Autobot Seekers

Starscream had his servos on Skywarp’s shoulders to keep him from flitting about like a sparkling. He had to admit that he was surprised by the amount of bots who had started to follow the Prime, and not just for the expected reason that he was the chosen of Primus. He had heard the stories of course, but after spending some time in strategy meetings with the bigger mech, he could feel why the others chose to follow Optimus. He was noble and honest and wanted to do right by everyone. He was painfully optimistic about the future and Starscream was glad that he could rely on Ratchet, the chief medical officer, for a gripe session. It wasn't that he didn't like Optimus or that he didn't like how he did things, but sometimes the mech had too much faith in others.

Looking over at the red and white medic, Starscream let his wings perk up in interest.  Ratchet was going over their medical files to familiarize himself with their frames and history.  It was clear to see that the grounder was fascinated by what he was finding, small similarities and synchronization rates that fell in place with the trine.  It made sense for Thundercracker and Starscream since they had been together for a while, but Skywarp had only been brought into their flock within the last orn.  He was younger and had less time with them, but his systems were fitting into theirs just like he had always been there.

“This is really incredible.  Usually when a frame makes an upgrade or modification it takes an extensive period for the spark and processor to accept it all and make transformations smooth and rides or flights at optimal capacity.  But according to this, Skywarp made his final frame transition, joined your trine and was up in the air within… five cycles?” Ratchet looked over at the three of them, optics narrowing slightly at the slightly smaller flier.

“The trine bond compensates for the extra time one would normally need.” Thundercracker crossed his arms over his cockpit.  “Honestly, I’m not sure why you grounders don’t have similar coding.”

“The closest thing to this that we have is Guardian coding, and that only activates in certain mecha.” Ratchet waved a servo absently. “But your files also state that Skywarp has an extra ability?  I see a footnote here that says ‘vop’.”

“Vertical output placement.” Starscream nodded.  “When his systems are stressed he… ‘vop’s from one place to another.  Like a minimal ground bridge for one.”

Ratchet glanced over, able to see how the elder fliers were taking protective stances on either side of the purple marked flier.  He smiled faintly and let his attention shift back to his datapad, moving over to his desk so he could lock the files so only the highest clearing officers like himself, the Prime and Ultra Magnus would be able to read them.

“Well, as your current medic, I’d like to ask that you keep your stress levels low if you can.  I know the upcoming fighting is going to be a strain on your system, but the less of this voping you do, the better.  I don’t have any instances of it in medical files that I’ve found so far and unless Ori...Optimus pulls something out of the archives that proves otherwise, I’m going to view this as a potential danger.”

“It’s not that bad.” Skywarp scowled a bit and looked up as Thundercracker put a servo on his shoulder.

“We don’t know that, though.” Ratchet looked at the youngling seriously, his spark clenching as he took in the faceplates that were devoid of any minimal cracks or scarring that the older models had.  “It would make your doctor feel better if he didn’t think that… mini teleporter you’ve got inside you, was going to rip you apart.  Do you know how many ground bridge accidents there are every orn?”

“I’m not a ground bridge.”

“But your abilities are similar to one.  He isn’t trying to be cruel, just careful.” Thundercracker absently pet the top of his helm, making Skywarp grit his dentae.  

“Fine.” The youngest flier spun on his heel and stormed out of the medical offices.  

It wasn’t as if he could control what he was doing, it was just a fear reflex.  Like a quick spin of tires on grounders.  His fingers flexed and tensed as he went down the hallway.  He could feel the end of the trine bond sending out thoughts of care and huffed in embarrassment.  He was the youngest so they were always doing this to him.  Even though he had flown to prove himself to them, showed his skills and his intellect that let them know that he was good enough to be in a trine with the Wing Lord and his First Seeker, they still treated him as though he was a youngling.

“Hey!”

Still feeling the edges of annoyment, Skywarp rested a servo on his hip and leveled a glare at the mech who called out to him.  His optics flared in surprise when he noted that it was a ground around the same age as him.  He couldn’t remember his name, but it was hard to forget such a bright yellow frame.  Cautiously, the young seeker took a step towards him, wary of the cheeky smile on his faceplates.

