Tformers100 Prompt #2
Title: Bad Flying Weather
Fandom: Beast Wars
Table(s): Weather
Prompt: #2: Hail
Rating: PG
Character(s): Airazor, Terrorsaur, Waspinator
Summary: This is why aerial combat in a hailstorm is a baaad idea kids!
Predacons always chose the worst weather conditions to attack in, Airazor thought as she simultaneously fought the air currents that sought to spin her around and dodged a volley of shots from Terrorsaur.
“Ahahaha, prepared to be roasted, bird-brain!” the red Predacon laughed rancorously as he dove after her.
Airazor barrel-rolled sharply to the left and Terrorsaur shot by close enough to reach out and touch. She fired several shots after him but the powerful winds that lashed the darkening clouds disrupted her aim and she wasn’t sure if any of her shots connected.
Fighting the powerful updrafts that threatened to send her shooting upwards into the roiling mass of storm-clouds Airazor tried to get her bearings. Okay, there’s one flier but where’s the other? she thought. The Predacon fliers almost always patrolled together and it wasn’t like Terrorsaur to attack without backup.
A sizzling shot that passed close enough to singe her wing answered that question. “Why Bird-bot zzo hard to hit?” Waspinator buzzed in frustration.
Before Airazor could think of a suitable come-back something hard struck her left wing sending a painful jolt through her entire frame. Thinking she had been shot, she side-slipped into a sharp dive intended to throw off an enemy’s targeting scanner. Something else caught her a stinging blow to her shoulder, and feeling it slide down her chest, she grabbed it. Looking down, she realized that she was holding a large ball of ice.
There was a loud Clang! “Ouch! What the Pit?!” Terrorsaur yelped somewhere up above her and there was an answering cry of pain from his wingmate.
Airazor looked up and saw more ice falling from the greenish-tinged clouds in a lethal rain. She remembered Tigatron telling her about a weather phenomenon on this planet called ‘hail’. She ducked her head and shielded it with her arms just in time to avoid getting clocked in the face with a hailstone. More ice struck her wings and back as the hail intensified. This is crazy, I can’t fly in this mess! she thought, fighting down panic. The only consolation was the Terrorsaur and Waspinator must be having similar trouble. Hopefully they would be too busy keeping from being knocked out of the sky to shoot her.
Flying out of the storm proved to be impossible, the hail seemed to intensify no matter what direction she flew and there was no sign of clear skies anywhere. Airazor knew she’d have to land or risk being badly damaged. Her head hunched down and her wings pulled in as tightly as she could, she dropped below the clouds scanning the ground for some place she could take shelter.
The savannah was devoid of trees and brush or anything else that might shield her from the hail. Finally her keen vision spotted a rock outcrop that jutted out over the plains, creating an overhang. It would have to do. She dove for the overhang, not caring about anything except getting out of this horrible, painful weather.
It took her optics a few moments to adjust to the dark, so Airazor didn’t realize at first that she wasn’t alone. Then two sets of glowing optics met hers accompanied by a startled Buzz that could only be Waspinator.
Aw no, the thought of another skirmish when all she wanted to do was get out of the hail storm and nurse her injuries made her heart sink. And this was the only shelter for miles around. She stared blankly at the two Predacons and they stared right back.
As her optics adjusted she could see that Waspinator’s delicate insect wings had been practically shredded and that Terrorsaur had a large dent in his helm and one optic wasn’t working properly, fritzing in and out. Airazor imagined that she didn’t look much better, her wings and back felt like a solid mass of dents some of which were bleeding; energon occasionally dripping off her wingtips onto the ground.
Terrorsaur tried to sit up straighter and clutch his head in agony, “Owwww…. Truce?” he asked, trying to sound nonchalant but coming across as plaintive, “Just until the storm is over?”
Waspinator nodded emphatically in agreement giving Airazor a mournful look, “Wazzpinator not want to get chased out into ice zztorm. Will be good. Wazzpinator promises.”
They looked so pathetic sitting there that Airazor couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for them, even if they had attacked her. “Alright boys,” she finally agreed, smiling wryly, “Just until the storm ends.”