$*Self-Insert as Sam Witwicky*$

-=-This is a line break-=-

Whomever thinks this is funny, when I said I could have made a better Sam Witwicky than the portrayed Sam Witwicky… you know I was kidding right? There was no response as my four-year-old self stared into the mirror my 'mother,' Judy, was holding me up to. She had been 'showing off' the 'cute' outfit she stuck me in. But something about really seeing myself for the first time woke up vague memories of my last life.

I really wanted to cry at the injustice of it. No one wants to wake up and realize that their life has pretty much been planned out for them. I let myself had an internal freak-out for five minutes (okay, maybe it was closer to an hour), and then decided to suck it up and deal with it. Besides, I might have a better chance if I started preparing now (not that you can really, honestly prepare for Transformers).

While Judy and Ron had a fussy argument about the 'manliness' of the outfit I was wearing in the background, I decided to make a list of things that I would need to work on long-term.

1st: there would be no slacking with school. Sam was smarted than he was portrayed, and I wasn't a slouch either. I may not have been a genius in my last life, but I definitely wasn't average.

2nd: there would also be no arguing over the money to pay for Bumblebee. I would get summer jobs and such as soon as I could, there was no point in destroying an entire fucking parking lot worth of windshields.

3rd: join a sport, or get into cross-country running, because honestly, Sam was a bit slow and lazy, and I sure as hell wanted to be able to run away when given the option.

4th: I needed to learn how to use a gun, that was not optional, I would deal with that when I was a bit older, cause I had no doubt there was going to be resistance from my parents.

5th: meditation, because the original Sam's biggest issues with being so easily upset and distracted, and his inability to deal with having the AllSpark Memory or whatever it was inside him was because he had no way to organize his mind. Like, at all.

Decided, I let my focus return to my current life. Just in time too, as Judy was walking back to me with a laugh and eye roll. She cooed as she picked me up, pointing to an even less 'manly' outfit. I kept the sigh internal, I still had years of this until I could control my own wardrobe. I looked up at her, and decided I might as well make my parents happy, especially considering the stress I would be putting them thru later.

-=-= This is a line break -=-=-

School, when you've already been thru it before, turns out to be quite boring. And a bit more annoyingly stressful than it should be. I never realized how much drama was involved with kids under the age of 16 (and I knew 16 and up wouldn't be a cakewalk either). I also, apparently, showed just how bored I was often enough for the teachers to notice. They jumped me up two grades before I flat out refused to be bumped any higher. I didn't want to fuck up the storyline that badly.

After a rather tense standoff between my parents (and wasn't it just plain awesome to have them take my side on this) and the school, it was decided that I would remain in my current grade and go up the normal way from there. There would be exceptions though. The school would have me tested yearly, and would foot the costs to have me take higher tests as necessary. Under that same agreement, I had to talk with several advisors from not only the school board, but a couple of local colleges as well.

I didn't bother to pay close enough attention to how they worked it out, but I would be able to take online college classes during my myriad of 'free periods' at school. (Free periods were classes that I opted out of after proving I was too advanced for them. This covered pretty much all of the English and Grammar classes up until senior year of highschool, and math classes up to Trigonometry, that one I was actually a bit ashamed of, as I had completed Calculus in my last life. I didn't realize I had lost enough to need to retake Trig. I had to 'go to the library' before being able to test out of Government and Social Studies, but after a rather annoying summer I had passed the tests I would need to be considered 'Diploma' ready.) As it was, I would be taking the SAT's and after requesting it, the ACT's before I ever entered junior high.

By twelve I had managed to worm myself into hunting classes after two years of begging my parents, and I had joined both the track and cross-country teams. Judy was happy to join me in yoga and meditation classes (I know 'why yoga?', answer 'It makes Judy happy' and really, that's the only thing I cared about). I had also started making offhand remarks about joining the Junior ROTC. It was still a couple years off, but I had learned it was best to start early with my new parents.

Saving money for Bumblebee was a bit harder. Especially as it was hard to find jobs for anyone underage. I only had so much time to babysit, dog walk, and do paper routes with my already fairly packed schedule. The paper routes I could add into training time for cross-country, and the dog walks, when done at a run, were good for the track practice. But babysitting… I never realized how much dealing with kids ages 3-10 could frustrate me. I adored kids, and was quite protective of them, but it didn't make me any happier with having to deal with a kid who despised my presence because, and I quote, 'I'm not a baby!'.

