"Well?" his tone was expectant.
"Those dimwitted planes the aerialbots showed up." starscream screeched indignantly.
Megatron stifled a sigh, which was heard across the line anyways. "never mind. We have backup arriving across the spacebridge, Take the others and meet them at these coordinates. We will arrive there shortly." the line clicked off.
The other autobots pulled up to the ark, and transformed.
"It is good to be home!" Jazz grinned, heading inside.
Sunstreaker mumbled something about having an appointment with a washrack and some wax.
Jade swooped down and landed next to Shadow. "Welcome to Earth." she beamed.
Shadow backwinged and landed careful not to spray dust up everywhere. She grinned unfortuantly showing all her very sharp fangs. After allowing Bluestatic to dismount, she transformed. Shaking her wings a bit Shadow replied "Thank you I'm glad to be here."
Bluestatic, as soon as he had dismounted, just stood there in awe of the huge structure in fron of him.
"Woah" was all the young engineer could say.
Jade grinned. "This is the Ark. It's the Autobot ship that crashed here several million years ago. C'mon, I'll show you around." she headed inside.
Sunstreaker was leaning against teletraan, telling Bluestreak all about his trip, who had a million questions. Sunstreaker glanced up and halted mid-insult about his armor being scuffed as he was dropped/caught by Shadow.
Bluestatic as always was excited "yes please" he replied for both of them as he grinned excitedly. He didn't notice Sunstreaker and Bluestreak but he did notice practically everything else.
Shadow caught Sunstreaker's glare even if her brother did not she just game him a look that said 'It could be worse'. She wasn't frightened of him, Shadow knew his reputation but she as always made her own decisions about people. She did, however; smile slightly in greeting to Bluestreak. Flaring her wings a bit shadow brought them to rest on her back finding a more comfortable position for them.
The rangers waited silently as the low humming of the spacebridge faded. They were surrounded by a large metal circle, and green triangles lined the flat, dusty valley.
Soon they would have what they wanted, but for now they would wait. They stood in silence a mark of their respect and willingness to obey.
Starscream landed and looked over the group of animal 'formers. Skywarp snickered from behind him. "Gee, I thought we were running an army, not a zoo."
Thundercracker smacked him up back of his helmet to shut up.
As usual, the Rangers had expected this therefore they didn't do very much; Sky knew all about seekers mainly becuase he had once been one himself. Therefore he just gave a silent look to Skywarp which said 'is that the best you can do?'
Megatron landed, Soundwave on one side, and walked up. "I presume your trip was... pleasant." He nodded to the troup. "Which one of you is the leader?" he asked, looking over the tiger, griffen, phoenix, wolf and.bee.
Darkclaw looked to his leader "I am sir" he spoke in a low voice "my name is Darkclaw" he added again in a low voice.
Megatron nodded. "Follow us." He took to the air, leading them to their nearby temporary cavern base
Darkclaw nodded "as you wish" he spoke in that low voice and signaled to the others taking off transforming into griffon mode; Sky was the second off the ground transforming into his phoenixalt-mode. Next was Beedrill transforming into her bee mode; saber and windwhisper both stayed in their robot modes as they followed.
Hound walked up, Bumblebee and Spike trailing. Spike looked up, and his eyes got as wide as saucers. "Woah! a real dragon!" he breathed, looking up at Shadow.
"Hello, my name's Hound, and this is Bumblebee, and Spike." the green jeep motioned to the yellow Volkswagen beetle, and the shorter brunette human, who only came up to Bumblebee's chest in height. The human waved. "Hi." he said.
Trailbreaker walked up to stand behind the group. It seemed everyone wanted to know who these new transformers were.
Shadow's tail flicked slightly in amusement at Spike's awe. "Hello. my name's Shadow and this is my brother Bluestatic" as she motioned to the engineer who was looking about with wide opticed fasination.
She flared her wings showing her wingspan before settling them again. While not one for attention she did wan't to make a decent impression on one of earth's natives. "Looks like you've never seen a dragon before" she replied to Spike in a rather jovial voice. Smiling down at him; while normally quite detached Shadow decided to make an exception for the young human.
Upon hearing his name Bluestatic looked over to the new group and grinned in his own friendly way his attention was grabbed by Spike but he didn't react to it outwardly. Inside his curiosity was perked.
"well...uh..." spike stammered at first, then settled down. "I saw one once...when we were accidentally sent into the past.. It's a long story, I guess. eheh.." the teenager rubbed at the back of his neck nervously. "I've never seen one this close before, though." he added.
