fic post: Pity Party (G1) part 3 of 4
A/N: Yes, I rewrote one of the fanchar100 fics, "Sunrise" so I could use it for this fic. Also, the ideas on subspace tagging is all mine. Feel free to reuse the concept if you like. I won't mind. Also, please review if you want to see more! I practically live for reviews!
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"Hmm." the crimson and blue freightliner daycab-semi slowed down, casting his scanners to the right as he approached the semi dealership. "It would be nice to have a trailer like Prime's." he mused. And he had saved up enough money that if he wanted to get one, he would be able to. Highroad grinned and pulled in, transforming. "Hello, I'm interested in your trailers?" he pointed to the one in the front lot. An average 52 foot light grey trailer. He pretended to ignore the shocked look on the salesman's face, instead imagining the look on Prowl's face when he arrived back at the Ark with a newly-painted Prime mimic trailer.
"Err, yeah. that one." the salesman rubbed the back of his neck, squinting up at the tall robot. "Its three hundred an fifty seven dollars." HighRoad nodded, mentally tallying the "charges" Prowl would level at him when he got back to the Ark. Misappropriation of Autobot funds, impersonating an officer...He shook the thoughts out of his head.
Besides, didn't actually HAVE to use the Autobot's fund which the government had set up for them. That would be the reason for Prowl's loud protests of "misappropriation of funds". The fund was basically to provide for any supplies or whatever the Autobots or their human allies (or visitors) might need. And besides, if he used his own money, Prowl had one less basis for complaint.
"Yes, that's the one." Highroad reached into his subspace and fumbled with the tiny wallet. "Here you go." he handed the salesman a wad of money. "Uh... okay. uh, let me just ring that up for you real quick." the man's face lit up and he jogged towards the office yelling "Hey Randy, Randy! You're not gonna believe who I just sold this old trailer to!"
Highroad chuckled. Plus it would make a spectacular decoy for the Autobots in battle or whatever.
Five minutes later, the salesman had helped him hook up his newly-acquired trailer and he pulled out of the sales lot with a quick honk of his airhorn. The salesman and the manager both waved their papers, grinning at the autographs they had gotten. (aside from his signature on the sales receipt). He turned onto the main highway and sped up, hoping Spike and Sparkplug would help him repaint it. They had discussed it, and the two had said they'd help him.
Sparkplug had actually chuckled at the idea of him having a trailer like Prime's. "Prowl's a little high-strung." the man had said. "But I'm sure he'll get used to the idea." he just patted the bot's leg.
When he reached the road that led to the Ark's entrance he slowed, wondering if Red Alert was watching him over the base's security cameras. He decided not to go in the front entrance. If he ran into Prowl, he'd probably have to listen to the second in command lecturing him about getting a trailer to look like Prime.
He turned and headed for Wheeljack's workshop. He hoped Spike and Sparklplug were there, to help him repaint his trailer. They were usually either there or in the repairbay. When he reached the workshop, it was empty, so he headed into the repirbay through the attatched door. Spike and Sparkplug waved as he pulled up. "Hey." he detatched his trailer and transformed. Ratchet looked up from where he was going through a box of parts.
Highroad glanced at the boxes strewn around, then asked. "I was wondering if you could help me put a subspace tag on my trailer when you get done." Ratchet tossed the part he was holding into the box and set the datapad on top of it. "I'm not busy, I was just going through some old parts." he walked over to the matte grey trailer and looked it over. "Hmmm. I may have some reactive paint that you can tint and use for it, so it'll integrate with your subspace field. Let me see if I have some spare S.O.R.C. tags." He went and shuffled through a set of drawers off to one side, then pulled out a small box. "Here it is." he pulled out a sheet of what looked almost like stickers, but if he had looked closerly, HighRoad would have seen they were actually printed circuits.
Ratchet walked over and laid them on the worktable, attaching a data cable to the small tear-away connection on one side. "Here." he held up the other end. "You need to access the circuits and create a linkup. then you'll be able to control the subspace tags and metally send it to or retrieve it from subspace." Highroad looked at the plug and cord. "Oh, so that's how it works." he mused. but he didn't know where the linkup would be on him.
Ratchet sighed and rolled his optics. "Younglings." he teased. "Don't know how to find stuff on their own chassis." he tapped a panel on the red and blue mech's forearm and a section of the armor slid back, revealing a binary access panel. He plugged it in. "You should see a window pop up in your HUD now. Just click confirm." he directed. HighRoad raised an optic ridge and mentally tried to move the imaginary mouse-pointer to click the confirm button. "huh." he half-laughed when it worked.
"It should only take a minute or two to go through." Ratchet said as data scrolled past on the little screen. Then a small window popped up that said "new hardware installed, subspace integration complete", and both windows closed. "So that's how that works!" HighRoad exclaimed.
Ratchet nodded as he disconnected the cable and handed it back to the red and white medic. Ratchet disconnected the cord and coiled it up, tossing it on the table. Then he carefully seperated the connector from the strip of circuits and handed them to HighRoad. "Here's those. Make sure you apply them at all the corners and edges of the vehicle BEFORE you apply the paint." The Prime-lookalike simply nodded.
"We'll help him get 'em on right." Wheeljack sounded from the door. Ratchet glanced at him. "Where were you? I could have used your help half an hour ago when I was up to my shoulder-servos in spare parts." he complained. "Sorry. I was helping Ironhide adjust his guns out at the shooting range." He looked down at the two humans.
Ratchet didn't look amused, but didn't say anything. He went to put the cable away, and Wheeljack said his hellos to Sparklplug and Spike. Ratchet came back with a container of paint. "Here you go." he set it on the table. He set the dye-set next to it. He didn't need to tell HighRoad to mix up the paint for at least thirty seconds. He imagined Wheeljack would know how to get the paint the right color. "come on." Wleejack picked up the paint and set the box of coloring on top of it. "Let's go get you fixed up." He headed for his workshop. Highroad and the two humans nodded.
Spike paused for a second before leaving, then turned at the door. "Hey Ratchet, what're you gonna do with those spare parts?"
"I don't know, why?" The white medic moved over another box. "Why?"
"Oh, I was just thinking, maybe I could look through them and do some tinkering later."
Ratchet shrugged. "Sure." He looked around for his datapad, let out a soft "aha", and picked it up. "They'll be here when you get back." he said, an unspoken "Believe me, they're not going anywhere." in there. He looked up after a second. "Oh, could you tell HighRoad to come back here after he gets his trailer painted? I need him to make a supply run for me."
"Sure, no problem!" Spike waved and walked out.
x
The Eastern sky was just starting to turn orangey with the first hints of the suns's morning light. A lone figure sat on the mountainside, watching the edge of the orange orb peek over the horizon, bathing the land before it in an almost magiacal glow. Off in the distance, the birds had begun to chirp, as though they had not a care in the world. But as far as that lone winged figure sitting on the mountainside, it was otherwise.
Jade had stropped by Wyldkat's quarters, but the carfemme wasn't there. Gobee had sleepily told Jade to "just go back to sleep. It's too early mumble mumble mumble." and the door slid shut. Thinking the car might have gone for an early-morning drive, Jade went out to look for her. But since there were no signs of her, she decided to have a seat on the nearby mountaintop and wait.
Jade had tried to ask Gobee if she'd made it home, and he mumbled something vague about her being there, so the jetfemme had to assumed that she had returned to base at some point in time. But anywat, out here away from the base, Jade had a perfect view of the surrounding area, as well as the main entrance to the Kintari mountainbase. So she could see Wyldkat returning, even if she tried to sneak past.
Plus, she had a nice view of the sunrise. Jade offlined her optics for a minute, just taking it all in. She loved the sunrise. Something about it was like the promise of a new day. Something about the end of darkness and the return to light. she smiled, starting to feel at peace. A rarity in a world so tumultuous as this one.
She put a hand absently over her cockpit window, not even realising the transmognifier was there until it made a soft pinging noise. Jade blinked. did it just ping at her? she grinned and concentrated, But she got nothing in return for her efforts. She huffed sotly. "Just wait, I'll figure you out soon enough." she mused.
She shook her head. She was talking to an inanimate object like it was person. How rediculous. She exvented and pulled her knees up to her chest, crossing her arms on top of them and resting her chin on her arms. As she watched the orange orb slowly rise, she remembered the datapad she'd found yesterday. She had stashed it in a subspace pocket before leaving, thank goodness. she started typing.
Datapad Journal Entry 28-05-01-03
"How many times have I watched the birds fly over our world, oblivious to the troubles we Earth-Walkers have? I'd Wished so long that I could fly above the earth and all it's worries. To be carefree and happy like they are. To feel the wind around me, and swim in an ocean of sky blue and clouds. It's so peacefull up there. Not like down here, with all the fighting and drama that goes on around us all the time." she shook her head at the thought. So much stress.
She half-smiled at the thought, glad that when she and her friends had come here she hadn't been turned into a car. She silently thanked the powers that be for granting her that longtime-wish, and finally allowing her to fly. She flicked her wings as an Eagle called in the distance. she wondered how it would be to actually be a bird instead of a jet. Too bad they hadn't arrived in a time or dimension where robots could turn into animals. She snickered at the thought and shook her head. "Yeah, right. Like Scythe isn't enough of a lizard-butt now." she laughed out loud at the sentiment, imagining the green iridescent american dragon as a tyrannasaurus rex. "Pfft. Tyrannical rex. Whoops! I typed that wrong!" she went back and started to erase it, realised what it said, giggled, and decided to leave it.
"This journal thing is kinda fun sometimes. Just the typos alone keep me amused. heh. Of course, sometimes living with giant robots is fun sometimes too. Razer and Dusk don't allways understand human terms of phrases. Tch. I could so get them to say something sideways. I gotta remind myself to make a bet with Mic later on that. Or Needle. Yeah. I don't think Mic has forgiven me yet. Not that this thing was my fault to be forgiven. But we'll get through it, I'm sure.
I hope."
The sun was now halfway up, and the muave and blue jet could feel it's warm embrace, as though promising a fresh start with the new day, the worries of the previous day forgotten, erased in the sun's reassuring glow. Green optics squinted against the light, but Jade couldn't make her eyes move away from the beautiful scene. "No wonder photographers take pictures of the sunrise." she thought. She sighed, turning her attention back to the datapad in her hands. She had been typing on it before the sunrise caught her attention so undividedly.
