While I suppose tag is somewhat universal, I feel I should give credit where credit is due, and say that the game of tag in this chapter was mostly lifted from the Growing Up Decepticon series, (the chapter in the one shot series, when Sunstorm plays with his trine). I've changed it a little bit, but that story in particular was definitely a direct inspiration.
The next day as they all took off, Starscream tried to push for going back to the storage facility to get the oil that was left and explore a few more locations. The clones all stubbornly complained against it.
"I'm still recovering from how terrifying yesterday was!" whined Skywarp, his flight waffling nervously, "You want us to do that again?!"
"I'm not getting all dirty again!" protested Thundercracker, "It took hours to get my plating back to its respectable shine!"
"We deserve a break," argued Slipstream. Veering towards Thundercracker, she added teasingly, "To protect our water supply from this shower hog if nothing else."
"I won't apologize for desiring perfection," he retorted pridefully.
"Why don't we do something fun for once?" proposed Ramjet, not even attempting an illusion of flying in formation and soaring any which way he wanted, only staying in range enough for normal conversation.
"Absolutely not, so stop complaining!" scolded Starscream, "Get back in formation, we're going to go get the rest of that oil!"
"Benevolent creator," spoke up Sunstorm hesitantly for the first time in this debate, "While I am no match for your wisdom and strategy, I, with utmost respect, in my ignorance wonder if the oil could go anywhere? I know you care deeply about keeping us fueled and making sure we live in a comfortable base, and I truly appreciate it. Surely a kind and wise mech as yourself could allow us meager clones a moment of leisure flight? I assure you we will work all the harder on the next missions." A sudden excited vibration ran through him, his wing tips quivering in inspiration, "You can see how much our flying skills have improved! You would be so proud of us - we have grown so much more skilled under your informative guidance!"
"Speak for yourself, my flying was impeccable to start," muttered Thundercracker at an aside.
Starscream mulled over the veritable mini-speech moodily. If even Sunstorm, who basically never argued with him, was against him there wasn't a chance in the Pit he was convincing the rest of them. Not for the first or last time, he lamented creating such a stubborn bunch. He sighed, conceding with a grumble, "We can make it a training exercise, I guess." The clones cheered, and Starscream sighed again. He had gone soft.
The jets scattered with various calls of "not It" (or "It" in Ramjet's case), Thundercracker shouting out last as he hesitated to admit he was "not" anything. He hovered in root mode, his engine rumbling in annoyance at being the first one "It", as he watched his siblings shoot off into the distance. Seeing as they started so close to each other, the game wouldn't have been very interesting if he could immediately make chase, so he was forced to give the others a few seconds of head start. They competed within a set range of coordinates, but it was a wide range, so this was, aptly, a game of seeking as much as it was a game of chasing. As soon as he could, he transformed and revved his engine, burning his thrusters determinedly as he chased off in the direction of Sunstorm. The golden jet was a skilled flier, but wasn't the fastest, and Thundercracker wasn't looking to spend any moment longer as "It" than he needed to.
"There you are!" he shouted as he got a visual on his brother, "Prepare for defeat at the servos of the fastest and most talented Seeker warrior ever in the universe!"
Sunstorm shot to the side gracefully to try and shake him, commenting genially, "Oh! You caught up to me so quickly! How very well played." As Thundercracker gained on him, he evaded again, turning and dropping in altitude to curl downwards, saying, "I do so apologize, but I fear I will have to be evading your most competent servos."
Rather than try to turn around to intercept him, the blue jet shot up into a wide arching loop, flipping around into a dive towards his complementing brother's trajectory. Now right above him, flying parallel, Thundercracker transformed, skimming right above Sunstorm to rap his knuckles smugly against the other Seeker's cockpit glass.
"You're 'It'," he gloated with a smirk, before transforming back to jet mode, and flying away with a showy spin.
