I don't own Transformers and the Riordanverse; they belong to their owners.
Also, a special announcement. I'm also posting this story on Archive of Our Own. Make sure to give it a read there as well.
Chapter 4: I Go On A Ride Through The Danger Zone.
I was still crying on my bed, hugging Mr. Fuzzy, when I heard a knock on the door.
"If you're Jane, you're not welcome!" I shouted.
"It's me, Piper..." came the voice of my dad.
I hesitated for a moment.
"Come in..."
Dad walked into my room and sat down on my bed. We just stayed silent for a minute.
"Piper, I'm sorry," he said.
"I know..." I muttered, still refusing to look at him.
Dad put his hand on my back, "Look, is there anything I can do for you to make up for it?" he asked. "Do you want that nice fancy-"
I groaned and sat up. "I don't want something nice and fancy; I want to do something with you!".
Dad looked at me funny. I don't think he fully understood that I wasn't really into the "rich and famous" thing.
"Okay. So what is that something exactly?" he asked.
I thought about it for a minute. "Some ice cream, I guess. I saw there was a new place that opened nearby. I see it on the way to school."
"Piper, why would we go to a public place? We could go anywhere. why-"
"I want to go there," I insisted.
"...Alright. Let's go," he finally said.
When we got to the ice cream shop, I breathed a sigh of relief. There weren't many people here today. That meant me and dad had practically the whole place to ourselves.
Unfortunately, that didn't stop the inevitable from happening.
My dad walked up to the counter.
"Yes, can I help-" the employee froze, his mouth hung open.
"Ah, I see you recognize me." Dad laughed.
I groaned and face-palmed. Here we go again.
We went through the usual song and dance after that. The guy went into crazy fan mode, asked for my dad's autograph, and started hogging him. Only this time it was worse because now he wanted to get some sort of "Tristan McLean seal of approval" for the store.
What should have been five minutes to get our order turned into twenty minutes as Dad stopped to get his picture taken and- gah...
Maybe he was right. Maybe a public place was a bad idea after all.
While this was going on, I snuck off forgotten about and found a table to sit at. When Dad was finally free, he brought me my order of cookies and cream with sprinkles in a cone, and he sat across from me with his order of chocolate in a cone with syrup.
"Sorry, that took me so long, Piper. Are we good?"
I wanted to scream in frustration that no, it was not "good." I wanted to yell at him to stop treating this as a casual affair. This wasn't normal, and I didn't want it to be normal. I didn't wanna have to go through all these hoops just to get ice cream with my dad.
Instead, I just sighed and lied, "Yeah, we're good."
We were silent for a bit. Usually, we talked about the Cherokee legends my Grandpa Tom told Dad when he was my age, or we played "Any Three Questions," but this time there was a more pressing matter to discuss.
"So the Iron Giant. Where did you meet him?" I asked, taking a lick out of my ice cream.
"His name is Thundercracker," Dad explained.
"Thundercracker? You mean like the Thunderbird?".
Dad laughed, "Hah! I didn't even make that connection until now."
The Thunderbird was one of the Native American stories my dad had told me. It was supposedly a giant bird that could generate thunder by flapping its wings and lighting from its eyes and was a symbol of power, strength, and protection. It wasn't as heavily associated with our tribe, the Cherokee, as some of the others, but it was still a significant aspect of our culture.
"So, how did you meet Mr. Thunderbird?"
"By pure chance, as a matter of fact." He told me some story about an accident on set during filming and how this Autobot had saved him from it.
Okay. Maybe he wasn't all bad if he saved my dad from an accident like that.
As me and my dad talked, I caught a glimpse of a news report about a Decepticon attack on a South American energon refinery on a nearby television.
I silently sighed at this. To put it simply and bluntly, those Decepticons are the worst. It felt like almost every day we heard a story about some crap they were doing. Some people thought the Autobots were just as guilty for bringing their war to Earth, but from what I could tell, they were the only reason the Decepticons hadn't completely obliterated us yet. So they were good in my book.
The Decepticons could get lost though.
Believe it or not, the rest of the day with Dad was pretty good. After the ice cream, we went to the beach and spent the day walking across the sand, collecting sea shells.
So naturally, it didn't last.
The next day, it was back off to the world of Hollywood filmmaking for him, leaving me alone in the mansion with only Jane and some of the staff for company.
It sucked.
About three miserable and lonely days later, I was cutting my hair with some old safety scissors, doing my best to make it look uneven (I refuse to go to one of those elegant deluxe ultra-special salons), when I heard a thud coming from the backyard. I went to my room and opened my window. When I looked outside, there was Mr. Iron Giant/Thunderbird himself taking a glance around the place.
