CHAPTER 6: A NEW ADDITION
WINDSWEPT P.O.V
A week ago, everything had been status quo. Patrols, scouts when necessary, keeping a low profile… just taking refuge here and living in secret.
Then the Decepticons came back and took away Cliffjumper.
When I looked back on it throughout the last few solar cycles, his passing was the catalyst for where we were today. Our new human friends, the return and demise of Megatron, and just the whole change in our new status quo.
Despite Megatron's passing, Optimus didn't believe the Decepticons were just going to disappear into thin air like last time. We all didn't disagree with him; there was still a chance they would enact their revenge or begin a new era without their former leader… But honestly, I think he realised just how much our bonds with our new human friends had grown in the span of a few solar cycles.
It would've been hard to say goodbye
It had only been a week, and I could be over-exaggerating here, but I wasn't ready to let Carly go. We had learned so much about each other already. I now knew that she and Rafael came from a huge family; their parents, an older sister, an older brother and another sister whose age was between Carly and Raf.
I had told her much about my past too… Well, not everything. There were parts from my period at Iacon that were a struggle to talk about. I was certain I wasn't the only one though; the others also had moments from the war they chose not to discuss with each other…
One day I'll be able to tell her more of my story… when I was ready, of course.
But for now, I was quite content with the bond we had already formed. And I was excited for what the future may hold for all of us.
The door leading into Carly's house from inside this garage opened up, revealing my charge herself coming through with her helmet on her head, "Buenos dias 'Swept!"
"Good morning Carly." I was picking up on the things she would say in her native language with ease… thanks in part to my internal search engine and sometimes from her.
Another thing about my charge was that slowly, she was adjusting to the earlier start time in her day now. I could tell she was missing her late mornings, especially on school days of all things, but she seemed happy to wake up early so we could get to base.
The garage door began opening in front of me, revealing a bright view in my sight in part to the sun already being up and beaming down upon the outdoors. I would've expected Bumblebee to be parked a little further down the road properly in front of the Esquivel house, but he had left earlier with Rafael, so it was going to be just me and Carly heading to base today.
I felt her sit down onto the driver's seat of my form, making me rev up my engine. Normally, I would force her to pretend to turn my engine if we were around people like at her school, but since it was just her, it wasn't necessary.
"Ready to go?"
"All set!"
I performed a small wheelie, careful to not go too high in case Carly hit her head, and sped out of the garage, ready for whatever headed our way…
NORMAL P.O.V
Deep into the heart of space, a flying object the size of a potential meteor was floating around silently. However, this was no potential meteor, not with the small red Autobot logo appearing on the underside of it as it continued to turn slowly and silently within the stars.
Rather, it was an Autobot escape pod that had been deployed from Cybertron countless years ago
Blaster fire suddenly rained down upon the pod. The sudden rush of force from the shots spun the escape pod around. Despite the multitude of firepower, nothing was able to hit the pod and cause damage. Not until a large jet flew over the pod; but instead of causing damage, the force of the flyover instead pushed the pod forwards suddenly, heading further into space.
The jet paused to watch the pod suddenly speed, rocketing further and further away. The jet was too large to be a regular human fighter jet, and its unique design confirmed that it was indeed a Cybertronian form. Its' form was black, with hot pink flames licking at the cockpit from its wings. Underneath the wings sat two small blasters smoking away, confirming that they were the culprit of the firepower.
A deep, feminine chuckle escaped the Cybertronian fighter as it watched the pod set course for a majorly blue planet in the far distance.
Without hesitance, she set off after the pod, the smoke of her afterburners revealing the shape of a Decepticon logo…
WINDSWEPT P.O.V
"Sooooo… what are we doing today?"
"I don't know Carly, what should we do today?"
Apart from a patrol later on this evening for me, and unless something came up on the tracking monitors back at base, my schedule was pretty clear. It was the same with everyone too now that we were starting to get an understanding of when the humans were free to come to hang out with us during the day. In fact, we were trying to allocate a specific day of the week where we could all hang out together.
Of course, we would be available if something came up, but we were all interested in taking 'a day off' now and then, especially after the week that had just been.
Carly giggled at my response, "I don't know Windswept, that's why I'm asking you." Her tone was in a teasing manner.
It was nice to see her like this when her life wasn't being threatened. I liked this playful version of my human friend.
"Well, I could probably use some target practice. Maybe we could do a training session together? In case the 'Cons strike again and we need to adapt to a plan."
I hated putting a damper on our day, but we needed to be prepared for anything at this point. The 'Cons could come back any time now.
"Sounds good to me!" Carly agreed, "Then I'll be able to take on Rebecca without a sweat!"
Rebecca? …As in, Rebecca Rose?
That human we failed to save stellar cycles ago?
"Rebecca?" I asked with concern.
"Yeah? You know? Rebecca Rose?" Carly's tone suggested I was meant to know who Rebecca was. Which I did… kind of… "Optimus didn't tell us the 'Cons have a human friend too by the way."
