Rust Sea Rumble

++ Edge of the Rust Sea <NEU> ++

A vast swirling desert of oxidized metal in rust reds, oranges and bronzes,
that stretches as far as the optic can sea. Violent winds and rust storms
sweep across the area, and without proper protection, a Cybertronian can
quickly become blind and lost, or worse, eaten away where they stand by the
erosive oxides blasting across their frames. There are rumors of facilities
located somewhere deep into the "sea", but dangerous mecha-fauna and tribes
of roaming mechcannibals known as 'Slicers' make the prospect of travel
even more daunting for those who feel confident enough to brave the storms.

Contents:
Wheeljack

Exits:
N [Sonic Canyons]                      E [Stanix]
W [Kaon]

One down. Another to go.

Always in pairs; that is how the feast is done. How the feast is \*won\*. Before that can happen however... from his cavern deep beneath the Sea of Rust, a shadowy figure stirs once against. His intital scouting to find Chimera proved to be less than successful. The hunt may not have been fruitful which means it time to make sure it continues. The dark figure of Maggot, a primordial stirred from his slumber, knows only his hunger and what must be done to sate it. His minions are summoned and then set forth. Under the surface of Cybertron they will move, scouring, seeking the one known as Chimera.

Before he sets off himself, to follow his scouts, Maggot checks on the beast he has already secured. Grimlock is motionless. Tasty as he may be, the feast cannot begin yet. Soon, as soon as he finds the one know as Chimera, who is...

Chimera usually kept to the Manganese Mountains these days, privvy to the landscape and the available prey. But at times she found herself roaming and the Sea of Rust offered good hunting with the Slicers if you knew where to find them. Two of them became her prey today, what's left of their devoured corpses sitting a ways off from the femme.

It's a dangerous area, especially with the environment, but luckily she had happened upon a long abandoned shuttle left to slowly erode away. It's bulk offers a fine shield against the stinging winds, so this is where the beastly femme rests off her latest meal.

That would explain why the hunt has been unsuccessful so far.

The search has spread far and wide across Cybertron as the last place suspect to find Chimera would be here. Not when there are lush mountains and other domains of more appealing design. The easy meal of the Sea of Rust is something easily overlooked, or has been, until now. Finding Chimera so close, after Grimlock's capture, is a sign of fate, of how destined this feast is to be.

The ground under Chimera will rumble, and unsettling vibration that builds. Twin figures move under the surface, a dune of shifting sand marking the wake of their approach. Jets of rusty remains are jetted skyward, snorts of frustration that demonstrate that there is no subtly in this approach. It is a challenge.

From either direction these figures charge until finally, when near, they burst from beneath the sands in a twinned lunged attack at the restful Chimera! Long worm-like beings of thick plating, lacking optics eyes yet dominated by the sharp-toothed open jaws that they dive at her with!

Being hunted is something far from new for Chimera, who even had to endure it at times from larger Primordials back in the day. So when she feels the ground begin to quake, she's quick to rouse from her half slumber and look up to spot the incoming waves beneath the rust. More Slicers..? Hmm, not likely.. Something doesn't feel right..

And she's right. It /isn't/ right. Not when she sees the strange beasts that emerge from the rust sand and lunge at her hungrily. It's in this moment that she smirks, glad to finally see some action. In an instant the femme is on her feet and already has an arrow nocked on her bow, firing it almost point blank at the first opponent to skewer thick hide. Once she lets it fly, Chimera quickly pivots the opposite direction and uses the momentum to score the creature with the sharp claws of her heeled, leonine foot in a slicing kick.

One is speared, howling out in frustration or pain as that arrow finds purchase between some plating. The lunge it had made stops, the thing still half burried int he ground as it writhes, belching out rancid air that speaks of death and misery. It squirms, thrashes and finally rolls on the ground, using the thick sands of the Sea to snap the arrow lodged in it off. The end may still be in it but the worm-beast now charges forward again, doubling its efforts to get at Chimera. It bites at her legs as she moves.

