So here is my April submission to the writing contest on the IDW forums. This time around it was "Transformer first times" and I really wanted to push the boundaries and do something really original with it. And Cliffjumper kindly obliged.
Wheels were interesting. They weren't anywhere near as smooth as magna plates, making him feel every bump and dip in the road as a sharp jolt, but they added a certain physical aspect to his vehicle mode. Now he was always touching the ground, always connected to it. It was a bonding experience.
However, wheels could be irritating. The pavement abruptly stopped altogether and the road turned to dirt and gravel. His small frame rocked unsteadily over the uneven ground and he felt it each time a pebble was thrown up into his undercarriage. It didn't really hurt, per say, but it was sure annoying.
The small vehicle gunned its engine and sped up, tires slipping and sliding over the loose earth. His alt mode wasn't made for "off road" like some of the others, but he wasn't about to let that stop him.
A warning from his proximity sensors had him slamming on his breaks. His back end slid to the side as his locked tires continued to skid over the rough terrain. A cloud of dust rose around him and obscured his view as he finally managed to stop his forward momentum. When the cloud cleared he saw what had set his alarms off.
The earth suddenly ended, dropping off into a deep ravine. He rocked back on his wheels when his scanners registered just how far down it was to the bottom. That would be a nasty fall. Not fatal, but not pleasant either. Shaking off the slight vertigo, he turned his attention back to the opposite ledge. By visual estimation it wasn't impossibly far away. Scans confirmed that he had managed far greater distances on Cybertron.
"Well, they don't call me Cliffjumper for nothing," he chuckled to himself. The jump was entirely possible, but he'd need some speed. Turning, he sped off back the way he'd come. He went a little further than what he felt was absolutely necessary. Since he hadn't yet attempted a jump here on Earth it wouldn't hurt to have a little extra runway.
He pulled a tight 180, kicking up more dust, and faced his target. His engine revved a few times while he remained in neutral, warming up. A passing hawk circled once overhead, giving a piercing cry before landing in the upper branches of a tree to watch the show.
Cliffjumper revved his engine once more before finally slamming into gear. His tires slipped and spun on the bare earth before suddenly catching and he lurched unsteadily forward. He stumbled along at first but gradually grew steadier as he picked up speed. The space was coming up fast now as he flew passed the top speed any human car was capable of and kept accelerating.
Then his front wheels had left the ground, followed quickly by the rear ones and he was flying, soaring over the gap in the earth. Sometimes he envied Powerglide or Sideswipe with his jetpack or even the Seekers. Flying was freedom, but it was a short lived freedom for a ground model like him.
Another alarm demanded his attention and he was jerked out of his reverie to realize that the angle of his front end was all wrong to hit the other side. He was coming in too sharp. He wasn't going to make it.
Cliffjumper came back online to the sight of Med Bay's orange ceiling, somewhat obscured by the scowling face of one very angry medic.
"You never calibrated your systems for Earth's gravity—LIKE I TOLD YOU TO—did you?" Ratchet growled. Cliffjumper just groaned and offlined his optics again.