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

[sufferist]

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.

Comments

[thanksoptimus]

Could Megatron has a plan for the Forge? If Orion is the only one who can use it, it ceases to matter who actually picks it up. He's tempted to suggest that, all except the potential circumstance in which there is key information that he's missing.

Then mention of the troll suddenly catches his attention. Magdal's friend. It gives him pause.

"If the Forge is of use to no one, then we all have the options to simply leave. Do not play into the Empire's game, Commander Starscream. We all know that the Alternians are not doing this out of benevolance."

[starscheme]

"Oh? And I suppose you're both going to speak on my behalf when I have to explain to Megatron how I deliberately let a known enemy of the Decepticons abscond with one of the powerful artifacts in Cybertronian history, in direct defiance of his orders?" He pauses to stare Orion down meaningfully, though he's not really waiting for an answer. "Besides which, I'm not doing this out of benevolence either. I've dealt with this one before, and this makes one time too many. He's slag as soon as I get ahold of him." An angry, cruel smirk quirks the corner of his mouth at the idea.

[thanksoptimus]

Oh no. That troll is Magdal's friend...The one she is trying to help. I'd Starscream kills him...

"Wait - Commander starscream, please don't kill the troll, there are complicating factors-"

[starscheme]

Starscream's expression grows indignant, and he cuts Orion off. "Pass. Any time spent listening explanations on why I should spare his miserable life is time I'm losing on tracking him down, so if you'll both excuse me-" He keeps looking at Orion but shoves past Arcee, determined to get clear enough for a take off.

[deadpartners]

"Not so fast, Starscream!"

She'll apologize to Orion later if she has to, but for now, Arcee can't let him get away, not now. Optics flashing with determination, she checks Starscream with her shoulder as he shoves past, hitting him at the waist with the full weight of her considerably smaller body.

[starscheme]

Starscream only staggers off balance for a moment, but once he rights himself his eyes flash dangerously. "Let the records show that I tried to be reasonable about this," he growls in a way that's utterly devoid of remorse before sending another missile in her direction.

[deadpartners]

Reasonable -- right. But Arcee doesn't have the time or inclination to quip back, not when she has to practically cartwheel out of the way to avoid the missile. It connects with a few potted plants near city hall and sends them exploding in a burst of shattered pottery and scorched foliage, but Arcee's not watching the shrubbery -- just as soon as she's out of the way she's running for Starscream again, optics hard with fresh resolve, and she lifts her arm and fires off a few blaster rounds at his chest -- as easy of a target as Starscream ever makes.

[starscheme]

Starscream yelps and scrambles to dodge to the side, returning with his own blaster fire as he does, but the evasion is not very well executed. He stumbles a bit off balance and struggles for a moment, trying to regain proper footing, glowering at Arcee with murderous intent.

[deadpartners]

"I told you I'd stop you if you tried to take the Forge, Starscream!"

Arcee doesn't give him much time to recover, lowering her blasters just enough to deliver a spinning kick to his chest, lashing out with the pent-up fury and frustration she's felt burning in her spark since she last ran into him.

[starscheme]

Starscream squawks and goes tumbling head over heels backwards in an awkward mess of sharp wings and gangly limbs, unable to regain his balance in time.

He struggles back to his feet quickly, loudly cursing Arcee and sending another volley of shots in her direction.

[deadpartners]

Arcee's optics are hard, set with determination, and she lands neatly and keeps after him, dodging all but a few of his blaster shots -- a couple hit her in the shoulder, glancing off her arm, but she doesn't let it slow her down, driving her fists into his plating relentlessly. Every time he stumbles, she takes two steps forward -- she knocks him back and runs doggedly right back to close the distance, optics ablaze.

"I've had enough of you, Starscream," she snarls, her voice hard but thick with timeworn grief. She remembers Jetset, remembers her careless, giddy laugh and curious optics, the way they'd light up when she said but I've got a plan, the way they'd dimmed in vacant fright as the last light of her spark died out, snuffed on the battlefield. Arcee remembers like she hasn't let herself in years, the fading echo of Starscream's wicked laugh.

"This is for Jetset!"

Her voice rings out, angry and hurt, as she hurls herself at him. The last kick she delivers to Starscream's chest has all of her weight behind it, her foot connecting with the join of plating just below his Decepticon badge, and even with her smaller size the full force of her body is enough to send him flying wildly.

[starscheme]

Through his reeling processor, Starscream manages to wonder just why the hell this Autobot was taking the whole Jetset thing so personally, as if there weren't a thousand other Cybertronians on both sides that were snuffed that day.

