Hello, everyone, and welcome to another colab fic with Xobit and I. She did Reflector, and I did the Trine... and... this might get confusing at times, sorry. Gestalts are hard! ~This~ is talk over a bond. And, we don't own Transformers. So. ENJOY!
Things had gone bad… again. Reflector was a good fighter, a better marksmech, and an excellent spy, but so very much NOT a frontliner. For once the Autobot twins had ignored the seekers completely, they went after the Stunticons instead and caught the gestalt mechs in the process. Spectro and Viewfinder were okay except for some scrapes and dings. Spyglass however, in leaping to the front to protect his mates, had taken a fist to his side and the force had shattered several key circuits… his system connections to his transformation cog and his thruster control the worst of it.
~This is bad… we can't get out?!~ Viewfinder's mental tone was panicky, a half question begging for either one of his mates to tell him differently. They could not reassure him, the situation was dire and their normal approaches would not work – normal meaning blackmail, subterfuge and sabotage.
They were not well liked, in an army among a people that valued strength and visible power above all, three small mechs that transformed into a non-weapon were… well, looked down upon. That they were obviously bonded, even if it was a gestalt bond, made them the target of even more disdain… quite possibly because the lager gestalt mechs could and would kill to protect their own in challenge fights. This was not an option open to the Reflector gestalt, and even worse, yes it could get worse, many saw them as deliberately being mysterious and arrogant what with the fact that they could not drop the gestalt link entirely, spoke of themselves as 'we' and reacted to what the others felt even if separated. Everything was set against them… but they were Cybertron's best spy team, they had had to learn the hard way, in Kaon's slum, learn and adapt to survive among the Decepticons.
~We'll get out somehow!~ Spectro firmly bolstered the panicky Viewfinder, while supporting Spyglass, who had clamped down on their link to avoid crippling the others with his pain, this reaction only serving to unsettle Viewfinder more. Suddenly Megatron broadcast the retreat signal as well as calling it out loud…
And the battle had been going so well, too, Starscream thought to himself. His trine had even avoided interference from those twins, a rare enough occurrence. For once, it seemed they might get out of the battle without any inconvenience. But no, Megatron had other ideas, sending the trine down to rescue the stupid, useless camera... and oh, no, it couldn't even be simple, Skywarp couldn't just teleport down and pick the camera up. Nope, they all had to go down, since the spy had gone and managed to get hurt.
With a screech of jets, the trine landed by the camera, cockpits already opened. Starscream was very unhappy about this, that he had to serve as mere transport for anyone, let alone the gestalt... "Get in before we leave you, orders or no!"
They did as told… it was not like they had a choice, even if they would normally have asked the arrogant fliers to shove it up their exhaust ports. It was a relief that Megatron had remembered them, but humiliating as pit to be ordered around by Starscream and the two airheads he called trine mates. Spectro settled Spyglass inside Skywarp as fast as he could, Viewfinder getting into Thundercracker as fast as he could, and then more or less jumped into the impatient Air Commander, mentally cursing his luck, or lack of luck, with getting stuck with him. At least the take off was smooth.
And so he got stuck with the injured one who'd made this whole stupid rescue necessary in the first place. Rescue, what were they, Autobots? Skywarp's thoughts were broken by Starscream's complaining, "Even without attacking us, those slagging twins cause us problems."
"Starscream!" Thundercracker warned, cutting off the complaints while twisting to avoid shots. His wing-leader had a missile after him, normally not a problem, but something seemed to be inhibiting his flying. Thundercracker didn't have much time to worry, too busy saving his own aft to worry about Starscream.
In Starscream's cockpit, the little mech seemed to be throwing a fit of some kind, thought possibly it was just a reaction to the maneuvers that Starscream was pulling. The white and red Seeker really didn't have much time to worry about WHY the mech was acting that way, he was far more worried about the missile... and the lack of control that the gestalt mech was causing.
Skywarp's take off was apparently less smooth since Starscream had barely lifted off when a wave of pain hit the unprepared Spectro component. He convulsed in reaction, unknowingly smashing into several controls that the fighter jet had not considered he needed to lock. He was completely unaware of anything outside of pain, trying to contain it and regain some awareness outside of it.
~Sorry…~ The word was still laced with pain, but the overpowering waves stopped coming and Spectro's optics flickered back online. Spyglass' voice was thin and far away, as if they were a great distance apart. ~Keep contact!! Keep… love, keep sending!~ Viewfinder's panicky demand barreled into him and he moaned out loud, thoroughly confused… only to scream a few clicks later when an explosion rocked the… cockpit? He was inside Starscream's cockpit....
