Whisper

(For this story alone, italicizing is whispering, and bold is Cybertronian.)

"Pssst!"

Jack stiffened. Confused, he looked up from gnawing on his clump of clay-food in search of the quiet disturbance. He gazed at the blurry doorway, where Cybertronian tongue loudly clicked from within. He was pretty sure that there was only two mechs. At least, he'd heard only two voices. The human frowned. He'd only heard the Cybertronian language in the three weeks he'd been on Cybertron, but that new sound he heard was distinctly not. He was pretty sure that Cybertronian couldn't hiss like that. If Jack didn't know any better, it almost sounded like human.

"Pssssst!"

He jumped up and pressed himself against a wall of his temporary prison. Well, a prison to Jack. To the mech who found the human avoiding being squashed by pedes on the street, it was a improvised kennel for his organic pet while he visited with another mech. One that the teen didn't catch a glimpse of. Jack had a strange feeling he wasn't suppose to be here, judging on how hastily his mech dropped the teen into the empty Energon cube with a chunk of his weird clay food, held a single digit to his faceplates, then crossed the room to join the other mech. This left Jack, though safe, thoroughly and utterly bored. Until now.

Through the side of the cube, Jack could just make out a blurry blob as it hastily crossed right in front of the lit doorway, the light highlighting its frame for a moment. The shape reminded Jack of Smokescreen, and a wave of homesickness crashed over the teen. He soaked in the feeling for a moment, then shoved the unruly emotion back down. It wouldn't help anything to be depressed. Besides, he'd seen plenty other mechs and femmes with similar frames. It could be anybot. Maybe they were here to rob the place. Hopefully they wouldn't be too interested in the little organic trapped in the Energon cube.

Jack held his breath when the blob softly called out again, barely within a human's hearing range.

"Jack?"

Jack's clay-food clunked on the ground. Impossible... Smokescreen!? He was here? How!? Jack wasn't sure how he ended up on Cybertron, much less Cybertron during the Golden Age. His memory of the incident foggy. If he tried hard enough, Jack could remember someone yelling "Run!", followed by the sound of a explosion. And suddenly he was on Cybertron, avoiding getting stomped on by oblivious Cybertronians. The fact that the young Elite Guard trainee was here wasn't a coincidence. It was a rescue. Jack glanced at the door to see if the two chatting mechs heard the voice. Luck was on his side. The conversation was still going, albeit a little louder and more intense than before.

"Jaaack? Buddy? You there?"

Jack pounded once on the glass with a single fist, hitting as loud as he dared. The blob froze until it located the sound. Stealth-like, it crossed the room and Smokescreen's beaming faceplates appeared over the edge of the cube.

"Dude! There you are!"

The young mech reached in and scooped Jack up easily with one servo.

"Glad that I found ya! When you didn't answer right away I figured that Optimus got the location wrong. I wouldn't have been surprised. This place is a piece of junk. Have to be really poor to live here.", Smokescreen whispered. He gave the boy a quick scan for any injuries. Finding none, he swept the human close the his spark chamber and quickly crept towards the window that he'd used for his entry.

"Everyone else is okay, you were the only one who got transported when the Groundbridge exploded. Ratchet was able to figure out what went wrong and recreate it. He explained what happened, but it was a whole bunch of sciencey mumble jumble so I blocked him out. Something about reversing the flow of the polarity."

.

Smokescreen paused the quiet chatter as he passed by the lit doorway unseen once more. He glanced down at Jack, practically sensing the question burning within the teen. The mech had a good guess of what it was.

"Arcee couldn't come. They sent me 'cause I technically haven't been sparked yet and they didn't want to risk it anyone meeting their past selves. I think Ratchet might have said something about disrupting the time flow somewhere in his explanation. Bee could have come, but he refused to leave Raf, so I was the one to go. Plus Optimus figured less bots would bug me once they saw that I'm part of the Elite Guard."

