Sense and Insanities

Blast Off finds himself back in Kaon after rescuing both Swift Blade AND Whirl (don't tell Megatron) from Quantum's latest revenge plot (now with added innocent bystander damage!). The shuttleformer is exhausted. If it's not one thing it's another these days, and he needs a little time out. So right now he sits off from a main street ina quiet little corner of Kaon. His legs dangle from a patio wall he is perched upon, affording him a view- not that the view is all that great- but it IS a view. He's drinking a bottle of engex and trying to find the ability to relax for just a moment.

Between asking various other couriers, bar regulars, and doing her own scanning about previous places she had seen Blast Off, Swivel had finally come to Kaon. The femme had been strolling various streets in the neighbouhood until she had passed beneath the patio that the shuttleformer had been drinking from. And it wasn't until she paused at the end of the street and glanced up, as if to ask the stars why she would waste her time so ineffeciently, when the movement of dangling legs catches her optics. She begins to walk closer, her head tilted up, sqinting, making sure it is in fact her querry sitting up there. Well. Now that's, uh..... how would she get up there?

After some deliberation, Swivel works out a way up, but it requires scurrying off about two blocks. Transforming, she speeds off....

Sometime later Blast Off woul hear the revving of an enging that sounds as though it were coming from above him, rather than below. Should he look up, he'd see beams of light cesting off from the roof above him.

Blast Off is just taking another swig from his bottle when he hears the engine revving. Looking around, he finally pinpoints the sound and looks up to see the light. The Combaticon frowns under his faceplate, optics narrowing. What the slag? One hand keeps holding the bottle, but the other slips down as if ready to draw his weapon from subspace. So much has happened lately he's half-expecting an attack. Still- it's a rather odd one, if it is...

The revving is reduced to a lower, slower rumble as the source of the light seems to come closer to the edge of the overhang. There is a stalling moment before the unmistakable noise unique to activated transformer cogs. Moments later he hears a "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" as something or someone hops down from the roof, landing beside him in a crouched position. Now, staring at him, and rather in his personal space since the patio is not exactly extensive, is that ill-spoken urchin, Swivel. "G'day, guv!"

Blast Off stares as the sound and lights get closer, closer- and then suddenly there's Swivel crouched down right beside him. The shuttleformer jerks back, though he doesn't get up and move. He was \*comfortable\*, darn it, and doesn't feel like giving up his seat and his view, such as it is. So he settles for more staring. "... Who? What?" His optics narrow again. "What do you want? Swivel, was it?"

Now that she has solid ground beneath her feet, as she wasn't going to try and drop down too close to the edge or railing in case she miscalculated, Swivel also edges away to give the larger mech space. She's observed him enough to know he needs it. And she doesn't want to be in his bac graces. Although if she truly didn't she would not have sought him out to discuss what she had planned to discuss. But she said it was her intention, and Swivel does her best to be a femme of her word. It's unfortunate how few people realise how seriously she takes promises that she makes. Even more sad how few people trust her. "Yes'm, Swivel t'is," Swivel confirms in an infectiously cheerful tone.

Blast Off raises an optic ridge at the femme, his look of aloof calm returning. At least she edged back a bit. At that, he turns back to his bottle of engex and another swallow of the drink. "Yes." Hmm, last time they spoke it was in that bar. "Are you looking for your etiquette lessons, then?"

Although her tires are large and at times unwieldly, at least the femme in total is fairly small, so it is easy for her to make room, even to the point where she is squished up against the corner railing. "Well, na'zactly. I mean, I figgered I otter ge'some wayer contactin' ya t'make it easier fer planin' lessons 'n such...." Swivel brings up her hands, touching her index fingers together and pressing them agaiinst each other, flexing and contracting them while staring elsewhere. "Bu' I been lookin' f'ya fer 'nuth'reason. Ta d'with, uh, erm, wellum...."

That optic ridge remains lifted. She's NOT here for that? Blast Off looks over at the femme trying to give him enough room, feeling increasingly confused by her behavior. His hand starts gesturing impatiently; /imperiously/. "Well, what is it then? Spit it out, I haven't got all day!"