“I’m supposed to go scouting and I was told to bring someone with me.  You wanna come?”

“Don’t you think they intended for you to bring someone older with you?” Skywarp looked the young scout up and down.

“They didn’t -say- that.”

Skywarp grinned.  He liked the way that this ground thought.  Jogging over, he let the scout catch his fingertips and pull him towards the exit.  He knew exactly how this was going to go because he’d done enough things like this in the past.  Get out, get near the spot you were told to go, and -then- comm back to let the ones in charge know that you were out with someone you weren’t supposed to be with.  If you commed them at all.  Swallowing back a soft giggle, he let the scout lead the way and transformed as soon as they were outside, taking a position above him and using what shadows he could find to make sure that he didn’t alert anyone to their prescence.

“You’re Skywarp, right?  From the Wing Lord’s trine?” a voice murmured into his comms.

“You have me at a disadvantage.”

“Bumblebee.  I’m afraid that I don’t have fancy credentials like you do.  I’m just a scout.”

“A scout that’s getting me off base before I go ground crazy.” Skywarp turned himself to flatten against the wall of a building, following the line of it casually.

“Ground crazy?”

“You keep a Seeker on the ground long enough, it drives us batty.  You ever hear of Sunstorm?”

“Ah… no?” The scout sounded confused but Skywarp couldn’t blame him, it wasn’t as though Bumblebee was much older than him.  Not to mention he was a grounder so he wouldn’t need to hear the cautionary tale when he was growing up.

“Sunstorm is a Seeker with bucket loads of issues.  Trine bond issues, radiation issues, ground crazy issues.”  Skywarp explained.  “Get this, it started with his trine breaking apart--”

“I’m still not entirely sure what a trine is or does…” Bumblebee interrupted.

“Oh well… a trine completes one another.” Skywarp explained honestly.

There was a silence on the other end as Bumblebee waited for him to explain further, but that was apparently all that Skywarp was going to give up on the matter.  Or perhaps it was just too complex for him to put into words.  Bumblebee had seen trines before, of course, and he simply assumed they were like another form of conjunx or amica.

“Careful of the buildings, some of them got bombed so they’re not as stable and might fall.” Bumblebee warned him as they continued on their path. “So… what did this mech’s trine do?  Or did he do it to them?”

“Well, it doesn’t happen often, but the trine (or at least the other two in the trine), decided that what they had wasn’t working.  It was supposedly a mutual break up between all three of them.  Normally when that happens, a Seeker surrounds themself with amica and family until they can get their thoughts and spark sorted out.” Skywarp explained quietly. “Sunstorm?  He says that Primus will watch over him and locks himself inside his tower, supposedly praying at the altar that he has there.”

“But it didn’t work?”

“It actually did, more or less!” Skywarp replied cheerfully. “His faith was always something that was unfaltering, to the point that he had at one pointed wanted to go into the clergy.  But, as the story goes, he went through his trauma alone save for Primus and walked out of his tower a little worse for the wear, but not nearly as bad off as we assumed he should be.”

“Hang on a sec, comms are breaking up.”

The two traveled in silence then, assuming that there was someone that had set up scramblers and keeping an optic open to see where they might be placed.  They couldn’t see anything and Bumblebee marked the area on his internal maps, the two of them keeping track of one another through quiet pings.  Skywarp saw when Bumblebee pulled up and transformed and let himself drop down beside him, falling into root mode easily.

“Lets walk the perimeter here to see where the scramblers area effect is.” The yellow scout had a faint scowl on his face, his mask snapping into place as they started forward.

“Should I continue?” Skywarp murmured.

“When we get back to base.  Lets focus.” Bumblebee absently reached for the flier and they squeezed one another’s fingertips before separating to test the area that was being scrambled.

“I’ll go this way.” Skywarp felt his spark spin in excitement as they parted, thrilled to finally be able to do something to prove there was a reason he had the small red mark on his chassis.

