Battleworld 2.0

Iacon

July stared blankly at the giant green robot, but hopped onto his hand anyway. Although his face didn't register it, the way he tightened his grip on the Autobot's hand indicated he wasn't comfortable with the new height.

Still, it was necessary to get this high to reach the windows; giant robots didn't need a view that was only four feet above the ground. July pointed towards the nearest window, which was on a building a few feet down the road.

"I want to go over there." he told Bulkhead. He hadn't even looked at the dispersing crowd.

Meanwhile April had decided that a few swigs was all she could spare for now; she'd get hammered in November's honor later on.

"Contractors don't have friends," she explained, "we have associates." She didn't know if she believed those words or not. "Though if we did have friends, I'd say November was one of the best."

She definitely believed that.

Akihabara

Mao had run off in search of the city's center, but came back with nothing. He had never been to Tokyo before he was assigned to Hei's team, and he didn't recognize any of the landmarks as part of the world he lived in. Even if he did, the buildings were so decrepit that trying to navigate by memory would be challenging for any Tokyo native. So in the end he retraced his steps and went back to Yin in the garden.

On his way back he received an update on the strange figures that were following them. According to Yin they were no longer a cat-person (Mao was happy to hear that) but a pair of twins. They were still as awkward as ever though, so at least they'd be easy to spot.

Mao returned to Yin just as the creepy twins asked Yin to help them find their Mama. He didn't dare drop his cover, so he curled up on Yin's lap and pretended to fall asleep. If these shape-shifters were really just here for surveillance, they wouldn't make a scene by attacking.

Yin turned to face the twins with an apathetic look on her face; partly because she knew they were lying, and partly because she couldn't make any other face.

"I can't help you," she said softly. "I'm sorry."

Tokyo

Most helicopter pilots didn't feel comfortable flying in between buildings, but it never seemed to bother Hideki. In fact, he rather enjoyed it; it reminded him of video games he used to play at the arcade.

But this was no time for fun. As a police officer enforcing the emergency lockdown, Hideki had to keep his eyes peeled for anyone in the streets or anything approaching the city's borders. He and his copilot Tatsuki had just started scanning the city's new Northern coastline when Hideki spotted something flying towards the city.

"What the hell is that?" Tatsuki blinked.

Hideki grabbed the microphone for the copter's loudspeaker. "I'd rather not find out."

"This is the Tokyo police." he said into the receiver. The biplane's pilot would hear a tinnier version of the officer's voice echo from the copter. "You are entering a restricted area. Identify yourself or turn around, or we will be forced to open fire."

"But we don't have guns on this thing..." Tatsumi pointed out.

"Then call for backup and tell them to bring some!" Hideki snapped.

"Yes ma'am, your initial payment is ready and waiting for you in your room. I will see about getting you a map. Did you want digital or paper? We have a number of auto dealer ships in the city that should carry all the named brands. If you are looking for something alittle more...unique, we can give you the name of someone who specializes in custom work. Would you like to see about getting you a vehicle before or after you check in ma'am?"

The woman with glasses brought Lady outside where the limousine was waiting and opened the door for her. Nathan had followed them outside, but decided not to get in the car.

"If this woman has your needs, I think I will be taking my leave here Lady. Got to speak with the boss man and let my congregation know the wondrous news. I'll see you when its time to kill us some blood suckas. May do some shopping my self, time permitting. Get a pair of silver brass knuckles to brand God's love right into skulls."

"No kidding. I am something of a hunter my self. Forests around here ain't so great for game though, practically have to go out of state whenever I plan a weekend of hunting. Hey John, ain't your kid witch too"

The officer's partner nudged him as he drove.

"She's a wiccan, its...diffrent."

"Well Nice to meet you Trevor and Sylpha. I'm officer Bodie, but feel free to call me Noah. Makes me feel like I am my father whenever someone calls me by my last name. Our chauffeur here is officer Doe."

Officer Doe raised his hand and gave a small wave to the back before putting it back on the wheel. Trevor and Sylpha would see the country side of Santa Destroy give way to the large modern buildings of civilization as the began entering the city proper. Now in the city limits, the car had to navigate though police blockades and checkpoints, making several stops in its attempt to enter the city. As officer Doe dealt with each checkpoint, officer Bodie continued the small talk.

"So you guys into the UAA at all?"

Skelter Helter could not help keep himself from smiling. It was finally here, the day his brother would finally be avenged. While on the outside the white haired youth seemed calm and relaxed, inside his heart was pounding and his mind was racing with anticipation. He made his way along the walkway of the second story until he came to room 201. Skelter pulled the large beam katana off his back and sliced the door in half before kicking it in.

"Travis Touchdown! Today is your day of judgement! Today you answer for your sins!"

The smile on Skelter's face disappeared. The man wasn't here. But it wasn't merely what was missing, it was also what he found in the room.

"W-what the hell is this?"

He walked into the room and looked around. The walls were covered with colorful posters of cutesy scantily clad anime girls and giant robots. Shelves proudly displayed toys of much of the same subject matter. A video game system had obviously seen alot of use. Blu rays, dvds, and video tapes of anime and porn was scattered everywhere. This was the room of a pathetic man child. This was the room of the man who killed Skelter's brother.

He felt his stomach twist in disgust. His brother who he had idolized was killed by this man. After that son of bitch killed him, he probably went straight back here to watch his little cartoons. While Skelter was unable to cope with the death of his brother, that son of a bitch was sitting here playing video games.

"T-this has to be some sort of joke, right? It has to be...it just has to be. He has to be trying to screw with my head or something. Please brother, please don't tell me that someone like this..."

