capitalh | ROCK'EM SOCK'EM ROBOTS [BIG OPEN FIGHT LOG]

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ROCK'EM SOCK'EM ROBOTS [BIG OPEN FIGHT LOG]

Who: Signless, Robots, and YOU
Where: City Hall, and all over downtown LA.
When: April 14th
What: Signless bates the Cybetronians into having a big fight in downtown LA while attempting to get a valuable artifact. Earth civilians and superheroes are SUPER WELCOME to notice the fuss and try to stop the fighting/safe people from collateral damage.
Warnings: SUDDENLY ROBOT ULTRAVIOLENCE

Signless leaves himself, and the hammer, visible at first. He wants them to see him, to know that the battle is imminent - and with any luck, a conflict will start. He'll do his best to disappear and keep them hunting for him as as long as possible after he's initially been spotted. Maximum collateral damage is his goal.

It also helps that he's an empath. He'll be taking whatever opportunities he can to agitate people's emotions, whether it be anger, panic, or fear, in the attempt to make ever more chaos.

This is a party style log, meaning you can make you own threads and scenarios. Signless will be around with the hammer. LET'S MAKE THIS AS BIG OF A CLUSTERFUCK AS POSSIBLE, GUYS.

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Starscream can't help but laugh at that.

"A peaceful solution?" he tilts his head slightly, optics glittering with amusement.

"Pray tell, how do you plan to achieve that? Excluding any solution that involves letting that troll get away with the forge, or letting you Autobots just have it, of course, because I'm not about to consent to either of those things. You had best speak quickly: I am not going to give him much more of a head start." He flexes his talons expectantly.

Arcee knows this is a waste of time, she knows Starscream isn't interested in a negotiation, and she's itching to fight him, too. But she has to try. It's what Optimus would have done.

"And likewise, I can't just let you have it, either. But maybe we can work out a trade of some kind. We keep the Forge, and you get something else -- or you give us something."

Starscream rolls his eyes, clearly un-amused. "A rather uninspired attempt, Autobot. I don't think Optimus would be very impressed... Just as I doubt Lord Megatron would be very impressed with me if I were to use his prize as a bargaining chip without his permission."

Deflecting blame for his own actions to Megatron never ceased to be useful.

"And with that, your time is now up. I think we're done here. If I were you, I'd just give up now; there's no way that you can beat me on wheel through a crowded location like this."

He springs into the air, preparing for lift off.

No way --

She won't let him get away so soon. She can't. Arcee knows that as soon as Starscream transforms she won't be able to catch up with him, that he'll have an advantage in the chase that she won't be able to recover from.

Her spark is burning but she doesn't even feel it, her focus narrowed to a battlefield pinpoint as her limbs tense, sinking and poised, for a split second before she launches herself into the air with a hiss of hydraulics. Being smaller than most other bots has always had its advantages -- Arcee somersaults through the air toward Starscream, one swift leg extended, and as she arcs up toward him, her foot connects just under his chin, sending him spinning out through the air with the full weight of her body.

Starscream goes flying into the nearest building with a squawk, shattering glass and crumbling the stone wall there on impact. It takes a few seconds for him to get back up, shaking his head and reversing what little bit of the transformation process he'd managed to get through. He rubs at his chin to find he's leaking a bit of energon from down there. His eyes narrow dangerously, recalling Megatron's instructions. That counted as striking first, right?

Game on, then. If Arcee was the only autobot on the scene so far, the forge could wait.

He springs back to his feet and fires off several shots in her direction, aiming straight to kill.

Even as much as Arcee's been waiting to fight Starscream, her spark clenches knowing that she's just been the one to break the non-aggression agreement they'd made with Legion -- it's even worse knowing that this is exactly what Megatron wanted. But she's not about to let him have everything he wants -- she'll get the Forge back, and then she'll deal with Legion. And it'll only be a matter of time before the other Autobots show up -- all she has to do is delay Starscream and keep him from engaging the locals. She can do that. She'll have to try.

Arcee hits the ground running, her heavy footsteps kicking up gravel as she skirts away from Starscream's fire. She puts the thought of Legion and the agreement out of her mind; instead, she remembers her last encounter with Starscream, focuses on the reawakened fury over Jetset's death. Her optics harden, narrow, and she dodges another shot as she cuts in close, too close for blaster fire -- close enough to ram her knee into his midsection.

There's the cracking of glass as the spike on Arcee's knee connects with his stomach, and Starscream is thrown and staggers back a few steps, ex-venting in pain. He recovers quickly though, using his superior height to his advantage to lash out with a vicious backhand, taking advantage of the moment she's off balance to lunge and latch on to her face face with one hand. The other hand flexes, claws at the ready.

