. Covered in dust from a long period of absense. Inferno began typing on the keyboard. His queen had ordered him to find out what had caused Tarantulas' disappearence, and find the spider he would.

Inferno was not too experienced with computers,and his ant legs were very hard to type with. He was unsure if he was working on this correctly. Suddenly a large flash of light came across the screen and Inferno found himself blacking out.

When he awoke, Inferno found a large crowd of people standing around him gawking at him. "Humans! The royalty despises your kind!" Inferno looked around frightened as they began running. "You will all burn! Inferno, terrorize!" Inferno felt his ant body parts shift and his robot form emerge. Boosting himself into the air, he pulled out a pair of gigantic guns and began blasting at everyone in sight.

"For the royalty!" he switched his guns to flamethrower mode and began spraying fire at everyone he could. He was creating quite a scene.

Megas leapt into the air, his Barracuda form sliding back together, then took off after Prowl and Tarantulas...he was beginning to regret picking a musclecar model, as the flashing "LOW ENERGY" light came on in his dashboard.

IC:
Windrunner sighed and transformed into motorbike mode setting off after the others instinctively, then suddenly, screeching to a hlat and turning back to Eternity.
"Hey, will you be alright?"

IC:
"It's okay, I'll try and stagger out of here, I'll have to go another way, I barely have enough energy to walk let alone put up a stealth field, I'm going to draw attention to myself so I might as well get to where we're going seperately from you guys."
With a groan she raised herself up, almost collapsing again as a warnign flared across her vision, she'd lost to much power, she wasn't going anywhere.

Inferno was flying in the air when the police arrived. A pair of cop cars pulled in below him as he was attempting to burn down a rather large building.

Bullets bounced off of his chrome-frame as he worked at his carnage. "Who dares to strike at me?" Inferno laughed maniaclly aiming his pair of guns at the cop cars. Within seconds of him pulling the trigger, they were blown to bits.

Within seconds, dozens of cops had arrived and were shooting at the robot. Even Inferno's advanced armour couldn't take a barage of this magnitude. Deciding it would be more productive for him to try and find a way back to his royalty, Inferno flew above the buildings away from the danger.

"Locate unit Tarantulas." Inferno spoke to his computer sub-concious. This place must be where the scientist had been transported. Within minutes Inferno had located him.

"Spider!" Inferno exclaimed, landing in front of the arachnid robot. "The royalty commands that you be returned immedeately. You will come with me or you will burn!"

"You idiot!" Tarantulas exclaimed, transforming into robot mode. "I am attempting to infiltrate the autobot ranks so that our mighty 'queen' may acheive his dreams of grandeur." He looked around for a second, to ensure that none of the autobots had heard him. "Now listen carefully. If we're going to make sure the decepticons win, we're going to need to know WHERE they are, find them, tell them you're a predacon, their decendant."

Inferno considered the spider's words before turning around. Tarantulas pulled out his gun and aimed it at him. "Find any decepticons you can." then a bit louder. "And you better stay away from us, Predacon scum!" Inferno was kicked into the air and flew off into the horizon.

Converting back into motorcycle mode, the spider continued his pursuit of Prowl.

Megas' voice came into Prowl's sensors all too loudly, Megas never was a quiet one. "Hey boss," it came through, "we have energon reserves back at the Ark, right?"

Mega's booming voice ran through loudly into Prowl's sensors, making the weary and energy-drained Autobot swerve across the road slightly in surprise. Despite it, Prowl quickly re-orientated his position, and as such carried on normally. A second later, he began his reply to Megas.

"Yes, we do... but not enough to sustain us for long. We'll be able to use them to resupply ourselves, and then, maybe we'll be able to do that twice more, but then after that, we're out. Remember, out section of the Ark wasn't particularly big... we're lucky to have anything." Prowl responded. "What we need to do is in someway harness this planet's energy, convert it into a form that we can use for ourselves."

"Isn't that what the Decepticons are doing?" Windrunner interjected, seeking an answer.

"That's right... they're stealing it though, to not only refuel themselves, but also to achieve who knows what other dastardly scheme they're planning. We... need to get the Earthlings' permission." Prowl answered.

"What?!" Megas boomed again. "What makes you think they're just going to up and give us their fuel? We crashlanded on their planet, and so far torn it up pretty badly. We go to them... they're not going to be so forgiving. They won't give us any fuel, Prowl."

"And what do you want us to do, Megas? Steal it like the Decepticons? We will never sink down to their level." Prowl replied, his anger evident in his tone.