"Stop that!" Starscream snapped, fighting his own damaged controls to keep his own damaged body from crashing too painfully. "Stupid little mech, first you get me hit by a missile, and now, oh, this is gonna hurt..." No way to dodge the mountain, after all...
"Thundercracker?" Skywarp asked softly, finally out of danger, though the little mech he was holding was moaning rather pitifully. The purple Seeker didn't care at the moment, too worried for his wing-mates. "Thundercracker... Where's Starscream?"
Get him hit by… the confused gestalt component was knocked offline before he could grasp that the looming mass he could see was in fact a mountain. How long he was out was anyone's guess, he on-lined and whimpered in fear as he realized that he was confined in the Air Commander's cockpit, buried under who knew how many tons of rock… he didn't even know if the seeker was still online.
~Spectro… Sp-Spectro? Please… SPECTRO?!~ Viewfinder moaned out loud, fear permeating him as the gestalt link went silent, only faint echoes of pain still leaking over from Spyglass. He curled tightly, moans gradually descending into dispirited whimpers, completely ignoring Thundercracker.
Spyglass was in too much pain now to really notice anything… he had been thrown against the side of Skywarp's cockpit, further worsening his injuries. He was in no actual danger, but pain was soaking his processor.
Thundercracker actually did worry about the smaller mech within him. He didn't like hearing the distress and pain... But, like Skywarp, he was far more concerned about his wing-leader. "I... I don't know, 'Warp. I really don't..." What now, he couldn't just leave Starscream, Thundercracker wasn't a leader... "Search pattern, come on... we'll find him!"
Coming online again hurt, just as Starscream had known it would. Well, as crashes went, this wasn't so horrible... he was in one piece. And buried under rock, slag. No answer to his comm, distress beacon wasn't functioning, and one half-sized, ground-based, gestalt mech inside him. "Can you raise anyone on comm?"
"Comm?" He felt immensely stupid for asking the click the word left him, and he hurried to test his systems out only to find them unable to penetrate the rock masses… either they were buried deeper then he thought possible or there was iron ore in the rock. "No… comm, Sir, and our… our other components are too far away to contact…"
Viewfinder frantically tried to contact Spectro via bond and comm, at this point all he knew was that his mate wasn't dead… yet. What had happened and in how much danger the component was he had no idea, Spyglass' continuing pain and silence granting at his already frazzled processes.
Starscream growled angrily at the news, and then gave an unexpected whimper. Right, he was injured... and supporting who knew how much rock, he wasn't built for that... He was made for the sky, not... trapped... "Trapped, then..." No, no panicking. "Maybe you could... get out and..." The amber glass couldn't move, though... it already had a web of cracks, if breaking it could get them help, get them out of here, he'd deal with the pain...
Starscream was not taking the news well… but then he was probably claustrophobic as all pit, not that Spectro was feeling too great about the rock and the limited space… Cutting his thoughts short he focused on the last sentence. "No sir… We will not be able to shift the rocks, they might even crush us before we can try anything of that sort… there…" There was one way to convey their position, he did not relish having to use that option however… Shifting to a better position he wiggled against the seat, rubbing the lid of his film compartment, whimpering when the contact proved to be more teasing then satisfying, dang it! he wanted this over with as fast as possible!
"There... what?" Starscream latched onto the faint hope immediately. A whimper from the mech changed Starscream's thoughts, perhaps the spy had simply cut himself off before saying there was nothing that could be done...
Thundercracker was getting more worried, Megatron was wanting to know what was taking so long, and neither of the two airborn Seekers wished to tell the tyrant that Starscream was missing. "You, little mech, can't you..." Useless, the lensed mech was completely insensible.
"Uh… 'nother way… We are… working on it!" Slag if he was going to actually say this out loud, bad enough that Starscream would soon realize what was going on. No, Spectro was not going to tell the Air Commander anything! Grinding himself harder against the seat he had to admit defeat. It was riling his systems alright, but he could simply not get enough traction to move it out of 'teasing' and into 'pleasing'. Running his hands down his front he began pressing on the edges of his thigh armor, whimpering and then moaning when he found the right pressure… just like Spyglass did it!
