The twins pov is in this chapter along with what happens when they found Starlit! Please read and review!
Starlit's View:
News stations on every channel were showing off a new team of human hero's that were calling themselves STEAM. Bee grabbed the remote and kept flashing through channels, too fast for us to find out what it stood for.
"Cool it, Bee. Slow down so we can hear the details." Jazz grabbed the remote from him, making Bee pout.
"What's so cool about them? They said they don't use any technology to do whatever it is, who cares?" I shot him a look, making him flinch.
"With the rising of reports of mini robots terrorizing our city, and those Autobot douchebags nothing about it, we decided it's our job to protect the city against them!" The leader of the group of three spoke enthusiastically to the camera bot, the strange suit made of gears and metal they were wearing let out steam. "Best of all, we don't need no stinking robotic upgrades to fight! We got our own power!"
"And how will that protect them from the mini cons? All that'll do is attract the slagging things!" Ratchet had a point, all the metal they had on would be something they'd want.
"I get it, they're mad about the mini cons getting into the city. It's just gonna make our jobs a bit more difficult with them under foot. If you meet any of those guys, just let them pass. We don't want to start a fight after just getting the mayor to agree to getting us basic rights on this planet." Optimus had his hands full this morning between getting The Cybertron Council to finally agree to release the new energon to more than just Iacon and into the rest of the public's servos, while pleading with the mayor that in order to protect mankind we needed some protections from them. We can't have humans trying to dismantle us for scientific projects while also trying to save them from our enemy.
Ironhide, Bee, Jazz and I accompanied Optimus to the Detroit city hall to meet face to face with the mayor to finalize an agreement. Prime decided to let Ratchet stay behind and babysit, seeing as the old mech was in a bad mood this week. Jazz didn't like the idea of only one bot staying behind in case of an attack, but Red Alert was also going to be there. I knew her growing up, she and creator worked together and she was fascinated by my studies on techno-organics and wanted to study my work. I explained it wasn't me who did the experiments and that Sari was the true expert.
"The mayor will see you now." His assistant spoke, but he was standing right behind her. Why is she talking for him?
"Yes, hello sir." The fact Optimus still wasn't great at small talk was funny. "About our talk yesterday. We need your assurance that as long as we follow your laws and rules, you'll give us proper protections from people like Masterson."
"Who?" I whispered to Bee.
"Headmaster. I don't think you met him, or want to for that matter." Bee and I froze when Prime looked back at us. Right…my bad. I told him through our fading bond.
"The mayor has considered your request and would like to know, how are you going to proceed to take care of your enemy? Will this city see more senseless destruction and violence? We only agree if you don't dare to put human lives in danger." The assistant crossed her arms.
"It was never our intention to endanger anyone. I vow to do whatever we can to protect not only this city, but the rest of your planet as well. Both our worlds seem to be linked together, and only together will we be able to move forward and find a balance between us." Optimus promised, but the mayor leaned over to look at the rest of us, raising his eyebrow.
"As long as we're on the same page." The assistant looked to the mayor. "Also, we'd like for your teams, er, mechanic, to explain exactly what your species is."
"Oh, uh, right. He's…under the weather, as you humans say. Starlit can answer some questions though." Optimus encouraged me to step forward.
"The female is a mechanic?" The assistant seemed surprised.
"Engineer in training really…" all optics and eyes were on me. "What can I answer?"
"We can talk more privately in an aircraft bunker we've reserved for you guys to report to. Optimus, you and the rest of the bots on this planet are to report there at sixteen hundred hours today. All Cybertronians are to be there and accounted for, no exceptions. If there are any left behind at your base, all agreements and any further discussion of your kinds future on this planet will be terminated. Understood?" The assistant was harsh with us.
"Er, yes ma'am." Prime nodded, agreeing to their term to meet again later.
Jazz wasn't happy with the fact that Bluestreak had to come with us, risking exposing his existence to the 'Cons. Prime understood, offering to be the one to drive with the little mech to help, but Jazz insisted he do it. Team Athena was en route there with the twins, hopefully not getting there before our team, but Bluestreak didn't want to load up.
"It's me my sweet spark! See? Papa can transform!" He showed Blue one more time it was him before going back to vehicle mode.
"Nuuuu…." Bluestreak grabbed my chassis again, refusing to let go.
"Can't we walk there?" Bee asked, trying to help get the tiny mech to let go.
"That would defeat the purpose of it being a secret location." Optimus sighed.
"Come on little guy, it's not scary! Having a giant robot car driving you around is awesome!" Sari said, patting my right leg. "Or a cool motorcycle!"
"Have you been letting Sari ride with you?" Optimus shot us a look.
"Erm…no?" I knew it sounded like a lie. "She wears her armor when she rides, it's as safe as her flying." I told him, earning a look he normally gave to Bee.
"She's nine…"
"Nuh uh! I'm almost ten! Besides, I'm big enough!" Sari protested. Their argument distracted Bluestreak long enough for me to load him in Jazz's passenger seat, making sure he was secure.
"See? Nothing scary." Jazz assured, pushing his seat back so the little mech was more hidden behind the tinted glass. "Alright, let's get groovin!"
"Finally!" Bee transformed, letting Sari get in. "Let's go!"
