Earth (Part 1)
"'Flight! Relax already okay? Only a few more hours and we're there."
The small silver and red female bot was pacing around the very small transport ship and fidgeting constantly, her large elegant wings folded down and twitching impatiently behind her. She was tiny, a good head smaller than Sideswipe, her wings making up a quarter of her size and the heavy duty plasma cannon attached to her back above them making up another. She was lithe and delicately built and had an elaborate red crest on her forehead as well as large pale blue optics, almost white, which were currently darting around and trying to find something interesting to focus on. Damn flyers and their claustrophobia.
When the little bot failed to respond, a loud burst of music echoed through the cabin, courtesy of the ship's third inhabitant Jazz. He was small as well; shorter than Fireflight but a little more heavily built. He was mostly a striking silver colour, with hints of black around his joints and such, a pair of audial horns on top of his head and a visor over his eyes. Attached to one of his arms was a grappling hook, and on the other was a speaker, the source of the loud music and the reason the poor flyer had almost jumped through the roof.
"Oh real good Jazz," Sideswipe snarked, glaring at the smaller bot. "Let's terrify the already jumpy Aerialbot."
The volume dropped slightly and Jazz gave Fireflight a sheepish grin. "Sorry. I just find music helps me relax, thought it might help ya too."
Sideswipe rolled his optics, returning his attention to piloting the small ship. He was a deep red colour, also with black around his joints, face and horns, standing out against his bright blue optics. He was the largest of the three and the most heavily built, with much thicker armour. That didn't leave him completely immobile compared to the others though, as he had a powerful sleek jet-pack attacked to his back. Not that it was any use trapped inside this stupid ship.
He enjoyed flying, piloting was one of his best talents, but there was only so much he could take of the small enclosed space alongside these two.
Fireflight and he were very close despite her spacey personality and apparent crippling fear of enclosed spaces. She was a sweet bot with a good spark that tended to see the best in everyone and everything, something he very much appreciated. It also helped that she found him funny and interesting to talk to. Recently though she'd done nothing but bounce between twitchy and horribly depressed and it was really beginning to take its toll on him.
Jazz was his unit's well-respected and probably infamous commander; a very intelligent and highly trained Cyber-ninja with a fondness for explosives and of course blaring music. Not that his superiority was going to stop Sideswipe from throttling the smaller bot if he sent 'Flight into another full-blown panic attack.
Sure enough though, she responded to the constant noise as expected, panicking and beginning to bang on the sealed door. "Lemme out! Lemme out! I can't take this anymore!"
"Whoops." Jazz stated with a grin, looking anything but sorry. The little glitch had probably done it on purpose, wanting a rest stop himself.
"I hate you." Sides grumbled at Jazz, re-aiming the ship towards a nearby chunk of space rock and going in for a quick landing.
Fireflight was out of the ship the second the door released, the thrusters in her feet activating and sending her spiraling into the air where she proceeded to transform. Her plating and systems rearranged themselves in an instant, turning her into a Cybertronian jet with her large cannon attached to the bottom. She shot out into space, gliding along the side of the rock and letting out a gleeful 'wee!'
The other two had land-based vehicle modes, leaving them to explore the rock by either wheels or feet until their companion had gotten it out of her system. Both were careful to keep her in sight though; she had damn near no sense of direction and a knack for getting lost even in the most unlikely of places.
"Guess she needed it more than I thought," Sideswipe commented, wandering out of the ship and stretching out his tight muscle cables, wincing at the sounds some of them made. When he received no answer, he turned around to glance at Jazz, finding the ninja nowhere to be seen. "Have I mentioned recently that I really hate when you do that?" He called out, huffing and leaning back against the ship to wait for his teammates.
This constant stopping in the middle of space was boring; he hoped they were able to reach their destination without any other interruptions.
The trio were headed towards Earth; a tiny little mud ball inhabited by organics off in the middle of nowhere, in search of information on a team their faction had left on the planet a number of years back. They were Autobots; the good side of the civil war that ravaged their home world of Cybertron, or so they claimed. The other side, the Decepticons likely believed the same to be true of them. Whichever was the case, the planet was dead and the remaining bots had scattered to the stars.
The particular team they were after consisted of the faction's leader Optimus Prime as well as their head medic Ratchet among others. They hadn't received any communications from them in close to ten years, something Jazz decided to investigate, likely out of both worry and sheer boredom. Sideswipe and Fireflight had simply been with him at the time.
