Disclaimer – "Transformers" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Hasbro, Takara, and any other related owners/distributors/producers. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.
"Aventador"
by DragonDancer5150
Chp 1 - Windswept
"Alert! Alert! Decepticon activity detected!"
Teletraan I's alarm blared over the intercom, startling Sideswipe from his recharge.
Across the room, he heard Sunstreaker fall out of his berth with a growled curse. The yellow Lambo warrior pulled himself to his feet. "Slagging 'Cons sure know how to ruin a guy's beauty rest. What the Pit you figure they're after at – " He paused to check his internal chronometer and grunted in irritation. " – oh-dark-nothing in the morning?"
"Frag if I know." Sideswipe climbed reluctantly off his berth. "Guess we better go find out."
By the time the twins joined the rest of the force in the command center, Optimus Prime had already organized who was going on the mission and who was staying behind. Windcharger and Huffer would guard the base and Bluestreak was on patrol duty with Sparkplug while Ratchet helped Wheeljack finish a project that the engineer had been working on since early yesterday. Sideswipe rolled out alongside his brother with the main force, headed for the Coyote Dry Lake Bed in the Mojave Desert. Prime briefed everyone on the go.
"A group of human scientists are under attack. They're at Coyote Lake studying the meteorites that fell last night – "
"And Mega-turkey's after them now?" Trailbreaker broke in. "What do you suppose he wants with a bunch of rocks?"
"We'll find out when we get there, Trailbreaker."
Energy. Of course. Sideswipe would have rolled his optics had he been physically capable at the moment. As soon as the group left the highway and drew close over the flat hardpack of the lakebed, everyone's scanners started going on the fritz with the fields of energy emanating from the foreign fragments: electromagnetic and . . . something else. Not that Sideswipe bothered with what it could be. Let someone like Wheeljack worry about that. There was a fight to be had, and the entire Decepticon contingent was on hand. Plenty of targets to go around.
Starscream was the first to spot the incoming group and screeched a warning. "It's the Autobots!"
Sideswipe snickered as his brother retorted, "You always sound so surprised to see us, Screamer. Is your memory as short as your attention span?"
The red Lambo started to add a taunt of his own but mentally stopped short at spotting the small bodies scattered on the ground around the camp at the Decepticons' feet.
"The humans! What did you do to them, Megatron?" Prime's angry voice thundered as the Autobots bore down on their enemies, transforming and breaking formation to move around the half-dozen unconscious scientists.
Megatron snarled as Prime plowed into him, knocking him back from what looked – and felt, to Sideswipe's sensors – like a crate of the energy-emitting meteorites. "For once, Prime, nothing. Do you think I want the flesh creatures underfoot like this? Better for them to run screaming and get out of our way."
"Yeah! They squish when ya step on 'em." Despite the complaint, Skywarp had a smirk on his faceplates.
"I'll show ya 'squish', you overgrown buzzard." Brawn jumped on him from behind, distracting him just long enough for Mirage to get a good shot on him.
Sideswipe didn't notice anything else of what was going on around him, focusing on one target. Thundercracker had transformed to head for the sky, and the red Lambo leaped onto his back, gripping the fighter jet's wings as the other climbed.
The Seeker bucked, barrel-rolling as he struggled for altitude. "Get off me, Autobot!"
"Haha, make me!" Sideswipe was laughing as he set his heels against the bases of the F-15's twin tail fins and threw his weight. He loved "jet judo".
"Augh! Let go!" The Seeker snarled as he fought to compensate.
Sideswipe continued to cling like rust to the fighter jet's back, timing the throws of his weight for when it would mess up Thundercracker's shots on his teammates. He heard Starscream shriek in fury and glanced over to see his twin similarly clung to the trine leader's wings. He loosened a hand just enough to give Sunstreaker a quick thumbs-up. Unfortunately, he'd let his attention focus just a little too much on his brother. He missed Laserbeak's approach until the Cassetticon condor shot him. Laser fire splashed an acidic burn across his flank. Startled and in pain, his grip loosened further, and Thundercracker took the advantage to throw him off. He hit the ground hard, barely missing one of the scientists even as Spike had been darting in to drag the man to safety.
