AU idea for everyone, take your 2 favorite Transformers characters, slap them into your favorite continuity, and then make them besties. BOOM EASY AU!!
Anyways this is the Cliff Clobber Friendship AU (Or Clobber in Skybound AU since that's the main difference :P) which focuses on Cliffjumper (Skybound) befriending Clobber (Cyberverse) during his time on Cybertron.
There's a lot of Void Rivals inspiration if anyone has read that, mostly just with 2 people on other sides of a war coming together and working together to get off a planet together hehe
I'll explain the AU under the read more, but keep in mind...
Cyberverse season 3 and 4 spoilers (will be avoiding Cyberverse plot spoilers, but I will mention Clobber specific ones) and Transformers Skybound spoilers up to issue #22
Creation of the AU
Ok so let's start from how I conceptualized this incredibly self indulgent AU where two characters who never even appear in the same continuity are suddenly a duo. I first came up with it between the release of Skybound issue 20 and 21, when the preview for issue 21 was out. This preview revealed that Elita had a portal back to Earth, and was sending one bot through it.
After thinking about it and reading other peoples thoughts, I came to the conclusion Shredhead would go through the portal since that felt like where the story was going. (I was close, but I imagined Elita would send them and keep Cliff on Cybertron... I didn't think Cliffjumper would push Shredhead through it in issue 22)
Sometime after seeing the preview, I thought of an AU in which after Shredhead leaves Cybertron, Cliffjumper keeps fighting the war there, but is unhappy with the conflict since he's already established he's sick of fighting. At some point in a fight after the Decepticons flee, Cliffjumper finds a wounded Clobber and decides to help her since she has been abandoned and he doesn't have it in him to kill her.
Where the AU starts in the Skybound Timeline
So with the context that I conceptualized this before issue #22, this entire AU follows Skybound up to issue #21 and then splits off from canon after that point. The main differences are: Shredhead is sent through the portal by Elita and Cliff stays on Cybertron, and Clobber exists in Skybound as a decepticon grunt.
The Characters
Ok so I'm aware not everyone knows these 2, so I'm just gonna do a quick explanation (actually it won't be quick because I am the yapper of all time)
Clobber is a character from Cyberverse who's design was heavily inspired by Lugnut from TFA (originally she was a female Lugnut according to interviews, but Hasbro wanted to keep Lugnut as a guy so she's her own character!) She is a decepticon grunt who is pretty friendly for a decepticon. In the third season of Cyberverse, she teams up with Hot Rod to free the decepticons and autobots from a simulation, and forms a friendship with him. Their friendship is strong enough that in season 4 she joined the autobots (offscreen for some reason ASJDKAS). A lot of her season 3-4 arc is what inspired this AU!
So if you found this post through Cyberverse tags, you might be confused on who Cliffjumper is (though I'm pretty sure most people know him from G1 atleast) or you might just not know much about Skybound Cliff. Skybound Cliffjumper is a mini bot who woke up on Earth with the other autobots. It is revealed for this continuity his entire clan (family) was killed by Starscream, and that is why he joined the war. He befriends a human named Carly, who's father was also killed by Starscream. Some stuff happens (gonna speed this up since I expect most people know his deal) Cliffjumper cant bring himself to kill Starscream, Carly and him get into an argument because of it, Cliffjumper gets kidnapped by Shockwave and tortured, Carly tries to save him, he gets thrown into a portal to Cybertron, Optimus blows the portal up to save Earth, he gets stranded on Cybertron (pick a struggle buddy...). While on Cybertron, he revives a member of his clan, Shredhead, which brings hope to the struggling Autobot forces. Uhh yeah thats kinda his whole deal in Skybound so far (up to issue 21), he really just wants to go back to Earth so he can be with his bestie Carly.... Sobbing I hope he gets back soon...
Story So Far
Might keep this vague since I haven't actually done proper writing for this... Some aspects of the plot might be subject to change!!!
Elita-1 explains to Shredhead and Cliffjumper that she has a portal back to Earth, but can only send one Autobot back to Earth. She decides she can trust Shredhead with the mission, while Cliff will stay on Cybertron. Cliffjumper and Shredhead have a heartfelt goodbye, Cliff promises to see Shredhead again someday as they step through the portal.
Cliffjumper continues fighting, he finds it miserable and tries to think of ways to get back to Earth, but finds it difficult to imagine leaving when Elita wants him to stay and fight. One day after a fight Cliffjumper patrols the area and discovers a wounded decepticon (Clobber) trapped under rubble who was abandoned when the others retreated. He doesn't have it in himself to kill her, so he tries to communicate. When that doesn't work, he gives her his share of energon rations, and she begins to warm up to him.
Cliffjumper visits Clobber everyday for a few days or weeks (haven't decided yet), they talk about a lot of things and begin to form a friendship. Cliff speaks of Carly and Shredhead, and how he wants to return to Earth, Clobber talks about how much her job as a grunt sucked and sometimes about old friends before the war.
One day Cliff tries to free Clobber, but the noise alerts nearby Autobots and Clobber is taken in as a prisoner. Elita has a talk with Cliff, and is so furious that she labels him a traitor. Afterwards, she interrogates Clobber while she tries to come up with a punishment for him. After finding Clobber had no important information to give up, and Cliffjumper begging her to not kill Clobber, Elita (feeling somewhat bad about how her actions got Cliffjumper stuck on Cybertron) lets them both off easy and exiles Cliff from the autobots.
Clobber decides to stick by Cliffjumper since she doesn't want to return to the decepticons after they left her for dead. She swears to help him back to Earth so he can reunite with his friends and family, and also because she believes she can live freely on Earth without the worry of war.
As factionless bots, the two are frequently caught up indiscriminately in fights between autobots and decepticons. Decepticons especially enjoy tormenting them since none of them have any attachment to Clobber. They work together to survive and manage to live long enough to find a broken, but repairable ship.
They manage to fix it just enough to fly (they aren't rocket scientists so they can only do their best AJSDKJAS) and escape Cybertron.
The rest of the story from here is kinda unclear, I know they fly around in space and go to planets to stock up on supplies, but I don't have any specific plotpoints in mind. Eventually they do get back to Earth though, they crash and then the government takes them in for questioning since Clobber is very clearly a (former) decepticon. Optimus has to negotiate their freedom (its been a while so the government and autobots are allies now) while Cliffjumper vouches for Clobber. After the government reluctantly releases them, Clobber "joins" and Cliff "rejoins" the Autobots. I say it in quotes because they don't reaally consider themselves members, only helping out when needed so the government doesn't consider them useless. This is because Cliffjumper isn't actually that comfortable around Optimus (because of him unintentionally leaving him to Shockwave) and the duo really only came back to Earth for Shredhead and Carly.
Btw Carly, Shredhead, Clobber and Cliff become a sort of found family <3 idk if found clan makes sense since the specifics of clans in Skybound hasn't been fully explained (like I'm not sure if people in clans are born together somehow, or if you just... Join a clan???) so I won't call it found clan until thats been explained...
That's the AU so far! I might make some art/writing for some scenes when I get some cool ideas... I just wanted to get a little summary going so I could get the idea out there >:)
“You don’t need to be gentle with me.” That wasn’t what Tim had come here for.
Jason snorted. “If I try to fuck you while you’re this tense, it’s not gonna be fun for either of us. Besides.” His hands slid down the length of Tim’s back, then up again, rubbing his shoulders in slow circles. “You’re supposed to smell like me, right? Need to make sure to really get it on you if it’s meant to last for three days.”
