Co-Authered by Kitra and Omicron
"Human spoken dialogue"
"~Human speaking rough Cybertronian dialogue~"
"Cybertronian spoken dialogue."
::Cybertronian communication/Comm. Line dialogue::
-Bumblebee's translation dialogue-
Added note: Somehow I missed putting the proper chapter 9 up O.o so here's the update for that, look back at "Dark Energon" for the formally missing chapter!
Atlantis
Quest
Optimus Prime turned, rumbling in greeting to the white jet later on that day, he was standing in front of one of the computer banks, a hybrid cross of salvaged Cybertronian and enhanced human tech. The big red and blue mech was studding a moving map when Wing came, in time to see the shifting tectonic plates rearrange into the modern configuration for the planet.
"Do you feel better Wing?" He asked, one hand on the controls, glancing to the side where the humans were talking, Miko and Raphael telling the newly arrived Jack what happened in their flights.
"A lot." Wing admitted, bouncing over and brushing against the Prime's side briefly. "What are you looking for? Possible locations of Crystal City?" He asked.
"Impact site." The bigger mech said, his field rippling as his Matrix shifted inside, he didn't seem to notice it though, or Jack looking over in responce, "At least the likely places."
"Hmm. Is there any recordings about her in human history. The mural showed her with differently clothed humans, a variety of skin colors too." Wing suggested, purring deeply as he flopped over one of the crates used for sitting, watching Jack closely. "And Jack? The offer for flying stands for you too. Optimus will just have to approve. And Arcee. And probably your carrier." Wing chirped at the youth.
"Maybe in a little bit," Jack smiled, coming closer.
"Likely there is, but Cybertronians have influenced the humans before." Optimus rumbled after, pointing to another screen that displayed glyphs, "But there might be something..."
"Atlantis?" The teen asked, perking up as he watched the screens too, leaning on the rails near. He had just glimpsed the things that were starting to come up, even an emblem that was a glyph to the mechs, not seeing it as such at first.
The jet eyed it, then idly did separate research through the human network. "Yeah. That's her. She's a myth though, something must have happened to have made her population seek shelter. They sank her to protect themselves from something, and our technology is so advanced, humans would not have been capable of finding her." Wing chirred softly. Eyeing the Metrotitan and Cybertronian glyphs.
"Or she sank herself." Optimus rumbled, glancing to the side as Jack came closer, having to climb up and down a few ladders to another to get up to the computers, and where the Prime was standing.
The jet twitched. "If she was still awake enough to do so." He shifted up and padded over wriggling against Primes frame. "But I trust the myths. She had a human population, maybe still has."
"If Crystal City made the choice of a blind jump while being infected to save as many as passable, including her mate." Optimus lifted one arm to let Wing in close, resting it over him, "It is likely she did the same again. We have learned that even when a mecha is completely infected, they are not lost." He rumbled and looked over to the side to where the rooms were, Jack shifting on the panel. "This is why you are not going alone Wing, Cliffjumper is going to go with you, as the only one of us with firsthand experience with Dark Energon."
The jet chirred in acceptance. "Suspected that. That stuff is evil. I wouldn't want any one exposed to it who doesn't have to." White armor clamped down at the thought of the Dark Energon.
"That is why Cliffjumper is going with you, and Jack." Optimus said, already comming the shock trooper to report over.
Wing nodded. "Me and Too Pure will probably sense her way earlier than I'd like. The dark energon is fragging uncomfortable to be around. Cliffjumper can sense it too?" He asked unsure about the shock trooper. It was rare that the knight felt the need to swear but the unmaker's blood even got to this soft sparked mech.
"Cliffjumper, for a time was a terrorcon." Optimus said quietly, so not to disturb the other humans, offering a hand to Jack. "I will never stop admiring his spark for finding a way back, and back to us. That is why I told you to find him if you come across any terrorcons, he still can influence them."
The knight hummed thoughtfully. "I hope we won't encounter any terrorcons. I know they are down there, but still…"
Wings engines whined softly as he went back to eyeing the 'mysterious' Atlantis again. Pictures drawn by societies scattered across the world, believed to never have been in contact with each other. Aztec, Maya and Egyptians the most prominent. Norse, various Indigenous people from all over the world less often, but even they had been there, had incorporated glyphs into their history.