"Liftshock! I-I mean Shaftlick. I mean Shiftlock!" Swivel bursts out before Blast Off can finish saying 'I haven't got all day'. And yeah, she just let's it hang there.

At the mention of the name, all that calm, aloof demeanor evaporates- at least momentarily. The Combaticon's optics widen and his entire body stiffens. Then Blast Off simply stares at Swivel a long moment before suddenly turning to take another loooong drink from the engex bottle again. His voice sounds distant as he replies, "... What about her?"

Swivel takes a moment to try and choose her words carefully. But, well, she has never been good at that sort of thing. After all, she is a conveyor of messages, not a composer of them. Nor is she a diplomat, orator, or politician. So choosing words carefully was never part of her programming or education. The femme shows enough visual cues that she is struggling.

"I use.... th'band, th'broadband, lots. An' 'entime I 'ear 'er on there... she gets all... 'eadachey 'n confused... 'n it makes me, uh, sad. 'En usually tha only 'appens 'coz you or, uh, Whirl, talk.... uh er... mos'ly Whirl... buh I said I'd talk t'ya 'bout it too... so I am... an 'opefully y'wun do what Whirl did... or worse, 'coz... Yanno what? Forget I said 'enthin. Not my business."

Blast Off doesn't look at her as she speaks, though his mannerisms slowly become more agitated and fidgety. He takes another swallow of his engex, then starts picking at the heat shields on his arm without seeming to realize he's doing it. His wing elevons twitch and he shrugs.

Denial is usually his first defense. "Well, it's not like I /care/ anymore, anyway. There's nothing I can do. It's done with and over. It's..." His voice seems to catch in his throat and he masks it by taking another swallow of engex. But then he glances sharply at Swivel and asks, "What do you mean? What did Whirl do?"

Perhaps Swivel may not understand people all that well, but she can see the growing agitation as she speaks, which had helped her to lose her nerve. Like most simple folk, at the core of things, Swivel wants to be liked. However, she also doesn't like to see people in pain. She's learning a very hard lesson that to ease one person's suffering, sometimes one makes others suffer. Learning. As in, she has not learned this lesson yet, and it will be an arduous road for this femme.

"Well 'e.... jus got... real... scary 'an threatened me 'n stuff..." Swivel nervously explains about her experience with Whirl. It's her turn to look away and find something, perhaps a bit of dirt, to flick off of her shoulder. "Honestly thought 'en 'e was standin' o'er me, an' I was on me back an' 'elpless, 'e was gunna..." She suddenly claps her hands and forces on a very fake smile. "Let's not dwell on it, yeah? 'Coz all 'e did was say some thin's an' walk off. Eeee, yeah, was jus' me 'magination runnin' wild 'en it 'ent p'lite t'sume the wrost o' people, yeah? Yeah..."

Swivel picked a complicated subject with Blast Off, certainly. The shuttleformer tries to seek refuge in denial, but Shitflock is a sore, sore subject and it's hard to completely mask off his feelings. He attempts to do so, however, and looks off into the distance as he seeks composure once more. "I... see. Yes, Whirl is a bit... unpredictable. Violent." No need to cushion that with compliments, the world doesn't need to know Blast Off actually really likes the mech.

But at Swivel's clap of hands, he glances back to the femme. "Very well." The shuttle sits back, hands coming down to prop himself up on the ledge. "Well... I imagine he was right. If you were on the broadband, then... then you heard what they did to her. She's gone. At least, the person she \*was\* is gone, replaced by whatever the Autobots stuffed inside her head." There's a tinge of bitterness there. Ok, a LOT of bitterness.

Feeling it prudent, Swivel aloows a moment of silence before she speaks up again. There is a lot she is getting from Blast Off, even in his attempt to hide what he is feeling. Actually, it's those attempts to hide it that tell her more... but she doesn't really know how to properly analyse what she is observing. How to extrapolate and apply. She just knows it is all uncomfortable, and she made this mech sad. That makes her sad. It's as simple as all that.