The Lambo shifted to his knees, but suddenly his sensors all freaked out at once, everything swelling with painful static. He curled in agony, biting back whimpers while feedback shrieked in his audios. What the frag is this? Decepticons come up with some new weapon? Glancing around through a haze of static snow, he saw that he wasn't the only one. It was as if someone had cranked a voltage switch, ramping up the ambient energies in the entire area. Everyone – Autobots and Decepticons alike – had dropped from the sudden pain just as he had. Spike had fallen unconscious over the scientist he'd been dragging, blood trickling from his nose. Only Laserbeak and the Seekers, and Sunstreaker still riding Starscream's back, seemed to be unaffected.
"F-fraggit!" Rumble complained, voice stressed with pain. He lay curled up in a tiny ball about six meters to Sideswipe's right. "Not a-again!"
"It's worse this time!" chorused the triplicate Reflector mechs Viewfinder, Spyglass, and Spectro.
"What d-do you mean . . . 'not ag-gain'?" Mirage demanded.
Megatron roared and struggled out from under Prime, where the two had collapsed against each other from the apparent attack. "What in the Pit is this?"
"The . . . the meteorites!" Prowl cried, trembling as he fought to stand. "I-it has to be!"
Soundwave's voice evinced stress even through his usual booming monotone. "CONFIRMED. METEORITE ENERGY: INTENSIFIED."
Ironhide climbed back to his feet with effort. "If we . . . augh! I-If we move away from the . . . the meteorites, m-maybe Trailbreaker's forcefield-"
The energy dropped back off without warning, but fresh cries of shock and denial sounded from the entire company as a gale-force wind instantly replaced it, sweeping across the open expanse of the lakebed. Several of the Autobots scrambled to catch the humans before their bodies were picked up and scattered. Laserbeak squawked in startled protest as she was thrown to the ground, swept back up . . . and slammed again.
Sideswipe got his feet under him carefully, crouching low but to no avail. He felt almost as if the currents were wrapping around him with intention, aiming to throw him into the Reflector triplets as it knocked him back off his feet. Instead of being blown in same direction, away from him, he felt the Minibot-sized mechs shoved into him by the wind as he fell. As one, the Decepticon trio clamped onto his limbs in an effort not to be picked up and thrown again by the attacking gale.
"You idiots!" Sideswipe growled at them, having to yell to be heard. "Transform! You're a smaller target that way!"
"We're also lighter!" they cried in that perfect unison for which the one-in-three mechs were known. "We'll be blown away for sure!"
Sideswipe couldn't deny the logic in that. He felt the wind clawing at them, not just blowing over them but as if actively trying to pull the four apart. He heard Cliffjumper, Rumble, and Gears yelp and snarl curses as the wind lifted them high. He looked just in time to see them thrown them off in all directions. The Reflector triplets clung all the harder to the Lambo, on the edge of panic. Afraid of being separated. He could relate, being a twin himself, and Viewfinder, Spyglass, and Spectro were even more closely bound than he and Sunstreaker were. "Far be it from me to help a Decepticon," he muttered in an undertone, then curled up further, pulling his limbs – and the triplet mechs – as close as possible. "Transform. I'll hold onto you."
The three looked at him, incredulous and distrustful, then exchanged glances. Sideswipe could imagine the quick conversation across their sparkbonds. Viewfinder looked back at him and nodded reluctantly, then led his brothers to transform. Powerful magnetic fields not only helped align the trio as they shifted and fitted to one another but helped keep them from being separated as they were forced to let go of Sideswipe. Added bonus was that Sideswipe himself was close enough to be caught by the field, keeping the three by him as they mass-shifted down to the size of a Cybertronian-proportioned camera with their transformation. The Lambo warrior grabbed the camera just as their magnetic field cut out.
