Golden Sun © Nintendo, Camelot
Transformers © Hasbro, TakaraTomy


"Tell me again, why we here of all places at this time of year?!" Sludge yelled to his teammate/brother, barely hearing himself over the roaring winds even through the comm. line.

The Autobot Apatosaurus was hunkered as low as he could in a ditch they had found while near the Kansas Turnpike miles outside El Dorado, having researched on what not to do when caught outside in a tornado's path. As much as he wanted to hide underneath the nearby overpass, hearing about a wind tunnel that could be created immediately nixed the idea. Not to mention the fact that neither of them would fit and would be blocking the highway. And for all his weight, Sludge had already seen footage of trashed 16-wheelers and houses, and even the Aerialbots had better sense the last time Superion had to tackle Menasor in Nebraska last year during tornado season. The weather forecasters had already warned of several tornadoes above F1 touching down in the past few days, which had in turn made Sludge all the more wary on checking the weather satellites and skies almost constantly after arriving in Wichita. In a sense, he was glad to have been sparked back to life on Earth - it gave him a better appreciation of the powerful and unpredictable forces of nature that this planet could produce.

Unlike a certain Dinbot leader and demolitions teammate.

Swoop grinned, quite enjoying himself despite being them being pelted with heavy rain and hail the size of golf balls, also lying on his abdomen. "Perfect learning opportunity on dealing with any bad weather and storm chasers asked to test Wheeljack's tornado sensor! Plus, this awesome!" Said equipment resembled a slimmed down version of the retired TOTO that was much further ahead of them to the side of the road, directly in the path of the ominously encroaching funnel.

Unlike most of the fliers in the Ark, the Pteranodon had taken a strong liking to storms (as well Silverbolt, oddly), but what he really loved were the high winds. As much as the Dinobot bombardier didn't mind being hit by lightning (mostly mitigated by insulation), Swoop enjoyed riding the winds, occasionally without his thrusters on, relishing the feel of cold and dry air rushing against his wings alongside warm and wet air. One of these days, he'll have to see how high of wind speeds he could handle and was already making plans for a trip to Florida during hurricane season. Besides, it could help Wheeljack on designing better wing upgrades for him in the future.

"Rhetorical question! Me think NOT awesome, and me - I - think those storm chasers and spotters are crazy!" A sudden lightning strike had him covering his head before peeking back up. He could barely make out the incoming tornado that was baring down their way and, to his embarrassment, let out an "eep". Another reason why the Apatosaurus was lying low was knowing lightning's tendency to strike the tallest standing object. Unlike most of the fliers, he wasn't as insulated as they were, and didn't relished the idea of being electrocuted. "Correction - storm chasers and spotters are very brave to make progress on weather research!"

"FOR SCIENCE!" Swoop all but cackled, watching how the cloud of debris spun counterclockwise just outside the main funnel. Despite appearances that it was the funnel that caused damages and injuries, it was the surrounding atmosphere that included whatever material that had been picked up by the cyclonic winds. It was partly due to dirt, condensation, plant material, human-made material, and whatever else that gave the powerful swirling winds its shape, be it a very long thin rope barely 10 feet across or the large wedge tornadoes that can be half a mile wide.

Sludge shook his head before turning his head to track the funnel cloud and had to shutter his optics several times. "It just me, or did tornado pick up speed?!"

"They prone to doing that, and wacky change in directions!" It was getting harder to be heard over the increasing winds, and their comm. lines kept bursting into static from interference.

Another lightning strike cut off whatever retort the Apatosaurus was going to say, the discharge of electrons and protons mere feet away from them. The pair practically felt the charge in the air and both prayed that if the next strike came about, it'd be a tree or somewhere much further away.

"Wacky?! That right word?!"

"'Unexpected' and 'unpredictable' humans use! But I heard 'crazy' also used!"

The enormous funnel cloud was literally looming over them, as if responding to the Dinobots' words. The debris, from signposts to furniture, was all but pounding into the duo.

"I say 'loony' better!"

This time, the bolt came far too close for comfort, causing Sludge to yelp and scuttle back a little when it struck just inches away from his head. "Okay, THAT not normal! Lighting supposed to hit highest point! Not directly target! Me think this tornado not normal!"

At the words "directly target" and "not normal", Swoop began to pay closer attention at the swirling mass of wind, momentarily linking with the weather sensor that the funnel cloud was parked right on top of. One thing that the NOAA and NSF wanted was footage of a tornado's center, the equivalent to the eye of a hurricane. Wheeljack had gladly acquiesced with several high-quality cameras built to withstand tremendous impact forces, and it was through those lens (plus a lot of junk) that the junior medic saw the true culprit.

