Beyond the Cosmos: Tragedy and Fortune

New Recruit

"Cliffjumper!" Ratchet yelled. "Respond!" He was using electric panels, trying to get Cliffjumper to wake up, but it was no use. Arcee, Optimus and Bulkhead came out of the ground bridge, and were shocked when they saw what was going on.

"What happened?!" I wailed. Ratchet replied, "Tox-en exposure, among other things. Cliffjumper has suffered a complete systems failure." The scanner turned red when Ratchet was scanning Cliffjumper.      

"Hold on! Tox-en?" Arcee stated in confusion. Ratchet examined the life signals of everyone, and Cliffjumper's rapidly went down. "Help me get him into the medical bay. Now!"

Bumblebee and Arcee rushed over and dragged Cliffjumper's nearly lifeless body into the medical bay. Agent Fowler was holding me still, trying to keep me away. The ground bridge was still open, and I saw a black figure make its way in.

After hooking Cliffjumper up to the medicinal line, the autobots noticed the figure and equipped their cannons. "Wait! Please!" the figure said. "I mean no harm."  

"Unknown vessel, this is Autobot Outpost Omega One. Identify yourself," said Optimus. The figure stepped forward out of the shadows, to reveal a rather unexpected find. She wasn't an Autobot or Decepticon. She wasn't even a transformer. 

"Wind'Song?" Optimus asked. 

"Optimus?!"

"It has been quite some time." 

"Wait, you know her?" Raf asked. Optimus replied, "Wind'Song was a valuable ally on Cybertron before the events of the Great War took place." 

"What is she?" Miko quizzed. 

Wind'Song glanced at everyone in the base. "I'm... a Hybrid. I earned my training badge from Cybertron's elite guard." Ratchet looked at her immediately and said, "Hybrids? I thought that species went extinct!" Wind'Song shook her head.

"I came here because... that Decepticon scum Starscream tried to frag Cliffjumper. I've known him for 200 millennia, and I've never seen something as bad as this happen. The worst thing that has happened was merely when he got shot in the arm."

I hesitated when Wind'Song said 'Starscream'. I thought it was just 'Scream', but seeing that those two names were so familiar... I knew it immediately after. Starscream was the one who almost killed Cliffjumper when we first met!

First, I lost Tailgate, I cannot lose Cliffjumper as well. 

***

"Wind'Song, what cross are you?" I asked. She replied, "Well, I'm a black jaguar mixed with a chital, also known as a black jital. As far as I know, I am the last Hybrid in the corners of this galaxy." Wind'Song hung her head.

"Wow! We haven't had a new member since Wheeljack!" Miko cheered. "Do you have blasters? What's a Hybrid? How'd you get here?" 

Wind'Song looked at Miko with a glare, because she just explained all of that. She then trotted over to Cliffjumper, sat down, and grieved. We felt just the same way about him.

"Cliffjumper is stable, for the moment," said Ratchet mournfully. "But I've had to enduce stasis until tomorrow. Cliffjumper suffered massive trauma to his central neural conduit. The exposure has caused system-wide shutdown on a sub-micronic level. I can't even begin to operate until Cliffjumper regains some strength."

"That's it!" Wind'Song snapped. "I'm gonna pound Screamy into scrap for nearly terminating Cliff."

"Wind'Song," Optimus said. "I think it is best to focus on Cliffjumper's recovery, rather than revenge." She didn't dare disobey him, especially because she hadn't seen Optimus in a very long time.

Wind just stared at Cliffjumper who lay motionless for a long time, and I did the same. Her tail twitched as if it were alive. I saw her shed a few tears for her friend's brink of annihilation.  

***

"How is he?" I asked.

Bumblebee looked around and hung his head. Ratchet replied gloomily, "Cliffjumper will survive. He may never be fully functional again."

I was about to cry. "Bee, can you take me home?" I asked, holding back my emotions. He nodded sadly, transformed, waited for me to get in, closed the door, and drove off. 

***

In the morning, when the sunrays awoke me, I shifted to my side, trying to sleep in. But the urge to arrive at the Autobot Base as soon as I could for any good news jolted me awake. I dashed to the closet and changed out of my pajamas.

I then put on a fancy black shirt with buttons and white decorated fabric on the bottom and around my neck, sapphire-colored jeans, black sneakers, my favorite moon necklace, bracelets, and a hairclip with a moon and stars dangling from it.

For the finishing touches, I applied some mascara, blue-grey eyeshadow, and lip gloss. I was eager to see Cliffjumper wake up-- or at least hear that he's doing better. Opening the door, I dashed to my backyard.

"Wind'Song told me about Cliffjumper's tragedy," stated Silverstream, as she walked up to me with a slight limp. "How's your leg?" I asked. 

"Better, still hurts though." She knelt down for me to get on, and she ascended into the sky, soaring sprightly to the base. 

A few minutes later, we were there, and when we entered, everyone was there. The only one who seemed not to care was Miko, who was playing her guitar, which was definitely not helping.

"Miko, can you keep it down?!" Silverstream snapped as she descended and I got off. "That will definitely not wake up Cliffjumper!"

"Oh, joy," muttered Ratchet while checking Cliffjumper's vitals. He turned and looked at me in a rather agitated manner. "Is there... any updates?" I asked nervously, rubbing my arm. 

"Well," he said. "Cliffjumper doesn't require any further stasis, and his first operation went well. I'm about to operate again, but can't focus, thank you very much, Miko!"

So that was the good news, no bad news. Well, maybe the guitar playing was bad news for Ratchet, but I didn't mind so much.   

But I just pray to God that Cliffjumper can wake up soon.