It's been a month. That's been how long since I saw my soulmate, Dennis. No, not since we've been here. We've only been here about three days (this would be number four. Argh!) Anyway, last time I saw him, Sure, it seems like it was just yesterday. But it feels like an eternity without him here beside me.
Yeah, we should both be here. Maybe it's better we're not. I'd be so worried about something happening to him, I wouldn't be able to concentrate on what I'm supposed to be doing. And if we were in battle, I'd probably get the both of us blasted to scrap metal. Though I'm pretty sure he would know exactly what to do about the fliers. I mean, they seem friendly and helpful enough, but there's this underlying... I don't know how to describe it. It's like there's something there and I can sense it, but it's not openly obvious. It's just... some of their actions, or should I say their reactions are off. They remind me a bit of cons in how they hate the Autobots, but they also hate the Decepticons.
Well, anyway, there's some kind of a... threatening? I don't know. I don't want to accuse them of anything. I'm not crazy, but there's something like if we turn away from them, I think they would do something bad. Like I said, they haven't shown any outward signs of meanness or whatever you'd call it, but I think... meh, nevermind. Anyway, if my fiance' were here, he'd know just what to do.
It's too bad he went on vacation with his parents. A part of me keeps hoping maybe he'll show up to my rescue, like some knight in shining armor. (no pun intended.) I'm not sure how much of this war and it's violence I can take without his reassurance. Is it too much to hope? After all he did have the cylindrical-glowing device in the trunk of his car. How can he not know about this universe? He's not that stupid, right?
(sigh)
It's wierd. I don't know if it's normal or not to feel this way. So empty without him. I mean, when we lived together, he worked eight hours a day, and so did I. Our work schedules only allowed us to have a few, maybe four, hours together each day. We only had the same day off about once or twice a month. And except for those four hours or so, the only time we really got to spend together and be really close was when we slept. Is that it?
Maybe that's it.
Maybe I just miss the feeling of his arms wrapped around me as I fell asleep. I really miss him. And the possibility that I may never see him again... I can't let myself think like that. I will see him again. I have to keep telling myself that. I just miss being close to him, I even when we were both home, and we may have been two rooms away from each other, at least I could walk a few meters to fall into his loving embrace.
Will I ever see him again?
No. I can't think like that!
I have to think. hope. He had the device in his CAR for Primus's sake! He has to know!
. . . I have to calm down.
It's just that I've spent the last year living with him. Even when he wasn't home, I had the security of knowing he would come home to me at the end of his work day. But now? what now?"
Jade sighed, folding her arms across her pulled-up knees, and rested her forehead on her arms. After a minute, she raised her head agin.
"It's wierd, you know. You get so used to them being there, that it seems like it's normal. No big thing. Like they're supposed to be there. Then when they're gone, it's like suddenly there's a part of you missing. Like a puzzle missing a peice right at it's center. Only, it's where no one can see it; But you know that empty space is there, just waiting to be filled. And only you can see it.
They say when two souls touch, they become inseperable. The two in a sense become a part of each other. Linked in a way that can't be explained. I allways hated being alone, anyway. Maybe that's why I miss him so much. Then again, I doubt that's why. When we first became friends, (heck, when we first met, ) I sensed something. I just didn't recognise it. They say you know when you first meet your 'true love'. The one you're going to marry. But you don't know it until later.
I guess it's true, huh?
I miss him so much. I wonder how long it'll be (or if I'll ever) find my way back home, back into his arms. Although, I feel like he were here sometimes, It's like I can almost hear his voice in the back of my processor, telling me that everything's gonna be okay."
she smiled weakly and looked up from her datapad long enough to watch a human vehicle make it's way across the desert, kicking up dust in it's hurried journey across the morning landscape. She barely noticed the coloration, though. The crimson and navy-blue semi seemed to be doing just fine off-road as it sped along the empty plain.
"Hmmph. Probably late for a delivery and looking for a shortcut." she shook her head at the semi as it navigated the flatland. "I feel sorry for the driver dumb enough to go offroading in a semi." she chuckled, the scene not even striking her as odd.
"No, on second thought, I take that back." she grinned, standing and shoving the datapad into a subspace jumped off her mountain spot into the air."yep, I'm mean. And I'm bored. Not like I'm gonna hurt him or anything." she thought out loud. And everyone else is still asleep."
"hopefully." she added.
She knew Scythe would NOT be happy if she single-handedly revealed their location. Though the the seeker's spontaneous (and somewhat mischevious) side prodded her to 'just give the human a scare.' She grinned."I wonder what the truck is carrying. Groceries? toilet paper?" she laughed out loud at the thought of the trailer tumbling sending long white strings all over the desert. Normally kids toilet papered trees on Haloween. What would Scythe think of giant alien robots toilet papering cactuses and pine trees in the middle of the summer? She stifled that giggle. It was just rediculous. Although a truckload of baby powder would be quite interesting too. she reminded herself that she wasn't going to do that, though.
If someone's shipping load was lost, it meant money lost. And somebody had to pay for all that. She almost pouted, but reminded herself that just because she was bigger did not give her the right to be mean. But it wouldn't hurt to give the driver a little startle, right?
"Besides, that'll help us in the long run, cause it'll keep the humans out of our area." she decided. "We wouldn't want them to see any of us milling around outside the mountainbase and call the Autobots on us, now would we?" she added, gaining altitude and flying towards the speeding vehicle.
The crimson and dark blue Freightliner semi sped across the dusty desert plain, music blaring loudly from the radio, and out the open window. The 40-something brunette man in the driver's seat hummed along sotly, not even realizing his fingers were drumming the steering wheel in time with the music.
Suddenly, a muave and blue blur appeared from nowhere and flashed in front of the semi, coming way to close to the front grill.
"What the!.."
If it was a bird, it had to be a darn crazy one, that was for sure, Sparkplug decided.
Jade did a midair flip, and turned around towards the vehicle, landing right in it's path two hundred yards away, grinning from audio-to-audio like a she-demon.
"Going somewhere?"
The driver opened the door and jumped, doing a roll as he hit the ground. Jade almost made a dissapointed sound. Instead, she just lifted an optic ridge at him. "okay. Gotta give him credit for trying to get away." she though amusedly.
Unfortunately, The semi didn't slow down, though. She thought it might slow gradually since it's driver wasn't there to have his foot on the accellerator. But she was wrong. Really wrong.
In fact, she swore she could hear the engine roar as it accelerated. She realised this AND her mistake right about the time the semi detatched itself from the trailer and transformed.
The red and blue Autobot landed in an impressive feet-first slide, kicking up twin dust trails in his wake. His skid halted right in front of the suprised femmeseeker, his rifle allready in his hand.
Jade nearly fainted. she could have kicked herself SO hard right now. Of course it just HAD to be HIM. It just made sense, somehow.
"Not you!"
"Oh yes, it's me." A snicker could be heard in the baritone voice.
Jade mentally smacked herself.
High Road grinned behind his vocaliser mask. He had only been on a supply run for the base. And since he looked somewhat like the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, he had repainted his trailer to suit. It wasn't like he ever used the thing anyway. Besides, it was a good decoy in case the Decepticons should try anything.
"Is it just me, or is Starscream getting a bit girly?" he chuckled to the human, who was standing a few yards away.
Insult AND the Autobot leader. Oh what a beautiful morning THIS was turning out to be, Jade thought sourly. She hoped he would just go away and leave her alone. Of course that wasn't going to happen, obviously, but it still didn't keep her from hoping.
Really really hard.
The tall red and blue Autobot crossed his arms smugly. "So, where's blundercracker and sky-twerp?" he chirped. Jade almost laughed. If he hadn't have just insulted her, that is. She made a mental note to remember those nicknames. And who the heck was he to compare her to Starscream, anyway? that was just downright insulting!
the seeker planted her hands on her hips and offendedly spat "Last I checked I was still female!"
"I know." (Another snicker, although this time, HighRoad couldn't catch himself in time to keep it from being audible. She really thought he was Optimus Prime! That in itself was funny!)
Jade's jaw dropped, her expression one of "Oh. No. You. Just. Did. Not!"
Her head bobbed in that snarky way someone does when they're really mad as she said "Oh, so you think it's funny huh, well I'm not Starscream and in case you haven't noticed you're alone out here!."
She glanced around quickly to be sure, and caught Sparkplug sniggering.
"What are YOU laughing at, CHUCKLES, you're next!"
the human's grin vanished.
when Jade started took a step towards him. HighRoad tightened his grip on his weapon, hoping not to have to use it, but Jade's comlink came on instead.
Syus's voice came through. He sounded polite, if not...amused?
Jade wondered why the unvierse hated her so much.
"Jade, what's going on out there?" he asked in an oh-so-innocent voice.
He had been watching the entire exchange over the base's external cameras!
The green transformer was standing in front of the mountainbase's main viewscreen. His voice took on an amused tone. "Do you require assistance?"
Jade and Highroad both caught his tone. HighRoad cocked his head to one side slightly in a sarcastic look. Like he was just daring her to fight him. the *Autobot leader* (snicker). Jade, on the other hand, knew if she ran, she might have a chance to get away, if she didn't go right back to the base. Otherwise the Autobot would just follow her back to the group's base.
On the other hand, if she tried to fight him, well, this was Optimus Prime. There was no way that would happen.
And Scythe was just baiting her, taking joy in the fact that she had done exactly what he'd told her to avoid; And was about to get the unholy SCRAP beat out of her by none other than the Autobot leader himself for it. If she asked him for help, though, he'd never let her hear the end of it. That was, if Prime didn't see Syus leaving the base and figure out where it was.
Either way, she was screwed.
"I'm fine." She lied through gritted teethplates.
"Okay." Syus sounded like he shrugged across the comline.
He also sounded smug.
"Just let me know if you change your mind."
Jade suddenly hated when he used that flippant 'I-don't-care' voice. The jet gave her comm a glare. She looked up, and realized the 'Autobot Leader' was still regaurding her with that slightly amused look.
"Oh, what? you think you've had a bad day? Just wait till later when the rest of my friends wake up!."
She could only hope.
"Really. There's more of us than just me! and then you're gonna be sorry." she nodded.
she prayed they weren't just standing by the computer watching and laughing as well.