"Argh -- "

One hand flies to Starscream's arm, Arcee's much smaller hand trying to take hold of his wrist -- but she knows she can't overpower him, not like that -- she cycles her other hand into her blaster, firing on Starscream. She's shooting blind, but at this rage, he'd be hard to miss, and she needs him off her. She's got a whole world of pain to visit on him for Jetset.

Edited 2014-06-24 01:05 (UTC)

Starscream yelps; most of the shots go right up in front of his face, and though they miss, the noise and the proximity startles him. One of the shots, however, catches him right in the shoulder for the arm that he's about to try and gore her with, and that in combination with his panicked state leads him to react by winding up and flinging her as hard as he can at the ground a few feet away. He sends a missile chasing after her, just for good measure, expression contorted in a vicious snarl.

Arcee manages to transform so that she hits the ground tires first, but the missile blows out one of her tires before she can get far and she spins out, hurriedly transforming back with a snarl of frustration. She manages to stagger to her feet after a few paces, whirling around to aim her blaster back at the Decepticon.

"Starscream!"

She takes off at a dead run for him, weaving and firing off energon blasts, her optics flashing. "The Decepticons have done enough damage -- I'm not about to roll over and let you have the Forge, too!"

He sidesteps several of her shots, grunting with exertion and lunging to meet her straight on. He lashes out again, sending her flying and knocking her flat before marching over and pinning her with one foot. He looms over her, growling and training both blasters straight on her.

"Damage? You say that as if your own forces have had no hand in any of this war whatsoever, but you forget that it takes two parties to do battle. You autobots are so obnoxiously righteous, taking the moral high ground and looking down on everyone else like you can never do any wrong. And when you do get your hands dirty you claim it's all in the name of justice as if the Decepticons have never acted for the same reasons. It's despicable."

Arcee stares back up at Starscream, optics cold and blazing. "You think I don't know the Autobots haven't had to get their hands dirty? You think I don't understand war, Starscream? The difference between the Autobots and the Decepticons is that the Autobots still fight for liberty -- that our leader still believes in the sanctity of life -- whereas yours -- well, all Megatron cares about these days is power. You can try all you like to bring us down to your level, Starscream, but the truth is that if Optimus Prime were willing to throw away half as many lives as Megatron is just to win, he'd have ended the war a long, long time ago. But unlike your precious leader, Optimus never lost sight of what he was fighting for in the first place."

Starscream rolls his eyes, groaning dramatically. "Oh spare me your little morality lecture. If thousands of Decepticons choose to sacrifice their own lives to the cause that's hardly any decision of ours; that's just dedication, and their right, as your precious leader would be so eager to point out. So what lives could you be talking about, hmm?" He leans down prods her in the optic with one blaster. "Autobot lives? Are you going to try and tell me that it's immoral to take down an enemy on the battlefield? Or are you going to finally be honest with yourself and admit that you're just taking the death of your partner a bit more personally than you'd like, as if I gave any more of a scrap about snuffing her spark out than any of the others that I've taken."

Arcee's optics contract and dilate, flashing angrily. She feels anger rise in her spark at the mention of Jetset, at the cruel tone of Starscream's voice. Even now, down on the ground at gunpoint, Arcee won't just let him talk like that.

"I'm not talking about the battlefield, Starscream, I'm talking about the cruelty. Since when was poisoning our entire planet a moral way to fight a war?" Arcee's gaze shifts to the barrels of his blasters for a moment, then back to his face, optics narrowing. "And don't you dare pretend that what you did to Jetset wasn't cruel. I've never enjoyed taking a life, Starscream, but you -- you toyed with her!"

"Toyed with her?" Starscream snorts, raising an eyebrow. "Please, I did you a favor; I cut and ran and was kind enough to leave her alive enough for you to have a chance to save her. That isn't 'toying'. This, what I'm doing right now? This is toying." He grinds his heel down to illustrate the point. "See the difference?"

Alright, what he'd actually done was leave her alive to distract Arcee from pursuing him further, but he's working up to a point here: "Her demise is hardly my fault. Maybe if you'd been a little faster, gotten to her more quickly, her end might not have been quite so tragic."

Orion had been intending on trying to track these two down as soon as the combat started, but up till now he's been waylaid by Megatron. So when he manages to make it there, he's more than a little shocked to see how far it's gone, and to hear the things that Starscream is saying. He's gone into vehicle mode again so he could move faster, but now he returns to his base form in a roll of machinery, almost crumbling over his wounded knee in the process.

His optics are wide - he can't believe this.

"Stop this!" he shouts, pleading. "Please!"