The sound of a beep caught Skelter's attention and he turned and pointed his revolver at the source. His mind was till trying to process what he had learned about the legendary Crownless King and merely stood there pointing his gun at the answering machine as it played its message.

"Yo, Travis, What's up? It's Bishop. Know you are still at Comic con and stuff, but thought I would leave you a message so you have something to greet you when you get back. Besides your cat and 2D harem that is, haha. Wish I coulda went too but, you know, work. Oh, my pen pal from Japan from is visiting. Sucks that you are going to miss him, he is really cool for an old guy. I think you two would have gotten along. Oh well. Oh yeah, Diane wanted me to remind you still got to return Tentacles VS Higschool Girls vol 4 uncensored, its already over due by a week. But don't worry about that man, I got you covered. Anyway, hit me up hen you get back into town."

Skelter unloaded a full six shots into the machine. So not only was that son of a bitch not here, he may not have been in the city at all when the strange move occurred. He started laughing.

"Hahaha, it's a joke...its all a fucking joke..."

He fell to his knees, still laughing, even as tears began streaming down his face. He turned to look at the figurines his brother's killer collected. They seemed to be in on the joke too. All smiles as they stared at him with lifeless eyes. He suddenly exploded into anger, igniting his beam katana and began smashing everything in the room.

"DAMN IT! DAMN IT! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it. Damn it...damn it...damn it..."

He continued his rampage until everything was in pieces and slumped to the floor. His tantrum gave little comfort. That man took away something irreplaceable, and now that man may forever be beyond his reach. Another sound caught Skelter's attention, the mewing of a cat. His eyes lazily followed the origin of the sound to a chubby cat hiding under the bed. Now that the commotion had died down, it sheepishly crept from its hiding space and made its way Skelter. It seemed to know he was in pain as it tried to comfort him by licking his hand, even if it was Travis' cat. He gave it a half smile and petted it on the head, before sliding his hands around it's neck.

Baraka nodded. It was a good tactic, using a foe's dead against them. He would have to advise Shao Kahn to burn any dead if they went to war with these people. He also watched as the vampire woman flew away, noting that vampires in this realm could shapeshift and fly. He turned back to his guide. "Ok then. I am ready to start."

"Then let us go." Goro said, and then started walking. Soon enough, the two would find themselves in the Outworld marketplace. This area was full of people going about their business, ablit with a bit more fear evedent on their faces then normal. Extra guards were in the area to keep order, and the slaves were being worked extra hard today.

"This is the main marketplace." Goro explained. "Where the common people serve the glory of Shao Kahn." He pointed at a raised platform with stocks on it, currently empty. "Over there is where those who commit lesser crimes against Shao Kahn are killed. Those who commit greater crimes are thrown into the coliseum to fight for his amusement."

Meanwhile, Death may note that no one seemed to be surprised or afraid at his appearance. Indeed, they barly even gave him a second glance.

"Ya, looks that way, don't it?" the man said with a shrug. "Ah well, that just means more opportunities for business. There's always someone else out there who's willing to pay you more then the guy you're already working for, let me tell you." He then looked at Grant. "What, you never seen a gun before? Why am I the only guy who's ever used one of these things? Don't you people know what you're missing out on?" He shook his head.

"Well, like I said, I ain't getting paid to shoot ya, so you wanna go on, be my guest. But most people here ain't gonna be as friendly to ya as I am. Bit of advise? You find yourself in front of Shao Kahn, you start kissing his ass. Tell him how high and mighty he is, how much better he is then everyone else. That sorta thing."

Eyebrows were raised around the room as the Koopa dropped what appeared to be solid gold coins on the desk. Sundowner picked one up, looked it over for a good 30 seconds. Then he bit it. After a few seconds, he put it back down, satisfied.

"Well now, I think we can work with that. Don't think we're gonna take you up on the castle offer. We need to stay accessible for anyone else who wants to hire us, and this room seems to have some kinda generator that gives us the shit we need to maintain our bodys, something I doubt your castle can do. Let me introduce you to the team."

He pointed first at the white haired man on his left. "This is Monsoon. Infiltration specialist, and able to break his body into several parts. Show em, Monsoon." With a chuckle, the man activated his body, and suddenly he started coming apart. Everywhere where one would expect a joint to be on a normal body, a split suddenly happened as the various segments of his body started floating independently of one another, connected by electricity. He stayed like that for a few seconds before his body snapped back together, no sign of what he had just done visible.

"Impressive, eh?" He pointed to his right. "She's Mistral. Serves as secondary field commander when I'm not around, and she uses a weird ass flexible staff kinda weapon." He vaguely motioned to the arm staff she was still holding. "Them arms can still twist like normal arms, you see. Makes it hard to predict her moves. She's got another trick too, but that I think I'll leave as a surprise."

He motioned to the back. "The lazy guy in the back is Sam. He don't got nothing fancy, just a real powerful as fuck sword. Shit can even block bullets, which is good, since he don't got a cyborg body like the rest of us. And then there's me, overall commander and businessman. But don't get the wrong idea. I love getting my hands dirty in the field."

"Digital map, please. Just send it to my phone." She said as she took out her phone. Then she saw the time, and cursed to herself. She wasen't nearly done here, and the meeting with that masked man was due to start soon. She hated having to do this, but it looked like she'd have to call Dante after all. But first she finished responding to the woman.

"I would love to have the name of your custom bike guy. I have rather...special needs that regular bikes aren't the best equipped to fill. Prefer to do it before I get to the resort, faster I get it started, faster I'll have it done and ready to use." She then turned to the other man and waved at him as he left. "Give me a second, I have to make a quick call."