"D'ya.... um.... if she's gone.... uh.... do you.... um.... do you WANT t'urt the femme she is now? Seems like a sweet thing, really... an' shame to make 'er suffer coz she's got the same name's summun y'care 'bout." Yay for over simplifying.

>> Sky-Byte materializes out of spiraling vortex of energy.

"HURT?" This draws the shuttleformer's full attention, and blazing violet optics. "Who said anything about HURTING her? I've been happy to AVOID Shiftlock entirely." Yes, happy, that's the right word, isn't it? Blast Off draws in an angry swallow of his engex before continuing his rant. "/Sweet/? Do you know what she was like BEFORE they reprogrammed her mind? How she was learning, and growing, and being... being, well, SHIFTLOCK before they... they..... "

There's a loud HUFFFF. "Are you honestly trying to tell me it's better for her //now//?! That having her ability to THINK for herself or make DECISIONS for herself stripped from her very /mind/ is somehow supposed to be a GOOD thing? An acceptible thing?! That she was forced to surrender so that Blurr would stop murdering empties and that it is somehow //OK//? That it is OK that they took away her choice and her MIND and everything she WAS because, well, slag, she SEEMS HAPPY NOW?!"

The shuttleformer stares at Swivel, optics flashing, his fists clenching. So much for aloof.

See, this is why Swivel can't keep friends. It's not a lack of feeling, but feeling so much with very little forethought. But this reaction causes Swivel to widen her optics and looks absolutely mortified. "SLOW DOWN! I dunno wot she was like 'fore.... tha'appened." Perhaps one might expect defiance or indignance or anger after such accusations. But instead, the femme seems to crumble after the emotional outlash, and the femme's chin quivers. She looks like she wants to say more, but clamps her mouth shut to keep herself from bawling.

Blast Off's ventilation systems are cycling more heavily and his fists are still clenched as he stares at Swivel intensely. And holds that stare as he finishes, "...And now if someone she knows- someone she used to care about at all.... even so much as TALKS to her, it gives her such bad headaches she ends up short-circuiting from "headaches"." His piercing gaze almost cuts.... and then, swiftly, he looks away.

Rolling his shoulders, he attempts to find that calm aloof demeanor he had before. He tries to lift the bottle for annother drink- and suddenly finds he's lost his appetite, bringing it down to rest on his lap instead. Then he sighs, glancing at Swivel looking crushed over there. ".... I... am not angry at you. I am ...unhappy with the system that brought this into being. With the Autobots and their corrupt ways- and the pain they bring to anyone they touch. To the minds- and the ability to choose- that they destroy."

Quiver. Fidget. Swivel remains on the verge of crying for a few moments even after Blast Off explains that he's not mad at her. It sure sounded like it to her. She brings up a hand to cover her mouth for a moment, and then slowly lowers it. "Yer not mad a'me?" Swivel peeps. She slowly forces her hands into her lap to keep her from muffling her already difficult to understand speech. "Ya mentioned, uh.... Blurr. 'E's 'vovled' in 'is too?" Somehow Swivel isn't surprised. But then she wonders. "Is 'e.... also... been wiped? C-Cos sometimes.... 'e... Blurr... is sumun else. 'E is scared... confused... not the aft th'keeps stalkin' me an' tellin' me I'm bad fer doin' my job w'out prejudices..."

One thing that Swivel might eventually learn- or maybe she won't- is that Blast Off has a terrible "bedside manner". Despite his insistance on teaching Swivel etiquette, the shuttleformer himself could probably use a little social training. He doesn't realize how cold he comes off as sometimes... though the fact remains that's he's not exactly a "warm" individual either. Still, he DOES try to be civilized and he's not out to be intentionally cruel.

"No. My... apologies. It is simply... a vexing subject." He looks down at his bottle, then out towards the view that stretches before them. The rusty, dingy view. His optics narrow a little at Blurr's name. "... Yes, actually. I've seen his "handlers" show up to drag him off when he didn't do what they wanted the way he wanted it. To wipe his mind again, apparently. I've seen his changes in attitude, too. Sometimes he is just... confused. Then he is... well, my enemy again." His optics narrow even more. "And he took Shiftlock away...."

