Swindle just leans back against his wall, head resting on his hands and with his feet propped up on more debris. All-in-all he looks rather relaxed and comfortable, certainly not as chagrined as some may expect from the assault the other day. His attention remains fixed on Fleet and Astrotrain with obvious amusement on his face and he occaisionally offers an encouraging cheer.

Poor Fleet. There he was, putting all his strength into trying to move the thing, and suddenly it gets a lot easier! Thanks to the shape of the chunk of metal, this means more that it's suddenly rolling than moving forward in a straight line. This, of course, means that Fleet is suddenly and without warning dragged upwards by the force of the motion and thrown a little ways in front of the rolling chunk of debris.

*CLANG-CLANG-CLATTER*

Luckily the shape of the thing keeps it from rolling too far, and the pastel wonder's reflexes are decent even when his system isn't hyped up on this funky super-energon stuff, meaning that he's scampered out of the path long before the thing would have reached him anyway.

Catechism enters the area, slowly dropping down from the sky. She touches down heavily, with far less grace than even she is usually capable of. She's not running on all cylinders here, so to speak. Oh and, she's mostly done up in a rusty primer red.

Astrotrain watches as Fleet goes up, and over the ball, and almost gets flattened in the process. The end result?

  The triplechanger starts laughing so hard, he can't even stand up anymore, pitching over backwards...and into a pile of rubble, such that his feet are sticking out in the process. "Bwahahahahaha!"

Swindle smiles simply at Fleet's misfortune, although he does raise an optic ridge at the reaction from Astrotrain. Unusual, but then, Swindle hasn't been over-energising and so is no doubt /far/ more collected than the Transport.

Fleet's optics are burning a much brighter and more unsteadily than usual, a flame whipped into a frenzy, and he shakes his head as he tries to clear it. He turns his body enough to look at Astrotrain, who is laughing at him, and then turns to look at the bolder that just catapulted him, and then turns to glare at Astrotrain for another astrosecond or so. And then... "Heh. Heheh. Hehehehaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" It is not long before the pastel wonder has collapsed into a laughing fit himself.

Vortex giggles helplessly at the ever-so-silly scene before him. "Too bad he didn't get squished by that boulder," he mourns briefly, but the sight of Fleet and Astrotrain rolling around in the debris, laughing hysterically, was something to be remembered by its own rights. "You need some of that stuff to sell, you'd make a fortune," he comments idly, pointing at the barrel of dubious origins. "Just think of the entertainment to be had!"

Astrotrain's feet are still sticking up in the air as he laughs himself stupid, or something along those lines. Eventually, he does right himself upwards, hands flat on the ground, even as he tilts his head back. "Hah! Right over the top and almost under the bottom! I wish I'd recorded it!" A moment later, he's pushing himself to his feet, unsteadily at first, but soon getting completely upright and flexing a few times. "Oh YEAH if that ain't worth livin for I dunno what is!"

Swindle spares a lazy glance over at Vortex, before returning his gaze to the merriment "Yeah," he replies, a mildly thougtful tone to his voice, "but I think it'd destroy the faction in a month."

Catechism glances at the assembled group. Hey, no one's called her 'Thrust'! Life is good. She's out to see what's become of the Warrens since the Decepticons invaded and took back what is rightfully theirs. Looking around curiously, Catechism greets, "Hello. What's going on here?"

Arachnae arrives from the Cuprahex Sensor Outpost to the south.

Arachnae has arrived.

Arachnae slips quietly into the area.

Vortex nods in agreement. "Perhaps, but after yesterday's fiasco, I would say that the faction's well on its way to destroying itself without any help. At least this way it would go out with a much more interesting ending."

Fleet finally calms the roar of his laughter down to a few giggles, then manages to shut off the spigot entirely, He pulls himself into a seated position, 'Indian style' on a planet that has never had Indians, and shakes his head. Had he been... anyone else, he might be bothered by the fact that he had just made a complete fool of himself, but he's not, he's Fleet, so instead there's just a big grin on his face. "Well, least I managed to move it!" And with that he bursts out laughing again.

Swindle shoots a startled look at his team-mate. Shaking his head disbelievingly. "And you're the one telling /me/ to watch my mouth?" He turns as... Catechism? appraoches, he nods pleasantly to her and waves a hand towards Fleet and Astrotrain. "Not entirely sure, I think Astrotrain just got Fleet over-energised, and is helping him make a fool of himself." He indicates another chunk of debris. "Pull up a seat."

