IC Time on Earth: Sun Jun 30 23:18:20 2024

Pyramid Jet (Fleet) dives in, although the speed and angle make it rather a lazy approach; if it were a serious landing, he'd be using the spaceport. Of course, tetrajets didn't actually have wheels in their alternate modes, so it wasn't likely he'd be making a serious landing in that form, after all. He transforms and touches down lightly, right foot contacting ground first, and scans the crowds for a moment to get his barings.

Fleet transforms from pyramid jet to robot.

Catechism sees another Seeker, one with a tetrajet mode, descend from the sky. This one is really quite pale, though. Don't see too many of those. Might even be someone she knows. In any case, maybe he'll know what she's supposed to be doing. She waves and grins.

The conehead's wave catches Flee's attention, and he gives the other a closer look. A conehead - not too many of those, and he's sure he recognizes this one, despite a few minor physical alterations that resulted from the change to her alt mode. Catechism! A bit overenthusiastic at times, but all-in-all, a rather tolerable personality. He walks over, his footfalls more silent than by rights they should be, and smiles pleasantly. "Catechism? Is that you? Haven't seen you in awhile!"

Catechism's grins broadens. Someone she knows! Someone who tends to know what's going on! Some would chalk it up to luck, but Catechism just files it as a minor subset of the glorious destiny that all Decepticons have store. No really, she does. Honest. Pleased, she exclaims, "Fleet! Yeah, it's me. Not an alien shape-shifter or a cross-wired Autobot spy or... oh, forget that. How have you been doing? I got put into stasis back during the fuel shortages. Just got released recently."

Fleet looks Catechism over, expression thoughtful, "And already saddled with a Terran alt-mode, I see..." his voice as he says this is carefully neutral. He understands the reason it's done, and thus knows enough not to insult those who have them, but some little part of him is disturbed by the idea that someone might think to give *him* such an alt, and try as he might, he couldn't shake a vague feeling of disgust at the prospect. Finally, he nods, a faint smile playing at his mouth. "Yeah, actually, I've been active for awhile now... even during a fuel shortage, there's cleaning and other crud duty that needs doing, and someone who can perform double duty as both cleaning drone and occasional warrior is just a shade more fuel efficient, no?" He chuckles lightly at his particularly NON-glorious duties.

Catechism shrugs. She already got interrogated about why her head is pointy. At this point, she doesn't care if she turns into a flying brick or what, so long as it works. When Fleet mentions that his janitorial skills kept him from stasis, Catechism smirks slightly and folds her arms across her chest, not in a threatening way. Rather, she looks a bit amused. "Eh, if you spread yourself out like that, you're preventing yourself from being really good at any one thing. And sure, there's a place in the Empire for all that. So what'd I miss?"

Fleet looks rather... startled. "You mean they gave you *no* kind of update at all?" He shakes his head, sighing slightly. "Well..." he holds his hands out. "This planet, for the obvious one. It's where we've been getting most of our energon, despite much objection - often physical - on the part of the Autobots. They seem quite taken with the native inhabitants. Apparently when Megatron, Optimus, and the bunch that accompanied them left, they crashed here, and were only revived fifty years or so ago. After they were reawakened, we managed to drive the ‘Bots off Cybertron, while they gained a strong foothold here. In some sort of grand, climatic battle that I managed to miss entirely, Megatron killed Prime, and... well, frankly, I don't have a slagging clue on the details. Next thing we know Starscream was showing up at home claiming the big boss was dead, Galvatron shows up claiming to be said big boss reformatted, kills Starscream... a giant transforming planet eating PLANET shows up and got beaten back - I don't EVEN know how, but we took huge losses. Like, 60% of our forces. We were exiled to a planet called Charr for a little while, have since managed to take back most of Cybertron, and gained this little foothold here. And that's about where we stand now."

Catechism grins sheepishly and mock-dusts-off her arm guns. "Well, I did know some of that. I was more wondering what we're supposed to be doing right now. I heard some stuff about a big plan for an attack." Her optics brighten with anticipation.

Fleet crosses his arms, bouncing back on his jet-heals. "That's right. Galvatron's wanting to take back Cybertron, but to do that, we need energon, so he's stepped up the raiding schedule." He bounces for a bit, narrowing his optics as he thinks. He's not really looking at Catechism, but some unspecified point above and to the right of her head. Finally, he looks directly at her. "How long have you been on planet, anyway? Have you had proper time to acclimate to the new atmosphere and weather conditions... not to mention your new alt mode? I was included on a raid my first day on-planet, and it... did not go too well. I was caught totally unprepared, to be completely honest."