Optimus reached back, rubbing his fingers down the jets back before turning them around and pulled a folded bundle that was human size to hand to Wing, a little Eva suit that would work underwater as well, glancing at Jack. "It might be wise to get your Key, Jack," the Prime said as he lowered the older teen to another section for the humans, "If Crystal City is locked, even in stasis, that will make a Metrotitan open hatches for you."
"Not just for the Big-V?" The young human asked as he hopped off the large hand and headed to the vault. He returned with the artifact, tucking into an inside pocket of a jacket he pulled on.
"Metrotitan's are said to be a direct contact to Primus. When you see their sparks and feel the unconditional love they have for those they call their population, you might understand it. I know why they are considered the connections closest to him along with Primes and Convoys." Wing answered quietly. He regarded the boy and his key with awe, still amazed a human had not only earned the Primes trust, but was honorably enough that Primus deemed him worthy, allowing Jack to be imprinted by the Key.
"It must be amazing," Jack said coming over to Wing, to stand by his left pede. "To get that chance I mean, for something like that."
"Perhaps someday you will get such a chance," Optimus rumbled, he had a feeling this boy was going to be very important, not just what he did with contacting Vector Sigma, but for Wing and Achat. It was why he was sending the teen along with the two mechs after much thought.
"Maybe, maybe not," The human rubbed the back of his head and poked the white ankle, catching sight of Cliffjumper as the trooper came into the main room- pausing to tease Raphael as normal. Jack didn't think he'd get to see half the things he heard about, not that he didn't want to- he did! But Jack was also practical, and some things seemed far past his lifetime, humans didn't live that long in comparison to the mechs. But it was nice to think about those things.
Wing shifted slightly, crouching and purring at Jack. "You will have a lot of opportunities in your life to see and do things nobody else ever will. Many of them as unlikely as becoming the bearer of the Key." He chirred softly, gently resting a hand on the much smaller shoulder.
He glanced over to where Cliffjumper came in and trilled a greeting at him.
The shock trooper waved back, gently teasing both Raphael and Miko before coming over, "So, we're off on an adventure and need someone they can hide behind?" He asked, glancing at Optimus.
"Basically," The Prime agreed easily, giving the mech a data file. Watching as Cliffjumper rumbled then made a face.
"Yeah, that makes sense." he nodded, flashing Wing a full grin, showing the fangs in his denta, "Don't worry, I only give love bites now."
The jet snorted, offering Jack his free hand to climb onto. "Keep your love bites. Snuggles are much better." He teased back, grinning.
"Nothing wrong with that," Cliffjumper shrugged, smiling as Jack hopped up onto the offered hand, and then moving over to the ground bridge before it was opened. Jack was shifted up to Wing's shoulder as he went on to follow the red mech. He glanced back for a moment, focused on the research still open on one of the screens. Vowing they would find the femme city.
"See what you can find, but be careful." Optimus said opening the ground bridge.
Wing chirruped at Optimus. "I'm going to watch Cliff, make sure he doesn't do anything reckless." Wing giggled and got out of the shock troopers reach, unsure if he would get cuffed over the head for that. He bustled after the red mech through the bridge though.
"Neeeeeevar will happen!" The red mech gave a bark of laughed, walking into the tunnel of light, "Just don't lose that suit for Jack- Arcee will gut us if something happened to the runt!"
"Better remember it!" Jack called back from his perch.
Wing snorted. "Trust me Cliffjumper, I'll make sure Jack comes back without a bruise." He wandered after the red mech and only when they were through the bridge did he sigh softly, looking around. It felt good to be back outside, even after all the flying earlier.
A strong, black hand rested on Wing's free shoulder, the red mech squeezed a bit in assurance as he tilted his head, light reflecting on his broken horn. "Just be careful kiddo, this place may look empty," he waved at the trees as the closed, "But its not a cleared area like the mazes. So keep your scanners up on at least a low level." Cliffjumper said, his own buzzing softly as they swept out, looking for humans, as well as Decepticons scouts. "You never know when a squishy or trooper will pop up."
"Just like you do?" Jack asked, leaning back, not at all bothered by the squishy comment.
"Hah! Yep!" Cliffjumper let go and scented the air, "Though knowing our luck in Team Prime, we'll stumble into Deadlock."
Wing hummed softly, stowing the suit for Jack into an armor pocket for now. "I'm not sure I would mind meeting that Decepticon. He didn't seem very happy with his brethren at the last battle." He admitted quietly. He padded after the red mech, wings flaring and clicking in place, fully outstretched they would give him a lot of extra input.