"An honor, truly," said Sunstorm as he converted to bot mode to hover in place, not overly upset at being the first one caught. He was just excited to be playing the game at all. It felt like it had been ages since they all had last took part in this little competition. He hummed a tune he had heard on the Earth television absently while he paused a moment as the rules decreed, giving Thundercracker time to make tracks. Since tag backs were allowed, it was only fair to give the ex-'It' bot time to get away before renewing the chase. Once he was allowed to move again, Sunstorm transformed and flew off confidently, barely consulting his radar to find who to go after. He knew his liar brother's strategies very well, so knew exactly where to go as he soared.
"Hello, dear brother!" he called as he came upon the white jet, "It's a lovely day for flying, don't you think?" he continued conversationally as he picked up speed to begin the chase after Ramjet. The other Seeker dodged and Sunstorm swerved to follow as he continued to talk, "And our astounding brother Thundercracker saw fit to bestow my humble self the title of 'It'. It was really too kind of him, I know I surely don't deserve such a privilege, I simply must give it to someone far more worthy!" So saying, he anticipated the black and white Seeker's drop to the right and smoothly intercepted him, transforming to tap a hand on the side of the jet's fuselage.
"A remarkable effort!" he praised with a wide gesture, lingering where he was rather than flying off immediately as Ramjet sullenly transformed and crossed his arms in a pout.
"How'd you know I was gonna go that way?" he complained, and Sunstorm gave him a rueful smile as his optics darted away.
"Well," he replied in a forced chipper tone that usually meant he was worrying about something again, "You do tend to favor the right. An excellent choice, it really is a most noble direction to prefer!"
"Oh," realized Ramjet glumly, muttering irritatedly, "My amazing and useful crooked wing."
Sunstorm laid a comforting hand on his sulking brother's shoulder, reassuring, "You're still an amazing flier, and I'm certain you'll be an extremely skilled 'It'!"
At his brother's words, Ramjet brightened, and then gained a sneaky look in his optics as a smirk grew on his face. "Oh, I will be," he replied, and Sunstorm's face grew concerned. Ramjet looked pointedly at where his brother's white hand laid on his pauldron, and said, "You're not 'It'," his grin widening as Sunstorm also looked at his hand in wide-opticked surprise. With a snicker, the white jet backed away to transform and tear across the sky, leaving Sunstorm to hover once again.
"What an astonishingly clever betrayal!" he observed cheerily as he watched his brother fly off, and he had to wait again for the 'It' movement embargo to pass. Once he was able to transform, he checked his radar - he doubted Ramjet would let him catch him so easily twice. There were several readings scattered throughout, and he decided to lock on the one with the lowest altitude. That was probably Skywarp, and he likely wouldn't anticipate being targeted by Sunstorm. He in fact felt a twinge of guilt for going after his fearful brother as he swiftly descended towards the dot, but managed to stamp it down. It was only a game, after all.
Skywarp was flying in anxious figure eights when he came into view, the black jet's flight wavering as Sunstorm entered his visual range. "Hello my fine flying sibling!" greeted Sunstorm, continuing straight towards Skywarp but still a ways off.
The black Seeker's engines sputtered nervously as he turned one side of the figure eight, but kept flying straight and away from Sunstorm rather than looping around again. "Oh, hey, Sunny," he tensely replied, suspicious but not certain of his brother's intentions as Sunstorm kept up a leisurely, unhurried pace in his direction. "What brings you-"
"Oh, slag," he cursed as his genial brother suddenly increased in speed, and Skywarp scrambled to do the same. While he boosted away from his brother's pursuit, he half noticed an unfamiliar program offering to boot, and, too worried by the chase he was in to think about it too hard, he absently dismissed it. Unfortunately, even that short moment of distraction was enough to give Sunstorm time to tag his wing.
"A wonderful performance! You were really so very close to escaping!" remarked Sunstorm, but, learning his lesson, didn't stick around to chat.
Skywarp stayed where he was, hanging his head with a disappointed sigh. Having to wait a moment anyway, he curiously scanned over his processor to see whatever that program had been, but didn't find anything out of the ordinary. As soon as he was back in the game, he dropped the search with a shrug and flew off after one of his siblings. He didn't want to get stuck as "It", how humiliating would that be?
