Title: The Prime
Genre: Action/Drama, Friendship/Romance
Rating: T for mild transformer swearing, some violence, and crude language
Short Summary:
When a young mech destined to be the next Prime is exiled by his evil uncle, he must learn what it means to become a great leader.
Chapter Thirteen
Life was completely different with Jazz and Ironhide for the three younglings. They learned that there was not much to do with responsibilities and such, which was okay with them.
They also learned that Jazz and Ironhide were pretty laid back when it did come with chores and such. They only thing did do in work wise was building shelter in their perfect little haven. They had shown the three young ones where they were recharging and at the most part, it was unusual to be using the organic plant life as shelter but it didn't seem all that bad.
Jazz and Ironhide had mostly just taken the very large tree tops and carefully bent them over, tying several together. The several trees they used made a large dome like shelter above them and for someone like Ironhide, he did have duck down a little. But otherwise, there seemed to be plenty of room for all of them.
For recharge berths, the two large mechs had didn't have much but large metal boulders carved and shaped into berths, which they let the younglings use for a little while. The two adults recharged in their vehicle forms, which wasn't too bad. They had softened the hard surfaces by gathering quite a lot of the soft scales, which Jazz explained was called leaves. It was actually quite comfortable for the younglings when they recharged on them.
It wasn't very chilly when it came to the end of the cycle. The high rocky cliffs were shelter enough for the whole valley of organics and shielded them from solar storms that would pick up now and then. The most they ever got was strong winds blowing in but nothing too devastating.
Jazz and Ironhide did ask a few questions about their three new young friends but wouldn't pry when Optimus went silent when they asked where he was from and were his parental units were. They sure got the idea when they saw Prowl looking sympathetically at his friend, who would look away with a faraway look.
They stopped asking about Optimus' past life after seeing that look.
Starscream, however, did talk about his past life and the two mechs learned about Vos, which had them looking pretty serious about finding out that a whole city of a race had been destroyed. Jazz and Ironhide didn't take that lightly at all.
They also learned that he had been noble like Orion Pax had been, the son of the late Silverbolt, the Leader of the Seekers. But Jazz made it clear to him that they wouldn't treat him as such. Ironhide had no patience for serving a brat, which was how Starscream acted the first cycle and he ended up thumping the little Seeker of the helm when he made demands. He didn't do it hard but it was enough to stun him while Jazz reprimanded his friend for lightly hitting the kid.
Even Optimus encouraged Starscream not to act like it was all about him. The Seeker figured it out quickly and didn't make demands again. He actually started asking nicely about how to do things and Jazz gladly taught him and the other two.
In fact, they began teaching them how to shift and transform. They were about the age now to be able to do so. So Jazz showed the three younglings data pads of several alt modes and they tried it.
Optimus took the mode of a small truck, seeing he was actually starting to developed a little bigger than Prowl. He wasn't as big as Ironhide yet but he was getting there.
Prowl took a similar form as to Jazz, who teased him relentlessly about his name by calling him Prowlie or Prowler. He was irritated but he soon got over the fact that Jazz was not going to stop.
As for Starscream, he took the form of a small jet but still had a hard time learning how to fly.
The next few megacycles, Jazz was trying to figure out how he was going to help the Seeker learn. None of the others were fliers so they didn't know how to help him. They tried everything however. From just trying to get him to lift off the air to Ironhide having him jump off a tree into the pool of energon, they just couldn't teach him how to fly. It was extremely frustrating for the Seeker. He even began picking up Ironhide's grumpy mood. He was extremely temperamental, though no one blamed him.
It was due to the fact that Starscream had a hard time recharging. They discovered that by him waking out of recharge now and then, sobbing and screaming. He was suffering from nightmares.
The only person who could comfort him was Optimus, however. He would sometimes curl up at night with the small Seeker and let him rest beside him.
Then Jazz disappeared for two cycles without a trace, though Ironhide didn't seem worried. He told the three younglings that Jazz tended to do that now and then. He explained that when they were running out of supplies such as medkits and tools were broken, the silver mech would go to Tranquility and 'borrow' stuff from the Decepticons.
And borrow he did.
Whenever they were done with the things, Jazz would return them. It didn't matter if they were used up or broken.
When Jazz returned, he had data pads for Starscream about flying, which made him very happy. He immediately began studying the aerodynamics and flight patterns.
