(Credit to the original artist, I couldn't find their name)
Aerialace P.O.V
After 2 hours of flying. It felt good to be back at base. I looked over to by twin flamberges intertwined to make my sword; Nordlys. I then saw my predacon spirit Kai in the corner (picture above), I made a short series of clicks and whistles to let him know I was here, and notice me he did. He sprinted to me so I held out my arm for him, he hopped on, ran up my shoulder and around my neck to give face cuddles. "Hey buddy, hope you weren't too bored without me." I told him, he only chirped in reply, but that was enough for me.
I heard some snow crunching so took an icicle from the roof to throw it at the intruder, "Woah, take it easy, Aerialace." The red one said as I nearly inpale him with the icicle. Soon the rest of his team same out of the shadows to see they blocked off the main exit.
Optimus P.O.V
We unintentionally cornered Aerialace by blocking off the exit. I slowly walked towards her to which she responded by snatching the sword in the wall, the ice holders snapping off with a crash. She quickly dived into the snow and dug? Making a tunnel to which we were all surprised by.
"I'll keep her from coming back here." Arcee told us as she climbed through the tunnel Aerialace's created. I looked at the data pad that had Aerialace's location, the rest of us coming back outside the cave where we entered from, seeing Aerialace come up from the snow. She ran away from us, soon Arcee came through the tunnel, we continued chase her until we surrounded her again.
Aerialace was ready for a fist fight, as she got her balled up servos up to her mask covered faceplate. She quickly ran to Bulkhead and continually dodged his wrecking ball while diverting his shots to where it would hit in front of all of our peddes. Arcee, finally able to get past the the blasts quickly hit Aerialace into the snow.
Aerialace quickly got up and waved her servo in front of the snow in front of us before running away again. As the rest of the team got ready to chase Aerialace they quick got stuck in some quicksand like snow, me realising what she did, I took a few steps back before jumping over the powdered snow and told the team, "I shall return." "Don't worry, go get Aerialace, she's quite strong and nimble, I have to admit." Cliffjumper responded as they tried to get out of the snow.
I saw Aerialace in the distance, still not transformed, maybe because she overworked her t cog from going full speed for hours. I transformed and drove after her. A few minutes later and she was within reach, she noticed me and started running faster. I knew this would be my only chance and I took it, I transformed and grabbed one of her stabiliser wings. I instantly regained my composure and quickly held her to where she can't touch the ground.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean too!" I heard her help as she grabbed my servo, with both of hers, as I was going to drop her. "It won't happen again I swear! I don't know what went wro-" she was silenced by a shock of electricity that even I could feel, although faintly. Her frame slightly convulsing as she tried to use her peddes to kick me away, but it didn't do anything, all she did was lightly but quickly run her pedde down my chassis before quickly going back up and doing the same thing.
"Cool! You caught her!" Cliffjumper yelled as he and the rest of the team came closer. "What's wrong with her?" Arcee asked, seeing Aerialace holding my servo and trying to kick me away, "I am unsure, It started when I held her my her wing." I told them what she said.
Aerialace, still not having said anything after the electricity, seemed like she was in a panic attack. "Aerialace?" I asked as I slowly set her down on the snow, she shook her head a little as I let go of her wing, seemingly coming out of whatever state of mind she was in. "Y-yes, sir?" She asked hesitantly from the ground, as her peddes were too wobbly to hold her up so I lowered her entire frame onto the snow.
"Would you like to join the Autobots against the war?" I quietly asked her. "War? There is a war?" She lightly asked back, everyone was shocked. "I shall explain later, but the Decepticons destroyed our planet and now they want to destroy Earth, this planet. Would you want that to happen?" I explained, giving the offer again. "This planet is sacred, I shall do whatever needs to be done to save this planet. I shall join the Autobots, Sir" an automated voice came from Aerialace.
She started violently coughing, as we tried to get closer, she split her sword into two pieces, freaking all of us out. Everyone, except for me, took a few steps back. I slowly came up to her as she was stumbling, I lowered her swords, she just collapsed. I quickly grabbed her before she fell, her swords falling out of her grasp and falling into the snow silently.
As she was going into an emergency power down her coughing turned into wheezing, which confused me. "It seems the flight and running forced her into a power down." I told the rest of the team as they looked confused to me. ":: Ratchet, open the groundbridge, tell Fowler to prepare a room, and get a berth ready::" Cliffjumper said through the comm. Soon a groundbridge opened and I carried Aerialace in while Cliffjumper took her swords with us.