And so the game went on, the mantle of "It" passing from Seeker to Seeker as they tracked each other through the sky, swerving and diving through the air, their flight paths crossing and twining as they engaged each other in wild, reckless, fast paced chases. However, Ramjet was getting a little bored. They all knew each other's flight styles pretty well at this point, so the game, to him, was starting to become stale. There had to be something to change it up a little. The 'It' plane got the perfect idea for adding some excitement to the game (and getting an easy win) as he noticed Starscream flying straight at a moderate pace just below him. The older mech had been doing little more than the odd commentary at the game going on around him, and Ramjet considered that it was unfair to have their creator sit out. Fortunately he knew exactly how to fix that. Going into a spinning dive, he swiftly transformed as he descended, reaching out towards his oblivious creator. "Tag! You're not it!" cried Ramjet while hanging off Starscream's tail, the magenta jet dragging downwards from his weight, before the white mech swiftly launched himself off to transform and jet away with a mischievous cackle.
"'It'?!" shouted Starscream, waffling to regain his equilibrium and rise back to his previous elevation, "I'm not a part of this! Ramjet!"
The other clones who had seen the move laughed, and from far ahead Thundercracker wagged his wings challengingly, goading on the group commline for all to hear, "You couldn't catch me anyway! I'm far too skilled a flier."
The older jet gave an offended boost at the remark, replying, "Oh, I couldn't, could I? Fine. I'll play. But you're gonna regret letting Decepticon Air Commander join this little game of yours."
"Former Decepticon Air Commander," Slipstream couldn't resist pointing out, sweeping by Thundercracker to cut across her creator's line of sight tauntingly.
A sudden resonating krack-boom was the only retort they received, and Thundercracker had to veer sharply to avoid Starscream as he shot by where he just was. Not missing a beat, the gray and magenta jet looped around in a smooth sweeping motion, leveling out to have the blue Seeker straight in his sights again and having barely put a dent in his speed as he did. Thundercracker scrambled to get out of the older Seeker's flight path, but no matter what maneuvers he tried to shake Starscream, the "It" plane would soon be right back on his tail. Thundercracker realized that the older jet was messing with him, and dropped in altitude briefly in a dismayed pout.
"What's the matter, Thundercracker?" taunted Starscream, seeing the younger Seeker's engines momentarily cut out, "Did your vocalizer make a bet your wings couldn't cover?"
"No!" he retorted petulantly, looping into cloud cover in hopes of disorienting his pursuer.
Starscream didn't hesitate in rising up right behind him, cackling as he did and seemingly not even slightly phased by the low visibility. Thundercracker considered it was probably a good moment for the time-honored Decepticon tactic of diversion and throwing your teammates under the bus, as he frantically checked his scanners for a family member he could hopefully goad Starscream into going after instead. Lo and behold, Skywarp was nearly exactly below him (probably assuming that staying just behind Thundercracker and his pursuer would be the safest way to stay away from Starscream - his brother may have been a coward, but no one could call him stupid). Shrieking as a grasping claw nearly grazed his wingtip, he pulled sharply away and into a steep dive, relying on the blip of Skywarp on his radar to navigate the clouds around him.
"Hey, watch it!" shouted Starscream as he moved, so he might have got the other with his thrusters just a little bit, and, yeah, maybe diving straight down near blind was a little extreme for just a game a tag, but Thundercracker would be slagged before he was humbled. He heard the sounds of transformation above him as he drew closer to his target, shooting down right in front of his clueless brother's nosecone with Starscream hot on his thrusters. Skywarp startled as he shot past, veering away and leaving him facing the opposite direction of the incoming Starscream.
"Sacrificing a teammate, are we?" quipped Starscream, amused, "Maybe you wouldn't make a half-bad Decepticon warrior afterall."
Entertained enough by the blue jet's ruthless strategy, Starscream changed targets, transforming to grab at the helpless Skywarp and bring this little game to a close. Except just as he reached, the air filled with a strange sound, a sort of popping vwop, and Starscream's hand closed around thin air. "What?!" shouted Starscream as he stopped short to hover in place, looking around him and trying to figure out what had just happened. There had not been enough time for Skywarp to dodge, the jet had seemingly just disappeared. Looking up and straining his optics as far he could, he could just see a black silhouette far above him. Thundercracker swung around, transforming to hover beside him and also look up at the misplaced jet.