Cliffjumper growled at that, though didn't pause as he started to track, using another sense, not just scanners and optics. "Mech should have listened to me before he let himself get snared in by Turmoil."
"Maybe we'll get a chance to find out why he did that and maybe see if he's willing to stray from his path now." Wing hummed softly and reached out, then thought better of it and let his hand drop back to his side, sighing and prodded his great sword for help. He felt it grumbling amused about the jet disturbing it's 'beauty sleep', but it went willingly to work.
"Wish that could happen," Cliffjumper rumbled before crouching down and staring at a spot. He put a hand down on it, and growled in a new, eerie way that had Jack tensing, grabbing Wing's collar ridge. "Primus, Optimus has the best guesses..."
Wing nodded slightly. "Between the Matrix, fragments of her memories and those 'legendary myths' human kind has of 'Atlantis' it's not hard to have some very good guesses, not to forget Optimus was and is an Archivist, he knows a lot of stuff, read a lot of stuff." The jet moved ahead of Cliffjumper, he could feel traces of energy, not enough to make anyone come looking for possible energon, but enough to be felt when you passed by this place.
"Not just that Wing." Cliffjumper grunted as he started digging around in the spot he was at, after a bit of work he got a hold of something and pulled it up. After breaking it off of the rooted cluster. "This." He held up the raw, dark energon crystal. It wavered in the light, but seemed weaker then the crystal in containment.
The jet neatly moved away from the crystal, quick to put at least twice his frame size of distance between them. He whined softly, the traces he had felt amplifying now that it had been unearthed. He eyed it and huffed. "Probably a left over from Crystal City and her infection. "
"Yeah, so whatever's here, isn't that far, or down deeper." Cliffjumper flipped the crystal around, eyeing it- and he wasn't bothered by it.
"Cliff!" Jack called, worried, "Remember what Ratchet said- you can't have that stuff unless he's monitoring."
"Yeah, yeah." The front-liner spun the crystal on his palm before subspacing it. "But this stuff is weaker, might be useful." He pushed some of the dirt back into the hole, refilling it in for Wing, but now he had a starting point to map out the veins.
The jet chirred when it wasn't exposed anymore and he could concentrate on what his sword felt. He chirped to get Cliffjumper's attention then padded away. There was something down that way.
The red mech rose and trotted after until even, nudging the flier, "Sorry if I end up weirding or outright scaring you soon Wing. If there is a lot of active dark energon, or terrorcons, I'm...going to react."
The jet sighed and turned enough to brush against the red mech. "I can't say I'm really afraid. Just unsettled, stuff is painful to be close to."
"I know," the mech rumbled, rubbing at his remaining, whole horn. Cliffjumper smiled as he watched Jack reach out to rub the side of Wing's cheek.
Wing nuzzled against Jacks hand, ex-venting. "Let's keep going. There's an entrance somewhere. I can still feel traces of the energy."
"I'm just the ride along." Jack smiled, shifting and making himself relax to the mech's field, having learned before some of the Autobots seemed to like it.
Wing purred and moved towards the growing energy traces, allowing his sword to guide him. He huffed when he found a small cave entrance, grumbling about stupid underground things all the time.
"Can you guys fit?" Jack asked as Cliffjumper peered in, and then transformed.
The white mech grabbed Jack and carefully lowered him down. "I'll have to crawl a bit, maybe it gets bigger further in." He admitted, walking as close as he could before ducking down and inside on all fours.
The muscle car inched forward first, giving a snorting like sound as he scented while moving. The human stayed between the two, one hand reaching out to touch the red bumper, glancing back at the Knight every few minutes. Jack hesitated and pulled out his Key to hold. Wing chirred uneasily, both from knowing they were going close to the Dark Energon and from being literally trapped underground. He eyed the surroundings, sighing with relief when they finally found a spot where he could stand again.
Cliffjumper rumbled as he stayed on his wheels, it made more room and he could maneuver better, "Hop up Jack."
The teen did, jumping and turning to sit on the back of the muscle car, and Jack smiled reassuringly up at Wing, "I'm sure it'll be okay, we just have to be careful." He looked down at the Key in his hand, the other now flat on the red metal.
"Careful... yeah. But won't stop this stuff from just being painful by existing." Wing sighed and brushed Jack's head, ruffling the hair before walking ahead, wings twitching in their tight tuck against his back.
