Disclaimer: Hasbro owns the canon Transformers, I own the others. Songs are property of Jamie Brown and myself.
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The next morning, Jazz and the other two watched from a side as Electro went up to another door and banged hard on it with his fist. In mere minutes the door was flung open, accompanied by a very displeased
"What?!"
They saw the faintest hint of a smirk touch Electro's lip-components.
"I quit!" he said, spun on his heel and walked away, head held high, and smiling. "Let's go!"
Electro transformed into a small anti-grav truck, which reminded Jazz of Bronze, only it wasn't as big or bulky as the burnished mech had been. It had an open back compartment in which Electro offered to carry Strings for a while to help him conserve his energy. Then the four set off once more.
The city of Dyacron, though not as bright and well-developed as its larger counterparts in the north and east, was definitely a lot more advanced than what Jazz, Strings and Lightshow were accustomed to seeing in Ferronix and in the South. There were some actual colors here – blues, reds, mauves, in addition to the occasional gold and silver of the more wealthier folk. The bots, too, were different. The robots of Dyacron were better built and in much better condition than their Ferronixian cousins. The Transformers' alt modes were sleeker, faster and a lot more stylish as well.
They were, in a sense, a lot colder too, preferring to mind their own business and go about their daily lives rather than become involved in the problems of the riff-raff that dotted the streets here and there.
Jazz and the others invariably found themselves as part of the riff-raff. Their music gave them a small edge over the other street beggars, but in the end, that was all it was – a small edge. Their usual quota was about 2-3 energon cubes per day and Strings usually needed to have a whole cube to himself just to keep his energy up, which left precious little for the other three, but they never begrudged him for it, for which he was very grateful.
They tended to spend 2 to 3 days in one area due to the main reason that sometimes they were too tired and weak to move on. Jazz and Lightshow tried their hardest to keep everyone's spirits up, but sometimes even the most positive of speeches got stale, and 'Jazz's Song' was fast becoming old.
"You regret coming with us yet?" Lightshow asked Electro one evening. "You could've been back at Spyro's with your little can of oil instead of starving out here on the streets with us."
"And probably have been miserable for the rest of my existence," Electro replied. "Or till I was shot by a Decepticon, if what you say about the war is true."
He looked at Jazz, who was checking on Strings.
"Maestro wouldn't have asked me to leave if he thought otherwise," Jazz replied. "I trust him."
"I think he's right," said Strings. "Especially after what I saw down in the South."
"Then why wouldn't anyone believe you?" asked Electro.
"Do we look like credible news sources?" asked Jazz. "A lot of these bots have quite good lives – comfortable and secure – they're not just going to drop everything and run screaming to Iacon just 'cause some street-mech says there's a war coming. Especially when, in all likelihood, Iacon will just tell them to get scrapped."
"And yet here we are, trying to get in."
"Oh not this again," Lightshow muttered.
"Everyone thinks that the Decepticons wont get past the Southern provinces," Jazz went on. "But I think we, as Autobots, are underestimating them greatly. Iacon's going to realize their mistake in taking them lightly, and personally I'd like to be well inside the city's walls when they eventually do."
"Yes, but how do we GET inside those walls if you say its near-impossible?"
"That I haven't worked out yet," Jazz admitted.
"Oh wonderful. I wonder what chance a one-song musical group has."
"Hey, back off alright," Lightshow interjected. "At least we have a song."
"Oh yes. And how far do you think that will get us?"
"As far as it can."
"And then what?"
"Well I guess we'll just have to jump in that smelter when we come to it and hey, don't let me hold you back."
"You two please! Arguing is not going to get us anywhere," Strings said quietly. "Why don't you use that energy and write some songs of your own instead of quarreling? And to ease your worry Electro, Jazz and I have been working on getting a new song done, but in order to make it a good song, we'll need some time."
Jazz stood up.
"Where are you going?" Lightshow asked.
"To get some inspiration," he replied. "Try not to maim each other while I'm gone."