That didn't mean I didn't manage it, because I did. It just meant I was fairly unpopular with other kids. I didn't do anything but the bare minimum for Birthday/Christmas/other reason presents. I didn't do birthday parties as soon as I was old enough to decide myself. I also didn't have any 'extras' or 'toys' that weren't flat out given to me by someone else with the exception of a few items, such as sketching supplies and items I figured would be useful later on. Even my allowance got saved. By the time I had gotten to the point of the 'Witwicky Project', I had amassed more than I would need for Bumblebee, enough that I actually decided to get a few… extras… before the 'start' of the movie timeline.

It should also be noted that I made no attempt to 'sell' Archibald's stuff, but, since I figured it would be necessary, I posted a pic of some of the items online after a somewhat 'led' conversation with Miles. Miles was a more 'distant' friend. I found a lot of trouble making friends with people mentally younger than myself. It was actually kind of lonely. (To be fair, my goth/punk style of dress probably didn't help in making friends. But I had spent too long in my last life finding a style and fit of clothing I was comfortable with to give it up now.)

After getting the last 'A', I ran into a slight issue, which led to a complication I was not prepared for. Namely, that Ron took me to a different car lot, one well on the other side of town. Since I guess I was more 'studious' then the original, and had proved to be a hard worker, Ron decided to fork out more for a car, quite a bit more actually. I had spotted Bumblebee enter the lot from the corner of my eye, taking on a much newer version of a Camaro. I was actually starting to turn to walk that direction when a bright, if faded, gold pain job caught my eye.

I have no idea why I even noticed it. I honestly think it was the hand of Fate, or Primus, or the fucking AllSpark, I don't even know. Because he never showed up in the movies, assumed dead or some shit. I walked over to the beaten up Lamborghini and pulled the door open on protesting hinges to find a faded Autobot symbol on the steering wheel. The inside was dusty, and for all I knew, he really was dead and nothing more than a hunk of broken parts. But I couldn't just leave him there. Even if I had no idea who he was, only that he was an Autobot. I stood back up straight and turned to Ron.

"Dad! I want this one!"

It took some negotiating. Bringing the guy down on the price was difficult, but the fact the car 'didn't even start' helped in my favor. Ron was wary about buying a broken down car, but I quickly pointed out that I still had the secondhand motorcycle one of my great uncles gave me two Christmases back. I would have plenty of time to work on this one and still be able to get around on my bike. He grudgingly allowed it and handed over what I couldn't cover myself. It had to be towed back to the house. I ignored the yellow and black Camaro trailing us by a half-mile.

-this is a line break-

As soon as the Lamborghini was dropped off, I dragged out my tool chests (another gift from family when I started taking mechanical classes). And then went to retrieve a notebook, pen, and the debit card attached to my college fund account, because I had a feeling I would be needing to buy parts. I, again, ignored the Camaro not doing a very good job of hiding down the block. I popped open the hood on the Lamborghini and began making a list of parts that I could already tell needed replacing.

I frowned as I noted parts that I would likely have to find at a junk yard, because they weren't going to match the schematics for a car, no matter what car it was. Once I had a list of stuff I could get right away I went inside and grabbed a phone and began ordering them from the local autoshop. (Unsurprisingly, it was Mikaela's father's shop. She didn't really recognize me, but that was expected since we weren't in the same classes.) Luckily, a good deal of them were in stock. I rattled off the debit card number before letting her go to grab my dad for a lift to the shop.

I ignored when the Camaro vanished late that night while I was still up working on the Lamborghini. I wasn't sure why, but there was a persistent need to get it fixed, and fixed soon. That something bad would happen if I didn't. Like a clock was ticking down. That persistence continued thru the next day as I hunted down more parts and continued to work almost feverishly on the Lambo.

It was nearly 3 a.m. when the engine spluttered to life beneath my hands as I tightened down a bolt. The entire car jerked as an earsplitting whine emitted. I'm surprised all to hell that it didn't wake my parents, though it did set the neighborhood dogs to howling for several minutes. Luckily, the sound cut off fairly quick.

