A Different, New World

[Deleted]

Characters: @stormshot, Open
Location: The Moon
Content Warnings: TBD
Plot Summary: Stormshot arrives in a new dimension and finds things are not quite as he remembers.

[Deleted]

Spaceflight always came with its dangers. Stormshot had been introduced to that early in his career as an explorer, and even more so during the war. For this reason, he had never expected to be so caught off guard by anything in space. The sudden wrench of gravity as he passed by a seemingly empty vector had sent him spiraling out of control in the direction of the pull. His thrusters had fired frantically, trying to stabilize him as his processor spun dizzily. His navigational systems, normally so very accurate, were utterly out of control.

And then, suddenly, empty space was not so empty.

His thrusters began to function again when the rocky surface of the suddenly apparent planetoid was all too close. Grunting with effort, he leveled enough to turn himself the right way and coast in for a landing, sparing himself a crash.

He settled there, taking a moment to defrag. What was that? Where was he now? His navigational systems were still nonfunctional...

Against his better judgment, he sent out a distress signal, too unbalanced by his experience to do otherwise.

[Jetfire]

Jetfire had never been to Earth's moon, and in hindsight he probably should've taken Aurelie along with; she'd never been to the moon either, he'd assumed. Marie probably hadn't ever been to the moon too, but Jetfire only had so many seats. He was making the trip alone, regardless. There were only so many active space-capable Autobots, and even fewer present on Earth. That was his main reason, with the other being that he'd hit a snag with one of his light-diffraction equations. It wasn't a difficult error to fix, Jetfire was simply more keen on procrastinating by flying over two hundred thousand miles into orbit for a distress signal.

It was a rather uninteresting ball of rock, by Cybertronian lunar standards. Luna 1 and 2 were at least made of metal, and weren't geologically inactive either. The moon was completely geomorteus, bland and boring. Jetfire pushed his thrusters a little bit harder knowing there was some poor spark trapped on such a boring celestial body. And there they were, Jetfire thought as he sailed over a crater. They were a... a rather him-sized mech of blue, white and red. He transformed, kicking in his heel thrusters to to cancel out his forward momentum before coming to a stop on the lunar surface.

"It's a mighty fine day to be observing the greater Via Lactea, though I'd recommend doing so from a far more interesting place."

[Deleted]

Stormshot began to calm himself as his systems righted themselves. Navigation...there it was. The readings were...confusing to say the least. He shouldn't have been anywhere near these coordinates...Primus he was going to get a processor ache. He knew the dangers of space, but, he'd never experience, or even heard of, sudden wormholes. He'd been sucked through to a completely different pocket of universe...and there was no sign of a way back.

He transformed, wary of the low gravity, and perched on the rocky surface of the moon he'd landed on. At least, he assumed it was a moon. There was an organic planet beyond that it seemed to be orbiting.

With any luck, his distress signal would be received and he would be retrieved by his faction and could make his way back...slowly. He was far enough off his original course that-

He was surprised by the approach of another signal. Just one. An Autobot. Damn. He could fight in space, but, it wasn't preferable. His famously tactical mind had just started to think up a solution when the bot landed.

Oh.

That was a large mech.

Red, white, and blue like Stormshot himself, the mech was still larger. And Stormshot was a big bot himself. He was even more wary now. A big, powerful flier in an unfamiliar place stacked the odds against him....

"What would you suggest?" he returned cooly, red visor glinting as he continued observing the mech, "I've just arrived and found this spot to be as good as any."

He couldn't let it slip just how disoriented he was at the moment. Best to maintain his strong and sure appearance. He folded his arms over his chassis, his Decepticon emblem visible on his tense wings.

[Jetfire]

One detail about the stranger's appearance stuck out to Jetfire in particular. The badge. It may have been plainly Decepticon, but it was also red. He'd seen plenty of variations of the standard motif in his time, but coloring it anything other than a shade of violet or gold was unheard of. On top of all that, it felt like an insult to the Decepticons themselves; it was like if an Autobot wore their insignia in purple. Puzzling.

Come to think of it, there wasn't anything about this Decepticon that said... well, Decepticon. Their colors were completely Autobot themed, much like his own. He was practically begging for an interview, or at least a set of well thought-out questions. Jetfire took another moment to analyze their color scheme, before he asked, "You'll have to forgive me for noticing... but that's a rather Autobot-esq set of colors you've got on you. I don't mean to judge, of course."