"We won't have much of a choice... besides, our priority should be to find Optimus Prime and the rest of the missing Autobots!" Windrunner chimed in again.

"One thing at a time. We need to establish a safe and secure means of getting fuel, without stealing it. Then we need to localize Megatron's threat, keep it lower scale... in fact, we really need to achieve an alliance with the Earthlings. Without them we're done for. Besides... we've been on their planet for 4 million years. They should know something about Prime's dissapearance." Prowl explained.

"What if they're the ones that kidnapped Optimus and the others?"

"...kidnapped, I doubt it. It's possible they have him and the others, but I doubt they kidnapped them... we'll have to hope for the best." Prowl responded.

"Like whether he's an ally or a foe?" Megas asked, transmitting a map, and a blinking location of it, which showed all of them the Cybertronian they were approaching. Slowly, but surely, the other Transformer came into view, as Prowl, Windrunner and Megas grew nearer and nearer to him.

He was in a robot form, and it was a robot form that Prowl was well aware of! Although all of the Transformer's secondary forms (the vehicles, beasts, weapons etc) had changed from what they were on Cybertronian, almost all of the Transformers on Earth retained their Primary (Robot) form, and as such Prowl was easily aware of who it was! A site for sore optics!

"Shockwave!" he called out, transforming. Prowl was fortunate enough to have retained enough energy to transform for now, unlike the others who fought against the Stunticons and exerted more movement, Prowl had not. "I can't believe it's you! I'm glad you weren't a Decepticon!"

"Prowl!" Shockwave responded, and then looked towards Prowl's companions. He wasn't sure about the motorcycle, but from the detail of the other vehicle... "Megas?"

"Yep. That's me." He said, staying in his vehicle mode.

"And I'm Windrunner, it's good to see you, Shockwave." the motorcycle added, staying in the vehicle form too.

"Phew," The giant Transformer sighed. "I didn't want to have to face any more 'cons. I'm damaged and weakened..." Shockwave interjected.

"Same here. We were heading back towards the section of the Ark we crashed in to resupply and then to pick up Eternity and get her some energy too," Prowl began, but was interrupted.

"Eternity too? How many of there were you in your section?" Shockwave asked.

"Five. Us three, Eternity and Sindwinder." Prowl answered.

"And me," a voice interjected. "Tarantulus." The spider creepingly reported.

Shockwave's features contorted almost into a frown. This Cybertronian he did not know... and Tarantulus was smaller then any other Autobots! His size was comparitive to that of a Human. In fact, Shockwave could have probably just stepped on him, and Tarantulus would have been squished! He looked to Prowl, seeking an answer, but Prowl's expression was one that implied to ask later, when Tarantulus was not around.

"What happened to him?"

"No idea. We were going to check for him after we refueled... what about you? Where did you land, and did you land with anyone else? Have you found Optimus?"

------

Sirens blared out across the city, as emergency rescue services tore across the streets to the areas which had been engulfed in the Autobot/Decepticon conflict. It was a chaotic and tragic scene. The damage was substantial in all areas, yet it could not be argued that the most heavily damaged area was the entire street which had been subjected to an almost endless barrage of explosions. Human survivors in that area became increasingly doubtful.

A helicopter surveyed the area, piloted by members of the country's government that had rushed to the scene, yet were too late. The Transformer battle was ended, and all they could arrive to was a bloody aftermath.

"That's right, sir. The fighting appears to have stopped, I cannot spot any of the monsters from up here. And I'm unsure where the rest of them went to either." reported a suited man from inside the helicopter. "What was that, sir? No, sir. Wait. Hang on... I can see something. Two of the bodies! Two of the monster's bodies! They're located in a dried out river bed where reconstruction is meant to take place! Yes, sir, we're investigating the area now!"

The helicopter turned, and headed towards the scene where the majority of Autobots (and Predacon) had fought the Stunticons.

------

Eternity was all alone. Seeking to allow her Autobot allies the opportunity to escape, she had lied that she would be alright, her energy was drained and she could no longer move. She prayed that she could at least seek the shelter of an alleyway, to get out of such an easy view! But it was impossible.

"Freeze, monster!" came a shout from behind her. Eternity's sensors quickly went to work, translating the alien language, until she could understand what it was. 'English'. She slowly turned her head, her eyes widening at the appearance of three human operated tanks, all of whose turrets were aimed squarely at her.