She turned away and called a number. It only took a few rings before she got a response.

"Devil May Cry"

"Dante, I have a lead on a job that I'm passing on to you."

"Oh, really? What's this going to cost me, Lady?"

"Basic referral fee, you know the arrangement."

"Ya, ya, I know. Give me the details."

Once she had finished, she hung up the phone and turned back. "Sorry about that. Just handling some business." She then got into the limo.

Meanwhile, Dante left his room and walked into the portal to the chunk he'd been told this meeting was at.

As the bots continued to drive along the shoreline, the boats closed in on the shoreline as well, with the guards now actively looking for any intruders....or whatever was left of their bodys. The bots would find themselves quickly spotted if they did not notice and react to the boats. Should they be spotted, they would quickly find large, flaming rocks being chucked at them from the catapults on the boats.

edited 2nd Sep '15 9:22:21 AM by Meanken

"If Optimus Prime and his crew have answers, then I can only imagine we should re-unite you with them," said Red Alert. "And then get you in front of someone important to hear you out. The sooner we get friendly with our new neighbours, the better."

With that, a speedy looking Cybertronian sports car pulled up, bearing flashy hot-rod flames. Rodimus Prime transformed to robot mode, looking over Iris and her companions.

"Safe?"

"Safe as it gets, Rodimus Prime sir," answered Hot Shot.

"Alright, then. Organics, welcome to Iacon. I am Rodimus Prime. Seems like you are all a long way from home. Still, all Autobots are trained from their sparkday to respect life and peaceful intent. Now it's up to you five how we proceed. Communications are shoddy at best, but your friend Optimus shouldn't be too difficult to get a hold of."

"I'm... sorry," said Prow, plainly. There wasn't much else he could say, as an outsider. He looked to Bulkhead, who held July up to a nearby window as instructed. He wasn't quite sure what the human was planning, but he wasn't about to rule out anything at this stage.

Ratchet crossed his arms as Optimus rejoined the group.

"Well?"

"We're not getting inside," answered Optimus. "The Metroplex is sealed off and there's no way Sentinel is going to hear us out, even with the humans by our side. We're going to need a new approach."

Squiddicus was familiar with stabbing pain in the past. Those time though were from sources it knew would induce such pain, such as staving off giant whales or brushing off the harpoons of battleships. The chances of something so small and insignificant creating the same level of pain as things that could equal the beast in size and power was in fathomable.

To the massive beast, what Clampdown did was similar to a mouse biting a human with jagged teeth. Ultimately minor, but extremely painful due to its suddenness and unexpected nature.

Steeljaw could tell Clampdown's attack was effective by the monster suddenly stopping all movement and its pupils suddenly shrinking to the size of basketballs.

A beat.

The kraken sized octopus roared in pain and thrashed about, its tentacles thrashing everywhere in random directions at the monster rolled around inelegantly in the water. While Steeljaw was no longer being pulled about, both he and Clampdown were now being thrashed and rocked by the tentacles to and fro, fro and to, the near constant changes in depths possibly causing extreme dizziness to the Cybertronian's stability gyros or whatever they use to regulate balance. The fact the situation was made worse due to octopi having distributed intelligence where each individual arm had limited intelligence on their own, did not help at all, the overload of sensory information from the main intelligence into the arms causing the ride to be even more erratic then if the Decepticons was captured by a similarly gigantic creature.

A few harrowing minutes that seemed to stretch out into a horrifying vomit inducing eternity, the octopus managed to regain enough composure to regain complete control of two of its arms and proceed to yank Clampdown off the arm the crab gripped upon. Steeljaw, unfortunately, was still being thrashed about.

Funky heard the warning loud and clear, and decided to respond in kind by turning on a loudspeaker of his own. "No worries mon, just a humble traveler surfin' the airwaves to explore dis new land!" the Kong said. The pilots would be able to hear what sounded like a combination of Jamaican and surfer accents coming through with slight static like a slightly outdated speaker. "Can ya dudes escort me to a shore I can land in?"

Iacon

July put a hand on the window, and just like that he could see through any glass around the Metroplex. A little blue specter popped from one window to another, searching for an empty path to travel to. He didn't know exactly where the Autobots wanted them to go, but he guessed it was the big area that almost resembled a court room.◊ July didn't keep the specter in the council room for long, but he did manage to find a pathway that was empty for the time being.

"Take a left down the street before the crowd. Take a right at the next corner, and another right into the alley forty meters down. Enter the maintenance area through the door and take the lift. No Autobots detected."

April listened to the boy's directions with a smile. "Looks like you've got a way in," she told Optimus. "So long as you don't mind breaking down a door or two."

Northern Tokyo

The policemen in the helicopter really didn't know how to take this message. Was it wise to escort some weird Jamaican into the city? Was it wiser to just shoot the thing down?

"Tell them to meet us at the airport," Hideki told his copilot. "And make sure they're ready to arrest this guy. No telling what he's up to."

While Tatsuki made the arrangements with the ground forces, Hideki turned on the loudspeaker again. "Head East and stay your course; we'll escort you to the LZ."

Optimus blinked, optics wide at July and April. A reaction shared all the other Autobots.

"H... how'd you—" started Bulkhead, before Bumblebee helpfully retrieved his jawplate from the ground, swiftly reattaching it.

"Can all humans do that?" asked the yellow bot.

"It doesn't matter," said Prowl. "We've been provided with an entrance and a window of opportunity."

"Right," said Optimus, nodding. "We can't afford to leave the Council in the dark."

