"Normal speech"

'Normal thoughts'

"Translated speech/special"

*sound effects/noise*

[comms]

{soundwave recording}

~Transitions~

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Prime

Terminology

Spark = heart, Helm = head, frame = body, Chassis = chest, Breastplate = female chest area, servos = hand, digits = fingers, pedes = feet, aft = ass, core proccessor = brain, audio recievers/sensors/receptors = ears, optics = eyes, tanks = stomach, vents/ venting = breathing/ sighing, T-cog = trasforming part, online/offline = life/death, core conciousness = personality, alt mode = altenate form, frag = fuck, scrap =crap, slag = shit, glitch =bitch, subspace =storage compartment, Astro-klik = millisecond, Micro-klik = a second, klik = a minute, breem = an hour, Solar cycle = a day, Mega cycle = a week, Deca-cycle = month, orbital cycle = a year

Chapter 1: First encounter

~somewhere on earth~

A red muscle car is seen driving a one-way road through a wide-open area "...so there I am on the lookout when out of nowhere these high beams come out of nowhere. And then it hit me…...I'm illegally parked."

~Jasper Nevada~

A blue motorcycle with pink highlights is moving through a desert area with a female rider that is covered from head to toe. "Another parking ticket….." she knew him well enough to see this coming

[better….the boot.]

"Big metal tire clamp, impossible to remove" she imagined seeing her partner with the yellow clamp and could not help but find it amusing

"Bingo! So the local police do their thing and I let em get all the way around the block. That's when I kick off my new shiny shoe and BANG!"

[New york's finest soil themselves.]

Hmhm you know me Arcee, you mess with Cliffjumper…."

[...aaand you get the horns.]

The now named Cliffjumper gave a hearty laugh at his catchphrase being finished by his partner

[not sure how that complies with Autobot rule #1: keep a low profile]

"What can I say? Patrolling for Energon in Dullsville gets lonesome. Almost makes me miss the Decepticons."

[like Jasper Nevada is a party. We are alone no matter where we are on this rock, cliff.]

As she finished saying this, Cliffjumper's radar went off showing something of interest. "I got a signal."

[need backup?]

"Do I ever need backup?" Cliffjumper then turned to drive off-road, towards where he got the signal. After a few minutes of driving, he came to a crater that littered with large blue crystals inside "I just found a who~le lot of Energon."

[good, that means that we'll have something to keep us running.]

Transforming into his robot form, Cliffjumper walked the edge of the crater "aw, what? The human's gas isn't good enough for you?"

[oh please, that stuff is bad for us and you know.]

"Heh heh, I dunno. Tastes fine to me….although the stuff does go straight to your aft."

[say that again and you'll be losing one of your horns.]

Cliffjumper laughed at this as he kept surveying the Energon deposit. "Well anyway, the stuff here is potent. I'm not as smart as the doc but I'd say that there is enough to last us a Deca-cycle. Maybe two."

[with the way you go through the stuff I doubt it would last half a megacycle.]

"Haha. Funny. Anyway, we are going to need to whole…."

*clink*

He paused as he felt something hit his pede. Looking down he noticed there was one of a digit sized Energon crystal laying there. Bending down, he picked up and brought it up to examine it. Normally it wouldn't really be odd to see one this size but it was what was different about it. It was missing a chunk of it. "Huh, that's odd."

[what is it?]

He was about to answer, but he noticed a shadow coming over him. Looking up he saw a massive flying warship "oh scrap."

The warship aimed its cannons at the Autobot before firing at him.

Cliffjumper was glad that he wasn't hit straight on but the explosion that was right in front of him sent him into the crater and hitting his back on one of the larger Energon crystals. "Gonna feel that tomorrow."

*thump*

Looking up he saw that a squad of vehicons landed at the edge of the crater, looking down on him "uh Arcee….about that backup!"

[what's going on?!]

"...the Decepticons are back."