"Wait..." Eternity began, her voice program emanating more of her native Cybertronian language. Although her audio sensors were calibrated for English, her vocal wasn't. The humans took this as to be an attack, and all at once fired at her.

Eternity was struck by and damaged by the attack, collapsing onto her side as smoke poured from her wound. Struggling to keep conscious, it was a losing battle and she could do nothing to prevent it. Her optical sensors were first to deactivate, followed by the rest of her body.

------

"It was that thing!" pointed the small boy of 10 years old. He was fortunate, that he had been on the scene of the battle and had still survived. His outstretched arm and finger were all pointing towards a sport's car, an alien sport's car, to be precise. Pointing towards Fusion.

More army vehicles had arrived an were securing the area. The army officials had a difficult time in believing that the vehicle was in fact the cause of such destruction when it looked perfectly normal, yet the testimony was backed up by several other lucky survivors. And initial scanning from the primitive Earthern technology deduced that Fusion was NOT normal. Although the Humans had no idea what he was, he was definitely not a normal car.

"Be careful men, we need to make sure we capture this thing... but be on the look-out in case that thing tries to cause any more damage!" ordered the commanding official at the scene. The soldiers complied, and workered to make sure that the energy-less Fusion was captured.

-------

A smirk rose upon the powerful, giant, grey robot's mouth. The operation had been a success, the Stunticons had successfully distracted the Autobots long enough for Soundwave and Runamuck to acquire the energy. It was true, however, that two of the Stunticons had been lost, yet it was no real disspointment. The two warriors in particular were idiots, and it wouldn't take much to free them from the futile and inadequate human forces.

"Good work, my soldiers. This was a fine mission," Megatron praised. "This helps us to truely see how weak the Autobots and Earthlings really are, and we have won enough fuel to refuel ourselves for the time being." Megatron laughed. "I do believe, my allies, that now is the perfect opportunity for us to eradicate this small batallion of Autobots once and for all... now that we will be able to locate the Autobot's headquarters once and for all!"

Megatron's laugh rebounded across the room, and was joined in by the other Decepticons present. For, in the centre of the room, was an unconscious, bloodied and weakened, dismembered body of an altogether familiar looking Autobot...

...Sindwinder.

OOC: This isn't the end of Fusion and Eternity, far from it. XD I just figure we could create an interesting dynamic where the two of them are captured, and where they'll need to escape, which should be implemented soon.

Tarantulas whispered into his computer so that none of the others could hear him. "Convert activation code."

"Tarantulas, Maximize!" the spider transformed into his robot form. He eyed Prowl before looking at Shockwave. "I'm glad to see more of my noble ancestors."

"Now that we've met up with others of our cloth, where to next, great one?" the predacon spoke with feigned enthusiasm.

----

Inferno hovered in the air, looking for any sign of a decepticon. But his scanners were not designed to detect decepticon signals, and he was having trouble. "Blast that spider, if his orders were not from the royalty, I would annhilate him!"

Inferno's energy was depleting quickly, though he still retained enough to fly. He could not maneuver effectively. He landed swiftly and converted back to beast mode, continuing on foot along the abandoned street.

As he turned a corner, he noticed a pair of large robots lying on the ground in a ditch. A large group of humans stood around them, he recognised the symbols on them as those the Decepticons wore. "Decepticons, my queen will be pleased!" the ant remembered his last encounter with humans however, and remained hidden.

Intending to wait until the humans left he burrowed into the ground and watched from a small hole he left in the ground.

(OOC: Dang this is getting so awesome!!!)

IC:

"Where did you land, and did you land with anyone else? Have you found Optimus?"

"I wish!" replied Shockwave bluntly. "I came down in England...the fragment of the ship I was in was barely enough to keep me from burning up in the atmosphere. I had Fusion with me as well."

"Fusion" repeated Prowl thoughtfully. "I've heard of him, but never met him. He was one of the newer models wasn't he?"

Shockwave nodded. "Anyway, we tried to locate any other survivors by trying to plot the falling debris...work out where it would land and go investigate. We traveled to over a dozen different countries looking for others, but didn't find any. Sometimes we'd come across bits of the ship, but there were no survivors."

Prowl sighed slightly. "Bleak situation..." he murmured, more to himself than anyone in particular. "Where's Fusion now?"

"He went chasing on of the Stunticons...haven't heard from him since, although a short while ago I detected a distress signal, possibly from him, I don't know." Shockwave's eyes narrowed. "He'd better not have got himself into trouble."