The Autobot leader just stood there. He didn't really move much. In fact, it seemed like he was waiting for someone. Oh no. what if the rest of his friends were on their way to meet him here!? what if he had silently sent them a signal!?
and of course her friends were probably making bets on how long it would take for Prime to scrap her. Or they were busily making jokes about it.
And Windstriker was probably oogling-err, zooming in on Prime (ahem) to get a good (ahem) look at him... or... whatever. Jade shook her head. Soemtimes that femme was just too much of a fangirl.
"Look, why don't I just go that way, and you just go that way, or get on with whatever you're doing, allright?" she waved a hand dismissively. " I don't feel like wasting the energy, and I'm sure you don't want to spend any extra time in the repairbay being peiced back together."
"Are you sure about that? I'd hate to see You in peices." there was a hidden chuckle in his voice.
"huh?... I hope you get a flat tire!"
The jet glared even more, but it didn't seem to effect him. She just knew Scythe was watching her, too. She could FEEL his eyes staring at her across the camera feed. He probably thought it was funny, too. She wanted SO badly to turn towards the base camera and wave a finger at it.
Pity. Prime would know where it was, then.
"This isn't over Prime." she turned to walk away from him, but also away from the base at an angle.
"Uh-huh. sure." He replied.
Jade silently swore as she jumped into the air, heading the opposite direction of her base, in case he followed her, wishing she had stayed in recharge this morning instead of getting up. She wondered what her husband would have done had he been there instead of the Autobot leader...
She realised once there was some distance between them that she could have asked him just what the heck he was doing with Wyldkat that one day. She had seen the security feed. She mentally faceplamed. Again. Maybe that's why he didn't shoot her, curiosity perhaps? maybe Wyldkat had mentioned her. Oh great. And she just insulted him.
No actually," she thought angrily, "He insulted me first! I had every right to talk scrap to him!" she mentally nodded and circled around to head back to the base. She could see from her vantage point above the clouds that he had gone back into auto-mode and was driving away from the base. She exvented a sigh of relief. At least he hadn't actually known where the base was. That was good. Too bad she missed the opportunity to demand answers about him and Wyldkat.
She landed and glanced around before pinging the base computer to be let in. "are you sure you're alone?" Scythe's voice answered it over her comm. "Yes Scythe, I'm alone." she deadpanned. The heavy rock in front of the base entrance slid aside and she walked in.
"I was only concerned for your safety is all. There is no need to get upset." Scythe actually sounded like he meant it now. At least he wasn't all amused or anything. she hoped the others were awake. She was allready getting tired of this day and needed somebody to talk to.
She ignored his look as she walked past. She didn't want to hear what he said about going out alone, hurassing human vehicles. She just gave him a glance as he finished talking and went to see if Windstriker was up yet.
She found the purple flier in their shared quarters sitting at the table talking to Dusk when she walked in. They looked over. "Hi." Jade saw Dusk. "Oh, Dusk. I wanted to thank you for the datapad." she held up the small device. Dusk nodded. "I thought you might need one. I left one for each of the others as well." Windstriker held up hers, which was purple.
Jade grinned and pointed. "How did you get a purple one?" she asked teasingly. Windstriker just shrugged. Jade waved it off, though. She went over to her berth and flopped onto it. She buried her face in the pillow and waved a hand. "Don't mind me." she mumbled through the pillow.
"Bad morning?" Windstriker asked. "You have no idea." came the mumbled reply. Windstriker just shook her head and decided to let it go. She would ask later if she wanted to know.
Meanwhile, somewhere else...
Soundwave checked and rechecked the output circuit. Everything seemed to be in order. He hoped. He signaled Megatron.
The beeping prompted the silver mech to glance over from where he was laying on his recharge berth. What now? he just wanted to be left alone. Megatron was beginning to feel like nothing he did went right. Not that he would admit it. He supposed he should answer the commsignal, though.
Primus forbid Starscream should find out anything was wrong. He'de take the first chance he could to take over. "Yes?" he pressed the button to answer. He idly wondered if Starscream would be any better at this leader thing than him. Then again, he shook the trhought out of his head. Though it was mildly amusing to think of how it would feel to constantly stand by and go "Se,, I told you it wouldn't work!" He rolled his optics and reminded himself to go see Hook as soon as the Constructicon got back to base. Something was very very wrong.
"Megatron, the gun has been fully repaired." Soundwave's voice droned. "I checked and even double checked the circuits and the Constructicons checked the gun over as well. We believe it is ready to use, so your eminece can now destroy the Autobots at your leisure..." Megatron noted he'd have to drag Soundwave to see Hook as well. He gritted his denta and cut off the now-talkative communications officer. "Very well, I will be there shortly." and cut off the commlink before Soundwave could start talking again.
At the Ark, Prime was going over the report Jazz had submitted after sabotaging the Decepticons' latest supergun. He tapped a few keys on Teletraan-1's console to get the SkySpy to go over the area. He wanted to make sure the raygun was in so many peices it couldn't be fixed. Then if there were no Decepticons around, he'd send a few Autobots to pick up the peices and dispose of them.
His optics widened slightly when he saw that the gun was not only NOT destroyed, but Soundwave and the Constructicons were walking around it, checking over it to make sure it was working. Inside the top of the apparatus, behind the main gun part, a bluish purple crystal glowed softly. Prime hit his comm to call the troups together. They had to do something fast.
- A couple miles from the Ark, Razer was watching from the mountainbase computer screen as the Autobots left their base. He directed their sattellite's camera to scan across the landscape and spotted the blue glow. He zoomed in as Scythe walked in. "what is going on?" the green dragon-mech asked as he watched the Decepticons put their finishing touches on the weapon.
"The Decepticons have created a weapon to destroy the Autobots." Razer looked closer at the screen. "As much as I would like to have the Autobots destroyed the same as the Decepticons, it is likely the Decepticons would attempt to use their newest weapon on us, should they succeed in destroying the Autobots." He gave the suprised mech a glance. Scythe looked at the screen.
"What do you want me to do?"
Megatron landed, and waited for soundwave to show him that the gun was working. He knew this was a waste of time. He just sighed as Soundwave chattered on and on about the function of the device and one of the circuits was missing os they had vto bypass it. Wait, did he just say a part was missing? He tried to figure out if that was what Soundwave had said. He was talking so fast it was hard to make out everything he was saying.
Meanwhile, Razer had called his group to the main cavern of their mountainbase. Scythe was next to him. He took a deep intake of air, then started. "I know you may not consider this any of your concern, but it appears the Decepticons have bult a new supergun, and while it may not be our battle, Razer and I believe the decepticons will not hesitate to turn it against us, should they destroy the Autobots."
Several small gasps and questioning mumbles sounded. Razer stepped in with "Besides the fact that it is dangerous, this could be an opportunity for us to seize the device and use it for our own means."
now windstriker jumped in with "Like destroy the Decepticons ourselves?" she sounded a little too hopefull, Razer thought. He gave her a look, though she didn't see it for his vocoder mask and optic covering.
"Even if the Autobots were to gain control of the device, they may decide to do the same, should they see us as their enemy." he held up a hand to keep people from commenting. "We have been in this war far longer than you. And believe me when I say any predilections you have have about the goodness or nobility of the Autobots, it is misplaced. They are not as just as they appear to be."
In the background, Jade rolled her optics and elbowed Windstriker lightly. "His shpiel kinda reminds you of "Megatron's Master Plan, doesn't it?" she whispered. Windstriker nodded and shushed her. They still hadn't told anyone about that cartoon in their home-universe they were both fans of. They knew the series, but if they told anyone that, Razer and Dusk would do everything in their power to use their information for their own personal gain, not the good of everyone involved.
Razer went on about how they were going to pull this off, and the two fliers listened quietly as Razer outlined his plan. Wyldkat stealthily rolled in and transformed. Jade caught the motion and glanced over, doing a double take. "Wydlkat!" she whispered loudly "Where have you been!?"
"Something you'd like to add, Jade?" razer tilted his head slightly. Jade stopped like a kid caught whispering the back of a school class. "No. Just welcoming Kat to the convo." she smiled innocently.
"Convo?" scythe echoed.
"Conversation. Sorry." Jade apologised.
"IF I may continue." Razert gave both warning glances. "Now then. We will sneak around this direction...
x x x x
Megatron wished he'd stayed in the recharge berth this morning. He had a feeling this was going to be a bad day. He heard the sound of engines, and a transformation as Starscream landed. "You called, Megatron?" He asked softly. Megatron blinked then shook it off. He had called Starscream, but suddenly didn't know why. Maybe it was one of those "I'm miserable so you have to be miserable with me" things. That or maybe he suconciously hoped the device would blow up again and return them all to normal.
Funny, the constructicons weren't acting any differently. Wait, did he just see mixmaster and longhaul in the background playing that human game "Paper, Rock, Scissors"? He made a noise. Whatever. Like his day would get any better anyway. He sighed "Just... turn it on."
Prime transformed, pointing to direct Ironhide and Hoist one direction while he, Prowl, and Jazz went the other. Brawn scracked his knuckles. "About time we got to bust some Decepticon head-units." he grinned. Cliffjumper pulled out his rifle. "Yeah." In the background, Ratchet and wheeljack simply waited. Ratchet would normally have stayed at the Ark, but this seemed like it could become very nasty very quickly, so Prime had requested his presence. and, of course, Wheeljack was there in case they decided to turn the device on.
Jade and Winstriker circled then flew out again. Nobody noticed because they were above the cloudline. Prime transformed and walked up to the edge of the dip where the valley began.
"Give us the device, Megatron." He boomed. Now, normally, Megatron would snarl something nasty in retort and fling himself at the Autobot leader, ready to brawl.
This time, he just facepalmed.
Starscream literally screamed "I told you it wouldn't work!" wand started to run. Yes, run. He apparently had gotten so scared he forgot he could fly.
"Get back here you cowardly idiot!" Megatron snarled, then looked over at the Constructicons. They had allready turned it on and the charge was slowly building. The rumble of the power cell got louder, turning into a low whine. Prime barely had time to decide whether to rush his enemy or dive for cover when the gun fired.
The Autobot leader was knocked back, and Ratchet ran over to his side, followed by Wheeljack. "Prime, you okay?"