[...confirmed. Backup is on the way. Hold on, Cliff! ]

"Sure, no problem." turning off his comm he looked at the squad "Fair warning. You mess with me, Imma put some dents in ya." transforming into his vehicle mode he drove up the side of the crater at such a speed that he was launched in the air above the squad. Transforming back he used the momentum of his drop to smash one of them into scrap before he sent a powerful uppercut to another. He ducked in time to dodge the blaster fire aimed at him from the others. Shifting his servos to blasters he returned fire, taking out a couple of them. He felt proud that he took a few of them out so quickly but his reverie was halted when he felt his shoulder hit and he lost his advantage "scrap!" he began to move along the edge of the crater to get some more room to fight since if the Energon is hit, based on the size, the explosion would take him and the squad out. He knew how important the Energon was to his team but it was too great a risk and Optimus would not approve of him offlining. He moved further away from the Energon Deposit while blasting at his chasers. As he turned to fire again, he was hit in the chassis, which sent him into a cave that was behind him.

The Vehicons paused at the cave entrance. It was large enough for many of them to enter. A single con chose to stay in case the Autobot came out while the other five went in after him.

Arcee stopped driving in the middle of the street as she activated her comm. "Optimus! The Cons are back and Cliffjumper might be neck-deep in scrap!

A red and blue big rig was driving on a road somewhere else in the world "Ratchet, do you have Cliffjumper's coordinates?"

[I do Optimus but the team is scattered, across different time zones.]

Optimus mentally nodded as he gave his orders. "Rachet, Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, return to base so we may aid our comrade!" He hit the brakes and turned around to head back to the Autobot base aiming to get there in time to save Cliffjumper.

~Cliffjumper~

He was blasting at the vehicons that were chasing him in the cave he fell into. "Scrap Arcee, where's that backup? ARGH!" Cliffjumper was hit again in the chassis that was now busted up and he himself was not doing so well. He was leaking Energon from his wounds and was venting heavily. The blast sent him into a large circular cavern and he lay there in the center. "...Scrap." he shifted his optics at the Vehicons that were coming upon him, blasters aimed at him. "Guess this is it."

The Vehincons were now standing above the Autobot before one of them kicked him to roll a bit. Another one aimed and shot off Cliffjumpers arm

"ARGH! SLAG!" he watched as one of the cons picked up the arm and began to walk away "hey I need that!" he felt a pede step on his chassis and looked up at the Vehicon that pointed its blaster in his face. "I had a good run."

The blaster powered up before it sent out a shot

~aboard the Nemesis~

Starscream was looking at the Energon deposit as he began thinking of how he was going to use it. He was brought out of his musing when another con walked up to him "Soundwave, what news do you bring?"

Soundwave's visor showed an audio line that played a recording

{Confirmed. Backup is on the way. Hold on cliff}

Starscream growled at what he heard "grr the Autobots will most likely be here soon." he looked to the deposit and grimaced "we're retreating. We don't want them to know about us just yet." he hated leaving any Energon for the enemy but the deposit is small compared to the others they have. He also wanted to be cautious as he did not know when they would arrive

The Nemesis turned around before flying away, leaving the Energon deposit.

A large swirling green portal appeared just as the ship flew away and out of it came the whole Autobot team with their blasters prepped

They all looked around the area as Optimus noted "an untapped Energon deposit." he disengaged his blasters as he saw that there were no signs of Decepticons.

Bulkhead walked up to the edge "a good amount to it."

Arcee looked around the area to see if she can find any signs of her partner but she stopped when she saw one of Cliffjumpers horns "no….." she picked it up as she looked to Optimus

Optimus could see the unasked question and looked to Ratchet "Ratchet, can you track his signal from here."

Ratchet brought his arm up as he looked at a screen.

"Look!"

They all looked at Bumblebee to see him pointing a digit at the other side of the crater. Following where he was pointing they saw a jet vehicon with something in its grasp.

Arcee saw red as her optics saw that it was Cliffjumper's arm. In a rage, she ran towards the con before transforming into her vehicle mode and drove fast to it. She ran over the con before transforming back and armed her blasters and blasted the con repeatedly.

The team moved to stand by Arce s she finished blasting the now offline bot as Ratchet picked up their fallen comrade's arm

Optimus disengaged his mouthguard as he looked sadly at the arm "Ratchet is there any signal from Cliffjumper?"

