Note: This is part of my rewrite of this series. I hope you enjoy as I try to develop the character of Raptor more fully.
Raptor the Character: F-22 stealth Seeker, built by G1 Starscream in Raptor Chronicles 1:The Beginning. Was animated using a human spark, so she thinks and feels in a human way - not Cyrbertonian way.
Sky Fire
Raptor had some spare time on her hands. With Starscream muttering about something, and chasing her out of their hangar, she now flew recon around their region. This bored her to death, and she found herself mulling over the very personal information that she had downloaded from the Autobot Mainframe. Most of it was quite boring, but there had been some interesting tidbits. Tidbits that mentioned a relationship between Starscream and some Autobot named Skyfire.
A few intercepted messages had supported the idea that this Skyfire was still interested in Scream's where-abouts. Several fellow Autobots had mentioned a concern over his distraction since he had learned that Scream was alive. This Autobot could be of some value to me! She pondered.
She had found the most recent location of this Autobot – and he was stationed at a place called Lorya-4. Which left him out of her grasp, since she'd never traveled space as a human – and a few days wasn't time enough to not only figure out how to do it as a jet, but to find him and get back in time to meet back up with Scream as ordered. She sighed, you think you get a lucky break, and then it's just taken away like that!
She mulled over these things in her mind as she lazily flew with the Jet Stream. The comforting, steady flow – sang a lullaby under her wings. She didn't bother to Cloak, since this high up; she was truly invisible to detection. She thought about the whole idea of teleportation, was it truly a warp between bubbles of reality as the physicists were claiming? So few could actually perform this – that it just wasn't studied much. She grinned as she did a hundred meter teleport for the sheer fun of just doing it. But I never was good at understanding physics anyways! She snickered to herself.
Then the file of Skyfire popped into the forefront of her thoughts. Yes, he was a rather impressive looking 'bot – but his personnel files had him listed more as a scientist than a soldier, and all his reviews called him rather laid back, predictable and calm. Pretty much the complete opposite of his old boyfriend, Scream, She snickered to herself. Absentmindedly she teleported again; with the big white Shuttle's picture in her mind.
Everything seemed normal at first, the sensory darkness, the swishing feeling of going through a plasma state of being. But yet, this time was different, it was going on for far longer than the customary split second. As she continued in teleport phase, a fear began to rise up in her. My god! I forgot to set coordinates before warping! Shit! A black terror began to rise. Her energy stores were being sucked down fast – Teleporting had always taken a decent chunk – but since it was only done in fractions of seconds, she had never been bothered by the drain. But this time – the drain was immense! Fuck! What was I thinking? I'm going to get stuck in this phase!
Then she was suddenly out of the warp phase, in complete sensory disorientation because of the sheer length of the teleport. She felt herself falling through a very thin atmosphere, with very little gravity affecting her. Gyros and Stabilizers strained to re-adjust to this new environment, sensors streamed in atmospheric composition data. In her confusion she heard a deep voice say; "Now isn't this a shock! A Decepticon just falls outt've no where – and then seems to be forgetting how to fly!"
She got a visual lock on that voice; a huge white jet loomed above her. His Autobot insignia shined in the light of the Blue Dwarf peeking over the planet's horizon. Oh my God! It can't be! She thought, and then hoped that all those personnel files on him were right – she sure as hell wasn't ready to fight him. 'Um, are you Skyfire?' she radioed in a very weak voice.
'Sure am,' he replied, then chuckled, 'So are we going to start fighting now? Or just keep looking at each other?'
'I not in the mood to fight – if your not..' she said in a conspiratorial tone, 'and I won't say a word to either of our boss's either!'
He laughed again, a beautiful warm laughter. 'You sure are the strangest Decepticon that's ever just appeared in thin air! And I do like your sense of humor!'
'Thank you, yours ain't bad either!' she joked, happy to seem to have finally found a 'bot that she could relax around. 'By the way, I've been looking for you.'