"That's because we thought she was offline."
Something was clicking in my audios like someone was trying to get me to answer the communication link. It was probably just Ratchet asking me when I was going to be back at base. He could wait.
"You thought she was dead? How come?"
I sighed… Where would I even begin?
"Many stellar cycles ago-"
"You mean years, right?"
"Right…" It's been so long since I even thought about the chance of Rebecca Rose being alive. It was catching me off-guard trying to piece together what I had to say.
"'Swept?"
"I'm fine," I reassured Carly, "It's been a while… When did you see her?"
"At the Texas array when we were stopping the 'Cons from locking the dishes onto Cybertron."
A week ago? That long ago?
What was she doing there?
"Why didn't you guys bring it up with us sooner?"
"Well, there was a lot going on with trying to deactivate the Spacebridge, Arcee nearly dying… We didn't want to say anything until there was a good time to talk about it."
If the humans had seen her, then maybe Arcee and the others had seen her too… But why did nobody bring it up? This was a huge development after all. For the last six stellar cycles, we thought she was dead...
"Ratchet to Windswept, answer your comlink, you-"
"Answering!" He sounded irritated…
"Where are you?! I'm sending a Groudbridge. The tracing system has located an aerial object entering Earth's airspace. You're needed on the field."
Aerial object entering the airspace?
…Well, there were a lot of things happening at once. We may as well add to it while we're at it.
"I'm not too far away from base Ratchet. I'll be there soon."
I really wasn't that far away to be fair. It would be unnecessary to use up our Energon supplies when I was only kliks away from base.
Ratchet sounded like he was grumbling, "Well hurry up. Optimus isn't leaving until you get here." I heard the deactivation sound of the comlink after that.
"It's nice that Optimus won't leave without you." I could tell Carly was trying to lighten the mood from Ratchet's grouchy attitude.
To think he had initially warned her and other humans about the consequences of getting under the foot, and now a week later, they were giving him sass back when he threw it at them.
I liked these humans a lot because of that.
"Hopefully what's entering your atmosphere isn't too serious." I switched gears. "Hold on tight!"
NORMAL P.O.V
"Well, what do you expect us to do with it?"
The Autobot weren't the only ones to have the signal of the unidentified object entering Earth's airspace.
Soundwave tracked the moving signal on his screen, the screen flashing every time it moved a certain distance further toward the planet. He zoomed in closer on the signal, where more information appeared regarding the object.
"An escape pod from our once thriving world," Slipstream noted.
When Soundwave was unable to go in closer to identify what faction the pod was on, the Seeker took it upon herself to do so, zooming her eyes in and immediately finding a blurry red symbol on the underside. She zoomed her eyes back to normal with a chuckle, "An Autobot escape pod."
"Another Autobot that we can torment?" Rebecca asked eagerly, floating into view nearby Soundwave.
"Is that all you can think about?" Slipstream growled in disgrace, "On the first instance that a new Autobot or human-" Her eyes narrowed at her twin, who retorted with a nervous chuckle. "-Are in the vicinity, all you want to do is throw them into our torture chamber?"
Starscream and Rebecca exchanged a look that appeared innocent, followed by a shrug in response to Slipstream.
"Is that such a big deal?" The Seeker questioned in a nervous tone.
"Are you seriously judging us about our habits when we both know you've tormented Autobots in your time?" Starscream's nervous aura disappeared as a smug smirk appeared on his face from Rebecca's knowing question.
Slipstream couldn't argue back; because when she wasn't standing at Megatron's side during the War for Cybertron, she was torturing innocent Autobots and Neutrals for information.
Not all of them had made it out alive.
"Having a flashback, Slipstream?" Said Decepticon flashed an irritated glare at the smug superhuman.
The monitor nearby the group began beeping, interrupting the not-so-playful banter between the trio. Rebecca floated down to the screen, where a scan had identified a Decepticon signal also in hot pursuit of the Autobot pod.
"A Decepticon giving chase to a 'Bot." She turned back to the twin Seekers. "Sounds familiar."
"Soundwave, see to it that you can make contact with Decepticon signal," Starscream immediately requested, "We must remain one step ahead of the Autobots as much as possible."
"Would need to be a huge one to account for the loss of our leader." Neither Seeker missed the opportunity to cast an annoyed glare at the mouthy teenager.
Soundwave meanwhile, followed through with Starscream's request. His face soon revealed a radio transmission, revealing he had been able to identify the Decepticon signature enough to pick up on their communication signature link. All that was needed now was to make contact from their end.
"Decepticon Warship to unknown Decepticon life signal, introduce yourself," Starscream requested.
"It's been nearly a vorn since I've heard that screamy voice."
Slipstream's eyes widened in anger as recognition of the voice spread across her face. "You."
WINDSWEPT P.O.V
The Groudbridge portal swirled open, revealing a cluttered forest.