He looked down to July and April.

"The three of us will head inside and address Ultra Magnus. The rest of you, head back to the ship and secure both it and the portal. And be on alert for Decepticons - the Elite Guard can doubt it all they like, but they're out there, and they're planning something."

He crouched down beside the two humans, offering his palm to carry them.

edited 2nd Sep '15 9:08:41 AM by SR3NORMANDY

"Rodimus Prime... Do you have any ties with Optimus? Your names are so similar." asked Iris, curious.

"More importantly, we won't be able to find our way around your city without help, so I suppose we have to rely on you to bring us to him." said Pamela

"Also, please stop calling us "organics", it just sounds weird. Then again, we never introduced ourselves." said Schirach, who then points at Pamela "This is our captain, Pamela," she then points at Rink and Lecht "Those are the Refraktia twins, Rink and Lecht," then at Eifer "She's Eifer, she's our quiet and mysterious girl," she joked, then pointing at herself "And I'm Schirach. The five of us are known as the Black Cross."

"And I'm Iris, I'm not a part of their team, but I ended up getting involved in this either way." said Iris, with a friendly smile.

edited 2nd Sep '15 10:01:21 AM by FullMoon

Iacon

April and July hopped into Optimus' palm without a word. They sat down to get more comfortable, and to allow the Autobot to move faster without worrying that they'd fall.

"I suggest you hurry, love." April told Optimus. "July can't monitor our path without holding onto glass. There's no telling how long our entry will be deserted."

Hell's Gate Tokyo: Entrance

Dante would be greeted to an empty street with glowing skyscrapers roughly five miles away. Among the shimmering lights was a dark block that ran through the city, almost like a giant wall. Even from this distance sirens and megaphones could be heard whispering through the city.

The portal was unguarded for now, probably because it opened on a sidewalk and was only visible from the other side of the street. The only person in the area was a teenage girl with golden eyes sitting on a bench twenty feet away. When Dante appeared, the girl got up and started walking towards him. She seemed harmless enough, but her gentle stare suggested she was analyzing everything she could about the demon hunter based on his looks.

When she was less than ten feet away, she stopped and smiled. "I was wondering when somebody would pop out of there."

"How'dya like this?!" yelled Clampdown, repeatedly digging his claws into the rubbery flesh of the huge cephalopod. His claws clacked like a pair of massive castanets as he drew them into what he thought was a convincing fighting pose. "Or this', huh? Take that, an' that''!" Of course, the fact that he was currently being thrashed around in the water quickly turned his faux-bravado into a few more terrified screams, turning his calculated clamp assault into a wild scramble of pincers as he tried to find something to hang on to.

Steeljaw rolled his eyes as Clampdown's plan of attack predictably went downhill, becoming something more... well... Clampdown-like. But now that the octopus had its mind on other things, it was time for him to strike. Working his hands free of the octopus's arms, he jabbed his claws into the nearest arm, doing his best to stay upright and on his balance despite the furious thrashings.

"Aw, c'mon!" yelled Thunderhoof, jinking and swerving to try and avoid the flaming rocks currently spiralling out of the sky. "Can't a 'bot get a moment's piece in this slagheap of a chunk?"

"Ah, you know what?" Underbite's tone was tired but decidedly angry. "I say we teach these guys a lesson 'bout makin' Decepticons mad. Whaddya say, 'Hoof?"

"I say that THIS IS S'POSED TO BE A STEALTH MISSION, YA- oh, fer Onyx Prime's sake." As he spoke, Underbite swerved hard, gunned his engine, and drove straight into the lake, aiming for the nearest boat.

"And you know what I say? I say that's time fer a snack!"

"Well that's fine," said Airazor, the hologram voice suddenly devoid of any simulated emotions. The hologram flickered and twisted, as though it was an old TV screen and someone was messing with the dials.

"Because if you're not going to help us..." put in Divebomb from the other side of Yin, abruptly dropping the hologram and revealing the twisted little robot beneath, smirking as though he'd pulled off some supremely clever ruse.

"... then we're just going to help ourselves." Both of the holograms were gone now. "So why don't you tell us about your chunk and everything in it 'fore we take apart your cat, just to see how it works?"

There was a pause as Airazor mulled over what he had just said. "Humans like cats, right?"

"I think so, yeah."

edited 3rd Sep '15 5:43:36 PM by Locoman

At this point, Squiddicus was far too angry to notice Steeljaw attacking him. After yanking off Clampdown, the giant beast decided the two were not even worth crushing. The two Decepticons were then yanked straight up, the sheer force adding to the weight of the water pushing down upon them. They then broke the ocean surface, temporarily blinding them as the shining sun suddenly struck upon them. The tentacle holding Steeljaw started to spin around, faster and faster and faster.....

Though within each spin, if he looked really carefully, he would see the island, his original destination, to his south, as well as two locations in the North. To the East was the glittering metropolis of steel and plastic, Iacon, shining in the morning sun like a jewel in intense light. Directly to the West of it, though, was what looked like a thick, forested area, with what looked like a prominent castle in the distance. Any other details were covered by the pitch darkness blanketing the area, the starless dead of night despite the cloudless sky, as if outright mocking God himself.

The spinning soon stopped -

The island was peaceful, quietly sitting in the middle of the ocean, most of its inhabitants unaware of -

"WHAAAAAAAAT?!?!?"

The yell was loud enough to disturb a couple flocks of birds and even a swarm of large bees.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know he was just going to fly off!" Dixie said. "He just said something about putting the finishing touches on his plane, and then I saw a plane fly out of the island!"