Catechism looks over her shoulder, wondering what Fleet was looking at. She doesn't see anything, so she looks back at him. A bit reluctantly, she admits, "Not too long." While she doesn't want to admit weakness, she doesn't want to repeat whatever it is that Fleet did on that raid, either.

Fleet claps his hands together and nods, not even noticing Catechism's distraction. "All right, then. In that case, we shall learn from others' mistakes and go in for a bit of practice before we go out for the real thing. It's a lot more energy efficient than to practice first and prevent failure rather than fail and then run home to practice, which is the way I did things." What he doesn't mention is that this also neatly saves him from planning a raid on his own on the spot, something he's been putting off since Galvatron's latest announcement was made. What he does instead is smile a bright, winning smile. "You up for a bout in the Arena?"

Catechism presses a fist into the palm of her other hand and "stretches". Fleet's logic is sound. Always a smart one, that Seeker. "Sure thing. It'll be good to get this body broken in."

<OOC: At which point Catechism’s player had to go to bed. However, we went ahead and finished the scene a couple of days later, employing fuzzy time. The continuation is below.>

Fleet smiles and nods. "All right, then." He gestures a hand in a 'right-this-way' motion. "Don't know if you've found the Arena yet, but you can practically see it from here." With that he strides off, although every so often he forgets to actually touch the ground while walking.

You move east to the NCC Arena.

NCC Arena

A huge enclosed oval structure, the Arena is now nothing more than a deathtrap. What were once tiered rows of seats are now seamless walls that slope sharply downwards into a deep gloom. The arena floor, once a flat expanse of dull metal has sunk further into the ground and reconfigured itself, dark shadows hiding the massed array of spikes and treacherous pits that the surface has become. The Imperial box has become a virtual bunker, thick armor plates hiding the opulence inside. Small gleams of light in the shadows hint at hidden weaponry now exposed, and overall, the arena complex is now an extremely dangerous place to linger - especially if you happen to be opposed to the Decepticon Empire.

Contents:

Hall of Heroes

Holo Arena

Obvious exits:

North <N> leads to NCC Dungeon.

South <S> leads to NCC Residential Plaza.

West <W> leads to NCC Central Hub.

Catechism arrives from the NCC Central Hub to the west.

Catechism has arrived.

<OOC> Fleet says, "'enter areana'"

<OOC> Fleet says, "Only it works best if you spell it right. ;)"

You enter the Holo Arena.

Holo Arena

Inside the Holo Arena are black, rubber-coated walls to protect the steel and also to reduce the noise, as these sparring matches can get very violent. A central control room is suspended from the ceiling, heavily reinforced to protect the advanced computer that controls the holo-imaging and stores thousands of simulation scenariors. If a desired scenario isn't already available, then the computer allows for additional programming.

Contents:

Training Drone <NCC/Trypticon>

Catechism comes into the Holo Arena.

Catechism gawks, looking much more like a stereotypical tourist than a proper Decepticon warrior. The unsubtle lethality of the arena doesn't phase her; that's pretty much par for the course when it comes to Decepticon architecture. A few impaled heads on pikes and it might even look like home. Her optics glitter when she sees the holo arena. Now that ought to be fun, indeed.

Fleet walks over to the controls. He's always been a practiced liar, and if one didn't know better, one would think that he has done this a million times. "Any preferences? Since the point is to get used to the Terran environment, it'll need to be some place on Earth, but beyond that..." He waves a hand, trying to hint at the infinity of choices available. "Or we could just set it to random."

Catechism taps her fingers on her lower arm, thinking. Because of the obvious Decepticon destiny as universal conquerors, it follows that they'll have to get used to alien planets. She shakes her head at Fleet's suggestion of a random choice. "We should pick an area where we're likely to end up fighting a lot. That'd be the most useful thing."

Fleet rests a hand against the console, leaning forward. "Well, from what I've seen looking into the older reports, there have been battles all over the place on this world, and at a later date it might be a good idea to go ahead and practice more out of the way environments... but for now, you have a point. The majority of our battles take place, naturally, near obvious energy sources. Power plants, dams, that sort of things. Often on the North American continent, because they have very rich yields... but unfortunately, they're also well guarded." He frowns thoughtfully as he considers.