Vortex says, "At least I was intelligent about who I said it to, Swindle, and didn't get my aft handed to me by /Rumble/, of all the possible morons you could have picked on."

Astrotrain walks over towards the piece of rubble, putting both hands on it and giving a harsh push, sending it tumbling along and crashing back with the rest of the junk, moving it with decidedly more ease in the process. It comes from being a big cargo hauler. At this, he pulls out his ion rifle, cocking it and glancing along the horizon, then picking out one particular piece of the debris. "Watch this, bank shot!" He turns, and puts his arm behind his back, shooting his rifle in this fashion and sending his blast streaking out towards the tip of the steel beam that sticks out, shearing it off in the process.

  He is now entering the 'showboat' stage of drunkenness.

Catechism blinks, taps the side of her head, and remembers that she's a rather ugly shade of red. Also, There are machines here that don't know her. That in mind, she introduces, "I'm Catechism, MilOps trooper. I'm usually a shade of blue-grey, but..." she brushes at her currently rust-coloured self, "...they must have been out of that."

Arachnae sideslides out of the sky, heading towards the nominal middle of the warrens area. Carrying a box. Well, more like two boxes strapped to one another.

Fleet recovers from his second bout of laughter and again sits up, watching Astrotrain show off. He grins, shouting cheerfully, "That's great!" Of course, if Fleet's going to show off, he'll do it from the sky. To this end, the Seeker looks upwards, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Swindle says, "Actually-" Swindle opens his mouth to correct Vortex, before biting off his words. There's no need to mention that his disgust had been mostly sparked by Galvatron doing the same thing, that /would/ have earned him a cannoning. Luckily he was able to tone it down. He shrugs, "I was just voicing an opinion, I fail to see that being violently assaulted was necessary.""

Astrotrain just stands there for a few long moments, still postured with his rifle behind his back. "...did I get it?" He states, staring for the longest time, before he confirms that he did, indeed, get it. "...heeey I did! Allright!" At that, he fires off several shots into the air, before lowering his gun again and grinning, watching as Fleet takes to the air.

  He's not always this chummy around people but...well, he's overenergized.

Catechism settles down on a pieces of debris, 'pulling up a seat' as Swindle suggested. It takes her a moment to get into a pose so that her wings aren't uncomfortably jabbing into something. That done, Catechism leans forward a little and braces her head with one arm, elbow to the knee. Softly and with a bit of a smirk, she comments, "This the Overenergised Olympics?" Normally, she'd be all over that, but she's light-listed for the time being and recovering from a major operation, and she takes that seriously.

Arachnae lands, apparently not really paying attention to who's inthe area right off. As long as she isn't getting shot at, she feels no concern. The box(es) are set down, hands are dusted before she mutters, "Now.. that should have been.. over there.." turning around slowly. OPtics flicker as she now notices the collection of Decepticons converged into one spot. "Well.. slag."

Fleet pulls himself unsteadily to his feet, his thoughtful smile turning into a full grin. He had been trying to get work done earlier! Honest! But Astrotrain wouldn't let him! It's all the triple-changer's fault!

The seeker dips his head slightly to look at those assembled, wide grin fading into mischevious smile, then looks back up, leaping into the air as he does. It's time to dance.

Vortex sighs, frustrated with his comrade. "I believe you, I know it wasn't like you were deliberately baiting them all. I completely agree with your sentiments, anyway. But you can't go around making smart comments like that if you don't want to get us all killed. And you know we all will, if you made Galvatron angry enough."

"Hey Junior what're you gonna do this time!?" Astrotrain calls out with a smirk, even raising one hand to his mouth with the shout. His other hand oh so casually shifts his rifle to resting on his shoulder, cause...y'know, Decepticons are all about casually carrying around loaded weapons.

Swindle shrugs again. "Guess losing Earth frayed some nerves." Still, it's unusual to hear an expression of discontent with the Decepticons from a fellow Combaticon. "So you may not go wanting to make comments like that, especially if MSE are out and about."