Curiosity sated, Jack settled in Smokescreen's servo. So far, so good. No problems. Smokescreen gave himself a mental pat on the back. When he got to the window however, he cursed and canceled the back patting.

With his two free servos, Smokescreen scaled up the outside wall to the second story and jumped through the window, landing noiselessly with pedes spread wide and one servo planted on the ground. Miko would have called it a 'Spider-man landing' The style alone would made Knockout jealous, but accomplishing it silently only added to the young mech's ego.

But that was with two servos. Having one available along with a fragile passenger made climbing down a bit more of a challenge than he expected. Trapped between Smokescreen's chassis and servo, Jack wiggled to gather his attention, sensing the young mech's hesitance.

"Problem?" Jack whispered.

"Nah. Fine, fine. Everything's good."

"You just said three positives in a row. I'm not convinced."

"No, for real. Just trying to figure out how to get both of us down safely", Smokescreen paused, then "I have an idea. Hang on."

Jack didn't struggle when the Elite Guard trainee gently pushed the teen farther up his chassis. He was promptly placed on Smokescreen's shoulder, the gray metal right above the mech's chest plate, in between his shoulder and neck. Jack carefully reached his fingers into the crevice between Smokescreen's body and shoulder, latching onto the metal to the best of his abilities. It was hard. Smokescreen didn't have anything to actually grab onto there. But as long as the mech didn't move suddenly, the human decided he could stay on. Smokescreen took another moment to mentally review his plan before approaching the window.

Unnoticed by either the boy or the young mech, the one of the voices from the other room was cut off by a sharp hiss from the other resident.

Smokescreen slid his right leg out the window first, followed by the that half of the bot. He ducked lower to avoid banging his helm on the top of the window. Jack stumbled around slightly with the motion, but kept a firm handhold. The teen glanced uneasily at the metal ground two Cybertronian stories below; a great deal higher than the human stories. He really hoped Smokescreen knew what he was doing. The blue and yellow mech leaned out a little further as he judged the distance to the ground, wondering if it was safe to jump.

When a deafening high-pitched squeal suddenly blared out behind him, Smokescreen was understandably startled. The young mech squawked as he jumped,- launching Jack out into the open space- servos windmilling for a second, before he lost his balance and tumbled out after the human.

"No!" Megatronus snarled as he rushed to the window. Halfway across the room there was a loud crash followed by the roar of an engine and a strange screeching noise. By the time the gladiator actually reached the window the street was empty, the only sign of the mech existence was a trail of smoke and two strange black marks about two mechanometers apart. Megatronus placed a servo on the frame, ready to launch himself out and chase down the strange mech when a pained cry from Orion stopped him in his tracks. He twirled, sword deploying instinctively after vorns of fighting in the arenas.

Instead of being ambushed like Megatronus feared, the red and blue librarian was cradling an old empty Energon cube to his chassis, his faceplates frozen in dismay and electromagnetic field fluxing in distraught. "Ae'er is gone!" Orion wailed.

Megatronus paused "Who?"

"Ae'er! The small organic I've been watching for the past deca-cycle! I considered it unwise to leave him at my dwelling for a long period of time, so I brought him to keep an optic on. And now he is gone!"

Megatronus's temper rose with each word.

"You fool! You brought something like that here?", Megatronus snarled, "I said these meetings could be dangerous, and yet you brought an organic!" He slammed a fist into the wall, the sword piercing through the metal. Orion flinched, but continued to gently rock the cube; field still tight and withdrawn. Megatronus vented deeply, using the precious kliks to wrestle with his temper and retracted his weapon.

Orion was soft, used to typing speeches and doing research necessary for their goal. The red and blue mech was still stuck in his previous mindset, where the idea of being in danger was only an afterthought. He'd only recently joined the revolution. The librarian was bound to make mistakes, Megatronus told himself. They were lucky that the organic was the only one to suffer the consequences this time.