Catechism considers the new information, still thoughtfully tapping her fingers against her lower arm. She smiles slightly when she hears that this planet is rich in energy. It was a lack of energy that got her shut down, and if they can get enough energy to prevent that from ever happening again, she'll be ever so glad. Catechism'll suffer stasis if that's how she can best serve her cause, but somewhat guiltily, she much prefers being awake. "Well, let's try a North American scenario, then."

Finally, the yellow seeker's hands dance over the controls, entering in a scenario that is by now familiar to him: a dam near the city of Cincinnati. He's been defeated here twice, once in reality, once in virtua here in the arena. On the slim chance he does win, he'll finally redeem himself for this particular locality... and if not, hey, why break up a perfectly good streak? As soon as the landscape appears, Fleet takes to the air, hovering some distance above the ground in robot form, so as to more easily maneuver once the session begins.

Catechism glances around the new setting, taking in details that might be of use in the fight. There's water, and Seekers usually can't swim. Maybe she can knock Fleet in there. To the end of acquiring useful tactical data, she asks, powering up her weapons as she speaks, "Is there any particular significance to this locale?"

Fleet points to the dam. "Energy production station. Used to convert the kinetic energy of the water flow into electrical energy... which we are then able to gather. My first raid occurred at this particular dam... I've already told you it went poorly." Fleet is not proud of this fact, but the information is already there for someone who wants to dig for it, so he uses the tact that it's harder to use information that he doesn't bother hiding against him. If Catechism bothers to look at the dam, or even if she doesn't, his next motion, without pause, is to point his right arm at her and fire his energy weapons at low before kicking his jets into high gear and rocketing upwards. He doesn't often make the first attack, but on the other hand, being too predictable can be dangerous...

Fleet strikes Catechism with Energy Rifle (pulsed mode).

Catechism quickly gets into the air herself. Standing around on the ground is just begging to get shot, and that's exactly what happens. She takes the hit to the wing, which figures, as it is an obvious and easy target. Catechism volleys back with her disruptor, hoping to unsettle Fleet.

Catechism misses Fleet with her disruptor attack.

Still moving upwards, Fleet twists to the left as well, avoiding Catechism's disruptor as he spins once. Now he angles his boots, moving sideways through the sky, one knee bent as he points diagonally downward (Catechism still being a bit lower than him so far as elevation goes) with both arms, firing a low-powered energy weapon attack.

Fleet misses Catechism with his Energy Rifle (low) attack.

Catechism had forgotten how acrobatic Fleet is. It's rather pretty, really. It'd probably be prettier if she wasn't trying to shoot him. She manages to keep enough of her wits about her this time to doge his attack, letting it collide with some of holographic scenery instead. Catechism uses her pistol, aiming, oddly enough, for Fleet's feet. It's a weird move, but he has his jet thrusters and his alternate mode fins down there, and it might mess up his aerial abilities if it connects.

Catechism strikes Fleet with Zap!

The yellow seeker grimaces and jerks his right foot back as Catechism's zap! connects, and the sudden jerk does indeed cause him to vary his flight path a little, but it's a relatively minor injury and unlikely to cause further disturbance of his ability to maneuver. In fact, he instead takes advantage of the jerking motion to continue bringing that foot backwards, letting the other joining it until he is laying facedown, pointing slightly downward in the air. He jets directly towards Catechism, transforming as he does so to access his better weapons, although he realizes as he does so that he's taking a big risk. She's likely to respond in kind, which will hurt all the more in his vulnerable jet mode.

Fleet transforms from robot to pyramid jet.

Pyramid Jet (Fleet) strikes Catechism with rocket.

Catechism grimaces as the missiles knock her back in the air, connecting right with her torso. She notes Fleet's transformation, but rather than transforming as well, she lunges forward and makes a grab for the other jet. Catechism doesn't have anything of note beyond the basics when it comes to melee weaponry, but she doubts that Fleet does, either.

Catechism succeeds in grasping Pyramid Jet (Fleet), throwing him off-balance.

Dammit all to the Pit! Fleet had not been prepared for that! And not only does he have even less than the standard assortment of melee weaponry, he doesn't really have any options in his jet mode. So instead he rolls suddenly and transforms, trying to either throw the conehead off him with the quick barrel rolls, or break her grip with the twisty-turny transformation.

Fleet transforms from pyramid jet to robot.

