Enjoy.
Oracle walks into the area as if she has no destination in mind.
Brawl smiles when he sees Oracle. "Hey Baby."
Oracle looks up, for her optics were facing the ground. She looks bewildered for a moment. "I guess I walked farther than I thought." She spots Brawl and smiles. "Hello Brawl." She rushes over to him.
Brawl smiles and rushes to Oracle.
Stealth TetraJet flies in from overhead, stealthed as much as he can be.
Oracle gives Brawl a hug...though she probably isn't strong enough for it to be very effective.
Brawl gives her a big, huge, bear hug. "I missed ya baby."
Oracle smiles. "I missed you too."
Stealth TetraJet spies them, and inwardly frowns. Brawl and Oracle...it shouldn't upset him. It really shouldn't. She couldn't possibly care anything about such a fool...yet it does bother him. He transforms in the shadows, sneaking carefully until he can see them.
Brawl gives her a big, ole kiss.
Oracle gives him a small, young kiss?
Brawl makes it wet, messy, and very unpracticed. "Lova ya baby."
Lunar's fists clench, claws extending just slightly, small beads of mech fluid forming on the heel of his hands.
Oracle waits for the moment Brawl isn't looking, and dabs at her face a bit.
Lunar steps out, a dark and very cruel smile on his face. "Well, well, well. Isn't this...touching?"
Brawl snarls and moves between him and Oracle. "Lunar! Don't come near her."
Oracle gasps, startled. She involuntarily lets go of Brawl.
Lunar's smile turns into a snarl. "As you wish Brawl. Oracle, step away from him."
Oracle doesn't look quite certain what she is going to do...her face becomes lined with anxiety.
Brawl says, "She's scared of you. Leave or I'm gonna mash ya."
Lunar chuckles. "You're right, she shouldn't have to move away. No, that wouldn't be fair at all." His smile twists hideously. "Oradle, now the masks come off. No more facade, no more games. I am here, Brawl is here. You're in the middle. Choose." His smile twists wider.
Brawl says, "Hey, we can share her. Have one of those threesome thingies."
Lunar doesn't give Brawl the benefit of an answer. His red optics bore into her. "Choose," he whispers.
Brawl says, "If you're mean to my woman one more time, I'm gonna hitcha."
Oracle take an involuntary step away...from both of them. She can feel the tension between these two mechs and the fear she feels is evident in her optics.
Lunar snarls at Oracle. "Choose! This is the end of it, Oracle. After this night, the pointless rivalry between myself and Brawl will end."
Brawl says, "I warned you. Stop being mean to my girl."
Brawl tries an uppercut at him.
Oracle steps away even further...her body is literally wavering between the two opponents, the two enemies, both of whom she considers a friend on the very least level. She cringes at the onset of violence. Her pacifistic nature abhors all violence, but in this case, it fills her with such dread that she seems fixed in place and forced to watch this scene unfold.
Lunar flips backwards, his leg jets assisting him in increasing the distance between them. "Well then, if you will not choose, I'll choose for you! I've waited a long time for this, Brawl. To the victor goes the spoils!" He pulls out his plasma riffle, aiming, and firing, the white hot bolt of plasma blazing through the night sky, heading straight for Brawl.
Oracle glances in terror at Lunar's weapon, seemingly much more leathal and ailen than the fists Brawl used in his assault. Time seems to slow down for her and all movements seem exaggerated. Not wanting to see either of these mechs come to harm, she makes her best effort to intercept the blast, using her own body as a shield because she has nothing else to save Brawl with.
Brawl sees the blast hit Oracle. "ORACLE!" he cries out, trying to catch her and pull her out of the fire. "Oracle? Speak to me baby!"
Lunar sees what she is doing, his optics going wide in fear, stark terror. He takes a step forward, managing to cry out, "Oracle, stay back!" He tries to call back the plasma, tries...and cannot. What is done is done.
Oracle is hit full in the chest with the blast. She crumples in a heap against Brawl, her optics widened further than seems natural. She tries to rise, and falls back down. She tries to speak, and coughs up energon.
Brawl cradles her, going to one knee, forgetting Lunar for the moment. "Oracle? Ora...please don't go," he whispers. "Don't talk. I'm taking you to a medic."
Lunar dashes forward, Brawl forgotten, Brawl no longer mattering, nothing mattering. It doesn't matter that he is right there, holding her, Brawl doesn't exist. He stops before her, sounding weak and scared. "Oracle...Primus, please no...not you, please..."
Brawl says, "I'm calling for help Lunar. Someone's gotta help her. Baby, baby? Please...just hold on."
Oracle raises a hand feebly and waves it at Lunar and Brawl. She coughs a little more, then smiles, although she is obviously in a great deal of pain right now. "Don't...bother. I'm not...a medic, but I'm certain...they can't help me." Her speech is broken up with winces and coughing.
