Flying Start
This story contains ideas that Littlemewlugia and I have worked on together.
Summary: Miles's demonstration of his junker car goes wrong, but the All spark turns it into something that makes his and Sam's dreams come true.
"There it is! said Miles, "I've got 'er! Wanna come for a drive?"
"Er, sure!" Sam said.
"Well, seeing I've had a hand in putting it on the road again, I'm glad to come and test out our handiwork!" Mikaela said.
"We only passed you things and polished it," said Sam.
"Not it, her! I'm calling her Fire Lucy," said Miles.
"`O….K," I guess that's a good car name," said Sam "Let's go!"
They set off.
Miles put a cassette in the player and music filled the car from the back and front speakers. They relaxed. For some reason Mikaela and Sam had not been able to relax so much in Bumblebee. Even Miles relaxed, tapping the steering wheel to the beat as he turned out onto the freeway.
"I know she's not a sentient like your car, Sam, but isn't this good?" he said. Sam had had to tell him the basics about Bumblebee and he'd put him under the gag order from the army too.
"Yeah," said Sam relaxing in the back with Mikaela.
"Hey, what's that idiot trying to do?" He said, as a red car was approaching rapidly in the mirror. He tried to dodge out of the way into the next lane, but a police car was overtaking him and all he could do when rear-ended was careen into the back of some other guy's car in front, which was also red, and seemed to be slowing to block them off. He'd never heard of anyone trying to create a pile-up!
"Decepticons!" cried Sam noticing the number of the police car, 643.
"Take that fleshies!" said Barricade in his deep voice.
"Yeah come with us to the scrap-heap!" came from the car behind,
"You're too right! I'm Swindle, and that's Dead End, and look above you, you're surrounded!" came from the other red car at the side as the car they were in caught fire.
Sam shuddered as he looked up and recognised Starscream, but the unsuspecting Miles thrilled in spite of his fear. Flying above them was an F-22 Raptor!
Miles' last conscious memory was to wish he had flown in one of them before he died.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Sam and Mikaela knew it was Starscream but Miles only knew it was an aggressive F-22. Nevertheless, it made their last conscious thoughts the same: to run, or fly, away. The All spark, at present living in Sam's brain, made them all instantly able, via data and fuel, to do just that. It was in the business of saving life, not destroying it, and Sam held its essence, and essential information of their race. It was only natural to turn his two friends into fliers with him, and since the last transformer they had seen was an F-22 jet, that was the form they took.
"Hey, bro, we 're flying! I can control my roll, bank, pitch and yaw!" called Miles to Sam, in that instant realising he was using radio communications. "That means I can turn side to side, left and right, up and down! Use your elevators-tail fins, the little flaps, to steer!"
"I know!" Sam said. "Good thing Mr Dyson made us do this story involving flight! I found all this on a website!"
He found the practice a bit more difficult than the theory though, and nearly crashed while learning to fly in a straight line.
"Get above the clouds! " yelled Miles over the com "Pull your nose up!"
Mikaela was used to moving gracefully, and now she was just very glad that she had a throbbing powerful engine to support her wings, and she took to flying like a bird.
Starscream, meanwhile, after diving down with a growled "Grind those treacherous Autobot-supporting squishies to a pulp, my Decepticons!" was confused. He could not detect any dead organic waste in that scrap-heap car the male friend of the Witwicky boy had been driving, although there was some organic discharge and residue, and he had detected a blast of All spark energy.
By the time he worked it out the new trine of F-22s was above the clouds, off his radar, and away.
Miles was the only one who could think of a place to land, he knew the details of the nearby Nellis Air Base. Although the planes did not have any recognisable details they were not giving out any enemy signals, so they allowed them to land.
Lennox and Epps were there at the time and Epps came over to them with 12 armed soldiers, being suspicious of all strange F-22s. After all, there was a rumour that Starscream had a trine now.
"Its ok, we're friends!" called Sam on an open com. They transformed to land, but it was difficult.
"I still have shapely hips" said Mikaela, hopping like a kangaroo, " but how d'you walk like this?"
"Transform!" called Sam taking the lead in a difficult situation
They changed back into plane form and relanded.
As Sam had been given some recognisable emergency access codes and names, in the end he called the Autobots via com, and Ratchet, Ironhide and Optimus helped them walk in
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Fire Lucy was just a twisted heap of metal. Barricade scanned it, but could not find any traces of wrecked organic humans.
"I have not avenged Megatron - somehow that slippery squishy has escaped again!" he growled.