The Autobot leader got ot his feet. "I... think so." he blinked.
The gun hadn't even scorched his armor. Brawn and Cliffjumper went for Mixmaster and Scrapper, and Ironhide got off a couple of good shots at Longhaul before the dump truck found a rock to hide behind.
Scythe glided in soundlessly, taking in the battle. Everything had descended into chaos, except for Hook, who was still at the controls, firing wildly at anyone and everyone that moved.
Sythe landed atop the gun, still in dragon mode and grinned, shuffling his wings. "Greetings." He lowered his head, revealing several rows of sharp teeth. The constructicon's optics went wide for a second, and he abandoned the device. "I have secured the device." Scythe commed Razer.
"Excellent." The black and reddish-brown flier transformed and landed, Dusk at his side.
"Get the gun!" Hoist hollered. Ratchet took aim and fired. Scythe snarled as the shot hit his wing. That hurt!" He simply looked over at the Autobot.
In the background, Bluestreak took aim at Dusk and fired. The femme shrieked as she collapsed, and Razer snarled. Another shot, this time hitting the ground next to the device, and he knew exactly where it had come from.
"I will tear you apart, Autobot! Razer snarled, jumping into the air and heading straight for the young gunner.
"Oh no ya don't!" Ironhide jumped up and grabbed a wing as the flier transformed. Razer hovered wobbily for a moment, grunting "Get off me!" then transformed and punched the van-mech in the face. They both hit the ground, and a fistfight followed.
Wyldkat hung back, seeing Razer get into a fistfight with Ironhide.
"What're you waiting for?" Jade asked.
Wyldkat scanned the battlefield. "They seem to be doing just fine." she commented.
Megatron had finally gotten up the gumption to fight back when Prime jumped him. Starscream had taken to the air, remembering he still had flight systems. Though he suddenly found they weren't doing as well as they normally should.
The seeker wobbled dangerously, his chronometer readings blinking off and on. Jade grinned and took to the air. "Hey screamer." she flew past, turned, and came back, passing him again.
"Why you..." Starscream shrieked as his wing was hit and crashed into the trees. From several meters away, Prowl glanced over at Jazz, and the saboteur grinned.
"Nice shot, prowler."
Prowl gave him a look. "My name is not Prowler." he retorted. Though there wasn't time for another reply when Backdraft swung down low, peppering the area with weaponfire. Both bots dove for new cover as their rock was blown to dust.
-
Meanwhile, back at the Nemesis, Thundercracker walked into his quarters, his music audible to anyone who passed him it was so loud. He turned it down and then turned his optics off then on again when he saw the pile of what could only be described as junk filling his, Skywarp, and Starscream's shared quarters.
A huge pile of broken glass, hubcaps, various scraps of metal, and what looked like a banner reading "Fort Rowdy Gathering" adorned the pile. "Like it?" Skywarp called from the top. The seeker was perched in a small indentation at the very top. Thundercracker looked closer and found it was all arranged around one small square blue circuit, complete with a crystal in a center. The entire pile was arranged in such a way the small circuitboard in the front and center of the pile was accented, like a shining gem in a pile of trash.
Thundercracker scrutinised the small sparling peice. "It's the crown jewel of my collection." Skywarp beamed.
Thundercracker nearly facepalmed. "Is that a voltage regulator?" he pointed.
"I dunno." Skywarp shrugged. "It's just purdy."
-
Meanwhile back on the battlefield, the decepti-gun started to spout smoke. Megatron glanced at it. "What's wrong with it?" he called to hook.
"We had to reroute the power around the circuit regulator, it's missing!" the constructicon called back, exchanging weaponfire with yet another Autobot. Megatron groaned. This wasn't going to end well.
Meanwhile, Jade landed next to Starscream. He wasn't moving. "Star-" she stopped when he moved.
"Owwwwwww!" The seeker whined, then started whimpering again. Jade blinked. This wasn't normal Starscream-ness.
"Why does this allways happen to me? I'm allways getting shot down. And does Megatron think anything of it, no! I'm just another mindless bit of CANNONFODDER!" He kicked at a rock from his prone position.
"Uh..." Jade stopped.
She was going to... well, actually now that she thoguht of it, she wasn't sure what she would do. "Are you... okay?" she asked hesitantly, then cringed wishing she hadn't.
"DO I LOOK OKAY!" Starscream wailed. "I crashed into a tree and ow ow ow I think my wing is broken!" He tried to move then decided against it. Jade blinked and looked at the tree. His wing had been wedged between two larger branches, and the pine was all but laying on him.
"Okay. Here. Hold still" she practically sighed and charged her armcannon. Starscream cringed visibly, turning his optics off. When he realised the blasting sound hadn't hit him, he onlined them again. Jade shoved the tree away. "Better?" she asked.
If nothing else, the team could use whatever information starscream had. And when he was in a vulnerable place right now, she figured it would be just that much easier. Though seeing Prowl and Jazz come running up from too close away (where HAD they been?) with their weapons drawn made her think twice. "Uhmm, hi?" she held up her hands. Crap. They probably thought she was a Decepticon now.
Prime punched Megatron again, and Megatron tried to hit back but missed. So he instead settled for tackling the Autobot leader. "Fine. If I can't have the gun, nobody can!" he knew this was a bad idea. But he didn't want the Autobots getting his gun. He turned and fired his armcannon at it. The gun threw sparks, then exploded.
"Lookout!" someone yelled. Prime grunted as the impact hit him and Megatron, sending them both sprawling. Megatron stood and pointed his armcannon at the autobot leader's head. "This time, Prime, I win." He goated. Then fired.
His shot missed by a mile when something heavy slammed into him, though. The purple blur tumbled head over heels, activated after burners and took off again.
Megatron took to the sky. "Decepticons, destroy the device, now!" He yelled. The rest of the Decepticons ran for where their leader was, shooting at what remained of the device as they left.
Windstriker smirked. Ratchet was at least a hundred yards from the Autobot leader, and the rest of the Autobots were persuing the retreating Decepticons, leaving their leader... she grinned and swooped down.
Prime put a hand over the gash in his armor. It wasn't life-threatening, but it hurt. Now, he saw one of the unidentified mechs walking up. The mysterious third group. He wondered if they were working with the Decepticons. Why else would they be here if the Decepticons weren't? He glanced up towards the hill and saw Jazz and Prowl advancing on a seeker that looked a lot like Starscream. But Starscream was on the ground. The seeker took to the air and left.
"Hey, you okay?" windstriker kept glancing around. She didn't want anyone to see her talking to the Autobot leader. Jade circled and landed next to her. "Windy, we gotta go. The others are gonna be retreating any minute." she glanced at Prime. "I know, you're probably wondering..." she trailed off then said "You can't let them see you talking to them." Windstriker nodded, and spotted something white in the distance. The Autobot medic.
Winstriker started to say "I..." she suddenly didn't know what to say. Jade cut in with "I'm Jade, that's Windstriker, and she's a fangirl. She thinks you're cute."
Windstriker's optics went round and she smacked her friend on the shoulder. "Talk about inappropriate!" she snapped. "He's hurt and you're gonna tell him I'm..." they both halted mid-sentence as they realised was Prime watching them. "We gotta go." Jade grabbed Windstriker by the arm and yanked. She followed and the two transformed and flew away.
after a long minute of silence, Windstriker hissed "Why did you tell him that!?"
"What, he had to find out sometime? besides, he'll probably think differently about us now. He knows you like him, and maybe it'll help him realise we're not his enemies." Jade replied.
"But the Kintari ARE the Autobots's enemies." Windstriker retorted. "It's just gonna confuse them now." they circled again. Apparently, the other memebers of their team had regouped farther out. windstriker sighed and landed, giving Jade a warning glare to stay in the air. So she just transformed and hovered not too far away. Ratchet glanced up and Wheeljack aimed his gun at her. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what she said. She said it all wrong..."
Windstriker landed and glanced at Jade as though saying "Help me out here!" Jade shrugged, still hovering. Prime looked at Jade then back at Windstriker.
"I didn't get the chance to thank you for saving my life. Twice. So... thank you."
Ratchet and Wheeljack exchanged a suprised glance.
Windstriker grinned. "Well, uhmm... uh, " she was at a loss for words. "It's.. It was nothing."
Jade glanced over her shoulder. 'Windy, we gotta go." She took off. Windstriker's head snapped up and she instantly took to the air. The purple a-10 thunderbolt banked and followed Jade back to their group. "What was all that about?" Ratchet asked. Prime just shook his head. "I have no idea." he watched them leave. "Would you happen to know what a fan-girl is?"
--------------------------------------------------------------
- EndNotes:
1. Look out, TC, Skywarp's nesting! LOL
2. Prime's been fangirl'd! haha!
3. Yeah, I think Starscream got a bit fangirl'd too. XD. Shut up. LOL.
Also, just thought I'd include a quick definition of what SORC tags are. (pronounced "source tags")
This comes from the "Encyclopedia Cybertronia" section of my website (TransfanCentral.com).
S.O.R.C. is the abbreviation for Subspace Object Retreival Code".
Subspace tagging is done through a permanently-adhesive thin-chip (paper thin), which is accessed through the dataport hookup on a mech. Each set has a removable, disposable hookup cable that looks like a flat (or strip) cable. The chip is then installed in the mech's spu subspace controls, similar to how Windows XP detects and installs new hardware.
The squares are removed from the backing and adhered to the object (to the base surface). Adhering chips to the object on top of paint can cause errors, such as delays in transfer or an error message.
The ships come in sheets of nine, and are categorised with an ID letter-number system system that identifies each chip in case a person wants to access one or two seperately from the others. If the entire set is used on a single object, however, the "master identifier", usually the first tag, is used.
These chips are given seperate SOIDC's. S.O.I.D.C. stands for Subspace Object Identification code. Though they are more commonly known as an SORC (subspace object retrieval code).
Using two different SORC tags on a singular object will result in an error message, such as "SORC conflict: Object Not Found" or in some cases "Space-Sharing violation or ssv conflict.
Though an ssv conflict is usually what someone would get if they try to stick a SORC tag on a part of their person.
Subspace has to be accessed from outside, and therefore a person cannot be transferred into their own subspace pocket. It's like trying to transfer the outside of an object into it's interior. Well, something like that.