The aircraft hangar was surrounded by military looking planes and tanks, most of them currently manned as military men and women watched us drive in. We had met up with Rodimus and his team along the way, which was good because Hot Shot was leading them to the wrong hangar. That would have been a disaster. The twins swooped low, coming in from above the clouds to avoid detection to land near the hangar opening. Unfortunately one of the human tanks kept their cannon aimed at Jetstorm, pissing him and Jetfire off.
"Deception tank?!" Both transformed mid air, aiming back at the tank. "Show yourself!" They shouted.
"Stop!" Optimus got between them and the tank. "They're not Decepticon tanks or planes. It's the human military forces. Everyone, just calm down." The tank cannon lowered, aiming at nothing once more. "Ok, now that that's cleared up, Jetfire, Jetstorm, go inside, the rest of you follow them." Optimus had some damage control to do before following us in. We all transformed inside, Ratchet helping Jazz retrieve Bluestreak before he transformed.
"Is that…a baby?" A harsh voice spoke from a lifted platform near the middle of the bunker. "Are you telling me these aliens are having kids on this planet?" The darker protoformed human in a military suit walked to the edge to look up to Jazz. "Wait…how do robots…never mind. What the hell was my crew dragged out here for?" He turned to our mayor and his assistant. Jazz gave the man a look.
"These are the Autobots, sir. They crashed here a long time ago and are seeking asylum here on Earth."
"Actually, we're here to discuss cohabitation with your planet. Without us, your planet will be under constant threat from the Deceptions trying to get here for the energy that's growing here." Optimus entered, Rodimus stepping in time with him as our teams lined up behind our respective Primes. Bluestreak chipped softly, confused as to what's happening.
"You mean those crystals that are popping up all over town? Were you not the cause of that?" The assistant accused, the military officer had an unreadable expression as he looked at the two Primes.
"So, you all came here, crashed, started a big ol' fight with your enemy in Detroit, and then what…planted weird alien seeds around the whole city area?" The man accused.
"Sargent Fowler, they wish to be protected by our human rights laws." A woman that seemed to be the teammate of the military man spoke.
"Is that so? After all the things I listed, not even mentioning the fact you got an anchor baby here or the bout of public indecency…you expect me to give it to you all?"
"Now you wait just a slagging minute! If it weren't for us, your planet would have been smashed to smithereens more than once by the Deception army! Not only that, but your technological boom wasn't just from a genius scientist, it was from us!" Ratchet stepped forward, pushing through the Primes to point an accusing finger at Fowler. "That's right, you humans had no idea til now, did ya?"
"Thank you, Ratchet." Optimus put his hand on his shoulder, getting the medic to back off. "The point being, we can no longer exist without each other. We need to join together and figure out how we can all live in peace."
"If what you said is true, then we all have been benefiting off your kind for years. Would this team up allow us to exchange technology?" The look in his eyes…I sensed something dangerous.
"I…suppose. Within reason, I don't see why not. However, humans can't go around taking us apart for their gain any more. We also will not allow ourselves to help you build weapons of your own." Optimus was being reasonable, our tech in the wrong hands could be extremely dangerous.
"Alright…let me draw up an agreement with my team to go over with you. Is this everyone?" He gestured to the rest of us, staring at Bluestreak. "Any other…babies?" He looked at me and Red Alert this time, singling out the only femmes.
"Eh…no." Optimus quickly stepped in front of me, blocking the gesture I made to him. Bee stifled a laugh.
"I got questions I don't know if I want answers too…" Fowler sighed, leaving the platform.
"Speaking of, hello I'm chief scientist Sidney Gears." A woman with blue and seafoam green hair buns and large goggles on her head spoke. Her protoform was a lighter color, almost looking as white as her coat at times. Under her lab coat she seemed to be wearing torn jeans and a band tee shirt that had a vest over it, covered in different buttons. She didn't look like a scientist, the way she chewed her bubble gum came off as very childish, but maybe she's young like Bee and me.
"Yeah, so?" Ratchet wasn't being helpful.
"Uh…I'm just here to ask questions about y'all's anatomy! Don't bite my head off, I'm just doin' my job." She glared, sizing up to the medic despite being maybe five foot tall herself. "So…how does a transformer transform? Does it hurt? Wait, is that a human robot…is that a baby?!?" She was geeking out. "That's adorable!"
"Gears!" Fowler shouted from somewhere.
"Right…uh, we can talk more this way."
"I'm gonna regret volun-choosing to be part of this…" Ratchet sighed, leading Red Alert, Sari and me with him to follow Ms. Gears.
Sidney recorded our conversations so she could note everything down, not wanting to miss anything we explained to her. Red Alert was a surgical expert, bringing along her schematics of basic Autobot anatomy. The longer I stared at the holographic projections of the mechs blueprints I more I realized I knew who's this blueprint belonged to.
Jetfire? But the frame was different, shorter and not a jet. Did…she bring their blueprints? She zoomed into an area on the schematic, and in the corner was blurry, smudged out cybertronian writing. Expe…me: S…trek… I read the smudges piecing together that it either said expendable or experiment, with his name from before his upgrade.
"So is this a male then?" Ms. Gears asked, Red Alert switching to a carrier mech who also looked way too familiar.
"There are three types of Cybertronians…" Ratchet went on about fems, mechs and carriers, pointing out the gestation chamber and transfluid holding tanks in the display. I was trying to read the corner of this one. Expe…ab..: Si…w.p…
"Starlit and Red Alert are some of the few fems left on our planet. And Sari here is a techno organic." Ratchet finished explaining why that was.