Brawl says, "They gotta be able to help you baby...you're...you're not gonna die." Brawl thinks: Is that the right thing to say to a dying person? "Uh...Oracle?" He knows it's probably so. Brawl says, "I...I wanna say something before ya go."
Oracle continues to smile, facing Brawl. "Speak then..."
Brawl says, "I love you...and..." Brawl turns and tries to tackle Lunar. "I'll avenge ya."
Oracle sighs, coughing up some more energon. A weak hand clutches to her wound. "Don't...talk of......revenge. I don't need it."
Brawl says, "I...I can't let you die."
Lunar growls, everything happening too fast...he has to be with her, he has to be close to her, and Brawl is in the way...He snarls. "Get OFF OF ME!" He fires a full ballistics barrage at Brawl.
Brawl tries to put his hand over the wound to staunch the flow of energon. "I"m getting help." He doesn't know what else to do.
Oracle says, "Revenge doesn't bring anyone back...Lunar could tell you that much."
Brawl cradles Oracle, he's too shocked to move, to shocked to do anything.
Brawl backs off as he takes the shot, taking Oracle in his arms. "Go on Lunar. Go home. You've done enough."
Lunar doesn't think, doesn't reason. The cold, calculating exterior that marked him, even when on a mission of revenge, is gone. Gone and replaced by mad, nearly insane, rage. He pulls out his plasma rifle. "No!" He fires.
Oracle hangs limply in Brawl's arms, her optics closing, but she is still alive and coughing up engergon. The pain falls from her face, however, and she looks as though she is lost in some kind of dream.
Brawl says, "Oracle? Oracle...talk to me."
Brawl looks at Lunar lunging at him. He's a big, strong tank and tries to shrug it off. "Will you mind? I'm trying to comfort the only thing with thingies that liked me."
Oracle speaks softly, no more than a whisper, "Don't...mourn...for..." Her voice is cut off by a violent cough.
Brawl says, "Oracle! Oracle!"
Oracle sighs in a long, gasping breath.
Brawl sighs and puts Oracle down. "Boss wants me back...I'm sorry." He turns to go.
Oracle says, "Good...bye...Brawl...I..."
Lunar moves forward instantly, cradling her in his arms. In his rather...incoherant state, Brawl is forgotten. All his attention is focused on the form before him. "Oracle..."
Whiplash recognizes that same Neutral from the spaceport in Crystal City. "That was your illicit lady Brawl?"
Brawl says, "Uh..."
Oracle looks up into Lunar's optics, her face almost serene, the traces of pain gone, a sure sign that she won't last much longer.
Brawl looks down at her; first time he saw someone who wasn't a Bot die like that.
Lunar gently, very gently, he strokes her cheek. "Oracle, this wasn't supposed to happen...not like this...not again..."
Oracle says, "I...forgive..."
Whiplash bares her fangs at the scene and stalks over to Brawl. "We got a little something to discuss."
Brawl lowers his head and sighs, not really sure if it's because Oracle's dead or because Onslaught is so pissed.
Lunar's optics are kind, compassionate...yup, you read that right. His facade has been stripped, and even through the mask his feelings of pain and vulnerability are quite plain. "Oracle..there's so much I want to say, and not enough time..."
Whiplash's optics flash. "Back home, Brawl. There's someone I want you to meet."
Oracle flicks a last, sad glance at the departing Brawl, then turns back to Lunar. "Never...enough...time."
Brawl starts to wander off.
Whiplash follows. "Back to Darkmount, Brawl. I told you. I want you to see something."
Whiplash's tone is insistant, though not entirely without consideration for Brawl's feelings just now.
Brawl says, "Kay."
Brawl starts to trod back slowly.
Whiplash gestures upwards towards the sky.
Brawl starts to fly off, looking down at Oracle the whole time, thinking.
Brawl follows Whiplash up.
Lunar says, quietly, "There'a one thing I have to tell you, I feel about you the way I felt about Venom...perahps even more. Oracle..."
Oracle falls silent. The coughing has stopped, and even the energon has stopped flowing. But her optics still flicker, silently saying she understands.
Luanr closes his optics, knowing this is it...and he reaches to his face with a hand, pressing the hidden release points to the mask that hides him. The mask peels away, his true, hopelessly scarred and disfigured face showing through. His optics now wider and kinder, he leans down and gently kisses Oracle . "Farewell Oracle," he whispers.
Oracle's optics flutter as she is kissed. Then the color in them go out and she collapses limply, not a trace of movement left in her. An untangeble chill seems to permeate the area.