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And, last but not least, the Fort Rowdy Gathering is an actual gathering. Not going to say where it is (somewhere here in Ohio), but it is fun.
Stay tuned for more soon!
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"Hmm." the crimson and blue freightliner daycab-semi slowed down, casting his scanners to the right as he approached the semi dealership. "It would be nice to have a trailer like Prime's." he mused. And he had saved up enough money that if he wanted to get one, he would be able to. Highroad grinned and pulled in, transforming. "Hello, I'm interested in your trailers?" he pointed to the one in the front lot. An average 52 foot light grey trailer. He pretended to ignore the shocked look on the salesman's face, instead imagining the look on Prowl's face when he arrived back at the Ark with a newly-painted Prime mimic trailer.
"Err, yeah. that one." the salesman rubbed the back of his neck, squinting up at the tall robot. "Its three hundred an fifty seven dollars." HighRoad nodded, mentally tallying the "charges" Prowl would level at him when he got back to the Ark. Misappropriation of Autobot funds, impersonating an officer...He shook the thoughts out of his head.
Besides, didn't actually HAVE to use the Autobot's fund which the government had set up for them. That would be the reason for Prowl's loud protests of "misappropriation of funds". The fund was basically to provide for any supplies or whatever the Autobots or their human allies (or visitors) might need. And besides, if he used his own money, Prowl had one less basis for complaint.
"Yes, that's the one." Highroad reached into his subspace and fumbled with the tiny wallet. "Here you go." he handed the salesman a wad of money. "Uh... okay. uh, let me just ring that up for you real quick." the man's face lit up and he jogged towards the office yelling "Hey Randy, Randy! You're not gonna believe who I just sold this old trailer to!"
Highroad chuckled. Plus it would make a spectacular decoy for the Autobots in battle or whatever.
Five minutes later, the salesman had helped him hook up his newly-acquired trailer and he pulled out of the sales lot with a quick honk of his airhorn. The salesman and the manager both waved their papers, grinning at the autographs they had gotten. (aside from his signature on the sales receipt). He turned onto the main highway and sped up, hoping Spike and Sparkplug would help him repaint it. They had discussed it, and the two had said they'd help him.
Sparkplug had actually chuckled at the idea of him having a trailer like Prime's. "Prowl's a little high-strung." the man had said. "But I'm sure he'll get used to the idea." he just patted the bot's leg.
When he reached the road that led to the Ark's entrance he slowed, wondering if Red Alert was watching him over the base's security cameras. He decided not to go in the front entrance. If he ran into Prowl, he'd probably have to listen to the second in command lecturing him about getting a trailer to look like Prime.
He turned and headed for Wheeljack's workshop. He hoped Spike and Sparklplug were there, to help him repaint his trailer. They were usually either there or in the repairbay. When he reached the workshop, it was empty, so he headed into the repirbay through the attatched door. Spike and Sparkplug waved as he pulled up. "Hey." he detatched his trailer and transformed. Ratchet looked up from where he was going through a box of parts.
Highroad glanced at the boxes strewn around, then asked. "I was wondering if you could help me put a subspace tag on my trailer when you get done." Ratchet tossed the part he was holding into the box and set the datapad on top of it. "I'm not busy, I was just going through some old parts." he walked over to the matte grey trailer and looked it over. "Hmmm. I may have some reactive paint that you can tint and use for it, so it'll integrate with your subspace field. Let me see if I have some spare S.O.R.C. tags." He went and shuffled through a set of drawers off to one side, then pulled out a small box. "Here it is." he pulled out a sheet of what looked almost like stickers, but if he had looked closerly, HighRoad would have seen they were actually printed circuits.
Ratchet walked over and laid them on the worktable, attaching a data cable to the small tear-away connection on one side. "Here." he held up the other end. "You need to access the circuits and create a linkup. then you'll be able to control the subspace tags and metally send it to or retrieve it from subspace." Highroad looked at the plug and cord. "Oh, so that's how it works." he mused. but he didn't know where the linkup would be on him.
Ratchet sighed and rolled his optics. "Younglings." he teased. "Don't know how to find stuff on their own chassis." he tapped a panel on the red and blue mech's forearm and a section of the armor slid back, revealing a binary access panel. He plugged it in. "You should see a window pop up in your HUD now. Just click confirm." he directed. HighRoad raised an optic ridge and mentally tried to move the imaginary mouse-pointer to click the confirm button. "huh." he half-laughed when it worked.
"It should only take a minute or two to go through." Ratchet said as data scrolled past on the little screen. Then a small window popped up that said "new hardware installed, subspace integration complete", and both windows closed. "So that's how that works!" HighRoad exclaimed.
Ratchet nodded as he disconnected the cable and handed it back to the red and white medic. Ratchet disconnected the cord and coiled it up, tossing it on the table. Then he carefully seperated the connector from the strip of circuits and handed them to HighRoad. "Here's those. Make sure you apply them at all the corners and edges of the vehicle BEFORE you apply the paint." The Prime-lookalike simply nodded.
"We'll help him get 'em on right." Wheeljack sounded from the door. Ratchet glanced at him. "Where were you? I could have used your help half an hour ago when I was up to my shoulder-servos in spare parts." he complained. "Sorry. I was helping Ironhide adjust his guns out at the shooting range." He looked down at the two humans.
Ratchet didn't look amused, but didn't say anything. He went to put the cable away, and Wheeljack said his hellos to Sparklplug and Spike. Ratchet came back with a container of paint. "Here you go." he set it on the table. He set the dye-set next to it. He didn't need to tell HighRoad to mix up the paint for at least thirty seconds. He imagined Wheeljack would know how to get the paint the right color. "come on." Wleejack picked up the paint and set the box of coloring on top of it. "Let's go get you fixed up." He headed for his workshop. Highroad and the two humans nodded.
Spike paused for a second before leaving, then turned at the door. "Hey Ratchet, what're you gonna do with those spare parts?"
"I don't know, why?" The white medic moved over another box. "Why?"
"Oh, I was just thinking, maybe I could look through them and do some tinkering later."
Ratchet shrugged. "Sure." He looked around for his datapad, let out a soft "aha", and picked it up. "They'll be here when you get back." he said, an unspoken "Believe me, they're not going anywhere." in there. He looked up after a second. "Oh, could you tell HighRoad to come back here after he gets his trailer painted? I need him to make a supply run for me."
"Sure, no problem!" Spike waved and walked out.
x
The Eastern sky was just starting to turn orangey with the first hints of the suns's morning light. A lone figure sat on the mountainside, watching the edge of the orange orb peek over the horizon, bathing the land before it in an almost magiacal glow. Off in the distance, the birds had begun to chirp, as though they had not a care in the world. But as far as that lone winged figure sitting on the mountainside, it was otherwise.
Jade had stropped by Wyldkat's quarters, but the carfemme wasn't there. Gobee had sleepily told Jade to "just go back to sleep. It's too early mumble mumble mumble." and the door slid shut. Thinking the car might have gone for an early-morning drive, Jade went out to look for her. But since there were no signs of her, she decided to have a seat on the nearby mountaintop and wait.
Jade had tried to ask Gobee if she'd made it home, and he mumbled something vague about her being there, so the jetfemme had to assumed that she had returned to base at some point in time. But anywat, out here away from the base, Jade had a perfect view of the surrounding area, as well as the main entrance to the Kintari mountainbase. So she could see Wyldkat returning, even if she tried to sneak past.
Plus, she had a nice view of the sunrise. Jade offlined her optics for a minute, just taking it all in. She loved the sunrise. Something about it was like the promise of a new day. Something about the end of darkness and the return to light. she smiled, starting to feel at peace. A rarity in a world so tumultuous as this one.
She put a hand absently over her cockpit window, not even realising the transmognifier was there until it made a soft pinging noise. Jade blinked. did it just ping at her? she grinned and concentrated, But she got nothing in return for her efforts. She huffed sotly. "Just wait, I'll figure you out soon enough." she mused.
She shook her head. She was talking to an inanimate object like it was person. How rediculous. She exvented and pulled her knees up to her chest, crossing her arms on top of them and resting her chin on her arms. As she watched the orange orb slowly rise, she remembered the datapad she'd found yesterday. She had stashed it in a subspace pocket before leaving, thank goodness. she started typing.
Datapad Journal Entry 28-05-01-03
"How many times have I watched the birds fly over our world, oblivious to the troubles we Earth-Walkers have? I'd Wished so long that I could fly above the earth and all it's worries. To be carefree and happy like they are. To feel the wind around me, and swim in an ocean of sky blue and clouds. It's so peacefull up there. Not like down here, with all the fighting and drama that goes on around us all the time." she shook her head at the thought. So much stress.
She half-smiled at the thought, glad that when she and her friends had come here she hadn't been turned into a car. She silently thanked the powers that be for granting her that longtime-wish, and finally allowing her to fly. She flicked her wings as an Eagle called in the distance. she wondered how it would be to actually be a bird instead of a jet. Too bad they hadn't arrived in a time or dimension where robots could turn into animals. She snickered at the thought and shook her head. "Yeah, right. Like Scythe isn't enough of a lizard-butt now." she laughed out loud at the sentiment, imagining the green iridescent american dragon as a tyrannasaurus rex. "Pfft. Tyrannical rex. Whoops! I typed that wrong!" she went back and started to erase it, realised what it said, giggled, and decided to leave it.
"This journal thing is kinda fun sometimes. Just the typos alone keep me amused. heh. Of course, sometimes living with giant robots is fun sometimes too. Razer and Dusk don't allways understand human terms of phrases. Tch. I could so get them to say something sideways. I gotta remind myself to make a bet with Mic later on that. Or Needle. Yeah. I don't think Mic has forgiven me yet. Not that this thing was my fault to be forgiven. But we'll get through it, I'm sure.
I hope."
The sun was now halfway up, and the muave and blue jet could feel it's warm embrace, as though promising a fresh start with the new day, the worries of the previous day forgotten, erased in the sun's reassuring glow. Green optics squinted against the light, but Jade couldn't make her eyes move away from the beautiful scene. "No wonder photographers take pictures of the sunrise." she thought. She sighed, turning her attention back to the datapad in her hands. She had been typing on it before the sunrise caught her attention so undividedly.
