I had a random thought. And if you know me well, I have quite a few of them.
This is about June. I don't know if it is more how she was designed or something else, but they do have June looking fairly…young-ish, for a lack of better expression. It has actually made me wonder how old June was when she had Jack. I know with fanfiction, you can do whatever you want and get really creative, but at the same time… The only thing we really know about Jack's family is that his mother's a nurse raising him as a single mother and his father's no longer in the picture. I think I've seen a few stories where Jack's father is actually part of MECH, which is something that I think would've been interesting to see in the actual show. (I even read one where Silas was his father, which would've been EPIC!) But it makes me wonder. I don't know if I want to entirely go as far as to say that June was a teen mother, but I definitely see the possibility of her having him in college. Oh great. There goes a plot bunny.
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wolverine12: I'm glad that you can still enjoy my stories. I wouldn't go as far as to say I forgot about this story. It was just a matter of interest, life and bloody writer's block. You know, the usual.
Cliffjumper's turn today.
ENJOY!
…or not.
Song: With a Little Help from My Friends by the Beatles (aka what happens when you have Baby Boomers for parents).
Jack did not think that it would be approaching ten days since his best friend disappeared, but here they were.
He also didn't think his best friend was actually an alien fighting a secret intergalactic war alongside her family, but here they were.
It was still something Jack struggled to wrap his head around. He actually wondered how he would've reacted if Talida had actually told him in person like she wanted to. Would he have believed her? How would he have been if he saw one of the Autobots transform before him?
He still had trouble understanding if they were talking cars that turn into robots or the other way around.
But then he remembered his best friend's holographic message for him, where she referred to her family as 'robots in disguise'.
"How did we get here, Lida?" Jack whispered to himself.
"How do any of us get here?"
Surprised, Jack whirled around to see Cliffjumper approaching him. Jack had moved onto the roof of the base, looking at the sunset, watching for the first stars to light the sky. Ratchet was extra grouchy today, so Jack was trying to avoid him wherever possible.
They were all taking Talida's disappearance hard, but that didn't mean he needed to take it out on everyone.
"You know, that is exactly what Talida would say," Jack laughed slightly.
"What can I say? Her and I have spent a lot of time together since I came to Earth," Cliffjumper shrugged, "She's the only person in the base who can match my conversation skills."
"Talida can talk your head off," Jack snorted, "It's when she goes quiet that you start to worry."
"She a chatterbox in class?" Cliffjumper asked him.
"Not out loud," Jack shook his head, "We pass a lot of notes."
"Do you guys spend any time apart? I mean, outside of the present situation," Cliffjumper quickly amended his statement.
"The only time we're apart is when she has auto shop. I mean, I'm good with that kind of thing from when I would watch her. But I didn't have the urge to study it. Besides, CPR Training ran at the same time. Figured that would be useful for when I start looking for work," Jack shrugged.
"How can you work and still be in school?" Cliffjumper voiced his confusion, "I thought people typically finished schooling before they start work."
"That's full-time work. It's normal for high school students to get part-time jobs," Jack clarified, "Especially if your family's not in the best financial situation."
"I've watched you when I had to pick Tally up. I understand that," Cliffjumper mused, "I joined the Academy because I thought being a solider would help my family back on Cybertron. Ended up unable to protect them when the 'Cons came knocking."
"They killed your family?" Jack gasped in horror.
"A lot of us lost our families in the war. Bumblebee's biological parents were killed within hours of his birth," Cliffjumper pointed out, "That's how Optimus and Arcee adopted him. Which, in a lot of ways, put a target on the kid's back. Arcee and Tally have targets on their backs, too. Unfortunately, that comes with being the spark mate and sparklings of a Prime."
"I'm sorry?" Jack stammered in confusion.
"Tally told me that in Earth terms, a spark mate is your spouse and sparkling is your baby," Cliffjumper clarified, "Basically, being Optimus' family has put them in a lot of danger."
"You call babies sparklings?!" Jack repeated in disbelief.