"Can you use a buffer of some sort?" the human asked, ruffling his hair back into place. The Key was protecting him, though unless the dark energon, or energy from it was directly forced into the human body it didn't seem to bother humans. But Jack remembered all too clearly what happened to Raphael, and knew better then to be completely comfortable.
Wing shook his head. "No. My great sword might be an asset in finding it, but it also makes me more vulnerable. It amplifies rather than shields. To make me stay away from it. Problem is just that both it and I know we need to find it, doesn't change that it can't shield me, though." He sighed and gently stroked the hilt on his back in a reassuring way, knowing it wasn't the swords fault.
"Oh..." Jack looked down at the ground slowly rolling away from him, only that Cliffjumper wasn't going any real speed was why he was staying there by choice. Dark eyes shifted to stare thoughtfully at the Key, thinking over what he could do with it.
"There's old 'blood' here." Cliffjumper stopped, backed up and turned to his left, tracking something else.
Wing glanced over and followed after a moment. "Think it's Crystal's?"
"Smells like mech." there was a faint ripple of the panels, a smaller shrug as the doors stayed close, "They were coming up..." The muscle car stopped over the bare rock, idling with no exhaust and then his engine sound stopped. "He stopped here... came from... this way." Cliffjumper flicked on his high beams and started rolling to what looked like a branching tunnel, now visible, and Wing would have to stoop or get lower again.
"Must have been a bit bigger then you and I, lots of energon."
Wing chirred and peered into the tunnel. "A terrorcon? One of the infected mechs she had on board? We gotta find out, no matter how much I don't want to." He smiled wistfully, nudging Cliffjumper to go ahead and take the lead.
"Not the one that made it out." If Cliffjumper could he would have shaken his head, "And I don't smell any terrorcons up here, not yet."
The jet let out a vent in relief. "Still if a mech survived we gotta find them. On the slim chance they might still be alive." He dropped back down to all fours.
"Wing," the muscle car revved softly, "We're back tracking, this mech made it out. If he survived is another thing, I can track on stone here, but not the changing earth above. The limestone coated the energon, keeping it from fully washing away. If that mech is around, it won't be deeper unless he got infected and came back."
Jack had turned, sitting up on the back of Cliffjumper, looking forward before laying in the back window to save his knees. But the youth had held out his Key, watching the subtle shifting in the crystal that almost only he could see at his level. "Someone is here Cliff..." He said, rubbing the spot behind one ear with his other hand.
The jet huffed and followed silently, unwilling to have his hopes destroyed. He glanced to Jack, golden optics narrowing. "Hope it's not an enemy." He shifted a bit moving a tad bit faster.
"Never said it wasn't," Cliffjumer sounded distracted, "There's only one trail here... Jack, how far away is the spark?"
"Its... its closer, there's two." The youth struggled, paused and poked the Key, "Behave." he told it.
Wing peered at the key, churring at it, "It better behave, those might be some of the lost knights for all we know." He sighed and prodded his sword but Too Pure was unwilling for once, deciding that no, it would not help him beyond trying to sense the Dark Energon. The sword felt weakened, unhappy and grumpy. It wanted away now.
The muscle car slowed and stopped at a fork in the passage, one opening up and getting higher, the other twisting to the left and the same level. Cliffjumper moved to the entrance of each, feeling Dark energon from both but the blood-type energon he'd been tracking stopped. Meaning the mech started to bleed outside his shell here. "Where do we go?"
"Umm..." Jack slid off, moving ahead to the side passage and staring in as far as the headlights would go. "There's one this way- or something. I think." he looked at the Key and back to the darkness. He looked to the main passage and pointed, "There's a song echo coming from there though. Its sad."
"The survivor first. If the echo is there still, it will be there a bit later to listen to." Wing decided and eyed the indicated passage. "Take the lead Jack, but stay close."
The teen looked back, using one hand to keep the high beams off his eyes as he looked up to the golden optics, then he started down the passage. He paused and came back to Cliffjumper, "Is my flashlight still in there?"
"Might be," the mech opened his door, letting Jack rummage inside before coming out with a light, to add just that bit more in his shadow from the lights behind.
Once with that bit of security, the human started again. One hand holding his Key up, and watching the shifting colors like reading a data pad. Likely he was, as the boy was connected to the living thing. Jack hummed softly to it as he picked his way forward, able to get ahead of the two mechs, even Cliffjumper in his alternate mode, as tired had to navigate over the tunnel floor, but he stayed in the light. He was still a bit ahead of them, so Jack was the first to spot the gleam of metal.