'You have?? And why's that?'
'I'll tell you when we find a good place to land – that long teleport really dragged my primaries!' She wasn't desperate, since she had effectively over fueled at Autobot City, she did have some back up energon on her. But she had to land in order to consume it!
He studied this gray/green Decepticon with interest. She actually seemed sincere, but yet, she was a Decepticon – how'd he go about explaining this to headquarters? But yet, if the rumors about Starscream were true – only a Decepticon would be able to tell him what he needed to know! 'Ok, there's a flat plateau about 100km due west of our current position. I'll follow you in.' Always safer to be BEHIND a combat jet – than in front of it.
Heart to Heart
Raptor understood his line of reasoning, but decided that she'd have to accept it – to show good faith on her part. So she banked and set off on the new flight plan. The thin atmosphere and light gravity were still messing with her, but her gyros and stabilizers were automatically adjusting to the changes.
They landed together with a swirl of dust. Then transformed and sized each other up. He was much bigger than Raptor and towered over her – but his expression was of curious amusement. 'I'm curious, since when did Decepticons start building females?' he asked as he cocked his head in amused interest. True, the femme was a combat-built Seeker, but he felt no hostility from her, so he highly doubted that she'd come here to fight. She laughed as she sat down and pulled out her energon stash. Her amusement and relaxed manner caused a smile to pass over his light gray façade. It was obvious she wasn't going to answer until she'd sipped a little energon – must've been getting pretty low! So he sat down across from her and watched her.
'Why is that ALWAYS the first question I get?!' she exclaimed to him, rolling her optics in mock exaggeration.
He laughed again, this femme was truly a character, so different from most cons. Perhaps Vector Sigma had screwed up Galvatron's orders when it had sparked this femme? 'Maybe because it's the most obvious question? Guess I could have started with – Why didn't you try blowing me out of the sky? Or – Are you here to try and capture me?'
She looked up at him, this was going to be the easiest conversations with a mech she'd had! 'He, he, you've got a point! Let's see, I don't think I have the cargo capacity to capture you and drag you back to where ever…I was having a hard enough time FLYING in this thin atmosphere – that I doubt I COULD blow you away..He, he.. Without some practice anyways…'
'You should be a comedian!' Skyfire chuckled, 'But you're still avoiding the initial question.'
'Normally, I would start by telling you to sit down – but since your already sitting..' she caught his curiosity, and he leaned forward a bit. 'Seems an old buddy of yours decided to build me. Maybe he's getting lonely or something?' she snickered and shrugged.
Skyfire mulled that over for a bit, his optics widening at the connotation. There's only one 'old buddy' who'd be able to build something like her – and then have the gale to put a Decepticon sticker on her! 'Starscream?" he stated more than asked. His optics narrowed as he studied the femme more closely. He had to admit, Starscream had built a heck of a Seeker.
She nodded, noting the glimmer of excitement that he was trying to hide.
Putting a wary expression on his face, Skyfire leaned back and crossed his arms. "So, did he send you to find me?" he asked, keeping his excitement out of his voice the best that he could.
Taking another sip of her energon, she offered Skyfire a swig. "No," she winked at him, "But he still misses you; he tries to hide it from me."
Taking the offered energon, the big shuttle took a swig and handed it back to her, his expression one of thoughtful contemplation. "You know he'd probably be furious to know that you're here," he stated. But in his meta, he could picture the state of fury the red Seeker'd be in – when he found out what she'd done. But this femme didn't seem the least bit worried, very interesting….
She nodded, drinking another sip and handing it back to him.
Skyfire studied her intently, "So just why are you risking his displeasure?" She seemed more intelligent and conniving than any con he'd met before, so he highly doubted that she'd found him just for the hell of it, she had a motive.
Her crimson optics met his. "To give you two the second chance, which I never got," she explained. The true depth of that statement – the mech would never know. For she'd never have the chance she was giving him… Never feel the warm arms of her dead husband and child around her… Never again… Forcing herself back into the here-and-now, she again swore to keep that same misery from happening to another mother.. And to do that – she needed this mech's assistance..