"If you ever see a sparkling, you'll understand why," Cliffjumper reassured him.
"How did you get here?" Jack asked.
"When Cybertron went dark, we all went different ways. For a time, Arcee stayed with Optimus. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had Tally. But she got separated from them when Tally was seven, before she was diagnosed with the disease," Cliffjumper began explaining before freezing, "Wait. Do you know about that?"
"Bulkhead told me," Jack answered.
"Oh. Good. I don't have to explain it. Anyway, Arcee got separated from the team. We ended up reuniting when Starscream captured us after intercepting an encrypted Autobot signal. He wanted one of us to give up the code to decrypt it. Neither one of us were willing to cooperate, so we were taken to Shockwave on Cybertron," Cliffjumper continued.
"Who's Shockwave?" Jack cut in.
"Megatron's lead scientist. He was one of the few who stayed on Cybertron after it went dark. Turns out he was trying to build a Space Bridge – a teleportation device that enables you to go anywhere in the universe. We have a scaled-down version of it here called the GroundBridge. Anyway, he forcibly extracted the code to decrypt the message and they were going to use the Space Bridge to lead an attack on Optimus here. Arcee and I escaped and disabled the Space Bridge. Fortunately, we were able to use it to get ourselves here before the bridge exploded. Arcee and I found ourselves wondering the desert looking for any sign of the Autobots, while I told Arcee about an experience I had in the Sea of Rust. We literally stumbled upon a firefight," Cliffjumper recalled his tale.
Begin flashback
Arcee and Cliffjumper ducked behind a nearby rock when they heard the blaster fire. They both peaked their heads slightly above to see what they were dealing with.
Sure enough, there were other Decepticons on Earth, even though Starscream was, for some strange reason, in possession of the Nemesis rather than Megatron. Unless Megatron had sent Starscream to Cybertron with the ship to retrieve either Shockwave or the Space Bridge he had been building.
Wonder how Megatron would react to his Space Bridge being destroyed AND Shockwave being presumed dead from the resulting carnage.
"Since when do Decepticons employ snipers?" Cliffjumper asked in confusion.
Arcee furrowed her face in confusion as she followed Cliff's line of sight, where they was occasional blaster fire coming from an outcropping of rocks high up on the hill, where neither Autobot nor Decepticon could easily get to the person who fancied themselves a sniper.
"I can't think of any," Arcee mused before wincing as an Energon blast narrowly missed her, "I thought a lot of the Decepticon snipers were killed."
"I'll go take care of that. You go reacquaint yourself with your team," Cliffjumper smirked.
Cliffjumper did not give Arcee a chance to respond. He took off for that outcropping of rocks. However, he knew Arcee wasn't complaining. Or, at least, she didn't get the chance to as he heard the familiar sound of a Vehicon being introduced to Arcee's arm blades.
Now, Cliffjumper may be a chatterbox, and he tended to look before he leaped, but he still knew how to sneak up on someone. So, that's what he did.
Or, tried to, but the young girl still heard him coming and pointed her blaster at him.
"WHOA! Kid! Watch where you point that thing!" Cliffjumper quipped.
"Bot or Con?" the young girl demanded.
"What? You can't see my shiny symbol?" Cliffjumper smirked, holding up his wrist with the Autobot marking.
"You got the message," the young girl shrugged, as she turned back to the battle before her.
"And you seem to know a lot about Bots and Cons," Cliffjumper observed as he laid down next to her, "At least, enough to get your hands on a Cybertronian weapon."
"I have connections. You want to get that Con sneaking up on Bulkhead?" the girl asked.
Cliffjumper saw the Vehicon the young girl was talking about and, sure enough, he was trying to sneak up on Bulkhead and attack him from behind. Immediately, Cliffjumper unfolded his arm cannon and sent off a shot that didn't take down the Vehicon, but still alerted Bulkhead to the presence behind him, allowing him to take it down on their behalf.
"Good call," Cliffjumper praised, "Check that Con near Optimus."
"Already got him," the girl smirked as she fired the shot.
