Disclaimer: Transformers is rightful property of Hasbro and not the author of this fiction, which was brought to you for entertainment and no commercial purposes.

Chapter 11: Thundercracker, Skywarp

Starscream had forgotten them for now, and Skyfire was in no state to remember, but there had been two identical-looking jet-Formers in very different dispositions that had been forgotten so long ago back in Skyfire's home.

Thundercracker had grown up in a rough home; his father was either a mean drunk or a sad, sober, broken mech who taught Thundercracker about things like honor and decency, the very same things he cursed and broke apart whilst drunk. His mother had usually been out of the house living with her mother or a friend, leaving Thundercracker in the care of his unstable father. Fortunately for Thundercracker, he had found a mech that had cheered him up enough to keep him from loosing his mind: Skywarp.

The purple and black teleporting jet Transformer was a self-proclaimed orphan or an adventurous run away, depending on what mood he had been in. Ditching his home over populated by little siblings, Skywarp, as a Sparkling, used his skills of cute silliness and clever theft to keep himself online. The two young mechs became good friends and had followed Starscream, the smartest Sparkling in their neighborhood, through numerous escapades and the failed employment at the home of Skyfire and his father. After that, though, when Skyfire dragged Starscream away for education, Thundercracker and Skywarp became best friends and brothers-in-arms as muscle-for higher until they got run out of their home town.

Now, Skywarp rubbed his head as he and Thundercracker caught their breaths in an alley way.

"Really, Thunder," Skywarp groaned, "Did we have to run that fast?"

"Yes!" Thundercracker exclaimed. "That femme I was talking to at the bar--! She--! He--!"

Skywarp looked at Thundercracker then burst out laughing. Thundercracker pouted.

"It's not funny!" he objected.

"It is!" Skywarp whooped. "Oh my Primus, Thundercracker, you were hitting on a mech!"

"Give the mech a cube of energon for stating the obvious, folks," Thundercracker grumbled.

"If it's so obvious, then why did you spend fifteen minutes buying him a drink?"

"Ah, shaddup, it's too early to drink, anyway," Thundercracker said, swatting Skywarp upside the head. "Come on, we gotta show up at work on time today or we're going to get fired."

Worried about getting fired—that was a bit of irony for Thundercracker. He hated his job of being a warehouse crate mover with a passion. It was low and demeaning for a flying jet-Former like him self to work with the ground-bound muscle heads like cargo haulers, but what could he do? He and Skywarp needed the money and they certainly didn't have the brains to take up a better job that took them into the air. Skywarp had suggested joining the army—Decepticon or Autobot, he didn't specify—but Thundercracker had refused every time, choosing his personal freedom over being bossed around by some general or Prime. But sometimes, he wondered what it would be like to fight his way up to the position of a top auto-dog in one army or the other, and how different it would be to kill a civilian compared to a normal murder hit he and Skywarp weren't above doing.

Exiting the ally way, the two jet-Formers came back out into the main street of the factory town they were currently residing in. Amidst the miles and miles of warehouses making up the town, the main street that they were on was surprisingly well kept and clean: It was open spaced, the pavement and metal was smooth and flawless, the buildings were tall, broad, and polished, and there were even enormous advertising bill boards on the side of some of the buildings. The crowds rushed back and forth to or from social events and appeared to be enjoying themselves. As Thundercracker and Skywarp passed under one of the advertisement bill boards, Skywarp suddenly stopped and pointed up at one of the bill boards.

"Hey, look, it's Starscream!" he whooped.

Thundercracker glanced up and, sure enough, in the background of a news clip about yet another attack on a weapons factory somewhere, Starscream was flying around and shooting out avian Autobot drones. Thundercracker felt a bitter feeling twist in his Spark and he turned away.

"Yeah, yeah, great, come on," he grunted, "We gotta go, or we're not going to be paying rent this month."

"Okay, race ya!" Skywarp whooped. He transformed into his tetra jet form and disappeared in a purple flash, reappearing several feet in the air. Skywarp whooped excitedly as he blasted off into the clear lavender sky.

"Skywarp!" Thundercracker yelled.

He ran forward and jumped up. His back jets roared to life, taking him into the air and raining fire and fumes down on the people below him. He quickly left the complaints of the mechs below him behind as he flew into the air and transformed into his own tetra jet form, flying after Skywarp. Too quickly did they leave the well-kept streets behind and was soon flying over the dusty streets of the warehouse district making up their current home town. At this height, the warehouses were brown squares while the dirt that came from the desert around the town covered the pavement and made a light brown grid of the town.

"Skywarp, you idiot!" Thundercracker yelled at his friend, "Do you want drafters to drag us into the army?"

"Nope," Skywarp said, spinning over in the air.

"Then don't show yourself off! And do you even know where you're going?"

Skywarp teleported to be on Thundercracker's right.