"Can I help you?" I asked.
"Uh yeah... Piper, right?" it asked.
"Mhmm. And you're Thundercracker?"
"That's the name I chose for myself," he said proudly.
I raised my eyebrow. "You chose your name?"
"Well yeah, it's tradition for us Cybertronians to choose a name for ourselves upon our forging," he explained.
"Must be nice being able to pick your own name," I murmured, remembering the time some kids in second grade made fun of me because "Piper Cherokee" was a type of airplane.
"It is..." Thundercracker started shuffling his mechanical feet. "Look, I'd like to apologize for the other day. I didn't know Tristan had plans.".
I sighed. "Well, Dad and I managed to have a decent day afterward, so you didn't completely mess it up."
"Oh, and he told me how you saved him during that set accident. Thanks for that." I added.
"Well, I couldn't just let the movie be ruined," he laughed. "Where is your dad anyway?"
I looked down and said, "He's out. Had to do promotional stuff for said movie.".
"Oh. I guess that makes sense..."
There was some awkward silence for a moment.
"...Do you mind if I come in?".
"Um... What?" I asked baffled, "How are you supposed to get in? I think there's a bit of a height problem."
"Like this," said a voice behind me.
I turned around. And then I screamed and staggered backward. In my room was a guy in a blue bomber jacket with black hair.
"Who the heck are you!?"
"It's me, Piper," the guy and Thundercracker said at the same time.
I looked back and forth between the two. "Huh?"
"Holomatter. Hard light projection. With a mental link to my body." Thundercracker's avatar explained, and he started to shift the avatar through multiple different looks. A jet pilot, a fashion model, an overweight chef, and even a twelve-year-old kid. "Turning into vehicles is all well and good for a disguise, but sometimes we need something a bit more to keep up the illusion and go into places our main bodies can't get into."
"Okay. That's pretty cool." I admitted.
Thundercracker's avatar settled back to his original appearance and began exploring my room. He looked a bit confused, though.
See, my room isn't really anything special. Just a bookshelf, my bed, a toybox, a Wonder Woman poster on the wall, and a desk for a computer.
"This is your room?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"But it looks so..."
"Boring? Average? Not rich?"
"...Yes."
I sighed. I knew the question he had on his mind. I'd been asked it before. "Because I don't want or need any of that stuff," I answered.
"Why? You could have anything you ever wanted!" Thundercracker pointed out.
The way he said that seemed to set something off in me: "You know what I want!?" I asked, my voice raising, "I want my dad to pick me up from school instead of needing to ride the bus or get Jane to do it; I want to go to regular school, not some elite private one; I want my dad to make me lunch instead of some private chef from France who I don't even know, and I want... I want my dad to stop thinking he can just buy my love.".
"I just want things to be simple." I finished.
Thundercracker was silent for a bit. "He doesn't think that at all," he told me.
"Sometimes it feels that way." I muttered, "He'll miss something important, break a promise, or just have to go away for longer than a week. Then he comes back and thinks he can make it better by offering to buy me the latest clothes that all the girls who aren't me are gushing about, take me to Six Flags Magic Mountain, or get me a pony. As if he can just buy away the issue.".
Thundercracker's avatar put his right hand on his chin. Then he snapped his fingers. "I think I know something that will make you feel better, he said. "How would you like to go for a ride in a jet?".
I scoffed, "My dad has a private jet you know. I can get a ride in a jet whenever I want.".
"How about a ride in a fighter jet?"
So, I'll admit it. I might have betrayed my ideals slightly to agree to Thundercracker's offer of giving me a ride in his jet form.
But I was having too much fun to care.
Riding inside Thundercracker was breathtaking. Flying in a private jet was one thing; flying inside a high-speed fighter jet was another.
He turned, dived, did a loop, and barrel rolled in the sky. I was laughing and screaming the whole time, strapped down nice and safe in his cockpit.
"You okay, Piper?" his voice coming from the communications system inside the jet.
"Better than okay! This is the most fun I've had in years!" I shouted with glee. "This is better than a roller coaster!".
"Well, hang on; I got another trick for you."
Thundercracker started to fly straight into the sky. Then, all at once, his engines cut out.
"Um. Thundercracker?"
No answer. We started falling. The jet tumbled toward the ground.
"Thundercracker!" I shouted in panic.
He still didn't answer. We were in a freefall. I felt myself twist and turn in zero g.
"Thundercracker!"
All at once, with a cry of "WOO HOO!" the engines came back on, and we were thrust through the sky again.
I breathed a massive sigh of relief.
