Disclaimer: Hasbro owns the canon Transformers, I own the others. Songs are property of Jamie Brown and myself.
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The buzzing sound overhead caused Lightshow to look up at the sky yet again. Three nights since their 'arrest' and they were almost on the northern outskirts of Ferronix. He and Jazz had taken refuge for the night on another side-road and he'd been trying to sleep – if it wasn't for that slagging buzzing.
"Ok Jazz, is that buzzing sound just me or is there something in the sky above us that I cant see?" he asked.
"Well, if by buzzing you meant a turbo-fly then I'd say it was you," Jazz said. "But if by buzzing you mean a flyer up in the sky, then I'd say I'm not alone in thinking that its been following us since we left Flamethrower's prison."
"Why would a flyer be following us?"
"I don't know. Maybe Flamethrower sent it to make sure we really did stay out of trouble. Maybe it just got lost."
"Or maybe we should just get its afterburner down here and ask it personally, I can even provide a landing marker if it wants one." Lightshow stood up.
Jazz reached up and pulled him back down. "Don't. It may have nothing to do with us at all. We don't want to attract any unwanted attention. It could just be a coincidence."
"There's no such thing as a coincidence."
"Well as far as I'm concerned, unless he decides he wants to join us on the ground, there's nothing we can do for him. So lets just both get some sleep." He settled into a comfortable position, closed his optics and began to shut down.
"How do you know?" Lightshow asked.
Jazz opened an optic. "How do I know what?"
"How do you know our flyer up there is a 'he'? it could just as easily be a femme."
"For the love of Primus Lightshow, just shut up and sleep! Or if that is too hard, then just shut up so another mech can sleep."
"But what if – ."
"Shut up!"
A couple of hours before dawn, a loud roar passed overhead, startling both mechs awake.
"That was NOT me," Lightshow said at once, when Jazz looked at him.
"Are you crying?" Jazz asked.
"Who me? Of course not! I don't cry."
"You've got optic fluid on your face."
"Faulty tube lining."
"You were dreaming about Flaire weren't you?"
"How could you tell?"
"You called out his name just before you woke up."
"Aw that's it. Next time I sleep I'm magna-taping my mouth shut."
"Its alright, I dream of Maestro sometimes too. Not as often as I used to, but every now and then."
"Yeah. Now what the slag was that noise?"
"I don't know, but it could have been our flyer. The buzzing's stopped."
"Lets check it out." Lightshow jumped up and went to the street corner. "Jazz! Come quickly!" He dashed across the main road, not bothering to look out for oncoming traffic, which was thankfully lacking at that hour, his optics fixed on what was in front of him.
Jazz was close on his heels. Both of them reached and knelt by the mech lying on the ground, barely conscious. The red symbol on his right shoulder identified him as an Autobot.
"Is this our flyer?" Lightshow asked?"
"I doubt it. He ain't got any wings. He's quite a young mech too. Wonder what happened to him."
"I think the important question here is if he's still alive." Lightshow smacked the other mech's face lightly, inciting a small groan. "Alright, he's alive. Next question: who is he?"
"Nevermind that, we need to know how to help him or he's not going to live long enough to tell us his name."
"He needs energon," another voice broke in.
Jazz and Lightshow looked towards a darkened alley. There was a figure standing in the shadows where only a faint silhouette was visible and they could just make out a pair of wings. That, and a pair of red optics.
"I could shed a little light on this guy," Lightshow whispered to Jazz. "He's definitely our flyer."
"I don't think you should," Jazz replied. "Something tells me that he's better off being anonymous for all our sakes. And he's not the one I'm concerned about."
"So what do we do?" Lightshow asked.
"Please help him," the figure said, almost in a reply. "His name is Strings. I rescued him from a Decepticon prison in Levatron and brought him here where he could be looked after by his Autobot brethren."
"Well if you brought him this far, why didn't you just take him straight to a medical center, or take care of him yourself?" asked Lightshow.
"I would not be accepted by Autobots anymore. And if I am gone for too long my superiors would become suspicious. If Autobots are indeed more than just land-crawling mechanisms, then please save his life."
