Chapter Text
A/N: I present to you my debut on AO3. The story is finished I just didn't want to post all at once to provide time to make any changes for clarity and such. Enjoy! *attempts to float gracefully off stage and trips*
Planet Avion
This planet was a strange mix of mechanized and organic life. Tall spiraling metallic structures seemed to have formed naturally amongst the trees and grass as if they belonged together. Megatron shook his head. It was strange, foreign. Mechanical organisms growing alongside organic fauna. What strange world had they found themselves in? The crew was supposed to be stopping a team of rogues. They hadn’t any definitive information on how large the group was or what sort of weapons they had. Rodimus accepted the challenge like the idiot he is. Megatron only came along because he hadn’t wanted to lose any members under his idiocy. Megatron was starting to have second thoughts. None of their telemetry was online in this strange forest-like area. They were blind down here.
“Rodimus,” Megatron started. Just the sound of the young mechs name grated on his nerves. “Pray tell how we are supposed to find the Nardroids, if we can’t even find our way through this damned forest?!”
Rodimus gave him that infuriating smile. The one that said, “we’ll wing it”.
“C’mon Megs, lighten up and enjoy the sunlight.”
Megatron snarled something under his breath.
“Sorry Megs, I didn’t catch that.” Rodimus said, irritating smile still in place. How could anyone smile that widely and not look like a maniac.
“I said, the answer won’t just fall from the sky.”
Megatron really needed to stop arguing with the idiot. The universe loved to prove him wrong.
No sooner had the words left his mouth, than they heard a yell. The entire group looked up, trying to peer through the treetops. A second later a figure crashed through the canopy, with a shriek of…joy?
“Heads!” The figure shouted as warning.
Out of sheer reflexes, Megatron held his arms out sighing internally. The figure crash landed into his arms.
Megatron blinked
“Nice catch, big guy.” The mecha in his arms chirped. They squirmed and hopped to the ground.
The figure dusted itself of as if there wasn’t a large group standing around gaping at it.
“Oh frag!” The mecha swore. He whistled, a long high note and tilted his head to wait.
“Uhm, hi- Rodimus began stepping forward, dumb smile in place.
“Ah shh-shhh!” He said, silencing him with a finger. His smile slipped as he stared at the new comer.
Megatron laughed. Finally someone who seemed unaffected by Rodimus’ charm.
The newcomer tilted his head back and forth, listening. They must have heard what they were looking for, because suddenly he grinned. The sound finally reached the rest of the group. Beating wings?
The underbrush parted several seconds later and a serpentine head poked through. In his mouth he held a long staff with blades on both ends.
“Oh! Serpens! Nice catch!” The mech hurried forward and took the staff from the serpent like mecha and attached it to a holster on his back.
Serpens clambered out of the underbrush and they got to see how large he truly was. Large enough to probably carry his friend on his back.
“Spread your wings a much as you can down here.” The mech ordered.
Serpens did as told with an exasperated grumble.
The mech walked around, checking hiss wings for damage, going as far as gently checking the underside as well.
“You weren’t hit? At all?”
Serpens rolled his eyes and with a huff snapped his wings closed.
“Fine, fine. I just can’t have you getting hurt.” The mech said, tapping him lovingly on the snout. The mech turned back to the group.
“Is this the part where you tell us who you are? Because we’ve been you know…wondering.” Getaway asked, squinting at the new comer.
The mech turned to him with a smile, revealing pointed canines.
“My names Jolt and this here is Serpens.” He scratched his head.
“What exactly are you doing?” Megatron aasked.
He turned to him inclining his head. “Normally I wouldn’t divulge information about my doings, but you did kindly catch me and I can’t imagine what a large group of mechs such as yourself would be doing here. We’re after the same thing I reckon. Going after those pesky Nardroids. Am I right?”
Rodimus pumped a fist in the air. “Whoo!”
Megatron turned to the co-captain. “What? What could you possibly be this excited about?”
“If we had of actually bet on the whole ‘help won’t just fall from the sky’ thing, you’d totally owe me fifty shanix.”