"We'd help you check it out, but we're too low on energy at the moment." replied Prowl. "Much as I hate tosay it, if it was him, he'll have to wait."

At this point Terantulas spoke up himself. "Now that we've met up with others of our cloth, where to next, great one?"

"I need to recharge too." muttered Shockwave, eyeing the red flashing energy meter on the peripheral of his vision. "Listen, how far away is your base Prowl? I don't have much energy to go far, but if you like you and the others could transfer your power to me and I could carry you in my transporter form...we'd be able to cover more distance that way, if your base is some way away..."

Its within that mountain range, Prowl said, pointing towards a series of mountains not too far away from where they were or where Los Angeles was, either. Shockwave frowned somewhat, and turned to Prowl.

Wouldnt the Earthlings be able to detect it? he asked.

The Earthlings technology is primitive compared to ours. I dont know if the section you landed in had its systems totalled, but were able to expend a small amount of energy to keep it undetectable from the Earthlings, enough to keep us under cover from them for a while, at least. Prowl explained. Shockwave nodded.

And the Decepticons? he asked.

Im unsure where they landed, but their vessel was mostly intact. Theyre off towards that direction, at least, Prowl pointed towards the sea.

Not that. Would they be able to detect us? Shockwave asked.

Not sure, depends on the damages of their ship. But Id hazard a guess theyd be safe, even from them, for a little while. But, its best to prepare for anything. Prowl replied.

Right. Well then your base is nestled in the mountains. Im not sure how well Id be able to land within there Shockwave spoke aloud, somewhat dismayed.

I understand, well have to drive there. It shouldnt take long, anyway. Prowl smiled somewhat with relief, and transformed. Shockwave nodded as well, and transformed to his vehicular form.

That said though, if you still gave me energy I could get us there on wheels. Shockwave suggested, to which Prowl beeped an affirmative.

Well all give you some energy then, not enough to make us in critical condition though, and well leave it to you. Prowls voice spoke out from the patrol car form, and he drove up next to Shockwave. Both Autobots simultaneously retracted and shifted a square of metal and from it, two pipes out jutted from each other and clasped upon one another. From it, the energy transfusion began, and afterwards, Prowl rolled up onto Shockwave, whilst Windrunner, and finally Tarantulus, gave Shockwave some of their energy (Tarantulus only gave a small amount to signify to the others that he too was low on energy, when rather he had drained a high amount of energy from the fallen Stunticons, though he didnt aim to reveal this to the others).

Megas didnt give any to Shockwave, as his large vehicular form wouldnt have managed to fit upon him. Instead, the two Autobots now drove off, carrying the small meagre group of heroic Autobots (and traitorous Predacon) to the isolated section of Ark.

------

An hour had passed since the conflict took place. Although the situation in Los Angeles, the damage and destruction, was still being contained, the four mysterious and altogether alien beings that had helped cause the carnage within the city had quickly been moved away from the site, to one of a safe destination away from prying eyes, and also so that the army, and government, could truly discern what the menace was, and what threat it would pose.

Within the barren, empty, land, a slew of airplanes shot through the sky, within the middle of the bombardment were four, large heavy duty powered airships, all of which were carrying a tightly fastened Transformer. All of which were headed for one area

An army base. Long thought disused, this new event had reawakened its activity. The transport planes came to a slow stop and landing in the area, carefully dropping off the four Transformers onto the base, where they were fastened and secured to long, heavy machinery carrying vehicles that usually helped to carry parts of space shuttles.

All four of the vehicles, and Transformers, descended into the depths of darkness as they entered the main buildings of the army base, their path forwards influencing the lighting of several thousands of tiny lights, illuminating the area.

The Transformers were now the property of the United States of Americas government.

So we actually managed to capture some of these things. What are they? Terrorist weapons of mass destruction? Aliens? What? A man well dressed in a green uniform asked.

Were unsure yet, General Lazrer, sir. We need to execute some tests on the specimens before we can properly identify what they are. However, already we know something, their technology is far beyond anything were using. A reply came from a similarly tall man, yet one dressed in a white lab coat, carrying a board with him and the shine from the number of lights reflecting off his square glasses. He was also bald.

Well then, isnt that just peachy. If it is the Russians, or Al Qaeda, then heaven help us we need to know what these things are in order to fight back. And if theyre aliens then well, were probably even more screwed. General Lazrer sighed, rubbing his frustrated brows and taking off his hat, revealing a grey set of hair. But Doctor Haster. Given initial perceptions are these things similar to the other ones?

