Sidekick
Follows 'Hero'
"Where is Arcee, anyways?" Cliffjumper muttered, dusting off her skirt and pointedly looking away from Sideswipe. For once, Sideswipe's vocalizer was blessedly silent, though he gave Cliffjumper a considering look. Imbrium watched them both, his leporine lips twitching upwards.
"Not like her to be late," Ironhide commented. "No, wait…there's an Autobot signal approaching. Now why ain't she shielded? This ain't exactly friendly territory."
Sideswipe looked in the direction of the approaching signal and frowned. "That doesn't look like…"
"Chromia!"
Unfortunately, Chromia, dusty and strangely disoriented, had brought friends. A formation of drones buzzed angrily behind her. In her bewildered state, she barely seemed to notice them. "'Hide? Didn't you lot head out to meet Arcee?"
"Chromia, down!" She flattened immediately at Ironhide's terse order and the Upgraded bots fired at will. Ironhide made his way to her side as sense rapidly returned to her optics. Pulling out her gun, she started firing on the drones even as Ironhide pulled her to her pedes.
"This isn't the base," she commented steadily.
"Nope," Ironhide replied. "Quite a ways from it."
"I have no idea how I got here," Chromia admitted.
Despite their determined efforts, the drones seemed unending. "Retreat!" Ironhide ordered, backing up with one hand on Chromia's shoulder to steady her. "There's a bit o' cover to regroup in. Head to it!"
Behind the barrier, the Upgraded bots plus one femme continued to fire on the drones. Imbrium, perched on Cliffjumper's shoulder, ignored the battle and regarded Chromia thoughtfully.
"So," he said casually, "been getting these blackouts a lot lately?"
Chromia jerked in surprise, her latest shot going wide. "How did you know?"
Imbrium just nodded as if it made perfect sense. "Sideswipe," he called.
"Yeah, boss-rabbit?"
"Do me a favor and jump out in front of the 'cons?"
Sideswipe grinned at him cheerfully. "Sure thing, boss!" And with a kamikaze yell, he leapt out from cover. The staccato sound of laser fire accompanied the red mech's whoops and Ironhide cursed, getting ready to leap over the barrier.
"Wait," Imbrium ordered tersely, his eyes never leaving the blue femme.
Chromia's optics flared and she doubled over as a bright light enveloped her frame. The bots had to shutter their optics against the glare. When the light subsided and they could see properly again, a sleek black femme stood in Chromia's place. A gleaming white visor covering her optics was the only bit of brightness on her. But what stood out the most was the long, swirling black cape that hung from her shoulders.
"Chromia…?" Ironhide demanded incredulously. The femme looked towards him briefly before turning back towards the barrier. She cleared it with a single leap, materializing a long crystal shaft as she went and throwing it in one smooth motion.
The battle was pretty much a rout after that.
Arcee caught up with them not long after all the drones were dust. She regarded the Upgraded Chromia with suspicion at first, and then outright surprised exasperation once her identity was explained.
"I've been tracking her for a few cycles now," she explained. "I could never figure out where she'd disappear to, though, so it's been slow-going." She rested her gun against her shoulder, cycling air through her vents in a huff. "Elita wanted to know who's been saving our afts and to make sure it wasn't some sort of 'con trick."
"Not a 'con trick," Imbrium said reassuringly. "And your friend's random blackouts should stop now, if the lore is right. And it generally is."
"So you knew about this?"
"Eh…sort of," Imbrium replied. "A 'companion' as she's called doesn't show up too often. And it really could've been a trick as Lady Pink here suggested." He nodded to Arcee. "Anyways, we had to make sure. According to tradition, once the companion's identity has been discovered the memory loss and blackouts stop."
"Never should have started in the first place," Chromia grumbled, staring at her hands. "Primus, I look like Jazz and Prowl's love-sparkling. How do I go back to me?"
There was a long pause before the Earth bots and their rabbit cracked up laughing. It took awhile before Imbrium had enough breath to explain the process of reverting to a confused and impatient Chromia.
A/N: Yup, still writing. I have a job writing for an Indie game now, though, so I don't have a whole lot of time for fanfiction at the moment :(. (If you're interested in RPGs and fantasy settings, check out dominionarts(dot)blogspot(dot)com. Our current release schedule is for March next year, but we update the blog weekly with content so people can get a look at what we're doing. Yes, this is a shameless plug.)