[Deleted]

Stormshot was thrown off by the sudden change in topic. He paused for a moment, coming to terms with the shift, before his optics moved to the badge on his wing. His helm turned enough for it to be within sight of his visor. He knew that his choice in coloring was odd. He'd been given an odd look when he requested that particular color. It was that way for a simple reason: he liked red accenting. It was the reason he'd maintained his color scheme for so long, and the badge matched.

He looked to Jetfire, then his visor glinting and his faceplates expressionless. Then, he gave a small shrug.

"I like red."

It was the only response he gave to Jetfire's observation, because it was true. After a brief moment, he spoke again.

"And blue."

[Jetfire]

Well that was a straightforward answer, perhaps the best Jetfire could've hoped for. Still, it didn't satisfy his curiosity in the slightest. It was burning in the back of his brain now, the urgent need to know why, for some reason. It was most likely the dull landscape of the moon that was driving his circuits to find interest in literally anything else. Stormshot was speaking in rather plain and brief sentences, so he felt it would be best to at least try to play along.

"You're a Decepticon," the jet nodded.

"And I'm an Autobot."

"But it seems we both have similar tastes in fashion..."

"What is your name, pray tell?"

[Deleted]

Well, this one certainly had a way of stating the obvious, didn't he? Still, Stormshot's lip components pulled just a little in a smirk. The Autobot's confusion was amusing, at least. A welcome change from his earlier disequilibrium that occurred upon his landing.

"Curious, isn't it?" he commented, tone suggesting that he'd caught on to Jetfire's vexation with his lack of response.

The request for his name caused him to straighten, wings shifting upward, arms remaining folded over his chassis.

"Stormshot, of Vos...and you?"

He let his optics trail over the larger bot. He'd been right, their fashion senses were similar....would the similarities stop there? He did have a Vosian frame type...

[Jetfire]

No surprise Vos was the answer he'd been given. Just one less question swimming around in Jetfire's head now, not that it did much to wear down mountain of remaining inquiries much. He had a gut feeling there was more to this Decepticon than a rather Autobot-ish paintjob, and Jetfire's gut hardly ever told him anything. They were both being rather succinct with each other so far, although he could attribute that to the both of them not being so familiar with each other.

"Jetfire, of Vos; I'm the Air Commander of the Autobots."

Most Decepticons had heard of him before, so he'd thought. There were many prominent Autobots that had risen and fallen during the course of the war, and yet Jetfire had been there almost from the very beginning. He'd hoped his name alone would be enough to jog Stormshot's memory, but if it wasn't, he had a series of informational holovids ready and rearing.

[Deleted]

Stormshot's wings tensed in response to the answer given, though his expression did not change. He remained in his same cooly confident stance, that minor shift the only clue as to his true reaction. The Autobot Air Commander. Of course he'd heard of him, though not in great detail. Enough to know that he had truly damnable luck in having run into him while disoriented from his sudden...jump. The Autobot had been rather amiable so far. Hopefully, things would stay that way.

He inclined his head in recognition of the other's rank.

"I am familiar with you, Commander, though by reputation only," he glanced the Autobot over again, taking in his size and build, "I had not expected you to be so...robust."

Stormshot was by no means a small bot, but, Jetfire was larger, something that didn't often happen to the seeker.

"With our pleasantries out of the way, I must ask what your intentions toward me are. You outrank, and thus, I imagine, outmatch me. I am in an unfamiliar sector of space with little understanding of how I came to be here. But, you seem rather well acquainted with the area...." he motioned to the expanse around them with one hand, "In short, you hold the advantage," he returned his arms to their folded position over his chestplates, "Do you intend to press it?"

[Jetfire]

Direct, wasn't he? It wasn't often that Jetfire couldn't get a read on somebody, but Stormshot had been proving him wrong all day. His first question was why the Decepticon was treating their encounter like a game of Fullstasis, but then it hit him. He was just thinking very tactically, aloud no less. It didn't change anything, but perhaps Jetfire had been craving a game or two. One thing was clear, and that was the fact that Stormshot was out of place in more ways than one.

"Well I'm not here to take advantage of you, I can make that much clear." He replied, sounding as if he'd been put off by the notion alone.

The symbol still perplexed him. Painting it red was as if you were purposely tempting Megatron's wrath. It was a mockery of the Decepticon movement itself, which only made it all the more intriguing. Jetfire took several steps closer to examine it. Then an idea hit him, or rather, an excuse. After that whole situation with Optimus, his memories, and the inexplicable surge of recruits the Autobots and Decepticons had received, Jetfire had taken steps to be ready for the next 'event'.