Possibly we need to run further tests.

Then do it.

------

The Autobots finally arrived at their base, all of their energy reserves running dangerously low. As they arrived, all of them could finally see the section of the Ark they had crash landed in, imbedded within a section of the mountain, and covered by other pieces of rubble and ruin, to mask the location. It was fortunate that this had not been discovered before.

Cmon Prowl spoke weakly upon Shockwave. We need to refuel, and then well figure out what to do next.

He had no clue how he did it. Inferno had flown ever inch of the way behind the jet-planes from where they had left Los Angeles. Call it his beast form's insctincts and determination to serve, call it an influence of divine power. Or just stack it up to dumb luck.

The predacon landed outside the compund's gates. Converting back to Beast Mode he peered around a small rock to look at the base's entrance. "More humans! The royalty will be pleased if I destroy them!" the ant reared up on his back legs. "Inferno, terrorize!"

A sharp jolt fired up his back and exploded at the base of his head. "Energy reserves too low, transformation impossible." Inferno growled. "I must recharge."

The ant began digging into the ground with his incizors, burrowing deeper and deeper as his beast mode worked to recharge him, using means known only to the workmen of the pit.

-------

Tarantulas looked at the small piece of the Ark. Something was bothering him as he looked at the ancient space craft.

"The history records never mentioned pieces of the Ark..."* The spider ran his hand along his chin in contemplation. Something was afoot.

OOC: *I'm not sure if this is true. If it isn't... er... ignore it.

Megas summoned just enougbh energy to force his left arm out of the vehicular mode, enough to punch in the access code. The entry gate slid open. "After you."

OOC: is it all right if I play a human scientist in the military base? I had a couple ideas for character interaction when/if the two captured ones come online in the base.

Inferno had worked hard. It was tough digging into the ground using only a nimble insect's jaw, but he had managed to burrow inside the base underground. He emerged inside a room with wires running all along it up and down. "Energy!" Inferno laughed. "Terrorize!" he yelled again, having regained enough energy to transform. Plugging a wire into his own body he felt the energy drain back inward.

He laughed as he was atlast fully charged. Slamming a door down he converted back into beast mode. "Stealth mode." he whispered into his computer, causing his skin to change colour to match his environment a little more closely. He began stalking the hall-ways of the base's underground, looking for any sign of the decepticons.

-------

Tarantulas blinked. "Do you have any computer records on board? I'd like to evaluate your history recordings as they do not match the ones I've seen."

He followed the autobot trio onto the ship piece.

OOC: Feel free to, Cy.

"No," Prowl quickly responded to Tarantulus' question. "The Ark was an exploration ship, not a record craft. And at any rate, this small section wouldn't have had any of the records on it, or they would have been damaged in the fall. There's nothing left of any historial records." Prowl's optics glowed. During his explanation to Tarantulus, the other Autobots were now recieving energy alike how they empowered Shockwave. Slowly, every single Transformer present were refueled to their optimum efficiency, and the small section of the crashed Ark's own supplies had grown lower.

"What do we do now?" Windrunner asked, transforming into her robotic form.

"There's plenty of things we need to do," Prowl said, beginning to systematically explain the situation, and making sure that the others perfectly understood what was neccessary. "We're low in number, and because of that, we need to go back to that Earthern city and find both Eternity and Fusion, and get them out of there. They need to be refueled just we have."

The others nodded.

"We then need to establish an alliance of sorts with the Earthlings. We need to explain what the situation is, and whether we can have their help or not. Hopefully they might have some information on what would have happen to Optimus and the rest of the Autobots." Prowl listed off.

"And the Decepticons?" Megas asked.

"There's not much we can to do stop them with our limited forces. Best we can hope to do is limit their actions, hold them off until we can find the others." Prowl replied.

The rest of the Autobots and Tarantulus all understood.

"Firstly then, the Earthern city. I'm ordering everyone to remain in their secondary vehicular forms as you search around the city, it's what these forms are for, to blend in and disguise yourself. We don't want to cause any unneccessary panic, and transforming into our robot forms would just waste more energy, too, understood?" Prowl explained. "Remember to keep an open line for transmissions. We need to do this quickly, if you find them, come report it and the remainder of us will arrive to help get them out. Hopefully their damage is minimal."

The Autobots exited the Ark and stepped onto the barren land.

"Autobots! Transform, and roll out!"

