Chapter Text
"I can't believe it..!" Firestar said looking down at Averia from the ship's windows "It's almost over. Soon we'll be home with the cyber-key; we'll resurrect Primus!"
"calm those flames, Firestar." Chromia spoke beside her "Ours isn't the only key that needs to be retrived"
"Oh don't be such a bore..!" Firestar said rather dramatically
"chromia's right star, It's been ages since we've been able to make any contact with the Ark or the Lost Light" Greenlight spoke from the pilot seat
Elita's eyes darkened at that last part, but she kept herself from frowning
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Once they land, everyone except Minerva, Transmutate and Lancer (who still hasn't quite recoverd from their last misadventure) leave to make contact with the natives, to Greenlight's protest.
"I just think I should stay in the Peaceful Revolution in case of a attack, Lancer's the only combatant in the ship right now and she's in no condition to fight!
"What's gonna attack the Revolution? A lilleth?" Flare-Up "asked" walking past greenlight with her head leaning back on her servos
"Ofcourse not, lilleths are native to Cybertron, and quite friendly" Greenlight said, like it was a silly question
"Sarcasm green, sarcasm"
Elita suddenly stopped, leading Chromia to bump into her, though Glyph,Who was sitting on her shoulder, didn't seem to mind
"Elita, is something wrong?" Glyph and Chromia asked in unison
"We're being watched" she said simply then unshielded her sword "Who goes there?"
when their watchers left the shadows the Shield of Solus realized they were completely surrounded.
"Stand back colonizers!" One of the natives, the one with the staff, said. But Elita couldn't tear her eyes away from the mech standing beside zir: Strika
"Colonizers?" Moonracer echoed, tilting her head in confusion
"How did you got here before us!?" firestar's doorwings were pressed against eachother in annoyance and the fire atop her head was dulled
"*What* are you doing here Strika?"
"why, protecting the innocents of this planet from the oppressive servos of your Autobots ofcourse!" Strika sounded way too pleased with herself
Elita Turned to the Averian standing beside Strika and spoke as gently as she could: "I don't know what Strika has told you but I can assure yo-"
"*Silence!*" Ze slamed her staff to the ground "My people will not be massaccered for another's greed ever again!"
Strika took a step closer "I will give you one last chance to stand down *Ariel*"
Elita tried her best to not physicaly stiffen at the usage of that name
"I do not wish to hurt any innocents," she points her sword at Strika "but I will if I must"
Her team follows her lead and draw out their weapons (except for Glyph ofcourse, who slides down to Elita's wrist and transforms into her secondery altmode: a gauntlet of shorts)
"Very well then" Strika rotates the turrets on her back to face Elita one but Thunderblast shoots before she does, Elita uses glyph's force fields to dodge the blast
Greenlight slices through vehicons and averians with her sycthe, Chromia throws herself at Thunderblast, even managing to cut one of her "wings" It's not a deep cut but that doesn't stop Thunderblast from screaming like she cut her whole "wing" off
The rainmakers fire from above, Nightracer shoots Chromia's hand causing her to drop her axe, Killjoy takes it and launches herself at... Greenlight? Two of the rainmakers, the yellow and the green ones, transform into robot mode and launch themselves at Firestar
Flare-Up whips her mace at the yellow one, which distracts her enough to stop attacking Firestar and chase the quadricycle instead, Flare-up and Moonracer (Because ofcourse Moonracer fallows Flare-Up) drive yellow away from the fight, green calls after her but Firestar hits him with her hammer sending them crashing into a tree
Nightracer attempts to follow after the three but Killjoy stops her
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"Come here you little-!" Nova Storm yells as she keeps firing at the two bikes
Flare-Up barely dodges a missile "That the best you can do, seeker?" she laughs
"Stop!"
*BAM*
"Moving!"
*BOOM*
"Around!"
*BANG*
"You couldn't hit me even if I di-!" a missile knocks her on the ground, she instinctively transforms into robot mode
Nova Storm grabs her "Ha! Not so smug anymore are you?" Nova Storm tightens her grip leading Flare-Up to groan in pain
it takes a while for Moonracer to get herself together but as soon as she does she draws her gun and aims at Nova Storm's hand
causing her to drop Flare-Up. Moonracer runs to her side
"C'mon, we need to take cover!" she helps her stand up "I saw a cave around here, she won't follow us there."
"Got it" Flare-Up sounds pained but still has a smile on her face
"OW ow ow!" Nova Storm flaps her hand to shake the pain away "Primus, what is wrong with y- HEY!" she notices the bikes driving away "Where do you two think you're going!?" she transforms and follows after the two
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Nova Storm tries to grab the orange bike before she goes inside the cave but misses at the last moment
"UGH!" she stomps her foot "They just *had to go in a cave didn't they*"
She backs off and stares at the enterance for a while
"It won't take *too* long... I'll just go in, kill them, and get out" she taps her foot on the ground as she talks "They couldn't have gone too far in..."
she faces the enterance of the cave and gulps "Just get in and get out..."
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Flare-up was honestly exhausted from all the running they've been doing. needless to say she had been real glad when they reached a wide, flat area in the cave.
"Aug!" she throwed herself at the ground "What an aft..."