It's been a month. That's been how long since I saw my soulmate, Dennis. No, not since we've been here. We've only been here about three days (this would be number four. Argh!) Anyway, last time I saw him, Sure, it seems like it was just yesterday. But it feels like an eternity without him here beside me.
Yeah, we should both be here. Maybe it's better we're not. I'd be so worried about something happening to him, I wouldn't be able to concentrate on what I'm supposed to be doing. And if we were in battle, I'd probably get the both of us blasted to scrap metal. Though I'm pretty sure he would know exactly what to do about the fliers. I mean, they seem friendly and helpful enough, but there's this underlying... I don't know how to describe it. It's like there's something there and I can sense it, but it's not openly obvious. It's just... some of their actions, or should I say their reactions are off. They remind me a bit of cons in how they hate the Autobots, but they also hate the Decepticons.
Well, anyway, there's some kind of a... threatening? I don't know. I don't want to accuse them of anything. I'm not crazy, but there's something like if we turn away from them, I think they would do something bad. Like I said, they haven't shown any outward signs of meanness or whatever you'd call it, but I think... meh, nevermind. Anyway, if my fiance' were here, he'd know just what to do.
It's too bad he went on vacation with his parents. A part of me keeps hoping maybe he'll show up to my rescue, like some knight in shining armor. (no pun intended.) I'm not sure how much of this war and it's violence I can take without his reassurance. Is it too much to hope? After all he did have the cylindrical-glowing device in the trunk of his car. How can he not know about this universe? He's not that stupid, right?
(sigh)
It's wierd. I don't know if it's normal or not to feel this way. So empty without him. I mean, when we lived together, he worked eight hours a day, and so did I. Our work schedules only allowed us to have a few, maybe four, hours together each day. We only had the same day off about once or twice a month. And except for those four hours or so, the only time we really got to spend together and be really close was when we slept. Is that it?
Maybe that's it.
Maybe I just miss the feeling of his arms wrapped around me as I fell asleep. I really miss him. And the possibility that I may never see him again... I can't let myself think like that. I will see him again. I have to keep telling myself that. I just miss being close to him, I even when we were both home, and we may have been two rooms away from each other, at least I could walk a few meters to fall into his loving embrace.
Will I ever see him again?
No. I can't think like that!
I have to think. hope. He had the device in his CAR for Primus's sake! He has to know!
. . . I have to calm down.
It's just that I've spent the last year living with him. Even when he wasn't home, I had the security of knowing he would come home to me at the end of his work day. But now? what now?"
Jade sighed, folding her arms across her pulled-up knees, and rested her forehead on her arms. After a minute, she raised her head agin.
"It's wierd, you know. You get so used to them being there, that it seems like it's normal. No big thing. Like they're supposed to be there. Then when they're gone, it's like suddenly there's a part of you missing. Like a puzzle missing a peice right at it's center. Only, it's where no one can see it; But you know that empty space is there, just waiting to be filled. And only you can see it.
They say when two souls touch, they become inseperable. The two in a sense become a part of each other. Linked in a way that can't be explained. I allways hated being alone, anyway. Maybe that's why I miss him so much. Then again, I doubt that's why. When we first became friends, (heck, when we first met, ) I sensed something. I just didn't recognise it. They say you know when you first meet your 'true love'. The one you're going to marry. But you don't know it until later.
I guess it's true, huh?
I miss him so much. I wonder how long it'll be (or if I'll ever) find my way back home, back into his arms. Although, I feel like he were here sometimes, It's like I can almost hear his voice in the back of my processor, telling me that everything's gonna be okay."
she smiled weakly and looked up from her datapad long enough to watch a human vehicle make it's way across the desert, kicking up dust in it's hurried journey across the morning landscape. She barely noticed the coloration, though. The crimson and navy-blue semi seemed to be doing just fine off-road as it sped along the empty plain.
"Hmmph. Probably late for a delivery and looking for a shortcut." she shook her head at the semi as it navigated the flatland. "I feel sorry for the driver dumb enough to go offroading in a semi." she chuckled, the scene not even striking her as odd.
"No, on second thought, I take that back." she grinned, standing and shoving the datapad into a subspace jumped off her mountain spot into the air."yep, I'm mean. And I'm bored. Not like I'm gonna hurt him or anything." she thought out loud. And everyone else is still asleep."
"hopefully." she added.
She knew Scythe would NOT be happy if she single-handedly revealed their location. Though the the seeker's spontaneous (and somewhat mischevious) side prodded her to 'just give the human a scare.' She grinned."I wonder what the truck is carrying. Groceries? toilet paper?" she laughed out loud at the thought of the trailer tumbling sending long white strings all over the desert. Normally kids toilet papered trees on Haloween. What would Scythe think of giant alien robots toilet papering cactuses and pine trees in the middle of the summer? She stifled that giggle. It was just rediculous. Although a truckload of baby powder would be quite interesting too. she reminded herself that she wasn't going to do that, though.
If someone's shipping load was lost, it meant money lost. And somebody had to pay for all that. She almost pouted, but reminded herself that just because she was bigger did not give her the right to be mean. But it wouldn't hurt to give the driver a little startle, right?
"Besides, that'll help us in the long run, cause it'll keep the humans out of our area." she decided. "We wouldn't want them to see any of us milling around outside the mountainbase and call the Autobots on us, now would we?" she added, gaining altitude and flying towards the speeding vehicle.
The crimson and dark blue Freightliner semi sped across the dusty desert plain, music blaring loudly from the radio, and out the open window. The 40-something brunette man in the driver's seat hummed along sotly, not even realizing his fingers were drumming the steering wheel in time with the music.
Suddenly, a muave and blue blur appeared from nowhere and flashed in front of the semi, coming way to close to the front grill.
"What the!.."
If it was a bird, it had to be a darn crazy one, that was for sure, Sparkplug decided.
Jade did a midair flip, and turned around towards the vehicle, landing right in it's path two hundred yards away, grinning from audio-to-audio like a she-demon.
"Going somewhere?"
The driver opened the door and jumped, doing a roll as he hit the ground. Jade almost made a dissapointed sound. Instead, she just lifted an optic ridge at him. "okay. Gotta give him credit for trying to get away." she though amusedly.
Unfortunately, The semi didn't slow down, though. She thought it might slow gradually since it's driver wasn't there to have his foot on the accellerator. But she was wrong. Really wrong.
In fact, she swore she could hear the engine roar as it accelerated. She realised this AND her mistake right about the time the semi detatched itself from the trailer and transformed.
The red and blue Autobot landed in an impressive feet-first slide, kicking up twin dust trails in his wake. His skid halted right in front of the suprised femmeseeker, his rifle allready in his hand.
Jade nearly fainted. she could have kicked herself SO hard right now. Of course it just HAD to be HIM. It just made sense, somehow.
"Not you!"
"Oh yes, it's me." A snicker could be heard in the baritone voice.
Jade mentally smacked herself.
High Road grinned behind his vocaliser mask. He had only been on a supply run for the base. And since he looked somewhat like the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, he had repainted his trailer to suit. It wasn't like he ever used the thing anyway. Besides, it was a good decoy in case the Decepticons should try anything.
"Is it just me, or is Starscream getting a bit girly?" he chuckled to the human, who was standing a few yards away.
Insult AND the Autobot leader. Oh what a beautiful morning THIS was turning out to be, Jade thought sourly. She hoped he would just go away and leave her alone. Of course that wasn't going to happen, obviously, but it still didn't keep her from hoping.
Really really hard.
The tall red and blue Autobot crossed his arms smugly. "So, where's blundercracker and sky-twerp?" he chirped. Jade almost laughed. If he hadn't have just insulted her, that is. She made a mental note to remember those nicknames. And who the heck was he to compare her to Starscream, anyway? that was just downright insulting!
the seeker planted her hands on her hips and offendedly spat "Last I checked I was still female!"
"I know." (Another snicker, although this time, HighRoad couldn't catch himself in time to keep it from being audible. She really thought he was Optimus Prime! That in itself was funny!)
Jade's jaw dropped, her expression one of "Oh. No. You. Just. Did. Not!"
Her head bobbed in that snarky way someone does when they're really mad as she said "Oh, so you think it's funny huh, well I'm not Starscream and in case you haven't noticed you're alone out here!."
She glanced around quickly to be sure, and caught Sparkplug sniggering.
"What are YOU laughing at, CHUCKLES, you're next!"
the human's grin vanished.
when Jade started took a step towards him. HighRoad tightened his grip on his weapon, hoping not to have to use it, but Jade's comlink came on instead.
Syus's voice came through. He sounded polite, if not...amused?
Jade wondered why the unvierse hated her so much.
"Jade, what's going on out there?" he asked in an oh-so-innocent voice.
He had been watching the entire exchange over the base's external cameras!
The green transformer was standing in front of the mountainbase's main viewscreen. His voice took on an amused tone. "Do you require assistance?"
Jade and Highroad both caught his tone. HighRoad cocked his head to one side slightly in a sarcastic look. Like he was just daring her to fight him. the *Autobot leader* (snicker). Jade, on the other hand, knew if she ran, she might have a chance to get away, if she didn't go right back to the base. Otherwise the Autobot would just follow her back to the group's base.
On the other hand, if she tried to fight him, well, this was Optimus Prime. There was no way that would happen.
And Scythe was just baiting her, taking joy in the fact that she had done exactly what he'd told her to avoid; And was about to get the unholy SCRAP beat out of her by none other than the Autobot leader himself for it. If she asked him for help, though, he'd never let her hear the end of it. That was, if Prime didn't see Syus leaving the base and figure out where it was.
Either way, she was screwed.
"I'm fine." She lied through gritted teethplates.
"Okay." Syus sounded like he shrugged across the comline.
He also sounded smug.
"Just let me know if you change your mind."
Jade suddenly hated when he used that flippant 'I-don't-care' voice. The jet gave her comm a glare. She looked up, and realized the 'Autobot Leader' was still regaurding her with that slightly amused look.
"Oh, what? you think you've had a bad day? Just wait till later when the rest of my friends wake up!."
She could only hope.
"Really. There's more of us than just me! and then you're gonna be sorry." she nodded.
she prayed they weren't just standing by the computer watching and laughing as well.
