Mis-Aimed
"Hey Powerglide, thanks for the lift!" Sideswipe said. Feeling the plane's wheels hitting the tarmac, he braced himself against the flyer's interior fuselage. The vibrations became intensified, and he felt the pull forward as Powerglide engaged his brakes.
Rolling to a stop, Powerglide opened his side door. "Ya know you've been riding in style – when 'ol Powerglide gives ya a lift!"
"Ya, ya.. Keep bragging. But you're freagin' fast takeoffs and landings caused me to ding my paintjob!" Sunstreaker griped. Jumping out after his brother, his griping increased in volume as he stumbled and went down on a knee.
"Ah, don't listen to him, he's just mad that we're guarding better looking cars than him," Sideswipe snickered. He patted Powerglide's wing and moved away as the plane took off.
"And AAAWWWAAAYYYYY WWWWEEEE GO!!" Powerglide hollered as he zoomed down the runway.
"Prick," Sunstreaker huffed. He glared after the obnoxious plane. "Slagger thinks he's better than the rest of us combined!"
Sideswipe slapped him on his back as he casually strolled by. "Yep, just like a yellow Lamborghini I know.."
"Why you!" Sunstreaker started after him, debating on if he should kick his aft before or after this little 'job' of theirs.
"Just remember, you piss him off – you get to drive all the way back to the ark, by yourself!" the red Lamborghini grinned at his twin. His optics silently dared Sunstreaker to even try to kick his aft.
"Good, you two are here!" the dealership's manager said in between gulps of air. He had been frantic, since the fire marshals had ordered the mandatory evacuation hours ago. There was no way to transport all of their new cars out of possible harm's way, and even though the fire should go around the Dealership because it was basically solid concrete – all humans had to evacuate. So he had hired these two mechs to stand guard until the human guards were allowed to return.
"No problem got here as fast as we could. Our buddy's been hired by forestry to try and stomp out this wildfire, so we could catch a lift." Sideswipe grinned at his yellow twin as he explained to the manager.
"Great! I'm just glad you two are here! Don't let anyone besides myself, cops or firefighters onto the premises. There's a lot of problem with looters after these blazes," the manager explained. "The smoke's not going to bother you guys is it?"
"Naw, we can just increase our filtration systems. Ain't no big deal," Sideswipe assured him. He put a hand over Sunstreaker's mouth before the mech could spout off what the soot would do to his paintjob. Smiling at the manager, he nodded reassuringly.
"Ok, I'll be back as soon as they clear us too. And thanks a lot for coming so quickly!" The manager nodded at them and then ran over to his Escalade. Pealing tires, he zoomed out of the dealership's lot.
--
Sunstreaker hit the top of Sideswipe's helm. "Don't you freagin' put your hand over MY mouth again! You scuffed my chest armor you dolt!" He stomped off to the other side of the car lot, pulling his wax and buffing rag out as he did so. That damned brother of his could make him so mad! Heck, it wasn't his idea to accept this job in the first place. The last thing he wanted to be around was a wild fire, with embers falling onto his beautiful paint job…….
The red mech just snickered as Sunstreaker stomped off. Heck, this would be easy money wouldn't it? Just wander around and look at high-end cars and stuff, and make sure no vandals or thieves stole any while the salespeople were on a forced evacuation. It wasn't like the fire would do any more than burn everything around the pavement. So they'd be safe.
Wandering around, Sideswipe was very pleased that the salespeople had already moved all of the cars and trucks away from the peripheral of the dealership. Now, there was at least two hundred feet between the cars and anything flammable. So there was really nothing to worry about.
The thin smoke that was in the air, seemed to get thicker. Sideswipe sniffed the wind as he turned and looked towards the source. He whistled as he saw that the entire ridge above the town they were in was engulfed in flames. All the scrub trees and grass, going up like a powder keg. Planes and choppers flew over the blaze, trying to stop its advancement by dumping hundreds of tons of flame retardant in front of it.
Shading his optics with his hand, Sideswipe squinted into the bright sunlight. Yep, he could just make out Powerglide's darting form. Chuckling, he knew the flyer was having the time of his life, being someone heroic.
"Ah well, guess I might as well sit down and catch some rays before that fire gets close and blocks them," Sideswipe mumbled to himself. Sitting down next to a row of Corvettes, he enjoyed watching the spectacle of the fire fight.
"Akk," Sunstreaker grumbled as he buffed out the scuffs that Sideswipe's rough handling had caused. The air was beginning to get thick with smoke from the advancing blaze, which only made the mech even more miserable. "Its going to take freagin' weeks to get that smell out of my leather seats," he griped. If it hadn't been for Prime telling him it would be an 'easy job, so go on' – he'd have made Sideswipe con some other mech into joining him. But unfortunately it had been just the three of them standing there, when the call came in. Sunstreaker had been stuck.
Looking over at the approaching blaze, the yellow mech grimaced. There was so much soot being kicked up, he'd be lucky to have even a hint of yellow on his paint afterward! Glancing at all of the Corvettes parked around him, he wondered if he could just talk the dealership's detail crew to do him when they cleaned up all of these cars as well? He thought about it. Yep, the humans would owe him one for this, so it'd be the least they could do..
Getting tired of watching the approaching fire, plus the fact that the air was getting very, very thick with soot and smoke, Sideswipe stood up. He figured he should go and find out where Sunstreaker was, and then they could put the flame retardant tarp over themselves until the fire went by. He noticed Sunstreaker walking towards him, most likely with the same thought.
Faintly, he heard the sound of Powerglide's engines over the dealership. He didn't think much of it until the world went orange.
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"This is Powerglide.. I'm gonna take care of the East front.. You boys stay outta my way – let the pro handle it!" Powerglide radioed to the fire command post. Not waiting for clearance, he flew towards the town, the smoke from the fire obscuring his view of the ground.
His charts told him he was in the right place; between the dealership and the blaze's front. So he dumped his load of fire suppressant.. Not realizing that his calculations were off by a quarter mile….
--
"What in Vector Sigma?!" Sunstreaker yelled. Blinded by the sudden orange coating over his optics, he flailed around in shock. Then he stumbled and fell onto a row of Corvettes. Not knowing what was going on, he thrashed around for a second.
"Sloggers Sunstreaker! Where the heck are you?!" Sideswipe yelled. Stumbling along, he felt his way up the row of Corvettes to the sound of his brother's cursing. He tried desperately to get the orange stuff off his optics.
About the time he reached Sunstreaker, they had both gotten their optics cleaned off enough to see. That's when Sunstreaker made the mistake of looking down. His beautiful yellow chassis was now covered in orange flame retardant. "I am going to so kick Powerglide's aft for this!!" he growled.
"Well, look at the bright side Sunstreaker. We don't have to get under that tarp now…." Sideswipe said with a grin. He only wished that he had planned this one…
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