I think this was a pretty big moment within the TF community back in the day. Sunstreaker was the first 'official' gay mech within the comic series, and it was definitely something that was important to a lot of us to see that.
So I ended up drawing him (my first attempt at him) back in 2011, where he is flaunting his pride flag. :)
(Chapter 1)| (Chapter 6)| Chapter 7: Friend in Darkness, Chariot of Light. |(Chapter 8)
Jazz’s plan is put into action and the Twins find out what happened to Ratchet.
The last few cycles came and went faster than Ratchet had expected. Jazz for the most part treated him very similar to the way he did before. There were threats here and there to keep up Ricochet’s reputation but most of the time they behaved like good friends.
Then there was Deadlock or more so Drift. He still approach Ratchet with some hesitation but there were moments in which he let his guard down to tease the medic and engaged in light banter.
He also made a habit of taking Ratchet out on dates after their shifts. They always stayed in the base but Ratchet got to see more than just the med bay. Most of the time they dined in the observation deck and looked at the stars.
Other times they would go to the shooting range and enjoyed in a bit of competition. However, Deadlock learned that once Ratchet got his footing back he was going to lose again. It didn’t make to much of a difference who won because the next cycle the two of them went back to being distant.
As the date of Jazz’s departure came closer Ratchet beings to get nervous. He knew that this mission was more important than his escape and when push comes to shove Jazz will leave without him. However, there was still some part of him that hopes that he can come with him.
There’s also Deadlock to consider about to. If he’s out on perimeter check then Roller might be in major danger as the con has no remorse for killing his targets. The best case scenario is for him to be at base where Ratchet can knock him out for the others to take out the rest.
There weren’t many bots left on this base. Just Five indoors and three that stay on the outposts in a five click radius from here. He should asks Jazz about his exit plan but the way that he still treats him as a friend stops him from doing so.
It had been so long that Ratchet felt comfortable that he wanted delay having to say bye to one of his friends.
“The boys are almost here, we better get the plan into motion.” Jazz said as he stocks more cubes into his space sub. “There about 10 clicks west from here and will arrive around my final shift of perimeter duty.”
Ratchet looks down but adds nothing. He’s worried, Jazz can see it in his body language but can’t comment. “Look Ratch,” Jazz then puts his servo on the medic’s shoulder, and Ratchet looks back at him. “I’ll be alright. This isn’t the first mission I’ve been on.”
“What about the twins? And Roller, can you promise me that you can take care of them?” Jazz then puts a digit on top of Ratchet’s lip component.
“Roller will be fine, he’s used to these transports operations. As for Sunny and Sides they knew what they were getting into when they volunteered.”
Ratchet grabs Jazz’s digit moves it away from his faceplate to speak. “I assume you want me to stay here to make sure those scrap for processing units make it out okay?”
“Sorry that I got to leave ya’ again. I don’t know how long it will be before I can even tell OP that you’re here, but this job will gives us the edge we need to end the war.” Ratchet looks back down to the floor and stands still for a bit.
“I understand. Just make sure my wards don’t get trashed on the way over.”
“I can’t make promises but if you play your part prefect then you got nothing to worry about.” Jazz then gives Ratchet a hug good bye. He knows the medic is terrible at parting ways with his friends so this was the easiest way for him to do it.
“If you leave me here for more than a lunar cycle I’ll never forgive you.” Ratchet then returns the gesture.
Arriving on the outpost Roller contacts Jazz on their com links. Sunsteaker looks to Sideswipe as he ready his pistol. He tells them that in about five clicks east they’ll make contact with the Con outpost station closes to the Sonic Canyons.
“Should we go in and steal more med-grade? We have plenty of the standard stuff here but it will take us longer to patch up.” Sideswipe said as he steps into the dusted air.
‘Do what ever you got to do to make sure Roller gets through. This mission will fall apart with out the cargo.“
“So how many cons are we dealing with?” Sunstreaker asks.
Two on the outskirts. Five in the base. We also have an inside bot looking out for ya in case you two mess up.“
Sideswipe tilts his hem a bit. "We weren’t told another bot was on this job. So who is he?”
“Let’s just say I found him while I was here, but if this goes smoothly then he won’t have to blow his cover, okay.” Jazz adds a a digit waggle before entering in Rollers alt mode.
Sunstreaker huffs as he steps outside and transformers. Sideswipe follows suit and head towards the base. Now they’re on their own.
As they reach the front door of the con outpost Sideswipe notes that there’s no guards outside, meaning that there are on the inside hallways and alerts Sunsteaker to braces himself.
Crashing through the door they transform back into robot mode and take down two cons without much fuss. With three more left the twins split up as now they’re chances of getting capture is almost nonexistent.
Sideswipe takes the right hallway and keeps creeping forward. The base is small ,mast capacity is about 10,000; and height is three stories from the outside look.
Medical Facilities tend to be on the bottom floor center of the base, at least that’s what Ratchet has told him. Of course this would have been easier if he asked Jazz for the layout like he was suppose to, well the twins best work when they improvise anyway.
He approaches the end of the hallway and sees a door on the next turn. It reads Medical Care and Treatment.He pings Suntreaker that he’s found the med-bay and to come to his location. An advantage that their split spark gave them was always knowing the other is at all times.
Without waiting for his twin to catch up Sideswipe enters the room, hoping to find the Medical Grade Energy before the medic returns to post. The lights are off except for one at the other end of the room under the staff only door.
From what he can gather there’s only one exit so he has to plan his escape routes as he presses forward. The door that the light falls under opens and Sideswipe ducks for cover.