"Don't ever do that without warning again," I ordered, scowling.
"It was fun, wasn't it?"
"Okay, it kind of was," I admitted. "But seriously, don't do that without warning me!"
After that, Thundercracker took a bit off from the daredevil stunts, instead allowing us to just look down at the beautiful view below us.
There was something magical about seeing the ground below us from this high. Sure, I'd flown in Dad's private jet before, but this time felt different. More personal.
As we flew over everything, I noticed something.
"Hey. We're over San Francisco.".
"Yeah, we are," Thundercracker said. Then he turned and gave me a nice look at the Golden Gate Bridge.
I couldn't see his face, but I could almost feel a smirk coming from him.
"Wanna thread the needle?" he asked.
I smirked too. "Let's do it!" I shouted.
Thundercracker dove down toward the water of San Francisco Bay, then leveled out, so he was just barely skimming the water. I could see the bridge right in front of us getting closer and closer.
"We're gonna be in so much trouble!" I laughed as we accelerated faster and faster.
"Not if they can't catch us!" Thundercracker laughed as he hit his boosters.
We came right toward the bridge and went under it. Thundercracker then put us through a direct loop around it. As he reached the apex of the loop, I felt myself pressed down to my seat by all the G forces. My messy hair hanging wildly around me. I turned my gaze downward and saw a bunch of baffled drivers and onlookers.
I gave them a nice little wave.
As we exited the loop and finished going under the bridge, Thundercracker flew back into the sky.
"Can't get that experience on a private jet, can you?!"
"No, you can't!"
We laughed together. It felt nice to laugh with someone who wasn't my dad for once.
When we got closer to the city, I recognized a series of buildings below us.
"This is where Dad is having his press meeting," I said quietly.
"Oh cool." Thundercracker said jubilantly, "Let's go see him!".
He started lowering down, and I started to panic.
"What are you doing!? Dad's been very clear with me. He's never wanted me at one of these things!"
"Come on, we're right here, aren't we? What's the harm?"
I thought about it and sighed. It wouldn't be the first time I got in trouble just to spend more time with Dad.
"Alright. Let's do it." I said.
After Thundercracker found a nice hidden place for a private landing spot, I jumped out of his cockpit, and he started projecting his Holomatter avatar.
When we got to the studio where Dad was having the press meeting, we got blocked by the guard. "Ehem? Invitation please?".
"Uh, we don't really have-"
"It's okay." I told the guard, "Tristan McLean invited us. Oh, and we don't need any formal outfits. We have permission to be casual."
Thundercracker rolled his eyes and face-palmed. "Piper, that is never gonna-"
"Of course. Please come in."
I wish I had a camera on me because the baffled look Thundercracker's avatar gave was priceless.
As we entered, he kept looking at the guard and back at me. "What? How? How did you do that?" he asked.
I looked around to make sure no one was listening in. "Okay, don't tell Dad, but it's a little trick I can do," I explained.
"What is?" Thundercracker asked, his avatar's eyebrow raised.
"Well, I just ask people for stuff, and then they do it for me."
I know that sounds crazy, but that's honestly what happened sometimes. I noticed it a long time ago when I got my dad's butler to serve me extra food one night.
"Are you like Killgrave from Jessica Jones?!" Thundercracker asked in amazement.
Something about the way he said that struck a chord in me.
I wanted to say, "Well, sort of, but I don't use my powers to hurt people."
Except I had abused this... talent I had in the past.
"...Yeah." I finally said, looking a bit guilty.
"Oh..." Thundercracker said, "So all those times the news reported that you stole..."
"Yeah," I repeated.
Confession time. I often took things from stores. Not steal. Took. I just asked the clerks and salespeople to give me things, and then they went, "Sure, here. Have this expensive iPod for free.".
That might sound confusing; after all, I said I didn't want nice and fancy things; I wanted to be normal. So why did I steal stuff?
The truth is, I'm not sure why I did. Some days I was just so alone and bored at home that going to a nearby store and getting a candy bar, chips, and soda for free was the only way to relieve the boredom. Most of the time, I think I did it because sometimes it was the only way to get Dad's attention. I'd ask for something, it'd get reported stolen, the police would come after me, and then Dad would have to take a break from autograph signings to ream me out. Bonus points if this got me kicked out of whatever high-class private school I was enrolled in.
So suddenly hearing myself be compared to a supervillain felt rather apt.
"Any idea where this power came from?"
"Nope. Can we stop talking about this?" I asked.
"Sure..."
Me and Thundercracker explored the backstage of the studio until we finally found where all the important people were. Dad was talking to one of his fellow cast members.