-------

-in the military base-
A man in a white lab coat stepped up to watch the new arrivals, rubbing his goatee slightly in intriugue. What or who were these new things? "Guard!" he shouted at one of the guards on one of the trucks. "Where'd these things come from?" "The city, sir!" "The city? Hmmm...I'll be in the lab asap."

Name: Dr. Jonathan Tacks
Age: approximately 30.
Height: 5'6"
Appearance: wears thin wireframe glasses over green eyes, has an unruly mop of sand-colored hair, has a goatee on his face (closer to unkempt stubble than anything). Wears a white lab coat over an old work shirt and work slacks. Wears walking shoes as he's on his feet a lot
Notes-has clearance to all levels in the base.

----

Elsewhere...

Megas flashed his lights in acknowledgement. "Understood." With a squeal of the tires, he was off, heading back for the city.

Tarantulas 'blinked' as he did not have an alternate form that could mingle with society without being noticed he assumed he was being nominated to stay behind and guard the piece of the ark the small group had recharged at. Or atleast that was what he was going to do. He supposed there was enough debris here to form some sort of portable miniture computer. He began scrounging.

(OOC: Say Pach, question, for the characters that have been captured, have you a plan for bringing them online or can we activate them whenever we want?

And on another note, sorry for the dissapearence >< Hope to be around more from now on)

IC:

Shockwave seemed destracted as he stepped out of the wreckage of the spaceship, his glowing eyes fixed on the floor and his large shoulders slumped slightly. Prowl was about to move out himself, but he noticed the larger Autobot's downcast face and paused. "You okay?"

Shockwave sighed. "If anything's happened to him Prowl, I'll never forgive myself." he muttered dejectedly. "I should never have let him go off on his own...he was too inexperienced..."

"We'll find him." replied Prowl firmly. "We just need to stay focused. He'll be okay, Shockwave."

"I hope you're right." murmured the larger robot. "I have a record of where in the city that distress call came from...I'll start my search there." Prowl nodded, and Shockwave paused thoughtfully. "I'm also thinking of changing my name...found out one of those cursed Decepticons is called Shockwave earlier too...I'd hate to have anything in common with them. What do you think?"

OOC: You can activate them anytime you want.

IC:
Change your name? Prowl repeated, surprised by the question, but easily shook his head, symbolizing to get rid of the idea. Theres no need for you to change your name, Shock, especially for a dirty Decepticon. Do that, and theyll have won something, right?

Shockwave nodded. He understood, but was still a bit despairing at the notion.

Besides, if my memory systems function correctly, then I know that Decepticon. Theres no way were changing your name because of him. Prowl added, then smiling slightly to lighten the mood. Now cmon, lets find our friends!

Shockwave enthusiastically nodded. Right. He replied, transforming into his alternate form and preparing to leave for the city once more and to find Fusion. Similarly, Prowl transformed into his patrol car form again and speeded off towards Los Angeles by wheel.

An undisclosed area of Nevada

Doctor Haster quickly walked down the corridor in great strides, his right hand firmly holding onto his clip board and data sheets as the experiments were about to begin to decipher just what it was that these mysterious creatures were.

He rounded the corner and entered the lab, a large white room with several computers dotted about the room, their computer screens projecting a light blue light. Initial data from interpretations were streaming into the devices, whilst several scientists were quick to upload and assess new information.

Dr. Tacks, good afternoon, he quickly spoke as he saw the doctor on entrance, but quickly left him again to reach the other side of the room, one that, above the desks, were clear glass. Through this you could see the large chamber beyond and where the four Transformers were all being carried upon the space shuttle carrying vehicles. On the other sides of the walls, restraining devices were being set up to hold the Transformers up on the walls themselves, and from where new tests could be conducted. Security was also being assimilated and secured around the perimeter.

Dr. Haster, do we have any idea so far as to what these things are? a female scientist asked from behind his shoulder. She was Dr. Melanie Rays, a petite woman who wore in blonde hair in a ponytail.

Well, we have an idea, but little more then that. Word is, these things were tearing up Los Angeles. Dr. Haster replied.

These were the things that caused all the destruction?! Unbelievable! They look like those other ones. Dr.Rays commented on, moving her body forwards and peering through the glass window.

And reports also seem to match the monsters that Japan has been experiencing. Dr. Haster curtly added.

By this time, all four of the Transformers had been lifted and restrained upon the wall, the two Decepticon hanging with their legs pointed to the ground next to each other, whilst Eternity was secured on her side, above Fusion who was stuck in his race car mode.

