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Characters: Dreadwing, @skyquake, @moonwing, @predaking Location: The Nemesis - Flight Deck Content Warnings: N/A Plot Summary: Two seeker brothers test their student on her abilities, and discover that a rather large and dangerous someone objects to their methods.
((OOC: Our posting order will be Dreadwing - Skyquake - Moonwing - Predaking, unless we need to post out of order to advance the plot. We'll start off with reposting what's already been written and then go from there c: ))
After many weeks of theoretical learning and indoor flight practice, Dreadwing was finally satisfied in his student’s progress to proceed on with the ‘next stages’ of her education. He would admit he was incredibly impressed with her progress; he knew of no other bot who had learned as much or as quickly as Moonwing had, nor could he think of a more attentive student. She was clever, and swift, and would surely bring much glory and honor to the Decepticon Cause once she had completed her training.
Skyquake, though not officially named a teacher to the youngling, had still been involved in her education on flight theory and practice by virtue of being his brother. Dreadwing valued the fresh viewpoint his twin offered, as well as new methods by which he could impart the important knowledge Moonwing would need, not only to fly but also to fight. This was why Skyquake accompanied them now to the flight deck - today, they would test Moonwing’s ability to fly evasively, and teach her ways to avoid getting shot out of the sky on the battlefield.
With his brother at his side and his young student trotting obediently along behind him, Dreadwing lead the way out onto the flight deck. It was clear and empty save for its permanent occupant, Predaking, and he offered a polite nod of acknowledgement as they passed by.
When they reached the open end of the flight deck, Dreadwing lead the way straight to the edge and turned to Moonwing. “Today we will be using blasters set on their lowest setting, so whatever hits you take will not harm you - though they will not exactly be painless. This will provide you with motivation enough not to get hit, though to be fair to you, we will not begin shooting without warning.”
This was not a new method to Moonwing, who had undergone training in close-range combat and had learned the value of dodging these shots. Even on the lowest setting, blaster shots stung, and were unpleasant. It was an effective teaching strategy, he’d found.
“Brother, have you anything to suggest? Anything to add?” Dreadwing looked to Skyquake, for he had no doubt that his brother had some ideas indeed that could improve the lesson.
Skyquake wasn’t really the teaching type. Yes, he felt a certain amount of responsibility towards Moonwing, seeing how she was the first known flyer youngling in millennia, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be involved in her training or, Primus forbid, her rearing. He had raged when he had found out that her knowledge of seeker culture was severely lacking, but at no point had he felt a desire to sit her down and instruct her. That kind of thing was Dreadwing’s area.
So far, he had approached his task as designated flight teacher with nothing but professionalism. There was no reason for him to act like there might be an emotional connection between them where there was none. Dreadwing, however, seemed to feel everything Skyquake didn’t. He knew his twin well enough to know that at some point the blue seeker would cave and grow to care about the young femme. Already he had brought her under his wing; it was only a matter of time before he started seeing her as a welcomed presence worthy of his time rather than a simple task designated by their master.
While the idea of having another fighter jet around had some appeal, Skyquake wasn’t sure the amount of wailing and sentimentalities—for Moonwing was shockingly emotional for a Decepticon—that may be involved in the process of accepting Moonwing into their fold were enough to put Skyquake off the idea completely.
He glanced at Dreadwing. Thinking about his brother’s question for a second, he shrugged and said, “I might shoot without warning.”
Today was the second time they went out onto the flight deck to practice. Apart from her first (wobbly) flight under Dreadwing’s watchful gaze, and her technically second (secret) flight with Predaking, all the flying Moonwing had done thus far had been in the large empty storage bay on the lowest level of the Nemesis. Practicing flying within a storage bay was a good way to learn, but eventually Moonwing had grown tired of being cooped up and enclosed, instead craving the open sky as seekers naturally do. It was a delight to learn that this next lesson would take place in the open air, under the great blue sky her spark yearned for.