I set a hand on the engine lightly before noting that one of the lines that shouldn't be there was beginning to drip with a bright blue fluid. I cursed, quite viciously, as I pinched it off and grabbed the closest type of hose I could find to it and switched them out. I found myself moving faster as I switched several other lines, tightening down bolts as I went, and actually wrenching a broken piece of metal out of the engine when I found it blocking a fan blade. Luckily, whomever it was, seemed to realize I was trying to help, because they didn't slam the hood down on me or either pull away or run me over.

Even then, it was another 20 minutes before the spluttering sound eased into a steadier rhythm, and during that time, several other vehicles had come around the corner two blocks down. One of them was an ambulance, and it had been steadily creeping closer for the last few minutes. Finally, I managed to unblock what I thought might be a cooling fan, but the blade sliced into my palm when I didn't pull back quick enough. I jerked back from the car with a half-yelled oath as the engine finally steadied out. I pulled a clean rag out of a box next to me and tightly wrapped my hand.

The Lamborghini seemed to heave for a moment before what could only be the sound of an, admittedly strained, transformation. I froze as I watched it reform into a half-collapsed mechanical giant almost as big as my parents house. His optics flickered dimly, and he looked to only be held together by the bare minimum, but he nodded sharply before his gaze turned to the ambulance that was already shifting to a similar, and much more solid form. I didn't get a chance to back away farther as I was scooped up by a black and yellow servo. I couldn't help the startled sound that escaped me. I probably could have helped the cursing though.

"Motherfucker, put me down, now!"

Bumblebee paused making a surprised and somewhat sad noise. He did not, however, put me down. He carried me down the block as who could only be Ratchet, helped the Lamborghini-mech hobble to the warehouse six blocks over. I had devolved into what even I knew was physically impossible streams of curses by that point, but had yet to raise my voice. I was startled from them when I was plucked out of Bumblebee's grasp by Ratchet.

"Easy, youngling, you're dripping Life Fluids."

I paused as Ratchet lightly gripped my arm between to digits and pulled it out to get a better look at it. I tilted my head to look past him at the Lamborghini-mech. He was sprawled out against a wall, and Ratchet appeared to have put several patches made out of a bendable metal on him.

"Is er he? Going to be okay?"

Ratchet paused before something softer entered his eyes.

"Yes, Youngling, thanks to you he's going to be fine. He just needs rest, and a few more repairs."

"Oh, good."

Ratchet snorted.

"You, on the other hand, need to have your hand checked. Please remove the cloth so I can take a look at it."

I narrowed my eyes, tempted to say no before grumbling and agreement and tugging my arm out of his grasp to undo the makeshift bandage. My hand was still bleeding, if only sluggishly. I eyed it closely, having injured myself enough times to have a general idea of what did and did not need an ER trip. My gaze tipped to the Lambo again before I turned back to Ratchet.

"Is whatever you used on the metal work on skin to?"

Ratchet seemed to consider it a moment.

"It should, why?"

"I don't feel like getting stitches."

His optics flickered (along with the rest of the bots) as he looked up what 'stitches' were. Considering the shudder he gave, a think he agreed with me on that.

"Hold out your palm, Youngling."

I rolled my eyes even as I held out my hand.

"It's Sam, not 'Youngling'. And, not that I don't think you guys are kind of alright since you haven't tried to squish me yet. But what/who are you?"

"My Designation is Ratchet. The mech you repaired is Sunstreaker, the one whom carried you hear is Bumblebee. The small mech over in the corner is Jazz, beside him is Ironhide, and just to the other side of Sunstreaker is Optimus Prime."

I nodded at that.

"Is having two names rare or something, the rest of you only have one. And that doesn't tell me what you are."

Ratchet passed over some type of cloth to rewrap my hand with after he finished putting the 'glue' or whatever it was on my palm.

"We are Autonomous Robotic Organisms, or Autobots for short. And no, his name is Optimus, Prime is a title. It warrants a lot of respect from our race, Cybertronians, and we are more likely to refer to him as Prime rather than Optimus. Your full name is Samuel James Witwicky, descendent of Archibald Witwicky, yes?"

I paused at that, head tilting slightly to the side.

"…Yes, it's kind of creepy that you just know that. Oh, hey, if you're, essentially, robotic, does that mean you can connect to the internet? Because you seem a bit advanced to require a hard connection instead of broadband or wifi."

There was a collective pause as Ratchet's eyes dimmed momentarily, most likely looking up the series of terms I had just dumped on him.