"Do they know you're up here?" Cliffjumper asked her.
"Well, they got tired of me sneaking out, so they decided to let me watch from a distance. If I have my weapon, I help take them out," the girl revealed, "What's your name?"
"Cliffjumper," Cliffjumper answered, "What's yours?"
"Talida," Talida responded as she continued to fire shots at the odd Vehicon.
Cliffjumper looked at her in surprise. He knew the name.
For one thing, he went to the Academy with Tailgate. In fact, they were in the same bunker during training. He heard first hand Tailgate's obsession with the name Talida and his insistence that, one day, he would meet a girl named Talida. Unfortunately, his old friend was murdered by a Decepticon before he could.
For another, during their travels, Arcee mentioned knowing a Talida. Specifically, she said she had a daughter named Talida Prime.
"You're Arcee's daughter!" Cliffjumper cried out.
"How do you know her?!" Talida immediately demanded.
"Well, Talida, she came to Earth with me. In fact…," Cliffjumper trailed off as he guided Talida's head to look in the right direction, "She's going to make her big entrance in three… two…"
Before Cliffjumper could finish the countdown, Arcee appeared from behind another rock and attacked a Vehicon that was firing at Optimus. Optimus stood there frozen in shock as he saw his spark mate take down the Vehicon. When she stopped and looked at him, it was like the whole world stood still.
"Of course, they would have a big dramatic reunion in the middle of a battlefield," Talida scoffed, "They're so cliché."
"It's cliché if they suddenly start kissing," Cliffjumper retorted, "And they both have a bit more self-control than that. Hopefully."
"HEY!"
Cliffjumper and Talida whirled around to see two Vehicons standing over them with their blasters charged and pointed at them.
"Scrap!" Talida cursed.
"I've got this," Cliffjumper smirked.
Cliffjumper made easy work of the two Vehicons standing before him. However, he was about to be surprised by a third one.
Well, that is until he felt a shot whiz past him and take out the Vehicon for him. In surprise, he turned to face Talida, who was pointing her weapon at where the Vehicon once stood.
"What? Did you think I'd let you have all the fun?" Talida snorted.
Cliffjumper let out a laugh as he scooped Talida into his hand. Looking down, he saw the battle was over and the team was having their own reunion with Arcee.
"What do you say we crash the party?" Cliffjumper smirked.
As they approached, Cliffjumper and Talida heard Arcee recalling her tale to the team about how she and Cliffjumper found themselves on Earth. Including the unfortunate experience Arcee had with the cortical psychic patch thanks to Shockwave.
Shushing her, Cliffjumper positioned his hand in a way where it looked like he was walking empty-handed.
No reason they couldn't have any fun.
"So, what you're saying is more 'Cons could be coming," Bulkhead surmised.
"Don't know," Arcee shrugged, "Cliff and I disabled their bridge on the way out. And we don't know if Shockwave survived."
"I hope so," Cliffjumper cut in, "Because I want a rematch."
"Cliffjumper," Optimus acknowledged, "Welcome to Earth."
"The honour is mine," Cliffjumper nodded in respect.
"We may be few, but we are strong. And we made a vow to protect this planet from the Decepticon threat," Optimus began his standard speech.
"I'm sure the seven of us can take care of them easy," Cliffjumper shrugged.
"Seven?" Arcee repeated in confusion, "Cliff, there's only six of us."
"Oh, really?" Cliffjumper said in mock surprise, "Hang on. Let's count them out. One, two, three, four, five, six…"
After he counted the six Cybertronians, including himself, Cliffjumper slowly unfurled his hand to reveal Talida's presence to the rest of the team.
"Seven," Cliffjumper finished with a smirk.
"Mum!" Talida cried out excitedly as she jumped from Cliffjumper's hand into Arcee's waiting arms.
"Tally!" Arcee cried out in equal happiness as she held her daughter close, "You've grown!"
"And is a little Wrecker in her own right," Cliffjumper laughed, "Kid helped me take out some 'Cons and saved my tailpipe."