Megatronus walked over to his comrade and placed what he hoped was a reassuring servo on Orion's shoulder pad, yet said nothing. The silver mech had little experience with comforting non-gladiator types. Normally a good pounding on the back suffice, followed by staying by their side while making sure his own pain was unnoticable. The repetition of that action helped him develop an uncrackable poker-face, one currently in use. Though he appeared stoick and unruffled on the outside, the inner Megatronus was furiously trying to work out what to do about the mech who broke into his residence.

The Energon inside Megatronus boiled at the thought. He was a renowned gladiator! Master of combat, champion of thousands of battles! How did he not notice the mech's presence until the pest almost disappeared? Where did he come from? Where did he go? Who did he work for? What was his reasoning for being there? Why did he take the organic? Did he hear of their plans for the next rally? All these question dug under Megatronus's armour, an annoyance that could be satisfied only one way. A way which vanished along with the meeting-crasher.

The gladiator couldn't track the mech now. Those black marks would only last so long. If the mech was smart, then he'd avoid attracting any attention to himself and drive to a previously chosen location, taking the backways and alleys, before silently disappearing. Basics a trained mech like that was sure to know.

Megatronus was certain the intruder was a mech; an old instinct that never failed him before insisted on such. But there was something that he was missing. It was on the tip of his glossa. Megatronus frowned as his processor brought up the memory file and replayed the moment. The frown mentally transformed into a small smirk when the unknown mech lost his balance and toppled out the window. He'd never seen a mech fall so clumsily, even during all of his years of combat. Seeing nothing obvious, Megatronus rewound the memory file and played it in reduced speed. The plunge was still amusing, even more so in slow motion.

He was entertained enough that he nearly missed a curious golden glint on the mech's shoulder pad that reflected as he fell. He barely caught sight of it, but it immediately held his attention. Something about the color that was off. Gold was not a color that a mech of that coloration should reflect. Megatronus paused the file, then slowly rewound frame by frame until he had a blurred view of what caused the flash. He froze the frame and zoomed on the flash as close as possible. It was barely recognizable, but the sight made Megatronus's tanks freeze.

An Elite Guard insignia.

Frag.

Megatronus's free servo clenched as a wave of rage washed through his systems. The Elite Guard worked for only one. The Council. And the Council only sent them to deal with threats to Cybertron. The revolution had done nothing to deserve such attention. Unless the peaceful rallies counted as a dangerous, which Megatronus had his doubts.

Then a thought passed through his processor. The revolution was dangerous, not to Cybertron, but to the Council. If they got their way, then the Council would lose a lot of their influence, if not all of it. They wouldn't sit and do nothing as more supporters gathered under Megatronus and Orion. But because no laws have been broken, no action could be taken legally. So the fraggers settled for taking care of the problem in a way that was less... proper.

"Is Cybertron so corrupt that the Council believes they can do something like this?" Megatronus snarled softly. He glanced at his partner, curious to see if the mech heard him. No, he hadn't. He was still staring at the floor, rocking the Energon cube close to his chassis. But the sight of the empty Energon cube brought up another mystery. Megatronus could not understand why they took Orion's organic pet. They would have known that Orion had grown attached, and that stealing it would be more motivation for the librarian. Was the Council was trying to emotionally unbalance them?

Megatronus's digits dug hard enough into his servo to draw Energon. So the Council wanted to play dirty. He saw no problem with playing along. Off the top of his processor he could think of multiple mechs who would gladly join him in doing some dirty work. Megatronus gave the librarian grieving on his floor a side-glance. It would be best if Orion thought his pet was taken by an average thief. They couldn't have him being distracted by thoughts of revenge. In reality, it actually was good that the flesh-bag was gone. The pest could have been used for bribery later on. Hopefully the Elite Guard killed the organic the first moment possible.