She was anxious because it would be her second ‘official’ flight under the watch Dreadwing and Skyquake, and today they would be discussing evasive flying in battle. They would be using weapons on the lowest setting (as they had before during weapons training) and so she knew she would not be harmed if she were to be unable to dodge a shot in time, but still… Moonwing was nervous because she did not know if her flying skills were good enough. She did not want to disappoint.
She was excited because Predaking, of course, would be there on the flight deck, and like any young person with a crush, she wanted to show off and impress.
She followed her assigned mentor and his brother obediently, trotting along behind them. They passed by Predaking. When Moonwing was certain neither Dreadwing nor Skyquake would notice, she gave him a shy smile and a wave, before scurrying after the two adult seekers who surely intended to put her through her paces. Both of them were firm teachers who did not ‘go easy’ (With Skyquake being… firmer. Much firmer.) on her, and so she anticipated a relentless lesson ahead of her.
“I understand, sir,” She confirmed, ever the dutiful student. She tried not to let her alarm at Skyquake’s words show - she was learning to be a warrior, after all, and the enemy would not tell her when they would be shooting at her! Still, Skyquake tended to be unpredictable and spontaneous, constantly testing her, and often these tests ended with her plating being singed or dented.
“I am ready to begin whenever you want me to, sir.”
Everyday was the same. Stay on the flight deck. Wait. Go hunting. Return empty-handed. This irritated the animal. He felt trapped. It was certainly endowed with intelligence, but his instincts was primary. Every hour spent here made him more embittered. He could not bear solitude. Fortunately her friend had come to see in secret. He also met Dreadwing. He did not know what to think of him, but he seemed sympathetic. He knew that being in place of the dragon was not pleasant. Predaking was excludes and used as a weapon, not as a being endowed with emotion. So he was now very irritate, because he was some days he was not pulled out of there. A nothing could make him angry. Very angry.
He slept in a dark corner. Hearing few people approaching, he slowly opened his optics. We could see his eyes shining in the dark. He looked at Dreadwing. He was solemn as always. There was also Moonwing. He watched her as she passed. He could not really make her a “hello”. He just make a slight growl. Then passed someone who was unknown to him. He looked a lot like Dreadwing! The animal blinked, disturbs. The vehicons was all the sames, but not the graded. See the seeker painted in green made him perplexed, noting he did not like that color the way. He mean, on a bot like him. Yes, that he is interested in trendy colors. Staying here really made him strange.
He began to watch them. It seems they are here to train his young friend. He trusted Dreadwing. He knew he would ensure not to hurt her. However his twin (of which he was unaware that this is really the case.) seemed... harder. Not as sweet. Predaking squinted. He would watch him especially. His optics were chained on him. The group was far away, and with the wind he could not hear very well. This made it difficult for him to know what is really happening and it made him tense.
“You may begin. You have ten micro-kliks before we begin to shoot: be ready to utilize the evasive maneuvers you have studied,” Dreadwing instructed, and watched as the young seeker obediently turned and took to the sky, transforming into a sleek silver jet similar to his own alt mode.
Moonwing may be young, and sometimes rather troublingly naive, but she was an exemplary student and an unusually quick learner. It was true that bots of her age ought to have long since completed this developmental stage and completed such basic training, but considering she had come to them so malnourished and small (far smaller than she should have been), it was nothing short of a miracle that she’d accomplished as much as she had in such a short time.
From subspace Dreadwing fetched a generic, standard-issue blaster, and carefully checked to ensure that it was set to the very lowest setting. He did not need to look to know that his twin did the same. “She ought to do better than in close-quarters combat, at least,” He commented to Skyquake as he took aim, though he knew his twin cared a little less about this whole mentorship business than he did. “She has more room to move.”
The ten klik buffer time was up, and Dreadwing began to fire. It pleased him greatly to see Moonwing deftly dodge most of the shots from both himself and Skyquake, as she indeed used the things she had learned. Yes, Moonwing was doing very well, considering her previous mitigating circumstances… but she certainly had a lot of room to improve. To his sharp gaze, Dreadwing was easily able to see how her turns were slow and on the sloppy side, and the barrel rolls just barely came short of spinning out of control.