"You what?!" Arcee demanded, more than ready to scold Talida.
"I wasn't in any danger," Talida whined slightly.
"Plus, she keeps sneaking out," Bulkhead piped in, "So, we figured we'd let her watch and help from a distance."
"Did you know about this?" Arcee immediately asked her sheepish spark mate.
"I might have," Optimus hesitantly answered, knowing he would hear it from her later.
"As long as you didn't teach her how to hack," Arcee sighed.
Arcee may have missed the look Optimus and Talida shared, but Cliffjumper sure didn't. He wanted so desperately to laugh at the look of alarm Optimus and Talida shared, but he knew if he did, he'd give them away.
"Wait. If everyone's out here, how are we going to get to base?" Cliffjumper asked.
"Someone was meant to stay behind and be our bridge operator," Ratchet grumbled, glaring at Talida.
"Hey. I got you covered," Talida reassured them as she detached a small remote from her belt, "I've been working on a remote control for the GroundBridge should this happen. This gives me the perfect opportunity to test it."
"You're a little inventor, huh? I can certainly see how you keep them on their toes," Cliffjumper smirked.
"That's why they keep me around," Talida laughed as she pressed a button to open a GroundBridge portal, "I put in the coordinates for our base as a default setting. Don't worry. The 'Cons won't ever find it. I put in a few fail safes."
"A mini Wrecker and a mini Ratchet," Cliffjumper sighed.
"With better bedside manner," Talida piped in, earning a glare from the medic.
Talida stayed by Arcee's side the entire time as they entered the base through the GroundBridge portal, which shut behind them when the last Autobot walked through.
"This is Autobot Outpost Omega One. A disused missile silo provided to us by the United States Government as our base," Optimus explained.
"So, there are people who know about you?" Cliffjumper guessed.
"Special Agent Fowler is our designated liaison to the outside world. You will meet him when a field report is due," Optimus clarified, "To venture outside the base, you will need an earth-based vehicle mode. The human population cannot know about us."
Cliffjumper did not miss the sad look on Talida's face at Optimus' words. It made Cliffjumper wonder if she knew someone – a human – she wanted to confide in. Someone she wanted to introduce to this strange, crazy world.
"Plus, we take turns taking Tally to school," Bumblebee buzzed.
"And some of us stick around on guard duty," Bulkhead contributed, looking pointedly at Bumblebee.
"I told you not to do that," Talida sighed in frustration.
"I make no apologies," Bumblebee retorted cheekily.
Talida muttered something under her breath about 'overprotective brothers' before leaving the room with Arcee, chatting animatedly with her along the way.
"So, anything I need to know about the kid?" Cliffjumper demanded as soon as Arcee and Talida were out of earshot.
Sighing heavily, Optimus revealed, "She has the disease. We found out shortly after Arcee was forced to leave us."
Cliffjumper let out a curse. While Cliffjumper only knew of the rumours that Optimus and Megatron were more than former comrades – though, he suspected that since he was about to become a member of Optimus' inner circle, he was about to find out if the rumours were true – the fact that Optimus' father had the disease was common knowledge. So, any outsider would be able to presume that Talida inherited the disease from her grandfather.
"She's still early stages, thankfully," Ratchet decided to pipe in, "I imagine she's telling Arcee."
Optimus looked over his comrades at his spark mate and daughter, for they were still in their line of sight. Sure enough, he saw Arcee's face fall in a way that indicated that Talida was, indeed, informing her mother of her diagnosis. Immediately, Optimus knew that, aside from making up for lost time, his spark mate was going to be riddled with guilt over leaving their daughter during a time she would've needed her mother.
Before long, Arcee and Talida left their line of sight, presumably to allow Arcee to rescan her earth-based vehicle form. Talida, after her mother left, insisted on having the motorcycle that became Arcee's vehicle mode be stored in the base. That way, when Arcee returned, they didn't have to go out and find a new vehicle mode.
Fortunately, Fowler had a hard time saying no.