Suddenly, in the skies just above where Swivel and Blast Off are sitting, a smaller interceptor-type spacecraft seems to just -appear- out of nowhere. As Blast Off's luck would have it, only one spacer can pull off something like FTL flight. That being Quantum.

Swinging her legs, Swivel puts on smile. It's that ponderous smile of a child letting their dreams run away with them. Of a story teller approaching the moment of redemption in a bittersweet tale. Or just, a smile. Depends on who is looking, really. "So..." Swivel begins slowly, unsquishing herself a little, but beyond that, doesn't try to move in on the shuttleformer's personal space. "...f'it wears offer Blurr.... so mebbe 'n time... same wi'Shiftlock. Mebbe n'all's lost. Some dun like, oh wotter call it..... false 'ope? But I dunna b'lieve in false 'ope. 'Til yanno one way'r'ther fer sure.... well tha's wot 'ope is. It can't be false, coz it's all 'bout not knowin' 'enway." Swivel's hands balls into little fists, but despite this, there is no tension in her knuckles. She lets them rest on her thighs and stares down, missing the approach of something above. "'En mebbe.... Blurr kin be saved too. BUt dun tell 'im I s'that coz' 'e'll prolly kill me. Th'other 'im."

Blast Off and Swivel may be suddenly surprised when a number of outlandish costumes and stage props roll down from the roof slanting towards them and land rather uncomfortably in their laps. The peculiar objects will be followed by the sound of loud crashing and wailing. Then, a sudden pause before a giant drum set along with a number of other items which probably cannot be identified by the likes of Swivel and Blast Off come tumbling down the roof along with a multicolored shark who is wearing a metal pink toupe on his snout.

He lands unceremoniously in Blast Off laps, moaning miserably as he flails like a fish out of water. "The show must go on, the show must go on.." he babbles incessantly, his tail unwittingly slapping the Combaticon in the face.

Blast Off looks over at Swivel, his optics darkening a little. "....Hope is a cruel thing. You can wait a long time... hope a long time.... it still may mean /nothing/ in the end. Hope never did /me/ any favors." The shuttle has a flashback to his millenia-long wait in the limbo of Garrus-1. The wait he never thought would end. He kept hoping someone would come. Kept hoping for change, for someone to remember he was there.... hoping for a life again. When it finally came, everything had changed. It had been so long he hardly knew anything about the new world he awoke to. Hope didn't help him in the long run, though perhaps it did keep him a bit more... sane than he'd be otherwise. His relationship with \*hope\* is an uneasy, uncertain one.

"I... I won't tell him." He tries to give a little amused sound but that is stifled the second he realizes Quantum is overhead. The Combaticon's weapon is out instantly and he growls softly, "Swivel, get out of here. That mech may kill you simply for being \*near me\*." However, he can't fire at Quantum just yet because suddnely THERE IS A SHARK in his lap!!!

"Get OFF of me!!!" He yelps, trying to shove Sky-Byte away.

-Combat- You hit Sky-Byte with your melee attack!

Quantum transforms and lands on another roof nearby, glaring at Blast Off. "Who's that, huh, -another- fembot flame of yours?" he scoffs. Was she a friend? Would she make a good sacrifice? "Or is she just an 'acquaintance', like Swiftblade, or really -anyone- else in your life according to you?"

Suddenly, all manner of strange items and...people are rolling and flailing. The slag? "You know him?" He stares at the shark...person.

"'Ope dun do favours, it's jus' there, waitin' patiently, for 'en we'll let it in... 'Ope never 'bandons us, we 'bandon it." Swivel says whistfully, almost dreamily, as though she were repeating something she heard and thought was very deep and profound. Swivel pauses, leeting out the girlish sigh of the young and inexperienced, exuding that witless innocence that one knows will melt away someday, but it always seems a pity when it does. She had opened her mouth to say more, but then Blast Off is shouting. By the time his words process, there's these noises. Lots of them. and bright things. And, well, frankly, a lot of bizarre stimulation that seemed to clash against the present mood.