The wind slammed Bumblebee into him just then, nearly knocking Reflector from his grip. The little espionage scout was curled up as best he could be around a beaten and still-unconscious Spike, trying to protect the human. The Minibot himself looked like he'd been tossed around a few times. Sideswipe threw an arm around him, hugging the little scout to his side as he straightened to lay as flat to the ground as possible. He hoped to keep the wind from slipping underneath him and managing to pick him up.
Bumblebee shifted and pressed closer, overbright optics finding his. "This is insane! The way the wind currents are moving – it shouldn't be possible, Sideswipe!"
"There must be something controlling it!"
"L-like what?" Bumblebee squawked.
"I don't know!" cried the Lambo. He turned a little, keeping the Minibot snugged against him as he tried to look for his brother, noting in dismay that nobody was anywhere close to the positions he'd seen them in only a moment ago, the whole company having been scrambled around by the windstorm. The only traces of the human scientists' camp were broken bits of debris flying all around the flat expanse. He could literally watch the movement of the currents by following the swirls of dust and sand in the air, vicious particles that scoured painfully at his armor and ground into his joints. The fact that his vain twin wasn't complaining about the damage to his finish, even just over their bond, was as troubling as anything.
Above them, the wind was apparently trying to force the buffeted, airborne Seekers into one another. Sunstreaker must have been knocked off Starscream's back . . . or got smart and jumped off. Sideswipe could just hear the Air Commander over the wind, shrieking at his trinemates to get to ground before they crashed. A particularly violent whorl of air and sand caught Thundercracker just then, spinning him thrusters over nosecone on a skewed axis towards Starscream, and another seemed to punt Skywarp directly into the path from an almost perfectly perpendicular position. Definitely something sentient going on here, the Lambo thought. Any other time, he'd have enjoyed the sight of the Seekers having such problems staying aloft and in control, but right now all he could feel was dread. He watched Skywarp avoid the collision by teleporting, barely missing Thundercracker plow through him. Starscream wasn't so lucky. The Air Commander cut his thrusters and bucked midair, apparently trying to use the currents to his advantage to force himself under his trinemate, but it was too little too late. The spinning blue Seeker smacked him hard across the top of the fuselage. Sideswipe winced at the sight of Starscream's canopy shattering under the force of Thundercracker's wingtip, which itself buckled with the impact and caught on something. Both Seekers snarled in agony as they spiraled groundward, Thundercracker's wing ripping free again only seconds before impact.
"Autobots!" Optimus Prime's voice thundered through the windstorm. Sideswipe turned from the sight of the Seekers picking each other up to find his leader through the dusty haze. Optimus and Megatron were clinging to one another for stability, and they had managed to struggle over to Optimus's Combat Deck, which looked like it'd been picked up and slammed a few times. The Lambo hoped the trailer, and Roller inside, were okay. If they were damaged enough to be painful to Optimus – being functionally a part of him – the Prime didn't show it. His voice, however, hinted. "Autobots, gather up!"
"Decepticons!" The strain in Megatron's voice was more pronounced, and he favored a leg as he leaned on Optimus. "Ceasefire! Close ranks with the Autobots."
"If we're close, we present a greater mass and the wind can't pick us off as easily!" Optimus clarified.
Both factions were already battered enough that no one objected, not inasmuch as Sideswipe could hear anyway. With Reflector still clutched in one hand, the Lambo helped Bumblebee to his feet, crouching low over the Minibot as the two fought their way over toward their leader. Thundercracker, both wings mangled and useless, supported Starscream who was hunched over an exposed spark chamber behind his torn cockpit as they caught up. Sideswipe only gave it an astro-second's thought before half-growling and shifting a step over in spite of himself to get a shoulder under Starscream's other arm. The Decepticon Air Commander gave him a dull look but didn't say anything, his inner cooling fans running too loudly and in ragged cycles. Sideswipe wondered briefly if he was in shock. The foursome then reached Prowl, Jazz, and Brawn. Prowl had the crumpled and unmoving form of Laserbeak in his arms. Thundercracker reached for the nearest – Jazz – and the Special Ops officer only nodded and wrapped an arm back around the taller mech, careful of his wounded wings. The two clusters melded into one.