There is a very solid \*THOOOOOOM!\* as foot finds the other worm, striking it out of the air in a flurry of scratches and claw marks. This creature makes no sound sa to the pain it just took, battered aside with only the sound of impact to speak for it. The lower half is still underground, which causes the impact to whip it around, and as it snaps back it seeks to curl about Chmera's upper torso. "The master must have you! You will go to him, feed him," it hisses, the words gutteral and hollow.

Chimera grimaces at their quick recovery. Tough little bastards.. And it doesn't help that they're back on her so quickly, the femme snarling and struggling as one latches onto her and the other snaps at her legs. She wants to zap them, but her reserves have yet to build up after just waking up, and bathing them in flames is out of the question as well due to not being in her altmode. She's effectively stuck, but still tries to fight as the creature squeezes her and pins her arms.

"Pitspawn scum! I'll rip you and your master to shreds for even thinking of attacking a servant of Mortilus!" Chimera roars furiously as tries to stab her heel into the face of the biting worm before flexing under the one around her, using all her strength to fight its hold on her. Unfortunately these things are determined, so it may very well end up in their favor.

Again there is a pained cry as the one at Chimera's feet takes more blows. Without eyes, the thing has nothing but hide to strike at but it is enough. The recoil from those strikes is enough to keep it away, if not outright sulking away from such attacks. Does it whimper? There is indeed a quiver as it momentarily retreats.

"Grubber," the beast about Chimera hisses, the words sharp and angry. "You know what the master will... GUH!" Distracted by 'Grubber's' retreating and outmatched By Chimera's impressive strength, the worm about her is shrugged off. With the hold broken it struggles to get at her again. "You know what failure means for us," it howls as it wiggles to find some purchase on Chimera again. Clumisly it lunges, seeking to clamp very pointy teeth down on her shoulder.

"It means you'll be my next meal-- Argh!" Chimera hisses back, but the worm is back on her and biting into her shoulder, teeth piercing thick hide and releasing a gush of energon in the creature's mouth. Oh, now she is pissed.. With a look of explosive rage burning in her optics, the femme clamps both hands on the worm's jaws, wrapping around teeth that begin to sink into her fingers as she puts all her strength into forcing its mouth back open.

"YOU.. WILL NOT.. HAVE ME!!" She bellows when staring into its open maw and uses one last bit of effort to wrench its jaw further than it can go and dislocate it with a sickening snap. Shoving it off of her after that, the femme is finally able to transform, shifting into her equally massive altmode and emitting a ground shaking roar at the worm.

Grubber has yet to garner much of her attention, but his teammate.. Hopefully he can withstand a bit of fire.. Or rather, a /lot/ of fire. Optics burning bright, the femme's intakes inhale like the bellows just before jaws part and a torrential gout of flame spews forth and overtakes him like a blast furnace.

What had been a \*crunch\* into Chimera's shoulder is deafened by the break of the worm's aw. It falls, writhes, and curls in itself in an effort to cope with the injury it has been delt. Still, it does not cry out, makes no whimper like the other and bears its pain in silence. It snakes around, coiling and preparing to make another attack of some kind... but it burns. Thick plating is no match for the intensity of the heat that sears it, fuses it and shall leave it as only a molten lump of what it once was.

Grubber has been left alone but the fiery death of its other causes it to cry out. "Grabber, noooo! No, no no no no no no." Rather than attack, Grubber coils backwards and away from the wounded primordial that is Chimera. It slinks into that shading spot they had found her in. "What does this mean... what does this... what will he do now. The master, he will... he comes for you, he will coome for me!"

Once Grabber is nothing but a fused statue left to decorate the rusty wasteland, Chimera snaps jaws shut to cut the stream of fire off as she turns to the cowering Grubber. Stalking up to him, the beast pins the worm with a paw and puts some weight on it, sinking claws into its torso a little.

"Grubber, is it..?" She rumbles out, parting jaws allowing the smoke from deadened fire to billow out in a haunting display. "If you don't want to become a melted hunk of slag like your friend there, I suggest you talk. Who are you all and who in the pit is this master you keep sniveling about?"