The worst part is when Blast Off smacks a squirming thing... Swivel raises up her arms in alarm and squeals. Not much dignity there, but it isn't as far of a fall if she HAD any to begin with. She might have had something to say to Quantum, but, well........ she's a bit distracted. "DUN EAT ME!"

"AGH!!" The shark named Skybyte howls, flapping his fins and tail wildly. "Oooowww!!!!!" Blast Off has now wedged the shark between the railing of the patio and the poor multicolored shark is now stuck. "You fool!! Now look what you've done!" His fins somehow curl into a shape akin to a toilet paper roll. Then he gets a better look at Blast Off and his optics widen, as his tiny red pupils contract and he shoves his snout into the Combaticon's face. "Wait.. I think I KNOW YOU!"

The shark startles at Swivel's yelp. "What do you mean!!! I have a protoform, you know!! I'm.. insulted!" And he tries to transform, but he's stuck so that doesn't work out to well for him. "Oomphh."

Then he perks as he hears what Quantum says. "Ooh!! A love triangle, I see!! PERFECT. You all can be part of my impromptu theatrical FLASH MOB." He flaps his fins up and down.

Blast Off manages to shove Sky-Byte off him and scrambles up to raise his weapon at Quantum. "What the slag do you care? Apparently anyone I happen to meet on the street and \*talk\* to is a close personal friend of mine deserving to die. I'm sure the fact that we weren't /shooting/ at each other is confirmation that she's my \*conjunx endura\* or some such nonsense!" When Swivel starts squealing, Blast Off glances towards her. "Calm down... he won't eat you."

Then Sky-Byte recognizes him. "No you don't!", he denies everything. "WE'VE NEVER MET." Though he is half-tempted to tell Quantum that why, yes, in fact he HAS met Sky-Byte, go up and hug the shark and proclaim his undying love so Quantum targets Sky-Byte instead. But... no, even as annoying as Sky-Byte is, he doesn't deserve Quantum's level of crazy. But SPEAKING of crazy- "LOVE TRIANGLE? What? Stop spouting nonsense- I am NOT partaking of any... any MOBS. Mobs are UNCOUTH."

Once Swivel realises that Skybyte isn't a threat, in fact, not even as big as she though he was, she frowns and stammers a bit. She then knees down to where he is wedges and puts out her hands, but does not tuch the bizarre individual. "Oh... oh sorry! Thought y'was sumtin'.... else..." Something bigger. Scarier. Slimer. Toothier. Yes, even toothier than a shark. She looks up as Blast Off yells at Quantum. Whatever is going on between them, Swivel has no idea. Seeing as one day BLast Off could be shooting out someone's optic, and then hugging them the next, she never knows what is going on. Instead she speaks quietly to Sky Byte. "Woo'ya like som 'elp? Outter there, I mean. I dunno 'enthin' 'bout imps rompin' to the theatre..... an I dun mu'like mobs... I get trampled easy... but I kin 'elp ya outter th'railin'." Yeah. Swivel is pretty much ignoring Quantum. Because, well...... he's over there. And Skybyte is right here.

"Oh, I never said any of them -deserved- to die, the only mech who deserves death is -you-." Quantum shoots back. "I don't care how well you know who or what. I'm going to tear your life apart, bit by b--" He stops, staring at Sky Byte as the strange mech gets stuck in the railing? How...?

"NOOO YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" The shark flails, then his tiny red pupils swivel around for a few kliks at the mechs and fems around him before resting on Quantum, then on Swivel. "Not yet at least! Of course I know them, they're my UNDERSTUDIES. You can't do anything to either of them just yet, their ah, INTERNSHIPS haven't yet been fulfilled!" He scowls at Blast Off, but then his expression eases. "Oh, VERY GOOD, your acting is much better than yesterday!"

He wiggles a little. "Yes yes, hurry up and FREE ME, I don't exactly like being STUCK," Sky-byte says to Swivel, "And of course you will help me, this FLASH MOB only involves dancing and singing, uncouth, PFT! How could you insult art like that you.. ragamuffin! You have much to learn, you.. calloused intern." He motions at a odd looking device that looks kind of like a jukebox with a screen, it's upside down and a little cracked from its little tumble down the roof. "Fetch that for me, please!"