The Autobot flicked down his visor moments later, switching on the program he'd written for just this occasion. Stormshot's outline lit up underneath a dark red filter as Jetfire scrolled down the lists he had prepared. An uncomfortable silence passed between the two of them as the scan commenced, and was only signified as being complete once Jetfire cringed. From his visor, Stormshot was practically glowing like a star, having taken a cross reference of two particular data sets to determine the truth. Flipping his visor back up, the doctor gave his diagnosis.

"My friend, you are for lack of a better word, bleeding zeta and chroniton radiation. Well, more than the rest of us lately."

"I don't think you're from here, and I don't mean that in a local sense."

[Deleted]

Curious, how much the insinuation that Jetfire could easily take him on seemed to disturb the Air Commander. Another blaring difference between Autobots and Decepticons, Stormshot supposed. Had it been their own Air Commander, Starscream, a disoriented and weaker opponent would already have been fired upon, likely to the back. But, this one had honor. And it caused an unexpected surge of respect to rise within Stormshot.

He tensed but did not move further when the Autobot neared him. It wasn't an aggressive move. Rather, he seemed to be examining him rather clinically. He stood his ground, refusing to show weakness despite the warning bells that went off in his head. That sort of thing would lead to trouble when one was a Decepticon, and putting on at least a show of strength was better than giving in to wariness.

Stormshot's visor flashed in curiosity when Jetfire lowered his own. A scan, then? Whatever for? He remained still, allowing it without so much as a complaint. An odd one, this bot was. Though, he thought he remembered hearing that the Autobot Air Commander was also a scientist of some sort. Which would explain some things.

Jetfire flinched and Stormshot's wings gave a jolt of surprise, flicking up in alarm. What was it the Autobot had found? As he listened to the explanation, his helm tilted just slightly to the side. 'Friend'? That was a term he didn't hear often among his own faction. Some of the words used were unfamiliar. He was an intelligent bot, but he was no scientist. What he did know that zeta radiation was related to teleportation, having heard the term used in relation to space bridge technology. Chroniton radiation must be...time related. He rumbled thoughtfully.

"...I was traveling through space when I was caught in what I can only describe as a gravity well. I had no control and my thrusters were not powerful enough to break free. Then...I was here, wherever here is. My navigational systems are still down, but, I don't recognize this star field," he paused. He saw no sense in being secretive about his situation. If Jetfire was as intelligent as his reputation hinted, he might just have some of the answers to Stormshot's current predicament.

"If your scans are correct, then I was somehow....pulled across space to this location, yes?"

[Jetfire]

Jetfire believed the testimony based on all the evidence that'd been provided to him thus far. Being pulled through a mysterious space-time hole sounded much like a very probably cause for Stormshot's presence on the Earth's moon. Perhaps he was meant to go to Earth, but for whatever reason, the moon's own gravity must have interfered. Too much conjecture and not enough laboratory, Jetfire thought. Verifying most of this would have to wait until later, but his initial scans had given him a good idea.

"It would seem that way, yes. You're definitely not the first to have this happen in recent memory, I believe."

There were more relevant details that needed to be brought up as well, he felt.

"But... I have to ask."

"What's with the emblem on your chest? I'm not sure where you're from, but here, that symbol's typically done up in purple."

Not at all sure about what kind of response he'd be getting, Jetfire asked anyway. One possibility was that the mech standing in front of him was simply from a universe where Megatron didn't understand color theory. Another idea was that Stormshot was from a universe where the Decepticons were the good guys.

Wild, he thought.

[Deleted]

Stormshot tilted his head curiously. He wasn't the first? That meant that there were others who had been pulled through space? And possibly time? It wouldn't be unheard of, really. There had been tales of other dimensions. But, to travel to one...

His attention was drawn again by Jetfire's voice and he looked up from his pondering.

Then, his optics traveled to his chest. His emblem? He looked at it for a long moment, taking in the red that stood out against his white plating. Then, he sighed. They were still being honest, so he'd give him the truth.

"When I joined the Decepticons," he began, slowly, "We had a just cause, something worth being proud of," he looked up again, "It seemed right to bear the emblem proudly. Recently, though..." he trailed off, shaking his helm, "No, for a long time now, we've become depraved. The cause is forgotten. Cybertron is dead...and I don't know why this war continues as it does."