"What the frag was that?" asked the blue Seeker who had seen the whole thing, voice layered with awe.
"You'll have to ask Skywarp," sidestepped Starscream, though he was already devising several theories as he stared up at the black Seeker in well concealed shock.
"I will, but not because you told me to," responded Thundercracker, continuing to hover in bot mode as he moved to call over comms. "Skywarp, do you read me?"
"Y-yeah?"
"Where did you just go? What the frag just happened?"
"Huh? I was just getting away from Starscream. I can't believe I made it! Why?"
"Warp, do you even realize where you are right now? Use your scanners."
There was a brief pause as his brother did as suggested, and then he commed back in a confused voice, "How'd you guys get all the way down there?"
"How'd you get all the way up there!?" returned Thundercracker, "I saw it, you just vanished and reappeared up there!"
Starscream entered into the conversation, inputting, "Skwarp, just get back down here."
Skywarp descended down to the group of Seekers, and, seeing the others in bot mode, transformed as well as he joined them in their hovering semi-circle. He hunched over slightly as he hovered, playing with his hands and looking between the two other Seekers uneasily.
"So, Skywarp, you wanna tell us what exactly just happened?" asked Starscream, poised with his hands on his hips in the air.
"I'm telling you, he just vanished!" shouted Thundercracker, swaying in the air as he gestured at his brother.
"Wow, I had no idea you changed your designation to Skywarp," snarked Starscream scathingly, and Thundercracker grumbled but didn't say any more. Starscream looked at the black and purple Seeker heavily, "So?"
"I-I don't know?" Skywarp replied, voice pitched nervously as he shrugged, his hands kept tight against his chassis, "I-I just knew I wanted to get away a-and then…" he threw his arms out vaguely, then brought them back in to shrug again and try to explain with words, "um, I guess I just… moved?"
"'Just moved'?! What does that even mean!" exclaimed Thundercracker. Meanwhile, Starscream thought over everything, shaking his head. Thundercracker had seen Skywarp "vanish", he himself had heard and felt the sensation of suddenly misplaced air, and Skywarp claimed he had "just moved" and had suddenly ended up high up above them in a moment. There were only so many explanations for all of that, Starscream just could hardly believe what all the facts pointed to. Really, how had neither of the clones figured it out themselves, yet? He supposed he would have to tell them. He hummed thoughtfully, explaining to the other Seekers,"Most mechs have some kind of special ability. Apparently, Skywarp," he gestured towards the nervous Seeker, "of all mechs, can teleport. A very rare and powerful ability," he stated dryly, still finding the cowardly Seeker's seeming new power hard to believe. Skywarp stared at him in open mouthed shock, and Thundercracker looked affronted.
"Teleport?!" asked TC, aghast. "There's no way Skywarp has some rare super power and I don't! I mean…Skywarp!" he exclaimed as if that was a rebuttal as he waved harshly at his brother.
"Heyyyy," said mech softly protested.
"Well, how would you explain it?" snapped Starscream. He raised a judgemental optic ridge at his creation, "Since you've met so many other mechs with special abilities," he sneered confidently.
"Yeah, well! I-! Um!" he sputtered, refusing to admit Starscream probably knew a little bit more on the subject of mechs having abilities than he did. "Well, if he has a power then I'm going to have an even better one!" he declared instead with an aggressive point at his creator.
"You can't just-that's not how it works!" But Thundercracker was already transforming and flying away, bound and determined to get a cool power of his own.
Pinching at the space between his optics, Starscream groaned in annoyance as the roaring of the clone's engine grew more distant. Skywarp was still staring at him in disbelief.
"Y-you really think I can teleport?"
"Wouldn't you know that better than me?" replied Starscream flatly. He huffed, saying with a half shrug, "It would be bizarrely powerful but there's no reason it's not possible."
