“Things have been far too quiet lately.” Ratchet mused in a low voice, with a quick suspicious look to the locked jet. “Save for our new unwanted resident, nothing out of sorts has happened in a good while.”
“They're biding their time.” Arcee agreed with a grim tone.
Bulkhead just looked plain antsy. Which went along with the thrum of anxiety that had been filtering through the air since obtaining their current prisoner. It was never a good thing to have bored soldiers itching for a fight in the same vicinity as an enemy captive.
Ratchet struggled to think of some tasks he could have them do for him. There was still that leak down in Corridor - C. They were probably also due for a quick stock check on their supplies. Decision made, he sent them off. They grumbled but complied. Leaving the main room back into the tentative peace it’d been in.
Or so Ratchet had thought.
A notification window popped up and interrupted his current task. It was Wheeljack requesting to be bridged to base. Withholding a groan, the medic inserted the command and pulled the lever. As he turned toward the bridge’s light in wait, Miko had dropped the eraser she’d been furiously using. Having finally gotten around to doing some of her homework, she struggled on figuring out the equations of her math class.
The eraser hit the floor at an awkward angle and the rubber flung itself out wide in the air. With hardly a thought, the exchange student flew after it. Her shoes squeaked against the hard ground below. Arms outstretched with hardly any notice to anything else.
Jack’s and Raf’s cries of warning were left unheard by her single-focused devotion to catching that eraser. She grinned when the pink rubber finally lost altitude in its arch and felt that she was successful in getting to the spot she needed to be to grab it out of the air.
Her legs slammed into something hard. Pain burst through her and the eraser only just brushed against her fingertips.
It began it's descent downwards… and Miko found herself going down with it. It was the in the next moment when her brain finally registered that she had hit into the railing and her momentum was taking herself over it. Down a deep drop.
Panic froze her limbs and took her voice, save for a shallow gasp as she found herself feet over head. In the next beat of her heart, she could hear all of the yells and the burst of movement around her.
In her line of vision, large gray hands swooped down in an attempt to catch her but only just missed by inches. Miko’s heart stuttered.
Everything had slowed down. Moving in time with her heartbeat. Which had become very loud to her ears. Her eyes blurred with water. Her brain simultaneously focused on the fact that she might just die, but also couldn’t find herself quite comprehending it.
Then all at once it seemed to click and found herself screaming and flailing. The air whistling in her ears.
Another section of my animatic has come into play! Anyone remember Devcon? The foil to Lockdown?
He’s the G1 Autobot-aligned bounty hunter we get to see a very few episodes of. He transforms into a spacecraft and Mando’s his way across the galaxies. Gotta love him💖✨
I really miss the guy. He might have been one of my little kid crushes once upon a time and I really appreciate the very small taste of galactic civilization we also get in those eps.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any fanart or fanfics of him. So I plan on fleshing out his character and giving him some love. Haven’t quite decided exactly where to place him in my AU storyline but he will definitely be getting some attention.
“[Who’s your overseeing officer?]” The scout asked.
Skywarp, taken away by his rant, opened his mouth to answer. When it caught in his throat. With wide optics, he looked between all the Bots in the room and, instead, said, “Well, I can tell you. Probably even will but… you won't believe me.”
“I believe we should be the judge of that for ourselves. Out with it now.” Ratchet huffed impatiently. Ducking his head briefly when Optimus gave him a stern, short glance.
"Okay…" Skywarp nodded slowly. Optics now wide as he thought over what should be said and how he should say it. Though his worry was soon overcome with a bright flash of his optics and a grin. His face now marred in a devious quality. It only seemed to grow when he spotted the curious humans peering over at him quietly. He remarked, “Well, then it should be said that my overseeing officer is… your mom.”
A stark silence overcame the room as everyone processed what he’d said. The audacity of it.
A small snrrk from the human lounge broke the surprise and Skywarp found himself being forcefully manhandled into the med-berth by two very unhappy Autobots. One a large green Wrecker and the other a very persnickety two-wheeler.
"Alright, I think that’s enough out of you for the day. If I have to deal with your particular string of idiocy any longer, I’m going to suddenly find myself stricken with an unusually harsh case of proto-rash.” Arcee snarked with a particular snarl. She was purposely inconsiderate of her strength when she had to duck under and then catch a stray arm that had managed to break free from her and Bulkhead’s hold.
The Seeker was cackling with certain delight. The sound of it deranged and far more familiar than the previously relaxed personality he’d been hitting them with for most of the time they’d been dealing with him. It was so much so in line with his typical brand of crazy that Ratchet felt the need to reaffirm for a third time that the warp-drive was still offline. It was, thankfully. So he focused his attention then on inserting the Seeker into a forced, temporary medical stasis.