Lunar looks at her, not moving, holding her now lifeless form in his hands. The form that he had drained the life out of, that he had killed. He was at fault. Hie revenge, his hatred had killed her, the only creature on the planet he cared for...Lunar flings back his head, unleashing an unearthly howl of pain and loss.
Red Tec-Car is leaving a cloud of dust in the distance, it seems to be homing in on this area now that it was heard a scream. The dust cloud seems to be getting closer at a fast speed.
Lunar drops his head, optics closed...he's not thinking coherantly, and for an insttant he wants to stay with her...but self preservation wins. He lays Oracle gently on the ground, then picks up his mask and places it on his face. He growls as the mask painfully bonds with his neural sensors on his face, then shapes itself to his face. He looks once more towards her, then runs towards the shadows.
As Lunar sets the crumpled body of Oracle down, some things fall from one of her compartments.
Red Tech-Car arrives just as Lunar is running to the shadows. He transforms and looks around.
Lunar vanishes into the shadows, trying to get as far away as possible, running blind.
Patrol sees Oracle's almost grey form on the ground. "What the?"
Oracle's still body tells you nothing. The only mark on her is the ugly plasma wound that had been leaking energon, but is now empty. Beside her is a datapad and a few other objects that fell from her.
Patrol kneels down beside Oracle's lifeless form, "she was a good femme who deserved better than this..."
Darkraid circles overhead , merely watching for now.
A feeling of cold desolation seems to seep into the area. A death took place here, a death not constituted of war, but of a fight of something akin to passion and love. A tradgedy that seems to fixate on this area.
Patrol looks around for clues. He sees the plasma wound, the objects, everything...if transformers could cry, he would be doing it now. "Oh Oracle, if only you had ever listened to me...this is all my fault..."
Thee is a serentiy to Oracle's face tyhat indicates she died at peace with herself , even if the wounds look terribly painful, especially for someone so unused to the hardships of battle.
Darkraid lands by Oracle's body and powers down his thrusters.
Patrold looks over at Darkraid and nods, "All her old pals are popping out of the woodwork tonight..."
Darkraid nods to Patrol, "Where's Lunar?" He doesn't sound overly happy.
Patrol shrugs,"You think he had a hand in this too? I don 't see any claw marks, but he does use a plasma rifle."
Darkraid says,"He attacked her once, it stands to reason he'd do it again."
Brawl meanders into the area just...kind of ignoring everyone, looking for where he last saw Oracle.
Darkraid is standing by Patrol, occasionaly glancing at Oracle's body, but more often surveying the surrounding area.
Stealth Tetra Bomber lets his cloacking field drop and transforms to fall to the ground next to Darkraid, "I heard there was a bit of a ruckus here."
Darkraid nods slowly,"It looks that way."
Brawl goes to Oracle's body. "Sorry," he says, kinda just ignoring everyone around him.
The body deson't respond, for that's all it really is right now. But the expression on her face isn't the one of fear and pain, as Brawl last saw it, but has a touch of sereitiy in it that indicates she must be at peace with at least herself, and perhaps the one who killed her.
Patrol is kneeling by the body. He looks up and sees Brawl, "I bet you had a hand in this somehow."
Brawl looks up at Patrol. "Slag you," he says then turns back to Oracle, "I'm sorry you're gone...I'm sorry he shot you in the thingies...that was just wrong. And it wasn't meant for you I know." He's actually sad for this. Tomorow he won't remember what happened, but today.
Darkraid looks from Patrol to Brawl, "You mind if I take care of this one?"
Patrol blinks and hears the sadness in Brawl's voice, he then thinks, . o O (Thingies?)
Brawl shrugs, he's really not paying attention to his surroundings. He just looks into Oracle's lifeless optics a bit. "They didn't want me to say g'bye, but I wanted to..." he says.
Brawl recieves a radio message.
Darkraid nods silently and pulls his foot back. "Do you mind, my friend is grieving?" He lets the foot fly...
Patrol gets kicked and is knocked over into the dirt...he coughs and sputters for a moment, "Just because I didn't look at the thingies doesn't mean I won't miss her any less. At least I will remember tomorow and the day after...unlike your friend." He gets up to his feet and stares coldly at Darkraid.
Brawl strokes Oracle's cheek a minute, more like a child who saw his mom die, than someone who just saw their lover die.
Darkraid narrows his optics, "Brawl may be dim but he doesn't forget those he cared for." He keeps his arms folded across his chestplate as he watches Patrol.
Patrol looks at Brawl, "I can see that he actually did care for her...but no one knew that...I will find who did this and tear out their optics, or die trying."
Brawl says, "Jus' lemme kill Lunar."
Darkraid says, "I'm sorry Patrol, but Brawl does have a better claim on his life than you do."
Brawl says,"You know...this is the first time I was ever responsible for someone dyin' that wasn't a Bot."
