Disclaimer: Hasbro owns the canon Transformers, I own the others. Songs are property of Jamie Brown and myself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lightshow all but danced out of the shelter in the morning. Jazz followed a little more calmly.
"Y'know, I would've chosen running into those three goons over spending another day inside there. Why on Cybertron did we have to spend TWO nights in there?"
"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad," Jazz said.
Lightshow held out his hand and began counting off on his fingers. "Cramped sleeping space, stale energon, smelter-like temperature and a smell like a trash compactor. Oh no, it wasn't bad at all. It was disgusting! Honestly, haven't some of those bots heard of self-maintenance? I've never seen such foul-looking mechanisms in all my existence!"
"Alright, so it was a little bad, but it could have been worse."
"I dread to ask, but how?"
"No sleeping space, no energon, actual smelter, actual trash compactor."
Lightshow brought his hand up and smacked his face. "I had to ask," he mumbled.
"At least we would have thrown off those three thugs, and we managed to get directions to the north sector."
"Let's just hope it'll be better than here."
"And I don't care what you say, stale or not, energon is energon, and we've got enough, so lets transform."
"No argument from me. I've had just about enough of this place."
Lightshow lept off the sidewalk and transformed into a compact hover-cycle. Jazz followed him by reverting to his hover-car mode. Lightshow stalled for a moment.
"Nice alt-mode," he said at last.
"Thanks, you too," Jazz replied. "Now lets get a move on."
They sped off down the street and eventually eased to a cruise once they'd left the main neighborhood. The morning light grew brighter and the buildings kept zipping by till the gap between each construction grew just a little wider. The two talked now and then, Lightshow telling Jazz about what it was like working in the factory he was posted at.
"So how did you come to like music?" Jazz asked.
"Flaire took me to a bar once, and they had a machine there that used to play magnetized discs with music tracks on them. I had some credits with me and I spent the entire time playing song after song till Flaire had to drag me out of there. That was before he left for Levatron. I haven't heard any music since then. No one else seemed interested in it."
"No one else was. Maestro lost his job because of it. He wanted to try and revive it, but he was too old. That's why he created me – to keep music alive. And I have absolutely no clue on how to do that."
"Maybe you shouldn't look. Maybe the answer will come to you."
"I sure hope it finds me soon. I don't wanna be the one to let Maestro down."
They kept driving for the rest of the day, through the night and well into the next day. Finally that evening Jazz pulled off the main street and turned into a side-road where he skidded a few times before coming to a stop at an odd angle. By this time Lightshow had transformed and was watching Jazz's struggle with some amusement.
"That was… great," he said between giggles. "Never seen… anyone… do that before." He sank to the ground laughing.
Jazz transformed. "Yeah, very hilarious. So smelt me, I still haven't got the hang of stopping yet. And it ain't nice to laugh at a mech like that. I'd never have laughed at you."
"Oh yes you would have, 'cause that was slagged up funny."
"Alright, I probably would have." Jazz sat down next to him. "That stale energon sure lasted us pretty long."
"Yeah, but it ain't gonna last us much longer. We gotta find someone willing to give us some or we aren't gonna get much farther. Where'd you say we are right now?"
"Somewhere in north Ferronix. We'll look in the morning. Right now we should get some sleep."
"Good idea. Goodnight."
Lightshow immediately began to power down. Jazz however, though tired, could not get to sleep just yet. It was not the dreams anymore – those had stopped soon after he left Stirrshot's home. He put it down to anxiety. Satisfied that his companion was asleep, Jazz pulled out his datapad and set about finishing his work. Lightshow cracked an optic open and watched Jazz for a good long while. Then, as Jazz was about to slip the datapad back into subspace, Lightshow shot his arm out and snatched it from his hand. He quickly jumped to his feet and backed several steps away, optics quickly skimming through the contents.
"Hey! Give that back!" Jazz yelled, rising and running towards the other mech.
The maroon bot turned to run, but Jazz caught up and tackled him. Both mechs went down with a crash. Lightshow got up first and Jazz was about to reach for him when a bright light burst from Lightshow's back panels and Jazz dropped back to the ground, his hands over his optics.
"Now that's just playing dirty!" he yelled.
"Never said I was a fair player," Lightshow replied.
Jazz's sharp audios, made even sharper now due to his lack of sight, honed in on Lightshow's voice and he lunged for the other mech's legs, tripping him. He heard Lightshow curse as he hit the ground.
"Aw frag! You were supposed to stay down!" he said.
"What can I say? I'm not a fair player either," Jazz replied as his vision began to clear. "Now give that back." He pinned Lightshow's arm down and took the datapad from his hand.
"Alright you two, knock it OFF!" a third voice boomed.
Jazz and Lightshow froze. Looking back they saw a big, bulky orange-colored mech, with yellow and black flames patterning his arms, legs and torso, standing at the junction between the main road and the side-road. A few heavy strides later and he'd reached them and hauled them up, one in each hand. Jazz saw a big, red Autobot symbol on his left shoulder, and the letters ACDC on his right. Autobot Civil Defense Corps.
"Now just what were you two young junkers trying to do?"
"Well Officer," Jazz began. "What happened was that…"
"… we were attacked, "Lightshow cut in. "Oh but not in this neighborhood, we just got here. Uh… two nights ago in the east neighborhood. There were these three mechs and they jumped my friend over here. You can just look at what they did to his back there."
Jazz felt the big mech's optics carefully scrutinizing his scraped back.