"Can we what, seeker?!" Viewfinder was too distraught to be diplomatic and he snapped as the seeker broke his fierce concentration. "We're trying to find Spectro! Please leave us alone…"
Spyglass was beginning to realize that something was wrong, Spectro had not spoken to him for a while and they should have been at the Nemesis now… shouldn't they? "Um… where are we? Spectro…?"
"We're looking for Starscream and whomever was in him," Skywarp answered the question distractedly. "Help if you can, otherwise shut up!"
"Then you're doing what I want," Thundercracker admitted, falling silent again to let the mech work. 'Spectro'... it was the first hint the trine had heard that suggested Reflector might, in actuality, be like other gestalts, with individual names and personalities.
There was another way! They weren't trapped! Starscream was so elated at the news that he almost didn't care what the mech was doing. "Wait... you're trying... you have to... In ME? Oh, what did I do to deserve this, give me insane twins any day..."
"Just… we can't feel him!" why was he telling the blue seeker this again? Viewfinder shook his head in an abortive movement and then gasped as a short, faint pulse of pleasure came out of nowhere. His hands shot out to support him, involuntarily running over seams and controls in an effort to find purchase…
"Shu… umm, shut up, sir! We have no ah! choice, we don' relish the… idea either…" Digging the digits of his right hand into his left hip joint, Spectro stroked at the main energon line. Reaching out to brace himself, his hand ending up clenched around the edge of the cockpit control board.
Spyglass off lined his optics, trying to make sense of that sentence. "Spectro is missing?"
Thundercracker made a rather undignified sound and realized that maybe the air wasn't the best place to be right now... "Slag, what are you...!" It was better than the pained noises, but... Ah, gestalts, who could understand them?
"If Spectro was the one riding in Starscream, then yes," Skywarp kind of felt bad giving the already injured mech more bad news. "Um... TC? Why are you landing?"
Starscream had a nice, haughty rejoinder all ready to pass on to the mech, ignoring the rather... nice sounds he was making. Thought faded at the almost-pain of a hand around his instrument panel. "Ooh!" Starscream gasped, shaking a little.
"S-Spectro? Viewfinder… were is View'? We… we didn't lose him too, di… AH!" Pleasure had taken a little longer in getting to the injured and in pain Spyglass, but it made up for it now as the gestalt link tried to flare open for a mind merge.
Viewfinder had no defenses against his mates, he did not consider them necessary. It meant that he was already much more affected by the transmitted pleasure than Spyglass and Spectro, even if it originated in the latter of the two… he also needed to touch, to ground himself, and there were a lot of things to touch in the cockpit, nice things of funny shapes. His thoughts were muzzy and didn't really focus on anything but 'Spectro is alive' and 'ohh, that feels gooood!'.
Even half gone in the pleasure of his own digits as he was, Spectro realized that Starscream was affected by his touch, and he saw an, admittedly shot sighted, opportunity of getting back at the arrogant flier. He began sharing his touches freely with the seeker, slightly sloppily, as if it were all innocently accidental… "Um…hum! Ahh, View'… AH!" The words slipped from his dermaplates when he suddenly felt another's pleasure twine with his.
"S... stop... Oh, sto... ooh!" Starscream had never been able to mask his pleasure, always quite vocal about it. And, oh... for an innocent little ground-mech, he knew surprisingly well how to touch a flier... "Slagging... little... Aah!"
Thundercracker gave another yelp, and then a low moan, and Skywarp suddenly giggled. "I think 'Viewfinder' is making TC very happy at the moment! And what's your name, my injured rider?" The purple jet glided down to land by his wing-brother, a precaution. The Reflector gestalt often behaved as one, and as nice as it was to interface on the wing, Skywarp preferred to have Starscream around to make sure the trine didn't end up falling or hitting anything while in pleasure.
Viewfinder was… happy, or at least very, very close to happy, no longer able to think and remember that his gestalt was a third injured and a third missing. The blue seeker seemed perfectly happy to indulge him, and both his mates sent pleasure, even if some of it was edged in pain.
"Name? Spyglass… we are the Spyglass component…" Too distracted to think, too in pain, too close to an overload… they had inadvertently handed the seeker trine a secret not even Megatron knew.
"Shutup! Slag, ahh… sl-slag you!" he stuttered, wanting the seeker to either just moan because it reminded him of Viewfinder, or just plain keep quiet so as not to all the time remind him that he was not with his gestalt. He was rather unprepared when the overload hit, jamming both hands into the seat cushioning, fairly howling his pleasure out loud.