The Autobot leader just stood there. He didn't really move much. In fact, it seemed like he was waiting for someone. Oh no. what if the rest of his friends were on their way to meet him here!? what if he had silently sent them a signal!?
and of course her friends were probably making bets on how long it would take for Prime to scrap her. Or they were busily making jokes about it.
And Windstriker was probably oogling-err, zooming in on Prime (ahem) to get a good (ahem) look at him... or... whatever. Jade shook her head. Soemtimes that femme was just too much of a fangirl.
"Look, why don't I just go that way, and you just go that way, or get on with whatever you're doing, allright?" she waved a hand dismissively. " I don't feel like wasting the energy, and I'm sure you don't want to spend any extra time in the repairbay being peiced back together."
"Are you sure about that? I'd hate to see You in peices." there was a hidden chuckle in his voice.
"huh?... I hope you get a flat tire!"
The jet glared even more, but it didn't seem to effect him. She just knew Scythe was watching her, too. She could FEEL his eyes staring at her across the camera feed. He probably thought it was funny, too. She wanted SO badly to turn towards the base camera and wave a finger at it.
Pity. Prime would know where it was, then.
"This isn't over Prime." she turned to walk away from him, but also away from the base at an angle.
"Uh-huh. sure." He replied.
Jade silently swore as she jumped into the air, heading the opposite direction of her base, in case he followed her, wishing she had stayed in recharge this morning instead of getting up. She wondered what her husband would have done had he been there instead of the Autobot leader...
She realised once there was some distance between them that she could have asked him just what the heck he was doing with Wyldkat that one day. She had seen the security feed. She mentally faceplamed. Again. Maybe that's why he didn't shoot her, curiosity perhaps? maybe Wyldkat had mentioned her. Oh great. And she just insulted him.
No actually," she thought angrily, "He insulted me first! I had every right to talk scrap to him!" she mentally nodded and circled around to head back to the base. She could see from her vantage point above the clouds that he had gone back into auto-mode and was driving away from the base. She exvented a sigh of relief. At least he hadn't actually known where the base was. That was good. Too bad she missed the opportunity to demand answers about him and Wyldkat.
She landed and glanced around before pinging the base computer to be let in. "are you sure you're alone?" Scythe's voice answered it over her comm. "Yes Scythe, I'm alone." she deadpanned. The heavy rock in front of the base entrance slid aside and she walked in.
"I was only concerned for your safety is all. There is no need to get upset." Scythe actually sounded like he meant it now. At least he wasn't all amused or anything. she hoped the others were awake. She was allready getting tired of this day and needed somebody to talk to.
She ignored his look as she walked past. She didn't want to hear what he said about going out alone, hurassing human vehicles. She just gave him a glance as he finished talking and went to see if Windstriker was up yet.
She found the purple flier in their shared quarters sitting at the table talking to Dusk when she walked in. They looked over. "Hi." Jade saw Dusk. "Oh, Dusk. I wanted to thank you for the datapad." she held up the small device. Dusk nodded. "I thought you might need one. I left one for each of the others as well." Windstriker held up hers, which was purple.
Jade grinned and pointed. "How did you get a purple one?" she asked teasingly. Windstriker just shrugged. Jade waved it off, though. She went over to her berth and flopped onto it. She buried her face in the pillow and waved a hand. "Don't mind me." she mumbled through the pillow.
"Bad morning?" Windstriker asked. "You have no idea." came the mumbled reply. Windstriker just shook her head and decided to let it go. She would ask later if she wanted to know.
Meanwhile, somewhere else...
Soundwave checked and rechecked the output circuit. Everything seemed to be in order. He hoped. He signaled Megatron.
The beeping prompted the silver mech to glance over from where he was laying on his recharge berth. What now? he just wanted to be left alone. Megatron was beginning to feel like nothing he did went right. Not that he would admit it. He supposed he should answer the commsignal, though.
Primus forbid Starscream should find out anything was wrong. He'de take the first chance he could to take over. "Yes?" he pressed the button to answer. He idly wondered if Starscream would be any better at this leader thing than him. Then again, he shook the trhought out of his head. Though it was mildly amusing to think of how it would feel to constantly stand by and go "Se,, I told you it wouldn't work!" He rolled his optics and reminded himself to go see Hook as soon as the Constructicon got back to base. Something was very very wrong.
"Megatron, the gun has been fully repaired." Soundwave's voice droned. "I checked and even double checked the circuits and the Constructicons checked the gun over as well. We believe it is ready to use, so your eminece can now destroy the Autobots at your leisure..." Megatron noted he'd have to drag Soundwave to see Hook as well. He gritted his denta and cut off the now-talkative communications officer. "Very well, I will be there shortly." and cut off the commlink before Soundwave could start talking again.
At the Ark, Prime was going over the report Jazz had submitted after sabotaging the Decepticons' latest supergun. He tapped a few keys on Teletraan-1's console to get the SkySpy to go over the area. He wanted to make sure the raygun was in so many peices it couldn't be fixed. Then if there were no Decepticons around, he'd send a few Autobots to pick up the peices and dispose of them.
His optics widened slightly when he saw that the gun was not only NOT destroyed, but Soundwave and the Constructicons were walking around it, checking over it to make sure it was working. Inside the top of the apparatus, behind the main gun part, a bluish purple crystal glowed softly. Prime hit his comm to call the troups together. They had to do something fast.
- A couple miles from the Ark, Razer was watching from the mountainbase computer screen as the Autobots left their base. He directed their sattellite's camera to scan across the landscape and spotted the blue glow. He zoomed in as Scythe walked in. "what is going on?" the green dragon-mech asked as he watched the Decepticons put their finishing touches on the weapon.
"The Decepticons have created a weapon to destroy the Autobots." Razer looked closer at the screen. "As much as I would like to have the Autobots destroyed the same as the Decepticons, it is likely the Decepticons would attempt to use their newest weapon on us, should they succeed in destroying the Autobots." He gave the suprised mech a glance. Scythe looked at the screen.
"What do you want me to do?"
Megatron landed, and waited for soundwave to show him that the gun was working. He knew this was a waste of time. He just sighed as Soundwave chattered on and on about the function of the device and one of the circuits was missing os they had vto bypass it. Wait, did he just say a part was missing? He tried to figure out if that was what Soundwave had said. He was talking so fast it was hard to make out everything he was saying.
Meanwhile, Razer had called his group to the main cavern of their mountainbase. Scythe was next to him. He took a deep intake of air, then started. "I know you may not consider this any of your concern, but it appears the Decepticons have bult a new supergun, and while it may not be our battle, Razer and I believe the decepticons will not hesitate to turn it against us, should they destroy the Autobots."
Several small gasps and questioning mumbles sounded. Razer stepped in with "Besides the fact that it is dangerous, this could be an opportunity for us to seize the device and use it for our own means."
now windstriker jumped in with "Like destroy the Decepticons ourselves?" she sounded a little too hopefull, Razer thought. He gave her a look, though she didn't see it for his vocoder mask and optic covering.
"Even if the Autobots were to gain control of the device, they may decide to do the same, should they see us as their enemy." he held up a hand to keep people from commenting. "We have been in this war far longer than you. And believe me when I say any predilections you have have about the goodness or nobility of the Autobots, it is misplaced. They are not as just as they appear to be."
In the background, Jade rolled her optics and elbowed Windstriker lightly. "His shpiel kinda reminds you of "Megatron's Master Plan, doesn't it?" she whispered. Windstriker nodded and shushed her. They still hadn't told anyone about that cartoon in their home-universe they were both fans of. They knew the series, but if they told anyone that, Razer and Dusk would do everything in their power to use their information for their own personal gain, not the good of everyone involved.
Razer went on about how they were going to pull this off, and the two fliers listened quietly as Razer outlined his plan. Wyldkat stealthily rolled in and transformed. Jade caught the motion and glanced over, doing a double take. "Wydlkat!" she whispered loudly "Where have you been!?"
"Something you'd like to add, Jade?" razer tilted his head slightly. Jade stopped like a kid caught whispering the back of a school class. "No. Just welcoming Kat to the convo." she smiled innocently.
"Convo?" scythe echoed.
"Conversation. Sorry." Jade apologised.
"IF I may continue." Razert gave both warning glances. "Now then. We will sneak around this direction...
x x x x
Megatron wished he'd stayed in the recharge berth this morning. He had a feeling this was going to be a bad day. He heard the sound of engines, and a transformation as Starscream landed. "You called, Megatron?" He asked softly. Megatron blinked then shook it off. He had called Starscream, but suddenly didn't know why. Maybe it was one of those "I'm miserable so you have to be miserable with me" things. That or maybe he suconciously hoped the device would blow up again and return them all to normal.
Funny, the constructicons weren't acting any differently. Wait, did he just see mixmaster and longhaul in the background playing that human game "Paper, Rock, Scissors"? He made a noise. Whatever. Like his day would get any better anyway. He sighed "Just... turn it on."
Prime transformed, pointing to direct Ironhide and Hoist one direction while he, Prowl, and Jazz went the other. Brawn scracked his knuckles. "About time we got to bust some Decepticon head-units." he grinned. Cliffjumper pulled out his rifle. "Yeah." In the background, Ratchet and wheeljack simply waited. Ratchet would normally have stayed at the Ark, but this seemed like it could become very nasty very quickly, so Prime had requested his presence. and, of course, Wheeljack was there in case they decided to turn the device on.
Jade and Winstriker circled then flew out again. Nobody noticed because they were above the cloudline. Prime transformed and walked up to the edge of the dip where the valley began.
"Give us the device, Megatron." He boomed. Now, normally, Megatron would snarl something nasty in retort and fling himself at the Autobot leader, ready to brawl.
This time, he just facepalmed.
Starscream literally screamed "I told you it wouldn't work!" wand started to run. Yes, run. He apparently had gotten so scared he forgot he could fly.
"Get back here you cowardly idiot!" Megatron snarled, then looked over at the Constructicons. They had allready turned it on and the charge was slowly building. The rumble of the power cell got louder, turning into a low whine. Prime barely had time to decide whether to rush his enemy or dive for cover when the gun fired.
The Autobot leader was knocked back, and Ratchet ran over to his side, followed by Wheeljack. "Prime, you okay?"
The Autobot leader got ot his feet. "I... think so." he blinked.