"That guy's a Decepticon!" Lightshow hissed. "He's outnumbered two to one, we could take him."
"Not a good idea. He maybe armed, and we're not. Besides, if he risked everything to bring this poor mech to somewhere he could be cared for, 'Con or not, he cant be all bad," Jazz answered.
In addition, this particular Decepticon had him intrigued. It was something in the voice. It was a deep, cold, rough voice, but somewhere deep within it Jazz's audios were picking up on something different that he just couldn't put his finger on. Strings groaned again and both mechs turned their attention back to him.
"How do you propose we take care of him? We can barely take care of ourselves out here," Lightshow said.
"We have to try buddy. We cant just leave him here to die," replied Jazz. He turned to the figure in the alley. "Alright, we'll take him, but this had better not be some kind of trick."
"Thank you," was all the figure said. Then it transformed and a light-colored flyer flew off into the early morning sky.
"Great," Lightshow said. "Now what do we do? Our flyer's gone and we're stuck with his cargo."
"That cargo happens to be a living mechanism and I think he can hear you," Jazz said. "For now I think we should get him back across the street to where we were. Then we'll decide."
He and Lightshow carefully lifted and carried the mech back to the side-road. Once they'd set him down, Jazz knelt over him and checked for injuries.
"Well, thank Primus he's got no physical damage."
"Oh wonderful. Now we just need a few gallons of energon to recharge him. And where are we gonna get all that from? We don't even have any credits to buy some."
"That's not… totally accurate," Jazz said.
"What do you mean?"
"Before he died, Maestro gave me about 2,000 credits and I've had them with me all this time. I just didn't want to spend it."
"You mean we could have been sleeping in proper recharge berths and drinking quality energon all this time? But instead we had to go the poverty route?"
"I'm sorry. Maestro told me to use the credits wisely so I didn't want to use it unless we had a real emergency."
"And he was right. You made the right choice."
"But I guess I'd better break it out and go see if I can get some energon for him."
"Save it. There isn't a place around here worth spending it on. I've got a better idea." Lightshow's optics took on that wicked glint.
"I'm not going to like this am I?"
"Don't know about you, but I sure will. The town's just about up and running, there's bots all over the streets. You're going to go out there and sing your song."
Jazz stared at him dumbfounded. "You must have short-circuited something in your processor. No. not on your existence. No way."
"It'll take too long for us to go bargaining and we don't know how much time this bot's got left. If you want to save him you gotta do this."
Lightshow all but pushed Jazz back onto the street. Bots walked or drove up and down and barely paid them any attention. The two of them watched them for a moment.
"I don't think I can do this," Jazz said.
"Then don't think! Just get out there and do it! What have you got to lose?"
"My pride for starters."
"Pride is so over-rated." Lightshow placed a thin panel on the ground on which he'd painted 'Singing For Energon'. He grinned at Jazz. "Go for it!"
Grudgingly Jazz steeled himself, opened his mouth and let his voice pour forth. At first a few bots only stopped to stare in surprise and confusion. A few gathered, but none of them moved to do anything. He nearly faltered as he was nearing the end of the song. Then Lightshow signaled to him to sing it again. Only this time, as he started, Lightshow stood beside him singing a deep second harmony – their voices blending beautifully.
I live
In ashes, dark steely grey
At moments I feel alright.
Then I'm plagued with waves of longing.
Yet I live
Missing the one who lovingly made me
Pricked and torn by the thought
That he's not here anymore
The tears run down again
Like wet, crystal pain.
Still I live
And days march on
Unceasing they come
Soon I will raise my head again.
I live
On fire, in flame
Rising to shine, awash with light
Gleaming black and white
Facing life as one who flies
Who hopes
Who loves
I live.
When they'd finished this time around, there were at least five canisters of energon at their feet. Bowing to the applause from the small crowd that had gathered, they picked up their energon and the sign, said their thanks and retreated back into the alley. They found the young mech with his optics open slightly wider. He looked at them.
"That was beautiful," he said.
"You heard us?" Jazz asked.