Arcee hears Orion in her periphery, and so does Starscream -- he's momentarily distracted enough for Arcee to twist under him, shifting just enough to shove both of her feet into the backs of his legs and knock him off balance. She whirls to her feet, both blasters trained on Starscream.

"You left her to die!" Arcee's voice is edged with static, cracked with emotion she's been fighting to hold back. The cool, collected face of command she always wears into battle is lined with anger and frustration and hurt, made all the more raw by her last encounter with Starscream, with his taunting claims. It's been a long time since Jetset died, but it's as fresh in her memory banks as ever -- the echoing rush of Starscream's turbines as Jetset bled out the last of her energon on the battlefield, Arcee arriving moments too late to save her or stop him. Arcee advances on Starscream another step, knowing that Orion's begging them both to stop, but she can't let Starscream go. Not for Jetset, not for the Forge. "You played with her, Starscream. You didn't leave her there for me to save her -- you left her there to prove a point!"

Starscream lets out an extremely pathetic sounding yelp, slowly stepping back from Arcee as she advances. His mind races; Orion showing up was certainly unexpected and it presents all kinds of problems, but perhaps he can still make this work in his favor.

He cycles away his blasters and holds his hands up defensively, wings tilting back as he tries to ham up the gigantic coward act as much as possible. His words rush out, eyes wide and pleading. "Now now, there's no need to do anything irrational-- This is all ancient history, but look back at things from my perspective, it's hardly as though she was defenseless or unarmed and I had my back against the wall against an enemy combatant-- what would you have done differently?"

Orion is being ignored, that much is clear, and given the intensity of the situation he's not sure he has any right not to be. This has transcended the mission at hand, that much is clear, but he can't stand to see one bot he knows kill another. He limps forward a few steps, imploring them to listen to him.

"I don't know what has happened between you, but the Forge - this conflict - is meaningless! There is no Prime to wield it...neither side will be threatened!"

He's dubious of Starscream's sudden turn here - he had seen him only a few moments before, arrogant and cruel. But he isn't going to make judgements without the full picture.

"Please."

"Your back against the wall?" Arcee snarls, starting to respond to Starscream's pathetic attempt at backpedaling -- but then Orion's voice rings out again and Arcee's head jerks to look in his direction, feeling her spark clench in her chest again, though her blasters remain trained on Starscream.

"Orion, we can't let the Decepticons have the Forge! Think about it -- do you really think Megatron would be throwing his all into this if he didn't have a plan to use it somehow? He has the Matrix -- if he gets his hands on the Forge, what do you think he's going to do to us? To this planet? We tried to offer a peaceful resolution, an alternative to fighting, but he forced our hand on purpose, Orion! If we stand aside and let them take the Forge, we might as well be handing over the war, too!"

Arcee's leaving herself wide open for some good old fashioned claw shanking, but Starscream actually chooses to abstain in this case. He's committed to this lie now, to playing the victim here. It'll certainly make the Autobots look bad, and that alone makes the risk worth it.

Starscream laughs nervously, hands still held in front of him in a pathetic attempt at placating her. "Megatron does not have the matrix... the artifact was destroyed, he told me as much himself. What he does have is fears that you Autobots have successfully corrupted Orion back over to your side where he could potentially use it against us." He casts a pleading glance over at the bot in question.

Orion looks between them - he's conflicted, but at the moment he is mostly angry with Starscream's implications. Speaking as if he would be somehow "corrupted" as if he has no personal agency in the matter. Orion had feared that concept before, but now...it is no strange artifact guiding his choices, it is the words and actions of the bots around him.

"Then he is being foolish," Orion says, looking at Starscream. "I am no longer a Prime, and the only commands I will follow are my own."

"That's right," Arcee says fiercely, her gaze shifting back to Starscream. "If the Matrix really has been destroyed, then there's no one on this planet who could wield the Forge, and Megatron has nothing to fear from us. So either he's got some kind of other plan for the Forge in the works...or your boss hasn't been telling you everything."

Starscream splutters unhappily, looking highly offended. "Well we don't know how this whole prime exclusive function actually works, for all we know Orion might still be able to wield it! It's a dangerous chance to take, I'd say!"

Like seriously, that's the only explanation, how dare you suggest that Megatron doesn't tell him everything even though he damn well knows that's true already. Why the hell didn't he notice that didn't add up sooner?

Could he?

Orion had considered it, certainly, but had been quick to write it off. He didn't have the power of the Primes and certainly not the wisdom. To think of him being capable of wielding a weapon of Solus...

But what if he could?

The uncertainty shows on his face, but it is quick to be replaced with determination.

"Were I able to use the Forge I would not wield it against you. Either of you. That is my promise."

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