(In the Autobot base)
I set Aerialace on the med berth so Ratchet could do a few more scans on her. "Oh and Ratchet, you might want to check on Aerialace's processor, she was talking to nothing." Arcee told Ratchet. Ratchet started to scan Aerialace's processor and what he found was incredible, "it seems to be Aerialace does see things no one else sees, but I don't know if it's from a fall or if she has been able to see them the entire time. But these scans are quite static, I'll need to find out what the source is before I can find the cause." Ratchet responded
"Ace!" Cliffjumper suddenly shouted, everyone looked at him weirdly, "What? Are we just going to keep on calling her Aerialace? Because that is quite long and isn't really easy to say in the heat of battle. Ace is a lot shorter and it sounds cool!" Cliffjumper explained his reasoning behind the nickname. "Aerialace, or Ace, will be online tomorrow so I suggest everyone get some recharge so we can properly introduce her to agent Fowler." Ratchet told everyone and with that I heard a bunch of good nights and rest wells.
Cliffjumper P.O.V
I was last to leave the main area but just as I was about to leave I saw a blue smoke next to Ace. I gently approached med bay but it seemed the creature noticed me as well and froze. We were in a staring competition but I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me so I just went to bed.
(In the morning)
I woke up earlier than usual to be able to greet Ace or make sure she doesn't wake up without anyone there. As I got to the main area of base I noticed Ace still in recharge and Optimus and Ratchet beat me to the early bird train. "Good morning, Cliffjumper." Optimus greeted me, "Mornin'." I greeted him back. "Any signs of Ace waking up?" I asked Ratchet. "Not yet but in a few minutes she should be awake, why don't you wake up everyone else? Make sure they're also here." Ratchet told me.
I walked over to everyone's sleeping quarters and knocked on Arcee's, Bulkhead's and Bumblebee's door and told them through the door, "Ace is going to wake up soon." So they know I'm not doing it to annoy anyone since I did a prank like this a few weeks back.
Everyone was in the main part of base making sure they didn't miss Ace's introduction to the base. Me, Cee, Bulk and Bee were admiring Ace's blade as we didn't see one like it before. After a few more minutes of looking at Ace's sword we were interrupted by, what sounded like a computer, powering up. We all rushed to med bay to see Ace's visor filled with a blue glow. "Hey, don't worry, this time there are no locks, okay?" I heard Ratchet say.
Optimus came up next to Ace to help her stand. "Hey, you ok?" Arcee asked Ace, "I'll survive." Was her response. "Hey, Ace." I greeted her, even if I couldn't see her optics I know she's confused so I cleared it up, "that'll be your nickname, Arcee is Cee, Bulkhead is Bulk, Mine is Cliff, Bumblebee is Bee and Ratchet is Ratch." I told her everyone's Nicknames so she wouldn't be confused. "Would you like me to show you to your quarters Aerilace?" Optimus asked. "Yes, sir." She responded, trying to sound polite, but we all knew why she added that sir.
Soon after they left I saw the blue smoke again and it seemed to be going the same way as Ace and Optimus. I was following the creature when suddenly it noticed me and started running, I ran after it. After a bit of chasing the creature made it to Ace and it seemingly disappeared. "Cliffjumper, I just showed Aerialace her room, would like to walk with us?" Optimus asked, "No thanks, I would actually like to talk with Ace for a moment? If that's ok." I declined his offer.
He soon started walking away and once he was out of earshot I whisper-yelled at her, "what the frag is that thing? The blue smokey creature that keeps on following you around?" "You see him?" She asked back. "You mean no one sees it—him!? It's a mech?" I was frantically trying to solve this puzzle but Ace interrupted me, "that blue smoke is the spirit I'm nurturing to enter the physical world, his name is Kai, not it." I was left even more confused but she simply walked away.
"If you tell anyone about what I just said or about you seeing Kai, I will make sure you never see the living world again. I'll tell you more later but I feel that your team is getting worried." "You mean our team, Ace?" I corrected her. "Apologies, I'm still getting used to a team."
We walked to the main area in silence. When we made it there I saw Fowler on the platform, "Oh, joy..." I muttered. "Prime! Where is this new recruit?" He yelled. "She is right here agent Fowler." Optimus pointed beside me where Ace was. "Greetings, sir." Ace responded as she walked up to Fowler, "so you're the new bot around here. Well, there are some rules you have to follow. 1. Keep a low profile. 2. They're robots in disguise so you can't just go flying around a town or city. 3. Make sure the place is evacuated if there are Decepticons or go to a less populated area. There are some other rules but those are the main ones like 'add a report after every raid or scouting mission' got it?" Fowler listed off the rules while Ace was just silently listening, "yes sir." Was all she responded with.