After they returned with Arcee's rescanned vehicle mode, Talida insisted on taking Cliffjumper to a place where they could scout a highway into Jasper so he could choose his new vehicle mode.
After all, his Cybertronian form just wouldn't do.
"This is it? Really?" Cliffjumper scoffed.
"Oh, come on! We've only been up here two minutes!" Talida reminded him, "Then again, this is Jasper."
"So, of all the places you could hide, why hide in the middle of nowhere? Why not in a big city where you would have an easier time blending in?" Cliffjumper asked.
"Because a lot of the big cities didn't have suitable accommodation for the bots," Talida answered, "Besides, this city has its perks. What about that car?"
Cliffjumper stared for a long moment at the car Talida pointed out, "Are you kidding? That car's more suited for Ratchet."
"Fair point," Talida laughed.
"So, you got any friends?" Cliffjumper asked casually.
"Only one, but he doesn't know anything about this," Talida confessed, "You'll see him when you're doing your turn at curb side duty. As far as he's concerned, I live on a military base outside Jasper that works on a lot of top-secret projects. So, they're strict on who they let in."
Cliffjumper burst out laughing, "Well, technically, you're not wrong."
"And, technically, there is a military base outside Jasper. Just a bit farther out than here. That's where Agent Fowler spends a lot of his time," Talida revealed, "What's made it easier for me to keep up the lie is to sprinkle a little bit of the truth."
"Hey. You do what you have to do to cope," Cliffjumper shrugged, "Do you have a crush on him?"
"No," Talida answered a little too quickly.
"I'll take that as a yes," Cliffjumper smirked, "Oh, the fun I could have…"
"Don't you dare," Talida warned him, "I tend to shoot anything that pisses me off. Unfortunately, I can't do that at school."
"Anyone in particular?" Cliffjumper questioned.
"Vince. He's just as much of a sleaze as his dad," Talida growled, "Hey. How's that Dodge Challenge?"
Cliffjumper smiled widely as he saw the red Dodge Challenger driving on the highway out of Jasper.
"Now that's more like it," Cliffjumper beamed as he proceeded to scan the vehicle mode.
Once that was done, Cliffjumper jumped off the rock, transforming into his new vehicle form in mid-air. Talida couldn't help but laugh as she immediately noticed the addition of Cliffjumper's signature horns on the front of the car.
"Really?" Talida laughed as she jumped into the passenger seat once Cliffjumper opened the door for her.
"That's my motto, Tally. Mess with Cliffjumper and you get the horns," Cliffjumper smirked as he secured the seatbelt around Talida's form.
"I imagine a lot of 'Cons will have been made acquainted with your horns," Talida smirked in return.
"So, what do you say you acquaint me with this small town?" Cliffjumper suggested.
End flashback
"She told me, by the way," Jack revealed to Cliffjumper, holding up the disc that contained Talida's message.
"Nope. That's cheating. Doesn't count," Cliffjumper immediately objected.
"What would count?" Jack asked dryly.
"In person. Face to face," Cliffjumper proclaimed, "But don't worry. We'll get her back so she can make it count."
"How do you know that I feel the same?" Jack challenged.
"I spent a lot of time watching the two of you. Even if you're just realising it now, it was always clear as day that you feel the same way," Cliffjumper threw back, "I'm determined for that to happen."
"It wasn't your fault," Jack told him firmly, sensing what Cliffjumper was actually getting at.
"Hey. I was with her. I could've stopped her, but I didn't. Protecting her was my job!" Cliffjumper snapped, "Arcee got me out of scrap. The least I could've done was protect her daughter."
"No one blames you," Arcee cut in, approaching the pair, "Figured I'd find you up here. You and Tally always liked watching the sunset together when you could."
"It was one of the first things she showed me of Earth," Cliffjumper shrugged, "She told me they were the most amazing thing in the world. She's not wrong."
"I'm waiting for the first stars to appear," Jack admitted.