The mech gave an imperceptible nod. Lightshow knelt by him with a canister of energon.
"Quit jabbering and start drinking."
They had to help him drink the first canister, but after that he was able to sit up and drink the second and the third. Jazz and Lightshow also downed a canister each. It was at this point that they started to assess each other. Strings was a light powder-blue, lean, and a bit structurally smaller than the two of them. His pleasant, open face housed a pair of rather large, rounded optics. (:::Wide-opticked and innocent::: Lightshow thought to himself). He looked like an all-round nice bot.
"Thank you for helping me," he said at last.
Jazz shrugged. "Like Lightshow said, we're Autobots, gotta look out for each other. My name's Jazz by the way."
"And I guess you already know my name is Strings."
"Yeah, but if you don't mind me asking, what's the deal between you and that Decepticon?" Lightshow asked.
Strings' optics glinted with a bit of sadness and Jazz knew whatever he was about to tell them wasn't going to be a happy tale.
" I suppose you have a right to know," he said. "I was created in one of the small south-western Cybertronian towns, by a femme called Highwire. We were a part of a traveling performing troupe where she was an acrobat. The day we were about to leave and head east, the Decepticons attacked the town we were in. It was more of a raid than an attack really – they were looking for young mechs to rebuild and reprogram into Decepticons. Highwire was killed when she tried to stop them from taking me."
Jazz and Lightshow waited patiently for the young mech to continue. They knew it wasn't always easy to talk about a dead creator.
"The thing is, I have a rare medical condition," Strings continued. "My systems take longer than a normal bot's to process and convert energon into energy. As a result, you'll notice I tire out easily, because most of the energy goes into the conversion process itself, which doesn't leave too much for anything else. Anyways, the Decepticons found out about that and deemed me useless, and I was going to be smelted. It was on the way to the smelting pits that this flyer – or Seeker as they're being called now – swooped down and whisked me off. I don't remember much else since I was really low on energy and getting weaker. The next thing I knew I was lying here and listening to the two of you singing."
"Well hopefully you wont have to hear that again." Jazz said.
"On the contrary, I thought it was quite beautiful."
Lightshow tossed an 'I told you so' look at Jazz, before looking at Strings. "So what will you do now? You're a free mech. Do you have friends you can go to?"
"I never knew anyone except the bots in my troupe and they're all either dead or taken. I have nowhere to go and because of my condition I don't know if anyone would want to take me in for any work."
"You can come with us if you like," Lightshow offered. "That war down in Levatron, its spreading. So Jazz and I are trying to get to Iacon, or at least some place as close to it as possible, before it hits."
"I'd love to join, but what do you do?"
"Nothing I'm afraid," said Jazz. "We travel everyday, sleep on the streets if we cant find shelter, and beg more well-off folk for an energon ration."
"Sounds like what we did in the troupe. Though our performances earned us the energon. Hearing the two of you, instead of begging, next time you could sing."
Jazz stood up. "There's not gonna be a next time. Now we'd better get moving, time's a-wasting."
"He's shy about his singing," Lightshow told Strings as they followed Jazz down the street. "He thinks he sounds bad."
"But Jazz, you have a wonderful voice. Its quite unique," Strings said.
Jazz didn't look back, but he knew Lightshow was grinning triumphantly. Damn that motor-mouthed mech to the Pit!
"Thanks Strings," he said. "I'll think about it. Can you transform?"
"I think I can manage it. My energy levels are starting to pick up. I should be ok for a while."
"Good. Then lets try and drive for as long as we can. I've had about as much adventure in this neighborhood as I can take."
"Me too. I'm ready for something new," Lightshow said as he reverted to his alt mode.
Jazz and Strings did likewise. Strings' alt mode was similar to Jazz's, only smaller, flatter and without the rear spoiler, which slowed him down only a bit more, but not by much that the other two had to alter their speeds. They admired him for the fact that despite his condition, he still tried to live as normally as possible. He was quiet most of the time, speaking only to ask a question or answer one. Jazz didn't mind. Lightshow talked enough to make up for it.
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