Ratchet brought up his arm again and looked at the screen. It only showed their signals but there was no sign of CliffJumper "I can't pick up CliffJumper's life signal."

All of the Autobots lowered their helm as they knew what this meant.

"Auto-bots….return to base."

"But Optimus!"

"Arcee…" he placed a servo on her shoulder "there is nothing more we can do."

Arcee hated this but she nodded her helm

~Later~

The Autobot team all stood on top of their base as they stood in front of a makeshift grave

Optimus looked upon his team as he spoke "Autobots…..as of today, we five are the only remaining Autobots on planet earth. We are the last line of defense from the Decepticons. We must make sure that no tragedy befalls on this planet…..and that we never again have to lose another comrade..."

Arcee moved to the grave as she gently placed Cliffjumper's horn on it. After that, she began to walk away.

The rest noticed this as Bukhead asked "hey Cee, where you going?"

"Sitting around her sulking won't bring him back. So I'm going out to do our job. Protecting the humans." she transformed to her alt form and drove away to the town of Jasper

As Ratchet watched her leave he spoke to Optimus "the first sign of Decepticon activity in three years and we lose one of our own."

Optimus grimaced at this "I wish that statement weren't true my friend." he then turned to Bulkhead and Bumblebee "you two, prepare to harvest the Energon we discovered."

"Got it."

"Roger"

Optimus watched the two leave before he turned his gaze to where Arcee went

~Jasper~

Arcee was angry. She was frustrated but deep down….she was sad. Cliffjumper was her friend and partner. He would always have her back if she was in trouble and she would have his but much like her previous partner Tailgate, he was offline by a con. She was driving fast through the streets of the town not really concerned about running someone over since at this time there weren't many people out. Unfortunately, her venting was interrupted when she noticed that she was being followed by a couple of land-based vehicons. "Great…." she moved into the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. She parked and watched as the two vehicons drove past. She disengaged Sally, her holographic rider, when she knew that there was no one around. She stayed there thinking about what she could have done to save Cliff. She went through several different scenarios but in the end, she realized that there was no way for her to save him. They were all just too far away from the base to make it there faster. She hated that.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard talking happening in front of her. Looking ahead she saw that it was a group of teenage girls walking past. 'Danger that could wipe out this whole town and the humans have no idea. I guess I should be jealous that they have no idea what they have.' she was brought out of her musing when she heard the revving of the two Vehicons that she lost. "Scrap!" Activating sally again she drove off, leaving a group of teenage girls somewhat confused about what just happened as the motorcycle just drove past them and two purple cars drive after it at a fast pace

Arcee was moving fast on the highway while trying to avoid crashing into one of the cars she passed and keeping out of reach from the cons. "Optimus, I'm going to need some backup here!"

[Are you in a heavily populated area?]

"Highway! Lots of traffic!"

[locate a deserted area so we may groundbridge the others.]

"Copy that!" she kicked up her speed so she could stay away from the cons and find a place to fight them

~Elsewhere~

A young boy wearing glasses was playing with his yellow remote control car in a waterway that was under the highway bridge. He made car noises as he drove it around until his phone rang. Pulling it out he answered it "hey mom…...yeah I'm fine…..just playing with my car…..no, I'm not alone…." he looked to his right to see an Asian girl tuning her guitar.

The girl was Miko. She and Raf had become friends when Raf was being wicked on by the school bully and she defended him. After that, the two hung out together as they used each other as a sort of excuse.

"Yeah, Miko is with me."

Miko moved closer to Raf as she spoke "hey, I'm keeping an eye on him so there are no probs here."

Raf smiled as she continued to talk with his mother. He had to have Miko with him since his mother would worry herself to death if he was alone. There was an incident a while ago about a kidnapping which caused many parents to worry. But after some time, the parents began to let their kids enjoy their time away from home. Raff's mother still worries from time to time. "...yeah, I'll be home later ok?...ok love you too by." he hung up the phone as he smiled at Miko who gave him a thumbs up

"still worries huh?"