Fleet breaks free of Catechism's hold, but he's still in close range, and better yet, he's in robot mode now, which ought to cut how fast he can get away. Well, that worked better than she had expected! Grinning like a wing nut, Catechism tries to get in a kick before he gets too far away.

Catechism misses Fleet with her kick attack.

Ordinarily, being a robot would, indeed, cut down on Fleet's speed considerably. But he's actually rather addicted to the feel of freefall, knowing, as he does, that he can quit any time he likes. He leans back and cuts his antigravs entirely, quickly falling out of the way of Catechism's kick. As he plummets, he raises his left arm, right arm positioned as if to steady it, and fires his shoulder mounted rifles, the movements looking almost lazy in defiance of the speed with which they are accomplished.

Fleet strikes Catechism with Shoulder-Mounted Laser.

Catechism winces as Fleet's lasers scorch her. Missing with that kick had caused her to overshoot her intended position, leaving her open to be shot. On the plus side, now he's just falling down, and the path of a falling object is drone's play to calculate. Clutching a hand over some of her wounds, Catechism aims with her other arm and fires with her gauss weaponry.

Catechism misses Fleet with her gauss attack.

The path of a falling object is, indeed, drone's play to calculate, which is why the yellow seeker doesn't stay on that path for very long. Unexpectedly, he rockets "upwards," relative his mostly-horizontal position, anyway... he's really only doing a rather gentle incline at first. He increases his vertical momentum faster than he does his horizontal, bending left knee as he rises and turning slightly to present a slimmer profile to attack. He reaches his nearest arm - the left one - towards Catechism as he does so and lets loose his ballistic weaponry this time.

Fleet strikes Catechism with Rail Gun.

The conehead lets out a small yelp of pain as Fleet's rail gun shot neatly put a hole through her already-damaged wing. Hunching her shoulders, she growls. Getting smacked all over the place like this by Fleet, of all Seekers, is just downright ridiculous. Her optics flashing brightly, she releases a laser bolt and tries to gain some altitude.

Catechism strikes Fleet with laser.

Apparently, Catechism fights better when pissed! Fleet starts to spin out of the way of the way of her laser bolt, but even this squirmy yellow seeker is no match for the speed of light! The bolt catches him in the far (right) wing and spins him a bit faster then he wants to go, although he recovers into more graceful twirl quickly, leaning sideways and changing direction as he does. Once more, it's not a bad hit, but he's beginning to worry about the accumulation. He fires up at the rising conehead with his disruptors as he himself moves upwards relative the 'line' they had been on.

Fleet strikes Catechism with disruptor.

She may shoot better when pissed, but her dodging ability remains dodgy, to make an oh-so-lame pun. The disruptor bolts arcs over her frame, looking like lightning against her cloudy grey. Fleet may not be packing big missiles, but this "death by a thousand cuts" adds up. She flies a little higher and tries to put Fleet between herself and dam's reservoir. Then, she fires off a shot with her taser. Right now, it'd be nice if it connects, but that's not critical. Catechism has other plans.

Catechism strikes Fleet with taser.

Poor Fleet! Poor tiny dancer! Not only is he hit by the taser in the left shoulder (owie, owie, owie! These little hits are starting to add up!), but he's also, unknowingly, playing right into the other seeker's hands. Somewhat. The little yellow seeker is never one for staying on a straight path for very long, and with the hit he moves back a bit - not through the force of the rather minor strike, but it is what provides the inspiration. He turns on both his horizontal and vertical axis as he does (axis! axis! not Axis!) and begins flying more in Catechism's general direction, firing in pulse mode as he does. Odds are he intends to turn soon, as his aversion to melee is probably well known by the other.

Fleet misses Catechism with his Energy Rifle (pulsed mode) attack.

Catechism drops her arms to her sides and tips over, letting herself fall pointy head-first towards Fleet. In this case, having a conical head actually helps, as it means less air resistance. This unexpected motion means that Fleet's rifle attack misses. At the last moment, she swings her legs down and exploits the resultant change in motion to swing a punch towards the other Seeker. If it connects, it ought to knock him closer to that reservoir and all that horrible, horrible water. Someone who knew more about Earth fauna might be tempted to make a comparison to the hunting stoop of a falcon, but Catechism doesn't, and she'd probably insist that a Decepticon flying ace invented it eons before falcons involved, anyway.

Catechism strikes Fleet with Smiting the Heathens.