Fleet doesn't answer, instead flying straight up to a considerable altitude, to the point where what he's doing can be made out, but barely. He cuts his antigravs and thrusters and enters free-fall, but before he can actually start falling he transforms, nose pointed up. A flick of his ailerons and he starts twisting in the air, his nose-cone falling faster than the rest of him, tilting to his right. Before long he is pointed downwards and falling, falling fast, his aerodynamic shape causing him to pick up speed all the more. About halfway to the ground he kicks his thrusters on and the sound they make can be heard getting clearer, getting louder, as though he intends to ram right through the planet of Cybertron itself. Them, not long before he's ready to slam into the ground he pulls up, leveling, skimming over the obstructions, but only barely missing some of the higher structures still standing, the roar of his engines drowning out his joyous laughter.

Astrotrain watches of course, with the morbid fascination, and perhaps the slight hope that Fleet -will- splatter himself onto the ground, like a crowd that watches a daredevil. Nevertheless as Fleet levels out at the last second and roars overhead, he gives a loud guffaw, turning and waving after him with his rifle, as he calls to the others. "That boy's hardcore when he drinks!"

Vortex considers this thoughtfully. "Perhaps not, no. We both need to learn to keep things to private frequencies, I suppose." He grants Swindle an amused glance before returning his attention to Fleet's kamikaze antics.

Catechism doesn't pay much attention to the Combaticons' talk. She doesn't notice Arachnae, either. After all, Fleet and Astrotrain are so much more enthralling. You can't play for entertainment like this! Danger, aerobatics, trick shots, and drunkenness. It doesn't get any better.

Arachnae remains where she stands, watching the little knot of mechanoids. When fleet does his dash upwards and starts his little aerobatics, she flicks wings and turns to walk towards a particularly disreputable leaning of rubble.

Swindle watches Fleet's aerial display with interest, he'd heard a rumour or two, but hasn't actually seen Fleet doing this outside of a flashy landing now and then. He mutters an incoherent reply to Vortex, a vaguely agreeing grunt.

Fleet slows down and begins a barrel roll, transforming part-way through so that he's instead twirling in the air in robot mode. Once he stabilizes he brings his knees to his chest, puts his arms out, then flips himself backwards so that he's flying with his back to the ground in the opposite direction from that which he had just been going. He transforms and continues to fly upside-down in pyramid form for awhile, rolling upright only as he once more returns to the general area of the others. Once he's nearer to them he pulls up, transforms again, and lands on one foot, gently, before...

>Clang-clatter-clang!<

After all that, now that he has landed, he collapses into a clumsy heap, causing the pastel wonder to erupt in a fit of giggles.

Arachnae disappears among the maze of ratty buildings.

Arachnae has left.

Astrotrain watches this whole display, his expression turning more into an idle curiosity at this as the seeker dips, rolls and...performs what could probably be best described as an aerial ballet. This would probably be the moment when he should applaud, or be all in awe. Instead, he's just standing there...open mouthed.

  "...what the slag was -THAT-!?"

Swindle watches Fleet's preformance, feeling rather impressed. However, he is distracted from this by something, something which results in him turning a startled look on Vortex, despite the absence of anything that striking having been said. His hand come up to rub his chin as he considers the information that he's just been given. There /has/ to be a way to use this somehow...

Catechism watches Fleet turn into a Fleet-heap and shakes her head, snickering. Slowly, she stands and walks a little closer to Fleet. Then, she crouches down and offers, "Want a hand up?" Sure, it's his own fault for getting overenergised and then trying fancy tricks, but she owes Fleet one.

Fleet is still giggling, so it takes a moment for him to figure out that he's been spoken to. He looks up at Astrotrain and smiles very like the cat who ate the canary (a bad comparison given his coloration, but there it is). "That. Was me enjoying myself," he answers happily before Catechism offers a hand up. The drunken seeker absentmindedly accepts, not even realizing that he's using up the one Catechism owes him. D'oh!

Astrotrain still watches for a few moments, before rubbing the back of his head. "Sheesh, I've heard of mechs pullin wheelies, or buzzin control towers or stuff, that was like...some....I dunno, movin in slow motion or somethin." He's buzzed on high yield energon, he can't form words too well.

  Idly, he turns and starts moving back to where he left the keg, resting one hand on it as he looks towards the others. "Hey!" He announces, then pauses for a few moments. "....anyone wanna drink?"

Catechism yanks Fleet up a bit roughly and lightly, as if hesitant to touch the other Seeker any more than she has to, puts a hand on his shoulder to steady him. Despite her hesitance, she looks perfectly happy to hold him steady for a while, if need be. She looks over at Astrotrain a bit mournfully and says, "Can't. Got my chips thrashed out and just had a major surgery."

