Board Thread:Roleplay/@comment-34100315-20181003125507/@comment-26892768-20181005172841

"So...southwest. Got it!" Nimona turns into an eagle - and after a moment of consideration, turns into a Staraptor instead. Then she takes flight, confident that she'll blend in...

...as much as a bright pink Staraptor can blend in, anyway.

Grimlock and Starscream aren't alone, however.

Watching them - or, to be more precise, just Grimlock - is Kaito, who has returned to his Man of the Beginning form. He's still somewhat damaged from his battle with the Skeleton King trio, but has had a chance to recover since.

This is an...interesting opportunity. Kaito knows who Grimlock is, and his particularly violent tendencies, which, combined with his power, could make for a useful ally...with some discipline. And here he is, with a source of even greater power having chosen him as its wielder, and he doesn't want it.

So now Kaito has a dilemma on his hands.

He could take advantage of this and use Grimlock's reluctance to convince him to join his side - something along the lines of "if you're with me, the Matrix won't consider you an Autobot" - and have him foresake the power...or he could give Grimlock a pep talk and convince him to take the mantle the Matrix clearly wants to give him, thus giving Grimlock even more power, but, considering that the Matrix contains the consciousness of several deceased Autobot leaders, it might make him more reluctant to join his side.

He has no issue with taking Grimlock as it is now, but at the same time, Grimlock's been chosen to wield the Matrix of Leadership, and Kaito is reluctant to take that away from him.

Decisions, decisions...

And Eliza and Vexus are still going at it.

Vexus, flying in the air with her wings, manages to blast Eliza in the face, sending the blood covering the left side of her face flying.

With a thought, Eliza recalls the blood, while at the same time discreetly dispersing the blood covering her legs and making it pool directly beneath Vexus. Vexus doesn't notice, much to Eliza's pleasure, and she stomps the ground, causing the blood beneath Vexus to form into a giant statue of blood that uppercuts her. Then, Eliza recalls the blood, and uses it to form wings, a crown, and talons as she takes flight, getting right next to Vexus before slamming her into the ground with a swing of her mic stand.

Landing, Eliza then uses all of her blood, leaving only the skeletal form of Sekhmet as a sarcophagus of blood forms around Vexus and two massive arms of blood lift it up - shortly before they twist, causing Vexus to scream in pain before she drops to the ground, with the blood dispersing and reforming into Eliza's body.

"Had enough?" Eliza smirks.

"Oh, I'm not done yet..." Vexus snarls, shakily getting up - now with noticeable dents in her form and sparks coming out of certain injuries - and taking flight once more. Her hair disconnects into six tendrils that dive towards Eliza, only for Eliza to yawn and casually twirl around her mic stand in front of her at high speeds with a hand of blood coming from her waist, twisting the tendrils together. Then Eliza tries to go the other way to untwist them...and fails. Now slightly alarmed, she tries again, but to no avail. She looks at Vexus and sees her opponent smirking.

"Got you."

And then Vexus untwists her tendrils herself, dispersing the blood hand and causing the mic stand to spin out of control, flying into the air - where Vexus grabs it.

"Now, let's see how you like it!" Vexus flies at Eliza, and, swinging far faster then Eliza ever has, swings the mic stand into Eliza's waist, causing a sickening crunch - much to Eliza's alarm, because that means Vexus is strong enough to crack Sekhment.

And Vexus doesn't stop there. She swings again, aiming for the right arm, and gets another crack. She aims for the right side of Eliza's head, and ends up dislocating Sekhmet's jaw. After a swing at Eliza's left calf - with another crack following on impact - Vexus discards the mic stand and just straight up blasts Eliza in the face, before picking her up, flying high up, and throwing her to the ground hard...then she has her hair surround her like a bullet casing, and she dive-bombs into Eliza herself before stumbling away, sparking.

Eliza shakily gets up, forced to use her blood to heal Sekhmet's injuries - and, as a result, now looks like a patchwork frankenstein of human and skeleton.

Vexus manages to smirk, despite the fact that her last stunt made her injuries worse. "You're good, for a meatbag - your tricks remind me of XJ9...if she was made of weaker, more breakable materials, that is. Good, but not enough to best me. I win."

Eliza snarls, and is about to retort...

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

...but then they're interrupted by a rampaging Morphos bursting in on the scene, growling and looking wildly around. Looks like he still has the powers he copied, too.

"Gah! What is that thing!?" Vexus and Eliza shout, clearly disgusted, before realizing that they just spoke in unison and turning to glare at each other.

Morphos leaps over, growling, lifting an arm to strike them, but after a moment, lowers it, although clearly not happy. "Oh, you don't know how much I'd enjoy striking you down...but I have a score to settle, and I can't settle it when the other side isn't here!"

Then he turns around, grumbling to himself as he starts to walk away.

Vexus and Eliza stare after the monster, wondering what just happened...but Eliza starts looking at Morphos more considerably. Well, it'd be disgusting, but...he does have blood...

Eliza calls on her remaining blood as she slides behind Morphos -

"Wait, what are you-"

- and stabs him right in the back with one of Sekhmet's exposed hands, causing Morphos to cry out in pain. His limbs are promptly restrained as Eliza begins draining the monster dry, the veins along Sekhmet's arm glowing blue as she takes in his blood. Morphos tries to struggle, but finds himself growing weaker, and eventually, he falls unconscious, allowing Eliza to drink freely.

Vexus stares, horrified as Eliza lets the dried husk of Morphos fall to the ground and turns around with a smirk on her restored face.

"Well, as much as I hate to admit it...that was quite a rush! Really, this blood was too exquisite to be in that disgusting thing - I'm doing the world a favor by taking it within myself." Eliza remarks, before walking over to Vexus. "Now, you may be able to strike hard, I'll give you that...but I can regenerate as long as there's anything with blood nearby. So, in other words, I win."

Vexus snarls. "You indignant little-"

Eliza closes Vexus' mouth shut, grinning. "Ah, ah, ah...just accept it. Accept that I'm better than you in every way."

Judging by how furious Vexus is, she's not going to do that anytime soon.

Neither of them are paying attention to the dried husk of Morphos - or how it's starting to return to life...