"I don't have a good scan of a femme bot, but I have an old data pad that shows one." Red Alert pulled one from her subspace. She meant it when she said old, this one dated to the prewar era, but was exactly the same as we fems currently looked from the inside.
Our gestation chambers were slightly bigger, since we didn't have the added transfluid tanks tucked just behind it, allowing larger protoforms to generate. It didn't mean that a carrier couldn't produce a larger one, but there would be significant complications, so most of the time carriers birthed smaller protoforms. From there a protoform could grow to any frame size, given their RNA coding at least.
I didn't pay much attention to their lessons, mostly there so humans knew I was also available to talk to about this stuff. Why does Red Alert have the twins' pre-operation blueprints? I kept asking myself.
After making sure Jazz was home safely with Bluestreak, I joined Bee in searching for where Soundwave could have even gotten to. We knew he was underground somewhere, but there were only so many places a bot who was a bit bigger than Ironhide could fit. Instead, we found tracks from minicon that led through the city to the docks. So far, they hadn't set our trap off, but they were going from building to building in a grid pattern. It was just a matter of time.
"Funny meeting you here." We were surprised to see Jetfire flying in from Dinobot island. "Looks like our Soundwave problem may have gone to Deception city." He told us, landing in front of us as we transformed. "Jetstorm is finishing scan, we would have commed, but there is signal jammer over the city now."
"Guess they were busy the last few days…" I mused, watching a blue jet flying towards us in the distance. A gurgling sound came from the docks, followed by a jet of bubbles and sea sludge shooting up from the shore line.
"HISSSSS!!!!!" A horde of minicons launched themselves at us, pinning our legs.
"Gah! Get off!" Bee yelled, using his stingers to stun them, but there were too many and they took Bee, Jetfire and me down. "H-how are they so strong?!"
"Grrrawww!!" Jetfire used his fire, blasting them away from him, but trying not to melt them; aiming to get the ones pinning Bee and I down. "Face masks up!" He warned, but fell to his knees in agony, acid pouring off his left shoulder.
"Jetfire!" I yelled, a green minicon held up a taser, jamming it into my neck. Everything went fuzzy; I saw Bee be electrocuted the same way.
"Brother!" The minicon stopped, but my world blacked out.
Jetstorm's View:
Just as I arrived at shore to help, a ball of acid crawled out of the rocks to form into some horrible monster, shooting its arm at my brother.
"AhhhhhhAaaaAaaa!!!" His pain felt in my left shoulder as the acid melted his armor.
"Brother!" I transformed, aiming my wind cannons, but having to back off as the monster aimed at me, missing me, but nearly hitting a knocked out Bumblebee. "What are you? Why are you making mini bots attack us? They were hurting no one before."
"Oh, I don't think they mind. They don't seem to be all that bright anyway, similar to those dinobots." But he was wrong. Mini bots could be just as smart as younglings. They just spoke a different language that most Cybertronians didn't know.
"Hey, stop that!" I watched the minicons gather Starlit and Bumblebee up.
"Nuhuhuh…I wouldn't do that." The slimy acid monster grinned, I think. He aimed his other arm at Jetfire. "Unless you wanna break up the set." But my brother wasn't one to go down without a fight, he aimed his good arm and blasted the acid monster with his fire, giving him time to move out of range.
"I don't really need you two, but it's always nice to have extras to test on. I wonder, do you robots follow the same gender roles we humans do?"
"Gender…rolls?" I had no idea what he meant. "What are those?"
"Brother! We have to stop…" Jetfire jumped back again, more acid flying his way when he tried to run to our friend's aid. The minicons were dragging them into the lake. "You are getting in way!" He glared at the monster.
"No, you're getting in mine." I grabbed him by his good arm and pulled him into the air with me.
"Can you fly?" His left back stabilizer was melted pretty badly.
"I can hover, I don't have control…" he used his boosters, holding my hand as we flew off. "No! Go back!"
"And get slagged? That won't help them…" I want go back too…but what can we do against that acid? I told him through our sibling bond. He was pissed, but at least he was being reasonable.
"Jetstorm to Rodimus Prime, sir. We have been attacked by mini bots! They have taken friends Starlit and Bumblebee into lake. I've lost their signals from there. Requesting backup!"
"We're coming your way!" He responded, but I was already in front of our ship.
"Am already to you. Brother is needing emergency assistance!" The ship's doors opened, extending the ramp as Red Alert met us at the bottom.
"What in the slag did this?" She sprayed his arm with a disinfectant only for it to bubble a sickly green and burn.
"You're hurting him!" I took his free hand, he squeezed the life out of my right hand, but I understood why. My visor was reading out the damages, the list was getting longer.
"I-it's not that…gahhhh!" The acid started eating at a sensor. "Ok it is that bad!" He stopped acting like it was nothing.
"Get him to the decontamination chamber, stat! This stuff isn't clearing out with my spray." I did as she said, running with him inside as the acid moved down his arm.
"I-I can't…" I grabbed him as the pain got overwhelming, setting the cleaning sequence as I dragged him in with me. As soon as the water hit, the acid sizzled again but wasn't causing as bad of a reaction.