Cranky groaned, his face deep in his palm. "Of all the stupid, reckless, which way did he go, then?"

"Directly south, I think," Dixie replied.

"Where's the map Wrinkly was drawing up?" Cranky asked.

Donkey ooked and pointed to the rolled up map in his hand. Cranky grabbed it and unfurled it. So far, the only location on the map that was actually more than a blank space was DK Island itself. Cranky proceed to make adjustments based on the display he saw in the common room. He completely crossed out the area of Outpost 341 and started drawing in some borders, specifically the areas closet to the island......

"There!" Cranky said, pointing to Tokyo. "That's where he'll most likely be!"

Donkey grunted, asking why.

"Funky is always taking about expanding his business to more urban areas," Cranky explained. "Tokyo is going to be the most heavily populated area directly South of us. I want - "

*WHIP-PANG!!*

.................

A beat.

"What the Heck was that?" Dixie asked.

*WHIP-PANG*

The second noise was what brought the Kong's outside, just in time to see -

"Is that a.......?"

Steeljaw would landed hard upon the surface of the island, coming to a stop near an conspicuous looking wooden stand manned by a bipedal pig with glass◊. The pig looked up at the giant robot, its only reaction being the adjustment of his glasses.

While Steeljaw was tossed to the South by the giant octopus, Clampdown, on the other hand, was thrown somewhere to the North.

Where will he go? Will he hit land? Will he fall short and land right back into the ocean?

No one but the Cure knows. Regardless of the outcome, he would find it hilarious anyway.

"I must admit, this technology is... far more advanced than anything I've worked with." Kamek looked over the group of cyborgs. "Most of the machines used by the Koopa Kingdom are powered by magical energies. To see entire body parts replaced by nothing but metal is quite astounding. Perhaps you might allow me to study your prosthetics at some point? Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself." He cleared his throat.

"Preparations for our initial attack on Outworld are under way. Once a new fleet of airships is ready our main goal will be the defeat of Shao Kahn. Note that the Koopa Troop does not usually default to lethal force, though in the interests of not interfering with your work, you will be free to, ah, exercise your own judgment on the battlefield." The old Koopa paused to take a breath. "Your payment awaits at Bowser's castle. You may come collect it if you wish to speak to King Bowser, or I can have the coins delivered here. And... I believe that's everything." He folded his arms over his lap, awaiting any questions Sundowner might have.

A tall man returned back to his base of operations, a small multiple story building previously that had been abandoned but was now refurbished with five floors that looked to be melded with a tree. Or rather, a building that had a large tree growing through the interior as a giant support pillar, the arboreal plant still fresh and healthy.◊ This man was Shiroe, whose mind was continuously churning about the matter that had previously happened, that meeting with every other factions' leaders.

The Half-Alv frowned thoughtfully before he held his finger to his temple, making great use of a certain function known as Chat. It was basically the game's instant messaging system that allowed players to talk to each other as long as they were in their contacts list, a huge boon to be sure. "Round Table, I have news." Mentally relaying the conversation back to the ruling body of the verdant city, the Villain in Glasses came up with conjectures and theories, outlining several potential plans. After an excited amount of chattering, a plan was decided on.

From that psychic conversation, the other Guild Leaders called their subordinates, relaying relevant information and directing orders to the right people. The chain of command was used, and soon subordinates were heading out into the City and beyond the wall to carry out their instructions. Akihabara was a well oiled machine when it came to being commanded by capable leaders such as Shiroe.

Summoners- a magician class that did as their name suggested, summoned forth their aerial contracted monsters. Small wyverns, birds, giant insects, and will o wisps were called out. The controlled mob then began to fly out in a corkscrew position, starting in the center of the city before pinwheeling about in increasingly larger areas of interests, their eyes looking down on the city below. Other summoned creatures flew in straighter direction, towards other factions' territories at their best speed. All the while, the Summoners were standing still, their eyes closed as they shared visuals with their monsters, seeing what they saw.

Finding the spys were surprisingly easy due to the fact the outsiders were different either in appearance such as the units from the Hell's Gate and their strictly modern day clothes and even the disguised robots due to the fact anyone not originally part of the city had a bugged out Status Screen window, neon green 2D rectangles that displayed things such as names and race. All the strangers' screens gave out were jumbled up words and symbols, their information hidden from view but at the same time damning them as foreigners to the Summoners who had been ordered to check out Statuses.

From that point, they were followed discreetly from a distance by Assassins. Like their names suggested, these Adventurers were known to be sneaky and stealthy, focused and geared for working from the shadows. As a result, they were sent out to keep a closer eye on things, judging the otherworlders' intentions and ready to flash into action if things were to take a turn for the worse with blade and bow. Given the player base's eccentricities, the Assassins ranged any where from ninja-esque to wearing bright orange and hiding in plain sight by acting as a part of the regular public.

Sitting atop his guild building with an unfolded map in his lap, Shiroe stared out into the distance as he held a quill and got ready to direct people where they were to be sent. He also collaborated with other leaders who gave him data from their units about the neighboring lands, about which businesses were in turmoil due to the change of locale, where supplies needed to be moved, and lots of things that an administrator needed to know about. The man performed it all with a few grumbles, but worked with remarkable efficiency. "Now then, let's see what comes of this..."

"Got it," John responded as they arrived at the Factory.

It was a quick wave in and soon the small group had entered, below was the factory floor, Plasma Rifles being assembled, and the metal skeletons of the T-800s being put together one by one.

Down a little further was a line with the T-800s being stuck into some kind of mold, there was a loud hiss as a flesh colored liquid entered the mold before it opened, revealing what looked like John's bodyguard "Uncle Bob".

