Chapter 12 ~ "And so the hunt begins…"
"All right…" Prime turned off the holo-vid, "We all know what to do, so let's get moving before dark..." After shuffling out, Prime decided to take up the quickest route to the Polyhex downtown area; upon entering the very spot where they found RaiRyu they started searching through the alleyways.
VolFogg and the Gun Robot twins were quick blurs of movement, when they were seen at all. They moved through the alleys quickly, making note of anything and everything. Nothing escaped their notice. One of the twins found the trail of spilled fluids RaiRyu had been leaving, and began following it back to its origin.
Scavenger had been hopping the buildings and was following the ninja bots quickly. Prime and Megatron were lurking around the alleyways, looking through the old and rotten buildings and asking any homeless if they saw anything.
GunDober darted through the shadows as if he were one himself, stepping so lightly he barely made a sound. Only someone who knew precisely what to look for would have spotted him as he followed the trail, Iron Collar ready to launch. GunGlue was following up above, darting along the rooftops, while VolFogg alternated between the high and low roads.
Scavenger as closing on what remains there were of any evidence, the variety of liquids that RaiRyu left behind led a trail towards an old market shop that used to sell moon flowers. Oh how disgusting; he narrowed his yellow optics and hopped upon the roof of the building.
VolFogg was a quick flicker of purple as he headed for an opening, his frame shimmering before vanishing from sight. GunGlue and GunDober took up holding positions in certain places while their team leader went in to see if there was anything left inside, or anyone. At his signal they would be all over anyone inside within moments.
Scavenger turned on his comnlink to Vol, "Be careful, one of the main reasons he's on the bounty list is because he has the ability to blow up anything with the snap of his fingers..." The old mech himself was climbing down the steps of the building. He had reached the basement, coming upon a few un-opened boxes... fairly secured unopened boxes...
"My Mirror Coating shields me against explosions," was the response as Volfogg slipped through the old building, moving through the shadows like a shadow himself. He was moving under full Holographic Camouflage, invisible, sharp optics taking in everything around him. Hearing something, he paused, turning up the gain on his audial receivers.
His optics landed on Scavenger, starring down at the cargo boxes with wide optics, "Damnit..." he whispered, "Whatever you do, be careful where you step... He's laced the place with nano-mines..." There was a loud shuffling sound, and both looked up towards the ceiling, footsteps were banging as they walked across the floor...
"I had noticed." VolFogg was stepping very carefully, optics set to detect the mines. Stepping toward the wall, he swarmed up the wall supports like a robotic squirrel, directing GunDober and GunGlue to move in, but carefully. VolFogg himself took to the ceiling, moving silently from one support beam to another.
Scavenger had to hop from one corner to the other to follow the ninja bot, he crawled up after him and landed himself on the very floor where Darius was standing. The outlaw himself was lurking around a number of things, mostly the packages full or peculiar and questionable cargo. Scavenger scowled, "Damn..." he whispered.
VolFogg moved until he was directly over the outlaw. GunDober was coming from another direction, and GunGlue was easing in from a third. All three were closing in, and VolFogg was preparing to pounce.
Darius gave a low chuckle, "That would be a very unfortunate choice my young friends..."
"So says you," VolFogg snapped coldly. The twins circled around to perch beside him, preparing to combine.
Darius grinned, turning around in lightning speed and blast the twins towards the wall. Scavenger growled and launched himself on Darius, who turned around to the old mech and snapped his fingers. That led to Scavenger's left shoulder imploding and leaving his arm mangled and sparking with electricity, "Fuck..." the old mech staggered backwards and tried to bring his fist together.
VolFogg and the twins combined in a second, Big VolFogg activating his Mirror Coating and turning the impact into the DaiKaiten DaiMadan. A moment later he was back in and in full charge, a blur of movement. His optics were blazing with fury.
Darius laughed, "A combiner? How fun this shall be..." he snapped his fingers again, aiming for the ninja bots waist. Scavenger got up again and tried to charge again when Darius snapped his fingers and blew up his leg, the old mech went down for the count.
Big VolFogg was out of the way in a second. He weighed his options. If he could pull it off properly... he could disable the outlaw without doing serious damage or killing the prey. His CPU raced as he calculated angles and trajectories. The conditions were favorable.
"DaiKaiten Madan!"
Darius had snapped his fingers at least five times, suddenly hearing sirens that probably responding to the explosions. "Blast it..." he grumbled, having blown half the room, the outlaw looked back at the ninja bot and saw he was about to charge. He grinned and snapped his fingers one last time, in an instant the spot where he once stood was up in smoke and Darius was gone.
Big VolFogg's DaiKaiten Madan had hit its mark, as the smears of mech fluid proved. The razored mirror particles had gotten into Darius before the mech had vanished. The ninja combiner landed in the middle of the space Darius had occupied, hissing angrily.
Scavenger watched as a dismembered hand rolled across the floor, spilling mech fluid and oil all over the metal. Scavenger was trying to sit up, having heard the sirens, "We need... ugh," his shoulder was smoking and bleeding oil, "...to get out of here... cops don't take to be trusting much in Polyhex..." The old mech coughed, oil spilling and dripping over his lips.
"That should slow him down some." Big VolFogg walked over to Scavenger, crouching and indicating that the old mech should climb onto his back. "I can fly, and you can't. So climb aboard and hold on."
Scavenger smirked, "First time piggy-back ride..." Scavenger had weakly climbed onto his back, and held on tightly as they flew off, able to avoid the sightings of the Polyhex police force. "You gotta take me to Red... gah... bot knows more than I do..."
Big VolFogg engaged his Holographic Camouflage, keeping them from being seen as he leaped out into the air, igniting his thrusters and taking off. He made a beeline for Red Alert, contacting the others and telling them to get their skidplates to the clinic. He'd fill them in there.
Prime shook his head, "I told you, you were too old for this Scavenger..." the old mech himself glared at his former student as Red Alert was replacing a tread on his shoulder.
Megatron stood with his arms crossed, "Not surprised that Darius got away..." he grumbled, "He was one of the top bombers in the war..."
"He didn't get away intact," Big VolFogg pointed out. "I got him with the DaiKaiten Madan. No one walks away from that intact." He was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, watching the repairs.
Red Alert had finished replacing a few wirings, then closed the hatch of Scavenger's knee and allowed him to get up. "You should be good, but you're gonna need to stay off that knee for a few hours..." the medic received an irritated growl from the old bot.
Prime smirked, "Which means we have to head back to the ship, Primus knows that Darius has already left the planet..."
Big VolFogg made a thoughtful sound. "When next we encounter him, he will not be so quick to underestimate my capabilities. I am more than I appear."
Megatron looked up at the ninja bot, "And so are we..." he saw Prime help Scavenger from the table and supported him towards the door. When reaching the street, Megatron went in the opposite direction of Prime and Scavenger, "I'll be back later..." he waved them off, "have some business to attend to..." He transformed and headed for the uptown Polyhex area...
Big VolFogg followed Prime and Scavenger. "At least Scavenger has no reservations about flying... I've had a few passengers who screamed the whole time."