"You ok?" Cleaning it out gave me a better look at what was happening. The damage was deep, sweeping into a transformation sceam. "It burned your protoform? What in slag does that?"
"I-I don't know…our friends, if I had just been paying attention…"
"Don't blame yourself."
"No! They were captured because I let guard down!" He pushed me away, standing under the steam of cold water. "I cannot forgive this…"
"Look who's sounding mature for once." I teased, earning a weak swipe with his good arm. "Did acid also fry your processor? But I am getting what you mean…this is more serious than those simulated scenarios we did. Real bots are in danger now, ones we care about."
"I never thought we'd care for anyone like our friends before now. We cannot lose them." My orange copy was right, even before the upgrade we were labeled obnoxious and difficult to work with. That was mostly because no one took the time to get to know us, to understand we constantly bust each other's bumpers; because we literally couldn't block each other's thoughts out. It was a constant fight with a copy of yourself thinking over your own thoughts. The teasing transferred over to anyone we liked, which we tried to not come off as rude, but somehow communication would get mixed and everyone thought we were stuck up.
We learned it was best to just stick to ourselves, never bothering to make deep connections until somewhat recently. Starlit was the first to really try to see us as individuals.
~~~~~~~~flash back~~~~~~~~
I remember I had pushed Jetfire into a steel beam, thinking it wasn't very hard, but apparently it was enough to cause it to dent. Whoever built this place did a shoddy job if all it took was a dent for the whole beam to fall over.
"Brother!" I heard him shout as the tank behind me was punctured, after that everything went white, everything hurt and I could feel the heat across my body. White hot pain erupted where my optics were, then by the grace of Primus it all stopped.
SYSTEM REBOOTING…
FLIGHT SYSTEMS: ONLINE
UPDATING….
ALL SYSTEMS: ONLINE
RECHARGE SEQUENCE: COMPLETE
My hud flashed, but something was different. I online my optics, surprised when my vision was stretched, the visor refused to move for me to reset my optics. It took me a moment to realize, my optics were the visor! I wasn't sure how well I could see through all the sensors and readings it kept picking up. I had to cover my face for a moment, unable to process all the information at once.
"Brother? You look different." I moved my hands, looking over to an almost unrecognizable orange mech.
"Streaks? That you?" My vision was a bit obscured from the recognition software focused on his face, reading out information on him; faction alliance and more, his name however was blank, I don't know what that meant.
"Still just as ugly as before!" He grinned, but I felt he was as scared as I was about all of this.
"Me? Have you seen your ugly mug yet? I think I got better luck of draw." We were close enough to each other that he was able to grab me. I noticed our frames were still identical but it was obvious our faces no longer looked the same. Our scuffle was short lived, neither of us had completely recovered just yet and our newer bodies felt a lot lighter than they did before, despite us being much bigger and taller. Both of us fell the second we tried to stand, Sunstresker pinning me under him somehow.
"These two cats are the future? Think I'll stick to groovin 'in the past…" we looked up to see a black and white mech looking down at us. There was a team of bots around us, all looking at us with fear and a small portion looked distained that we were moving. Did we do something wrong?
I have feeling like we are in trouble. 'Streaker agreed with me.
"The fact that you both are moving means the procedure was a success." A monotone robotic voice from behind us spoke. "My name is Prospector. You two were chosen to be upgraded and outfitted with new codes and features for Project: Safeguard."
"Us?" We helped each other up as he continued.
"We were unsure if the process of upgrading your new frames with Starscream's seeker codings and flight algorithms would take you offline. You two were nearly offline when found, we rebuilt you both from scrap." I didn't like how Prospector talked to us like we were toys. "I am glad you didn't reject the upgrades and are online."
"You…saved us?"
"But…why?" My brother asked.
"Cause you lot are expendable." A blue and orange mech stepped forward. "You two are now under my charge and will listen to every command I tell you, got it?"
"Er…yes sir?" My visor reading out all information on him, Sentinel Prime was his name. He barked more orders, commanding us to follow him and show him what we got.
"What do we got? We are just refinery workers…" Sunstreaker asked. "'Sides and I never had abilities."
"Tch, why they bothered with you two is beyond me. All I know is you two do now, so you're gonna show me what you got or I'll take you back to the lab where they can start all over!" Why is he so mad at us? 'Streaker asked but I had no reply.
"Alright, you! Transform!" He pointed at my orange twin.
"Uh…right…" he did, turning into a jet and taking off. "Woh! This is cool! Come brother!"
"Not yet! Show me what you can do!" Sentinel glared at me as Sunstreaker shot flames from his cannons. "Not bad…I'll call you Jetfire!"
"Jetfire? But my name is Sunstreaker. His is Sideswipe." He said, landing near me and nearly falling over. "Landing is hard…"
"I don't care what your names were, the bots you used to be are now long offline. All official documents on your lives are sealed up, and your both listened in the bots who died in the explosion. Your new names are what I say." Both of us felt dread and unfiltered spark break between us.
"But…our home…" Creator is going to be so upset… Sunstreaker er…Jetfire put his hand on my shoulder. Brother…we can't…
"Isn't home anymore, now you! Show me what you got!!" I stifled my real feelings and transformed.
"Same alt modes huh…I'll call you Jetfire!"
"But, you gave me that name already? Won't that be confusing?" My brother stated, getting the big chinned mech to turn on him.