Thundercracker's engines roared, though his thrusters didn't ignite. He overloaded easily, and with a happy little mech so curiously touching areas far more sensitive than wings... It didn't even matter that Starscream was still missing, Thundercracker felt GOOD... oh, very good.
"Heh, there he goes," Skywarp murmured, mostly to himself. "Spyglass, eh? Pleased to meet you..." Part of him realized he had actually been vouchsafed something fairly important, something precious. It quickly became unimportant, the injured mech- Spyglass, stuttering out... co-ordinates! "TC, I know where they are!"
Starscream whined, trembling, pain and pleasure warring in his processor, just a little more and...
Only pain kept Spyglass' overload at bay long enough for him to stutter out the precious co-ordinates, and the overload subsequently took him into recharge, mercifully freeing him from feeling the ripple of pain the overload caused in his damaged systems.
Spectro collapsed back on the seat, vents heaving as his systems tried to cool, barely having enough sense to alert the Air Commander that help was on the way. "They will come… they know where we are now!"
Viewfinder twisted and arched, screeching as he overloaded then collapsed, stroking whatever happened to be under his hands, little pleased whimpers leaving his vocalizer.
He was NOT going to ask the mech to keep touching him! Still shaking, Starscream focused on the pain, focused on the good news... "G... good..." and then he could get away... Alone... with his wing-brothers, with his trine... yes, that would be good.
Thundercracker's engine cut abruptly as the overload passed and the stimulation dropped. Dropped to the perfect level, in fact, enough that he knew his lover was still there, but not so much... lover? Skywarp's happy call was a welcome interruption at that point. "Well, where are they, then? Honestly, 'Warp, sometimes you act like you have no processor..."
With a laugh, Skywarp took to the air again, simply leading the elder Seeker to their wing-leader. "Sleep well, little Spyglass..."
Viewfinder happily curled up, sure now that Spectro was safe and online, that everything was okay. "Thank you, we never knew that seekers could be sensitive like us…" Half mummer, as he drifted off into a light recharge.
Spectro was simply too low on energy to care about Starscream… besides, the mech deserved a little disappointment, might take him down a peg or two! "Mm… We hope they are here soon!"
Not sure what to make of the thanks, Thundercracker chose to ignore it. After all, he had NOT just been thanked for being embarrassingly quick to overload! No, much better to simply follow Skywarp and hope the purple jet did, indeed, know where he was going.
"You hope... Have you not SEEN us fly? They'll be here in less time than it took you to overload!" Starscream answered, arrogance an easy cloak for him to assume.
It was that quick, in the end, though Starscream had to wait impatiently as Thundercracker and Skywarp shifted the rocks. Iron ore, it turned out, which explained why the comms hadn't worked. Even injured as he was now, Starscream was able, barely, to fly back to base. Helped when he didn't have a stupid panicking mech pounding at his controls!
"We have seen you all fly… that does not mean that they will be here fast!" Reflector was a visual gestalt, of course they had watched the seekers, they were all sinfully well made. It was fast, even the trip to the Nemesis was quick considering Starscream's status. Helping Spyglass out of the purple jet, he turned to face them afterwards."Thank you…" Spectro was rather stiff, not really feeling pleased that he had to feel he owed the seeker trine anything.
Unhappy that he had to leave the warm and comfy recharge berth… wait, not berth, cockpit?! Viewfinder almost fell out, when he realized where he was and what he had been doing in there he ducked behind Spectro, taking over supporting Spyglass and looking everywhere but at Thundercracker. Primus… had he really said that to the seeker? He could off-line from embarrassment.
All he wanted was recharge and repair… in whichever order they chose to come, he would worry about the seekers and the overloading later. Spyglass was almost recharging on his feet.
Starscream just made an annoyed sound at the thanks. "Just don't get into trouble again," he said, turning and walking from the landing area... or at least trying to. He was injured as well, and his trine-mates rushed to help him. Skywarp freed a hand long enough to wave at the camera, checking quickly... yes, he could tell who was who, he could tell them apart... great, that would be good for some fun later, nothing nasty, no... After all, it was their bond that led the trine to Starscream, even if the manner was... unusual.
Thundercracker wished that the mech who had ridden in him would look at him... He wanted to ask about that comment, that half in recharge thanks... what was meant by it? But, as the mech wouldn't look at him, the blue seeker could only watch as the gestalt left.
Hope you like the first chapter. Please review!