"Are you alright?" Moonracer asked, clearly worried she had seriously hurt herself "Can you stand?"
"I'm fine moonie, just... tired"
"Ah, right..."
.
.
.
"you sure she ain't gonna follow us here Moonie?"
"Nah, most fliers don't like being underground" moonracer waved her hand dismissively
"*Most*"
"Nova Storm is afraid of *glitch* *mouses*," Moonracer said "She's not gonna follow us here"
"Oh. you think so?"
Flare-Up immediately stood up and pointed her flamethrowers at the seeker.
"Careful" Nova Storm said pointing her blaster at Moonracer "We wouldn't want any *accidents* happening"
"You're such a-"
"*Shut* *up!*" Nova Storm yelled "I've had an awful couple of cycles, and *you* fragging hit me, you little vermin! So *excuuuuse* *me* if I'm overreacting a bit here but I'm sick of this stupid hunt! And I'm sick of you Autobots, and I'm sick of Strika, an- and the Decepticons!"
While Nova Storm was focused on her monolog Moonracer went behind her and shot her at the back of the head, this startled Nova Storm and made her accidently shoot a stalactite, soon a full blown fight broke out and eventualy their fighting led to a cave in, the ground collapsed and they fell.
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"Ugh..." Flare-Up slowly opened her optics, why was she lay- Oh right, Nova Storm. She tried to stand up, her vision was fragged and her head was killin' her but she maneged to not fall face first into the ground. "That sure was a hard fall, huh moonie?"
no response
"Moonracer? Moonracer!"
still no response
*Great*, just *fantastic*. Now she had to find both Moonie and a way out. Primus she hoped the mech didn't get herself in trouble already.
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"*You!* This is al your fault!"
"My fault? how is this my fault? You caused the cave in!"
"*You* brought us to the cave!" Nova Storm pointed her blaster at Moonracer
"Wait, wait wait! You can't kill me!"
"Realy, why is that?"
"Because... cause... D-do you have any idea how you're gonna get out of here? Because I do! I can help you get out *or* you can try to get out of this underground maze on your own, all alone."
"hmg..." Nova Storm just glared at the two wheeler for a while then: "*Fine!*... You're lucky I don't like being alone" Nova Storm dropped her
Moonracer goaned as she picked herself back up
"Lead the way bike"
"You do know I have a name right?"
"Yeah, pfft- I just... I know your name"
"Oh yeah? What is it?"
"...Lunarunner?"
"Moonracer, it's Moonracer"
"Just lead the way already!"
"Okay, okay, geez" she takes a moment to listen for flowing water then points left "That way, I hear water"
Nova Storm simply follows her. They walk for hours without talking despite Moonracers many attempts at conversation, Nova Storm never answers
"So... what's it like with team chaar? Strika seems... intense"
...
"Okay What is your deal with thunderblast? I know Killjoy and Flare have history but what did she do to you?"
...
"You like jazz..? Yeah me neither"
...
"Is it true Ion Storm likes poetry?"
...
"What... what was it like?"
that caught Nova Storm off guard "What?"
"Cybertron, What was it like before the war?"
"You... don't remember?"
"I-" Her own voice sounded odd to Moonracer "I was forged during the war, I never got to see cybertron before it"
Nova looked down at the bike, who had her wheels cast downwards, no doubts intentional on the two wheelers end to make herself seem more vulnerable than she actually was
"why don't you ask that to your autobot buddies?"
"I... They don't like talking about... old memories"
"Maybe I don't like talking about old memories"
"Sorry..."
Nova Storm let out a heavy sigh
"What do you wannna know?"
"W-wait realy!?" Moonracer looked up at her , her wheels rose in surprise and excitement
"Okay, okay, give me a minute!" Moonracer said bouncing on her feet then yelled "The sky"
"The sky?"
"Yeah! In every planet we have visited the sky was colorfull and pretty!" her wheels fell "but back on cybertron it's just... grey and dull... was it always like that?"
"Of course not! Believe me no planet has prettier skies than Cybertron!"
"Realy?"
"Realy! It used to be this beautiful mix of purple and blue hues. Oh you should have seen it on sunsets, there was no sight prettier on Cybertron! Ion, Acid and I used to go flying every evening , there was no feeling better than hovering amongst clouds during sunsets, it was the best part of my day! And sometimes Sta-" She suddenly went quite, wings and smile both dropped. She hated her mind for always circeling back to her
Nova's silence worried Moonracer, just as she opened her mouth to ask what was wrong Nova Storm spoke
"It's kinda weird how close we used to be... I mean we barely do anything together anymore... beside, like, fighting
but that's just our job!.. I- I don't even know if they still like me anymore or if They're just pretending to tolerate me
because they're stuck with me!" She realy shouldn't be telling these things to an Autobot but then again Nova has never been a very smart mech (Maybe that's why Starfall left)
"Yeah, I feel like that too sometimes"
"Huh?"
"Y'know like you have to prove your worth to the people close to you so they won't leave you. I know that feeling"
"You... do?"
"Everybody on the peacfull revelution is so... amezing. And I'm just... me. I don't know if they realy like me or if they're just keeping me around because I make them laugh..." she didn't part her gaze off the ground "It's nice to know I'm not alone"
"Yeah..."