“But we didn’t bet so it’s a moot point.”
“Still it’s the principle. He practically fell in with the grace of Primus.”
The mech in question looked around for a moment, before pointing to himself.
“…I’m a femme.”
“Wow, you guys keep popping up lately.” Skids said.
“Yeah, I will admit, femmes keep it interesting.” Getaway said, eyeing her almost appreciatively.
Whether she saw him or not, she turned to Megatron, regarding him as the leader.
As she turned, the dappled sunlight shone on her armor, highlighting strange markings running up her arms, crossing over her pauldrons. He decided now was not the time to ask about her personal tastes in decals.
“So will you have me join your group? I can’t imagine your telemetry equipment works well out here.” She said, as if she didn’t care one way or another whether he admitted her to the group.
“Can you lead us either from this forest or to the Nardroids?” He asked.
“I can do one better.” She said, smirking up at the much larger mech. “I can lead you to the Nardroids, out of this forest, and to a nice bar.”
Megatron was already shaking his head, but he could see he was about to be outvoted. He was only co-captain after all.
“Fine.”
She grinned. “You’ve got a good head on those shoulders.” She said, touching her fist to his chest and prancing off, Serpens on her heels.
“Well I for one, like her.” Whirl said, speaking up for the first time, not hesitating to follow the strange femme through the forest.
“Can we keep her?” Rodimus asked aloud, trotting after her.
Megatron sighed. It was going to be a long day.
They caught up to the femme. She was standing near a large tree, her optics half shuttered palm pressed flat against it.
At their approach she perked up and grinned.
“Do you…live here? In this forest?” Skids asked.
She laughed. “I’m not even native to this planet. No, I’ve been here less than a week.” She looked around idly as they started moving. “This is actually my first time being here in this particular forest.”
Megatron started. He turned to the femme about to ask why they had entrusted her with helping them, if she didn’t know her way around the forest.
She saw his face and smiled, daring him to be snippity.
Getaway asked the big question.
“So…if you don’t know the forest, how are you going to lead us out of it?”
“A very good question, my finely painted friend. I can read the forest. I’m what you guys on Cybertron call an outlier. My ability is, as my name may have already told you, electrical currents.”
Getaway tilted his head. “Is that supposed to make sense? I’m not seeing the correlation.”
“Everything living has a faint electromagnetic pulse. Since we’re in a forest, all the trees are pretty connected. It’s just a quick matter of-
“Reading the electrical pulses through one tree and mapping it out in your head. Wow! That’s absolutely incredible!” Nautica said, nearly shoving Getaway out of the way to get to Jolt.
She flushed slightly and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.
“Well thank you.” She said.
“Are you a practicing spectralist?” Drift asked. “That sounds familiar to something they could do.
“Really? I’ve never actually met a Spectralist.”
She easily led them through the trees, nimbly stepping over roots and hopping over fallen logs.
“Geez, Mecha’s aren’t really meant for this sort of environment, yet you look right at home.” Getaway commented.
“Hmm? Ah, comes with the territory. I could probably navigate blindfolded. Though I’d rather not.”
Getaway chuckled.
After a while she held up a hand.
“They’re close.” She said, simply.
She turned to them. “They mostly have a range of short range weapons. Blades, and blasters. The biggest one is the one we need to worry about. He’s got the most range. I’ll handle him.”
“With all due respect perhaps it’s best one of us take him on.” Skids offered politely.
She grinned fiercely. “With all due respect I can handle it. Besides, it’s personal.”
They began preparing for the battle, onlining weapons systems and engaging battle protocols.
“Jolt, how far away are they now?” Megatron asked. He looked up when he didn’t receive an answer. Jolt was nowhere to be found.
“Did she really leave us before the battle even begins?” Rodimus said, spinning in a quick circle.
“Coward.” Whirl said.
“It is of no consequence.” Megatron said, hefting his fusion canon. He could hear the Nardroids approaching the clearing. He led the other Autobots into the clearing.