Blast Off listens to Quantum's rant, but at the mention of "tearing his life apart" the Combaticon almost fires again- only to be interrupted by Sky-Byte once more. "I BEG YOUR PARDON. RAGAMUFFIN?!" Ohhhh- Blast Off is halfway tempted to shoot Sky-Byte instead, but he stifles the impulse. BARELY. "Also, I am NOT singing or DANCING. I am going to KILL that mech." And he points his weapon up at Quantum again. "Now get out of my way."

Fetch or un-stick? Swivel has a look of confusion as she just stares at the wriggling wannabe thespian, who just gave her conflicting orders. She looks to where he is pointing and then looks back at Sky-Byte, her hands hovering close to him, but uncertain of how to proceed. Finally she decides to try and help get him out, since that was her intention from the start. Nothing a little elbow grease won't fix, right? Or better yet, REAL grease. Swivel bends her elbow to a particular degree that exposes a small crevice by which one could slip something under her fore-armour. She sticks her finger in there and there is a small 'pop' noise. She then drags a small tube out and squeezes it between her fingers until an oily liquid comes out. She rubs this between her hands and then onto Sky-Byte. "One mo'," she says, produces a rag from subspace to get the lubricant off of her hands, takes a hold of what she can grab on Sky-byte, and gives him a firm YANK!

"..." Quantum doesn't quite know what to make of Sky Byte. He's not sure if he's even -seen- anyone that weird before in his life. And he's seen a lot of people from all around the galaxy. Who knew the weirdest one would be here, on Cybertron.

But then Blast Off announces that he's going to kill him. "Well isn't that funny, I'm not even trying to kill -you- any more!" he scoffs. "Pff," The spacer shakes his head at Swivel's attempts. "-That's- not going to do any good. Gonna need more blunt force than that." And then he just shoots at the railing. And Sky Byte. And Swivel.

-Combat- Quantum hits Sky-Byte with a ranged attack!

Funny, because Swivel's greasing ALMOST seems to have worked, the grease has loosened the shark. In fact, he is about to fly out from in between the rails when Quantum SHOOTS him. "AUGGH!" He howls, but the blast does the trick, launching the thespian forward and onto Swivel. He manages to transform in the process so somehow, he ends up SITTING on top of the femme rather inappropriately and awkwardly. His full profotorm looks a very strange looking mech wearing a purple wizard hat.

"Ungh," he mutters, hastily standing up and brushing himself off in an embarrassed fashion. "You fool!" He spits at Quantum, "You slagged my TAIL!" He lifts up his foot and wiggles it at the mech (which is the part of him that is his tail).

Then he shoves Blast Off, scowling. "You will do no such thing!!" He scowls, wagging a finger at the Combaticon, "you must ALL participate in my theatrical excursion FIRST. Then you can do whatever you like." He walks over to the broken looking jukebox and rights it, turning it on. It flickers to life, and screen shows a flashy little figure demonstrating some choreography. "Hm..." the shark says, then slaps the jukebox. Loud, catchy music starts playing, and the shark starts bobbing up and down to the beat. He looks at the others, like, HELLO, START DANCING.

Blast Off gets shoved by Sky-Byte, and his weapon whips around immediately to point at the other mech. OOOO YOU ARE ASKING FOR IT BUDDY. Then with another \*huufffff\* he lowers his weapon. No, he's really got to stop shooting people anytime he gets annoyed. ...Probably. Besides, his attention's on Quantum. "Sorry, Sky-Byte, the only song and dance I intend to do right now is a Swan Song- \*Quantum's swan song." He lifts his weapon up once more at the mech who fired at Sky-Byte and Swivel. This madness has to stop. Now. "Oh, but you keep trying to kill everyone I talk to. I think that warrents a bit of a... hostile reponse, no?" And he fires at Quantum.