"Nope," he said.

"Well, then, come on," Thundercracker said, leading the way, "Primus, you're going to kill us someday, aren't you?"

"Hey, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"It sounded like an explosion somewhere down there!"

"Probably just a muscle head dropping a shipment," Thundercracker sighed. "Hurry up or we're going to be—"

A distant boom caught Thundercracker's attention and he turned his sight downwards. Sure enough, one of the tiny brown squares marking a warehouse had been replaced by a white cloud of an explosion. Something flickered in the cloud and came up, slowly at first, but suddenly speeding up. It passed the two friends in an instant with a roar, making them both pull up short to avoid a crash. Thundercracker transformed into robot mode, keeping his jets active, and looked around at the clear lavender sky.

"What—what was that!?" he exclaimed.

"Is that it?" Skywarp asked transforming to robot mode and pointing behind them.

Thundercracker turned around and sure enough, the same speck from below was rocketing to them. As it came closer, red and white became apparent colors and Thundercracker's optics widened.

"No…" he whispered in disbelief. "No way…"

The jet-Former approaching them pulled up short, causing the air to explode around him as he finally dropped out of sound barrier-shattering speeds. The red and white tetra jet quickly took his robot mode.

"Thundercracker! Skywarp! Thank Primus, I need your help!" Starscream screamed.

"Screamer, hey, long time, no see, buddy!" Skywarp laughed as Thundercracker looked back to the ground. "Saw you on the news, mech. Nice job scoring the spot as one of the rising bad guys in the rebel ranks! Did you know you have a bounty on your processor?"

"Yeah, yeah, nice, hooray me, look," Starscream went on quickly. "My new boss, Lord Megatron, is a jerk and said that I've been doing well, but will only promote me into something above foot soldier if I can steal this prototype anti-avian weapons system that the Autobot Army is sneaking through here. Problem is, this prototype works and is after me! I need help!"

"You mean that prototype?" Thundercracker asked, his optics still pointed downward.

Starscream looked down, then squealed and blasted off into the sky as a strange device flew up from below and chased after him.

The device had eight crooked legs, each ending in a ball-shaped laser weapon. The eight crooked legs were attached to a single flat circle device in the center, hemmed in grey with a black center covering the machinery with in. A red, a blue, and a green light could be seen glowing in the black surface. Thundercracker and Skywarp watched as Starscream flew around and around the sky, desperately rolling and plunging to avoid the flying machine.

"Should we help him?" Skywarp asked when Starscream did a rapid barrel roll.

"Nah, let him roast," Thundercracker replied impersonally.

"Thundercracker!"

"What?" Thundercracker asked. He turned to Skywarp in time to miss seeing Starscream plunge out of sight.

"He's our friend!" Skywarp pouted. Starscream reappeared in view, now in robot mode and desperately shooting at the machine and missing it. The machine buzzed angrily and flew after Starscream.

"He left us behind to go study books and be a scientist," Thundercracker snarled. "Friends don't leave friends behind!"

"Come on, Thunder, he was trying to make himself a good life and we were gonna crash on his couch when he made it, remember?"

"He never even called us after he left!"

"Oh quit your crying, Thundercracker, he's a friend, not an ex-girlfriend like, what's her name, the chick with the number in her name. Elite-Three? Four? Five? Eeja-Six? Something with an E and a number…"

"What?"

Starscream curled up into a ball to avoid the shots. The prototype machine flew up to him and whacked him in the back end with all its tentacles, knocking him into the sky and bouncing him like a sports ball.

"You know the pretty one with an attitude!"

"No, I mean, what, as if in 'what does that entire metaphor mean'? Skywarp, that femme was the one who kept throwing energon into your face every time you talker to her."

"A metaphor is when you use 'like' or 'as', Thundercracker. I'm using an analogy."

"No, that's a simile," Thundercracker snapped. "Starscream probably would know the difference, the smart aft."

"Well, we can't ask him what's what when he's dead," Skywarp said, watching as Starscream escaped his ball position, turned into a jet and rocketed away.

The prototype weapon looked around as Thundercracker and Skywarp exchanged glances. Skywarp grinned. Thundercracker hung his shoulders and sighed as he rolled his optics and covered his optics with a hand.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," he groaned. "Alright, fine, we'll save his snobby little aft."

He transformed and sped on a head while Skywarp punched the air and cheered, "Alright!"

Skywarp transformed into jet mode and rocketed after Thundercracker. Thundercracker caught up on Starscream's left and Skywarp, on his right.

"It's about time you two made up your minds!" Starscream snarled impatiently.

"Watch your mouth, Starscream, or I'll regret this pretty quickly," Thundercracker growled.

"So, what's the plan?" Skywarp asked.

Here, Thundercracker kept his mouth shut, knowing full well that Starscream would always make a better plan than him.