Fleet takes a moment to stop swaying as he considers the pluses and minuses to just throwing on his antigravs and floating where he needs to go. Gotta be easier than trying to coordinate his feet right now. "Nothanks!" the seeker shouts to Astrotrain. "I'm good!" Then stumbles a few steps and finally does decide to just float. He's still a bit unsteady in the air as he drifts over to where Swindle and Vortex are sitting. Once there he touches down and then again collapses as the force of gravity has its way with him. This causes another fit of laughter, but otherwise he seems perfectly content to just stay put.

Swindle grins ruefully. "Tempted though I am, I'm just out of the repair bay, I could do without frying a few more circuits." He smirks at Fleet as he approaches, floating merrily through the air. "Having fun?" He inquires.

"Yer loss." Comes Astrotrain's comment as people all around (wisely) decide not to partake in whatever kind of rocket fuel it is that he had, and gave to Fleet. That was after only one mug full! A moment later, he transforms yet again, dropping down in his locomotive form, and dropping his rear ramp with a harsh *CLANK*, right next to the keg.

  "Now....somebody roll this thing back up into me and secure it into place!"

Vortex shakes his head. "No, I'm far more entertained watching you two make idiots of yourself, I don't need to join you." Had he a mouth to smirk with, he would be as Fleet approaches, amused at how unsteady the Seeker is- even while floating he seems to be pinwheeling a bit.

Fleet beams up at Swindle and nods his head. "Yeah, actually." He does not seem to have any problem at all with Vortex's comment, and instead he turns towards Astrotrain and eyes the keg a bit warily. He's not going to have to get up AGAIN, is he?

Astrotrain's body spins and expands outwards, shifting into the form of a large locomotive.

Catechism watches as Fleet collapses again and shakes her head. Oddly enough, a bit of envy glints in her optics. Slaggitall, that should be her smashed out of her rocker! Fleet's supposed to be the sensible one! Must be the red paintjob affecting her.

Since no one else is going to help, Fleet leans over and pulls himself up with the aid of some nearby rubble. He takes a couple of unsteady steps towards the barrel and then again gives up, once more hovering. The pastel wonder floats over to the barrel of rocket-fuel and then scratches the back of his head, trying to figure out how to go about this.

Vortex chortles to himself and cheers the drunken Seeker on, privately hoping that he'll lose his footing and the barrel will back down the ramp and roll over him.

Catechism watches Fleet do a boot-jet assisted stagger over to the barrel. Hey, if she's not allowed to have any fun, she's sure as slag not going to help Fleet. He's a bright Seeker. He can figure it out on his own.

Swindle, after a look around to see if anyone intends to help, sighs and climbs to his feet. Hell, he could do with some goodwill points right now. However, it appears that Fleet also has risen to help. He vaguely follows the seeker over to the barrel, figuring he may as well help.

Locomotive can sometimes...well not just sometimes, alot of the time be the impatient sort. Since he's sitting there, an occasional chug of his engines filling the air. When he hears a whole lot of moving, and nothing going up his ramp though, he kind of wishes he had optics back there to see what's behind him. "...what're you doin back there? Drinking it while I'm not looking? That stuff's from Magnaron and ain't cheap y'know!"

Fleet drifts down towards the barrel and puts his feet down, making sure that they are set firmly before he shuts off his antigravs. Even so he takes a moment to rebalance with the shift. "Okay," he murmurs, softly. "I can do this!" Then he looks up at Astrotrain, a bit baffled. He had just offered it to everyone, anyway! "We aren't!" he answers, honestly enough. Whether or not he's believed is another matter.

Swindle knows, he knows about costs of things that Astrotrain has never even considered, he's funded development of powerful weapons, he's braved the depths of the Decepticon databases, he's seen worlds brought to their knees (even if not by the Decepticons), he once bought a bucket. With a sigh he kneels down to examine the bucket. It's easy to tell that the spigot is removable... but it might just be more fun to let Fleet struggle with it. Hmm.

Vortex cheers Swindle on, amused to no end. "C'mon, you're smarter than the barrel, don't let it outsmart you!"