However, what he doesn't see is that Quantum's shot weakened the structure of the building they're standing on. There's a crack forming, and it's slowly getting larger.....

-Combat- You hit Quantum with your ranged attack!

It would be incorrect to say that Swivel is unaccustomed to being shot at. She's been shot at plenty of times. Often they are warnings, threats, or otherwise posturing and intimidation. Other times it's mugging. And other times it's just because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This would be one of those times. Nonetheless, she is outright shocked when a shot is actually fired. She had hoped all that would happen was a lot of posturing between mechs. and before she realises she wasn't the one who was shot, but the mech she was trying to help, she is flat on her back, straddled by Sky-Byte. She just stares at the mech, her optics flickering, and she looks otherwise stunned. NOt embarrassed, indignant, offended, or aroused... just.... stunned. And she remains thus as the mech gets up, shakes his leg, yells at people, and then turns on music. All this just is beginning to seem something surreal to the femme... as if somewhere during her conversation with Blast Off she had slipped into some sort of anti-reality. She almost wonders if she were to step off the the railins... if she might fly.

Swivel, however, has at least enough common sense to not test this. After lifting her head to get a better view of the mech for a moment, she just lets her head fall with a thunk, staring up at.... well the overhang. Good grief.

Good grief indeed. Between SOMEONE'S terrible danding, and Swivel head-thunking, structural integrity loss, and the overall weight of everyone there, there is a loud creak. A load groan. A shift beneath everyone's feet and..... COLLAPSE! Swivel frantically tries to grab for something, anything! All she manages to grab is one of Sky-byte's legs as she slides down the once-horizontal-now-almost-vertical patio, her tires rolling to faciliate movement rather than creating the fristion that MAY have saved her from slipping two legs between the bars of the railing and hitting one thick bar full strattle with a loud CLANK followed by an OOOOOOMF and a whimper.

Quantum watches from the other building as the balcony they'd been standing on starts to collapse. "Whoops, looks like you'd better save your friends, Blast Off!" He taunts, once he recovers from the Combaticon's blast. He aims his weapon at the sagging patio and fires, hoping to send them all tumbling before taking off into the sky once again.

Sky-Byte is having a fine time dancing to the music, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsUXAEzaC3Q), when Quantum shoots the balcony patio thing and sends all of them crashing towards the ground. "NOO! The proposss~~!!" The shark howls. The half broken jukebox's volume switch busts and the music blares even louder, perhaps disconcerting anyone too close to it.

Then they're FALLING, and Swivel is grabbing his leg. Grumbling, he shakes her off, so that he can transform into his floating shark mode and swoop under Swivel, catching her in his mouth. The jukebox follows Swivel, and somehow, the shark manages to catch that with his tail. However, the rest of the stage props are falling on him, so he rushes about, trying to catch and balance it all. "Huhhh.. huhhhhnn.." he groans. He actually pulls it off, amazingly, while STILL carrying Swivel in his mouth.

Blast Off gets caught a bit unawares for once, mainly because he's being distracted by sharks with toupees and dance tracks and space mechs of murderous intent high above. "Who said they were my friends?!" Sky-Byte's not... that shark is \*annoying\*, I tell you! Swivel- he doesn't know well enough yet, and even if she /is/ he isn't going to tell Quantum that. The shots cause the building to buckle and begin to collapse, and the shuttleformer isn't quite able to get out of the way and fly off before a piece of scaffolding swings down and knocks him flat. "Gaaaah!" He tumbles down with it into the collapsing building, swallowed up by crumbling debris. If he's getting out of there- it isn't going to be soon.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" When Swivel's hand is shaken loose she ends up grasping wildly at air as the bar that was partially holding her up bends and she feels herself in danger of getting stuck in the very railing she had just freed Sky-byte from and plummetting to the street below. Just as she is trying to push the railing away from herself mid-fall, she sees a mouth coming towards her. "DUN EAT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" she squeals as she is caught by Sky-byte. However, she gives very little resistence other than squirming a little, but she is more floppy than anything, like a ragdoll in his mouth as he catches his effects. The louder music doesn't help either.