No one spoke a word as Arcee, Bulkhead, and Ratchet regained their breath. Suddenly able to hear the echoes of a far off drip in the mesa’s halls that would likely need mending. The Wrecker looked over to the humans to check on them and had to wince. Jack had an arm wrapped around a frightened Raf. While Miko held a hand up to her mouth with wide eyes.
He opened his mouth to— well, he wasn’t quite certain what he wanted to say. Only that he needed it to be comforting to their younglings. He wasn’t able to get anything out when the clacking heals of June brought her back into the Common Room.
“Okay, kids! Everything is finally prepped for baking some cookies--”, June halted half a step as she took in the state of everyone in the room and the unconscious Seeker in Ratchet’s medical corner, “I missed something, didn’t I?”
Someone’s breath was heavy and warm against her ear. Her own chest heaving to keep up with the quick pace of her heart. Ratchet’s shocked face peered down at her. His hands still outstretched where he had attempted to catch her.
The warmth of the body against her own pulled away her attention. It wasn't warm in the normal sense either. It felt more like the strange feeling of warmth when one pressed their fingers against the static screen of an active retro boxy television. Creating a buzz that was felt more than heard.
One arm was wrapped under her shoulder. The other under her knees. Firm but not smothering.
Miko turned to get a look at who had literally just saved her life.
A pair of crimson orbs stared down at her. They were just as unnatural as the heat that he —for it was a man who’d saved her— emitted.
Yet his eyes of red carried a warmth of their own in them. Similar to that of a campfire. Potentially dangerous but controlled.
Miko was glad that her cheeks were already so bright from the adrenaline because it would have no doubt been obvious she was blushing otherwise.
There was what could have been the beginnings of a smile on his dashing face, when Miko found herself pulled out of his grip at the same time a harsh shriek of metal came from the other side of the room.
She watched as the man’s face, now a few feet below, contorted into pain. Then his body froze and began to flicker like a bad WiFi connection.
The rhythmic clacking of keys echoed through the main room of the hidden mesa base. The noise was level. Controllable. Soothing. A familiar presence. One of the few things that this organic planet had in common with his wonderful homeworld.
It brought a sense of ease that lulled him into the calm of a mindless task. A quiet chore that brought a peace that he could hardly find at any other point within this senseless war.
A silent alarm popped up in the bottom right corner of his screen and he gritted his denta at the reminder that the children were nearly done with their last day of school before summer break. Because that was just what they needed. Sparklings underpede.
He shuttered his optics, stretched his digits, and continued his current job. He only had a few short earth hours before the next two months. Which would be filled with youngling fun and fancy free. An absolute boon to the war effort, he was sure. Note the sarcasm.
He pushed away the souring thoughts. They wouldn't serve anything other than ruin his mood more than it already was.
He'd gotten back into his groove when a Deception proximity alarm screamed through the mesa.
A window concerning the potential danger popped up in front of his work and he nearly threw one of his tools in a fit of rage. He didn't, as he was a fully grown cybertronian and he needed those tools.
He maximized the window and narrowed his optics at the information. The signal was unknown. Meaning that it wasn't of any decepticon that they'd been in contact with since they'd moved into this mesa. Magnificent. He wished yet again that they had access to Teletraan I. But Primus-only-knew where the Ark was in this blasted universe.
The bot sighed and notified his team of the disturbance. He got four acknowledgements and ETAs. The heavy pedefalls of his oldest and closest friend coming near brought down some of his frustrated anger. He breathed in a deep breath and closed out of all his open programs. Leaving only the map showing the signal.
Moving away from his monitors, he turned around to greet his Prime. "Optimus."
"Ratchet." The deep baritone welcomed back. The Prime settled his hand on his shoulder plating and giving it a comforting squeeze, as he walked past. He peered at the screens to oversee the tripped alarm and hummed in consideration. That familiar gleam of the infamous strategist brightened up his gaze. "It is of unknown origin."
"Indeed. A new menace to grapple with." The older bot rolled his eyes.
"Or… perhaps a weary soul in need of better allies?" The Prime retorted back with his usual bout of hope.
"As if any Con would understand the meaning of the word." The medic huffed. "You expect too much out of thieves, societal rejects, and ex-convicts."
For a moment, the taller bot looked surprised. Then pained. Ratchet felt a lurch at his spark when he actually took the time to analyze his words.
He blinked and pinched the bridge of his olfactory sensor. There he went, shoving his pede into his derma. Again. "I… I'm sorry Optimus. That came out wrong."
"But full of truth." His leader gently chided. That look of disappointment never faltered. Ratchet sighed and looked away.
"I am sorry. You know of my past and how I was raised… but that is no excuse." Ratchet felt the familiar weight of his friend's servo land back on his shoulder. A comforting weight. Forgiving. The old bot looked back over to the younger mech. They smiled.