Jack sunk into Smokescreen's seat, hand clutching his chest as his heart began to settle. When Smokescreen startled, Jack had lost his pitiful handhold and sent flying. The teen was positive that he was going to end up as a 'splat' against the Cybertronian street. He'd barely finished giving his farewells when Smokescreen flopped down after him like some sort of derpy avenging angel, transforming into his alt. mode and grabbing the human in unison. Somehow Jack ended up inside Smokescreen, his butt dropping heavily into the driver's seat as the car landed with a shudder.

The moment his wheels touched the ground, Smokescreen hit the gas, rubber screeching against the metal street. A small part of the teen's brain was impressed by the smoke trail left behind, but the other part was screaming at the mech to go faster. The seat belt wrapped around the teen and clicked into place, pressing him into the seat. "Hang on! We're gonna go fast so they don't catch us!" the mech said as he blasted around the corner. Jack made the mistake of checking Smokescreen's speed gauge. He fought down a gulp as the little red needle hovered past one hundred, dipping slightly only to accommodate for turns.

Smokescreen took another corner, sharply jerking to the left, scraping his paint against the wall. Jack heard a loud shriek, and used the rear view mirror to see dingy red mech angrily shaking a servo at the fleeing rookie. It didn't take a genius to realize that they'd nearly hit the other mech, Smokescreen's superior reflexes preventing the two from colliding.

The red mech disappeared as Smokescreen turned right. The corner opened to a wide street, where mechs and femmes stood behind metal counters on the sides, showing off objects from their stalls. Other Cybertronians hurriedly crossed between stalls, bartering for what was being sold. It was some sort of open-air market. But all of the stalls looked run down, some rusting while others had giant holes in the metal. Jack saw one mech that didn't have a stall, just a large table with his merchandise set up on it. This must be part of the poor section of Cybertron, Jack realized.

The crowd scattered when Smokescreen didn't slow down, blasting through the mass with reckless abandonment. Cybertronians panicked and dove to the side, throwing their purchases into the air as the Autobot rookie flew by. Loud screeches followed the trail of destruction left in the car's wake. Jack screamed when Smokescreen barely missed hitting a femme, the mech throwing himself to the right just in time, shouting "SORRY!" as they passed. By the time the teen comprehended they actually hadn't hit her, Smokescreen already left the outdoor market in the dust.

The young mech swerved onto a giant roadway. The rusty hover-car next to them immediately started honking as Smokescreen barely avoided smashing into them. The Autobot trainee ignored the sound, eyeing the signs on the sides of the road "Jack, keep an optic out for a sign that looks like a giant Sharkicon took a bite out of it. I think that is where we need to turn off to get to the Groundbridge."

"Uhhhmmm," Jack hesitated, clueless on what a Sharkicon was, much less what it's bite marks would look like. Guessing it was like a shark from Earth, the young teen spotted a sign with jagged edges on one edge and said "There! Left!"

Immediately Smokescreen turned left, not looking before he turned. Big mistake, as they discovered as they turned. The mech was going too fast to stop, even when he discovered they were heading straight for the edge of the road and the ditch right besides it. Jack howled "Not right away!" as the two dropped off the side of the road, into the trench.

Smokescreen cursed when his tires didn't catch any traction on the slippery metal wall as he braked. A quick glance at the bottom of the ravine revealed a thin drain covering, one that would surely crumbling under his weight, sending him and Jack falling for miles into the depths of Cybertron. "I can't hit that." he muttered to Jack's confusion. The Elite Guard trainee pressed on his brakes harder. Nothing, he was still sliding. Well, if braking wasn't working… Smokescreen hit the gas.