Jazz returned a few minutes later, leaping down from the top of the ship and startling the red bot. "Yup." He answered, Sideswipe taking a moment to realise it was an answer to his previous shouting.
"Delayed response much?" He grouched, crossing his arms. "Where were you?"
"Explorin'," The small silver bot replied cheerily. "We're not the only ones that decided to take a pit stop here."
"Seekers again?" Sideswipe asked wearily. He was usually fond of a good fight, but these particular Decepticons had been obsessively tailing them for ages, and were actually easily a match for them, mostly because they could fly. They also had a reasonable field medic among them and were in much better condition that Sideswipe's little team.
"Looks like." Jazz replied, already transforming down into his little silver hover-car form. "Get the ship runnin' again; I'll grab 'Flight."
One mock-salute later and Sideswipe was doing as told, cursing the little ship as it struggled to start up at the speed he was demanding of it. "I know, I know," He mumbled, smacking a section of the control panel that was coming lose. "Just this one last time? Please?"
"Talking to your non-sentient ship?" A smooth feminine voice sneered from just outside. "And here everyone keeps claiming I'm the crazy one."
"You are, what with all the stalking you get up to." Sideswipe retorted, unsheathing blades out of the tops of his wrists and over his fists as he cautiously made his way out of the ship. "I know I'm gorgeous and all, but why can't you just take no for an answer?"
"Oh you know me, I just can't get enough of egotistical morons that think they're witty," The femme replied dryly. She had a similar frame to Fireflight, including the way her wings hung down behind her, but she was larger all around and deep green and black. Her red eyes were narrowed and mouth twisted into a nasty smirk. "Where's your little girlfriend?"
"Not here," Sideswipe answered truthfully enough; he couldn't see either of his teammates anymore. "I'm afraid you'll just have to settle for getting your sorry can kicked by me."
"Cute," The femme, Slipstream, replied mockingly, pulling a number of throwing knives out of nowhere and balancing them between her fingers. "But it doesn't matter. Even if I waste time on you, Skywarp and Thundercracker will find your little friend."
"Can't go anywhere without your little minions can you?"
"Afraid not. They're lost without me you see."
Sideswipe rolled his optics and lunged towards the Decepticon, slicing with his blades. She gracefully ducked and rolled out of the way, throwing her knives straight at his face as soon as she was upright once again. He blocked two of them with his blades, a loud clang echoing through the area, and the third and fourth went wide, although one of them scratched a horn on the way past. Wincing at the jolt that sent through his systems, he swung again, aiming for the jet's wings this time. She realised what he was up to instantly and back-flipped away, kicking him upside the chin. She then activated her thrusters, shooting up into the air above him where she proceeded to transform both arms into blasters and fire down at him.
Bringing his arms up to protect his face, Sideswipe glanced around frantically a moment before rushing to duck behind his poor abused ship for cover. Probably not the best idea, but it'd do for the moment. Despite how battered he already was and low on energy, there was no way he'd lose to the likes of Slipstream, so he wracked his processor for any kind of plan with even half a chance of working.
Grinning, he transformed his own left arm into a powerful blaster and took a few shots in the Seeker's general direction. She reacted as expected, dropping down slightly and easily avoiding the blasts. His jet-pack roared to life and he flung himself up and straight towards Slipstream. She reacted too slowly, surprised he'd even attempt using the device with such low energy levels, and had only just finished transforming into her jet mode for more manoeuvrability when they collided. Sideswipe unsheathed his blades once again, slamming them into the flyer's wings violently, both to damage her and keep his grip. She cried out in pain, spiraling down towards the ground.
"This is gonna hurt," The red Autobot muttered right before both hit the ground and everything went black.
Meanwhile, Slipstream's buddies had managed to track down Fireflight right about the same time as Jazz, leading to a two-on-two fight. Actually, considering their sizes and less-than-stellar conditions at the moment, Jazz figured he and 'Flight probably only added up to a single bot between them. If they were lucky. Fireflight's inability to stay focused on one thing for more than a few minutes at a time really wasn't helping their cases, and even though Jazz knew it wasn't entirely her fault, it was beginning to drive him just a little bit crazy. He was far too used to having teammates that worked effortlessly in tandem with him, practically reading his mind.
Skidding around a rock formation and narrowly avoiding the shots Thundercracker was firing down after him, Jazz threw his car form off a small ledge, transforming mid-fall so he could roll on impact and fire a few return shots of his own. When they all went wide, missing the mostly blue Seeker, he quickly shifted back and screeched off driving again, flaring out his sensors in an effort to find Fireflight. He'd lost sight of her a short while ago when Skywarp, the third Seeker, had chased her off in a random direction.