"I ain't making no promises." Lightshow tossed a smirk at Electro.
Jazz rolled his optics and walked out of the alley just before Electro told Lightshow exactly what he could do with his promise. He made another mental note to try and get hold of some magna-tape so he could tape those mechs' mouths shut before they started their ritual bickering. He and Strings were beginning to tire of playing referee.
Jazz stood at a street corner with a datapad in his hand, trying to come up with some words for the song he and Strings had been working on. So far all they had was the basis of a melody, and while Strings was working on completing it, if it didn't have any words there wasn't really a point. It was early evening and many bots were headed back to their residences after a day's work. He watched them. Bright flashes of color against the plain shades of the buildings, ground and sky. At that moment he realized that no matter where he went on Cybertron, the foundations of the planet and surrounding space would always be the same. The ground would always be silver, the dusty buildings grey, space would always be black. Homely colors in a way. Hues of home.
Jazz smiled as an idea presented itself to his mind. The basis of that song he was trying to write. He only had to word it right to fit Strings' melody. Now all he needed was to stop that irritating tapping sound. A sound, he realized, that was coming from the alley behind him. He turned to investigate and found that it was barely an alley at all. More like a quarter of a street that stopped at a dead end.
He could make out the silhouette of a bot sitting in a corner, drumming on the lid of a garbage can with his fingers. Jazz was about to go and tell him to stop when he realized that it was not random drumming. There was an actual rhythm being beaten out. He slowly moved a little closer.
Just at that moment however, his foot struck a metal can someone had left on the ground. He froze and the other bot stopped drumming and looked at him. So much for being stealthy.
"I'm sorry, am I disturbing you?" the bot asked. "I didn't think anyone could hear me in here."
"I've got sharper audios than most," Jazz said as he covered the remaining distance between them. "My name's Jazz, what's yours?"
"Slowmotion," the bot, a mech, said. "Am I in trouble?"
He stood up and stepped into a patch of light. Jazz took a good look at him. The mech was very young, even younger than Strings, but he was almost as tall as Electro, though a lot less bulkier, and colored an emerald green. He didn't have any markings as far as Jazz could see, but his blue optics gave him away as being an Autobot.
"Nah you ain't in trouble, I was just curious," Jazz said with a smile. "What's a young mech like you doing out here all alone anyway? You should be with your family."
"I don't have a family," the mech said. "At least NOW I don't, or I don't THINK so. The last I saw of them was back at the Kalis border. That was 3 days ago."
Jazz felt his laser core sink. "So you've been all alone for the last three days?"
"Pretty much. That's why I started drumming. I usually do that to take my mind off things, or when I'm scared. It helps."
"I'm sure it does," Jazz replied.
Now he was faced with a dilemma. He couldn't possibly leave this kid out here alone eventhough it would have been so easy to be like the Dyacronian robots and say it wasn't his problem. But Jazz wasn't Dyacronian. Yet no one would fault him for leaving the mech behind. They were having enough problems just trying to feed the four of them. A fifth bot would just be all the harder. He had to think of their survival in the long run.
Still, the kid had potential musical skills. Skills that might just help them all to survive. If the kid could hold his own within the group then there was no reason as to why he couldn't join them. Plus, Maestro had instilled a very strong sense of morals within him. He came to the conclusion that there was no way he could leave the kid behind even if he wanted to.
"Y'know what," he said at last. "I've got a couple of friends close by, why don't you join us? That way you wouldn't have to be alone."
"Really? I could? I don't have much to offer."
"Tell me Slowmotion, do you like music?"
"Well yes. I used to like to hit things, just to make some noise. It was only after I heard music that I began to hit things with some rhythm."
"In that case I think you're just the kind of mech we need," said Jazz. "C'mon, I'll introduce you."
He beckoned to the green mech to follow him and led him back to the alley where the others were. Thankfully Electro and Lightshow had stopped their verbal sparring and were now sitting and listening to Strings playing out the new melody on his guitar while Electro tried to pick it up and replay it on his keyboards. It took a good two minutes before Lightshow finally saw them.