"But I never did before?" the timid Seeker sort of argued, the statement turning up into more of a question.
"Yeah, well, you didn't have a designation before, either," stated the older Seeker flippantly. Skywarp's optics narrowed as he thought the remark over. "Come on, let's go make sure Thundercracker isn't doing something stupid." Half jokingly he added, "If you have teleporting powers, now would be a great time to use them."
"Ummmm," Skywarp replied, scrambling to remember what he had even done before. He hadn't even thought about it, he had just been there in one place and gone the next. While he was combing his processor, Starscream had already transformed and started flying after Thundercracker.
"Wait for me!" he called out, quickly transforming and jetting after his creator.
Meanwhile Thundercracker was flying around somewhat aimlessly, deep in thought as he tried to will a mighty power into being. If Skywarp said it had "just happened" then it could definitely "just happen" to him too! He could do anything he set his processor to. And right now he was setting it to acquiring a skill of his own. As he curved around in another direction again, Ramjet flew over to meet him. "What are you doing? Is Starscream still 'It'?" asked the white jet.
"I don't care, I'm doing something much more important!" he snapped, concentrating even harder as he aggressively turned around again.
Ramjet transformed to lean against his folded arms mid-air and watch Thundercracker chase his own trails in circles, remarking amusedly, "Of course, flying around in circles is super important." He had no idea what was going on, but if the game was over he might as well watch his pompous brother be ridiculous.
"I am acquiring a mighty power beyond your feeble comprehension!" he boasted, completing another circuit.
"Of course you are," replied Ramjet with a grin.
"If Skywarp has a power, I obviously deserve one, too," he muttered to himself as he flew, "But an even better, stronger one!" The observing Seeker raised an optic ridge at the complaining, deciding he was more out of the loop than he had originally thought, or TC had become completely delusional. "How did he do it?" the blue jet continued to mutter, "What gave him his power?" His engine sputtered as the answer came to him. "Ramjet, I know you may be terrified at the thought of engaging with someone so much more skilled than you, but I need you to attack me."
Ramjet cocked his head curiously to the side at the request, but then shrugged with a wide grin. "If you insist!" He lunged at his blue brother, and Thundercracker took off in a mad dash across the sky. Ramjet followed, and the two streaked through the air in a far more aggressive chase than that of the game of tag before. Ramjet would fly in, nearly scraping the egotistical clone's paint, darting in and out after him, and neither were compensating their speed, going well outside the range of the game and into the mountainous terrain nearby. But it wasn't enough, Thundercracker noted sullenly. Maybe he needed to feel in real danger to get his power, like the coward Skywarp no doubt felt even in a silly game of tag. With this mentality in mind, he dropped lower, navigating around the cliff sides and mountains that now poked up into his path. Ramjet followed him with a reckless laugh, seeming to enjoy the increased danger. Thundercracker mentally shook his head at the action. His brother was crazy.
"Come on, stupid power!" he complained, avoiding another peak. "Why won't you-" his complaint cut off with a shriek as he dodged one spire, only to find himself flying directly into another. He transformed, trying to backpedal mid-air to stop the inevitable crash, his energon seeming to freeze in his lines as he threw his arms out in protection. And then something happened. A deafening boom resonated through the area, and the rock shattered before him. He finally came to a halt, too shocked to be annoyed at the dust that rained down on him. Finally the shock subsided into pure glee, and he grinned sharply as he realized what he had done. "That rock was decimated! It didn't stand a chance against my god-like power!" he bragged with a victorious laugh. He spun around, observing what his power had wrought, grinning smugly to himself all the while. "You see, Ramjet? You should consider yourself honored you played a role in unlocking my true potential!" He continued to look around, and soon realized that his lying brother was nowhere to be found. "Ramjet?" he called, a bit louder.