"Ah christ, we still putting skin on them? That synthetic blood plasma ain't easy to get," Marcus muttered, he climbed down to get the line shut off while Cameron turned her attention to Misaki.

Akihabara

Mao had miscalculated. These things didn't seem to give a damn about blending in, which made the situation all the more dangerous. There wasn't much he could do but flee with Yin and act as victims; with luck, these shape-shifting robots would face the authorities instead of them.

Mao pounced from Yin's lap and tried to claw at Divebomb's face. The scratches hurt the cat much more than his target since the Decepticon was made of solid metal, but they were mostly meant to startle and distract. Mao scrambled onto the Transformer's head and leapt off it to the ground.

"Run, Yin!" he yelled, unaware that some of the onlookers might have noticed he was a talking domestic cat.

The Doll obeyed and ran through the small garden stream to the other side. She then climbed out and dashed barefoot into the street. Mao had vanished in the other direction. Neither knew where to run to, but as long as they kept their distance from the killer robots, they'd figure things out later.

Resistance Base

Misaki stared at the Terminators being transformed from skeletal monsters to passable humans. She couldn't deny that the whole process disturbed her, but she accepted (intellectually, at least) that all was fair in matters of war.

It took Misaki a few moments to realize that Cameron was staring at her. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, Misaki tried to go back to conversations.

"So are all the humans on this base soldiers, or do you house civilian refugees as well?"

Steeljaw landed on the beach, kicking up no small amount of dirt and as he smacked into the ground. Cybertronians are a durable lot, however, and it only took a few seconds for the Decepticon to find his bearings and right himself, kicking and scratching his way out of the tropical loam and back onto his feat. His optics refocused themselves as he took in his new surroundings: tall palm trees, ferns, vines, and creepers in every direction. It seemed like he had reached the tropical island after all... even though he had taken a bit of a detour along the way. There were always contingencies that you couldn't plan for; besides he couldn't shake the awful, nagging feeling that the Cure was sitting back laughing at his little misadventure. He tried to ignore the myriad revenge fantasies playing out in his head. Focus on the present. he reminded himself. Focus on Iacon.

Now confident of his location, Steeljaw took a step, hoping to slink into the undergrowth unnoticed and do a little scouting of his own. Except-

- Well, so much for "don't be seen". The little pink organic was currently staring up at him- and Steeljaw had the bad fortune of being in his robot mode. There was no real way he could pass himself off as anything other than Cybertronian. Time for his backup plan. The fact that Clampdown was currently missing in action only helped circumstances.

"Excuse me," he said, kneeling down on one knee as he spoke, as though he were addressing a young Minicon. "My name is Steeljaw. You can think of me as a traveller, if you're so inclined. But of course, aren't we all immigrants here?" His smile was sincere and disarming. "You see," he continued, "some of us have been snatched straight from our homes. No chunks to call our own." Steeljaw opened his palms in the universally accepted "I have no weapons" posture. "We washed up on your island while searching for a home of our own."

Time to set the bait.

"May I ask you who is in charge of this beautiful island of yours?"

The wail of muffled distress a few hundred feet above the island turned out to belong to a tiny, impotently flailing red smear, barely visible against the brilliant blue of the tropical sky. It only took a few seconds for it to fly out of sight.

"Agh! Get off, ya stinkin' organic!" Divebomb made a futile grasp for the feline as it jumped onto his face, trying to rip his optic sensors out of his head. Fortunately they were anchored in too securely for a mere cat to try and dislodge them, but like most sentient species Cybertronians tended to react poorly to small things with pointy appendages attacking their face. By the time Divebomb had recovered, the cat was off, bounding through the water and under the bridge to parts unknown.

"Split up!" yelled Divebomb to his compatriot. "I get the cat, you get the girl."

Without another word, the four-legged Minicon turned and ran the other way, metallic nails blurring against the overgrown pavement. The crowds of weirdly-dressed things and assassins were no trouble for him; when they grew too thick he simply turned and dug his nails into the nearest wall, easily scuttling along the lichen-covered walls of buildings to keep pace with his target.

Divebomb wasn't having such an easy time; he'd never really encountered liquid water before. "[-What in th'Pit is this stuff?-"] he muttered to himself, kicking the river experimentally before hurrying off in pursuit of the cat. All the while, he couldn't help but resent the fact that Airazor and the cat both had twice as many legs as he did.

edited 3rd Sep '15 6:23:39 PM by Locoman

The drive was fairly uneventful. The cop escort had come in handy as there was quite some traffic, a fair bit more than usual. It turned out that there were a number of traffic accidents caused by people suddenly falling asleep at the wheel. While emergency teams dealt with these accidents and cops set up checkpoints, the city mostly seemed to carry on as usual. People walked the streets and store windows revealed customers inside.

During the drive the woman with glasses had sent a map of Santa Destroy to Lady's phone. Places of interest seemed to have been marked, including the UAA building, Destroy Resort, restaurants, tourist spots, and the place they were currently heading. They stopped the limo in front of a nondescript ware house with an empty lot in front of it. After opening Lady's door for her, the woman with glasses went over and started bagging on the shutter door of the ware house.

"Dr. Naomi! Are you there?"

Music could be heard muffled through the walls, but besides that no response. She continued her banging.

"Dr. Naomi! Open up! Dr. Naomi!"

She continued her banging for a good minute, almost seeming to panic ,before the music finally stopped and the shutters flung open. Inside was a black haired woman with large orange sunglasses who seemed more annoyed at her prospected customers.