Ratchet believed the flying object entering Earth wasn't exactly a meteor, but he was unsure of what it could be. He wasn't exactly ruling out the object turning out to be something of Cybertronian origin, and if it turned from Cybertron, we didn't know if it would be friendly or hostile. Regardless, we couldn't have a Cybertronian roaming around Earth; either we took them in, or destroyed them on sight.
Whichever way was the most appropriate action for the situation, of course…
I heard more of my team coming through the portal behind me. Optimus had assigned Bumblebee and me to join him for the moment since we weren't busy. With Arcee and Bulkhead busy running training simulations, which were hard to stop once they had started, it was best to leave them as our backup.
It was probably a good idea to leave Bulkhead at base anyway. Miko seemed to follow him just about everywhere. It wasn't his fault of course that she was that way, it was just easier that she was distracted by him back home than the other way around out on the field.
Carly had assured me she had no intentions of doing what Miko did any time soon… unless it was for good reason, such as bringing her friend out of trouble or back to base, whichever option was available.
"Optimus, it appears the flying object has already entered Earth's atmosphere," Ratchet paged just as we were crossing a small stream of water.
Already?
"It could arrive any moment, then?" Bumblebee bleeped to ask.
He and Optimus were already on the other side of the stream of water. He reached out a servo towards me to help across. The stream was uncomfortably wide for my small stature; basically, I couldn't stretch my legs far enough to make it without losing my balance.
I was probably due for a motorcycle wash, but I would much rather have soapy bubbles than dirty water thank you very much.
"Indeed Bumblebee," Optimus nodded, "We must remain alert and be ready for its landing."
I gripped onto 'Bee's servo with both of my own and allowed him to swing me over the stream.
Suddenly, there was a whooshing sound from high above us. I looked up to the branches from the trees. Many of the leaves obscured my view, but what I was able to see were the orange flames following the huge flying object storm by.
I looked back down to Optimus "Was that…?"
"Ratchet?" Optimus called over the open communication channel.
"Brace for impact in five kliks."
We began sprinting through the forest as fast as we could. There were many trees in the way, branches sticking out in odd places, and the terrain was up and down.
Human nature was weird.
…But if humans ever saw our planet, they would probably think the same as me. So who was I to judge?
Regardless, trying to get through this forest was becoming a struggle. It felt never-ending, but this was the rough prediction Ratchet could 'Bridge us out too. The flying object was likely going to land somewhere within the vicinity…hopefully…
And if the possibility of the flying object being Cybertronian, then there was no doubt the 'Cons were likely keeping an optic on it too. We needed to get there before them.
We climbed over one more hill…
The ground suddenly shook below our pedes…
…A loud crashing sound followed…
I heard Optimus activate his mouthguard, "It appears the object has landed."
"I predict you will uncover the object within the next thirty kliks, Optimus."
The ground below us looked slightly less up and down, and the trees were becoming less and less in view.
"Bumblebee, Windswept, roll out."
I wasted no time in following Optimus' order, and neither did himself or Bumblebee. Immediately, we transformed to take advantage of the more stable terrain in front of us.
Time was of the essence.
NORMAL P.O.V
Deeper into the forest, the Cybetronian pod had indeed landed. It had crashed through the trees and down into the ground, the terrain being unable to withstand the force of the pods' landing.
A lone black bird swooped down with a squawk of curiosity, landing on the top of the pod. It soon found it hard to get a proper grip on the pod with his clawed feet, and instead dived to the ground to inspect the damage.
A loud bang from inside of the pod frightened the bird, scaring it off into the trees with another squawk. It flew up to one of the trees that had been damaged and landed on a bent branch, watching with interest as something poked out from the pod.
It disappeared before reappearing again, this time being used as a saw downwards. The blade slowly cut through the metal pod in a jagged line at the bottom before being pulled upwards, also cutting through the pods' walls. It did the same thing at the top, where the last cut line met the top of the initial line.
The blade disappeared, and for the time being, there was an eerie silence.
There was suddenly a loud bang inside the pod, and another before the metal that had been sawed into came crashing down like a door being broken down in a house.
As the smoke cleared, a figure appeared from the inside, sticking out their head and taking in their surroundings. With no one in close proximity based on sight, the Cybertronian gingerly stepped out of the pod.
The slight kibble on their chassis as well as their short stature proved they identified as a female Cybertronian. Her armour was blushed pink with an endless white swirl wrapped around the right side of her torso. A large black Autobot symbol adorned the other. She had small, mainly pink-with-a-touch-of-white winglets on her back, not as long as the usual female Autobots, but was most likely the cause of taking on a Cybertronian vehicle form during the war. At the ends of them were halves of a wheel that could combine to make a full one.
Her mouth was covered by a white face shield, only showing on her face her sky blue eyes. There were also small rose studs on the lobes of her audio receptors, the colour the same white as the swirls and face shield. To complete her look, at her waist where her white intricate swirl was were a set of three Kunai knives. The blade and handle were the same blush pink as her frame, with the small loophole at the end of the handle and the center of the blade being white.