Several wires and devices projected themselves from the wall and either attached themselves to the Transformers, or began to scan them.

Its time we established some answers Dr. Haster trailed off, frowning.

OOC: Sorry guys that I haven't posted in a while, I forgot to mention I was going to be gone for a week, but then it was too late. I'm back now though.

IC:
Windrunner raced down the track in motorcycle mode, now with more energy she performed a long range scan for Eternity...she wasn't in the riverbed.
Checking again she recieved the same results. They'd have to go there anyway, incase her energy signal was to low to pick up. Felling frustrated and anxious she picked up speed, moving ahead of the others and continuing onwards...

IC:
<SYSTEMS CHECKING...>
<WARNING ENERGY LEVELS MINIMAL>
<UNABLE TO ACCESS SUFFICIENT ENERGY SOURCE>
<DAMAGE CRITICAL IN AREA 5 REQUIRES IMEDIATE REPAIRS>
<AUDIO SENSORS OFFLINE>
<WEAPONRY SYSTEMS OFFLINE>
<STEALTH SYSTEMS OFFLINE>
<VISUAL SENSORS ONLINE>
<ACCESSING FILES...>
<PROGRAM LOCATED>
<LOADING...>
<LOADING COMPLETE>
<EMERGENCY DISTRESS SIGNAL ACTIVATED>
<UPLOADING VISUAL FEEDBACK...>

With a start Eternity's vision rebooted, she could now see, and would have groaned if she had the energy too. She was strapped to something, and she could see other cybertonians in the same predicament.
Great. Now how do I get out of this? I'll have to wait and see what happens...I have to find a way to fully recharge...

She would also see a bespectacled figure staring her straight in the face. "Hello there," said the young man holding a clipboard, "I see you've finally woken up." He turned around at two grunts who had gone from standby to ready. "Stand down, men. I don't think this one's going to do anything stupid."

Doctor Haster frowned through the glass of the orbital booth, down towards where the four Transformers were each being held, strapped to the walls by secure restraints. Normally, the room should have been empty as data was being transferred to this orbital laboratory; however it appeared that Dr. Tacks had taken his own initiative to get up close to one of them, one which resembled a wolf!

He frowned, he wasn't amused or impressed in the slightest and was actually quite angered with the scientist, but regardless Dr. Tacks was one of incredibly importance in the compound as well and indeed had authority to do so. Regardless, it seemed a bit... reckless.

"Doctor Haster, sir, one of them appears to have woken. Came a report from a technician besides a computer.

What? Haster replied, quickly turning around to look the Technician in the face.

One of them is showing electrical signs of activity. Its the same one that Dr. Tacks is in front of. The technician responded.

My God! Doesnt the man have any sense at all?! Those things could easily tear up Los Angeles and hes right next to an activated one?! Dr. Haster shouted out in paranoia, running back to the glass booth and peering down and through it to the large room below which held the four Transformers.

Sir, the restraints are safely holding the subject in and it doesnt appear as if the subject poses any threat Dr. Rays evaluated.

How can we be so sure of that?! Dr. Haster shouted back at the lower level scientist. What do we know about any of these creatures?!

Dr. Rays swallowed. Well, earlier tests with the other subjects showed that-

It doesnt matter, get that foolish man out of there this instant! Dr. Haster shouted. The guards posted at the door of the laboratory nodded and left, running down to the lower level to retrieve the doctor.

----

Prowl searched around the bay of Los Angeles, scanning the deep imbedded footprints of the Decepticons who had arrived here. Whilst Shockwave and Windrunner had left in order to find Fusion and Eternity, he had instead decided to investigate the edge where both Ravage and the Stunticons arrived and left by. It must have been more of a coincidence the Decepticons base must have been in the depths of the ocean.

Any luck, guys? Prowl asked, transmitting on a private wavelength so that only the Autobots could pick it up. After a slight pause, all of the remaining Autobots reported the same thing. Nothing so far.

Prowl began to feel more fearful of their safety. He didnt want to leave them behind, they had to be found! Suddenly, a report from Megas came in.

The Decepticons we trashed arent there either. I dont know where they went. Megas radioed. Prowl suddenly became more anxious. In the short term that it had been in-between the Autobots leaving Los Angeles and returning, their allies had already been taken elsewhere, along with the two defeated Stunticons. But to where was unknown.

Prowl, you got any ideas? asked Shockwave.

Prowl didnt respond.

Prowl? Shockwave repeated.