"What!?"

"Dr. Naomi! This here is Lady and she is interested in purchasing a motorcycle."

"That's great, there is Yamaha dealership down the road."

She started closing the shutters only to be stopped by Glasses.

"She needs a custom model. The type only you can provide. She has the money to pay."

Naomi looked Lady over and seemed less then impressed, but sighed and waved the two in anyway.

"This better not be a waste of time, I'm busy as it is. Don't touch anything while you are in here"

The interior for the most part looked like what one expects from a warehouse, a mess of boxes and stored equipment. The only thing betraying that this place was anything more was a host of computer work stations, tools, and half finished prototypes. Naomi went straight back to work, which looked like she was performing surgery on a football. The interior of the thing was some sort of future tech with a glowing core which made it alittle less, or perhaps more, weird, depending on how you look at it.

"If you haven't already guessed, I am Dr. Naomi. I specialize in making the impossible a reality. You need a bike. Fine. Why do you need me to make it? Let me know the features you need the thing to have and I will make it happen. Feel free to let your imagination run wild, just know that you are going to be paying for the finished product. And be specific with what you want in a feature as you will be getting precisely what you asked for. You want your bike to go head on with a sixteen wheeler and win? I can do that. You want your bike to do that but you survive the impact as well? That's a completely different feature, but yeah, I can do that as well. Word to the wise, my services do not come cheap, but you won't be able to get what I am offering anywhere else."

"I sure have a lot of questions myself," said Rodimus. "But there's no harm in telling you what I can. Optimus is a Prime, like me. It's an Autobot rank, above Major but below Magnus. Normally a Prime is in charge of vital battlegroups or domestic operations, but Optimus is... a special case. He was drummed out of the Academy and denied placement in the Elite Guard for reasons I should probably let him say. But he still received rank, and a ship - it's just that his duties as far as I've heard don't extend much beyond maintenance duties."

"Honestly" interjected Hot Shot. "We don't know him all that well. He spends most of his time away from Cybertron on repair missions."

Red Alert approached the other two bots.

"Communications are scrambled again, Rodimus sir. I can't get through to the Metroplex, and I can't pick up any of Team Prime's channels. Unless we reboot the comm relay, we won't be able to find them."

She pointed up to a large spire atop one of the nearby skyscrapers, flickering on and off as its internal systems tried to adjust to being moved to a completely different planet and time zone with electronic interference with other territories.

"Alright," said Optimus, covering the two of them protectively with his forearm. "Everyone else, get back to the ship and secure the portal. We can't afford to sit on our servos much longer. If the Council won't see to its protection any time soon, it'll be up to us to make sure nobody tries to attack Iacon through it."

"Especially no-good Decepticons taking advantage of this chaos," added Ratchet.

"Roll out, Autobots," ordered Optimus. The four of them transformed and made their way back towards the Omega Hangar, while Optimus started to sneak towards the maintenance hatch. July was correct, the Autobots guarding that area had moved on, their patrols stretched well past any kind of tight security. He broke into a sprint at the last hundred metres, getting to the hatch. He briefly considered guessing the code word, before simply slashing at the door with his battle axe, then blowing it open with a well-placed kick.

"We're in."

edited 4th Sep '15 1:41:10 AM by SR3NORMANDY

Dante stopped to crouch down in front of the kid that had spoken to him.

"Hey there, kiddo. I need to get to the Meiji Shrine. Think you can point me in the direction of the place? I'd offer you some cash in return, but all I got is US dollars." He shrugged. "Sorry bout that."

The boat the robot charged at attempted to move out of the way, but was too slow. A large hole appeared where it had been struck as it started sinking into the lake. The remaining boats, unable to re-position quickly to fire more rocks, choose instead to send a few men out to the sides to shoot magic fireballs at the robot.

Meanwhile, a little ways out of the wastelands, Princess Kitana had observed the events taking place, but had not chosen to act. There was little she could do alone against such large constructs. However, just then, reinforcements arrived in the form of a dozen troops, each carrying one of the mercenary's large fireball generators. She pointed at the construct still on the shoreline, and told them to fire at him. They aimed, and if the robot had any kind of sensors that could detect missile locks, he would quickly notice the dozen missiles locking onto him.

Sundowner nodded in satisfaction. "Hmm. Alright, one of us will go down to your place to grab the money, check out the area, that kinda thing. SAM!" He shouted, turning around. "Get off your lazy ass and go get the gold from this Bowser guy.' Sam, sighing, got up and walked over to him.

"Alright then." He said, a very large grin appearing on his face. "Maybe this will prove entertaining."

"Ya, sure." Sundowner said, clearly not caring what Sam was saying. "Anything else?" He asked Kamek.

Lady glanced around the shop, reminded of what Dante's place typically looked like, if with a few less glowing things and a few more pizza boxes. She then looked at the one in charge, demanding to know what she wanted in the bike.

"Well, let's start simple." She said as she removed her rocket launcher from her back. "I want a mount of the side of the bike that I can attach this to. Also want to be able to fire it while it's attached to the mount. And I of course want to be able to still remove the gun from the mount when I'm not using the bike. Also want some chainguns on the handlebars. Wanna be able to shoot bursts of fire out of the exhaust pipes on the back. Bike should be fast, wanna be able to go from 0 to 60 in about a second or two. Max speed of about 150 MPH. Should be armored too, put as much of that on as you can without compromising performance. Also throw on a real bright light on the front, something I can hit to blind any moron in front of me." Lady stopped after that, halting her rapid fire instructions.

"That should suffice for now."