"Decepticons- Retreat!" called Starscream, " Back to base, we'll recon the situation and launch another attack later!"
"
"I wonder who's gonna look after Mason now," said Miles "I'll have to leave a note." He managed to dictate a note for home to Ratchet : "Have found new job away from home. Tell Dad sorry about the car, please look after Mason the dog." That brought a pang of regret to his voice, he would never touch the Mastiff's soft fur again, never wash him and smell the wet dog smell, for the animal would be frightened of him. Would his parents be too? He wondered . He would never be able to drive a car again, but flying compensated. Somehow he would earn some money and pay his Dad back for the car.
Miles determined that he would make some link to his old life, even if he could never go back to it. The young new Seeker looked at Sam who sighed now cycling his vents, and looked at Mikaela thinking of his own dog Mojo. Mikaela made a similar noise and put a hand on his shoulder. It amazed him how uplifted it made him feel and he shuddrered.
"Come on" said Ratchet "I can get you all in base, checked over and fuelled up, we don't have many fliers. There's one, you'll have to meet him, his creators are missing, his name's Silverwing."
"Oh Ratchet it s so good to see you", said Mikaela, "We've just been through so much, a Freeway pile-up, a Decepticon attack , a flight-"
"I have some idea what it's like, all transformation is stressful. I have changed from a cometary body to a robot to an ambulance and back to a robot again, but I will admit from an organic human to a robotic flyer is quite a shock, and you'll find our recharge beds and my medical energon a help. Ah, here is the Med-bay, come in," said Ratchet.
He led all three new seekers into his Med-bay which was in a hanger sized part of the Autobot base.
"You'll progress from here to the R&R room opposite across the corridor. Silverwing, the only other flier in the base, recharges in Optimus's office round the corner, where the crew-rooms storage and training bay is as well, i,e., Ironhide's Armoury. Lubrication, utility and human and bot washing facilities are my department too, and any outside communication goes through Will and Mirage on the gate."
Mirage had just arrived and gone into the recon department with Bumblebee, just as Hound had gone into base maintenance.
Mikaela had helped Ratchet before and knew where to find the fuel.
"Where's the fuel tank on a plane? " she asked Miles.
"Here," he said finding it. Even though they were now in Robot form it was still labelled . "I feel empty here. "
She filled him and Sam up then Sam filled her. Ratchet helped and brought them some cubes of energon.
"I hope you like it," he said ,"because it's what you'll be drinking from now on."
Sam found he liked the energon. He liked Mikaela filling him up too.
She liked him filling her up and giggled.
When Ratchet had checked them over they went through to Optimus' office. The Autobot leader introduced them to Silverwing.
"His Creators are Missing," he said "We hope they will arrive from space soon."
"How are you learning to fly then?" said Sam
"Cliffjumper takes me up. He has a jet pack. Bumblebee does as well sometimes!" said the little silver youngling.
"Really?" said Sam looking forward to seeing his yellow friend again. "Do you get any help from the forces?"
"Mr Epps has given me pre-flight checks and polishes me!" said Silverwing.
"We've worked out how to take off, shall I show you ? You start up your engines and head off with those little flaps on your wings up, then put them down to land!"
So they practised like that until Ratchet told them to come in for a recharge. With a tarpaulin over them it was not the same but had the semblance of a human bed . For some reason, maybe to recover from the stress, they all wanted to be touching each other.
Silverwing wanted to be cuddled in the centre of the heap and Bumblebee found them and came in too , politely curling up to Sam's back from the outside. He had been very worried to hear that his young human friend had been involved in a car crash and was glad to find he was alive, albeit changed into a Cybertronian Seeker. In fact it was nice that his human friends had become more like him , but he expected they would take a bit of time and adjustment to see it that way.
"Sam, its good to see you alive! " he cried running in and embracing him, "hi Mikaela, hey there Miles, you make a good F22 Fighter plane!"
He put an arm round Mikaela and thumped Miles on the shoulder, reaching up to do so.
"I guess I do, but it's a different thing digging the model of plane to becoming one and flying."
"AND becoming a robot!" Said Sam," I know we're cybertronians like you Bumblebee, but we're like no -one in your base."
"You're a Seeker trine," said Bumblebee.
"\\\\\\\Don't say you're gonna bring Starscream into teach us to fly!"
"Just because there's no seekers here doesn't mean we know nothing about them" said Bumblebee. "Come in and I'll start showing you how to walk, we need Ratchet, Ironhide, Arcee, the twins, and Optimus Prime!"