| abstract
| - North Central States The North Central States encompass most of the Great Plains as well as the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. The Great Plains isn't just endless fields of grain in Nebraska and Iowa, it also includes the towering buttes of the Dakotas and the fertile river valleys that crisscross Missouri and Kansas as well. The Midwest is broad, clear horizons, a land of gently rolling landscape punctuated by rivers, woods, and trees. The Great Lakes states contain not only the huge metropolitan centers like Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis but big swatches of forest and lakeshore to the north, with gorgeous scenic drives along the Lakes and the tall bluffs of the Ohio river valleys. It's the final of the lightweight Full Weapon Combat competition, and the location has been decided as Mount Rushmore. The shielded grandstand has been set up, full of spectator of course, and many nations' TV crews are watching. The Decepticon flag flies from the granstand's corners, no Autobot or Junkion insignia shown because both the competitors wear the purple brand. All that's left now is for them to decide who takes silver and who takes gold... Mount Rushmore stands behind the grandstands, the four Presidents watching over the combat... Perceptor is standing on a hovering platform in front of the grandstands, behind the shields, still of course. He looks indifferent to this entire ordeal. He's usually a bit annoyed at having to be present at these events, but lately he's been in a better mood in general, due to the success of that prototype recently. The scientist reads his chronometer. It was almost time. "Contestants, prepare yourselves." A small terminal folds out of the floor, rising to about waist height and projecting a spherical hologram with a series of wildly oscillating numbers in the center of it. Folding and shifting, Banshee transforms into robot mode. Banshee arrives from above, transforming to land daintily on Abraham Lincoln's head. She gives Perceptor a slight nod and then looks for Contrail, checking her Luger-type pistols. "I am prepared!" she calls back to Perceptor, standing up and waiting for the call to battle Scorn has been quite sour since her last fight with Carjack against Blades and First Aid. Seems she doesn't take losing well. But she shows up to her last match of the Olympics either way, not wanting to look like some sort of coward by backing out. And so, with the former presidents of the USA looming over the arena, Scorn makes her way to the center, head held high as Insecticon lackies cheer for her at the sidelines. "Banshee." She greets the fellow femme when she joins her, sharp sneer gracing her features while giving her a brief once over. Hm, big girl like her might be an issue. "May the best Con win." Contrail is here to cheer on... everyone? Banshee and Scorn are both fine. Except for Perceptor. She calls out at the scientist, "Whiiiiiifff!" "And when did you get so interested in the Olympics?" Hairsplitter drolls at Singe, who is standing, practically hopping up and down he's so excited. "Yyyyeeeah, You weren't interested in the sharp shooting event at all." Singe snorts at his teammate. "Yeah. Sharpshooting. Way fun. Open your eyes- are you NebulON or OFF? It's Banshee vs. Scorn! BANSHEE. VERSUS. SCORN!" &r&r Hairsplitter shrugs. Singe stares at him. "I hate you." Perceptor ignores both Banshee and Contrail. They weren't worth his time and attention unless he were planning on shooting them, which this time he isn't. He keys a command into the small console just below the glowing blue sphere, and the numbers fly. "The first to attempt a strike will be the combatant with the highest roll." GAME: Perceptor rolls a (100)-sided die: ROLL: Banshee rolled a 100 ROLL: Scorn rolled a 55 Banshee gives Scorn a nod as the coin-toss comes up her way. "Good luck, alzo." she replies, launching down from Abe's head to land on the Arena floor itself, standing side-on with one of her Lugers in hand. The other hand is clenched behind her back a she stands side-on to Scorn to make herself less of a target as she fires the antique-styled pistol at the othr Decepticon! Combat: Banshee sets her defense level to Guarded. Combat: Banshee strikes Scorn with her Pistol attack! VTOL-modified F-15 flies down and settles to watch the combat. He pulls a can of ener-redbull and pops the top, sipping the energon stimulant as he sits on the edge of Teddy Roosevelt's head. "Where's the mud? Or at least the Jello?" Thrust folds out back into robot mode, his cockpit folding against his chest, his wings reverse, and his arms pop out. Contrail comments, "Pistols at fifty paces, eh?" She settles down to work on a new bomb while she's watching the fight. The hologram powers and down disappears, and Perceptor sits down boredly, resting his head on a hand servo. Scorn takes a quick glance around the stands before the match officially starts, spotting Singe and Hairsplitter in the crowds, which has her smirk and send the former a blown kiss. Her two favorite Nebulans have come