"Hoping one of them will be the Decepticon warship?" Arcee guessed, a knowing tone in her voice, "They won't be so easily spotted. Not to the naked eye and not with any electronic scan."
"I have to do something," Jack defended herself.
"You are doing something," Cliffjumper told him firmly, "You're holding onto hope."
"I came up to see if you wanted some food," Arcee revealed, "Also, Cliff, Ratchet wants to run another scan."
Grumbling, Cliffjumper rose from his spot. How many more scans did Ratchet need to give him the all clear?
"As many as he needs," Arcee responded, making Cliffjumper realize that he voiced his question aloud, "You know Tally would be pushing for you to have those scans."
"Well, she has better bedside manner," Cliffjumper grumbled, "Why she wants to go into biomedical science instead of becoming a doctor is beyond me."
"Well, she likes inventing things," Jack pointed out, "You should've seen some of the science projects she did."
"I saw the one Ratchet tried to build for her," Cliffjumper laughed, "If she took that, she would've blown up the whole school."
"As tempting as that sounded," Jack chuckled.
"Hey, Jack. Hang back a minute," Cliffjumper suddenly requested.
Confused, Jack did while Arcee waited by the elevator to take them back into the base. Jack was almost terrified when Cliffjumper knelt before him so he looked him directly in the eye and stated in a serious tone,
"You hurt my girl; you'll get the horns."
"Why does this keep happening?" Talida asked into the void she and Megatron were staring into, "Why can't I, at least, choose who I go see? Uh, no offence."
"None taken. I am as confused as you are," Megatron reassured her.
"You wouldn't happen to have found the dark stuff yet, have you?" Talida inquired, "Being Starscream's guest is getting old really fast."
"Regretfully, my dear niece, I have not found what I'm looking for," Megatron answered before noticing how she referred to the Dark Energon, "Dark stuff?"
"Well, it is Dark Energon," Talida pointed out, "I doubt I'll be the only Autobot to refer to it as the dark stuff."
"I thought there would be more on Cybertron, but it appears it is all gone," Megatron observed.
"I thought it was already exceedingly rare on Cybertron," Talida retorted, "So rare that it's virtually non-existent."
"Hence my delayed return," Megatron nodded.
"Oh great," Talida grumbled as she felt the all-too-familiar pull, "Starscream's waking me up."
"Until we meet again, my niece," Megatron said.
"WAKE UP!" Starscream snapped at her as he shook her.
"What? Ready for another round?" Talida mumbled.
"No. A warning. You will not like what we have in store for your next session," Starscream sneered, "So, why don't you save yourself that pain and tell me what I wish to know?"
Talida scoffed, "What could you do to me that's worse than what you've already done?"
"Oh, you want to find out?" Starscream smirked, nodding to the other Vehicons.
Talida gasped as the other Vehicons pinned her down while Malita approached her pinned form.
"You may want to hold onto this," Malita taunted her with the piece of Jack's shirt.
Talida's eyes widened in horror as Malita hovered a hammer over her leg.
"Tell me what I want to know," Starscream ordered her, "Where is the Autobot base?"
"Tick-tock," Malita tormented.
"Go frag yourself," Talida snarled.
"Oh. You want to be like that?" Malita laughed, "This will be fun."
The sickening sound of a bone cracking and Talida's scream echoed in her cell.
Yep. I'm ending it like that.
I'll try to not be as long next chapter, but you know me. I can't make any promises. The only reason I've been inspired lately is because COVID gave me the excuse to binge watch a bunch of shows. Including Transformers: Prime. But I've also been watching Big Time Rush, The Librarians (both the movie trilogy and the TV show), and ER.
In an unrelated note, I totally see Noah Wyle more as Flynn Carsen than John Carter.
I'm trying to decide which Autobot to do next chapter. I do know I want Optimus to be the last, so it'll be either Bumblebee or Ratchet. Also, we're almost at the rescue. I'm thinking Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Optimus' chapters, then planning the rescue, then the rescue. So, four or five chapters? Don't know. My brain's too fried to do math.
Bye!