Hovering right in the middle of the tornado was a tiny purple creature, identical in size to the Djinn that had taken to following Ratchet, Ironhide, Optimus, and First Aid around. The difference between this one and the other Djinn was that it was in two shades of purple (its top half a more lighter purple) and little wings that were flapping without much effort. As the Djinn lacked mouths, the Autobots had to learn to read their body language alongside their eyes and tone of words. And from the looks of this particular one, it was rather torqued off.

"Ratchet kick my aft with wrench... Djinni in tornado!"

"What?!" Sludge yelled, all but shocked. The Autobot Adepts had to battle a couple Djinni more than once, usually resulting in either field repair or visits to the med bay post battle. "No Adepts with us! How we deal with this?!"

"You can deal with 'this' by taking back what you said!" a new voice shouted angrily.

Instinct, a combination from their previous time of combat from Cybertron before the exodus and the dinosaur part of their processors, had them rolling in opposite directions when an even larger bolt of lightning was let loose, scorching the grass and dirt. The purple Djinni shot out of the tornado, dodging the flying debris with ease, hovered in front of both of them with all the indignity its small body could project. Having lost its Psynergistic influence, the tornado cloud soon moved onwards in a more natural fashion.

"What you mean, 'take back' what we said?" Swoop asked confusedly, rising carefully to a low crouch just in case.

"What both of you said! 'Crazy' and 'wacky'! How undignified to be associated with such words! 'Unpredictable' is quite fine, and 'unexpected' is rather acceptable, but no!" Wings flapped forward in a horizontal slicing motion, sending purple-tinted winds shaped like scythes that forced the Dinobots to duck. The "blades" left deep gouges in the earth behind them, even slicing part of a boulder clean. "You had to use 'loony'! And you called storm chasers crazy! They risk their entire lives chasing those tornadoes for research! HAVE YOU NO MANNERS?!"

If anything, Sludge had to admit that the ensuing battle was partly bizarre and partly frustrating while dodge-rolling away from purple tinged lightning bolts. Bizarre in the sense that they were trying to avoid being killed by a thing almost no bigger than a cat, frustrating that trying to attack said hit target was ridiculously hard due to its size and without any form of cover. Sludge's gun proved little effect as the purple Djinni easily dodged the shots, Swoop obviously didn't want to risk using his missiles in such volatile weather, and their sword skills weren't up to the level of hitting small targets accurately without hitting each other by accident.

As twilight neared and then slipped into night with a light rain, all three were showing signs of fatigue - the Dinobots venting harder than usual and the Djinni struggling to hover but wobbling like a drunk hummingbird. Another bolt of electrons and protons was let loose, this time causing Sludge to collapse from both exhaustion and the surge. Swoop, having lost his sword to a blast of wind earlier, made to grab something and throw at their opponent. It was due to his fumbling that he didn't notice the white energy bands around him and only when an enormous lightning strike hit the Djinni dead on did he stop to gape at the twitching form lying in the middle of scorched grass and earth. Hearing his teammate whimper about promising that he wouldn't sneak in anymore energon goodies past recharge - oh, Ratchet was going to hear about THAT one - kicked his medic sense into gear and did his best on treating the larger Dinobot. When the grass behind him shifted, Swoop glared at the somewhat singed Djinni who, after a moment, sheepishly toed the dirt.

"I suppose... this is where I apologize?"

A snort. "You think?"

Crest feathers (if Swoop could call it that) drooped. "Then, I apologize for attacking the two of you over something ridiculous and trivial. (Although I still take offense regarding the storm chasers.)"

"Tell that to Sludge when he awake." A glance over at the data gatherer, now dejectedly looking rather beaten up from the stray strike and air blades. "Wheeljack and scientists not be happy about prototype being busted."

A slight cough. "Then, in addition to my apology, do you mind if I join you? If your Wheeljack dabbles in electricity, I may be of some help."

Fingers pinched the bridge of his olfactory sensor, now feeling the beginning of a processor-ache from low energy and the report he'll have to later turn in to Prowl. Seeing that Sludge was groggily coming to, Swoop let out a sigh. "Fine, but no more attacking out of blue because of words."

Much later, Swoop and Sludge quickly slipped away with Squall after dropping off the remains of the tornado data gatherer, leaving a horrified Wheeljack and befuddled Skyfire to stare at the sad state of the machine.


A/N: In regards to the Dinobots' status of this little 'verse, it's a blend of the original G1 cartoon and from the Dreamwave comics where the Dinobots were originally a team on Cybertron (known by a different name), but eventually became the Dinobots on Earth.