"I haven't done this in mega cycles, cut me some slack…ok how about…Jetstorm!" He seemed proud of himself for that one.
"Oh good, now you can yell Jet and we both will respond." Jetfire transformed and joined me back in the air. "Can we test fly?" We didn't wait for a yes or no, just taking off to do a fast fly around. We didn't even think about the anti seeker defense systems until they aimed at us.
"Look out!" I yelled, both of us flying low and out of the way. We lucked out that that one was down for maintenance and unarmed. While we flew, I got a distress message somewhere out in the old battle fields.
"You hear that? Should we…"
"Investigate? I say yes." We pinged our new commander.
"There's no destress signals coming from there! Get your sorry chassis back here now!" But the signal was desperately trying to signal anyone who could hear, obviously getting lost in the signals around the training base.
"S…ry…cannot…hear…" My brother pretended our coms were breaking up. "Sending….location…" we hung up, flying off to the signal.
"Look, a youngling?" A teal, white and purple femme was curled up with her back against a metallic boulder. She seemd to be shaking as she cried.
"Out here?" We flew low, noticing the femme's optics turned nearly white when she saw us. She ran, but there was nowhere to really go out this far.
"Jetfire and Jetstorm responding to distress signal!" We said as Jetfire cut her off, landing in front of her while I landed ungraciously behind her. "Ugh…landing is hard!"
"Kaaaa!" She threw a punch at me, which I easily caught and pinned her in my arms. "Get away!" She yelled as I tried to hold her, Jetfire came to help, only for her to jump up, pushing me backwards and kicking both her legs out into his chassis.
"Oof!! Please, we are only trying to help…" he winced as I let her go, she squared up again. She may be a youngling but slag she's strong! Jetfire said through our bond.
"Easy!" I put my hands up. "Look, Autobot insignia, see?" I showed her our subspace pouches on our upper legs. "Elite guard stripes? Are we part of guard?" My twin shrugged.
"We not here to bring you any harm!" He put his hands up too, getting her to finally relax and stop trying to fight us. "You are safe with us. Please, do tell why you sent signal?" I realized then that we really weren't much help, we didn't have any skill with our new upgrades!
"S-someone wants to kill me!" Looking closer at her, I could see with my new visor she was dangerously low on fuel and looked exhausted. Her readings were telling me she was maybe a mega cycle or so away from shutting down into a forced stasis. Her optics were finally getting color back, turning pale green as she slowly calmed down. Oh look! Another with different optic color, brother!
Finally! I was getting tired of seeing just blue.
"Who?" I asked, holding my hand out. "Come, we can help…"
"There you two glitched prototypes are!" Sentinel's loud booming voice scared her, her greenish optics brightening up in fear again as she hid behind me. "What is that?" He and the black and white bot had followed us, transforming by me as he spoke.
"We told you." My brother started.
"There was desperate signal out here! It was her." I tried to move, but she followed me, refusing to let them see her.
"A youngling? Out here?" The black and white one walked around me, the fem backed into Jetfire, panicking again and tried to run. "Easy now, we ain't gonna hurt cha. Names Jazz. What are you doing out this far, sweet spark?" Her intakes were heavy as anxiety flowed off her frame. "It's ok. Sentinel, we gotta get her back to headquarters."
"No! I won't go back!" She ran, but the big chinned mech stepped in her way, forcing her backwards into the metal dust. She froze, terrified of us again.
"Whatever got ya worked up, it ain't here anymore. How long have you been out here?" Jazz knelt by her, signaling for us to stay back. "We're pretty far out from Iacon or Praxius. Where did you come from?"
"I-Iacon…" her frame was shaking in a mix of fear and low fuel.
"Nice place huh? What's your name?" She didn't take his offered hand. "Will you let us take ya back with us? I promise you're not alone anymore. We just wanna get ya help, dig?"
"I-I…" her optics flickers, my hud flashed that she was near crashing, the anxiety attack had burned through the rest of the enegon in her system.
"I got cha." Jazz caught her as she tipped forward. "Can ya stand?"
My brother and I were reprimanded harshly for insubordination. Jetfire and I spoke to one another as Sentinel laid into us, hating our nickname he gave us. We kept wondering who the youngling was and why she ran from home.
"The next time you two prototypes run off like that, I'll bust you back to protoforms personally!!" Not our fault his scanners didn't pick signal up… brother was beyond bored. "Now, you both will get your afts to training or so help me…" he gritted his teeth. "Go!! That was an order!" We both ran off, reporting to Prospector for virtual training.
Starlit view:( age 116)
Jazz was nice, but could I trust him? Was anyone around me trustworthy? I couldn't be sure. Creator thought she could trust the mech that answered our door…but he wasn't who he appeared to be, he was a 'Con. And since when did I have a brother?
I paced the medical bay of the ship they brought me too.
"Still pacing about huh?" Jazz came back, making me jump. "Just me. Here. Sorry, Steel Haven was closer than an actual medical center. We ain't got too much left after our last run, but I got a medic coming our way." He handed me an energon cube, which I drank immediately. "Woh, slow down. You must have been out there a long while…"
"A-almost…" I could access my internal clock again. How low on fuel was I? "A decacycle…" No way…that long ago? I thought to myself. "But…if you haven't… I mean…" Creator…had no one gone to find her? Had anyone cared?