Luckily, she was clever enough not to spin out of control, and cleverer still to use the wide open space the sky afforded her. She zipped and zoomed around them, simulating attempted aerial attacks, only veering off and away when she got too close and got shot with the low-powered blaster bolts.
Finally, when Moonwing seemed to be tiring - he could tell by the fact that more of their shots were hitting her - Dreadwing decided that she had earned a break. “Return to the flight deck so we might discuss your strengths and weaknesses!” He ordered, both out loud and through the comm link.
((OOC: *casually posts after spending a day forgetting it was my turn*))
Ten micro-kliks might not have seemed enough time to do much of anything, but it was enough time for a seeker to leap into the air and transform, and that was what Moonwing did. She had come a very long way in the short amount of time since she’d fallen from the flight deck, helpless and flightless! Now she faced the open sky without fear, for it was her birthright as a seeker to fly.
The wind was particularly tricky today, and more than once Moonwing had almost been knocked off course by a strong gust, but she was too determined to allow the wind to triumph over her again. She had little time to think about the wind, because Dreadwing and Skyquake began to shoot at her, and the exercise began in earnest.
Moonwing put all her new theoretical knowledge of evasive maneuvers to practice. She circled around them multiple times, as if pretending she were about to dive in for an attack or an ambush, only to twirl away at the last moment, and she took pride in the fact that she dodged more blaster bolts than she was hit with. The few barrel rolls she executed, however, were not so much barrel rolls as barely controlled spinning, but the more she did them, the more confident and in control she felt. Though her flying was quick, sometimes it was not quick enough, and the blaster bolts that did hit her stung horribly (the pain equivalent to a human being hit with a paintball) and provided her with enough incentive to be quicker just to avoid it.
Eventually, whirling and zipping and corkscrewing in order to evade the shots being fired at her began to tire her. Moonwing started to get hit more and more, and each one stung more than the last. She was grateful when Dreadwing summoned her back to the flight deck, and perhaps a bit pleased - even with the hits she’d taken, she thought she had demonstrated her abilities quite well. Inwardly, Moonwing preened, quite pleased at her performance, and hoped that Predaking had seen how well she had done.
Little did she know that she had assumed that the exercise was a resounding success much, much too soon. She touched down on the edge of the flight deck, nearby to Skyquake and Dreadwing, and completely failed to keep her guard up.
“She ought to do better at anything than close-quarters combat,” Skyquake told his brother. He charged his blaster and aimed for one of Moonwing’s legs. “She’s a disgrace at it.”
By which he didn’t actually mean that she was a bad fighter, but bad at fighting. They had thought she might use speed and agility to cause damage and dance away before said damage could be retributed. That was fine. There were many fighting techniques and all of them were valid as long as they worked. But the problem was that for all that Moonwing excelled at avoiding other people’s blows, she never delivered any of her own. Her reason for it had been simple and stupid: Not wanting to hurt anyone. Despite being created during the war, she apparently still didn’t understand what wartime was about.
At least she had improved her flying a lot under Dreadwing’s tutelage. Her hand-to-hand was a lost cause, but her flight technique was shaping up to be really something. This pleased Skyquake. He was glad his brother’s hard work and diligence hadn’t been wasted on the youth. However, there was still much the small Seeker didn’t know about aerial combat. Dreadwing was doing his best, but there were things that just couldn’t be taught—they had to be learnt. At this rate, with how reluctant his brother was to put her through a real test, Moonwing would never become a fully fledged warrior-flyer.
Skyquake took some potshots at the youngling, then stopped when he felt his brother’s emotions shift, not quite into pride or concern, but into something softer than his usual hardness. He rested his blaster against his pauldron, the nozzle pointing skywards as Dreadwing recalled Moonwing. Skyquake watched the youth’s descent. Too flighty. She was too flighty. Already she had lowered her guard. That was unacceptable.