Eventually, Starscream tried some of them out and he was flying in no time. He was clumsy at first but after practices, he became very graceful and he was fast, which proved useful when Jazz or Ironhide took a trip to the city to borrow stuff.
Three vorns finally passed and the younglings were finally no longer too small. They were finally botlings. And that was when things got very interesting.
After a quick raid on Tranquility for more supplies, it had been Optimus and Jazz who had gone out this time. They had 'borrowed' some good repairing tools from a Decepticon called Hook, who seemed to be more sadistic than they had ever seen. They were on their way back to their sanctuary when they came across a very interesting pair of younglings not much younger than Starscream.
Twins from what Jazz gathered.
The twins were camped out in the middle of the Badlands, not too far from where Jazz and Ironhide had found their three younglings. They were trapped inside a cluster of energon crystals because of that blasted Scorponok.
Therefore, Jazz and Optimus worked together to beating that pesky scorpion back into the ground and rescued the twins.
Their names were Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.
"Hakuna what?" The red mechling asked looking at his yellow twin brother, who looked equally confused.
Optimus and Jazz both smiled at one another in their sly way before looking back at the twins. "Hakuna matata, geen zorgan, non c'e' problema, no problemo, nao se preocupe. It means no worries for the rest of your days." The older told them.
"It's our problem free philosophy." Optimus said in his friendly manner.
The twins looked at one another before grinning and nodding.
Therefore, the twins joined the little rag tag group in their little sanctuary of freedom.
Of course, Ironhide and Starscream both learned how to hate them very quickly. It was discovered that both were quite the little pranksters and they loved pulling jokes on the two most grumpiest mechs of the group. Jazz absolutely loved them and would sometimes joining them. Prow loathed them for being such troublemakers and breakers of the rules. He was constantly getting on their case for some of their pranks.
The thing that the twins loved to do the most, however, was when Starscream went out for flying, they would tackle him out of the air when they were excited to see him or just to be annoying. Many times, Optimus or Prowl had to go rescue him or save them from a good beating by the enraged small jet.
They also learned over the next vorn that Sunstreaker was quite the artist. He was always gathering some of the organics and the energon and making paint. He had somehow figured out how to do it.
Thus, everyone received a new paint job, which had everyone loving him for once. Jazz remained a sleek silver, however, as did Ironhide with his black.
Sideswipe decided to follow Jazz's example and changed his color to sleek silver, and he honestly enjoyed it too much.
Starscream, after a lot of convincing from Sunstreaker, had changed his coloring to sandy golden beige, which did look pretty good on him with splashes of silver and black. Je blended in with the color of Cybertron's terrain pretty well, which came as a surprise.
Prowl had been forced to endure a new paint job, however but by the end of it, he ended up being black, white and dark purple. He looked pretty good in the colors, though when everyone teased him and cat called at him, he overheated with embarrassment.
As for Optimus, he stuck with red and blue. But Sunstreaker did an interesting of red with blue flames across his entire frame. He also overheated when the twins, Jazz and even Starscream whistled and cat called him.
During the next few vorns, however, Optimus was sure getting big. He was now the biggest of the lot. Even bigger than Ironhide. But like the others, he was also getting quite the handsome mech. Everyone had voted him the best looking of their group, which had him overheating again.
They voted Starscream the prettiest due to his small frame. He was nearly as big as Optimus now but he was quite slender in frame, which was perfect for high speed flying. They figured out that he was the fastest of the entire group. He wasn't happy being teased by the they called him a femme instead of a mech.
The twins voted Ironhide the ugliest, which had him chasing them right out the entrance of the sanctuary and out into the Badlands.
Of course, when they came back, they had quite the surprise for all of their friends.
They brought back a sparkling.
"We found him out in the middle of the desert. He was with a body, which I guess was his carrier at the time. It looks like Scorponok got her. She must have stuck him in a bunch of boulders to protect him." Sideswipe said gravely as he carefully set the hysterical sparkling in Ironhide's arms.
Sunstreaker nodded just as grave. But no one noticed how Starscream cringed before looking away sadly. His own memory of a similar situation was eating at him.
The sparkling was quite a tiny little mechling with a pale yellow and black coloring to him. He had what looked like antenna on his helm and the brightest blue optics that were flooded with energon at the moment. He had what looked like tiny wings and for a moment everyone thought he was a Seeker too. But Starscream studied him and denied it. He was a small grounder.
Then Ironhide was the name to name him, practically becoming his adopted creator. He named him perfectly too and everyone agreed with the name.
His name would be Bumblebee.