"What exactly happened?" He gently sat me on the medical berth. "You look a little haunted by somethin'."
"No one's found her…" I shrunk back, guilty I hadn't been able to get any help til now. "I'm sorry…" when did I start crying?
"You got nothing to be sorry for…" he tried.
"No! I left her! I left her alone!" He held me, letting me cry into his chassis.
"Who, sweetspark?" His voice was oddly soothing.
"Creator…she's…" I couldn't say it.
"Where did you live kiddo? I'll have someone check in ok?" I gave him my address and he left me to make a call. "Sit tight ok? You're safe here." He told me as he left.
"Yeah…I thought we were too…" I have no idea if he heard me. Not too long after, Red Alert came in an examined me, making me feel a little less alone.
Jazz informed me they found her and questioned how it happened. I couldn't tell him, I didn't want to relive…he told me to take my time, but also informed me that he and his team were taking me to a planet called Earth.
"Not only is your brother there, but we got a job to do. It's a win win sort'a deal." He smiled.
Then why does it feel like a loose loose kind of one….I thought. My helm buzzed, a weird sound ringing like it was coming from the inside. "Ah-ow!" I held my hand over my right optic as it went away. That was weird…
"You ok?" Jazz put a hand on my shoulder. I nodded, having no idea what that was about.
Jetfire's View:
With our training completed in a record of five solar cycles, we were given the titles of junior Elite Guard members and joined Sentinel's team on the Steel Haven. Our first job was to join them to deliver a bot to Earth, turns out the femme we found had a brother there.
"What is Earth?" I asked Jazz as he led us to our room.
"A cool little planet that you're gonna love! I gotta feeling there's a bot there that'll vibe with the both of ya!" Ever since we trained with him, and kicked his skid plates, he'd lightened up around us. He was definitely nicer to be around than our captain.
"Vibe? Like vibrations?"
"What kind of planet vibrates?"
"Sounds kind of kinky…" I smirked, earning a mirrored smile on my brother. I was beginning to be able to read his face again, it was hard without his expressive cobalt blue optics telling all his emotions.
Jazz sighed, shaking his helm at us, a small form peeked from the doorway of the bridge. I recognized her by her green optics.
"Oh, hello!" I waved, my brother and I turning to her, making her gasp and shrink back. "Oh right, you're jumpy. We move more slowly."
"Maybe if you two introduce yasselves she might not be so jumpy." Jazz mused.
"Did we forget to?" We both wondered, it had been a strange last few solar cycles. She yelped, making all of us stand guard.
"Enough messing around!" Sentinel came around the corner, he had the femme by the back of her frame, she struggled to get free. "What are you doing out of your room? You are supposed to stay there until I come get you!"
"Stop carrying me around! I'm not a sparkling!" She reached for his hand that held her up, but she couldn't get a good hold. She glared at him in the optic as he held her up to his face.
"No, you're a thorn in my side is what you are."
"You're the one being an aft! Acting like I'm some kind of fugitive…" she didn't back down from his glare. "You haven't even bothered to go after the 'Con that did it!"
"I told you, no Decepticons had been on Cybertron in thousands of stellar cycles! So either you're lying about who killed your creator or you did it!" That pissed her off, she nailed him with a hard knee to the chin. He dropped her, Jazz grabbing her and pulling her behind him and motioning for us to hold the big bot back.
"Cool it! That's completely uncalled for Sentinel! You and I both know Starlit couldn't have done it. You've seen the reports…" the femme had angry tears in the corner of her optics.
"The sooner we drop her off the better…Jetfire, Jetstorm to your stations. Let's get going."
For some reason we had to go the long way to Earth, guess they didn't have space bridges there yet. It would take a deca-cycle or so, so we had plenty of time to explore the ship in our down time. It wasn't huge, but we'd never been on a ship like this!
"Brother, can you be believing how our lives going? Is this a dream?" My blue twin said as we explored the storage area. "If you told me we'd ever be in the Elite Guard before, I might have sent you off to have processor scanned." He grinned.
"But was it worth our old lives?" I asked, missing our home. "I mean…grandsire and creator must be missing us, yes?" His smile fell, knowing he felt the same way.
"To them, we are dead." He reminded me that the final report listed us as offline. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were no longer our names.
"Do…you think they're still mourning?" He asked, sitting on a crate. I sat next to him, putting my hand on his.
"Knowing grandsire, he is working harder than ever. Creator will be ok…" we had been her world, but she was a strong bot.
"Sorry…didn't know anyone was in here." We turned to see the young fem in the hallway. "A-are you guys really flying Autobots?" She didn't have the same disgust in her voice when most bots asked.
"What do you think we were doing when we found you?" I joked, Jetstorm elbowing me.
"Looked like you couldn't land very well." She shrugged. "Is it like, and upgrade or something?"
"Something like that. More like a rebuilding of frames." Again my brother jabbed me with his elbow. "Stop doing that!"
"Then maybe stop before you tell too much and get her in trouble!" He warned.
"Oh, right."
"If you're so top secret, how come you guys aren't locked in a room on this ship?" She crossed her arms.
"Hm, good point. He should be locked up." Jetstorm grinned, putting his arm around me. "He almost burned the whole training facility down!"
"Who is saying too much now?" I shoved him off, causing him to fall off the crate. "Clutz…" the femme giggled, walking towards us.