"There's something up here!" Jack called back, crouching down and started pushing fallen rock fragments, maybe shale, off of what looked like the world's largest sword. He knew better, with the blade as long as he was, it was a small dagger for a transformer. It still had a shine and only just started a few rusty patches, and inlayed glyphs that Jack couldn't read.
Wing twitched when he saw the glyphs, a low keen rising from his vocalizer. He shuffled around Cliffjumper, collecting the dagger and examining it carefully. "That's one of ours."
He dusted it off, fingers gliding over the glyphs. He recognized the work of one of the Citadels weapon-smiths anywhere, though he couldn't tell if this one belonged to one of the civilians or another knight. It could have belonged to either, since some civilians had earned reputations among the knights or had lovers there who would gift such dagger as a sign of honor or love.
The jet gave Jack a searching look, eyeing the Key with quivering wings. "We gotta find whoever is down here. They were in close contact with the Knights. Maybe even a Knight."
"I don't feel a sword like your though," Jack said slowly, looking back to the darkness, he took a few deep breaths and walked ahead again, the tunnel was slowly creeping up higher here, as well as notably sloping downwards.
"Then someone close to one of us. These daggers have been gifted to honorary civilians at times, or gifts of knights to their lovers." Wing explained quietly, storing the dagger away as if it was a frail glass object. He pulled his own flashlight out of subspace now, lighting a much larger area than Jack could.
The muscle car revved, rolling forward and stopping in order to clip the heel of Wing's pede. A reminder that he had to be first, able to pick up energon nearly gone after all, the Knight would scuff up any possible 'new' trails. This was a useful talent but hard.
Wing huffed but allowed the red mech to roll ahead, uneasy and twitchy from the prospect of finding a surviving mech but having no way of going any faster than the human could move. It made him nervous to think about it and the dark energon surrounding this place.
::Take a deep vent,:: Cliffjumper comm sighlently, his voice taking a surprisingly comforting rumble. He was a Caretaker after all of Bumblebee. ::The Key said there's a spark- and it would know if it was in risk of snuffing. Jack would be running, not watching his feet. There's no use us getting hurt trying to save someone else.::
It didn't keep Wing from the uneasy quivering, he click chirped at Cliffjumper. ::I know, I know. I can't help it.:: Wing answered. He couldn't stand going so slow if there was someone in need, not when there was little he had to look out for.
Jack had drifted to the right, peering at something before he jerked and looked back, "Uhh, there's a pede here!"
Cliffjumper transformed, filling up the space some before the thicker mech stopped more, almost kneeling as he moved to the far side of the human, letting Wing get in close as he started carefully lifting boulders and rocks. His scanners alive and focused on the cavern tunnel to be sure there wasn't supports being taken down as he dug, "Looks like he sealed himself in."
"Or her," Jack said as he examined the pede.
Wing chirred and was busily getting the rocks away, making sure to line them up somewhere out of the way. "Hiding from the Dark Energon infection, then went into stasis from the lack of Energon..." He offered his thoughts, carefully lifting another rock off of the frames chest.
"Here, let me check for damage before you pull 'em out." Jack offered, having pulled a bandana out of a pocket to wrap over his nose and mouth as a rough protection from the dust.
Wing waited quietly, unable to say who it was they found, as Achat was busy getting to them and keeping his grieve in check enough to avoid damaging either his citizens or hurt his consorts accidentally.
"Its a femme!" Jack's voice called from the inside of the pocket like alcove, the human just visible with his light as he went up one side, down the other, and then climbed up to stand on the mecha's front. He was checking for damage, and paused to press the side of his head against where the spark must have been, along with the Key. "She's okay I think- the Key doesn't think she's staved, just stasis."
"That's good," Cliffjumper shifted to reach in, carefully starting to pull her out.
Wing shifted nervously, waiting for Cliffjumper to pull the femme out. "How do we get her out of here, the passages are barely large enough for me to crawl through, we can't just drag her all the way." He chirred, carefully brushing some dust off of her face.
Cliffjumper lifted Jack up as the boy started sneezing, holding him under one of the warrior's vents to get clear, warm air flowing over him. "We don't, we find a spot down here that's big enough to open a ground bridge."