The female Cybertronian removed her mouth guard in the wonder of her surroundings before turning to the pod. Her face turned from wonder to horror at the damage her landing had done.
"Oh my," Her soft voice gasped.
She looked around her surroundings once more, attempting to figure out what was her next move.
In a different, darker area within the same forest, the black and hot pink Cybertronian was hovering downward slowly to land. They had been unsuccessful in finding the Cybertronian pod had gained traction within Earth's atmosphere, having watched it disappear into view before their very own eyes.
"Scrap it," A low feminine voice growled.
The aerial vehicle transformed into a Cybertronian, with kibble on their chassis proving they were female. Her armour colour was black, with hot pink flames starting below their chassis and spreading upward to her wings. On the right side of her waist was a large Decepticon insignia the colour of her flames.
She too wore a black face guard, leaving her blood-red eyes visible. And on her left side of her body at her hip were a set of three Kunai knives. Their handles and blade were the same pink as the flames on her wings, with the center of the blade and the loopholes holding the weapons at her hip being black.
The Decepticon checked her wrist, flipping it over to show the palm facing upwards, but also to show a tracker. There was no beeping on the tracker, nothing showing where the pod she had been following had ended up. She could only assume that the locator beacon had been destroyed in the eventual impact.
She kicked a nearby rock with a frustrated sigh.
A sudden, neverending gush of wind forced her to look up to the sky, now being bathed in even more darkness than before. Trees and plants alike blew with the ferocious wind, making way for a sight the Cybertronian welcomed.
The Nemesis.
Starscream and Slipstream had come through on their promise.
She transformed back into her Cybertronian jet form and began flying upwards, her afterburners sending her closer to the Warship.
WINDSWEPT P.O.V
It felt like we had driven for miles and miles, and yet we weren't any closer to the aerial object that had landed not too long ago.
Ratchet had suspected its tracking beacon may have been damaged upon impact to Earth, and had suggested to just continue in the same direction we had been heading in.
…Could the 'Cons be up to this? Would they go all this way to fake a locator beacon and lead us straight into a trap..?
…I mean, it could be possible. Starscream or Slipstream had likely taken over leadership from the 'Cons now. They wouldn't have wanted to waste any time stamping their authority…
"Bumblebee, Windswept."
I removed myself out of my thoughts at my name. The forest had cleared slightly from the trees… because a lot of them were damaged and or destroyed… and just up ahead was a light plume of smoke.
…Like something had landed.
Optimus transformed in front of me and activated his weapons. Bumblebee and I followed suit. We had to be ready in case whoever or whatever was in this pod was unfriendly. I took towards the left side of Optimus, and Bumblebee went to the right to space out and prepare.
There was a large, pod-like meteor embedded in the ground in front of us…
…Pod-like…
A Cybertronian escape pod.
I remembered when I first entered one of those things to depart Cybertron. Our home had been beyond saving, and Optimus had sent out the decree to flee while we could. Alpha Trion had made sure many of us who had been at Iacon for so long fled in pods. No one knew why... but it could've been something to do with what we knew. There was a lot of intelligence that we all collectively held that the Decepticons couldn't know about.
A few had wanted to stay back. One of them was me. But I wasn't able to help defend my home because a rogue bomb had gone off and sent me into the pod. I was in stasis for so long until I landed on Earth.
But escape pods weren't just for Autobot escapees. They could be for the 'Cons too.
Hence why we were so cautious…
I stepped closer and closer to my side of the pod. It looked like someone had kicked out one of the walls from the inside. Whoever had been in the pod was either no longer in it, or waiting for us to take the bait.
"Be alert." Optimus must've seen the same as me.
"'Swept!" I looked over at 'Bee jumping into the ditch.
I glanced briefly at Optimus, who nodded at me to go with 'Bee.
I leapt in and raised my blaster weapon in preparation for a surprise attack. It could've been possible that there was more than one occupant in the pod, and they were planning a sneak attack on us…
Scrap that, anything was possible right now.
Bumblebee and I circled the pod from back to front in hopes we would meet at the hole in the pod. Nothing was around the pod that made me think something suspicious was going on. As expected, I met with Bumblebee, and as he kept guard, I looked cautiously in the pod.
There was nothing inside.
I left the pod and turned to Bumblebee, "Empty."
"Be careful Optimus!"
Suddenly, there was a noise to the left of Optimus. Watching him react furiously with his blaster weapons made me do the same. Bumblebee and I slowly moved to crawl back up with him to regroup.
'Bee went to join Optimus first, but suddenly backed down and took me with him. Something whooshed over our helms and onto the ground behind us. I looked back to see what it was.
A knife?
I quietly crawled over to the weapon.
The blade was pink and white…
…Wait…
Someone used to have these at Iacon… This is a person on our side!