"Yes, yes we can. Though having a 'hard connection' would widen our ability to access your people's technology."

"It's referred to as 'tech'."

Ratchet made an agreeing noise before setting me back in Bumblebee's hands.

"You're not going to keep me as a hostage, right?"

Ratchet startled at that.

"Why would you possibly think that?"

I gave him a deadpan look.

"…You carried me away from my home under protest, have yet to put me back on the ground, and haven't explained both why you know my name or what you want with me."

There was a snort at that from Sunstreaker.

"I'd like to know that too."

"We need the glasses from your facebook post on May 23rd."

I blinked, it was only because I rarely posted pics that I even recalled that, and the fact that I had posted it on purpose.

"Oh, those are back at my house. Used 'em for a a school project. What do you need 'em for anyway? They're just an old, scratched up pair of glasses."

"Please, may we have them?"

I turned at Prime's request. I couldn't say no to the question buried in his tone. I nodded with a sigh.

"Alright, need to head back to the house though. Can I be put down now?"

Instead, I got to experience Bumblebee transforming around me and ending up in his front seat.

"Dude, that is not putting me down." I frowned, he made what could only be an amused noise thru the radio. Just for that, I twisted the volume and tuning knobs until it was blasting out opera music. The sound cut off with an affronted grumble from the engine. "Maybe next time you'll actually put me down." I mumbled.

He didn't let me out until he was parked in the driveway. I rolled my eyes as I climbed out.

"Just so we have this clear, someone is going to notice any car except Sunstreaker sitting in the driveway, so please, park separately around the block so you don't draw attention. It will take me at least ten minutes once I'm inside, so stay off the lawn for both of our peace of mind. And so help me, if one of you turns on headlights I will hold the glasses hostage until you apologize for whatever trouble you cause."

There was a grumble from several of the mechs, and an almost amused sound from Sunstreaker as he traded places with Bumblebee. The rest of them wandered off down opposite ends of the street. With a nod to Sunstreaker I turned on my heel and headed inside. I had to be quiet going up the stairs so that I didn't wake up my parents. I rifled thru my backpack until I found the glasses. I was headed back to the stairs when there was a knock on the front door and I heard my dad answer the door. I cursed and headed for the window, climbing down the trellis only to be stopped by several guys in suits who were scanning the yard.

Fuck. I was hoping to avoid this part.

-=-this is a line break-=-

I did not like Sector 7, in fact, I straight up hated it. Especially as it wasn't Bee caught this time, it was Sunstreaker. I don't know why he was so persistent in returning the favor of fixing him by helping me, but it could have been done without. I spent the entire chopper ride to the Dam hoping to hell that they didn't offline him by accident. I was two steps from decking Banachek over it when Lennox grabbed my arm to stop me from swinging at him. I flat out refused to watch them Enspark a phone just to kill a confused Sparkling. I made it quite clear that I thought they were acting like children playing with a parents tools.

Sunstreaker was still in one piece, if not severely unhappy when we retrieved him. I had to ask repeatedly to get him to back down from trying to shoot the soldiers. To be fair, it was easier to convince the humans not to shoot than Sunstreaker. I sighed and dealt with being picked up like a toy when Sunstreaker finally powered down his guns. If he couldn't shoot them, he wasn't giving them the chance to grab me. So I had a shoulder-level to Sunstreaker view as he collected the AllSpark, which, oddly enough, also seemed to make the AllSpark notice me in turn. The Cube was handed to me as Sunstreaker transformed down around me. (I was in the passenger seat, and the windows seemed to be one-way tinted so people couldn't see in.)

I nearly choked on my own tongue when I first heard the AllSpark.

-Youngling.-

I blinked, hands tightening their grip incrementally as I tried to reach back with my thoughts. The Cube gave off a sense of amusement before my thoughts were nudged slightly to the side and it continued.

-We see you. We see what you are. Who you were. What you should have been.-

I hadn't even felt it in my head. It was a bit daunting.

-We agree with your choices. We agree with the path you seek to follow. But we do not wish to part from our children.-

I could understand that. If they were mine, I wouldn't want to leave them alone either.

-We would claim one Spark, we would offer another Spark. Would you walk with our children?-

I didn't know what they meant by walking with their children, wasn't I already planning to do that?

-Good. We will find suitable form. You will protect us until we are returned to Our Voice?-

Yes. And who was their voice? Was it Optimus, wasn't the Prime the Voice of the AllSpark and Matrix?