"If we find one..." Wing sighed and watched them for a moment, then glanced around. "Leave her here for now, while we search the rest or take her back to the branching we came from?" He asked, glancing back the way they had come.
"There's something down there- if nothing else room for Terrorcons to move," Cliffjumper said as he started pushing some of the debris back up on the femme to hide her against the wall of the tunnel. "So we open a bridge once there's room, and a signal. Otherwise it's the old fashion way of bringing her up."
Wing chirred unhappily, but helped with covering her back up. "Then let's move on before one of those finds us here. I'd be happier if we get the surprise on them."
"Likely any Terrorcons would be settled," Cliffjumper extended an arm, letting Jack get away from the stirred up dust and start to look around. The resourceful human didn't get too far before finding a hilt from another small dagger along the bend,
Wing sighed. "I hope we don't even find any. They are a problem I really don't desire to deal with." He glanced over to Jack, following the human, "Another dagger? This one isn't of Knight origin, but it has the flourish style of Crystals own."
"It's broken," Jack braced himself on the hilt, using his weight to move I and look at the remnants of what looked like crystal in the hilt.
Wing hummed, "Signs of a fight. The rest is probably inside the attacker." He mused and gently took hold of it. "I haven't seen any like these before."
Cliffjumper had to half lean against Wing to get a look, and then grunted, "Its a quick-blade Wing. Fast and dirty to make, one time use normally per blade, but you can make it out of most things."
The jet eyed it. "Ugly weapon, even if I understand it's use, I don't like it." He rubbed back against Cliff seeking reassurance as much as a comforting presence in the face of things so very alien and yet familiar to him.
"That's a good one," Ciffjumper leaned over him more, pressing his armor to Wing's back and took the hilt. "This is more from an artist, I saw these back before the war, they liked the crystal blades as being less threatening to still go into clubs, but help if needed."
"Hm... So a civilian's last resort so to say. I knew things like these existed, but never saw one. We simply don't have them as they're against the codex. We fight to protect without killing opponents if possible. We only ever kill as the very last resort. And usually that's around the time we use the Great Swords." He spoke quietly, one of his namesakes unfolding to brush against red armor. The jet wriggled and purred softly. "We should go on, I think there's more to this place, much more that we haven't seen yet."
"It's not meant to kill Wing," The warrior said as he rubbed the white mech's shoulder, then gently moved the flier behind him again. Neither of them seeing the quick flash or red in the distance behind them before it vanished, "Just slow someone down for the mecha to get away."
The jet nodded. "Yes, yes. I still don't like it." He answered then let the topic fall, shuffling obediently after the more experienced mech.
Cliffjumper regarded Wing for a long moment before settling down to more crawl then stoop after the human. He had lived in the gutters, levels, nearly in the Decepticon ranks, front lines and now this more gorilla war. "Keep an optic behind us just in case, if there's a burred and hibernating terrorcon around, it won't wake up until after we step on it and move on."
Wing chirped in affirmation, glancing over his shoulder every now and then, as well as using his wings to track whatever might happen behind him, since unfolding them wasn't an option anyways currently. "Hopefully we won't step on one." Wing said.
"Won't know until it happens or doesn't." Cliffjumper shifted, trying to get his thick armor lower or compact to make more room but it wasn't working. The warrior rumbled, and pulled himself forward, for a few minutes right over Jack in a protective way, acting more like a sire then anything, until he slowly started to get up, reaching to put a hand on the ceiling. It was just above him now, letting the mechs stand back up right, even as he started scenting again- and then nudged Wing more to the left to avoided a hidden cluster of dark energon.
Wing twitched uneasily, he had felt something stare in their direction but since he couldn't see anything he decided that it probably was a sensory ghost. He turned back to watch Jack and Cliffjumper, padding after them uneasily.
"There's something ahead... I don't know what it is." Jack admitted, stopping to look between his Key and the path ahead, squinting into the darkness. "There's a spark too but something else, its not exactly like Skyquate either."
Wing's engines idled a bit higher as he moved along with Cliffjumper, he kept behind the red mech but only barely.
"Jack," The warrior hissed after the passed another few side alcoves and passages. His optics where bright, but a mix of blue and purple now, almost like Arcee's but not. A lower, primal growl rattled out of him as he stared into the dark beyond the reach of his headlights.
Then the growl echoed back from a different chest, only it sounded more ragged. Rasping. Cliffjumper pushed Wing behind him and over to where Jack was on the other side.