Catechism paces over to Swindle to watch what he's doing. Now Swindle, she might help out. Fleet may have saved her life, but Swindle did one better. Catechism's not the brightest lightsabre in the armoury, but she's not dumb, and getting a barrel of energon flowing shouldn't be that hard.

Fleet, who has no idea who Vortex is cheering for, turns around and offers an uncertain smile before kneeling down and trying to push the barrel up the ramp, not bothering to remove the tap at all and therefore no doubt leaking high potency energon as he goes. Oh well.

Swindle sighs internally. He's got few enough friends of late, no need to possibly alienate anyone... particularly those who witnessed the unnecessary brutality. "It'd work better if you removed the faucet, Fleet." He comments. Of course, if /this/ isn't good enough, then that's Fleet's problem.

The vile stuff of course splashes down Astrotrain's ramp in the process, trickling along his hide. He dosen't notice at first, until the triplechanger pipes up. "Hey...what's that smell?" Faint trickles of smoke are starting to rise from where the stuff splashed onto his paint. "...what th...AHHGH! It's burnin my hide! It's burnin my hide!" He's probably exagerrating, but still, they were drinking that stuff? Well at least their internal fuel workings would have dulled it somewhat but still.

Fleet stops pushing the barrel when first Swindle speaks and then Astrotrain shouts. And he already knows what it does to a mechanoid. After all, he has a few spots on his own hide that are going to need a fresh coat of paint rather soon, thank you very much ASTROTRAIN. So the Seeker looks over at Swindle a bit blankly, then down at the barrel, then up at Swindle, and finally answers, "Oh," as he processes the information given. Then he kneels down and removes the spigot, but not before spilling more of the substance in the process.

Arachnae emerges from the maze of buildings.

Arachnae has arrived.

Arachnae slips quietly into the area.

Catechism scrunches up her face and wonders at the sanity of all this, given that the fuel seems to be... eating away at paint. She gestures and asks, tone dubious, "Shouldn't you tape up that spigot hole or something?" Yup, the red paint is definitely going to her head.

The hole is self sealing (it -is- a futuristic barrel!) but for a few seconds when the spigot is pulled out, some more of it -does- spill out onto Astrotrain's ramp, causing the locomotive to shudder slightly. "Eeeyow that stuff stings and itches, and I can't even scratch it!" his complaints mix well with the smell of burning paint.

Swindle prods the barrel with his foot. "Shoudln't /have/ to, if the spigot is removed properly." He looks at Fleet, then back to the faint wisps of smoke rising from his ramp. "And after that, I'm just surprised he's able to move."

Fleet is drunk, and not a regular over-indulger, anyway, thanks. Of course he doesn't know how to remove the thing properly at the moment. Spigot removed, the seeker rather happily gets to work rolling the barrel up the ramp, slipping a couple of times as he does but otherwise making it without notable incident. And he even manages to figure out how to secure the thing. Yay, Fleet! Unfortunately, he does not think to secure the spigot himself as he stumbles back down the ramp, trips at the bottom, and crashes forward.

Arachnae slinks out of some rubble, one wing scraping on a twisted piece of metal. Soft cursing, some dusting of herself off 9granted it does nothing to remove the odd gunk clinging to her shins.. and she heads towards where she had left those boxes from earlier.

Catechism shrugs. "Just sayin'. Wanted to make sure." She looks at the spills and contemplates grand stupid things. Hey, if it strips paint, maybe it'll get rid of the red? Then she remembers that it strips paint and decides that would be a bad idea.

At least the smoking of Astrotrain's paint job has died down. "Ow...ow..." he can be heard to mutter as the last of the acidity dies down. "...I'm gonna need an oil bath after this." His complaints continue to come, even as Fleet steps back down the ramp. Only when he's clear, does the triplechanger finally ask, "...that it? It's clear? Done? Awright. I'm going back to base, is anybody else going?"

Vortex is actually laughing so hard he topples off of his perch, tumbling down a pile of rubble and managing to ding himself up rather spectacularly as little bits of rotor assembly are shorn off all the way down. He lays there in a pile for a minute, staring up at the sky as if asking it what the slag just happened, before mumbling, "Ow."

Man, Fleet could have stayed inside and totally gotten a ride back to base! Or, more likely, died a horrible death as Astrotrain crashed from drunk flying or something! Oh well, he'll find his own way back. From his spot on the ground the pastel wonder lifts his right arm up, saying into the dirt, "Naw, I'm good."