-Correct. Prepare Guardian. We will prepare in turn.-

I had no idea what it was preparing for, or what I needed to prepare for. But I would make sure it got to Optimus Prime, hopefully, it would work out an alternative for Megatron's demise.

-=-this is a line break-=-

I don't know why I still ended up running thru Mission City, but I did. I still ended up falling from the skyscraper, and being caught by Optimus, it is about then that something changed. We landed next to the fallen chopper, and I was half-hiding under it, cradling the AllSpark when I spotted the RPG launcher. The AllSpark must have agreed with the thought, because I suddenly knew how to use an RPG launcher. With a curse, I set up and aimed. It was pure luck that Optimus tore thru Megatron's chest plates just as I fired. The RPG hit the inner edge of the Spark Chamber and ricocheted back into the Spark itself with a boom.

There was an upsurge of energy from the AllSpark at the same time. I blacked out before I could realize what was happening.

-=-this is a line break-=-

The Autobots froze as one, staring in the direction of the small human that had been aiding them. The Cube was shining so brightly they had to shield their optics, at the same time, Samuel Witwicky seemed to dissolve into blue-white particles that were absorbed into the remains of the crashed air transport he had been hiding under. There was a screech of twisting metal and an offload of heat and energy as the metal twisted into itself and reformed into a cybertronian form. The final form was obviously not man-made, and looked nothing like the chopper it had been, despite still being one designed to fly.

Ratchet thought it might be one of the smaller Scout Ships from Cybertron, but he wouldn't know for sure until the mech took an alt form. It was primarily a grey-toned black, with accents in a gold to rival Sunstreakers, with a few streaks of silver on the wings. It took nearly a breem after the AllSpark fell silent for the mech to come out of stasis, optics flickering briefly before illuminating a pale, almost white blue.

"Samuel?" Ratchet questioned warily. The mech slowly turned towards him, making a confused noise as they stumbled to their feet, automatically picking up the AllSpark as they rose to unsteady peds.

"Ratchet?" The vocals were definitely Samuel Witwicky, even with the slightly mechanical undertone. The mech, barely passed the youngling stage, barely full grown, almost overbalanced as he headed to Ratchet. He pressed the AllSpark into Optimus unresisting hands as he moved to stand next to Ratchet. "Somethings wrong." Sam spoke in a confused tone. "Why the hell am I so tall?"

The Autobots shared confused looks, unsure how they were going to explain this to anyone, let alone to Sam.

-=-this is a line break-=-

It had been about a month since Sam had been turned into a Seeker by the AllSpark in Mission City. And it had been a lot of things he hadn't been prepared to learn or deal with all heaped on him at once. And the move to the new base wasn't helping. Like at all. He'd been with the Autobots on Garcia Island all of a week now, and he still couldn't figure out why he was so twitchy. It had started during their transport here, when he had been stuck under a tarp and forced to suffer thru feeling wind brushing over him as they traveled the sea, but forbidden to so much as twitch lest the crew realize they weren't just transporting military vehicles.

It hadn't helped that the rest of the Autobots had been to busy setting up base to do more than direct him towards a just as busy Ratchet when he started feeling strangely jittery. Even Sunstreaker was busy, being sent out with several soldiers on patrols of areas where they thought Decepticons might have been spotted. His heckling of Ratchet, eventually had the mech snap at him one day to go for a flight and leave him be for a few joors while he straightened out the Medbay.

He'd seemed a bit distracted, and he had waved him off. Sam/Skyfall didn't even get the chance to point out that he had yet to be even taught how to fly before he was shuffled out of the Medbay. He threw his servos up in frustration before deciding he might as well go try not to crash, because nobody else was going to help him. He left a message with air patrol stating he was going on a flight before going to an out of the way runway. Didn't want too many witnesses should he manage to crash right away.

Luckily, he had gotten some practice transforming already in order to be transported here. So getting into his Alt Mode wasn't difficult. Figuring out how to take off took a little more effort. It took him several minutes familiarizing himself with his protocols before he figured out that, apparently, he could hover. Triggering it, had him off the ground a good six feet. He was a bit giddy at that, and paused as a notice popped up asking if he would like to run a systems pre-flight check. He figured that would be a good idea and triggered it.

