A red tinted staff with a green glass orb twirled in the air as Max used his automatic grapple to try and take it before the opposing party did. He was a second late as the doll faced, unusually large Minicon snapped her digits and the staff burst into green energy, diving back into her chest cavity.
A feminine mechanical laugh emitted, "Do you really think you can just take what's mine?"
"Would it have mattered? Knowing that, you could retrieve it at any time. I just thought I could at least hold it," Max huffed.
The jester-like femme snorted, "Predictable."
The Guardian scowled, "Circus Baby, didn't I tell you that you are forbidden from disturbing the children? They've suffered enough from Springtrap's presence, they don't need to feel any more pain despite they may not know what you did to your own crew they inhabit."
"Those 'bodies' owe me because they left me behind. To them, I was just a forgettable, little drone. But I fixed that when I sank our ship for all of us to die. Didn't work as planned but I still have my chance. I don't care who inhabits them as long as they pay up. Those brats are just casualties and I'm the main event!"
"You don't get it, do you? It's not them! They died! They moved on! Your delusions of revenge are only going to get other people hurt like Michael and Elizabeth Afton who died because you couldn't stand being powerless among an 'inferior' species so you decided to prove you were superior by taking them out. I understand rage against William because of what he did but his children had nothing to do with your disfigurement."
Baby tapped the sides of her arms impatiently as the enhanced lips she was altered to have curled into a deadly frown. Her permanent makeup also twisted on her features. "I'm tired of being everyone's puppet. I am the ringmaster here and I will destroy anybody, human or Transformer or even paranormal freak, that gets in my way. It's about time I've had my due."
He narrowed his eyes, "Then you have to go through me."
A low animalistic growl rumbled from Baby's throat as she wickedly smiled, her cheek pieces that mimicked a clown blush raised slightly in a creepy manner. Suddenly, she bolted towards him, whipping out her materialized staff again and using the bottom that held a blade to counter Max's sword. She clashed with him, sparks emitting from the hit and she dragged her weapon down a bit to be face to face with Max who bore his teeth in a canine-like fashion of aggression.
"You...pitiful fool!" Baby cackled, "I'm the thing children fear that keeps them up at night. I'm your worst nightmare and I'll make sure you know that!"
Max broke from their stalemate and as she leaned to swipe at him, he somersaulted back and revealed his automatic twin pistols. Firing at her, he heard her demonically squeal as several of his shots hit her chest and abdomen as she swerved and scuttled to the side to try and dodge the remaining bullets. Then the guns began to click with no rounds to fire.
Scowling, the Guardian of Zeliria quickly put them away when Baby ran at him again with a litter of shot holes in her armor, her mouth split open with the intent to bite. He managed to catch her jaws but they snapped madly at him even against his best efforts. One hand was busy pushing her away from his face and the other was grasping her left wrist to prevent her from swinging at him to break his concentration.
For a Minicon, Circus Baby was absolutely hard as hell to deal with. Her strength, thought processing, as well as her reflexes and cleverness made her almost impossible to go against. It was worse than being among any other monster because she was only a bit smaller than Arcee so his methods of distraction and conquering other foes didn't work against her. His villains were often ten times larger than he was, very rarely not, so he could out maneuver them which played to his advantage. Baby, however, was not that far from his size therefore he had little to no tricks up his sleeves.
Max finally dislodged her and pulled her close as he did a roll backwards, launching her above and past him into a wall. Knowing his chances of physically winning against her were rather slim, he bolted when he heard her surprised shout as she hit the barrier full force. Baby threw herself back against the wall to drag herself back up with an angry snarl, eventually pushing off from the wall after two more strikes against it in a fury. By the time she was up, he was hiding in the darkness.
"What's the matter, Maxie? You don't want to play with your Baby?"
Her voice turned deadly masculine for a brief second, making the Guardian narrow his eyes in the shadows where he retreated to. He was no Batman but he knew how to navigate in the dark, how shield himself from enemy eyes. Transformers were, of course, a bit hard to hide from even in darkness but with several objects and manipulation of angles, it can be pulled off. The problem was more so predicting which direction they would appear in and what angle they would see, ultimately decided whether he's seen or not.
Max glanced barely out from his hiding place where no light was shining in his area. He twitched slightly when Circus Baby passed by him, glancing frantically to find him. She turned to her left where he was but just as she even thought about looking there, he was hidden again and she only saw an empty space where he was seconds ago. He heard her grunt and walk off. Hesitant and listening at the movement structure of his opponent, he crawled silently out crouching like a tiger.
Getting to higher ground where his voice would indeed echo, he scoffed, "Well, well, the hunter becomes the hunted. Your victims were never able to find you because you used the advantage of the dark to sneak up and attack them. But the tables have turned. I can see you but can you see me? I'm not a guard; I'm not a victim you can scare into position. Your own tactic is now your own enemy."
"Where are you, coward?!" Baby hissed.
"Sucks, doesn't it...when you can't find me? Imagine what those poor souls felt like when they looking for you. A very cruel world, right?"
He could hear her venomous growls and her form lumbered with a vicious pose. She was too far on guard to get near her but Max had other options.
"I'll rip you to pieces and I'll use your corpse as my new suit! And then I'll go visit your dear sisters and watch as they realize their big brother is nothing but a monster in disguise!"
That made him frown and bare his teeth angrily. It was one thing to target him, but his sisters were off limits. If he did fall, Kia would take her down even if she posed as him. Zeliria's defenses would also be alerted he wasn't himself so there wasn't much Baby could do if she did kill him. But that was if she did. She had yet to catch him though.