The gun hadn't even scorched his armor. Brawn and Cliffjumper went for Mixmaster and Scrapper, and Ironhide got off a couple of good shots at Longhaul before the dump truck found a rock to hide behind.
Scythe glided in soundlessly, taking in the battle. Everything had descended into chaos, except for Hook, who was still at the controls, firing wildly at anyone and everyone that moved.
Sythe landed atop the gun, still in dragon mode and grinned, shuffling his wings. "Greetings." He lowered his head, revealing several rows of sharp teeth. The constructicon's optics went wide for a second, and he abandoned the device. "I have secured the device." Scythe commed Razer.
"Excellent." The black and reddish-brown flier transformed and landed, Dusk at his side.
"Get the gun!" Hoist hollered. Ratchet took aim and fired. Scythe snarled as the shot hit his wing. That hurt!" He simply looked over at the Autobot.
In the background, Bluestreak took aim at Dusk and fired. The femme shrieked as she collapsed, and Razer snarled. Another shot, this time hitting the ground next to the device, and he knew exactly where it had come from.
"I will tear you apart, Autobot! Razer snarled, jumping into the air and heading straight for the young gunner.
"Oh no ya don't!" Ironhide jumped up and grabbed a wing as the flier transformed. Razer hovered wobbily for a moment, grunting "Get off me!" then transformed and punched the van-mech in the face. They both hit the ground, and a fistfight followed.
Wyldkat hung back, seeing Razer get into a fistfight with Ironhide.
"What're you waiting for?" Jade asked.
Wyldkat scanned the battlefield. "They seem to be doing just fine." she commented.
Megatron had finally gotten up the gumption to fight back when Prime jumped him. Starscream had taken to the air, remembering he still had flight systems. Though he suddenly found they weren't doing as well as they normally should.
The seeker wobbled dangerously, his chronometer readings blinking off and on. Jade grinned and took to the air. "Hey screamer." she flew past, turned, and came back, passing him again.
"Why you..." Starscream shrieked as his wing was hit and crashed into the trees. From several meters away, Prowl glanced over at Jazz, and the saboteur grinned.
"Nice shot, prowler."
Prowl gave him a look. "My name is not Prowler." he retorted. Though there wasn't time for another reply when Backdraft swung down low, peppering the area with weaponfire. Both bots dove for new cover as their rock was blown to dust.
-
Meanwhile, back at the Nemesis, Thundercracker walked into his quarters, his music audible to anyone who passed him it was so loud. He turned it down and then turned his optics off then on again when he saw the pile of what could only be described as junk filling his, Skywarp, and Starscream's shared quarters.
A huge pile of broken glass, hubcaps, various scraps of metal, and what looked like a banner reading "Fort Rowdy Gathering" adorned the pile. "Like it?" Skywarp called from the top. The seeker was perched in a small indentation at the very top. Thundercracker looked closer and found it was all arranged around one small square blue circuit, complete with a crystal in a center. The entire pile was arranged in such a way the small circuitboard in the front and center of the pile was accented, like a shining gem in a pile of trash.
Thundercracker scrutinised the small sparling peice. "It's the crown jewel of my collection." Skywarp beamed.
Thundercracker nearly facepalmed. "Is that a voltage regulator?" he pointed.
"I dunno." Skywarp shrugged. "It's just purdy."
-
Meanwhile back on the battlefield, the decepti-gun started to spout smoke. Megatron glanced at it. "What's wrong with it?" he called to hook.
"We had to reroute the power around the circuit regulator, it's missing!" the constructicon called back, exchanging weaponfire with yet another Autobot. Megatron groaned. This wasn't going to end well.
Meanwhile, Jade landed next to Starscream. He wasn't moving. "Star-" she stopped when he moved.
"Owwwwwww!" The seeker whined, then started whimpering again. Jade blinked. This wasn't normal Starscream-ness.
"Why does this allways happen to me? I'm allways getting shot down. And does Megatron think anything of it, no! I'm just another mindless bit of CANNONFODDER!" He kicked at a rock from his prone position.
"Uh..." Jade stopped.
She was going to... well, actually now that she thoguht of it, she wasn't sure what she would do. "Are you... okay?" she asked hesitantly, then cringed wishing she hadn't.
"DO I LOOK OKAY!" Starscream wailed. "I crashed into a tree and ow ow ow I think my wing is broken!" He tried to move then decided against it. Jade blinked and looked at the tree. His wing had been wedged between two larger branches, and the pine was all but laying on him.
"Okay. Here. Hold still" she practically sighed and charged her armcannon. Starscream cringed visibly, turning his optics off. When he realised the blasting sound hadn't hit him, he onlined them again. Jade shoved the tree away. "Better?" she asked.
If nothing else, the team could use whatever information starscream had. And when he was in a vulnerable place right now, she figured it would be just that much easier. Though seeing Prowl and Jazz come running up from too close away (where HAD they been?) with their weapons drawn made her think twice. "Uhmm, hi?" she held up her hands. Crap. They probably thought she was a Decepticon now.
Prime punched Megatron again, and Megatron tried to hit back but missed. So he instead settled for tackling the Autobot leader. "Fine. If I can't have the gun, nobody can!" he knew this was a bad idea. But he didn't want the Autobots getting his gun. He turned and fired his armcannon at it. The gun threw sparks, then exploded.
"Lookout!" someone yelled. Prime grunted as the impact hit him and Megatron, sending them both sprawling. Megatron stood and pointed his armcannon at the autobot leader's head. "This time, Prime, I win." He goated. Then fired.
His shot missed by a mile when something heavy slammed into him, though. The purple blur tumbled head over heels, activated after burners and took off again.
Megatron took to the sky. "Decepticons, destroy the device, now!" He yelled. The rest of the Decepticons ran for where their leader was, shooting at what remained of the device as they left.
Windstriker smirked. Ratchet was at least a hundred yards from the Autobot leader, and the rest of the Autobots were persuing the retreating Decepticons, leaving their leader... she grinned and swooped down.
Prime put a hand over the gash in his armor. It wasn't life-threatening, but it hurt. Now, he saw one of the unidentified mechs walking up. The mysterious third group. He wondered if they were working with the Decepticons. Why else would they be here if the Decepticons weren't? He glanced up towards the hill and saw Jazz and Prowl advancing on a seeker that looked a lot like Starscream. But Starscream was on the ground. The seeker took to the air and left.
"Hey, you okay?" windstriker kept glancing around. She didn't want anyone to see her talking to the Autobot leader. Jade circled and landed next to her. "Windy, we gotta go. The others are gonna be retreating any minute." she glanced at Prime. "I know, you're probably wondering..." she trailed off then said "You can't let them see you talking to them." Windstriker nodded, and spotted something white in the distance. The Autobot medic.
Winstriker started to say "I..." she suddenly didn't know what to say. Jade cut in with "I'm Jade, that's Windstriker, and she's a fangirl. She thinks you're cute."
Windstriker's optics went round and she smacked her friend on the shoulder. "Talk about inappropriate!" she snapped. "He's hurt and you're gonna tell him I'm..." they both halted mid-sentence as they realised was Prime watching them. "We gotta go." Jade grabbed Windstriker by the arm and yanked. She followed and the two transformed and flew away.
after a long minute of silence, Windstriker hissed "Why did you tell him that!?"
"What, he had to find out sometime? besides, he'll probably think differently about us now. He knows you like him, and maybe it'll help him realise we're not his enemies." Jade replied.
"But the Kintari ARE the Autobots's enemies." Windstriker retorted. "It's just gonna confuse them now." they circled again. Apparently, the other memebers of their team had regouped farther out. windstriker sighed and landed, giving Jade a warning glare to stay in the air. So she just transformed and hovered not too far away. Ratchet glanced up and Wheeljack aimed his gun at her. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what she said. She said it all wrong..."
Windstriker landed and glanced at Jade as though saying "Help me out here!" Jade shrugged, still hovering. Prime looked at Jade then back at Windstriker.
"I didn't get the chance to thank you for saving my life. Twice. So... thank you."
Ratchet and Wheeljack exchanged a suprised glance.
Windstriker grinned. "Well, uhmm... uh, " she was at a loss for words. "It's.. It was nothing."
Jade glanced over her shoulder. 'Windy, we gotta go." She took off. Windstriker's head snapped up and she instantly took to the air. The purple a-10 thunderbolt banked and followed Jade back to their group. "What was all that about?" Ratchet asked. Prime just shook his head. "I have no idea." he watched them leave. "Would you happen to know what a fan-girl is?"
--------------------------------------------------------------
- EndNotes:
1. Look out, TC, Skywarp's nesting! LOL
2. Prime's been fangirl'd! haha!
3. Yeah, I think Starscream got a bit fangirl'd too. XD. Shut up. LOL.
Also, just thought I'd include a quick definition of what SORC tags are. (pronounced "source tags")
This comes from the "Encyclopedia Cybertronia" section of my website (TransfanCentral.com).
S.O.R.C. is the abbreviation for Subspace Object Retreival Code".
Subspace tagging is done through a permanently-adhesive thin-chip (paper thin), which is accessed through the dataport hookup on a mech. Each set has a removable, disposable hookup cable that looks like a flat (or strip) cable. The chip is then installed in the mech's spu subspace controls, similar to how Windows XP detects and installs new hardware.
The squares are removed from the backing and adhered to the object (to the base surface). Adhering chips to the object on top of paint can cause errors, such as delays in transfer or an error message.
The ships come in sheets of nine, and are categorised with an ID letter-number system system that identifies each chip in case a person wants to access one or two seperately from the others. If the entire set is used on a single object, however, the "master identifier", usually the first tag, is used.
These chips are given seperate SOIDC's. S.O.I.D.C. stands for Subspace Object Identification code. Though they are more commonly known as an SORC (subspace object retrieval code).
Using two different SORC tags on a singular object will result in an error message, such as "SORC conflict: Object Not Found" or in some cases "Space-Sharing violation or ssv conflict.
Though an ssv conflict is usually what someone would get if they try to stick a SORC tag on a part of their person.
Subspace has to be accessed from outside, and therefore a person cannot be transferred into their own subspace pocket. It's like trying to transfer the outside of an object into it's interior. Well, something like that.
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And, last but not least, the Fort Rowdy Gathering is an actual gathering. Not going to say where it is (somewhere here in Ohio), but it is fun.
Stay tuned for more soon!