Immediately, he regretted it. Going thru it apparently equaled to downloading an entire programs worth of items and checks that he would need to do every time he went to fly, or risk having an issue before even taking off if something was wrong. With a mental groan, he slogged thru it before triggering the 'flight ready' protocol. Immediately, his systems cleared and he had a much less 'busy' field of view. After a few nudges at internal gauges, he figured out which did which and managed to rise several yards. This also showed him how to read the myriad of sensors that triggered as soon as he began to move. (There were a lot of air flow sensors.)

As soon as he felt confident enough, he let go of his wariness and shot up into the sky. He immediately forgot what he was so worried about.

-=-this is a line break-=-

He had no idea how long he'd been flying for, or just how far he had gone from Garcia. He had been worried about fuel for about the astrosecond it took for his systems to inform he had a secondary hydroponic system. Meaning that in the hydrogen heavy atmosphere of Earth, he was continuously refilling his tanks. He could, essentially, never touch the ground if he didn't want to.

Whatever had been bugging him the last few days, vanished almost as soon as his peds left the ground. But even though he so very much better in the air, he couldn't help the pervading sense of loneliness the longer he was up here. Even as much fun as it was to fly, he was finding it to be something that (somehow) he had the impression would be much better to do with someone else.

By this point he was basically just drifting along the upper atmosphere, far higher than any man-made plane could go, just shy of the point where shuttles tended to 'catch fire' entering and exiting the atmosphere. So he was legitimately surprised when his systems notified him that another plane/cybertronian that was approaching. He twisted in a lazy loop to maintain a general position as the unknown came closer. He nearly stalled upon spotting the Decepticon Glyph on the plane (an F-22). After a frantic mental moment he remembered that he didn't have an Autobot symbol yet, so as far as the Decepticon was concerned he was essentially a Neutral.

"Hailing Neutral: Permission to approach?"

He paused as he condisered.

"Hailing Decepticon: Permission granted."

The lavender colored 'Con angled into a steeper climb before settling across him in his loop as soon as he was at the same level.

"Hiya, Designations Skywarp, don't think I've ever met you before. Kinda small aren't ya?"

If they had been in root mode, Skyfall would be glaring at him.

"Frag off! I am not small, slagger!"

Skywarp made an intricate barrel roll in place that registered as a sign of amusement in Skyfall's helm for some reason.

"Sorry, sorry! So, what's your Designation? And what you doing out here by yourself? You're Trine running late or something?"

"My Designation is Skyfall. And… no. I don't have one." He couldn't help the kind-of sad, kind-of forlorn note in his voice when he said it. Until Skywarp had asked, had put a name to it, he hadn't realized that's what he had been missing. Skywarp made a low, dual-toned warble and seemed to rock in place (peace-sorrow-comforting). Skyfall responded with a low trilling noise, rocking in return (acceptance-sorrow-its okay).

"You can come hang out with my Trine for a bit. You don't have to stay or anything, just give you a little while so you're not on your own."

It was tempting, really, really tempting. He didn't realize he was making a wavering motion with his wingtips (indecision-worry) until Skywarp dipped sideways and drifted closer so that his wingtip edged under Skyfall's lower set. He barely kept from tapping their wings together, startled by the feel of their energy fields rubbing against each others. Skywarp made a startled noise followed by a cooing warble that, for some unknown reason, made Skyfall trill softly back and lean into his airspace, letting Skywarp direct their drift.

"What the frag, how young are you?! You're way too young to be left on your own!"

Skyfall made a disgruntled noise, but couldn't be bothered responding. Skywarp's energy field had spread out slightly as his wing edged farther under Skyfall's. It left an almost cocoon like feeling of calm enveloping the newly Sparked Seeker. He wasn't even aware of the low hum he'd begun putting off until Skywarp sent him tilting and he let out a startled chirp before twisting to arc downward with a laugh. The larger Seeker gave chase.

They played a back and forth game of cat and mouse for almost an hour before their play was interrupted by two more Seekers appearing on Skyfall's radar. He startled and flipped over Skywarp in an unexpected twirl to come up facing the two unknowns in the distance. Skywarp leveled out and looped back to him.

