When Maximus jumps on the bridge, it drops. Yet it travels forward just enough that it falls on top of Bridgade, crushing the weakened sim. With it destroyed, the bridge soon dissipates as well. Maximus’s bet paid off, even if it wasn’t in the way he expected.
Though as Maximus lands that finishing blow, “Rotor” and Spirit have now caught up to them. “Rotor” just runs past him and goes to pick up Overclock. He remains silent to Axis’s proclamation.
Stop him!
Nebula shouted mentally.
Quickly Maximus sprang backwards, flipping once in the air and landing between him and the minicon. Without hesitation he charges up all his remaining power and fires it at the false vehicon.
Oddball cocks his head to one side.
“So, uh… who do we shoot?” he asks, looking up at Axis.
Spirit smashes into Maximus to trip him, slide past him, grab Overclock with one hand and then spin round again, “Alright! Everyone stop shooting for five seconds!”
Axis watched as Maximus went to attack the fake Rotor.
“My guess is on the vehicon!”
She said.
The blast would have at least a little time to reach it’s intended target, but when Spirit crashed into him Maximus was knocked sideways, and the continuous lightning strike veered off to the side, traveling across and causing significant damage to the wall and ceiling. Bits of rock and metal fell down as debris, as well as a short section of pipe that was inside the ceiling.
“Excuse me for trying to defend myself!”
Maximus shouted angrily. Though at no point did he lose his focus on Simulus.
Meanwhile, while everyone was distracted, Axis ran up behind Simulus. She grabbed the bit of pipe on her way, raised it over her head, and swung it down on to the vehicon’s head with as much force as she could give.
As Simulus did not expect Spirit to interrupt Maximus in such a way, he already went into actions of defense. He quickly put up a hardlight shield in front of himself before transforming into the sim terminal. Mass-shifting down into the smaller size, hoping that in the instance of his shield failing that the lightning would pass overhead.
Once the lightning blast veered off course and caused portions of the building to collapse, he alters his shield to take an egg shape. Any debris landing near him would bounce off of it. He starts to transform back into robot mode when Axis comes running. Though her attack just bounces off the hardlight egg.
Axis stumbles backwards, while meanwhile Maximus rushed forward and started wailing on the shield, with a series of rapid punches and kicks.
The shield rumbles and flashes from each strike, but holds as “Rotor” concentrates on keeping it in existence. RAM and Busdrive doing the best they can on the inside to help keep it up. But then he inverts the shield, causing it to envelope and capture Maximus in a hardlight ball. While this was probably a terrible time, he couldn’t help himself.
“Now only a couple more and my wish will be granted.” He almost laughs.
Spirit slung Overclock into her backpack and sighed, “Oi, stranger no screwing with the dragon. Now let’s just talk all this out alright?” She walked over and said cheerily, “Trade that fellow for the RAM one,” she said cheekily. Her face was of course still the same blank expression of blue, but she would have been grinning her face off at the situation.
“What the hell?”
Maximus exclaimed as he was trapped within the hardlight sphere.
While he was distracted, Axis quietly snuck up behind him, and swung down with the pipe again over his head. Using every bit of strength she had.
If not for the current disguise, he would have looked perplexed.
“You are in no position to…”
He wasn’t that distracted, or at least had not forgotten that Axis and Oddball were there. Especially Axis, given how close she is and the attempted attack before. He turns to sidestep the attack and, while he avoids being struck in the head, didn’t response soon enough to avoid it entirely. Instead getting the pipe smacking into his left shoulder, putting a dent into it.
“Rotor” attempts to grab the pipe before Axis can fully pull it back to herself. As he does so, he drops the disguise as it was worthless at this point. Stimulator’s face looking mightily disappointed in Axis’s attempts, but he knew better than to actually hurt her.
“…negotiate.”
Spirit broke out laughing, “I’m joking, I’m joking, I’ll give him back…” she chuckled, “Man, you’re serious…”
“Yes!”
Axis cried victoriously.
“No.”
She quickly followed, disappointed that her attack didn’t mean much.
“Lay off her!”
Maximus shouted furiously. Nebula quickly gave him a shot of power, and his body surged with electrical power.
Careful. I don’t have much to give, so use this sparingly. I only have a couple more doses left and then I’m spent.
That’s all I’ll need!
With this new found energy, Maximus began wailing on the shield bubble. Doing everything in his power to bring it down without expelling any of his charge.
Due to the actions of the others, Stimulator does not further address Spirit. Or at least, not yet.
The shield glows and starts cracking, so Stimulus causes the sphere to shrink. Rather than removing hardlight, it gets added to the layers of the sphere, reinforcing its strength. The ball continues to grow thicker as it becomes smaller and harder to strike. Though Maximus is making some headway.
If Stimulator was able to grab the pipe, he at least tries to pull it away from her.
“Oh for Unicron’s sake boy! If I was going to do something to her, I would have by now!” Stimulator shouted back.
She sighed, “Yes, let’s just give this fighting thing up alright? I’m sure we’ve both done some terrible things,” she gave a look to Maximus, “Like biting off my hand and all,” she looked to Similus, “and whatever you’ve done was a bit more clever and I don’t know about,” she said with a chuckle, "so let’s all just take a energon goodie and relax a wee bit, “alright?”
Axis was stronger than he looked, and wrenched the pipe away from him.
“Then what the hell do you want! If you’re not going to hurt us then let him go already!”
Axis pleaded. Meanwhile Maximus continued to ferociously wail on the shrinking sphere. The added pressure only motivated him to redouble his efforts.
Axis took note of what Spirit had said. She wanted to say something herself, but wouldn’t divert her attention until she got a response from Simulus.
The sphere stops shrinking and is starting to crack more, but not out quite yet.
“For the destruction of Cybertron, why would I let him out? He’d just try blasting me again…But on second thought,” he braces himself, ready to jump the moment Maximus tries attacking and drops the shield with a snap. “Let’s see if he’ll miss.”
“The hell are you talking about?”
Axis said, just before the shield popped. Moments after Maximus came rushing forward shouting furiously, fists aimed for Simulus.
As he expected Maximus to do, Stimulator waits until a moment or two before a possible strike could be in range to land. Once in that range, he jumps into a small roll off to the side to try and avoid Maximus’s onslaught. And if Maximus cannot stop himself in time, or there isn’t interference from someone else like Oddball or Spirit, Axis might just take the hit instead.
Everything was happening so fast, Oddball couldn’t decide who or what to shoot at first. But when Maximus is sent hurtling toward Axis, he finally makes a decision. He jumps at the Maximal to try and push her out of the way. Maximus might hit him instead, but he could take it.