"Not as much as before but she still likes to know I'm ok."

Both were brought out of their conversation when they heard something land in front of them. Looking up they saw that it was a blue motorcycle but the interesting thing was that it had no rider. They heard something above them and looked up to see two cars in the air but what shocked them more was that they both transformed into large robots.

Arcee transformed before bringing two digits to her helm "I'm clear." she heard the sound of the groundbridge opening up behind her and could hear the arrival of two of her comrades. Looking back she smiled at the sight of Bulkhead and Bumblebee "glad you could make it."

"Sorry, traffic was a problem." was Bulkhead's cheeky response as he shifter his servos into blasters

"Glad we made it."

Both vehicons saw that they were now outnumbered and transformed into their alt mode and drove off

Bulkhead watched in shock as he reverted his servos "well….that was anticlimactic."

Bumblebee took a step back but paused when he heard that he stepped on something. Lifting his pede, he saw that he crushed what looked like a toy car.

Miko winced at the sight of the destroyed toy "Oooh bummer."

The three bots looked to their right to see the two humans standing there staring at them.

Bumblebee then began to gesture at the broken car "sorry about that."

Raf smiled as he waved his hand dismissively "it's ok. Don't worry about it."

Arcee couldn't help but sigh at the sight of them and could only say one thing "scrap."

~next day~

Miko and Raf were riding inside of Bumblebee as the yellow bot had wicked them up after their school day had ended.

After the random meeting the five had, the bots had been called by Optimus and they had told them that the cons were dealt with. Once that was said, they were told to return to base to continue harvesting the Energon as well as give their report on the Decepticon encounter. Optimus grew concerned when he heard about the human children that had seen them. Optimus then ordered that when their schooling had ended the coming Solar-cycle, they were to be brought in. now he had told the two about why they were on the planet.

Miko was in awe at the whole thing as she thought it was cool that there was a war with giant fighting robots.

Raf though felt some worry about the idea that their planet was to be a war ground. "You said that this….Megatron would stop at nothing until he has taken over. What are his chances that he wins?"

Optimus Lowered himself so he could speak to them "do not worry Raphael. As long as we stand in their way, they will never succeed."

As he finished saying this, an alert went off, causing them all to look to the computer.

Raf asked the question that he and Miko had on their minds "what's that?"

Bumblebee began beeping to the two humans which got a confused look from Miko

Raf smiled as he told her "he says it's a proximity alert."

"You can understand him? All I get are beeps."

Ratchet looked over the computer told everyone "it's special agent Fowler."

Miko put her hand on her hip "'special Agent'? What like the Men in Black?"

Optimus looked at the humans "Special Agent Fowler is our liaison. He is a government agent that handles our business between us and his superiors. At this moment it is best that he does not know about you two."

Getting the hint, the two went to hide so they weren't seen

~Energon Mine~

"...Gaze upon …..dark Energon." Megatron held up a shard of dark purple glowing crystal.

Starscream looked at the shard in trepidation "it is said that it has the capability…. of reviving the dead."

"All we need is a cadaver to test that." shifting his gaze from the shard in his hand to his SIC "are you willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, Starscream?"

Starscream felt extreme fear at what his lord is asking him to do "uh ah...that may not be necessary Lord Megatron."

"Well, you bots sure know how to make my life harder. A blue motorcycle of unknown make being chased by two purple and black cars with an unknown frame on a highway full of civilians."

Bulkhead walked up to the side as he was a little peeved at what the agent was saying "hey! Did anyone get squished during her chase? Arcee did everything she could to make sure that no one was hurt."

"I get that but what I'm concerned about is what was chasing her." Fowler looked to Optimus as he gained an angry, worried look "they're back aren't they…..the cons"

Optimus vented as he spoke, "I'm afraid they may have never left."

Fowler hated hearing this "then it's time to wake up the pentagon."

"Agent Fowler. It would be unwise to use your methods to handle the Decepticons. We may be the only defense you have against them as we are able to handle them without having any human casualties.