"You're funny…" she wasn't scared of us. "I don't think I caught your names. I'm Starlit." She sat on a crate opposite us, not bothered by our squabble.
"I'm…Jetfire. This is my twin brother, Jetstorm." I was still getting used to our new names. "Is nice to meet you!" We both said. She took my servo, Jetstorm taking her other hand in a greeting. She smiled, again not bothered by our antics.
"Twins? Can you guys read each other's minds?" Oh she's funny! I told Jetstorm.
"Better, we think for each other!" I grinned, standing up and taking Jetstorm's arms, pulling him up to stand behind him. "I control his arms!"
"Hey! Let go!" He pouted as I made him pose. "You think you are so funny…you can't even control your own exhaust port!"
"At least I can find mine!"
"You two fight a lot?" She raised an optic ridge.
"Is no fight, only busting of bumpers!" I let him go, earning a shove in return.
"You are kind of right though, we have stronger sibling bond than most. Cause we are split of same protoform!" We linked arms.
"Woh, cool!" She looked up to us like a little cyber puppy.
"Sometimes, most of time is pain listening to him all day." I teased. "He never mutes it."
"Oho! Look who is one talking!" His visor flashed, his new way of glaring at me.
"So, how long have you guys been jets? What were you before? I mean, if you can tell me." She…wants to know? Jetstorm asked me.
"Um…we were…normal I guess." We weren't allowed to talk about our old lives too much. "There was an accident and we…"
"Were saved and given upgrades." Jetstorm finished. She tilted her helm, aware we were skimping parts of the story from the way we spoke. "Now we can fly and are super fast!"
"Fast? How fa…" Jetstorm was behind her in a nano click.
"Very!" He lifted the crate she was on with her on it, resting it on his right shoulder. "And stronger too!"
"But unfortunately not any smarter." We stopped messing around when Sentinel came in, glaring at Starlit. "I thought I told you to stay put. Take her back to her room and make sure she stays!"
"We're in space! What am I gonna do? Dig a hole in the side of the ship with my bare servos?!" Starlit said as Jetstorm set her down.
"Is true, she has no weapons upgrades."
"She can't even transform yet." I put an arm around the youngling. "What trouble can she do?"
"Don't make me lock you in yours too!" He threatened, forcing us to take her away.
"Really?" She pouted at us as we surrounded her and ushered her away.
"Please let me out!" We felt bad having to disable the door to trap her in. "I thought we were cool!" I had the feeling she didn't want to be alone.
"Sorry…we don't want to." Jetstorm sighed. She hadn't done anything, it felt unfair.
"And we are cool, but we have to follow orders too."
"You aren't gonna leave…are you?" She sounded scared.
"Oh…um…" Jetstorm looked to me for an answer.
" He did say make sure you stay…how can we do that if we leave?" I leaned on the wall outside of the door. "So, what is life like in Iacon? We grew up on energon farm, so city life is new to us!"
Jetstorm joined me, leaning on the other side of the door.
Being energon refinery workers gave us plenty of time to study up on how different aircraft carriers worked. This became handy, since Sentinel decided to assign us on maintenance duty, despite not even asking or checking if we knew about dynamic thruster engines worked.
"What if we didn't pick up hobby? Do you think we would ok figuring it out on fly?" Jetstorm asked as we checked engine readings.
"I think we would be over our helms…"
"Woh, a thermal engine!" We turned to see Starlit had escaped again. "But…why is it burning through energon so fast? Did you check to make sure the output to each truster is equal?"
"How did you escape? Wait…you know about thermal dynamics?" I wasn't mad, more curious how she escaped.
"So…I might have rerouted the wiring you guys did to lock the door from the outside."
"You reversed it to unlock from inside?!" Jetstorm was impressed too. She blushed with a nervous smile.
"Yeah…so it's stuck open now." She shrugged.
"Where did you learn that?" We motioned for her to join us.
"My creator's and expert in this stuff!" For a brief moment, we glimpsed the real her, but it was gone as the sentence left her vocalizer. "I-I mean…she was…" I put my right arm around her.
"Maybe you can help then! Come, show what you know!" Whatever happened to her had traumatized her, but maybe we could help by keeping her mind off it until she was ready to open up.
Starlit was a wiz at this stuff! With her assistance, we figured out one thruster was nearing its end and needed replacement. Once the power adjustment was made to keep it on a lower power input, we stopped burning so much energon and stabilized it until we got a replacement.
"Jetfire! Jetstorm! Find that brat and…there you are!" Sentinel barked as he came into the engine room, seeing her helping us. "You are in so much trouble for tampering with Elite Guard equipment!"
"It's a door." She argued.
"Don't you speak to me like that! I am your superior, and you will treat me with respect!" He got in her face, having to bend to her level.
"You're not my commander. I'm not a soldier." She glared, refusing to back up. She's a tough little thing…I told Jetstorm.
"Am I gonna have to lock you in the brig?"
"Am I under arrest?" She crossed her arms. "I haven't done anything."
"You broke out of your room without permission! On top of that you're insubordination is grounds for me to! Now get back to your room…"
"Doors broken. How you gonna lock me in?" With that he grabbed her by her shoulder, dragging her back to her room. "Hey!"
"Let's go…" he growled, meaning for us to follow.
"I'm not fixing it." She sat on the bench in her room, pissing him off more.