His optics widened in surprise. She obviously knew about the depth of the two males' relationship prior to the war, and he doubted Starscream was where she had found out. Yes, this Seeker was very intelligent to have not only found out, but to find him and sneak under Scream's very thrusters to come here. "I doubt that that is possible. I'm Autobot, he's Decepticon," He shrugged to emphasize the problem.
She grinned, "How can you truly call him a Decepticon now? He's alone, abandoned by that faction. Now he merely stands on the outside, just an observer to this war."
"You bring up an interesting point. But I can tell he built you for a rather specific purpose," he replied as he made a point to slowly scan her air frame up-and-down. Skyfire took another sip of energon, handing the almost empty cube back to her. He had realized that Starscream had most likely built her in his never-ending quest to destroy Galvatron.
She nodded, "You are very perceptive. But you know I'll have to go alone, for Starscream will only get in my way."
"So just where am I in this picture?" he asked, curious as to why she came here.
Cocking her head, she looked at him with a humorous expression. "I'll tell you, but you have to swear you've never met me. Nor know of anything I'm going to tell you," she flatly stated, making it obvious that without this agreement, she'd simply leave without further comment.
Studying her optics, Skyfire realized that it'd be hard for him to explain this to Autobot command anyways, and it might be his only shot at finding Scream – so he nodded his agreement.
Leaning closer to him, a devilish smile crossed her face. "I'm soon to leave. Galvatron has sent a negotiator to find me, to secure the services of the femme Bounty Hunter," she chuckled, "Once I join their ranks, it may take me Earth years to attain the position I need to be in.. Years, that poor Starscream will be all alone."
Skyfire's optics widened slightly. He hadn't realized just how smart this Seeker was. She had apparently gotten the Cons interested in her already, and was now preparing to infiltrate them. The poor fools never realizing that she was an assassin. "So you want me to keep him company," Skyfire snorted, "I doubt he'd even want to meet with me right now."
Raptor laughed, her optics gleaming in pure mischief. "If I GIVE you to him, he won't have much of a choice, now will he. You don't think he'd kill you, do you?" she cocked her head as she asked.
"You've got to be kidding!" Skyfire stammered in disbelief at her plan, "You think he's actually going to believe that you were able to kidnap me?"
Raptor snickered as she finished off the energon. "Considering the chaos I've already caused your Autobots on Earth," her crimson orbs flashed as she began to list them, "Taken out Defensor, kidnapped Skydive and Magnus, escaped imprisonment.. Why not?"
"Yep, I've heard about that hunting Seeker. So that's you huh?" Skyfire mused, still not feeling threatened in the least by her.
He thought about it some more. No, he didn't think Starscream would kill his aft – if Skyfire was presented to him as a 'captive.' But, Skyfire was a member of the Autobots – so Raptor'd have to negotiate with him before he'd agree to do this. Even though his spark wanted to agree right now… To fly to Starscream's side….
"Ok, I'll do it – on a condition," he said to her.
She cocked her head in interest, "And that would be?"
"No more personal vendetta's against my friends," Skyfire stated firmly.
She stared at him long and hard. Obviously, he'd heard that she was going after certain Autobot killers because of their past actions. He was demanding that she agree to stop their punishment, or he wouldn't keep Scream out of her way. Grinding her jaw, she realized she'd have to do it – for her new target was the true source of all the humans pain, without Galvatron, there would've been no war. Was this worth agreeing to never target the killers again? Yes..
But in war, she'd still have to engage the Autobots – as a Decepticon soldier. "You do realize, to be accepted by the Decepticons I'll…"
He cut her off, "That's fine, as long as it isn't personally motivated anymore."
"If they come after me?" she queried, not wanting to agree not to defend herself.
"Self defense is fine."
"We have a deal then?"
"Deal."
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