So of course he did the logical thing and shoved her off the flight deck the moment she landed. That would teach her not to let her guard down so quickly.
Predaking was surprised by the new ability of his friend. She can fly know! She can avoid shoot too… She fly very great. The dragon learned by himself how to fly. It's not Shockwave who was going to teach him. He can't! His instinct was here hopefully. He had jumped from the top of a building and it had worked… Luckily.
See the two professors was educational. One seemed more delicate than the other. It was Dreadwing. The dragon knew him now and admitted he liked him. His honor way was just great for him. But… the other one… He was his brother. Probably. He had heard once but did not know his name. The beast stopped to think about it when they started to shoot his friend. This displeased him much but she was doing well. Predaking had raised his head and did not leave her eyes, the case she falls. When she landed on the ground he seemed reassured. He will never let her go on battle. Never. It's impossible ! He would be too worried.
Then ... suddenly ... The other pushes the from the edge. His reaction was immediate. He ran to the edge, pushed a little Dreadwing in the way. His tail went very close to the head of the robot, but it was unintentional. Even when the animal run, he is very dangerous! He looked down, very worried. Phew! She was flying smoothly. He gave a little reassured growl then remains motionless a few seconds. Then suddenly ... He turned his head to Skyquake.
Nobody has the right to hurt her friend! NO ONE. He was very frightened and she too! And that... he would not forgive him. He turned completely growling, then roared toward the green robot. He was in a rage that he never had before. And if she had not had the reflex to fly? And if he had not been there? She would probably be dead below! The judgment was already done. It was like a murder attempt for the largest reptile... well Skyquake risk of dying for this stupid idea and teaching unsuitable methods! He will KILL him. Right. now.
- RWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!
And he will do that in the most painful way possible. He charged toward him, totally ignoring his brother who was present, and sent the offending robot in a wall. It was brutal, but it was not finished. Now he was next to Dreadwing. Suspecting that he would react, he turned his head towards him growling and drove him with his tail without touching him. The offending was Skyquake, not him, so he will not hurt him... On condition that does not attack course.
He looked back at his enemy. He was preparing to attack again. Someone has to stop him!
The attack was sudden and unexpected. Truth be told, Skyquake had forgotten all about the Predacon. The creature was so silent despite being so big, and he blended into the shadows as if he had been wrought from them. So, yes, Skyquake had forgotten about the hulking mass of animalistic mech lurking in the flight deck. A mistake, one a rookie would make, and one Skyquake—who was not a rookie—had made.
He blamed it on the his time in stasis. Millions of years of slumber had made him a little sluggish, no matter what he told their resident doctor whenever he had a checkup.
Skyquake went flying into the Nemesis’ wall, leaving a small dent when his body made contact with the dark polished surface. He struggled to his feet. Error messages popped up in his HUD, but he closed them. He didn’t need to see what had been broken or knocked out of alignment. He could feel it. His wings’ sensornet were screaming murder at him where they had impacted against the wall. The right one’s tip felt bent, but he wasn’t even going to try feeling for damage. It would only make the pain worse, and it was bad enough as it was.
Which only made him angry. Skyquake didn’t appreciate being on the receiving end of pain. Delivering it, he could do without a problem. He even enjoyed it. But receiving? He was not one to simply lie down and let others kick him around. Never had and never would. And having a beast almost thrice his size wasn’t going to stop him from giving as good as he got.
Skyquake rolled his shoulders and crouched down, sharp claws seeming to grow longer as he snarled at the Predacon. “Come on, then! I’ll destroy you and ’bridge Shockwave your wreckage.”
((OOC: I'm torn between this song and this one cc: Dreadwing's reply will be posted sometime tomorrow.))