"Optimus, they're an Autobot! I know who this is!" I yelled through the comlink.
I heard him deactivate his weapons, "We mean no harm."
I immediately climbed back up and out of the ditch. The face opposite us looked right back at me.
"Windswept?" She sounded so terrified, and that was despite her voice being muffled slightly by her mouth guard.
"It's okay, Starlight," I gently calmed, "We truly mean no harm."
Starlight was a refugee at Iacon mere solar cycles after I arrived. She had been a Decepticon prisoner and had been experimented on. Trust was a hard thing to come by in this war, so it hadn't been surprising for her to take some time to trust us. In the end, she had become a very good friend to me and the rest of those who stayed at Iacon.
I held out the weapon she had thrown at us - obviously, it hadn't been on purpose; rather a reaction to who she wasn't sure was friendly or foe. My servo was wrapped around the blade of the knife as I didn't want her to think I was threatening any harm to her.
Starlight removed her mouth shield and began taking small steps toward me. Her servo reached out for my one covering her weapon when she got close to me.
She was still slightly shorter than me. Nothing had changed, thank Primus.
I felt her servo squeeze mine, "I can't believe you're here."
"Neither can I," I whispered.
I wrapped her into a hug almost instantly. I hadn't seen any one of my Iacon friends - apart from Ratchet, which was different because technically he had just been my medic - for so long. I was so thankful to find someone from home.
"Windswept." I removed myself from our hug to face Optimus. "Perhaps you would like to introduce us to your friend."
"Designation: Starlight, sir." My friend had wasted no time heeding Optimus' words. After all, we had been with Alpha Trion for so long on Iacon that there were things about Optimus he told us.
All good things of course.
"At ease, soldier." Starlight relaxed her posture at his soft command. "Welcome to Earth. I am Optimus Prime. This is Bumblebee."
Bumblebee popped out from behind Optimus with a whirr of excitement, "We haven't had anyone new here in a while! It's nice to meet you!"
Starlight smiled softly at him, "It's nice to meet you too, Bumblebee."
"And it appears you have already met Windswept."
Star beamed at me, "Let's just say we go way back."
I mirrored her smile, "As in, way back at Iacon." I glanced at Optimus, who nodded.
With Alpha Trion being at Iacon for so long and being someone who was very important in Optimus' life, he knew that anyone from the hall could be trusted.
"Ratchet, open the Groundbridge."
Starlight turned to me in confusion, "What's a Groundbridge?"
The portal leading to our base opened up in the direction she was looking in. I watched her mouth open in surprise.
"It's Ratchet's invention!" Bumblebee buzzed behind her, "He created it to help transport us to different places when we need to go somewhere!"
"Ratchet's here?"
I nodded at Star's innocent question. She had been intrigued with medical studies when she was at Iacon, and even looked up to Ratchet. Though she hadn't been trained by him, she still held a vast knowledge of medical capabilities.
Which was perfect for us, just in case anything happened to Ratchet.
…Which should hopefully never happen, of course.
Optimus and Bumblebee walked into the Groundbridge first, with me and Starlight in tow. It was time to show her around base.
"Is that a new Autobot? Cool!"
…It hadn't even been ten nanokliks?
"Miko…"
"Hiya! I'm Miko!" The girl introduced, completely ignoring the warning tone in Bulkhead's voice, "Who are you? Are those blades your weapons? That's so cool! Oh, and you look really pretty!"
"Uh-uhm, thank… you?" Starlight gave me a look of confusion as if she was unsure of what she was supposed to say to Miko's questioning.
"Did you just call someone pretty?" Carly appeared beside her friend with a bizarre expression.
"What? She is!"
"And this is coming from the girl who hates soft words," Jack smirked smugly nearby.
"It's just not my style!"
I'd rather have a Miko questioning every little detail of everything than have a Miko we'd be stressed about leaving the base to fulfill her excitement quota.
Starlight gripped my wrist, "Help me. What are they?"
I chuckled at her, "They're humans, Star. The main inhabitants of this planet." I turned back to our new friends. "Carly, Jack, Miko, Rafael, this is Starlight."
The humans gave a mixture of waves and smiles as greetings in response.
I saw Bulkhead and Arcee in the corner of my optic, so I turned myself and Star toward them, "And these are the other members of the team; Bulkhead and Arcee."
"A little coincidental you're from Iacon."
Arcee was the only one of us who remained neutral in her response to Starlight's arrival. It was what she had done with most of us when she and Cliffjumper had arrived on Earth. It took a while, but she eventually came around to us, so I expected the same for Starlight.
"You missed one." We turned over to Ratchet standing there as if he was offended I missed him out.
I placed a servo on my hip armour, "I hadn't finished, smartaft."
"Good. I was concerned you forgot who has the most important job of patching you up whenever you find yourself in trouble." I couldn't stop myself from glancing down at where my injury had been from those 'ZombieCons' Miko had dubbed them. It was nearly a non-existent scar now.