"I need to bring this prototype back in one piece," Starscream explained. "The problem is not only is it shooting at me, but it's also amazingly durable, so this is going to be tough. Standard weaponry will shake it up, though, so you can let it all out. Just stop when you start breaking it."

"So… shoot the slag out of the weapon?" Skywarp asked.

"That's the idea," Starscream agreed. "Do you have weapons?"

"We're mercenaries for hire!" Thundercracker laughed, allowing a missile to pop out of one of his wings in preparation and show. "Of course we have weapons!"

"Let's do it!" Skywarp cheered.

"Alright, go!" Starscream yelled.

As one, the three jets suddenly pulled up, doing a complete back flip through the air and coming down, right-side-up, behind the prototype machine. The prototype weapon halted and spun around. It recognized two more targets and raised its many arms to begin the battle, but the three jet-Formers acted first. All three sped forward, releasing a shower of missiles and laser fire on the prototype and knocking it around badly. Upon passing the proto-type, Thundercracker went left, Skywarp went right, and Starscream did another back flip so that they re-met behind the machine and repeated the maneuver.

They hadn't rehearsed the attack, and didn't need to. Some sort innate ability of communication and understanding had been constructed between the three jets when they were Sparklings long ago, and that understanding had not been demolished in their years apart, but rather, somehow, had strengthened.

They had just gathered up again for their third pass when the lights on the prototype weapon blinked thrice before dimming out and it began to fall. Skywarp teleported down, turning back into his robot mode, and caught the prototype in his arms. He smiled proudly up at Thundercracker and Starscream.

"Hmm, not bad," Starscream said with his hands on his hips and a smile on his face. "You know, I think I just might have an idea for this."

- - - - -

"….Starscream, have you been cloning yourself again?"

"No, Lord Megatron," Starscream chuckled. "These are colleagues of mine from long ago, Skywarp and Thundercracker. Skywarp may be an idiot, but he can teleport, and Thundercracker is an exceptionally strong mech. They are the ones who aided in the capturing of the prototype weapon, as you commanded, sir."

Megatron grunted in acknowledgement as he looked over the prototype weapon in his hands. The three jet-Formers were currently gathered in one of the Decepticons' hidden bases on an asteroid somewhere in space. It had taken much coaxing to talk Thundercracker into coming here, but eventually he had agreed. Skywarp, of course, heard "energon" and "battle" in the same sentence and rushed off to come to the hidden base before remembering that he didn't know the way.

"You know, it was a suicide mission, Starscream," Megatron said, looking at the prototype.

Starscream's wings dropped as his shoulders slumped in disbelief. Skywarp and even Thundercracker had to hold back snickers of laughter.

"But," Megatron went on, handing the prototype weapon to Shockwave standing by his throne, "You have proven yourself. So, these mechs, Thundercracker and Skywarp, are not of any relation to you?"

"No!" Thundercracker and Skywarp exclaimed in disgust.

"But you work well together," Megatron went on.

"We kicked that proto-whatsit's aft, didn't we?" Skywarp asked, punching the air.

Megatron muttered something like an agreement as he looked down, losing himself in thought. Nodding with confidence, he stood and spoke.

"Starscream, not only have you proven to be a good soldier, but appear to have some leadership skills in you, despite your many, many, many, many, many—"

"I get it," Starscream grunted.

"Many faults," Megatron said, shooting a look at Starscream. "Hence, I will further test your leadership skills by giving you these mechs to command under a squad called the Seekers."

"Seekers?" Skywarp asked, "Who're the Hiders?"

"Not 'Seekers' as if in hide-and-seek, you ninny!" Starscream snapped, turning on Skywarp, "'Seekers' as if in a reference to the fighting parties of elites in the old times in the original war before the Golden Age! Back then, the Seekers were a party of soldiers that were especially alike in a shared ability of some sort, such as our flying capabilities and identical body shells!"

"Ohhhhhh," Skywarp said.

"The leader of the Seekers was also the second-in-command of its army and—"

Starscream stopped short and turned to Megatron, his optics widening in surprise.

"Does… does that mean I'm…?" Starscream asked.

Megatron nodded. "Do not make me regret this decision, Starscream."

"Woo hoo, more party privileges!" Skywarp cheered.

Starscream sighed and shook his head while Megatron smirked and exited the room with Shockwave following him.

"I'll leave you to settle your new team mates in, Starscream," Megatron said slyly.

Thundercracker watched Megatron go then looked at Starscream.

"That guy just screwed you over, didn't he?" he asked.

"Yes, Thundercracker," Starscream sighed, watching Skywarp as he tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. Skywarp overbalanced and fell on his back. "Yes, he did."

AN: Any non-Earth origin Transformers can be requested to make their own appearance in the story. If their origin wasn't fully revealed in the original G1 Transformers cartoon, feel free to request them.