Poor Moonwing hadn’t been expecting Skyquake to strike at her at all, of course, and she went toppling backwards with a shriek of alarm. Her arms flailed comically as she teetered dangerously, before finally she lost her balance and went over the edge. The first thing the young seeker felt was a deep fear. It hadn’t been long ago at all that she’d fallen, helpless and flightless, off the flight deck, and a part of her still reeled from the trauma that had resulted.
Unlike last time, however, her flight upgrades were fully operational, and her thrusters promptly activated before she fell far. She was in no danger of dying horribly like last time.
Indignation rose in her spark. Why had he done that? It hadn’t been fair at all! She hovered in the sky for a few moments, stewing in her frustration as she reflected. Ever since Dreadwing had invited Skyquake to contribute to her lessons, he had been relentless in doing such things: from ambushing her when she least expected it to knocking her back on her rear during hand-to-hand combat. Nothing seemed to please him! But it was not in her nature to be angry, and her temper’s fuse was nonexistant. Just as fast as it had come, the anger left her spark.
Moonwing flew back up to the flight deck, intending to ask what she had done incorrectly to deserve such a ‘correction’, but when she regained the proper altitude, she found a very, very different situation than before. For a moment, she was frozen in horror at what she saw: Predaking standing over a prone Skyquake, who looked as if he’d been thrown the entire length of the flight deck and into the wall. She was not so naive as to not know what Predaking was about to do.
“Stop,” she choked, horrified, before her voice took on a frantic edge. She landed at a run, desperate to intervene.
“STOP!” she repeated, this time shouting, before flinging herself between the predacon and the other seeker. “Don’t do this, please! This isn’t worth it!” Moonwing had never feared Predaking before, and this had not changed. Even when she was between him and the target of his full unleashed fury, the only fear in her spark was for Skyquake… and for Predaking himself and the terrible consequences might await him should he follow through with what he was about to do. Had he not spoken of not wanting to be seen as a monster just last night to her? And of not wanting to kill?
One hand reached out toward Predaking, palm out, fingers splayed, as if she could stop him with such a simple gesture. “Please…!”
Moonwing and Predaking might have thought themselves subtle, and though he had not figured out the extent of their relationship yet, Dreadwing knew there was something between them. Such was the folly of youth, thinking they had fooled everyone older into thinking there was no secret meetings and ridiculous glances. He had not, however, expected Predaking to strike Skyquake down with such wrath and fury of the likes of which he had never seen before.
“Predaking! Stand down!” But his words went unheeded. Regardless of his desire to offer guidance to Predaking and his belief that the predacon showed much more potential, the moment when Skyquake hit the wall Dreadwing only saw a threat. A strike against his twin was a strike against himself, and Dreadwing was already instinctively drawing his sword with intent to leap to his brother’s defense.
Only, Predaking’s tail shoved him to the side. Had the predacon guessed his intentions and sought to keep him from interfering? It did not matter. Dreadwing sneered in his anger, indignant at being pushed to the side with ease as if he were no lighter than a minicon! But just as quickly as it had deserted him, common sense returned and so too did his tactical intelligence. Predaking had a reputation for great strength and violence, and he knew that there would be no victory for his brother nor himself should they choose to fight against a predacon.
Dreadwing’s pride may be hurt (Primus knew Skyquake’s was, for he could already feel his twin’s own wrath boiling over through their bond) but he was able to recognize when they were both outmatched.
The seeker finally managed to get in between the two warring parties. “Enough!” He hissed to Skyquake, using his own body to block his brother from throwing himself at what would most certainly be his own death by claws and fangs. “Do not be a fool! He is twice your size and ten times stronger!” It had always been his job, after all, to be Skyquake’s voice of reason and impulse control, especially in situations which could get out of hand. Arguably, it already had, but Dreadwing refused to allow it to escalate any further.
For extra measure, he forced his shoulder into Skyquake’s chest, pushing him back. “Stand down! That is an order!”
Predaking had never been so angry, but he never expected to be in such a state for someone. The link uniting them was really strong. They were likely to be a problem in the future for the Decepticon. If the girl decided to do what she wants, she would probably be supported by his reptile friend and everyone knows that it will be very difficult to kill him. Fortunately, it was very easy to handle him. Really easy to manipulate. Megatron and Shockwave know it.