"Oh, that's just TC and Screamer, my Trine. I was supposed to meet them twenty minutes ago." The purple Seeker mumbled a bit sheepishly. Skyfall, still uncertain what about Skywarp was making him act this way, looped up and back to hover behind the larger Seeker. Skywarp made an amused noise, followed by an almost cooing warble that both came across as soothing, and managed to irritate Skyfall at the same time. 'TC' and 'Screamer' came within range about the same time he made the noise, and both drifted to a hover with an almost confused wing motion.

"Warp?" One of them asked leadingly. Skywarp wobbled side to side in greeting, still half orbiting Skyfall in an amused/protective motion before responding.

"Heya TC, this is Skyfall, he's a Neutral, no Trine, you won't believe how little he is!"

"Fragger! I'm not little! I'm fun sized!"

Neither of the other Seekers seemed to know how to respond to that. Skywarp just laughed and slipped closer, nudging Skyfall closer to his Trine.

"Right, right. Anyway! Check his energy field."

Skyfall made an armor rattling hiss, but didn't back away no matter how much he wanted to as the apparent 'Screamer' (since he hadn't been the one referred to as TC) drifted closer and edged his wingtip under Skyfall's as Skywarp had done earlier. He only stayed that way a moment before speaking in a slightly screechy voice that Skyfall immediately recognized as Starscream (Hence the nickname really did fit).

"What in the Pits?! You're barely more than a Youngling! What in Primus are you doing by yourself?"

He immediately shifted over and nudged Skyfall so that he was hovering between Starscream and TC. Skyfall, for some reason, had the mental imagery of a mother hen trying to corral her chicks as he was moved. He didn't know if he wanted to laugh or frown at the mental image. Instead, he just sighed and let himself drift closer to TC, he would just have to sneak away later. That was one upside of the stealth programs he had discovered at least. He would be able to get away.

-=-this is a line break-=-

If they were surprised by the pale blue optics he sported, they didn't show it. They did, however, be moan the 'state of his wings' and shove him off towards the cleaning racks nearest the Trine's berth room. Once they had him in there, he was scrubbed until he gleamed, much to his mortification. He hadn't realized just how sensitive all those sensor arrays and panels were. Once he was dry and polished he was dragged back to their berth where Starscream ran a systems check and recalibrated several systems before all but ordering him to lay down and 'recharge, damn it, you've barely got enough Energon in you to function you glitch-spark'. After a brief 'nap' he had two cubes of Energon shoved off on him before being ordered to go back to recharging.

By this point, he had noticed several pings in the periphery of his systems where he had been messaged by first Ratchet, and then Ironhide, and then Ratchet again before the last one was from Sunstreaker demanding he show his faceplates or else. He had to wait nearly a joor before the last of Starscream's Trine fell asleep and he could activate his stealth programs and leave.

-=-this is a line break-=-

He landed back at Diego Garcia nearly a day and a half after he left. He was met on the tarmac by an irritated looking Sunstreaker, whom had a vaguely silver unknown bot with him (who was similar enough that Skyfall was going to assume the mech was Sideswipe until told otherwise), and Ratchet. Ratchet growled lowly before gritting out a demand.

"Where have you been, Skyfall, and why didn't you answer your comms?"

He shifted from one ped to the other, scratching at his helm in an embarrassed fashion.

"I- ah – may have been kidnapped by 'Cons…."

The three bots momentarily froze.

"….What?" Ratchet asked with a poleaxed expression. "How in the pit did that happen, and how are you already back?"

Skyfall's wings twitched and drooped a bit.

"Um, well IsortabumpedintoSkywarpwhofreakedoutwhenherealizedhowyoungIwas, andthenStarscreamwouldn'tletmeleavewithoutasystemscheckandabath. Andthentheychewedmeoutforanhouraboutproperwingmaintenance. And…Ikindasortahavestealthprograms…."

"Skyfall…again, and slower this time, I didn't catch any of that."

He sighed and refused to look at them as he responded.

"You told me to go flying, which, yeah, probably would have worked better If you actually taught me how to fly. But it was kinda fun, and I lost track of time. I was over the atlantic when I realized there was another plane except it couldn't be an actual plane cause I was only barely in the atmosphere to start with. And it turned out to be Skywarp, who thought I was a Neutral because I don't have any glyphs. He was pretty much just saying hi and asking where the rest of my Trine was. When I told him I didn't have one, he sorta apologized, or that's what it registered as anyway, cause it wasn't really talking, just sorta tilting his wings and drifting.