“Stay in vocal range.” Bumblebee nodded even as he disappeared from sight.

For a moment, Skywarp envied him for his abilities.  How was it that someone so yellow could disappear so easily?  He smiled as he quietly picked over the gravel and torn up concrete and metal, looking for anything unusual.  Perhaps he wasn’t the best bot to pull into a scouting mission, but he was going to do his best.  Idly, he tapped his cheek as he scanned the area, trying to see what stuck out and what didn’t seem as though it belonged.  It was going to be difficult, however.  The area was completely trashed from previous fighting, and what did remain was broken, so it would be easy enough to make something look destroyed and then plant it there.

It was nerve wrackingly quiet and Skywarp rested a servo on the building he was close to, his optics narrowing slightly and then dimming as he shifted to a heat spectrum vision.  He could see faint traces of where he and Bumblebee had come in, and smaller specs that had to be petrorats deeper into the buildings.  His servo grazed the wall as he passed it, wings folding down against his back to protect himself and try to be less visible.  At least one thing that he had on Bumblebee was that his coloration didn’t make him stand out like a sore digit.  Perhaps he could ask the scout to give him tips on blending in and staying quiet as well.  Even if he wasn’t allowed to go on scouting missions later, he could use the information for sneaking around the base to find amusement.  

He took slow vents as he moved around the half ruined buildings, keeping a stray processing thread on the trine bond that would tell him if Starscream or Thundercracker were alarmed or noticed him missing.  It was odd to be searching from the ground, but the way he figured, he could always learn something new.  Perhaps what he did there in the ruins could even benefit him when he was in the skies?  Although he certainly doubted that.  Running his glossa across his lip plates, he turned his helm to scan the area to his left once more.  His optics narrowed when he noticed a leftover heat signature that was larger than Bumblebee’s.  He pinged his scouting partner as he made his way over to it, his wings slowly starting to raise and tense to feel vibrations in the air around them.

When he knelt next to the spot where the faded heat was, he noticed that the ground had an odd look to it.  The rubble normally looked as though catastrophe had swept through and made the debris go in all directions, but here it was all leaning to the left.  Tapping the ground with a claw, he let out a slow vent and then started to lift up the debris that was there, setting it to the side as a small item came to light for him.  It was compact, looking a bit like a memory stick, but it didn’t have any scratches on it that would make one think it was in the buildings before the fighting hit it.

Bumblebee made his way over to the Seeker and knelt down beside him, taking the tool when it was offered.  When his mask slid away, a grin could be seen and the scout made no hesitation in taking it apart and pocketing the pieces.

“I think that’s the scrambler.  We should be fine if that’s the only one, but we should probably have another look to see if there are more.”

“Isn’t there a way to tell how far it’s range is?” Skywarp looked at him oddly.

The scout paused and then his helm slowly sank down a bit towards his shoulders.  He had been so eager to get rid of the thing that it escaped his immediate thoughts to test the thing somehow.  Skywarp snorted softly and gave the grounder a little shove.

“We can take it back to base and Starscream or Wheeljack can look it over.”

“You’re a good partner.” Bumblebee grinned at him, starting back towards the semi cleared area that he could use to drive home.

“I know.” Skywarp smirked, every cheerful as he leapt upwards and did a quick spin to transform. “Lets get back before someone blows a fuse.”

Bumblebee laughed softly at this and watched the Seeker for a moment, admiring the sleek panels of his wings and how easily his limbs coiled into himself to take his alt form.  His spark fluttered a moment and he averted his optics to the road ahead, jumping into his own form and rounding a corner quickly.  

The Seeker that was watching them through telescopic optics hissed when he saw his small device had been taken.  Golden optics narrowed and wings flared and then snapped downwards, creating a cloak like image in his silhouette.  Long talons clenched into a fist hard enough that small divots of energon welled from his servo and hard vents pushed from the mech.  He couldn’t very well let those two younglings get away with taking what little toys he had to protect himself.  Striding forward, the Seeker snarled, jogging a short ways before flaring his panels and leaping upwards and all but bursting into his alt mode to follow them.