Patrol snorts. "She was my friend before she was his...whatever..."
Darkraid begins to reach for his axe, "I can assure you will be in no shape to go hunting Lunar..."
Patrol rolls his optics, "How do you know it was Lunar?" He sees the axe movement and pulls his rifle from his back in a flash, "Don't even think about it."
Darkraid smirks as his left hip pops open and he pulls his vulcan gun, "As I said...he attacked her once."
Brawl continues to silently stare at Oracle's body. He's never silent.
Oracle's body lies there, a testimony to what guns can do, and yet still more guns are being pulled on others...will this ever stop, or will Cybertron soon be nothing more than a pile of scrap metal?
Patrol nods, "Yeah, well from what I heard half the Cons didn't like her for what she did to Brawl. Who knows who tried to kill her?"
Brawl is by Oracle's body. He shakes slightly, but other than that, shows no physical signs of grief.
Darkraid holsters his gun as he kneels next to Brawl and places a hand on his shoulder. "No Brawl..."
Brawl decides to show another form of grief. "It's okay. She'll wake up, she's fakin' it."
Darkraid shakes his head slowly, "No Brawl, she won't."
Attack Chopper spots the little gathering and heads for them emitting, "Could someone please tell me what's going on?"
Brawl says, "She can't be dead. She's the only one that ever...liked me you know."
Patrol waves up to Wilder, still looking at Darkraid, but his rifle is lowered now that he is no longer going for the axe.
Wildfire looks around and walks over to Patrol. She spots Oracle and freezes, numerous emotions flickering across her features. In the end, however, she opts for a neutral facade borrowed from her brother. She addresses her fellow Militia, "Well?"
Brawl stands up quietly. "Night Oracle. Will miss you." He seems to accept her death and puts her roses on her chest. He doesn't know sho gave them to her, but they're pretty.
Darkraid watches Brawl go then slowly gets back to his feet.
Patrol looks over at Wildfire, "I found her like this. That's all I know." He seems quite upset, but is managing to hold it in.
Wildfire's optics flicker with emotions ranging from rage to horror to sadness, but she does manage to maintain her facade. As the ranking Militia here, she has to. She nods, "I see. We'll have to bring her back to Crystal City for a full examination." She turns to Darkraid, "Can you tell me anything about this?"
Darkraid doesn't turn to face either of the Militia members. He merely speaks quietly, "Not particularily."
Patrol starts to pick up the body, he spots all of her favorite things...he begins to shake in the shoulder area...
Wildfire allows herself to growl in frustration, "I don't believe this..."
Patrol holds her in one arm and begins putting the other stuff into subspace.
Darkraid turns to face Wildfire, his optics impassive, or at least appearing to be, "You think I do?"
Oracle hangs limply in Patrols's arm. Whatever once caused her to be, is no longer in that black and green frame everyone knew as Oracle.
Patrol once again holds her in both arms.
Wildfire begins pacing impatiently as her anger builds. Rage may not be a good emotion, but it's preferable to the others that are warring for dominence. She waves her hands in the air, "I don't know what to believe, apart from the fact a Crystal City citizen's been killed."
Darkraid nods slowly, "I know..."
*Oracle's body is taken to the Hospice to be examined.*
Patrol gives Slipshod a little boot to wake him up, "Hey Slipshod. I got a task for ya."
Oracle's body tells you nothing. The only mark on her is the ugly plasma wound that had been leaking energon, but is now empty. There is a serenity to Oracle's face that indicates she died at peace with herself, even if the wounds look terribly painful, especially for someone so unused to the hardships of battle.
Slipshod slides off the gurney , waking up with a damn clang.
Slipshod sprightly jumps from the ground and blinks, "Damnation. Can't a medic get some sleep nowacycle?"
Patrol points to Oracle, "She has only the one wound. I think it was Lunar who shot her, but I don't got any proof."
Slipshod looks at Patrol and then blearily follows the indicated finger to the dead femme, "Oh my."
Sliphshod vaults over the gurney and picks up a scanner, "How long has she been not-of-this-plane?"
Oracle's wounds look fairly fresh, and her body is still warm from the energy that used to be present. The edges of the wound are also still smoking from the attack.
Slipshod scritches the side of his jaw with the butt of the scanner, "I hope you know she's unrecoverable."
Patrol nods sadly, "I know...she was like this when I found her...I wish there was something I could do to help her."
Slipshod shrugs, "Hellpit, I wish there was something I could do for her."
Patrol nods again even meeker, "You're a miracle worker, no one expected you could."
Slipshod drapes a cloth over Oracle's body and scoots her off to the morgue holding chamber and comes back, "Are you okay with this?"
Patrol shakes his head, "No I am not, but what can I do."