Moments before, Ramjet had peeled off from flying behind his brother, enjoying the thrill of dodging in and out amongst the rock faces, and pretty much forgetting about pursuing Thundercracker, when he suddenly found himself fighting a powerful shockwave that sent his audials crackling and his gyros scrambling. Disoriented, he had taken a dive, rapidly falling towards a plateau, with no chance of pulling up in time to avoid it. Against all common logic, though, his instincts had suddenly screamed to punch it, and he had listened, pouring on speed to ram directly into the rock wall.
Now he emerged, dirty but otherwise unscathed, to meet his proud brother in the air. "Looks like you're the only one with a new power!" he called out as he turned to bot mode to regard his brother smugly.
"Well, yeah, Skywarp already had one," commented Thundercracker, confused. He looked Ramjet's dusty paint up and down, remarking, "What the slag happened to you? You look like you got dragged through a mountain."
Ramjet opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by the roaring approach of a magenta jet, a black one following right behind. "You two!" shouted Starscream angrily, transforming to point at his two troublesome creations accusingly, "What do you two absolute glitchheads think you are doing?!" Skywarp quietly transformed slightly behind Starscream to look over his brothers worriedly, having partially seen their mad flight through the mountains, but not willing to say anything and put himself in the path of a fuming Starscream.
"Getting an amazingly unique and powerful special ability, of course!" bragged Thundercracker. "Observe!" he exclaimed with a flourish. Focusing, he threw his arms out, and for a moment there was nothing. Then all hands flew over their audials and they sputtered in mid-air against a loud krack-boom. Thundercracker continued to grin smugly as his family waivered to regain their balance as the sonic boom subsided.
Starscream stared at his creation once he got his bearings, expression a tight, disapproving frown. Skywarp looked up tentatively from where he was now hidden behind Ramjet, his head peeking up beneath the other Seeker's wing. "Is it over?" he asked shakily. The white Seeker whipped his head back and forth between his black brother behind him, and Starscream who was hovering yards away.
"When did you get here?!" he asked, shocked.
Skywarp looked startledly between his brother's back and the scowling Starscream, expression dropping nervously as he wondered in a wavering voice, "O-oh, I teleported again, didn't I?"
"It would seem so," replied Starscream in a tense voice, still glaring at Thundercracker. Losing his angry expression to grin slyly instead he praised the blue Seeker with an edge of mockery, "A fun little party trick you got there, Thundercracker. Makes sense you'd get a power to match your loudmouth."
"'Trick'?! My sonic booms are a super awesome and devastating power!" he protested loudly. He gestured meaningfully at the shattered pillar before them, "I brought this mountain to its knees!" he proclaimed proudly.
"I could never do something like that," said Ramjet smugly, descending slightly to point at a small hill below them that had a jet-shaped hole through it.
"What!?" shouted Thundercracker, observing the hole and Ramjet's dirty armor jealously, "Now you have a power, too? This adventure was supposed to be my big moment! My dramatic revelation of power! How dare you try to steal my thunder!" He raised an annoyed fist at his grinning brother.
"There you are all!" suddenly interrupted the voice of Slipstream, who was flying over with Sunstorm in tow, breaking the burgeoning argument. "What the slag are you doing?" she asked scathingly, transforming to glare over the group of Seekers.
"Is everyone alright?" asked Sunstorm worryingly, reaching out towards his gathered family members sympathetically, ready to jump in if the answer ended up being 'no'.
"Better than alright, I'm more powerful than ever before, and that's saying something!" bragged Thundercracker. He readied his hands, saying proudly, "Witness my mighty sonic boom-!"
"NO!"
"YES!"
Protested the Seekers who had already experienced his "mighty power". He looked at the naysayers gruffly for a moment, but then grinned again. "They already fear my strength! I'll have mercy and withhold for now. I'll show you my amazing new power later," he told his orange sibling with a nod.
"I also don't have a power!" declared Ramjet before Sunstorm could get a (likely significantly long) word in edgewise, gesturing again at his outline in the mountainside below, "That wasn't me," he informed his brother and sister with a grin.
"And I can teleport, I guess," added Skywarp timidly, figuring if everyone else was saying their powers he might as well, too.
Sunstorm looked over his brothers in surprise, but he was soon smiling, "Amazing! I can think of no mechs who better deserve such special powers. You're all so impressive, I cannot believe I am honored enough to be called your brother."