Fleet is struck with Catechism's attack, although, not being a heathen, he's not particularly smitten. However, by this point he's taken quite a few minor hits, and they add up to a number he doesn't care for. Rather then being pushed back with the force of the conehead's not-so-mighty blow, he takes the strike in his left shoulder and then turns to the side, twisting to her left, around, and behind her, but instead of taking advantage of his new position he gasps, "Very good... you seem to have adapted- quite well- to your new set of circumstances... I think you've proven that sufficiently." With that he withdraws, intending to step outside the arena to safety and complete health.

Fleet begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from

Catechism grins ferally and lets out a victory whoop as Fleet makes his retreat, err, tactical relocation. She hollers, "Yeah, take that, ya pastel polygon!" A genius at taunting, Catechism is not. Still sore over all the hits he managed to score on her, she takes a potshot at him with her taser.

Catechism strikes Fleet with taser.

Comcast comes into the Holo Arena.

Fleet is hit in the foot, being as that's the part of his body that's presently closest to Catechism. The same one he was hit in earlier... youch! This second hit is enough to goof with his flight pattern, and he almost crashes - before leaving the arena, where he's returned to full health. At this point he stabilizes, and manages to turn an awkward tumble into a controlled dual-axial twist, touching down upright and facing the arena, which is the position he will be in when Catechism (and Comcast, should he desire to follow) exit as well.

NCC Arena

A huge enclosed oval structure, the Arena is now nothing more than a deathtrap. What were once tiered rows of seats are now seamless walls that slope sharply downwards into a deep gloom. The arena floor, once a flat expanse of dull metal has sunk further into the ground and reconfigured itself, dark shadows hiding the massed array of spikes and treacherous pits that the surface has become. The Imperial box has become a virtual bunker, thick armor plates hiding the opulence inside. Small gleams of light in the shadows hint at hidden weaponry now exposed, and overall, the arena complex is now an extremely dangerous place to linger - especially if you happen to be opposed to the Decepticon Empire.

Contents:

Hall of Heroes

Holo Arena

Obvious exits:

North <N> leads to NCC Dungeon.

South <S> leads to NCC Residential Plaza.

West <W> leads to NCC Central Hub.

Inside, Catechism has a hole through one of her wings, damage to her torso, and assorted scorch marks everywhere, but she's merry despite all that and punches the air over her victory. Given that she just beat Fleet, it's dubious if she should be so happy but give the girl a break, eh? She exits the arena, waiting for the refreshing feeling of having all that damage reset.

Catechism emerges from the Holo Arena.

Catechism has arrived.

Catechism is laughing as she exits, and she claps her hands together when she sees Fleet. The conehead exclaims, "Good game!" Despite his relative frailty, Fleet's a tricky one, and now, looking back, she can say that she enjoyed the round. It wasn't nearly so fun at the time when she was being hit by rockets.

Fleet nods and smiles pleasantly, his friendly demeaner belying the fact that he just got his tailfins whipped. If he knows that this tends to take some of the enjoyment out of the victory for most folks, he doesn't show it. "Very good, indeed. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to check in on a friend of mine." He pauses. Did he just call Arachnae 'friend'? Yes, yes he did. And it had been automatic. Something to think about later, he supposes. "If you like, you can join me," he finishes.

Comcast emerges from the Holo Arena.

Comcast has arrived.

Let's see what automatically comes when referring to Nae later on...

If Catechism notices that Fleet doesn't seem upset about his loss, she doesn't seem to care. Instead, the cloudy Seeker leans against one of the arena walls and rubs the back of her helmet. "If you don't mind. I wouldn't want to intrude."

Fleet shakes his head. "Naw, I wouldn't mind. Besides, it'd probably be best if you started getting familiar with the individuals you're likely to be dealing with here, so you may as well come along, I think."

"Fair enough, then. Where to?" She drops her hand from her head down to her side and leans forward slightly, curious to see who Fleet esteems enough to call a friend so thoughtlessly. Ought to be interesting, at the very least, and networking serves the cause better than standing around does.

A light grey hand raises and motions slightly in a "follow me" sort of gesture. "Medical," replies the 'pastel polygon'. "Even if Arachnae hadn't been injured recently, that would be the likeliest place to find her." With that he turns on heel - well, jet-thruster-thingies (to use the technical term) and heads towards the Central Hum.

And to the Central Hub, as well. Which is... erm, humming with activity. That's right! It was intentional! It was certainly not a typo!

<OOC: Continued in “Paint and Energon.”>