Again there is a cry. Claw sinking into hide plating is not a pleasant experience, not for Grubber. The worm writhes but is not ablt to go very far, not with Chimera pinning it down. "I am a survivor of the master... a creature, ancient and powerful, like you... it took me and Grabber, others, in an elder time... made us fight, made us... do so much that I wish to forget..." It churns under that claw, seeking to get away but cannot. "The master devours the winner which is better than.... than this," it whimpers. "The losers, not killed, are taken from their bodies and made... made like..." Like Grubber.

"The master slept for so long, keeps us with him but has waken and is hungry. The master \*must\* feed again, now says he can upon his own kind... like you," it twitches, knowing that pain will come for saying that. "We were to bring you and the master together... he comes for you, to feed."

Chimera does indeed flex claws a tad further into Grubber for that, her optics narrowing at this new information. "..So I'm not the only one who has awakened again in this strange time. Hnn.." Horned head lifts to look out over the expanse of dunes before turning back and huffing. "Well then, if this master wishes to eat me, then he should come himself instead of sending pathetic worms. However.."

Surprisingly she releases him and takes a step back. "I hate the thought of someone wanting to eat me, so if he doesn't want to come and meet me face to face then you're going to lead me to him and I will kill him. Understood?"

"No," Grubber says defiantly as it pushes back, trying to get further away. Leaking energon and shaking, the worm trembles in fear. "We were sent to weaken you, delay you, the master..."

"Is here."

Behind Chimera stands a lone figure. Tall, and what power might be revealed about it is lost under the tattered ribbons of black robe that flow from the jawline down. Atop this is a silver-chrome helmet, making the only visible portion of this fellow creature. It smells of elder times, of a past now forgotten, of power and of deaths. The stench of him makes him as he was once known; a carrion feeder. "Come at me. Show me your power. Let me know what my next meal will be."

Chimera's optics widen a hair at that and she swivels around quick to come face to face with the master himself. His scent is a familiar one that builds an even greater fury within the femme, making her hiss nastily as mane bristles and stance squares. "So you're their master.. A /bottomfeeder/. Your kind is only good for picking at the scraps from my kin, yet now you think yourself good enough prey upon your betters? A grave mistake..."

Roaring in challenge, the massive beast tenses mechanical musculature and springs forward towards the master. Sickle-like claws outstretch, attempting to latch onto him as enormous jaws try snapping down on whatever serves as a torso under the robes.

"It is true, that is all we were destined to be. Yet the progess of time has asserted what I have always known to be true. Death comes for all things, Chimera. Even the mightiest of beasts shall know its time. Yet there is alwaus I, Maggot, there to feed on the remains. I grow stronger as more of your kind prove what \*you\* are good for... nourishment for the greatest of our kind!"

Chimera's rush is precisely what Maggot wished for and the visual of it is a thing of beauty to this beast. Yet, an idle target he does not make. As Chimera comes at him he stands firm, ready. Tendrils whip out from beneath that ratty robe, tentacles that are laced with a blue mist and charge all their own. Stasis-inducing shocks is what those tendrils promise and they are what are there to catch Chimera. They whip around and about her, striking again and again not with a strength to induce surrender, but a toxic that will ensure it!

If Chimera could backpedal she would, but it's too late. Maggot makes his move and shocks her when she sees a managerie of tentacls shoot out from under the robe and encircle her, catching her up in their binding grasp. "Release me!" She rages, trying to struggle as hard as she can against her captor. But she can't seem to find the strength anymore as it steadily leaves her with each shocking, draining whip against her frame.

"Y.. You will pay for this! I will.. send you.. to Mortilus.." She fights with all her might to stay concious, but the world is growing dimmer and her body is feeling heavier to her until finally she becomes limp, optics dimming to nothing as she enters statis.

In the end, all creatures will submit to him. With quiet arrogance Maggot lets Chimera have her dwindling fury. Let her work out the last of her strength as it makes it all the easier for him to subdue her. "I am afraid not," he tells her prone form. "Either you will feed my growth or you will serve me," he hisses.

With that he looks over to Grubber and motions for it to come forth. "We return," is all he commands as he turns to leave, letting his worm drag his intended next meal after him.