"Scramble all Skull Squadron!"
The order screamed through flying fortress, sending all the pilots into a panic. Planes launched from the several hangars, each squad commanded by one of Scorch's lead pilots. Hubbub's group took off toward the north straight into a strafing run by two F-15s, one black and one blue, and was immediately shot out of the sky. Siren's squad fared no better, being blasted upon launch by a silver, red and blue jet matching the other two attackers.
Scorch watched the assault from the command center, witnessing his best pilots and their fighters destroyed one by one. Initially, he suspected the Ring Raiders as each of the jets was using incredible powers, like sonic booms and teleportation, but upon closer inspection, he found none of the jets had pilots and were either remote controlled or flying themselves. His second suspicion was confirmed when one more flier arrived, not a jet this time, but a giant flying robot, silver and black and wielding a massive cannon on his right arm.
"Attention humans!" the robot boomed, the cannon aimed at Scorch's command center. "I am Megatron, and I claim this base and all its weapons in the name of the Decepticons!" More robots showed up, surrounding the station and firing on every plane as they took to the air.
As Scorch's fliers all fell to the attacking forces, he realized the only course of action he could take. He left the command center and ran his jet, Scorch's Torch. Instead of flying out its assigned hangar, he powered up the time portal systems. There was no saving the Skull Squadron fortress in this time, but if he could ambush his attackers before reaching it, he had a chance to save his evil empire.
Megatron soared through the air, leading the Decepticons towards the flying fortress Soundwave had found on the radar. Megatron had never seen such an impressive structure created by the humans and instantly knew he had to steal it for his own purposes. Leaving his underwater headquarters, the trek to the fortress was short as it hovered above the very ocean the Decepticons hid under.
As they passed through a cloud, a barrage of missiles flew past Megatron's right and left. The incendiary ordinance slammed into Thundercracker, sending him crashing into Skywarp on his flank. Starscream just barely dodged the attack, railing against the indignity.
"Silence, you feel!" Megatron yelled at his lieutenant as he scanned the skies for his attacker. He suspected the Autobot's only aerial support, Skyfire, but when the flame-covered black jet split through clouds, pattering Megatron with fiery ammunition. Megatron halted, covering his face with his hands. Somehow, the heat of the gunfire hurt Megatron where no human weapons had ever affected him. It was a minor irritation, nothing capable of taking the Decepticon leader down, but still a shock.
Starscream screeched past Megatron, readying a dogfight, but Megatron held out his hand to stop him. Starscream transformed and pleaded with Megatron to engage for almost striking him down and taking out two of his Seekers, who were already limping back to their base.
"No, this human is mine," Megatron growled. The black jet circled around for another attack, missiles and machine guns firing at full blast. Megatron flew up and away from the volley, avoiding the missiles, but still peppered with the gunfire as the jet followed him. Megatron spun to his side, getting behind the jet and prepared to fire a fusion blast, but in a flash a red light, the jet disappeared. A fiery explosion struck Megatron in the back, sending him flailing through the air. He twirled around again to see the jet had snuck behind him. Megatron dropped below the jet as it strafed by and disappeared before he could get a shot off. Again, Megatron was tossed through the air from a shot in his back and saw the jet disappear in a red flash. Megatron's systems reported the massive damage to his back – even his armor wouldn't be able to survive many more incendiary strikes like that.
Anticipating another strike from behind, Megatron twisted around and fired off a shot of his fusion cannon. The red flash came again, the black jet emerging from the light just as the fusion cannon blast reached the location. The energy of Megatron's cannon reacted with the portal violently, ripping the jet in half.
Megatron caught the front half of the jet as it plummeted from the closed portal. He ripped the cockpit open and yanked out the half-masked man. "Take this back to base," he commanded Soundwave and Starscream, handing off the remainder of the jet. "Salvage whatever technology you can from it."
The pilot struggled in Megatron's grip, somehow strong enough to pry a little out of the metal hand. Megatron briefly considered studying this superhuman, before dropping him to the sea and following it up with another fusion cannon blast, obliterating the pilot into atoms.
Click here for the respect post for Megatron and Scorch.
In Scorch's last fight, he won by using this time traveling powers to ambush his opponent. While that still provided a surprise for Megatron on the way to the location of the fight, Megatron's armor has shown to be impervious to most human weapons. Besides catching the Decepticons off-guard, he didn't have much of a chance to win. Even giving Scorch the benefit of his incendiary rounds being able to hurt Transformers (like the sabor rounds from the movie continuity) doesn't work, since Megatron's shown to be more impervious to damage than the ordinary Decepticon (like Thundercracker found out). Over time, he might have been able to take Megatron down, but I don't think there's any way Megatron wouldn't have figured out how to take down Scorch before then.
Click here to see who Megatron will face off against in the next tier. Click here to see the rest of the Bad Guy Beatdown battles.
Labels: Bad Guy Beatdown, Megatron, ring raiders, scorch, Transformers, winner
Bad Guy Beatdown Round 18 - Scorch vs. Megatron