“Let’s go Autobots!” Rodimus yelled, blaster in the air as they charged.
They clashed with the Nardroids head on. Drift was in his element, clashing with swords.
The battle went on for a while with still no sign of Jolt.
Suddenly, an ear splitting crack sounded through the clearing. The sound of a tree being split. A mech larger than Overlord himself stepped into the clearing. He growled as he approached the warring mechs. Hefting a proportionately large blaster.
“Cybertronians.” He spat. His voice rumbling.
“Bad enough I have to deal with that Drymekyian.”
A screech drew the attention of the battle field. Everyone as a collective whole looked up. Serpens shot out of the trees, wings blocking out the sun and causing a flare. He dove, much faster than seemed possible and raked his talons across the giants face, gouging out his eyes. He shrieked in obvious pain.
A battle cry was heard from the opposite side of the clearing. Suddenly Jolt cleared the trees, swinging on what appeared to be a tangle of vines braided together to support her weight.
“You’re going down Titian!” She yelled. She released the vine and landed on him. Though she was tiny she was apparently really strong. She hefted her double bladed staff and slashed into his shoulder, dropping her weight and using her momentum to tear his armor. When she hit the ground, he resembled a peeled can of sardines. He dropped to the ground. She finished him off, slamming the staff through his chest. She leapt into the fray of the remaining, Nardroids. Now that their leader had been taken down, they were much less organized and scattered easily. The battle didn’t last much longer.
Jolt grinned and leaned on her staff.
“Don’t worry about cleanup. Some guys from the city-state will handle it soon enough.”
“That was freaking awesome!” Skids said. Normally he wasn’t the excitable type but seeing others battle techniques was something he could appreciate.
“Yeah, that was pretty cool.” Rodimus said, begrudgingly. No one was allowed to look cooler than he on the battle field.
“Well I couldn’t have pulled that move without Serpens here.” She said, patting his head affectionately.
“Like hell you couldn’t.” He said, grinning.
Getaway flinched.
Jolt raised an eyebrow at him.
“Sorry, I just…I didn’t know he could talk.”
She giggled. “Aren’t your cassettes back home capable of speech?” She asked.
“Yes and just because they can, doesn’t mean they should.” Megatron said, thinking of Ravage.
“So you guys down for that bar?” She asked, raising her staff and spinning it deftly before affixing it to the holster.
“In the interest of holding my position…I can’t refuse.” Megatron admitted.
“Whooo! Party!” She said, throwing her hands in the air.
“Did you guys dock at Nars?” She asked.
Megatron confirmed they did indeed dock there.
“Awesome! That makes this that much easier.”
It wasn’t long before they were out of the forest and back into civilization.
“Are you docked on Nars? We’re going to transform and head there now.” Rodimus said.
She grinned and nodded. “I’ll catch up.”
“Do you not have an alt mode?” Getaway asked, noticing she didn’t have wings or flying apparatus.
“Ha. Not a typical alt mode.” She said, turning away.
“Anyway, I need to get cleaned up and such, so I’ll meet you guys at the docking port.”
She cleared a few steps and Serpens who was gliding overhead, gasped her shoulders with his front claws.
With a mechanical sound, they appeared to have combined. She gave her wings a good flap and they were soaring.
Whirl gave a laugh and transformed, chasing after her.
“See you losers later!”
“Fliers.” Getaway muttered as he transformed. Everyone else followed suit.
It took them a surprisingly short time to get to the dock.
Jolt and Serpens transformed in midair, dropping neatly to the ground.
“Whoa! This is you guys?” she asked, craning her head back to see the entirety of the ship.
“Holy Pit!”
Rodimus beamed. “Yeah that’s the Lost Light.” He said, proudly.
“Certainly this isn’t your whole crew.” She said, gesturing to the others.
“Now were over 200 strong.” Her jaw dropped.
“Jeez.”
She turned to head for her tiny craft.
“Well, I’ll meet you guys at the bar. It’s called Hidole.” She said, before boarding with Serpens.
“We are so going.”