"You're joining us, right Jazz?", Sideswipe insisted.
"You guys, I don't really need-", Jazz started to protest.
"Jazz, I'll never say this again. You're a fine looking mech", Sunstreaker stated.
Jazz thought that over. It wasn't so much the comment that puzzled him but that Sunstreaker said it out loud.
"Well, now you have to go", Sideswipe affirmed.
"Okay, you win", Jazz agreed languidly.
Together they rolled through Sunshine Car Wash. The Ark had washing facilities, even waxing, but it was pure economical, and more for the robot mode that the alternate, where as the humans had designed these car-washes to flatter the form of the car. This alone endeared Earth to Sunstreaker. Jazz knew Sideswipe's favorite part came at the end, when humans would gather around and hand-buff him. They were all in awe of the transformers, and more than willing to give them free passes for an opportunity to get up close to them and admire them, especially Lamborghinies. As a Porsche Jazz received adaquate attention.
Afterwards, the twins raced around the mountains paths, swinging around sharp curves, jumping over tree trunks and each other, and attempting to knock each other off course in the process. Their sheer free will hit Jazz as well, although he declined to join. He stayed within range, protectively scanning for Decepticon activity although he knew that, especially if Soundwave was down for the count, the Decepts were hurting bad. They might do a pure revenge raid, but most likely were, in a great Earth phrase he had learned, licking their wounds like dogs.
Finally the twins stopped, more like crashed, into a muddy pool at the base of a cliff they jumped off of together. Jazz rode to the edge and transformed, looking down, expecting Sunstreaker to growl and complain to Sideswipe for leading him into such an action. And indeed they were fighting in robot mode, covered in mud, but it was obviously in brotherly fun.
Jazz settled in and watch the two wrestle, a show other Autobots rarely witnessed . They were so entertaining, almost like sparklings. Jazz suddenly thought sadly to when was the last time he had seen an actual sparkling. The generational gap on Cybertron was immense. Until Bumblebee joined the Autobot base city on Cybetron, he hadn't even seen a transformer under a thousand vorn since the beginning of the war. In fact he had yet to meet a Cybertron-made transformer younger than Bumblebee since then, on either side, all the new ones created of late had been Earth made, and turned instantly to battle with no real time to grow and learn…and play.
Surviving records of Cybertron's evolution showed naturally occuring creation cycles normally happened every hundred-thousand vorn, and averaged a hundred transformers over a period of five-hundred vorns. But they stopped after the inition of the Civil War, no one had noticed for a long time, and no one could do much but speculate on whether this was a manifestation that they were destroying their own world.
Jazz thought back to his own early days, within the last of the creation cycles on Cybertron. He was actually towards the beginning of that cycle, the same cycle Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had emerged from, but they were at the end. Mirage and Ratchet were in the middle of the same cycle, although none of them had known each other until meeting at Autobot bases to join forces against the Decepticons. Bumblebee and a small crop of others formed on a city outside the range of the civil war, but once it reached that area the creations stopped. Jazz didn't know what happened to the others from that cycle, and suspected Bumblebee was truely the youngest functioning transformer.
Suddenly Jazz's warrior mind alerted him to a change in the twins's activities. Sideswipe had suddenly collapsed under Sunstreaker.
"I didn't…we were just wrestling, not really fighting", Sunstreaker explained helplessly.
"Scan the area, make sure this isn't the result of Decepticons", Jazz ordered as he leaped down from the cliff.
The more beneficial aspect of Sunstreakers scan was that he was focused on something besides his brother and out of the way. Jazz was more concerned about that than an actual Decepticon threat.
Jazz's objective survey of Sideswipe's body revealed nothing out of the ordinary, although the sudden shut down could be the result of over-strenouus activities so soon after major repairs. Still…Ratchet wouldn't have released him if that was a danger.
Unsatisfied and deeply concerned, Jazz called Autobot headquarters. Sideswipe was too big for them to transport themselves. Probebly Sunstreaker could carry him single handedly over mountains, wounded and limping on one leg the whole way, the love for his twin compelling him along…but Ratchet could get here in about five minutes and that was much easier.
Ratchet quickly ascertained the problem, Sideswipe had simply run out of energy. But he couldn't determine the cause on the field. The first step would be to take him back and recharge him properly. All three transformed, and Ratchet took Sideswipe back. Sunstreaker and Jazz trailed behind.
"Didn't Wheeljack recharge him while he was working? He was totally fuctional we left", Jazz mused.
"Maybe the recharge unit's malfunctioned", Sunstreaker suggested.
"We'll know soon enough", Jazz replied, to calm himself and the worried streak of yellow beside him.
