And it's official. Thundercracker and Skywarp now have TFA toys as their respectively colored clones. This takes place after A Bridge Too Close because, really, how can I NOT be expected to abuse my two favorite Seekers?

Title: The Beginning of a Beautiful… Something
Fandom: Transformers: Animated
Rating: PG
Characters: Egomaniac, Coward
Summary: Under protest of being cliché, there really MIGHT be more to these clones than meets the eye.

He yelped as gunfire strafed over his wing (argh, his beautiful wing! Those worthless, doltheaded half-wits will pay for striking his beautiful wing!) and twisted in the sky too fast for their guns to follow.

"Coward!" He roared as his null rays flashed, hitting their marks with such effortless precision (or near precision- he must not have gotten all that disgusting cement out of his weapons relays, that had to be why he wasn't getting clean hits). "Come out and fight!"

Said coward just hunkered down lower in his hidey spot behind some boulders, hands protecting his head. "No! I don't wanna get shot! Make them go away!"

"You worthless, strutless waste of perfectly-good-yet-still-incomparable-to-my-own material! Fight like a Decepticon!"

"I'm too sca-a-a-ared!" Came the pathetic wail.

The blue jet's sharp optics caught sight of Autobots approaching his black counterpart's position. Briefly he considered letting them take the useless thing but the fact was they'd be associated together. If they caught him, saw how pitiful he truly was, they'd only believe he'd be as pathetic and simpering.

"Rahhgh! I won't let anyone look down on me!" Thrusters flaring like a supernova, he dove through the oncoming fire, dodged their foolish attempts of attack like the untouchable master they'd soon realize him to be. He swept low over the ground, skimming the jagged landscape with fearless ease. A hand reached out, hooking at the collar of black armor and the mighty, awe-inspiring roar of superior engines shot the two high into open sky.

"Helpless dolt!" He snapped at the whimpering jet in his grip. "I'd have better luck having a petro-rabbit watching my- ARRGH!"

A shot (not even lucky- just a fluke!) caught him in the back, making his sensors fritz wildly for a moment. Unable to control himself the blue jet felt the world spinning right up at him-

Something looped around his waist, twisting him about, air straining against his wings as someone pulled him skyward. A black arm come up next to his head and shot- and hit -the Autobot jet following the two, knocking him out of the air.

He looked up, stunned, into the equally stunned expression of his less-capable compatriot. "You…"

The dark jet looked at what exactly he had his arm wrapped around. Then promptly let go with a yelp. "I'm sorry- please don't hurt me!"

With a completely dignified squawk, the all-round better jet caught himself in mid-fall and swooped up until the two were level. "Idiot." He grumbled. Then, slowly, said, "You actually did something right."

"I… I did? Oh no! I didn't mean to, it was an accident- I swear!"

"That doesn't surprise me. But you may not be completely useless to me."

"But-"

"Shut up." He reached over and ganked at this counterpart's wrist. "Would you rather be worthless and have me leave you to rot somewhere, or be useful and I may let you stick around for a while?"

"Oh please don't make me decide! What if I choose wrong?"

This was going to be aggravating. "You're staying with me for now," came the snapped order, "and if anyone's going to regret this, it'll be me. And I never make a mistake. Got it?"

"P-Please don't grab me so hard. And this is really, really high…"

Feh. That'll have to do for now…