"So, you are a monster? Figures, you have the natural charm of one."
She roared horrifyingly. The pigtail-like horns she bore on her helm clattered a little when she turned her head violently and their joints could only move so far to the side before they hit their limit. She sniffed hastily, turning around when she began noticing the scent of Max was only within a certain perimeter. Clicking her claws together, the Minicon moved forward but found the scent once again fading after several steps. She stopped entirely under a faded spotlight where the scent was the strongest and slowly, she turned her attention upward with snarl.
Her optics quickly scanned the visible areas in the rafters but found nothing until she started focusing down in portions of areas, studying them in full detail. Then to the side of her view, she saw a ripple of reflected light distorted like cat's eyes when meeting indirect light and the realization hit her. Immediately, her arm produced a cannon and she fired rapidly at it.
The eyes in question were indeed Max's. He fled, jumping from rafter to rafter from the blasts and crawling down the side of the wall hoping her visual didn't follow him. When he found himself behind her, she was still blowing the roof to pieces. Knowing his options were now slim, he engaged.
"Max!"
Grabbing her arm, he twisted it back and out of its socket which earned him a loud bellow from the Minicon. She pulled away and examined her damaged arm as it hung lifelessly by her side. Glaring daggers with her very bright, acidic green optics, she tried to approach him but he managed to sweep her leg out from under her prompting her to tumble. But to his dismay, she recovered fast and grabbed his own leg, swinging him over her fallen form down onto the ground with terrible force. He almost got a concussion. Still holding him, she raised herself while he struggled to break her grip. Circus Baby then tossed him into the pile of crates he had hidden behind earlier.
Max wheezed a little from the sudden impact, feeling as if he broke a rib or two which he probably did considering she could throw like a demon and hit like one too. Before he had a chance to get up, a working servo was on his throat and he felt her grip tightening by the second. He was lifted and greeted with scary clown features. Why did Afton have to give her clown make up? She made the Joker look like a decent person.
"Hahahahahaha, what was that you said? The hunter becomes the hunted? Once a hunter, always a hunter, Max, and we both are but only one of us can be the hunter here. I am never the prey so that makes you it and in this fairy tale, the prey doesn't turn the tables," she laughed maliciously. Her fangs were almost pressed against his lower eye as her glossa slathered his cheek with a purr.
The Guardian grimaced, "That's slimy. Is that your actual saliva or is that someone you ate's fluid?"
Circus Baby's voice return to normal as her mouth retreated back to its normal form, lips red and eyes sickly sweet. "Oh silly, I haven't eaten anybody since 1988. Now, you have irked me for the last time. As cute as you are, I can't have you ruining my plans anymore."
She began to squeeze but Max only cried out from the pain. Baby raised a brow at the noise. Usually when humans were choked, they struggled to breathe and she had enclosed the entire wind pipe in her grasp. She pressed again and he made a pained sound while bones in his neck creaked slightly.
In confusion, she asked, "Are you a techno-organic? Don't you need oxygen?"
Releasing him enough for him to talk, he coughed back, "Suffocation requires some sort of circulation of gas by the lungs. I don't breathe because technically I've already died. Suffocation is essentially a natural death and I can't die by natural means like gas, bodily diseases, animal-based venom, and so on. Unnatural items like foreign objects can kill me though. You'll have better luck stabbing me or tearing me apart than choking me."
Circus Baby must have gotten the wrong idea or a dark idea about his unfortunate ability because her grasp was almost dead. Seeing his opportunity, Max latched onto her wrist and twisted it, breaking the cabling connecting her servo to her arm. This made the servo too weak to hold and it dropped him much to Baby's surprise and horror.
Rolling from his short fall, he stood up with no break in his movements and drew his sword again. This time, Baby had no defense with one arm down and one missing the crucial component of her limb. He smirked at her fear and ran up to her, bringing the weapon down against her side. She hissed at the hit and swung her lifeless arm around randomly but he dodged it before lodging the sword into her thigh. It went through the metal and he sank it into the ground so she couldn't move.
Baby began to panic but roared upset at this embarrassment. This didn't faze the Guardian as he struck her faceplates with his fist when she bellowed at him. He hit her again and again as she was still stuck in a kneeling position, her helm reeling back each time. Energon started to burst from breaking seams, gushing from a few hard blows to the nosepiece and the metal of the lips covering the teeth. Her optics remained shut until he finally stopped and she panted lowly in her dark voice.
Her green optics tired as she peered up at his offensive form. She spit out some Energon with strings of it dripping from her lips. She made one last angry expression at him, "You...are...no fun..."
Circus Baby collapsed as he withdrew his sword from her leg, twirling it to pose behind his arm upward. The unconscious red Transformer's broken servo twitched and sparked, prompting the man to smirk.
"Yeah, I know. Good night; sweet dreams."
Activating his communication device, he laughed, "Kia, have Zeliria prepare transport for Circus Baby. I'm bringing her in."
He heard the gurgling dementor voice that he knew was the confirmation of approval and cut the line. Glaring back down at Circus Baby, he knew she was only in power down mode. She could wake up at any given point since his hits only rattled her internal network. Transformers had a very fast recovery time so for a Minicon, he had probably about five minutes. Maybe six because she was abnormally large.
"Well, damn."
AN: Circus Baby is a very fun character to write for I found. From being happy-go-lucky to an axe murderer in five seconds really gives off her tone of personality.