Diddy walked through the portal. "Hey guys, I'm back! I think we may got our first official alliance but - "

*BOOM*

"WHOA, what the Heck?!" he said.

"One of them giant robots landed on the island," Cranky explained.

"WHAT?!"

"DK and I will check it out," Cranky said, getting on his grandson's back.

"I'll come to - "

"No!" Cranky interrupted Diddy. "You find a way South and get Funky!"

"Funky? Look, can someone explain to what I'm missing here?!"

"Funky flew South without permission," Dixie explained. "But how - ?"

"You kids are clever," Cranky interrupted again. "You figure it out." With that, Crank and DK left.

A beat.

"Great," Diddy said, facepalming.

"Don't worry, we can just borrow one of Funky's planes," Dixie offered.

"No way. Last time I borrowed on his planes without him knowing, he went ballstic. Don't want it that to happen again."

"And the hovercraft we used on Timber's island don't work on deep water," Dixie mentioned.

"That just leaves hitching a ride with the crab pirates or the Snomads......."

A beat.

"Snomads," the younger kongs said to each simultaneously."

The pig stared at Steeljaw. It clearly understood what the Decepticon was saying, but was instead waiting for the giant robot to do something. Several more seconds of awkward silence, the pig merely pointed deeper into the jungle, expecting the robot to follow.

"Thank ya kindly mon!" Funky repsonded, and then started flying East as the helicopter escorted him.

Iacon

"Splendid!" April shouted, though her voice was quite muffled under the Autobot's arm. "Now where's this Council we need to speak with?"

Tokyo: Portal

A deep voice came over Dante's shoulder. "You're not the person we were told about. Get away from him, Amber."

The red-haired man that appeared behind Dante had an arm extended towards him with an open palm.

"It's alright, Amigiri." the girl said, keeping her eyes fixed on the demon hunter and flashing him a smile. "She might've sent someone else. Regardless, Hei might know him from the meeting.

Amber put a hand to her earpiece and gave Dante's description to the person on the other end. After a pause she turned back to the demon hunter with another smile.

"It looks like you're all set. Brita will take you to the shrine. We'll bring your things over there shortly."

Before she could explain more, Dante would see a blonde woman join the group and saunter straight up to him. She gently curled her arms around him and leaned in to whisper in his ear.

"Hold on tight, sexy."

As she landed a kiss on Dante's cheek, the two vanished in a flash of light and rematerialized at the entrance to the Meiji Shrine.

...Both of them were completely naked.

Tokyo: Airport

The biplane helicopter would land in an empty airfield—empty save for the half dozen police vehicles that trailed the barrel-plane as it slowed to a stop. All of the officers were armed, most with pistols but one or two had shotguns. Among the men and women in uniform was a bearded man in a grey suit and leather gloves.◊ This man was the only officer unarmed, and he was also the only person who left the cars to greet this Jamaican-sounding stranger when he would exit his plane.

The Metroplex could be considered a small city in and of itself, and finding one's way was no easy task, even for those familiar with its inner workings. During the Great War it had served as one of the most tightly defended fortresses on Cybertron. Had the same security measures been in place as they would have been at the height of the conflict, there would have been no way Optimus could have forced access without being disintegrated by auto-turret defences. But even in peace time, every Autobot grew up knowing that the entire structure could be transformed into a nigh-impregnable stronghold bristling with firepower, once sufficient Energon was provided and the T-Cog put in place. Optimus hoped inwardly it would never come to that. Every Autobot was trained to fight, but also to value life. The sheer amount of destruction the station was capable of could not be wielded lightly.

He stopped at an intersection, pressing up against the wall and allowing several Autobots to wander by, before slipping across. From there, he darted down the hallway to an elevator bay.

"This should take us where we need to go," he told April and July, pressing a button to summon the lift. After a brief delay, the elevator opened, and Prime entered. Only to give a little jump when he noticed the other Autobot in the elevator.

"Dig it, O.P.," said the white bot, the symbol of the Elite Guard resplendent on his chest. "I've been jiving to this smooth elevator tune for half a megacycle and I still can't pin down where it loops."

"Jazz?" asked Optimus, a little flustered. He quickly recomposed himself, making sure the two humans were covered from view. "Uh... are you going to a level in particular?"

"Negatory, Prime. I've been drifting without marching orders for the last megacycle, so I figure I'll just go with the flow for a while, and the flow lead me to standing around in the elevator, listening to this soothing funk while the elevator goes up and down. Gives a bot time to clear the head when the worlds going wild around him."

"That's... an interesting way to spend your time."

"You're the fourth bot to say that to me. Same pause and inflections and everything. Crazy how you notice those little things when you're a fixed point in the ocean, know what I mean?"

Optimus wasn't quite sure how to respond, so he simply pressed the level of the Council Chambers, making sure to face away from Jazz so the Elite Guard bot wouldn't notice his two extra companions.

"That should be everything." Kamek said, standing. He stretched, popping a stiff joint in his back. "If you'd like to come with me, Sir Sam, I can take you to the treasury to collect your payment."

The old Koopa walked to the door, waiting for Sam to follow.

"So, what do we do then?" asked Schirach, at a loss of ideas.

"Until the tech-bots get comms fully restored, we'll just have to search the city, block by block," answered Rodimus.

Hot Shot groaned.

"Haven't we got anything better to do than protoform-sit some organics while we search all of Iacon?" the young bot asked. "It'll be like searching for an Energon nugget in an asteroid thicket. Unless the universe drops them right on our lap—"

With that, the remaining four members of Team Prime pulled up.

"Iris?" asked Prowl, stunned.