He won't come to any conclusion on that today though. The fact is, this is a nearly incomprehensible subject for him, because he is far too much of a shit to have anyone in his life that he cares about that deeply.

It's a distracting thought: he's so indignant about being singled out that he can't recover and try to strike back, and the last kick actually sends him reeling backwards through the air to crash into something very large and very metal that definitely wasn't there a moment ago.

[bigfuckinggun]

It's Megatron. It is Megatron and he looks pissed beyond belief. Orion made him mad, and Legion made him madder, and just, wow, he is SO mad. One of his optics is damaged, the right one, and the way it's still sparking slightly only serves to make him seem more incensed.

"Starscream," he says, in the kind of tone of voice you might use after lifting up your foot to see what you've just stepped in and finding that the stuff on the bottom of your shoe is what you were pessimistically expecting to be there – but if you were the kind of person whose reaction to this discovery would be an earnest vow to end all dogs. He doesn't even haul the hapless jet to his feet, just pushes him aside to face the Autobots himself.

He bares his fangs in a sneer as he takes in both the current Autobot commander and what's left of the old one. "So this is who you've chosen to side with, Orion? Are you aware she broke her promise to keep the vulnerable natives out of the way of our dangerous conflict?" His piercing red gaze focuses on Arcee, and he narrows his optics. "What would Optimus Prime think, I wonder?"

[starscheme]

Starscream struggles back to his feet, incensed with rage up until he realizes what, or rather who it is that he just hit, at which point he lets out a pathetic sounding startled squeak and shrinks back. He glances at Arcee and Orion with the intent of giving them both a nice smug 'oh shit you're in trouble now' smirk, but it falls way off the mark due to how overwhelmingly frightened and embarrassed of himself he looks.

Technically he should have nothing to fear; he followed Megatron's orders to the letter, after all. But while the Decepticon leader is generally a foul tempered bloke on a regular basis, Starscream can still only remember seeing Megatron this pissed off a handful of times prior to this, and none of those times had ended well for anyone involved. It occurs to him that maybe he should do his job as an advisor and try to defuse the situation, or at least fill Megatron in a bit (really, he'd pay good Shanix to stick around and watch him scrap the two wheeler after all that), but when he tries to speak up, no words come. Just a bunch of wordless stammering, because deep down he knows there really isn't anything he can say, at this point.

[thanksoptimus]

Orion has mostly just been trying to keep up with these two, and then Starscream gets bodily thrown, he's busy limping along after them until Megatron directly addresses him. He pauses in his step, optics widening as he scrambles for answers. He knows it's more complicated than Megatron is making it sound - he saw how it started between Starscream and Arcee - but in the moment...

...and with the way he last spoke to Megatron...

He's really got nothing. He is just entirely overwhelmed by this. He can't even manage a contrary glare or a denying statement, he just stares at Megatron, speechless and somehow defeated.

[deadpartners]

"Optimus Prime would know that you're not above forcing our hand so that we're left with no choice!"

One look at Orion and Arcee knows he's not up for this fight -- how could he be? Megatron's done nothing but confuse him, mess with his head. He's divided, torn -- she gets that. But this isn't his fight, anyway. Megatron's the one who ensured that it came to this, that there'd be a fight -- she knows he couldn't possibly have expected them to sit idly by, not with so much at stake. Megatron's responsible for this whole mess. He's the one who took the Matrix, who lied to Orion -- nothing less than she'd expect from the leader of the Decepticons, but she's still angry about it. He'd confused and misled Orion in such a deeply fundamental and intimate way that she feels her spark burn with anger over it, and as she sprints forward to meet Megatron, optics blazing even as she looks up at a bot easily twice her size and then some, she knows that in this moment, there's no room in her spark for forgiving Megatron.

The words have hardly left her vocalizer before she fires on him, electric blue blaster shots flying through the air. She doesn't intend to give him even the slightest bit of slack in this fight. She knows, even as she charges for him, that she's no match for Megatron. But she's too angry now, too down to the wire -- she has to do something.

[bigfuckinggun]

Fortunately for Starscream, Megatron pays him no further mind; Arcee has his full attention once she's the only one talking and the only one firing.

The blaster fire slows him down a little as he moves to meet her halfway, but it doesn't stop him from smacking her aside with the back of one hand with enough force that she sprawls on the ground a few yards away; before she can pick herself up, and before Orion can limp over to intervene, he's looming over the smaller bot, hauling her up by the arm in one huge, clawed hand.