Speaking of the purple flyer, Jazz was forced to veer left suddenly to avoid a small rocket that had appeared suddenly in front of him and quickly spun out of control. Skywarp, true to his name, was capable of teleporting short distances even in his jet form; something most Autobots found incredibly annoying. He wasn't particularly smart or powerful, just always in one's face.
Transforming back to his root mode, the small silver bot threw himself to the ground as Skywarp roared overhead, a small silver and red form trailing after him and firing plasma blasts. Just as one finally collided with the Seeker's tail end and sent him crashing into the far-to-close-to-begin-with ground, Jazz was forced to focus on Thundercracker again; the larger bot transforming and landing right in front of him. He looked rather weary himself, although likely more psychologically than physically considering his teammates.
"Look, I really don't feel like fighting you today, so can you please just hand over the damn Aerialbot?" Thundercracker grouched, giving Jazz an exhausted look. "We'll leave you to deactivate in peace on this horrible rock."
"Oh gee, cause that's a real selling point there TC," Jazz retorted with an eye-roll, taking a step backwards warily. "I'm kinda fond of living thanks and lil 'Flight as well."
"Why? She's just as irritating as Skywarp, if not more. She's young, stupid, and far too powerful for her own good." The Seeker replied, glancing up at said bots as they more-or-less flew in large circles and missed shooting one another.
"One, ya don't mean that or ya wouldn't still be hangin' around him after so long," Jazz replied, counting off on his fingers. "And two, because she's still young an' stupid. She's got her own weird outlook on life and I find it kinda refreshin'."
"I love how you ignored my third point. She's not half as innocent as all you Autobots like to believe." Thundercracker reminded him dully. "We're only after her because of what she and her brothers are capable of."
"Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah," Jazz replied mockingly, bored of the discussion now. Besides, he'd come up with an escape plan. "You gonna talk me to death or what?"
Not really one to be goaded into attacking thoughtlessly, Thundercracker hesitated, choosing to watch Jazz cautiously instead, just as the little ninja had planned. He waited until Skywarp and Fireflight looped back over their heads, before firing his grappling hook upwards. The blue Seeker reacted quickly, firing at where he expected the hook to go; towards Skywarp. Unfortunately for him (and possibly her too) it was aimed at Fireflight instead, looping around her tail end. Jazz was pulled up into the air and off in a random direction as Fireflight squeaked in fright and took off, leaving him to cheekily wave goodbye to the Seekers.
Haphazardly he pulled himself upward, small enough to awkwardly perch on Fireflight's back, cautious of her wings and really awful flying. She flew like a brick on a good day; his added weight was definitely not helping.
"A warning would've been nice!" 'Flight complained, pulling herself together enough to try and look for their ship. Luckily for her, it was shiny and stood out amongst the barren rock. "You shot me!"
"I shot at you, and you're fine so quit whinin'," Jazz responded, holding on for dear life as the female jet swerved down towards the ship. "Besides, shouldn't you be used to it with Siders around?"
"That was only one time," Fireflight retorted, struggling to steady herself and come in for a non-disastrous landing. "No wait, twice."
"Twice!? Why the frag are you still with-"
Jazz didn't get to finish his sentence, instead leaping for his life and rolling just as Fireflight hit the ground hard. The impact hurt, but not enough to knock him out like the other. Make that others. Sideswipe appeared to be unconscious nearby as well along with a mangled heap of metal that Jazz presumed was probably Slipstream.
"Oh this is just awesome." Jazz grumbled to himself; now forced to haul his larger and heavier teammates back into their very sad-looking ship that he had no idea how to fly. This would not end especially well.
Greetings! This is my first venture into the Transformers fandom, so we'll see how it goes. I've had this idea kind of circulating in my head for a while now, but I'm only just getting it down now due to NaNoWriMo. As mentioned in the summary, it's set as a sequel of sorts to Prime and as such I've chosen to write it as a season. The general plan is for it to be 26 episodes long, each episode being about two chapters, but once again, we'll see how that goes.
I'm always open to feedback, so let me know what you think! I have taken a lot of creative liberties with the 'new' characters, pulling from previous versions and mixing things up until I'm happy with it. Fireflight in particular I am very happy with, but once again, I'd love to hear your opinion.
Also, usual disclaimers apply; I own nothing!
Till next time!
~Saani