The bot who walks in looks a lot like Ratchet. Then Sideswipe gets a real good look at his faceplate and sees that it is Ratchet, he can’t believe it. Actually, he doesn’t believe it but then again why would a con disguise himself if they didn’t know they were here. Resting his intake Sideswipe takes a risk.
“Ratch is that you?” The bot jumps a bit before looking around the room. Sideswipe gets to his peds and then bot speaks.
“Sideswipe what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be making a diversion for Jazz and Roller?” Ratchet is mad but Sideswipe couldn’t care less and went to give him a hug.
“It’s really you-We’ve been looking everywhere for you Ratch and couldn’t find you.” Sideswipe could feel cleanser forming around his optics but just held Ratchet tighter.
The medic put his arm around him and said, “Miss you brats too.” Ratchet stills smells the same and Sideswipe felt enough comfort to readjust himself. “So tell me why are in the med-bay when you should be doing what you do best.”
“I came to stock up on Med grade incase we need patching up.” Ratchet then pulls a container from his space sub and gives it to Sideswipe.
“Here. This will last you for at least six weld jobs, or five cycles of refuel. Now get going.”
Just then the exit opens and they both turn to see that it’s Sunstreaker. He’s optics dial in surprise before moving closer to Ratchet.
"Sunstreaker you nearly sent me to an early grave.” Ratchet said as his flicks the side of Sunny’s helm.
"Next time I’ll do a better job just you wait.” Sunstreaker then grabs Ratchet’s arm and drags him towards the door. “Come on we’re getting you out of here.”
"Sunstreaker I can’t go with you, not yet.”
"Why not? Can’t you see that this is your best chance to escape.”
"Yeah, and I don’t want you to end up captured because I slow you down.” Sideswipe stops hugging Ratchet to look him in the optics.
“It’s very unlikely we’ll get caught if there’s only three cons left.” Sideswipe picks up the conversation for Sunstreaker.
“They’ll notice that I’m missing the moment we walk out of this room.” The entrance door opens and Sideswipe moves to cover Ratchet. Turning around he sees that Deadlock is holding a gun against Sunstreaker’s chassis. The barrel is pointing right above his spark casing. He also twist his arm and grips it hard.
“Step away from the medic and your twin will live.” Deadlock says as he motions the gun up and down to get his point across.
Sideswipe lifts his servos up, like he’s seen Ratchet do when patients get hostile. Deadlock still keeps his grip on Sunstreaker but lowers the gun.
“That’s good. Now come this way and I’ll escort you to your prison cells.” Sideswipe keeps moving closer to Deadlock thinking of a plan. If he tugs Sunstreaker forward that might give them a surprise advantage. However, there still wouldn’t be enough time for him to draw his weapon to go for the kill.
“Let them go and nothing bad will happen.” Ratchet said pulling out a gun from his space sub. It’s time like these that the twins regret their decision to warm up to the medic. He thinks that they both need his protection and has officially unofficial clam them as his wards.
Maybe among the auto bots ,it’s true, having Ratchet favor keeps them from being abuse. Here, however, the two of them know the best course of action.
“Ratchet, you know by now I can’t do that.” Ratchet then steadies himself and aims his gun towards Deadlock. Sideswipe rolls forward and drags Sunstreaker down to the floor with him.
Deadlock is now pinned in position and Ratchet moves towards them keeping his gun pointing at him. “It’s that kind of spunk that I admire about you.” Deadlock said while keeping his optics at Ratchet. Sideswipe can feel his em field shift to something of both pride and arouse.
Before Sideswipe has to much time to thinking about Deadlock lusting after their primary care taker, Ratchet pulls the trigger. It isn’t a normal blast, instead it’s a light EMP single to send the con offline.
“Alright boys you better get going if you plan on catching up with Jazz.” Ratchet then heads towards the light door and palms for a small button on the wall.“ Go right once you leave this room and keep going straight till you reach the rec room. Then turn left and walk straight on the first hall you see you’ll find the back entrance.”
The twins both get up and give Ratchet one last glance over before nodding and heading out. Once they leave the room the base alarm goes off the transform into their alt modes and make way for the exit.
It’s a while before the reach Jazz and Roller station at the mouth of the canyon, but when they see them they can’t help but get angry. How can Jazz know Ratchet’s location and not tell any bot about.
“Jazz!” Sunstreaker said as he and Sideswipe reach Jazz and Roller. Jazz was expecting this kind of behavior from the twins but kind of hoped that they’d get captured so he didn’t have to deal with it.
“I see you boys made it back safely.”
“Cut the slag and tell us why you didn’t mention that Ratchet was at that base.” Of the two twins Sideswipe is the most talkative but when it came to expressing outrage Sunstreaker takes over the conversation.
Jazz lets out a sigh, “Listen, I couldn’t tell you because otherwise Optimus would find out and the last thing we need is a OP getting distracted by the news Megatron’s got Ratch.”
“Oh yeah, ‘Cause let him worry sick about him is so much more helpful.” At this point Jazz looks over to sideswipe, whose wondering over to something glowing in the distance. Typical, when he needs him to calm Sunny down he’s out doing something else.
“Sunstreaker stop it.” Jazz really wants to tell him to frag off. Ratchet was his friend long before the war. “Look I get it, Ratch means a lot to you, he does for me too. But I made the choice to keep him there to end the war faster.
Sunstreaker looks at him like he grew a second helm. "If you’re both done arguing I need one of you to answer the vid screen.” Roller speaks still in his alt mode.
“Just remember Sunstreaker, if this mission is successful then we have a better chance of saving him.” With that Jazz goes inside to answer the call.