"Hmm well then I shouldn't spoil it for you" Shadow spoke with a grin stepping back a bit she transformed into her dragon alt-mode. Once she was settled on her hind legs sitting down Shadow looked down at the human "Now then what do you think?" she asked the young human. Before bringing her head down so he was at optic level at the same time trying not to scare him.
Spike walked up, looking at the dragon. "Wow... just like in the movies." he said. About that time, his dad called for him from the repairbay. "I guess... I'll see you later?" he gave the dragon another look, and turned towards where Sparkplug had called from.
Shadow smiled slightly deliberatley not grinning after all her teeth might just scare him. She cocked her head "Movies?" she muttered before remembering what Bluestatic had showed her "Ah yes". Noticing that Spike had to go Shadow nodded "Sure by the looks of things we'll be here a while so I'll see ya". Watching him go Shadow flicked her tail and checking she had enough room to transform did so.
"Never thought we'd be here at the start of this cycle hey 'Static" Shadow asked her brother giving him an affectionate nudge.
Bluestatic watched the human go; a little dissapointed that he hadn't been noticed that much.
"heh sure didn't sis" Bluestatic replied returning the nudge with all good grace.
They spent an hour walking around the ark, and finally made it to a room filled with tables, and a row of dispensers against one wall. "And finally, the rec room." Jade said, walking in.
"Welcome to Earth!!!" came a chorus. there were about ten bots, and Jazz in the front, along with Wheeljack and a couple others. "We thought we'd give you guys a proper welcome, at least." Wheeljack said.
"Yeah." Wapath sounded " Jade told us all Wham! Bam! about you guys, Pow!"
Jade tried not to snicker at the tank's unusual choice of words. "he means the livejournal." she grinned. her grin dissapeared. "Uh-oh. I hope Prowl doesn't go over it like he said he was going to..."
Jazz handed her a canister of high-grade, and handed Shadow and Bluestreak one each. "I wouldn't be too worried 'bout it." he gave them a mischevious smile. "They've been doin' some street races I don't think they want Prowl ta find out about." He went over to a table and sat down.
"So." wheeljack turned to Bluestatic. "I heard you were a junior mechanic back on cybertron." he said.
Shadow had followed jade around the ark but nothing had prepared her for the surprise. "Gee thanks" Shadow wasn't too sure what to say and pretty much stood there for a few sec's listening to everyone before cracking a smile "heh I guess I should have known" she told Jade after she'd explained about the Journal. Shadow had also had to supress a slight laugh at Warpaths expense; she'd never met anyone who liked to make their own sound effects before, and it was quite... amusing to say the least.
"He's right you know, with all the guys who have an interest in keeping stuff like that out of the public eye you don't really need to worry too much" she reasured Jade as she accepted the canister with a "thanks" and tasted some "hey this is good" she commented idly.
Bluestatic however almost jumped out of his plating; he wasn't much of a person for on the spot surprises however as soon as he got over it he was grinning broadly. "Thanks" he told Jazz as he recieved his canister. Before casting a speculative glance at Shadow.
"Sis with your enegon tolerance don't expect to be drunk anytime soon" before being adressed by Wheeljack. The young enginner was a little surprised but he didn't show it. "Yes that's right" he replied "Though I'm not that good at building stuff even if I am quite good at repairing; we'll it's usually all I get to do" he told the older engineer with a grin.
the stereo got turned on, which caused a brief argument betweeen Sunstreaker, who was watching the tv, and Sideswipe, who had turned on the radio. Sidewipe told Sunny to just scoot closer to the t.v. and turned the music down a little.
Wheeljack 'smiled', his headfins lighting a blue color. "Well, how would you like ta help me out in my workshop? I'm sure Prime could use another mechanic."
Shadow took a seat as well but had to rearange her wings a bit; she growled a bit but other wise sorted herself out. She wrapped her tail tightly arround her waist in order to avoid it getting trodden on.
She had seen the twins argument and had smirked to herself obviously thinking something pretty nasty but as soon as it had come it vanished. The dragoness simply took in everything that was going on and relaxed a bit.
Bluestatic however was enjoying talking to Wheeljack; he'd never met another engineer before so having one to talk to especially about some of his ideas was great. "Would I ever!" Bluestatic answered grinning. Something he had always wanted was to get taught about the stuff he didn't know.
"Be carefull, blue, 'Jacks inventions have a tendency to go boom sometimes." Jazz grinned at the engineer, who looked a bit embarrassed.
"Not everything I do blows up guys."
Jazz just grinned, glancing at Jade, who grinned back and shrugged like "Don't get me into this."