"Anyways," Lightshow continued. "I managed to save him and we high-tailed it out of there. They chased after us all the way to the border – which was last night. And it was only now that we felt safe enough to stop and see if we were alright. However, my friend is a little biased to physical examination, bad experience with a careless medic when he was younger."
Jazz's optics flared and widened in disbelief, but he said nothing and waited instead to see exactly where Lightshow was going with this.
"So I was just trying to get him to hold still to see if he was badly damaged and he tried to fight me. We weren't really up to anything Officer, cross my fuel-pump and hope to rust."
Jazz watched as Lightshow struck the energy bars with his fist and sent up a shower of sparks.
"Ow! That hurt," the maroon bot exclaimed as he stepped back and waved his hand to try and take the sting out.
"Good, you deserve it for lying," Jazz said from where he sat on the floor in a corner of the holding cell.
"I didn't lie!" Lightshow objected as he turned around to face Jazz.
"Chased to the border?" Jazz asked.
"I stretched the truth."
"Fear of being examined? Biased to medics?!"
"I had to say something that he would buy."
"Oh yeah, and he bought it, didn't he? Which is why we are now stuck here in this lovely prison facility."
"Hey, I tried my best. I even gave him the whole 'I'm innocent' look." He sat on the floor a few paces in front of Jazz.
"Which brings us to the fact that we wouldn't even be in here if you didn't have such an insatiable curiosity. Exactly what part of 'private' do you not understand?"
"The private part," Lightshow replied. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand why you'd want to keep something as good as that poem private."
"It's a song, not a poem," Jazz said.
"Ok, song then. Whatever it is, it's still really good. And I'm not saying that just because you're beyond mad with me and I'm trying to get back into your good graces – alright, I am – but it really is great."
"You really think so?" Jazz asked.
"Sure. Does it have a tune yet?"
"Sort of."
"Can you sing it for me?"
"What?! No!"
"Oh come on, please! Its been so long since I heard any kind of music. And if I can't hear a song from someone who's been created to make music, then what's the use?"
"Alright! You made your point, I'll sing it. But no laughing or wise remarks."
"I'll be as quiet as a turbo-mouse."
Jazz relented and quietly sang the song, and as he sang it, he watched Lightshow. The other young bot seemed to be really feeling it, as if he could understand the emotions within the song. And Jazz supposed he could. Lightshow had also lost his creator.
As Jazz finished, the orange mech, who's name was Flamethrower, came into the tiny room that housed the jail cell with a large cube of energon in each hand.
"I'm sorry about the accommodations kids, you both seem like nice mechs, but you were causing a bit of a disturbance and I had no choice but to bring you in."
"That's alright, Officer," Jazz said. "We're probably better off in here for the night than out on the street."
"Yeah, who knows when those muggers might show up," Lightshow added.
"Let it go, Lightshow."
Flamethrower carefully slipped the cubes of energon through the bars. "I figured you'd need some after your long drive." Lightshow got up and gladly accepted them. "And I thought Jazz would like this." He unsubspaced two small cans of paint – one black and one white – and an applicator.
"Primus bless you, Sir!" Jazz exclaimed as he lept up and gratefully took them.
"Just call me Flamethrower. My partner does and he ain't no older than the two of you. Anyway I don't like them titles, they make me sound old. Now, I gotta get back to my post so you mechs have a good night."
Flamethrower left after they'd wished him goodnight and the two of them quietly sipped on their energon while Lightshow applied the paint to Jazz's back.
"Y'know what," he said as he paused to drink some energon. "We should ask Flamethrower if he couldn't keep us in here for a few more nights. I mean we get shelter, we get free, good-quality energon. It's perfect right?"
"I think that would be pressing our luck," Jazz replied.
"What luck? We have luck?"
"Quite a bit it seems. For us to have come this far on our own at this age. Not all mechs are that lucky."
"Jazz, do us both a favor and try not to go all philosophical. It's just not you." He gave Jazz a slap on the shoulder. "There we go, all painted. Now if only we had some wax."
"Again with the luck thing."
"Right. So should we actually try and get some sleep this time around?"
"Yes we should. And this time I'm going to make sure you are truly asleep before I shut down."
They were woken by loud voices from outside the next day.
"Hey, Flamethrower!" a thickly accented voice called out. "I caught your scumbag trying to set fire to another building up the street."
"You caught him? What do you mean?"
Jazz and Lightshow sat up and looked at each other in bewilderment.
"I mean I got the slagger outside all wrapped up in energy-chains for ya," the voice said.
"Ah, good job, Inferno. Just give me a minute and I'll be right with you."
Jazz and Lightshow scrambled to their feet as Flamethrower came inside and hit a panel on the wall. The energy bars winked out and the mech gestured for them to come out.
" 'Fraid I cant give you any more accommodations, but my partner just brought in a new guest who needs this room more than you do. C'mon, you kids can go out the back." He led them to a door and pushed it open. "Go on, you're free. Just do me a favor and stay out of trouble alright."
"Good as gold." Lightshow grinned.
"Thanks for everything," Jazz added.
"Don't mention it," Flamethrower said. "Its been nice knowing ya both."
"Flamey, get your can in here!" Inferno hollered.
"Alright Inferno, I'm coming." The orange mech shrugged. "Duty calls." With a nod to the two, he stepped back inside and shut the door.
"So what now?" Lightshow asked. "Are we still gonna go on together? 'Cause if you don't want me to come along, I can always go back."
"And lose the one mech who makes me look like a normal bot? I wouldn't hear of it."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------