Slipstream listened to the claims aloofly, her expression as flat as ever. Starscream noticed her lack of interest suspiciously, "You don't seem too surprised," he observed dryly.
She shrugged, "I've known about the power thing since the beginning of the game."
"You mean you have a power, too?" gasped Thundercracker. His optics narrowed and he leaned towards her with a clenched fist, asking, "What is it? There's no way it's stronger than mine!"
She waved a hand dismissively, "Just some cloaking powers. I don't need to overcompensate with some flashy rock smashing thing."
'Cloaking?' wondered Thundercracker, mouthing the word silently to himself. He then threw out his arm to point at his sister furiously, shrieking as he pieced it together, "You were using powers the whole time to fall off radar!" he accused harshly.
Her lips quirked into a smirk, "And none of you wondered how I was 'It' so little," she bragged, her arms akimbo.
"And you were thinking of telling any of the rest of us, when, exactly?" asked Starscream, starting to rub at his helm tiredly.
"I would have gotten to it. Eventually," she replied flippantly.
Starscream sighed, dragging a hand down his face before shooting a piercing look at Sunstorm, "So what about you? Any surprise powers you wanna mention?"
Sunstorm held his hands out, shaking his head in denial, "Oh, no! I'm sure I don't deserve anything so special. I am happily resigned to being a simple Seeker and nothing more."
"Bet you're glad you let us do this - now we're even more powerful!" claimed Thundercracker.
Starscream started to protest, but dropped his forming argument as he thought it over, stroking at his chin as he looked over his clones consideringly and reflecting on their abilities. "You know, for once, Thundercracker, you may actually be right," he conceded with a smirk.
"I'm always right!" the egoist countered offendedly.
"C-can we go home, now?" asked Skywarp, tone just shy of begging, "I just wanted a less terrifying day," he bemoaned.
"Of course we can, my lovely brother," answered Sunstorm with an authority he didn't possess, "And we can all preen and relax and you can all excitingly recount about your glorious new powers."
They did just that, Thundercracker happily boasting and recounting finding his sonic boom as he preened with Sunstorm.
"Don't you dare do that inside," ordered Starscream sternly, turning away from cleaning out Ramjet's debris-filled wings to fix Thundercracker with a harsh glare. "I think we all like having a mostly intact base."
The blue Seeker pouted disappointedly as his plan to show off his ability was shut down once again. "With your vivid account I can picture the experience nearly as if I were there," said Sunstorm reassuringly. His wings perked (making TC grumble as he was working on preening them) as he praised, "You're all so gifted! I can't imagine having such astounding skills."
Several hours after their eventful flight, Starscream was refueling in the common room, near collapsed in the closest thing to a chair they had in the room and trying to generally relax after such a long day. As per usual, of course, this didn't last long before one of his creations peeked around the corner of the hall, hesitating, before, as though being shoved, Sunstorm emerged into the common room, heading towards the older Seeker.
"Ah, my wise and wonderful creator. Ramjet and I will need to be moving to a different room," Sunstorm approached Starscream with a tense grin, while Ramjet lingered in the background.
The original Seeker raised a bored and annoyed optic ridge at the statement, replying, "Ok? Then move. There are plenty of rooms, you don't need my permission." Starscream took a sip of oil, anticipating that being the end of the conversation. Sunstorm remained, and a heavy silence fell as the orange Seeker's grin seemed to turn even more tense, his optics darting in the direction of his quarters. "Unless," said Starscream suspiciously, slowly setting down his oil to regard his creation more attentively, his hands steepled in front of him "There was some other reason you were telling me this?"
Sunstorm's now obviously fake grin remained, but his wings slowly dipped down guiltily against his back, and he began to worry his hands. Across the room, Ramjet started to tap his foot impatiently.
"Sunstorm," Starscream said the complimenting clone's name warningly, "What happened to your room?"