Shadow just grinned "Stats had plenty of things go boom; though I'm usually the only one dumb enough to test them" she warned "oh and he likes to take things apart so be warned" she grinned at her brother.
Bluestatic quite simply thumped his sister and pulled a face "very funny sis besides I never made you test it you do so of your own free will"
He didn't mind things blowing up several times he'd had to blow stuff up intentionally so he wasn't all that fussed.
Jade just chuckled.
Meanwhile outside a certain grasshopper was looking in. "I wonder" he muttered a grin forming on his face. He'd 'heard' all about Shadow from the rangers; heh he shouldn't have been eavesdropping but it was fun. Now he was just wondering what to do now or more specifically what chaos to cause now.
Kickback meanwhile was a little busy thinking about just what to do...he'd talked to the femme seeker quite a bit online. Now he was curious about what she was actually like. Well that and he was naturally a nosy guy. The grasshopper just idled outside the ark wondering how different it was in there to his home. The insecticon wasn't one for sentiment he was just generally curious; he'd had a friend once. That he remembered and he also remembered how it had turned out.
Shaking his head kickback dispelled these thoughts and began to cook up a plan...a rather amusing plan.
Shadow took Bluestatic's swipe in good grace "heh your my brother of course I'm going to do all sorts of wierd things for you" she spoke matter of factly and gave her brother a friendly nudge.
After finishing her cube, Jade glanced at her chronometer. "I almost forgot. I've got an evening patrol to run in a few minutes." she glanced at Wheeljack and Jazz. "We'll keep 'em company." Jazz assured with a smile.
Jade smiled back and nodded.
"See ya!" Bluestatic called out as he waved to Jade before Shadow kicked him under the table. So with a grin he curled up against his sister and rested his head on her shoulder. The kind of way he knew Shadow didn't enjoy when in public still it was fun; baiting the dragoness. That and he knew just how far he could go before she snapped.
"Have fun" Shadow told jade as she left kicking her brother under the table Shadow sighed but this time didn't push him off. To be honest she was a little too tired to care. Leaving him be she simply sat and listened to what was going on in the room.
Kickback was about to implement his plan when the very seeker he was aiming at having a chat with walked out; oh this will be fun he thought to himself as he got ready to follow if needed to he might just force her to land then again that Jet judo the autobot twins seemed to enjoyed did look a little interesting. With a very wide grin the grasshopper ducked back into the shadows and waited.
Jade could've sworn she heard the bushes rattle. eh. Might have been spike or one of the other humans that hung around the Ark. The seeker glanced around, sighed, munmbled something about Red Alert giving her the crappy routes, and transformed, igniting her engines, waiting for them to heat up so she could take off.
Kickback was indeed getting a laugh out of this. Moving around he would have to wait until she was at least out of shouting range that way if he disabled her comlink they would have to worry about being disturbed. The grasshopper got ready as soon as she was off he would follow; heh it was surprising how stealthy he could be when he wanted to.
Kickback listened to her mumble about her route heh at least he never had to do patrol...well unless they were hungry they didn't go out much anyway.
the rosy-red and blue-colored jet rolled forward, then let off the brakes, and started her ascent.
Kickback broke into a run as soon as he was far enough away from the ark he turned on his anti-gravs and flew into the sky. Landing quite safely on top of the jet. "Hello; told ya I'd visit" he spoke in a quiet tone prepared if neccessary to drive the jet quite litterally into the ground.
"Now hows about you go down so I can have a propper chat with ya" he told her a friendly smile across his features. Kickback knew how to put on a face he didn't feel and right now he knew that in order to quench his curiousity he'd have to appear friendly and genuinely interested.
Jade winced as the insecticon landed on her, his steel-clawed feet digging into her plating.
She cast her scanners back towasrds the Ark.
Only three miles out. Red Alert would have a heyday if he learned she was talking to him at all.
She swung around to the coastline, dipping down to where the Oregon land dropped off in sharp cliffs. "I can't land with you on top of me. Just so you know if I transform and throw you off, It's unintentional." She slowed even more over the water, where the water the rock face of the cliffs with nothing but blue under them. She rounded a sharp wall of rock jutting out, to reveal a small beach.
Not that she trusted him not to bite her or something. (she was made out of metal, after all, and that was what insecticons ate, right?)
Kickback just grinned "that's okay, you don't have to worry. I get more grief from the others"
in order to prove his 'trust' Kickback let go of Jade and engaged his anti-gravs. to be truthful, he hoped he wouldn't have to bring her down but it was important in order to learn what he wanted to; to make sure she didn't get in troubble and that might mean roughing her up a bit...meh he could do that later.