to cheer her on, how sweet. Though she doesn't see their Master anywhere. He's probably off being mysterious somewhere. But once the numbers come up, and Banshee lucks out, the mantis leaps and takes to the sky before that pistol can be drawn, only garnering a somewhat glancing shot as she soars up. "Really, Banshee, you need to upgrade that pea-shooter sometime to a /real/ weapon." She snorts and zips back around, drawing plasma pistols and drawing a bead on Banshee before letting loose. Combat: Scorn sets her defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Scorn strikes Banshee with her Plasma Burst Pistols attack! [Pulled -1] Banshee takes the hit with a bit of a shrug, chuckling as the cogs on her neck begin to spin. "Ja." She comments, her voice sounding oddly duplicated. "In time, I shall. But for now, my real veapon, at least in zi form, ist mein voice." She begins to sing, the note starting off an extremely pure and beautiful-sounding high C. Other notes are laid over the first note, at first sounding harmonious but the sound rapidly becomes discordant and grating. As Banshee begins to focus the sound on Scorn, hopefully shattering mechanisms within the Insecticon's body! Combat: Banshee sets her defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Banshee strikes Scorn with her Banshee Scream attack! Spinister helicopters in and transforms near his Nebulon team while Singe loses his dark little mind at Scorn's kiss. "KILL HER SCORN!" Singe stands up, waving his arms. "KILL HER! I mean, Banshee, you and me have had some serious times and all, but..." Banshee seems to have the right idea in using a sound based attack on Scorn, the Insecticon immediatly reaching up to try and cover long antennas when the scream reaches her. "Agh!!" Orientation goes way off, the femme weaving heavily before divebombing back to earth, hitting the ground hard. "Ergh..." Scorn huffs, head shaking to clear her processors while slowly standing, poison yellow optics training on the stuka before she shifts to her altmode. "I've heard garbage disposals sing better!" She snaps, dashing off to strafe Banshee and hock a thick wad of acidic spit at her face. Hopefully that'll shut her up. Scorn crouches before shifting into her scythe-armed mantis mode. Combat: Robotic Praying Mantis strikes Banshee with her Molten Plasma Spit attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Banshee's Accuracy. (Blinded) Banshee chuckles quietly. "It only hurts vhen I vant it to." She says, hautily - clearly not amused by the insult. As the plasma-spit hits, the Stukacon snarls, wiping her optics before leaping up on her antigravs, transforming as she goes. Banking hard, she tries to clear her senses and target Scorn, her wing-mounted guns firing wildly at what she -thinks- is her foe! <> Not good. Watching Banshee take to the air now, and begin to lay down a random spray of bullets over the arena floor, Scorn does her best to skitter fast around the fire, though she's unlucky enough to manage letting a few bullets pepper her frame. When the weaponfire passes, Scorn clicks her mandibles vicious before launching into the air once more, wings buzzing hard to pull her up alongside the plane. She then attempts to land upon one of Banshee's wings like some monster in a horror flick, hissing at the femme before raising blades to try and slice through the essential part and hopefully ground her. Combat: Robotic Praying Mantis strikes Banshee with her Plasma Sheathed Blades attack! Banshee snarls and banks -hard- in an attempt to avoid those vicious blades- though she's much bigger than the Insecticon, and a much larger target. The blades slice into the bottom of the wing and, rather unfortunately for Scorn, sever the wires to the bomb release mechanism of one of her 50kg explosives. This woudn't normally be a probem, but ionised plasma often carries quite a charge, and it triggers the bomb to come away from its mounting. DIrectly above her. Folding and shifting with the classic noise, Banshee transforms into her Junkers Ju-87 Stuka altmode Combat: JU-87 strikes Robotic Praying Mantis with her 50kg GP Bombs attack! Thrust sits there ogling both the girl-bots, having finished his ener-redbull. He drools oil like a mech transfixed. Perceptor notices Thrust's ogling, and shakes his head. "What an idiot." he mutters to himself. Contrail suggests disdainfully, "You really ought to get that leak fixed, Thrust." "Ha! How does /that/ feel??" Scorn cackles while ripping into Banshee's wing, getting ready to stick her face into the wound and really do some damage with those gnashing jaws. But she instead gets a face full of explosive, the bomb detonating the moment is hits and sending Scorn hurtling back toward the ground in a fiery, smokey display. Again. She lays there for quite some time, smoke still rising from her scorched frame, before some semblance of life starts to show, Scorn groaning while scythes reach out to drag her behind some cover so she can regain her bearings. Combat: Robotic Praying Mantis sets her defense level to Guarded. Combat: Robotic