This situation, otherwise, was problem. Predaking wants to kill Skyquake, protected by Dreadwing, but Predaking protects Moonwing, but she wants to stop that but Predaking don't wants to do it like Skyquake and… Omg. So much “but”. It's a real problem.
The beast had seen Dread' takes his sword, so he was more or less angry about him two for now. But, after this, the Seeker decided to stop his brother. Better idea. Predaking know that if he kill the brothers Megatron won't be happy, but he don't care. So, stop this now was the better thing to do for everyone. However, the dragon was in such a fury that he had not seen his friend arrive. He had not heard the first time she had told him to stop. But when she screamed, he immediately stopped growling and took a look surprised. Skyquake threatened, but he didn't care. He looked at her friend a few seconds of air reassured before watching his opponent nastily again.
- Rrrrrr…
He seemed calmer. He opened a wing to put around Moonwing and used it to bring her against him. The beast then looked very seriously (even if it's not very visible on an animal face) Dreadwing. This clearly said that he must watch his brother, and maybe keep him with a leash like a dog for he can't do anything wrong! Moony was safe so, finally, he won't kill Skyquake… for now.
Had Dreadwing really just ordered him to stand down? Since when did his twin pull rank on him? Since when did he resort to that kind of thing to get him to listen? Skyquake snarled into Dreadwing’s face, tempted to strike him aside. The proximity between them made him angrier rather than calmer. His brother’s sharp shoulder plating scraped against his cockpit. Skyquake’s engine gave a low growl, optics flickering between his twin, their student, and the looming threat approaching behind him.
Maybe if he grabbed a blue wingtip and yanked, if he overbalanced Dreadwing to the side, he could use the momentum of the movement to drop into a roll and surge up and around Moonwing to swipe at Predaking’s lower neck. The beast was closing in on them, so he would have to act quickly.
Then Skyquake’s optics went wide, realising that not only Moonwing, but also Dreadwing was standing between him and a furious Predacon out for energon. The bond between the brothers flooded with a cold feeling as he realised the danger his twin was in. He pulled at Dreadwing until they were chest to chest, then kept pulling.
“Get out of the way, you fool,” Skyquake hissed, trying to get his twin behind him. He glared at the Predacon and the way he tucked Moonwing under his wing, seemingly appeased. After such an outburst, Skyquake wasn’t about to trust him with the young seeker. “And what do you think you’re doing with our student? Release her!”
Never before had she seen the extent of Predaking’s rage, but now that she had, poor Moonwing had learned that the stories of his wrath were not exaggerations in the slightest. Still, even though she was between him and the object of his anger, she was not afraid for herself, no -- Her fear had been for Skyquake, and for Dreadwing, as well as for Predaking himself. If he had injured or even killed the seeker, he would have brought down Lord Megatron’s anger upon himself, and she feared that he’d be punished severely. She didn’t want to lose him.
Relief burst through her spark like sunlight after a storm: Predaking was backing down. Moonwing did not seem to realize the power she wielded over what had come to be known as the Decepticon’s greatest weapon, for she was too busy soothing the growling Predacon. “Shh, shh,” she murmured, stepping fearlessly forward until she could reach up to cradle his draconic head in her small hands, “You are better than this! Do not become the monster they want you to be. Skyquake did not harm me, I promise! See? I’m alright. It’s okay, everything will be okay.”
Great wings came round her shelter her from sight and tuck her close to the dragon’s metal-plated breast. Once more, Moonwing had found herself in Predaking’s comforting embrace, but this time it was not his robot mode but his beast form. Nevertheless, she felt just as safe now as she had before. “I’m alright,” she said, both to Predaking, and to the two elder seekers looking on in tense disapproval.
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altria : please dont be dead?
Jun 14, 2023 22:40:34 GMT
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Partia: Is this still alive?
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