Keeping close to her Kickback made sure that his safety was ensured. After all having a swarm of Autobots descend on him out of the blue wasn't something he had been planning on.
The jet transformed and landed, casting a glance up at the cliff face. "I'm not too far off my patrol route. hopefully they won't notice..." she mumbled, thinking aloud.
Hmm well if they do notice I could always shoot you" Kickback replied before sitting down on the sand "Wanna sit with me?" he asked in an innocent sounding tone. Twitching his anntenni Kickback looked about; then finding nothing pulled a twig (though in reality it was more like a tree branch) and started to much. Remembering his manners he offered a bit to Jade. He knew he had to be a little slow and cautious in order to learn about this person so he was willing to take his time. After all this was a game he was good at.
"No thanks." Jade wondered how he could eat wood, metal, and anything/everything else in sight. Insecticons must be made different than normal mechs. She seated herself on a nearby rock, glancing up at the cliff face again. "So, didjya ever find those snapshots of Skywarps pranks?" she smirked, chuckling slightly.
"That was you I talked to on the journal, right? at least I hope it was you, if it wasn't..." she trailed off, realizing she was rambling, and scuffed the toe of one shoe on the sand in front of her.
Shrugging, Kickback continued to eat his twig; enjoying it's taste. At the mention of Skywarp's pranks Kickback grined and pulled a couple of pictures out of subspace. "Of course" he replied. "hehe yeah that was me; we don't tend to get much to do so we tend to either watch skywarp or go online, both are rather amusing at times"
Jade nodded, taking the pictures and looking them over, snickering loudly. "You wouldn't happen to have a copy of these I could have, would you?" she flipped to another picture, Megatron with a bewildered look on his face and a cowering Starscream drenched in neon multi-colored paint. she laughed out loud.
Kickback was glad to see he was getting somewhere "me? would I ever..." he quickly drops a spare set in clear view "no of course I don't" he replies with a grin. As he snickers at some of the pranks he'd 'captured'. Now seeing the almighty bucket head in neon pink paint was funny...still when skywarp had rigged his fusion cannon to fire paintballs; the pure look of bewilderment was the best.
She flipped through the other photos quickly. There was one of Megatron in neon pink paint, one where Ramjet and Dirge were being held together by what seemed to be... duct... tape?
There were others, too, like the time Laserbeak had been reprogrammed to think he was a real condor and making a nest in the rafters, getting soundwave dunk, and the funniest by far, painting "I'm stupid, but he's dumber" with an arrow on the back on Starscream's wings, so when he turned around it was pointing at Megatron.
Not to mention sticking signs with stupid sayings on Starscream's back, like 'kick me' and stuff. Jade giggled as she flipped through them. Too bad she couldn't tell Sideswipe. These were pretty funny!
She laughed out loud at the pics. "So why did you jump on me like that? Surely you didn't tackle me just because you wanted to give me funny prank photos...did you?" Jade looked bewildered.
He was supposed to be a Decepticon. She knew the Insecticons didn't really have much use for Megatron, or the other Decepticons. But she still didn't trust him not to lead her into a trap or something.
Kickback shrugged "wanted someone to talk to; Bombshells sick and Shrap's running ragged around 'con base...normally I'd help but, I really couldn't be bothered besides Skywarp's planning something and i really don't want to get caught by him" he grinned at the bewildered Jet "besides I'm curious about you" he spoke in a matter of fact tone and shrugged.
Kickback didn't remember much about the time before he woke up as an insecticon and those he did remember he didn't like. If it wasn't for the fact he got hungry and enjoyed creating a little chaos ever now and then he probably wouldn't care much about the autobots and would probably have just let them be; but then as he'd said before where was the fun in that?
"Okay..." Jade said slowly, glancing at the cliff above her. No one knew about this little beach and cave, but at least her glances might make the insecticon nervous, in case he was going to try anything.
"Like what?" Kickback asked, curiousity perked; she was a strange one this seeker and he was genuinely curious. Kickback was used to talking to people he didn't know too well so unlike jade he was quite happy to just sit here and chat...as long as he got something out of it he was happy.
"Well... there's a couple message boards, a fan-fiction site..." the jet trailed off, listing off a few other various sites.
"Mmm sounds like your quite an outgoing person. Me, I just do this and that; sometimes I post on message boards; sometimes i just roam around a bit" Kickback put his arms behind his head as he lay down "I often just go with the flow; kinda like my name I just kickback and relax" he grinned at that. As he'd originally anticipated Kickback was finding a lot out about Jade's character; so this had been worthwhile after all.