Optimus looked back up to the signal and then teasingly back down to the medic. "What do you say we scout out the signal together? It's rather close to being time for our charges to be picked up by their guardians."
"I'd say we're asking for trouble."
"Hmm, that doesn't sound like a no to me." Optimus had already inserted the coordinates into the ground bridge, powering it up.
Ratchet felt the tell tale of a ping reverberate through him. One that he was sure was felt by the rest of the team. It notified the rest of their orders from the Prime, to retrieve their humans and to join them at base on standby at the soonest opportunity.
There were more pings that flew in soon after. Full of complaints and acknowledgments. They were happily ignored as the two walked through the gate.
It led into a road through a forest of trees.
From the position specified on their internal maps, they were about a couple hours away from the heavily populated city of Los Angeles.
It was honestly not too far away from their own home base in Nevada. Less than a day, even. Which was much too close for comfort in Ratchet's opinion.
He followed Optimus through the trees. Their optics to the skies as they scanned for the source of the signature. It didn't take very long to find the jet.
They heard the engine long before they caught sight of it. A worryingly familiar palette of purple and black made it ever obvious just who it was, despite the unfamiliar altmode.
" Skywarp." Ratchet growled, his optics narrowing at the jet above.
He slipped a servo into his subspace and brought out a tiny gadget given to him by Wheeljack. The wrecker had created it on a whim and given it to the medic proclaiming that it needed to be "field-tested" by the team.
He hadn't yet brought it up with Optimus. A fact that was backed up when the Prime looked down at the medic's arm cannon in confusion while Ratchet inserted the device within a small port that seamlessly opened up.
"...What is that, old friend?" Optimus looked back up to meet Ratchet's optics, wariness pooling in his own. The medic didn't hold the same concerns.
"Jackie said he needed this field-tested. So here it is!" His answer didn't seem to be to his leader's satisfaction.
"Ratchet… let's not be too hasty." A servo found its way over top of his weapon. With enough pressure to imply that he needed to put it down, rather than forcing him to do so. The medic rolled his optics.
"If all goes well, it'll merely incapacitate him. Not kill him. Wheeljack knows of how you operate and wouldn't dare to go outside of those bounds." Ratchet looked over to his old friend, the corners of his lips curling downward the slightest bit. "For all my misgivings with him, I know he respects you too much to do something like that."
With that said, the old medic took aim. An optic closed as he aligned the sights with the plane overhead. He took the shot.
The old bot turned around to smile with pride at his leader, as the plane stalled in the distance. Blue arches of electricity danced along Skywarp’s frame as he was forced down to the ground by gravity.
“I'm quite surprised you actually agreed to test it, old friend.” Optimus sighed and shook his head when the ground shook and a few of the trees ahead cracked and fell.
“Oh, no. I've run test after test on my terminal on this thing. Also checked the power output and many other things.” Ratchet nullified with a shrug. “I kind of liked the idea of temporarily incapacitating a foe. Just too bad that some of the materials to obtain it are either expensive or hard to obtain.”
“Is that so?” Optimus began his trek forward toward the decepticon. His medic, right on his heels.
I have a “main AU” that is a blend of G1-Prime with elements that I adore from many other continuities. Something I’ve been working on in my free time for years. Featuring my favorite characters, of course. Which would be the Elite Trine and Skyfire.
I’m creating an animatic that features different things I would wish to feature in my future fics and art ;).
I already have a fic that is post-war, following Skywarp currently that you could begin reading right here. Where you could see what exactly is going on with the main forces of our wonderful Bots and Cons during the events of TF Prime. Discovering a new set of mystifying circumstances and a new journey along with Team Prime.
I’m also creating a pre-war fic that will follow Starscream, not yet released. Since I haven’t ever seen a fic that delves into his time as an exemplary explorer, inventor, and scientist. I’ve always wanted to see it. We’ll learn most about Titans Skyfire in this fic, as he will be our main mode of transportations for our rowdy team of exploration ;).
Eventually I will begin on a fic featuring the post-exodus of Cybertron where Team Prime and Nemesis leave the main forces, where we will follow Thundercracker and his struggles as Acting-Supreme Commander of the Decepticons. And the dangers they will face in space, with the horror that can only be found in the depths of the void in front of him. All the while being chased by their oldest foes. Forced to make decisions that even his fierce leaders would never have.
I’m using my new animation program to bring to life my Rectifying Fallacies AU (blend of TFP & G1). A part of which, Skyfire is a Titan-class Cybertronian.
The animatic is set mostly pre-war and the events that happened during that time (eventually I’m planning a fanfic of the time period too, following Starscream).
I already have the first few chapters of a fic set post-war and on earth, following Skywarp and Team Prime. Which you can find the link to here.