"Fix it and do whatever it takes to keep her in!" He commanded us, observing from the hallway until it was done.
"You fix inside, I'll take here." Jetstorm sighed, undoing the wall panels as we went. I noticed she had fused the two locks together, making locking her in impossible but we could get the doors to shut.
"Well, is shut…" but I couldn't finish telling him that it didn't lock.
"Good! I see her out again, she's going in the brig in cuffs!" He rounded the corner before she opened it again.
"You know it's busted, right?" We grinned, a matching one forming on her face.
"We know."
"But he does not. We will keep secret, but promise not to be getting caught." I winked. "Or we might be forced to fix that."
Jetstorm's view:
We made a game of hiding Starlit whenever she 'escaped.' She found out the vents led to each room, so it was a matter of getting her in one before he saw. If Sentinel had bothered, he would have seen she just didn't want to be left alone and wasn't causing any trouble. Mister Jazz didn't mind her being around either, but warned that he could only cover for our antics so many times before Sentinel caught on to our game. We were showing her the control console and flight path when he came storming in.
"Again?! That's…"
"I let her out to stench her legs a bit." Jazz covered, turning back from the drive controls. "'Sides, she's gonna learn about Earth a bit before we get there."
"It's an organic infested planet, what else is there to know?" Sentinel grumbled, but let it slide.
"Organics?" Starlit seemed interested more than grossed out.
"That's right! They're cool creatures with a crazy unique style." Jazz pulled up a few pictures from his time there, one including the Earth team he mentioned.
"Who are they?" I asked, looking over the pic that had Jazz posing with a yellow mech that held up a smuling organic creature. Jazz posed with him in the foreground while the others in the background either weren't paying attention or were smiling with the two.
"That's Optimus Prime's team. Bumblebee is this mech, he's pretty tight but kinda loud. There's Ratchet, Bulkhead is a big bot but a softy, OP himself and Prowl. He's a ninja bot like me." Jazz pointed them out. "He's your brother, Sta'." Why do I get feeling Jazz has feelings for cyclemotor? I looked at my twin as I talked through our bond.
Oh…forbidden love?! Is romantic. Even we know Elite Guards bots couldn't be bonded to anyone outside of the guard. Rumors were that someone in the past had a lover who wasn't, but they shared information with each other. Turned out, their bonded was working for the 'Cons and used the information against our forces. From then on, it was put into law that no one in the guard was allowed to participate in any romantic relationships outside of the guard.
"So, how did they end up so far away?" Starlit asked. Jazz told us the story of how they crash landed there about fifty stellar cycles ago.
In what felt like only a few mega cycles, solars cycles passed and Earth was in view. The three of us had our faces glued to the glass of the front windows, gazing out at the blue and green planet.
"Is so pretty!" I said, amazed that this place existed.
"Just wait til we land, it's even better up close." Jazz stood behind us with a smile.
"Get back to your posts! We're going in." Sentinel seemed more on edge than usual, something about this planet had him in a tizzy.
"Sir, yes sir!" We said, leaving Starlit with Jazz. I noticed she also had a worried look about her, understandably so.
"It's gonna be a'ight." I heard Jazz tell her, noticing she was sticking to his side now.
Starlit's demeanor changed again when we landed, once again terrified as Sentinel made us stay on either side of her to keep her from running.
"Where would she run too?" My brother asked, but I shrugged.
"JETFIRE! JETSTORM! BRUNG HER OUT!" He barked from the bottom of the ramp. Starlit shrank back into us, unwilling to move.
"Is ok. We got you." I put a hand on her right shoulder, my brother put a hand on her left. She worried her lip as she looked up at us, optics already overly bright.
~~~~~~~end flashback~~~~~~~~
That was our last interaction with her as a youngling. What a shock it was to learn she was closer to our age, she practically upgraded over night on us and grew into an adult femme by the next time we saw her. She was…stunning.
We were also very surprised that Bumblebee wasn't much younger than us either, making the four of us the youngest Autobots in the entire force. I forget by how much, but maybe fifty-ish years difference from us to our yellow friend.
"H-how does it look?" Jetfire pulled me from my memory, looking at the acid burn mark.
"Like you were melted with acid." I told him, gently touching the edges. "Is lucky he didn't hit more to the left. Your spark chamber would have been hit."
"Lucky me." The sensors in his arm were completely numb, saving him from any pain.
"Come on, let's get you patched." I'm worried about our friends…he told me, unable to bring himself to talk.
Me too…don't worry, they'll be ok. I don't think acid monster wants them injured. Did you notice the mini bots had little burns on them? I think that thing is controlling them with pain.
I can tell you, I would have done about anything to make that pain stop. He admitted.
"Primus, are you guys ok?" Optimus met us in the hall by the med bay, apparently rushing over as soon as he heard about his team.
"I-it looks worst than it is." Jetfire was back to acting tough.
"Oh please, you were just crying about it." I shoved him into the bay.
"Ow!" If I had optics I'd roll them.
"Jetstorm, can you tell me what happened?" Optimus pulled me aside while Jetfire got patched. "Those burns, I've seen them before. It didn't happen to be a man made of acid, would it?"
"Yes, an acid monster that looked kind of like an organic. How did you know?"
"He goes by Meltdown. If he's taken Bee and Starlit…I don't wanna know what he has planned." I didn't like the look that came over his face. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my fuel tank.