"I would never forget you, Ratchet, " Starlight sent a warm smile our medic's way.
Ratchet reciprocated it. I knew he had favourites…
"It must've been quite the journey for you Starlight."
Star nodded at him, "I don't remember a lot about it. Alpha Trion wanted us to leave in pods immediately. I... do remember thinking about how much sense it didn't make." She looked at me. "We all wanted to stay and help defend Cybertron."
I looked away from her. We fought hard to stay behind. Some of us likely managed to stay and defend the hall, but the majority of us got shipped off-world.
"There was a wave of Decepticons... I got knocked into stasis before I could properly fight against them. I woke up in that pod ages ago when it was still traveling, and I must've been knocked out cold again because I don't remember a lot after that. I only remember the landing and finding you guys." Starlight looked between me, Bumblebee and Optimus.
"Tough ride then, huh?" I gave Arcee a look that asked her to stop, and it felt like I wasn't the only one. She soon folded her arms, obviously still disbelieving of Starlight.
"Do you know who it was that sent your pod into Earth's atmosphere?" Optimus asked.
"No. I broke out of the pod on my own. No one was outside waiting for me."
Optimus hummed, "We discovered your signal beacon was lost after your landing."
"We think it was damaged during the crash," Bumblebee added.
"It would explain if my follower did lose track of me," Starlight mused.
I wrapped an arm around her shoulderpads, "Don' worry about that; you're here with us now. That's all that matters."
"Windswept is correct." Optimus took a step towards us. "Starlight, we would be honoured to have you join our small, but mighty team."
The look on her face said it all. She would love to.
"However, on Earth, we require all Autobots to remain in covert modes while in human presence. I suggest you find yourself a vehicular form to travel in when you are not in our base."
"How come you're not in undercover forms right now?" Starlight asked curiously and quietly, pointing her helm slightly at the humans.
"It's a long story," Bulkhead replied in a tired tone.
Excitement was bubbling inside of me. That was a story we didn't have time for right now! We needed to go and get Star a vehicle form!
…Wow… Starlight really is here… one of my Iacon friends was here…alive…
I couldn't believe it.
"Mhmm, too big… not my type…"
It felt like we had been out here for joors. Nothing that appeared on the highway suited Starlight - motorcycles were very few and far between, and the ones that did come by were given different responses.
'Doesn't suit me.', 'A little bulky.', and of course, a classic; 'I don't like that one'.
…But with her height being shorter than Arcee and I's, she was going to need a motorcycle form.
…It felt like it was going to be a long afternoon.
That was Starlight though, in a sense. She had always been a little picky when it was for important things such as this. She wanted things to be durable, but look good at the same time.
Quite coincidental considering she had a sweet and selfless personality.
"How hard was it to adapt from Cybertron to Earth?"
Hard… very hard…
I sighed at her question, "Where do you want me to start?"
"That bad?"
Bad would be an incorrect term. "It was… a struggle. Having to be incognito nearly ninety per cent of the time when we were out and about was hard. Trusting vehicles too."
I still had an odd moment where I would question whether a human vehicle was just a human vehicle, or whether it was a Cybertronian in disguise, and my senses regarding that had only heightened after those Decepticon drones had nearly caught Jack and Rafael.
"Why is it hard to trust vehicles?"
I shrugged, "The 'Cons."
"The Decepticons are here too?"
"Not on Earth, but yeah." That reminded me about last week. "Oh, I forgot to mention; Megatron is no more."
It still felt relieving to say, let alone even think, about that fact.
Starlight looked at me in shock, "He's what?"
I nodded with a hum, "He tried bringing an army of undead Cybertronians using Dark Energon onto this planet. His greed for them cost him his life."
"Dark Energon? The myth?" The ever-curious Starlight questioned.
"Yup. Though as far as we know, Megatron had used up all of it to even awaken his army." It was still a mystery as to how he managed to find it to begin with.
"Who leads the Decepticons now?"
No one at the base really knew for sure, but there were only two Decepticons that came to mind that could, "I'll give you a hint; twin seekers."
"Starscream and Slipstream." I hummed in confirmation. "She's still alive, then."
"Unfortunately," I sneered, but it wasn't directed at Starlight.
She suddenly jumped up beside me and began scanning something coming by. I looked back at the highway where a black motorcycle was speeding down the road. It wasn't the same style Arcee or I had, but it was slightly similar.
It would be perfect for Star.
She transformed into her vehicle of choice and performed a wheelie of what I presumed was excitement.
"You look good Star!" I scanned the vehicle through my internal database.
A Suzuki GSXR 2006. Not a bad choice…
But not as good as my Honda CBR600RR 2007… though I was biased.
"So,that's it? All I needed was a vehicle form and I'm good to go?"
"Not quite," I began as I transformed into my own motorcycle form, "There's still patrol and scouting schedules Optimus will need to assign you on to, but I'll leave that with him."