He instantly shot forward, inertia forcing him over the grate. Smokescreen nearly cheered, until his front wheels hit the wall on the other side of the ditch and he went shooting up the wall. Jack screeched his organic lungs out and Smokescreen let out a short 'whoop!' as they went up. A ledge on the other edge of the road caught on Smokescreen's bumper, resulting in a pained grunt from the mech. One that instantly forgotten when the bump launched the duo into the air. The Elite Guard trainee wrapped another seat belt around Jack's head to protect him from the oncoming whiplash. Below, the traffic heading in the opposite direction of what the two wanted panicked and swerved away from the flying mech. Smokescreen landed with a loud 'crunch', jerking several times to try and straighten.

After a couple moments he did level out. The other Cybertronians stayed back, wary of the crazy mech with strange wheels that came flying out of the ditch. If he did that, then Primus knows what he'd do next.

Inside Smokescreen, it was dead silent. The mech released the seat belt holding Jack's head. Then the rookie muttered "Fraggin' ditch! Look at me! My bumper is almost gone, one of my tires is whompy, and my shocks are gonna ache for days! Hatchet is gonna kill me for coming back damaged. When we're rebuilding Cybertron in our own time I'm gonna find that exact ditch and build a building over it."

Jack snorted, which turned into a giggle then full blown laughter as all the emotions caught up with him. Smokescreen joined him after a second, laughing hard enough that the mech started to slow down. Eventually they crawled to halt, splitting their sides as the traffic flowed around the duo. Jack laughed until he couldn't breath, wiping tears from his eyes.

"Hey-hey-hey, you're not crying on me are ya? We managed to get away from the mechs holding you, didn't we?", Smokescreen giggled, managing to throw concern into his tone.

"We did, just I can't believe we just did that! That was crazy! Like something straight out of the movies." Jack chuckled and wiped more tears. Smokescreen started his engine, speeding and settling with the flow of traffic.

"Yep. All that's missing is a couple cop cars on our aft. Makes me glad there was no Enforcers around today." Smokescreen agreed. He peeled off from the main traffic, crossing over the ditch properly, by using nearby bridge, and merged with the traffic heading in the direction he wanted. Then he added "I bet they're gonna be telling stories about that to their grandsparklings."

The teen burst into laughter once again as Smokescreen pulled off again, this time using the off-ramp.

Hello! This was created because beginnings, middles, and endings all come easily to me, but connections are much more difficult. I get so many ideas that need to be written, but are difficult to put in an actual story. For me at least. Which is why this is here. Thank you to anyone who read it! Sorry for OOC thoughts or actions. It's hard to keep in character and still follow the story in mind.

Anyway, this little drabble was inspired by Timeframe by Cyber Rouge. If you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it. Cliche of me to say that, I know, but it's worth the search and read. I was reading the story and wondered how the kids would get back to Earth and their correct time. Inspiration struck, and I pondered over it for a while. Then the chapter with Soundwave came out, and an even better idea sprung forth from my mind. It's only Jack trapped in the past because it was too hard for me to write all three kids in the situation I had in mind.

The whole ditch-diving incident is an actual event. Not to me, but my uncle. I just wrote it as I remembered, with Smokescreen's point of view as my uncle's. Thankfully, when it happened to my uncle it was early morning. He's fun-crazy, because after all that, he goes straight to work. Didn't even realize how broken his car was until after he got off work. The damage done to Smokescreen is actual damage my uncle's car received, except my uncle had to get his car towed. But I figured Smokescreen is tougher than my uncle's car, so he wouldn't be that badly injured.

The name Orion gave Jack is actually Sindarin Elvish. I got an online translator, typed in Small one, and Ae er popped out. Squashed the words together, add an apostrophe, and Tada! Cybertronian name for Jack! The Cybertronian time measurements I acquired from the Transformer Wiki, and goes as followed: Deca-cycle is about three weeks, Kliks are seconds, and Cycles are about twelve hours. And a Mechanometer is about a meter.

I love constructive criticism and gladly accept it. Especially cause this is my first Transformers fic. But no flames, please. I check for mistakes, but I'm human and will miss things. Be patient. But if you like it, then by all means follow, favorite, and comment if you enjoyed it that much. Thanks!