The Roll

„Auch, Prime! Watch it! You just kicked what becomes my gun mode's trigger!"

„Sorry."

Optimus pulled up his knees, securing Megatron's waist between his tights and abdominal grill. In return, he could feel a far too familiar fusion canon against his tyres, a bucket-shaped helm under his right arm, and two massive feet kicking his back.

„Don't break my exhaust pipes!"

„I don't intend to!"

Optimus looked up (a klik ago, that direction would have been down), only to see a massive rock coming towards them at dangerous speed. He reached out with his left arm, and meanwhile he couldn't help feeling guilty for this whole situation. He secured Megatron's head as well as he could. They almost missed the rock, but as impredictable as their fall was, Megatron reached out for it the same moment Prime did, and together they grabbed it, clinging on for their dear lives until the rock decided to crack under their weight, clearly not strong enough to hold the weight of the two Cybertronian leaders. Optimus realised it was time to let both his brother and the rock off, and try to transform back to truck mode as he originally planned. As he was falling again, he pulled his legs under him, his waist span around... so that he could perfectly see an incoming rock and Megatron still holding on to it. He decided he'd better avoid the stone and try to catch the Decepticon. The stone would lament less on arrival.

Megatron crashed into his half-transformed cockpit from behind, helm against his shoulder, fusion canon against his neck, and some crack could be heard from the lower regions that would surely make Ratchet furious.

But worst of all, they were still falling.

„Try to transform, Prime!"

„I would, if your barrel was not between my knees!"

„Pathetic Autobot!"

Maybe the Decepticon just didn't want to go down without at least a curse. Optimus regretted coming here once again.

The whole journey seemed to be so idyllic until now. When he heard that his brother finally took a truck mode, he offered to show him some advantages of rolling. Megatron agreed, and the two of them travelled through half the United States, chatting about whatever they had no time to discuss for a long while. Earth and its inhabitants. Old phrases like „one shall stand". The sleek femmebot Megatron came across once in Polyhex and had never seen again. Motorsports like gymkhana.

And before they realised, there they were at the foot of Mount St. Hilary, and Optimus teased his brother with rolling up the side of the volcano, giving their engines a test. As they reached the top of the mountain and looked around to enjoy the spectacular view, they both realised they would need to find a way down. Optimus said they should just roll down headfirst. Megatron freaked out as he looked down. Sadly, Prime mentioned that if he would roll down the hill in reverse, he wouldn't see the long way. What was worse, Megatron seriously considered the idea, parking himself backwards against the slope. What was even worse, he was not yet used to his new form and stopped a yard behind where he should have, with one hind wheel already in the air. But what was worst, Optimus saw his situation and came to grab him. If only he hadn't collected that much speed before grabbing Megatron, if only he hadn't lost his balance while trying to secure his brother.

Now they were both falling down the hillside, desperately reaching out for anything at hand, which usually meant nothing but the parts of the other. Once-silvery belly against blue hands, a splash-board stuck between razor-like teeth, a claw-like finger in an exhaust pipe. A blue helmet being pressed dangerously close to a fusion canon, and Megatron couldn't help wondering how much he would have given for this chance to shoot Prime – on any other occasion. At the moment he horribly didn't want the Autobot's dead weight on him. First they should land. Then he would kill Optimus Prime for sure.

Prime looked up from the brotherly cuddle.

„We're almost there" he warned. „We'll roll over the cliff under which the Ark landed once."

Both mechs prepared themselves for the impact.

The third one did not.

Sentinel Prime was wondering whether his Ark-landing abilities were to be questioned at all if Optimus could so blatantly hit the only mountain in many kilometers range. How could his descendant pilot the Ark straight into the middle of Mount Saint Hilary, if not on purpose?

Before he could get an answer, he heard two strangely familiar voices screaming and the thunder of something falling down the hill slope. He looked upwards. The last thing he saw was Optimus's faceplate before he was hit by the two co-leaders of Cybertron.