"Okay." Starlight turned her motorcycle self toward the highway again, "I guess this is home for a while, then." She sounded sad saying that, which was fair.
There was only one place we could agree on to be our home… which happened to be in an inhabitable world…
"Hey." I pulled up beside her. "It's okay. It wasn't easy for us to call this planet home for now either, but you'll see why eventually."
Starlight remained silent, which was a common trait of hers. It wasn't that she preferred to process things with her own thoughts; she was just that kind of person. I remembered back on Cybertron sometimes it was nice to spend time apart from the others but with each other, simply because the rest of Iacon and the world outside of it was noisy and unforgiving.
It was nice just to forget about the war just outside the Hall of Records.
"'Swept?" I pointed my front tire at my friend to show I was all audios to her. "Y-You're confident it's just Slipstream and Starscream, right?"
"I can't one hundred per cent confirm, only as far as we know..." I began to answer her warily because honestly, it was obvious that she wasn't just asking about them for no reason. "You're wondering about Moonlight, aren't you?"
Her sigh proved me correct.
Starlight and Moonlight were not only sisters, but a combination of force that would never be able to be reckoned with because of their own personal choices that led them on seperate sides of our war.
The Light Sisters were brought up by their adoptive creators as neutrals. Moonlight was many stellar cycles older than Starlight, but both of them were taught the art form of Metallikato, a bladed combat form. Of course, everyone knew the basics of blade-to-blade combat, but their family were specialised in it as well as just general Cyber-Ninja techniques.
They technically weren't Cyber-Ninja's as they weren't probably trained or overseen by a Dojo Master, but they were close to it.
Their creators were killed in a gruesome attack from an unknown faction, and both sisters argued over which side they felt safe on. Moonlight chose the Decepticons and had taken an unwilling Starlight with her. She had been enduring torture when one of the teams on our side plotted a rescue of Autobot prisoners including her. She was rehabilitated at the Iacon hospital and ended up staying with us.
What was once a strong bond between two sisters was destroyed in mere nano-kliks by a decision Moonlight made. There was no doubt Starlight would never forgive her…
"It feels like forever since I last saw her."
I bet I knew she didn't forget one of their last encounters. It had been during another incident with the Decepticons trying to break into Iacon, and Moonlight, who had been missing in action since Starlight came to us, had been one of the 'Cons coming to visit.
It was hard to split them up once they got optic sight of each other. The Light Sisters were known for was their agility and stamina. They were lithe, small and fast. They were able to perform moves Bots like Bulkhead and probably Bumblebee could only dream of.
No offense to either of them.
There was no way either of them could outduel the other. Moonlight may've had the upper servo with her height advantage and stellar cycles of training, but Starlight liked to use her small frame to her advantage to perform quick and stealthy sneak attacks to throw her off.
"Do you think she'll end up here?" Starlight questioned curiously.
It was inenvitable sometimes that familar faces would find their ways here. It was just how the world worked. I know if I had it my way, I would never set optics on Slipstream again, or any of the Decepitcons.
Moonlight had a really good habit of being able to find what she seeked depending on what it she was looking for. She had always been bent on finding Star once she was freed from the Decepticons.
"Do you believe she will?"
"Maybe. Her first instinct would've been searching for Megatron first."
Moonlight was known for having some kind of obsession with Megatron. It was idolisation, but not in the way it felt like it should be... It was hard to tell if she fully supported the Decepticon cause, or just Megatron himself.
I saw the sun beginning to set in front of us. The end of the day was near.
"Let's get back to base. Ratchet will probably want to check you over as precaution."
Starlight giggled, "Is he going to be happy to have another Autobot that knows more than just basic medical skills around?"
"Oh very." Without a doubt he would be. He's probably bouncing off the walls at base that he won't have to tend to me and my bad habit of getting into trouble often.
Starlight and I switched on the ignition of our vehicle forms at the same time, and pulled away from the rock cliff to head back towards base.
Times where a small break of peace and quiet were valued. They didn't come very often. So today was likely going to be enough peacefulness for one solar cycle.
We'll be right back at it with this war soon...
NORMAL P.O.V
"You may enter, Moonlight."
The sliding doors of the center operational room of the Nemesis open for the new arrival, allowing her to enter the area the rest of the main Decepticon members were in.
She remembered the Warship well, but it had been far too long since she had stepped inside of it. Her personal choice of serving Megatron from a distance hadn't been beneficial to either herself or the Decepticon cause... not until her tracker had uncovered the Cybertronian pod floating through space.
Something within her spark had sent her it. Her instincts suggested there was something within it that needed her attention. But she was going to have to wait a while until the time came for her to learn what it is. She needed to reaquiant herself with faces she didn't want to particularly see again.
Moonlight appeared before the Seekers, hands behind her back, "Lord Starscream." Her face turned into one of disgust when she glanced briefly toward Starscream's side. "And Slipstream."