I dont think were going to have any success. From the looks of things, theyve all been removed. Either by the humans or the Decepticons. Prowl analysed. We need to regroup, outside of the city and from there decide on what were going to do.

------

My, my, my, how delicious! came a sinister and almost jubilant laugh. The booming voice came from the leader of the Decepticons himself, the silvery metal coloured Transformer feared across the cosmos, Megatron.

Soundwave, I do trust youre making the best efforts to localize that distress signal, and make sure the Autobots dont hear it? he asked.

The signal has been jammed, Lord Megatron. I am able to detect the source of the Cybertronian distress signal, the Autobots wont. Soundwave replied.

Good, good! Regardless of who it is, or whether theyll have any information about our lost companions, we would be able to make good use of this Autobot that is in trouble. Megatron added with a smirk. Trace the signal, determine a definite location, and then

then? Motormaster asked.

Then we shall the rest of you Stunticons to pick them up. Megatron replied.

what?! You are sending us out on such a worthless mission as to capture a lone Autobot?! Motormaster shouted back.

Do not question my orders! Megatron boomed back with a surprising ferocity, which instantly made Motormaster recoil and rethink his argument.

The signal is coming from an earthen military compound which appears to be in use. Soundwave added, interrupting the tense atmosphere. It is logical that the other Stunticons, and maybe more Autobots, would be located there.

Well why didnt you say so?! Motormaster shouted, a smile running across his metallic features. If its this planets puny military, then I should take great delight in reducing it to ruins!

Soundwave! You and Ravage shall also go. This is an important achievement to make. Capture the Autobots, and through them we shall be able to obtain much more information. Megatron commanded.

Affirmative. Soundwave finished.

-----

Dr. Tacks! shouted one of the guards who had just newly arrived in the large holding bay where the scientist, a few grunts and the four restrained Transformers were all inhabiting. The scientist swiftly turned around to look at the pair of guards. Dr. Haster has ordered your removal from this area. It is not safe to be so close to the specimens!

It hadn't taken long. Tarantulas had managed to retrieve enough debris to make a small portable computer. Leaving the Ark segment, he set out across the country-side. (OOC:Err... the piece was outside the city, right? @_@ If not he walked into the wilderness.) He inspected several cracks in the landscape's make-up. Pulling one a little farther apart, he found himself in a rather large cave.

The mad scientist giggled to himself. "Praise the pit, I've found the perfect place for my new lair." The robot put down his portable computer in the center of the rock-space and began typing on it. The autobot technology was difficult to adjust to, but he managed to finally access what he assumed was this planet's communications network.

"Ah, perfect." the spider laughed to himself. "Now, to find Inferno." After a little bit of typing, and hacking into the pitiful firewalls that guarded access to the sattelite's orbiting the earth. "Excellent," the transmetal robot laughed maniacally, as a red dot indicated itself on a large map of the land-mass. "Now I wonder..." typing away on the computer, the predacon set to work.

----------------------

Inferno walked down the hallway dilligently, making sure not to be detected, but still determined to follow his royalty's orders. Looking out a glass window, he noticed a pair of giant decepticon robots, and another pair of autobots.

"Praise the Royalty I've found it!" Inferno laughed. "Inferno terrorize!!"

The ant's fear of the humans was overwhelmed by his dedication to his queen. He brandished his gun as he blasted through the glass. "You humans will burn for imprisoning the servants of the royalty!!"

Fire spraying everywhere, the predacon laughed maniacally.

Tacks whirled around on the guards as they grabbed him. "WHAT in blazes do you think you're doing?" "Sir, Dr. Haster ordered we bring-" "Dr. Haster is on equal rank to me. I'll be the judge of what's good for me. Now, stand down." "Sir!" A crash came through a nearby window with a fiendish cackle accompanying it. Tacks pointed towards it as the giant, flame-spewing robot leapt through the glass. "New orders! Hold off that thing!" He picked up a radio transmitter. "Tacks to command center," he reported. "We've got a situation in the holding lab. Send reinforcements and fire suppressors, asap!" "Roger, sir."

---

OOC: Roger. Post edited. I thought they were jamming another signal.

Inferno landed on the stunticon's holding as he fired off another round of flames to shield himself from the soldiers in the immediate vicinity. Firing off a round, he blew up one of the arm holdings, then preceeded to shoot the other arm. As soldiers managed to break through the flames to shoot at him, Inferno shot a pair down before working on the third binding. Leaving that particular stunticon to break himself free he began working on the next set of bindings.