"Optimus Prime," he replies, letting her dangle in front of him for a few moments, "would put up a better fight than this." Then he throws her against the side of the nearest building (good thing that was probably evacuated by now) with equal measures of wrath and disdain.

[thanksoptimus]

This escalated a lot faster than it had with the others.

Arcee goes from opening fire to being smashed to the ground and flung in only a matter of seconds, and Orion still hasn't found his voice yet. He knows that he's as strong as Optimus Prime, but what good does that do? He doesn't know how to fight, and more than that, he doesn't want to.

But the viciousness of that blow sends him scrambling towards Megatron all the same.

"Megatron, enough!" he shouts, earnest desperation loud and clear. "Please!"

[deadpartners]

All the air rushes from Arcee's vents, it seems, at the impact -- she hits the wall and it explodes in a flurry of dust and glass and concrete around her. More than the shock of pain that ripples through her, the sheer ease with which Megatron tossed her aside makes her falter. This isn't like fighting Starscream, cocky and arrogant, always overstepping -- Megatron's confidence comes from the solid, unshakable knowledge that he can pummel anything in his immediate path, because he always has.

But Arcee can't afford to give up now. She grits her teeth, staggers to her feet -- and starts for Megatron again, ducking and weaving as she fires. She'll use her smaller size to her advantage -- get in close -- and when she launches herself into the air, gaining altitude off the wall of a nearby building, still firing away, it's with a foot extended to drive a solid kick right into Megatron's face.

[bigfuckinggun]

Megatron turns his head, snarling, in Orion's direction, just in time to fail to catch Arcee's boot to the face.

He staggers back, reeling from the impact, but he catches himself before he can fall, and draws himself up again, incandescent with fury.

He lunges for her with a roar, seizes her by the head with one hand; "Do you wish to help her, Orion Pax?" he snarls, throwing the Autobot against the ground. He meets Orion's stare, his own right optic still sparking, an ugly black mark on his face from the impact of Arcee's foot. He brings his own foot down on her back, to hold her in place. "Then fight me!"

[thanksoptimus]

Orion stares at him. He thinks to himself that this whole thing really couldn't have gone worse. He wishes he knew what he could say to make this stop, to convince Megatron to stop, but nothing is coming. Everything he tries just seems to make Megatron angrier and with Arcee's life at risk he doesn't dare.

He ends up doing something he will immediately regret and feel shame for many hours afterward - he freezes, his hands raised in a futile gesture of pacification.

He had prayed that it wouldn't have to be like this.

[bigfuckinggun]

Megatron laughs.

It starts out small – unpleasant but small – but it builds, in true supervillain fashion, until he's throwing his head back, shoulders shaking with the force of his cruel mirth.

He kicks Arcee out from under his ridiculous metal hoof, but his optics are still on Orion.

"So this is what it comes to!" His mouth twists in a sneer. "Very well. Leave, if you will not fight; I am thoroughly sick of the sight of you." He lifts his cannon, powering up with a low hum.

"Starscream," he adds, almost as an afterthought; he doesn't turn to look for his second in command, but he hasn't heard him transform and take off, so he assumes he's still there. "The Forge."

[starscheme]

Starscream had just been content to watch until now, but he stiffens in surprise and scrambles to stand at attention when Megatron addresses him directly, even if he doesn't turn to see it. He'd almost forgotten the reason for their being here, exposed in the middle of the city.

He offers a few hastily yelped apologies and takes off, leaving the three of them to their big ol' drama fest. It sounds like Megatron has really snapped at any rate and he was absolutely nothing to do with any of that.

[deadpartners]

"Leave Orion out of this," Arcee snarls, staggering somehow to her feet. Even as she steps in front of Orion, staring down the barrel of Megatron's absurd arm cannon, she has the cold sense in her spark that she's staring certain death in the face. But she's gotten this far; she's not about to stop now. She can't stop now. After all Megatron's done, after all Orion's been through -- after Optimus put his trust in her...

She takes one dogged step, then another, as quick as she can, still firing up at Megatron with a look of grim determination about her. In just a few swift minutes, Megatron's already given her a solid beating -- her plating is dented, scuffed and scraped, and she knows she must be leaking energon -- but her optics blaze as bright as ever.

"Leave him alone, Megatron. I think you've done enough to him. This is between you and me -- and it ends here!"

[bigfuckinggun]

He laughs again, looking down at her in disdain. "It ends here? And what do you expect will become of your poor, dear Orion Pax once I tear the spark from your body? Do not be a fool, Commander Arcee."