"Moonlight." The Seeker's facial expression's showed she was also unhappy to see her frenemy.
Despite being on the same side, neither female could get along. It was rare for the majority of female Decepticons to get along with one another. A difference of opinion was usually the case, but for Slipstream and Moonlight, theirs was a fight for position.
Whether Megatron was dead or not, Slipstream was always going to be his right-hand soldier.
"You have arrived under the pretense of tracking a Cybertronian escape pod. Was your mission successful?"
"Unfortunately not. Tracking beacon must've become damaged after entering Earth's orbit. I had plans to go scouting for it, however, I really did need that stretch." Moonlight stretched her arms over her head dramatically. "It's been a looong while since I could freely walk in this form again."
"We shall hope you are not as rusty as you sound," Slipstream rolled her eyes.
Moonlight chuckled with unamusement, "It's nice to see you too, Slipstream." The newly arrived Decepticon switched her attention back to Starscream, missing the scowl on the other twin's face. "Wish I could explain why I was so very attracted to the pod. Perhaps my intuition hoped I'd set eyes on my youngling sister."
"Ah yes, another one of Megatron's other little projects," Starscream recalled, "Not to worry, Moonlight, we'll get our claws on Starlight one day. But in the meantime, our team grows strong. Welcome to the Decepticons."
Moonlight bowed graciously, "A pleasure to be here."
WINDSWEPT P.O.V
"So you're like a ninja, right? That's so cool! Can I see your knives?!"
"Bad idea Miko…"
"Why?! I just wanna look at them?"
"You can look at them the next time she's doing target practice," I suggested with a laugh.
"Sweet!"
Ratchet appeared beside Starlight, "Come over, let's check your vitals."
I squeezed Starlight's shoulder before she went with him in the direction of the medical bay.
It was going to be inevitable that she was going to be thinking about Moonlight often, and likely get caught up in her vendetta with her. We all had our personal ones that we kept going after. But one thing about her was that she still cared a lot about her sister. She still hoped she could be somewhat saved... even after everything she's done.
"Optimus?" I looked at Carly when she called for our leader.
"Carly?" Optimus responded back.
"We've been talking about something we saw when we were at the dish array in Texas." Jack, Miko and Rafael stood around Carly, telling us that she was referring to all of them having a conversation.
"To what are you referring to?"
"Carly mentioned a conversation she had with 'Swept this morning about Rebecca Rose." When Jack spoke her name, it felt like a tension had blanketed us. "We think we had a confrontation with her back in Texas."
"Black style with boomerangs?"
"That's her! Man, she was a feisty b-"
"Bulk, 'Bee and I agree we… might've seen her too," Arcee interrupted Miko to reveal.
What? "And none of you said anything either?" I questioned.
"We weren't sure ourselves. But there's no other human who would likely side with the 'Cons."
"Who is Rebecca?" Rafael asked.
It felt like none of us knew what to say about her because it had been so long since any of us had said anything about us… But the kids deserved to know about her.
I sighed, "Six stellar cycles ago - that's years in your terms - the 'Cons made their way onto Earth and caused immediate destruction to a small settlement. They wanted to drag us out and continue our fight with them, so we took the bait. It… came at a cost, though… We were unaware of the Decepticon's planting explosives in the area, and we accidentally triggered them into going off and destroying a small human home. No one survived… except for one small, young human."
"The 'Cons managed to grab her before we did and took off with her. Countless months were spent trying to locate her, even with Fowler's help, but we couldn't find her. We assumed she was offline." Arcee looked down. "If she was still alive when the 'Cons took her, she probably wouldn't have been once they did whatever they wanted with her."
We had been very disappointed in ourselves for letting the 'Cons get away with her capture, but more so, we were devastated at the idea she would've been killed before we could've even had the chance to save her. It explained why some of us were initially concerned with the idea of having humans with us. But we had no choice now because not only did Agent Fowler know, but because we couldn't let them go now they were in our lives.
"What was she like?" I asked.
"She was a total-"
"-Evil person." Jack interrupted Miko by covering her mouth. "She was psychotic, and even helping the 'Cons."
"Do you think she might've been processor-washed by the 'Cons?"
"You mean brain, right?" I nodded at Rafael. "It didn't look like it. She was very willing to help them."
Why would she help those that destroyed her life?
"She was kinda strong too," Carly added, "Like, superhuman strong. I've never seen that before."
"Maybe their experiments did something to make her like that," Bulkhead suggested.
Something seemed off. It just didn't make sense for her to be for the 'Cons. What did they do to her? Surely she was processor washed, or worse, suffering memory loss…
Starlight suddenly appeared beside me with a smile. Ratchet must've cleared her for duty and sent her off.
Oh well, we'll cross that bridge regarding Rebecca when we come to it. But not today; I just wanted to enjoy the time I had with Starlight before another mission came up.
It was just so good to have someone I knew from home here with me.