The younger Seeker gave an anxious laugh that would rival Skywarp's for nerves, and answered, wings still pinned against his back and posture lowered, "It would appear the Allspark, in all of its holy supernatural wisdom, has granted an unworthy Seeker as myself with a uniquely powerful and, erm, warm special ability."
Starscream was midway through muddling through what, exactly, it was that Sunstorm was trying to say when Ramjet marched up to join the conversion. "Sunstorm didn't set our room on fire," he informed the magenta Seeker harshly, glaring at his sibling, and the accused Seeker recoiled at his irritated tone, though he didn't refute.
"You what?!" Starscream shrieked, turning back towards his mild mannered creation.
Sunstorm flinched again, shrinking on himself even further, and looking down at the floor shamefully. "I am not deserving of such power," he bemoaned, sounding completely guilt stricken, "I lack the control and focus. I was only going to turn off the lights, but my accursed servos absorbed the energy instead! I had no intention of starting a flame." He cried out, voice breaking as he threw his arms around his white sibling, "Oh, forgive me my superior brother!"
Ramjet tried to keep his annoyed expression, but it crumbled as Sunstorm started to shake with guilt. Sighing, he just accepted it was too hard to stay mad at Sunstorm, and patted the other Seeker's head reassuringly. "No, I'll hate you forever," he said softly.
"Well, how bad is it?" interjected Starscream, remaining focused on more practical matters than Sunstorm's guilt, "Can we just fix it?"
Releasing his brother, Sunstorm nervously swayed from foot to foot, before answering, "Well, the berth would make a spectacularly creative and inspiring piece of abstract art, and the walls are so much freer and less confining."
Starscream flatly looked at Ramjet for a translation. "The berth is definitely not melted to a pile of slag and the walls absolutely don't have melted holes in them," he elaborated, and Sunstorm somehow lowered his posture guiltily even more at the damage report.
The original Seeker stared at his creation with awe, and just a tinge of fear. All that destruction from one single lightswitch? How strong could Sunstorm be? (And where had all these powers been when they were fighting Megatron, anyway? He thought slightly grumpily at an aside.) Shaking his head to clear off those worries, he commented as nonchalantly as he could, "Guess you won't be going back there, then," thinking on it, he added, pointing loosely at the orange Seeker, "And we'll need to get you practice with your powers, clearly."
"You would do that for your undeserving creation?" asked the young Seeker, posture straightening slightly as his face took on the look of wide cyber-puppy optics once again.
Starscream resisted the desire to roll his optics at the hopeful, pleading, expression of his clone as he replied straightforwardly, "I can't light myself on fire, but I've known other mechs that could," snorting, he added, "Who else is going to teach you?"
Sunstorm gave his creator a grateful hug, which Starscream shimmied out of as quickly as he could. "Oh, thank you, almighty creator!"
"Yeah, sure, you're welcome," he grimaced as he extracted himself from his creation's grasp. Dusting himself off he commented dryly, "Just don't burn down the rest of the base in the meantime."
Starscream thought about it further as Sunstorm made his way back to find new quarters, significantly more cheerful, though Starscream was a bit annoyed at himself for even noticing. He had only been complaining for complaining's sake when he had wondered where these powers were before but now that he thought about it more…well, where did these powers suddenly come from? What had changed with the clones that they would suddenly get new, individual abilities? Nothing he had noticed, certainly. It was all quite strange. He wondered…
Well, what he did know was that he would have to keep a closer watch on all of them…not least of all to stop Skywarp from teleporting to another country the next time someone startled him. Or to keep Sunstorm from burning anything else down. Or to prevent Ramjet from toppling a wall or something and don't even get him started on the walking disaster that Thundercracker had just become. Starscream sighed deeply as he realized things were about to become a lot more complicated.
11 chapters in and I finally have the jets do jet things, lol. Man writing this much flying is a lot of work.
I went back and forth on giving the clones their powers but ultimately decided on yes, since in Animated everyone seems to have their special thing. For Blitzwing it's the elemental powers thing, Lugnut has the punch, Starscream has…mouth laser ig. Anyway, it makes sense for the world that they would get their own unique powers. Also hmm I wonder what Starscream was thinking there…