"I hope you're right Prime." Fowler turned around and went into the elevator that he came in. He pressed the button to activate it as he said "I really don't want to use the heavy artillery in populated areas." with that the elevator door closed and he left.

Optimus nodded as he was of the same mind

*ping*

"Bah blasted earth tech!"

"What's up doc?" was Bulkhead's question

"It's a bug in the system. It just said that it had picked up Cliffjumper's life signature."

Arcee perked up when she heard this "what? Where?"

Ratchet brought his servos up "don't get your hopes up. This earth computer is faulty at best." as he said this a couple of error screens popped up "see…."

"Maybe I can help?"

Ratchet looked to Raf, who pulled out his laptop and moved to the consol "you?! You do know this is complex tech right? How on earth could you…"

"Try it now."

Ratchet chose to humor the human and pressed a few keys on the console. The error windows were then removed but the ping of Cliffjumper's life sign was still up. "Well….still faulty."

Arcee however looked to Optimus with a bit more hope in her optics "Optimus, if there is any chance that Cliffs alive…."

Optimus shared a bit of her optimism "indeed." He looked to Ratchet. "Ratchet, input the coordinates and prepare sickbay. We're bringing our friend home."

~cave~

Team Prime came out of the Groundbridge with their blasters ready for anything that could be a threat.

Arcee was a bit anxious at what they may find or what state they may find Clifffjumper in. she followed Optimus as he moved further into the cave. The further they went the more nervous she got.

Bumblebee was covering the rear as Bulkhead followed behind Arcee.

Optimus had his mouthguard on as he was ready for a fight since, in his processor, this could be a Decepticon trap. As they continued, he heard the sound of something metallic scraping the earth. As the sound got louder he noticed that the cave was leading into a large open area. He paused as he saw what it was, with the rest of his team coming up next to him

Arcee moved to Optimus's side and gasped at what she saw "Cliff!"

"...hey Cee… I see you brought backup…...what took you so long?"

~Mine~

Starscream and Megatron watched as one of their drones turned feral and attacked the other drone that came with it.

Starscream had killed it in order for Megatron to use the Dark Energon on. The result was an unfeeling feral monster that could not tell friend from foe.

"See the start of my army Starscream." he gestured to the feral drone that had torn apart the living one "a creature of unstoppable proportions…" he watched as the drone charged at him and he smirked as he brought out his blade and sliced the thing in half.

The drone, however, continued to try and attack Megatron, despite missing an arm and it's lower half

Megatron brought up his pede and smashed the remains into scrap "when I learn to control this power, I will conquer this world and bring the Autobots to their knees."

~Autobots~

The team were fussing over Cliffjumper who was still laying on the cave ground and leaking Energon

Arcee looked him over and asked "what the slag happened? Why didn't you call?!"

Cliff chuckled before coughing up some Energon "I did…..but the cave walls wouldn't let my comms reach you guys. And I couldn't really move."

Optimus nodded as he knelt down "it is good to see you still functioning Cliffjumper. You can brief us when we get you home."

Cliff brought up a hand to stop his leader "hold on, boss. There is something else that you should know."

Bulkhead tilted his head "like what? A con's arm to replace the one you lost?"

Arcee glared at him for the bad joke

"What?"

Cliff just chuckled at the wrecker's bad humor "no. it's…..."

*gggrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

A growl was heard echo throughout the cavern and the team brought up their blasters to cover the still wounded Cliff

Arcee was glaring at the darkness that took up the far side of the cavern "what is that?"

Cliff coughed again as he spoke, "that would be what I want to bring with us."

Another growl was heard and all the bots pointed their blasters at the darkness as they saw something glow in it.

A pair of glowing red optics

End of chapter

The idea came to me and I had to write this down

Yeah, Jack ain't here yet and Cliff is still around. I have a reason and you will find out in a later chapter.

I want to apologize for the Cybatronian terminology since I could not find any consistent list of it. I used another fic set as a basis and looked online for them but it was still all jumbled up. Hope what I have worked for you readers and you enjoyed this first chapter.

You'll find out what it was that hid in the shadows next chapter and how Cliff survived.

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