When he saw me, he paused right in the middle of his conversation.
"Um, excuse me, Chris. I need to take a moment," he asked.
"Yeah, sure," his fellow actor said with an accent.
After he resolved that, he walked over to us. He looked irritated.
"Piper, what are you doing here? How did you get here? And who's this?" he asked, pointing at Thundercracker's avatar.
"It's me, Tristan."
He stared at the hologram. "How-"
"Holomatter avatar. I'll explain later."
"Thundercracker was flying me around, and he suggested we pay you a visit," I explained.
Dad took on his stern voice. "Piper I told you, I don't want you involved in-"
"Dad. I'm here." I said, "Can we just make the most of it?"
He was silent for a bit.
The silence was broken by a "Hey!"
We turned around. It was the guard from earlier, and he was glaring at us. Looks like whatever I did to him wore off.
"I don't know how you snuck by me, but I-"
"It's okay." My dad interjected, "She's my daughter. She has my permission to be here.".
"And him?" The guard asked, glaring at Thundercracker's avatar.
"I, um, I'm a screenplay writer," Thundercracker said hurriedly.
"Yeah, and he's a friend of my dad's. I wasn't lying about that." I said.
The guard looked really confused.
"It's okay, Jerry," Dad said.
The guard sighed. "Eh, what the heck? But if they cause trouble, it's on you, Mr. McLean."
He left, leaving us alone.
I turned to my dad. "So... do they have any vegan snacks here?" I asked.
Fortunately, they did. Thundercracker and Dad found us a table to sit at, while I helped myself to the snack bar. I came back to the table with a massive plate of snacks, perfect for any vegetarian such as myself.
Thundercracker stared at all the food I brought and laughed a bit. "I thought you didn't need any of that fancy, high-class stuff.".
"Hey!" I yelled, "Sometimes, beggars can't be choosers." I took a bite out of one of those fancy snacks.
"Oh yeah, yeah." Thundercracker smirked, "Keep telling yourself that hypocrite."
"What!?"
Dad laughed. "I don't mean to hurry you two, but I've got about ten minutes before I have to go to the next interview."
"Oh right." I said, "Maybe we could play three questions then?"
"What's three questions?" Thundercracker asked.
"It's this quick bonding thing me and Piper do whenever we only have a short time together," Dad explained.
"Basically, we can ask any three questions to each other." I continued, "Nothing is off limits, and we have to be honest.".
Thundercracker's avatar squirmed a little. "I don't know," he muttered. "It sounds like something between you two."
"Hey, it's fine. Don't worry about it." Dad assured him
"Since you're the guest of honor, why don't you start?" I suggested.
"Um, okay," he said. "Piper, what's your favorite role your dad has played?"
I winced "Honestly, I don't really have one. I don't watch most of my dad's films."
"You don't!?" Dad asked in mock offense.
"Well, it's just hard to see you as anything other than my dad." I explained, "Everyone else sees Tristan McLean, a Hollywood superstar! I just see my dad wearing a silly outfit."
Thundercracker's avatar brought his hand to his chin and said, "Hmmm, she's got a point, Tristan. You do wear a lot of silly outfits."
"My outfits aren't silly." Dad insisted, but he still giggled a bit. I giggled a bit too.
When it came to my turn, I had a question for Thundercracker: "What's your home planet like?"
Thundercracker's avatar looked down. "Cybertron is- was beautiful. We don't have dirt and soil like on Earth," he explained. "It's fully metal and mechanical. Even water is much more scarce compared to Earth."
"That sounds boring," I noted.
"To you maybe, but there's all kinds of sights to see there," he continued. "One of my favorite places to visit is what we call the Sea of Rust."
Both me and my dad gave confused looks. "You just said water was scarce," I said
"Yeah, and how is a sea of rust even possible?" Dad asked
"No, it's not like the seas on Earth." Thundercracker said, "It's more like this vast network of canyons with duststorms of rust. It can be a very hazardous place, but on a calm day, it's beautiful to fly over."
He sounded wistful when he said that.
"It's also one of the only places that's untouched after the Allspark was removed from the planet." Thundercracker's avatar had a pained expression on his face.
I took his avatar's hand. "Hey. It was the right call." I said
"...What was?"
"Sacrificing the Allspark." I told him, "You sacrificed a way to save your planet to stop the Decepticons from conquering ours. That means a lot."
Thundercracker gave me a funny look.
"Yes," Dad agreed. "Thank you for all you've done for our planet."
Thundercracker was silent for about a minute, until he finally said, "You're Welcome."
But his avatar had a weird look on his face when he said it.
Thanks for reading. And don't forget to leave a review.