Anyway, he shifted closer and you can really tell how old a bot is by their energy field? How does that work? And then he kinda made this odd squaking-shock noise about the fact I'm apparently barely out of the youngling stage? What the hell is a youngling stage? And I 'shouldn't be on my own'. So he started playing a sorta flying-tag game- which is actually really fun by the way- and then Starscream and TC showed up I still have no idea what TC is short for-"

"Thundercracker." The silver bot interjected. He had a very amused expression on his face as he watched Skyfall ramble.

"Thanks, anyway. Starscream kinda freaked out about my age to, and made me go back to their base with them so he could do a systems check and make me take a bath, because apparently I wasn't clean enough. How clean is too clean? Because I swear to Primus I've never been this clean in my life! And then made me take a nap because apparently I was low on fuel, and then gave me Energon and then take another nap. Which is when I snuck out. And do you know how awesome stealth programs are? Because I walked right past at least three patrols and none of them realized I was there….Okay maybe the second one did after I was already gone, because he fell right into that paint spill I set up around the bend."

Ratchet was rubbing his faceplate where a nose would be on a human when Skyfall finally fell quiet. He held up a servo for quiet, ignoring the silver bots snickering and Sunstreaker's what the hell did I do to deserve this slag expression.

"You went flying, without a watcher, with no idea how to fly?"

"…Yes, but to be fair, I tried to ask you and you just shewed me off."

Ratchet just waved that off.

"You didn't set a timer to remind you to get back, and because the rest of us were occupied we didn't realize you were even gone."

"That's not my fault," he grumbled. "You're the ones that pretty much told me I was in the way."

Ratchet again waved it off.

"You ran into a Decepticon, and instead of requesting aid decided to play a Seeker Training Game with him, and yes, that is a Seeker Training Game, they use it to teach Winglets how to interact in a non-hostile meeting of potential Trinemates."

"….Yeah, but if I had taken off he would have followed me. And the only place I could honestly go was here."

Ratchet nodded acceptance of that.

"You're lucky you hadn't been glyphed yet, or he would have shot you out of the sky without a second thought. If your lucky, he might hesitate next time because of your age."

Skyfall hummed acceptance of that.

"You went back to their base. And spent several hours there before returning here, ignoring our attempts to communicate while there."

"…You do realize our optics flicker when we talk over comms right? It's kind of obvious, and none of the three would leave me alone. Plus, didn't Ironhide say something about one of them being able to trace comm signals?"

Ratchet groaned.

"Do you at least have the coordinates for their base?"

Skyfall paused.

"Maybe? I have no idea how to find that in my systems…"

"Right. I'll add that to the list of things you need to be taught still. Just….stop by the Medbay in the morning, for now, get some rest, I've no doubt you need to recharge."

With that, Ratchet turned around and headed back in the direction of the Medbay. Skyfall shifted on his peds again before his optics slid over to the exasperated looking Sunstreaker (who was technically his Guardian as far as he was aware considering the bot rarely let him out of his sight).

"…How much trouble am I in?"

The silver bot laughed outright as he leaned on Sunstreaker. Sunstreaker just sighed and jerked his helm in the direction of the barracks.

"You aren't leaving my sight for a week, I swear to Primus you exist to try and put me in stasis."

Skyfall grumbled under his breath, giving a shoulder rolling vent that shuddered his wings before following after the two mechs.

"I don't do it on purpose…"

"Trust me, I would be a pit more angry if you did it on purpose." Sunstreaker slowed down so that the twins were walking next to him instead of ahead. "You don't consider anybot here as your Trine?"

Skyfall shrugged.

"I didn't even realize that's what I was missing until Skywarp asked. I don't even really know what a Trine is, only that now that I'm aware of them, I really really want one." He shrugged. "It's kinda eating at my processor now." He muttered in annoyance.

"How about we be your Trine then." Sideswipe chirped from Sunstreaker's other side. Skyfall jerked his head up and leaned slightly forward to look past Sunstreaker.

"Really? I'm not a very good Seeker…."

"You'll learn." Sunstreaker rumbled. "And it's not like we'd really know the difference considering we're grounders."

Skyfall considered that.

"True, but I still want to be a good Trinemate."

"Then we'll practice together." Sideswipe stated. "Will eventually get it right."

-=-this is a line break-=-

Optimus stared after the retreating forms with a fond expression.

"Younglings," he spoke with quiet amusement.