"Hey Jazz… and… new mech I've never seen before. Who's your friend?" he asked.
"Everyone, meet Slowmotion. Slowmotion, meet Lightshow, Strings and Electro." Jazz pointed out each mech in turn.
Slowmotion looked at them with slightly wide optics and for a moment Jazz thought he was going to bolt, but then he seemed to relax.
"Hi," he said meekly.
"Hey there SlowMo." Lightshow greeted him with a wave.
"Welcome," said Electro.
Strings just nodded and smiled.
"Will you be staying for dinner? 'Cause I could go set the table," Lightshow said. "Any special orders?"
"Huh?" Slowmotion asked.
"Ignore him," Electro replied. "He has a few loose wires in his processor."
"No wonder he's called Slowmotion," Lightshow whispered to Strings. "Not very quick on the uptake is he?"
"Be quiet," Strings whispered back. "He's just a little scared."
"Actually, he'll be joining our group," Jazz said.
"Ah, and what will he be contributing? A tambourine perhaps? Maybe the triangle," Lightshow said.
"At least it will be a lot more than you contribute, which is nothing. Oh wait, there is the high level of irritation and the very large amount of pig-iron," Electro retorted.
"He does percussion," said Jazz. "Show 'em Slowmotion."
"Well, I'll need something to hit… um… pass me that box over there." He pointed to the one Lightshow was sitting on.
Electro promptly shoved Lightshow off it and handed it over to Slowmotion, ignoring the "Slagger" comment Lightshow flung at him. The bot sat down in front of it, and after a few practice taps, drummed out a quick little rhythm. The others were impressed.
"Ok, he's got some skills," said Lightshow. "I guess we can take him in."
"Where did you learn to do that?" Strings asked.
"Well, like I told Jazz, I used to like to hit things," Slowmotion said. "So when my creators noticed this they kind of taught me how to get a proper rhythm out of it by letting me listen to some music and then practicing what I heard."
"Your creators? You mean you had more than one?"
"Yeah. I was created by a pair – a mech called Backburner and a femme called Starchaser. We used to live in the South, but when the Decepticons attacked, they brought me to the Kaon border. But there were Decepticons invading from everywhere. Luckily we met an Autobot flyer who was coming into Dyacron on a supply run, and he offered to take one of us with him. So they sent me. That was the last I saw of them. I got here about 3 days ago."
"How did you manage to stay alive?" Electro asked.
"The flyer that brought me, he had a couple of energon cubes he could spare. My second and last one finished this morning. I guess it's a good thing Jazz found me or I might not have been alive for much longer. I didn't know where to go or what to do."
"To be honest, we're not that well-off on the energon front either," Electro said. "We try our best though."
"What do you do?"
"We're musicians. Well, at least most of us are." Electro shot a look at Lightshow.
"Hey, I'm just waiting for that bass guitar alright?" Lightshow replied. "We just need folks to start paying us in credits and not just energon."
"Speaking of music," Jazz interjected before Electro could retort. "Strings, I think I got that song done." He went over to where the blue mech was sitting. "Lets try to write this thing shall we?"
"My pleasure," Strings replied and picked up his guitar.
Lightshow laid back and shut his optics, trying to ignore the grinding of gears in his storage banks. He would have liked a little more energon, but since there was none, he would just have to bear with it. He knew the others were feeling the same way.
"Goodnight all," he said, and in a few minutes he was powering down, shutting off all non-essential systems to conserve what little energy he had left.
"That's the first thing he's done right all day," Electro said. He looked at Slowmotion. "You and I had better shut down too. There's no point in just wasting energy just sitting here and doing nothing."
"What about Jazz and Strings?" Slowmotion asked.
"Oh, they'll only sleep when they're done with their song-writing. Don't worry about them."
"Yeah, we'll be alright. You get some rest Slowmotion," said Jazz.
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