Praying Mantis takes extra time to steady herself. [Pass] "Leak? What leak?!" Thrust says, clearly startled. He wipes his face furiously and pretends everything is normal! JU-87 circles around as she re-routes some of the damaged controls through other wiring, but she decides to press the attack, rolling hard and diving down on Scorn, those guns under her wings chattering again - chasing the Insecticon behind the rock with twin lines of dirt puffs. <> Combat: JU-87 strikes Robotic Praying Mantis with her Strafing Run (Laser) attack! Contrail makes a disgruntled noise over Thrust's idiocy and focuses on the deathmatch between Scorn and Banshee instead. It's like an awesome monster meets prop plane movie. A screech of pain rises up from the dust clouds kicked up by flying bullets, the bright glow of spilled energon the first thing to be visible when it settles. The next is Scorn herself, the mantis not looking good while trying to keep herself from dropping right there with scorched armor, missing plates, and several bullet holes. But she's not going to go down so easily just yet, now switching back to her robot mode, a pained grunt escaping her, and drawing her pistols once more to lay down some fire on the plane. Standing up straight, Scorn shifts back into sexy robot mode. Combat: Scorn sets her defense level to Neutral. Combat: Scorn strikes JU-87 with her Plasma Burst Pistols attack! JU-87 snarls as the plasma fire washes over her, a failt trail of blue oil smoke starting to stream from her exhausts as something within her engine is damaged - oil washing back over her windscreen and sensors. She growls quietly to herself and peels around in a loop-de-loop, pouring on the power as she dives vertically toward Scorn, recklessly. One of the 250kg bombs slung under her fuselage swings forward and then drops, the Stukacon pulling up hard to avoid slamming into the ground! Combat: JU-87 strikes Scorn with her 250kg Penetrator Bombs attack! Scorn literally claws at the dirt when she spots Banshee making a divebomb towards her, optics wide as she gathers any remaining strength to scramble out of the way of those bombs now whistling right towards her. Sadly she's not that fast with her injuries slowing her down, Scorn unable to get out of the blast radius fast enough and getting flung forward when the bomb explodes. The femme covers several yards as she skids across the ground, finally coming to a rolling halt with her face in the dirt. It's quite a while before she manages to roll herself onto her back, ventilators wheezing while cracked, dim optics try to track Banshee. She really only has one last effort in her, feeling herself fading as hand blindly feels around for her pistol, trying to steady her arm while aiming and trying to land one final shot. Combat: Scorn strikes JU-87 with her Plasma Burst Pistols attack! [Pulled -2] JU-87 yelps as the shot scorches her armour and burns through to some of the wiring underneath, one of her trim-tabs jamming in the fully-extended position, making it hard for her to flight straight. She curses and tries to free the locked tab, looping around to try and strafe over the Insecticon while at the same time trying to fix the problem. Unfortunately, she's too busy trying to fix her rudder issues to look where she's going and... well, if Scorn doesn't get out of the way, this is going to hurt both of them. Combat: JU-87 strikes Scorn with her Not Looking Where I'm Flying (Ram) attack! Combat: Scorn falls to the ground, unconscious. Contrail lists to one side and opines, "That looks... amazingly painful. Wow. Glad I'm not in that furball!" Scorn just kinda... watches as Banshee divebombs yet again, expecting another explosive from the stuka. But.. she's not pulling up? Well crap. With a typical 'oh shit' look on her face, the Insecticon sloooowly rolls back to her front so she can't see as Banshee crash lands right on top of her and drives the poor femme into the dirt. It's a good thing she was near stasis lock anyway, so she's already out whenever her opponent decides to get off of her. Though, unbeknownst to anyone, that split second before falling unconcious was /brutally/ painful. As soon as Scorn is down, the hologram comes out of the terminal again, only this time instead of oscillating wildly, the numbers count slowly down from 10 to 0. When it finishes, Perceptor stands. "Banshee is the victor. She will receive the gold medal. Scorn will be granted the silver. Congratulations to the both of them...well fought." JU-87 thankfully for Scorn, bounces off. She flips end-over-end and comes down on her back, smoke trailing up from her body as she transforms, coughing a ittle and -slowly- hauling hrself up to her feet. "Ouch..." she mutters; it wasn't -that- pleasant for her, either, after all. Every movement seems to cause the Stukacon pain, though she's not as messed-up as she was in her fight with Buzzkill. She nods to Perceptor, then finds somewhere to sit down and hurt for a while. Folding and shifting, Banshee transforms into robot mode.
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