Locomotive dosen't wait for anyone else to answer him. As he snaps his ramp up into place again. "Right then, I'm outta here!" he announces a moment later. His engines begin to chug and thrum powerfully, as his massive wheels start to churn and propel his form forwards again. A load roar tears loose from his whistle as if to announce for others to clear the way, even as he starts to pick up speed. Instead of using his rocket boosters, he transforms a moment later, shifting into his shuttle mode in order to take off. It's a maneuver he does all the time, and it's like second nature. A split second after transforming, the triplechanger's thrusters ignite, into brillian blossoming fireballs as they propel him forward at incredible speed...

  *KEEE-CRRRRASH!*

  ...right into a pile of rubble, where he proceeds to bury himself into right up to his tailfin.

Astrotrain's body spins and reconfigures until it swells out into the shape of a large, purple space shuttle.

Swindle shakes his head as he watches Fleet manage to stow the barrel safely. He glances over his shoulder, watching as his team-mate manages to make a fool of himself /without/ getting over-energised, but his attention is de-railed (hah) by Astrotrain's colossal stupidi- er, crash.

Arachnae blinks as she pauses midopening of the box, looking up only to see.. Astrotrain.. crashing, "AAAAAAAAH!" Panic moment and the medic dives for cover. Who knows what unexploded explosives could still be in the area. Either that, or she's been hitting the stims again and is too too wired for sanity.

Astrotrain can be heard a moment later giving his commentary about the whole fact that he forgot in his inebriated state to pull -up. "....OW...." He's somewhat muffled, because 3/4's buried in rubble.

Vortex clambers back up the pile, picking up broken-off pieces of his rotor assembly as he makes his way to the top. "Oh, don't worry about me, I'm just fine. No need to worry about your poor teammate, Swindle, I'll just find all the bits and pieces of my rotor assembly /myself/."

Fleet remains laying down on the ground, but does at least turn his head so that he's no longer face-down. He looks over where Astrotrain just crashed as best he can and... laughs. Again. This is probably a stupid move, but he can't help it. He doesn't laugh for very long and once he's finished he smiles and just observes absently, "Glad I wasn't in there."

Swindle turns his optics to the sky, sighing in resignation. Given the choice between aidnig Astrotrain or Vortex, you know who he's going to choose. "All right, I'll help you." Wearily he trudges over to his fellow Combaticon, glancing around at the ground for anything prudent.

Catechism just watches, dumbfounded as just about everyone but Swindle manages to do grand stupid things. Why isn't she in on this? Why?! Vortex clips off bits of his spinny-things, Astrotrain crashes, Arachnae screeches and ducks for cover... Arachnae? Catechism glances over in the direction of the near-Sweep, attention drawn by the sudden movement, salutes, and says, "Ma'am."

Shuttle rumbles and shakes just slightly in place, back and forth a bit. The rubble pile shifts...then settles, and the triplechanger remains stuck. "Uh..." he begins, voice still muffled by the wall of debris around him.

  "...a little help?"

Vortex grumbles. "I wasn't even /overenergized/ and I make a fool of myself... Hmph." He continues searching for pieces, hoping he'll find them all so maybe he can be cobbled back together faster.

Arachnae peers over some edging of rubblie bit, optics glittering. Wingtips poke up behind her and she slowly stands, dusting at herself, now adorned with fragments of metal added into the coating of.. gick she somehow accumulated. "Pah." snorted before she peers about, optics narrowing, "Catechism?" polite, soft tone.. Gaze panning, "Do I even want to know.." wingtip being used as a pointer aimed at Astritrains bulky behind poking out of debris. Well, at least the shuttle aft.. "why he's there?"

Swindle nods sympathetically. "Well, stuff happens, or are you asking for me to make a lot of undeserved comments about idiocy?" Oooh, sibling bickering. He dips down quickly, coming up with a decently large piece of the rotor assembly.

Fleet is in no position to help anyone, sadly. He manages to pull himself into a sitting position, but even doing that much takes effort. In fact, it's taking more and more effort to do anything as he starts heading for his own crash, this one a bit more metaphorical than Astrotrain's. Hopefully he'll be able to get himself back to base before that happens.

Catechism paces over to Arachnae. She did her grand stupid thing a few days ago, when she took on Sky Lynx. It is because she is still recovering that she doesn't get to do grand stupid things now. It's tragic. She taps her helmet with one hand, thinks for a moment, and answers slowly, "Ma'am, I don't think that you do."