Jade grinned. "I really should get back to my route before Prowl finds out I'm not where I'm supposed to be. Not to mention if a certain red and white finds out I'm even talking to you..." her tone took on a grumbling quality upon mentioning Red Alert. "I'm sure you read my post's about him." she rolled her optics.
Kickback actually laughed "Yes the infamous security director; who doesn't know about him and his paranoia" he stood up and dusted some sand off. "Looks like I'll be seeing you again sometime then...though don't expect me to go easy on ya if were on a battlefield. Though, a word of advice, it's best to stay away from us when were hungry"
Kickback grinned before turning round and engaging his anti-gravs. Hey, do me a favour, copy some of the snapshots and post them around the ark; I'd do it myself but I don't think I'd get in" he shrugged. Jade chuckled at the comment.
Flying off Kickback thought about all he'd learned about the femmeseeker; yeah she was an interesting one alright and he'd have to play close attention to her in future. He might just learn something.
Jade reminded herself to email him thanks when she got back. She snickered at the photos, and put the datapad into a subspace pocket.
Kickback flew back to the insecticons lair to find Shrapnel nursing a damaged anteni and bombshell looking strangely green. Inside he groaned; he should have just stayed outside.
Ignoring the questioning looks Kickback made his way to his part of their lair and lied down; he wouldn't recharge until the others did, after all he didn't want them interfering with his buisness.
Back at the ark Bluestatic had pretty much fallen asleep lying clurled up against his sister. He always felt secure around her and he knew she would do everything in her power to keep him safe.
Shadow was quite simply finding everything that was going on interesting; people occasionally came over to talk to her and she would oblige them for a while. But they would leave eventually saying that they didn't want to disturb her brother...well it was a good thing Shadow was used to silence.
The jet finished one pass of her patrol, passed over the inactive volcano the Ark was buried under, and headed back out.
Shadow grinned at her brother who was still snug asleep; perhaps for once she had peace. Still that part of her spark that ached to be reunited with the others irritated her; she knew she'd never have true peace but at least she had what was dear to her.
Meanwhile, Megatron was scheming. He'd lost the traitor Shadow once, and therefore lost one of his combiner teams. he had been none-too-pleased about it, but now he had a chance to re-unite histeam. And this time, he would make sure she didn't get away...
DarkClaw and the others had known that their beast modes would case a reaction but they hadn't expected to be avoided like a plauge of scraplets. Though soon that would change; their erring comrade would be brought back and this time she wouldn't leave...
The short, yellow and blue Ford Festiva (hatchback that looks like a lopped-off station wagon) skittered down the hall after his teammate, a light grey MQ1 Predator named Beacon. Driveby, their team leader, just shook her head. The Toyota Camry had decided to come visit the Ark, since it had been a month or so, and they were getting low on supplies at their nearby base. Not to mention she hadn't seen a certain black and white 2CO, who she had a budding relationship (she hoped) with.
A small tank, a Challenger 2, bounced after the duo, calling for Cable, the blue and yellow car, to slow down. Beside Driveby, the white camry, was Ty, a black Chevy Bronco with bright teal sidestripes. One her other side was Gumlock, a black colored jet, who's color scheme was actually also dark blue and green, but those colors were so dark you couldn't tell they were blue and green unless he was under a bright light.
Shadow heard unfamiliar footsteps and voices outside the rec.room so naturally her wing curled round her brother protectively. She knew there were other autobots about but Shadow never took chances.
Bluestatic didn't even stir he just snuggled a little closer to his sister.
Beacon, the light grey jet, came running into the rec room, the minibot-sized yellow and blue Cable following him.
Shadow watched as the two transformers entered the room; the fact that nobody had raised arms against them calmed her a bit. Still she kept her red-colored optics on them just to make sure.
Beacon looked over at her, and Cable waved. "Hiya!" he headed for where she was sitting.
"Hey guys, wait up!" the mud-colored Cap, The tank who was actually camo-colored, but mostly mud colored, currently, came in behind them.
Cap bounced after them, and Driveby, the white car and Ty, the black Chevy Blazer, walked in after them.
A few miles away, Sky was out flying; even though Saber was travelling on the ground, he considered himself to by flying solo. With nothing much to do his mind wandered; argh they had come so close! Yet again the dragon had escaped them with an almost wild avian shriek Sky vented his fustrations. Oneday the'd have her back; even if they had to kill that pest of a brother of hers to do it.