(Untitled)

[upwind_of_you]

Who: Dinobot 2.0 (upwind_of_you, past!Alessa Gillespie (holy_heretic, future!Rattrap (vermin_downwind, future!Hiro timebending
Where: Outside the mansion, heading into the forest.
When: The night of December 2nd
Rating: PG-13 for violence and language.
Summary: After the feint comes the strike.
the Story:

Comments

[holy_heretic]

With a rather satisfied smile, Alessa finished up the last of the drawing for Harry. She knew she would have to hurry though if her plans to get out of this big house, and back home were to happen. Hiro, and Raven had told her to avoid the big scary dinosaur; but the big scary dinosaur was actually offering Alessa something that the other two were not. A way out

[upwind_of_you]

Yes, it was he: all white and silver and dark shades of red, metal in the moonlight. To a grown adult human he would have been large--one can only imagine how huge such a creature would be to the eyes of a child. He crouched at the very edge of the trees, where only a careful observer from the mansion's windows would see (and in fact he was counting on exactly that), and he waited with widened eye and a thoroughly concerned expression. Yes, Alessa, you can make it...he's worried about you, you know...

When she was still several seconds from the cover of the forest, Dinobot gave his internals a new command: send and upload pre-recorded voicefileOutwardly, he only knelt as she neared, to place himself as close to eye-level as something his size could. "You've done very well," he whispered quietly, his voice rough. "The difficult portion of the escape is now over and done with. Now we come to the part where I myself must do very well...tell me, Alessa, have you ever ridden a horse? We may move much more quickly if I change my shape; a

[holy_heretic]

To say that "Xuji" was big was probably the biggest understatement of the century. To the young seven year old Alessa, this dinosaur/robot looking thing was absolutely huge! She looked into the things eyes, smiling.

"A horse? I've never ridden a horse, because mama won't let me! Do I get to ride on you? This is going to be so fun!" The questions came flying out of Alessa's mouth at a quick pace often reserved for children of this age.

[upwind_of_you]

He smiled, and it was friendly enough. "Well, better fun than frightening. You have no doubt been frightened enough to last a while. Beast mode."

Instantly all the whites and silvers and reds began to reshuffle themselves in a storm of whirrs and clicks. The change came and went quickly, and then it was done, and the little red lights of his eyes lit up again in the night. The raptor folded his long legs up beneath him so that his belly touched the ground, and his back was more than low enough to reach.

"Even if it may be fun, we must still hurry, lest they notice your escape before we are entirely out of reach."

[timebending]

At the outside of the forest, Hiro teleports in, hand on Rattrap's shoulder.

He'd seen it from the window when he'd been heading to try to see Kobato; Alessa and Dinobot, speaking to one another. Dinobot taunting him on purpose. He knows this is a trap, but.

Hiro doesn't have much of a choice.

Hiro didn't wait; as soon as he arrived to get Rattrap, Depth Charge had been stubborn and refused to let Rattrap leave, but the time-traveler just took him anyway.

Not much of a choice, again. He'll make a formal apology to the ray-bot later, if he has the moment to spare.

"I'm afraid this is where you need to lead," Hiro says to the transformer.

[vermin_downwind]

He nods sharply, more to swing his visor into place. He really can see everything with this thing on.

"I can do that. He's not far in, but we both know he's doing it on purpose. Only a few minutes that a way." He points into the forest, a little to the left.

He mumbles to himself even as he starts making his way in, drawing his battered pistol in one hand and a charge in the other. "I really need to make some goggles or something for you guys."

"No one else's coming along? Sounds like a lot of fun for just the two of us."

[timebending]

"Raven and Yotsuba must stay in the mansion with the others," Hiro replies firmly, sliding out his sword in preparation. He speeds himself up, just a bit, to follow Rattrap.

"Would you ask someone else to join us?"

It's a risk to them all, and he's already pushing it by preparing the plan with Homunculus. Dragging in anyone else is just asking for trouble here and now.

"Admittedly, we're at a disadvantage," Hiro says quietly. "And I know I shouldn't ask you to be here, but you are the best way to find him. I am sorry."

[vermin_downwind]

He's not hard to keep up with, thankfully. It's either go it kinda slow to make it over the slagging undergrowth, or go in beast mode. "You're right, though. You don't need to apologize, I'm used to this by now." Hiro's probably used to him lying by now, too.

"I'll admit I wish we could have dragged Gloomy or even DC with us. We're outgunned as-is. We're going to have to just run in, grab her, and run out. I've got a trick I can try to slow him down, but it might not work. As usual." He points again, a more to the left. Rattrap's not leading them directly towards Dinobot. "He's still moving inwards. She's on him, sorta riding him."

[upwind_of_you]

The pain is like lightning; it's not the first limb he's lost or the first shot he's taken by far, but just the same the first gets a snarl of pain and the second an enraged roar. The stumble is entirely genuine. The snarling when he feels Alessa's weight lifted from his shoulders is not.

Between the damaged joint and his own momentum, the stumble ends a nanoclick later with slamming into the ground hard in a tangle of skeletal limbs and kicked-up snow. The blasted knee joint, blackened and reeking of scorched metal, whirrs its complaint as he struggles to stand.

"Not as--" the words break off in an incoherent snarl "--sorry as you WILL BE, Hiro, if you don't--"

You can only force damaged machinery so far. The struggle to stand is a losing one.

[holy_heretic]

Everything is practically a blur for the young girl, all of the noises, the sounds of gunfire, the sound of bullets hitting metal, and the sound of Dinobot stumbling on the ground frighten the young girl.

The roar that Dinobot emits also succeeds in terrifying the poor girl, and she wants to run away, but Hiro's grabbed her already.

"NNN! LET ME GO!" She screams. When it becomes obvious to her that Hiro isn't going to let go she proceeds to cry, and pray some sort of chant.

"Ati Me Peta Babka
Ati Me Peta Babka
Ati Me Peta Babka"

For some reason, the prayer works, but not in the way Alessa wanted. She hears a different sort of sound. The sound of a large serpent moving between the trees. She can also hear a burning roar. She braves to look, and moving amidst the forest is a three headed man riding on a serpent, and lighting everything on fire.

Alessa screams.

[vermin_downwind]

The only thing that keeps Rattrap from shooting Dinobot until he stops moving is the fact that there's a demon. Setting things on fire. Oh, Primus.

It's enough to make him shout in surprise and fall back a foot or two. Slag dealing with all this. Slag all of this!

But Dinobot's still active, which is far worse. He's going to get back up. Might as well get this over with. He advances again, this time shooting with much less calm precision. He's just trying to get him to stay down.

He almost snarls as he fires on the prone Predacon. He may be absolutely frightened of Dinobot, but right now, Rattrap's just angry. "Stay down, you slaggin' crosswired glitchmonger pred! Stay down!"

[timebending]

Damn it. This was all a plan; Dinobot clearly intended for Alessa to do this.

After all, they both know what she's capable of.

"Rattrap, that's enough! Fall back!" Hiro calls to him. "Alessa's safety comes first; we will return for Dinobot!"

In spite of her struggles and fear, Hiro keep his grip tight and firm on the girl. First, they need to get her out of here.

He hates to leave it like this; Hiro can only keep time frozen for so long.