"Slaggit stop talkin and help me outta here! I hate tight spaces!" Astrotrain's muffled voice comes as he begins to struggle and shake back and forth again, back and forth, wiggling, even trying to push himself forward -through- the debris and keep going. All to no avail. He tries everything except the most obvious thing he could...

Vortex glances at Astrotrain, stuck nose-first in a pile of rubble. "Tried throwing it into reverse?" He suggests lamely, still searching for bits of rotor blade.

Arachnae blinks at the red coneheaded seeker varient. "Eh..." Wings tuck in behind her, she stops picking at the gick. "Actually, if it means that I'm going to have to repair someone due to idiocy,I'd like to know so I can get a head start on planning what things I'm going to say."

Shuttle shakes and rumbles a bit more, then snaps at Vortex. "I can't -GO- in reverse Mr smartypants! Thrusters only let me go forward and my retros aren't strong enough! If I wanted to back up I'd have to have wheels and..." Insert pregnant pause here, soon followed by transforming sound.

  "...shut up."

Vortex chortles to himself. "I do believe I've redeemed myself from /my/ stupid action through pointing out your stupidity, Astrotrain."

Catechism sighs and explains, doing hand gestures as she does, "Fleet and Astrotrain've been at some weird kind of energon that eats at paint, ma'am. If you need samples for testing or summat, they've got a barrel of it in Astrotrain. Ought I assist him, ma'am?"

Swindle glances over at Vortex. "No," he replies, "No you haven't. Astrotrain has the excuse of being over-energised." He gestures towards the ground. "How much of your assembly do we have now?"

Vortex glances at the assorted pieces in his hands, mentally putting the rotor-jigsaw back together as best he can. "Well, I've got most of the blade, but that'll need to be replaced anyway... I'm missing several swash plate parts." He sighs. That assembly was a bit of a pain as far as maintenance was concerned anyway, and now he'd gone and busted it. "And that's the part Scrapper was confusing with 'swashbucking' before, so I don't dare ask him to replace it..."

Fleet giggles in a most unmanly sort of way from his seated position on the ground at Astrotrain's predicament for a moment before he sees about getting himself out of his own. The Seeker starts to try to pull himself into a standing position yet again, before it occurs to him that he can just turn his antigravs on again, minus the thrusters of course. The seeker starts to float into the air and rights himself into a more or less standing position, although his feet don't touch the ground. He looks over towards the Combaticons and hunhs absently. Apperantly that gestalt bickering thing isn't limited to the Constructicons.

Arachnae makes mental notes, weird energon, recently retaken warzone, Astrotrain stuck in debris, Fleet.. where is Fleet. She pans about, looking for the telltale yellow seeker, lips pursing. As if she's not certan to laugh or flail or be serious or what have you. And they didn't offer to share either, slag them. She gives glance to see how Astrotrain is faring in getting out of the pile, contemplating how she can help if he's really jammed up in there. "I see." is all she actually says, however, expression fortunatly going nice and blank.

Locomotive, now being in a form MEANT for pulling and pushing, has a much easier time getting himself out of his predicament. With a series of harsh chugs and the grinding of his metal wheels on Cybertron's surface, he pulls himself free from the debris pile with a loud shriek of tortured metal tearing free. Not from him...but from his surroundings. His front ram plate is so heavily reinforced it's not even scratched after that little escapade. Slowly, he chugs backwards, in reverse, until he gets back amongst the other Decepticons and...comes to a halt, puffing out an occasional belch of smoke as he seems to reorient himself. "Okay..." He begins.

  "...okay. Deep breaths...just a straight line. Just got a little off center there...that's all...yeah."

Swindle grins. "Yeah, maybe we should get you fitted with something a little more high-tech than a Terran helicopter rotor while we've got the opportunity" He tilts his head. "Something Scrapper can't confuse, perhaps."

Catechism suddenly recalls something, "Ah, excuse me, ma'am. I've got watch. Good luck." With that, the red! conehead heads back for Nightseige.

Vortex glowers at Swindle and swats at him with a chunk of rotor blade. "Oh, hush." Not that Swindle had done anything but give him that condescending grin he's /ever/ so good at. "Well, if you're willing to finance it, I'd take the upgrade."

You rise upward to the Sky above Old Cybertron Highway.