The air was cold, with just the first taste of winter's bite carried on the wind. Of course, given his current altitude perhaps the bite in the air wasn't entirely caused by the time of year. The land flowed out beneath him like a tapestry, the planet's greens and browns flowing in to each other in a rich patchwork cultivated lands and wilderness. If he focused his optics just so he could make out individual trees, some of them not the proper green but gold or red.
Autumn, he decided was his favorite time of year. Of course he had yet to see a winter, so it was possible that that season was even more beautiful. He'd never tell Slingshot, but sometimes he liked this planet, with all of its varied colors and textures better then he liked Cybertron.
Off to the west the sun was setting over the ocean and the effect was so beautiful that it was almost a minute before he realized he'd left his patrol pattern and was headed into PDX's air space. He apologized to the air traffic controller who was squawking at him over the radio and straightened out his flight pattern. Far below him, in a shallow ravine something caught the light of the setting sun and winked at him. He hesitated for a long moment, he was supposed to be patrolling, looking for signs of the next Decepticon scheme, but it was so shiny. It could be part of a Decepticon ploy, the part of his mind the always came up with rationalization whispered, it sounded disconcertingly like Air Raid. Mind made up he banked, looping back to come in for a landing at the head of the ravine.
Transforming in mid air as soon as he'd spilled off enough air speed and altitude looked cool, but led to him landing a bit harder then he'd intended to. He stumbled a few steps before regaining his footing. He took a few cautious steps into the ravine looking for what ever it was that had caught his attention. There in the middle of the dry streambed was a highly polished rock, about the size of his fist. He walked cautiously towards it. Beyond it he could make out another and in the shadows of the ravine wall he could make out a third, forming a trail off into the depths of the canyons, where no doubt some kind of cruel prank was waiting for him.
He scowled; he'd been putting up jokes about his attraction to shiny things since he'd first come on-line. Mostly from his brothers, as Air Raid and Slingshot had a habit of ganging up on anyone who wasn't an aerialbot who gave him too much of a hard time, and Silverbolt, surprisingly enough, had a habit of pretending he didn't know exactly how Tracks had wound up hanging by one foot from the top of a radio tower while he was recharging, in the middle of the night. He had suggested the possibility of sleepwalking, and since the two aerialbots had been careful, and quite possibly had had help in the form of Sideswipe, nobody could prove anything and the matter had been dropped. Except by Tracks, who wasn't particularly fond of being suspended from radio any things.
Still scowling he picked up the rock and turned it over in his hands. With an annoyed noise he activated his radio. "Very funny guys. Ha Ha."
The response from Air Raid and Slingshot was very fast, very confused, and so close together that the transmissions over lapped. "What?" "I didn't do nothin'" He scowled again and with an angry shake of his head returned to his patrol pattern. Some mechs, he decided, would never grow up.
Swindle peered around a boulder in the depths of the ravine. He too was scowling, albeit for a different reason, now the only way he was going to be able to get a jet to move some of his goods for him was to pay Thundercracker's recently raised fee. Despite doubling his price the blue seeker was still the cheapest of the deceepticon jets to work with. Swindle suspected that the seeker had only raised his prices to give Swindle a headache.
Oh well, some times sacrifices had to be made, and it wasn't like he couldn't get the money back the next time Thundercracker needed something he couldn't get through normal channels. He had been so sure the shiny rocks would work though…