"Hey you might want to give her some training on her alt mode." I suggested since she was quite unbalanced. "And I noticed you have larger peddes, why is that?" Arcee spoke up. "I am able to transform into a ground vehicle but I have yet to choose." Ace responded. "Good I'll get a database of cars for you ready so you can choose and I'll get you a training course for a...?" Fowler trailed off since he doesn't know Ace's alt mode. "MiG-31 Foxhound, Sir." She finished for him. "I'm not even going to ask how you got the scans for it but ok, I'll send a message to General Bryce about you and about your alt mode." Fowler told her and left.
A few days later Ace went on a training retreat to control her alt mode for around a week, in that week Fowler sent us a list of possible vehicles for Ace and some info about Decepticon sightings. I was talking to Cee when our conversation drifted over to Ace. "I can't wait for Ace to get back! She will finally be able to go on a mission with us, I hope it's a good one." I was very exited because Ace is coming back today, and since it's time for Fowler to check in with us she was going to come with Fowler!
"Yeah it's been a while and we barely know her but she already feels like family." Cee responded. Our conversation was cut short when the comms went off, I sprinted to the computer. "This is Aerialace with agent Fowler coming in. We are five minutes away from the base." Ace commed in. "We'll be waiting for ya Ace!" I excitedly told her.
Five minutes later and Ace was in view and she was coming in fast. We all backed away so she would have more space to transform. Ace stoped in the air a few seconds until she transformed with her servos protecting agent Fowler, "Next time warn me when transform like that." Fowler said nauseously, "apologies, sir, but there isn't enough space to land normally." Ace told him, Ace handed Fowler to Optimus so they could talk about missions and other stuff like that.
We all went down to where I excitedly asked Ace about what she did during training, surprisingly, she pulled out a data pad filled with videos and notes of her training. "I took some notes so I could revise them later if I need to." She explained. We plugged the data pad into one of the less used computers so we could watch all the drills, "how did you get these videos?" Bulk asked, "one of the workers thought it would be good if they recorded my training so I could come back and see what I did wrong so I could improve." She answered. After we watched all the videos we could see how much she improved; it was like she was raised in her alt mode. We heard an alarm and I was pumped! "This is your first mission as an Autobot Ace! Come on let's see what it's about!" I excitedly told her.
Aerialace P.O.V
Cliffjumper dragged me over to the main computer where there was an energon signal, he seemed disappointed because this is my very first mission on this team. "Aww. It's just an energon signal..." Cliffjumper whined. "Well that's still good, we can see Ace in action." Arcee reassured Cliffjumper. I quickly left to get Nordlys, when I returned everyone was ready and the groundbridge was on. We immediately left to see what the signal was.
(Near the energon mine)
We made it through the portal and landed near the mine. "Aerialace, I would like you to go first so I can assess your skills." Optimus told me. "Yes, sir." Was all I responded with before I ran off to the mine. I was stealthily able to make it behind the vehicon guards where I split Nordlys and used one of the twins to slice the helms off of each of the guards. I gave the okay signal to the rest of the team and we were off deeper into the mine.
I stealthily dispatched all of the vehicons as we went further into the mine. Eventually we made it into the main part of the mine where we suddenly went in guns a blazing, I took out the vehicons near the communications console to make sure they didn't call for help, I worked my way out from there until all the vehicons were offline. "::Ratchet, prepare the mining equipment::" Optimus told Ratchet.
Soon a groundbridge opened and I thought it was the Deceptions so I took out my blaster, it was just Ratchet so I transformed my blaster back to my servo. "I don't have extra mining equipment for Aerialace so you can just make sure there aren't any vehicons online so they can't call the warship." Ratchet informed me.
I began checking the vehicons near the communications console and Kai showed me the ones that were pure of spark so I collected theirs where, in some time, they will have another chance of life. After I checked all the vehicons I came back to see the team hauling in the energon we collected from all the crystals into the groundbridge.
I started with some of the smaller crystals working over to larger and larger ones, I continued until I heard "By the allspark!" I turn around to see the team staring at me weirdly. "Is something at the matter?" I asked politely, they just kept on staring until Cliffjumper pointed to the crystal I was carrying. "How are you carrying that?" He asked quietly.
"I have spent years running and fighting, my frame grew stronger and stronger, I also turned off a few of my pain receptors in my arms, the effects are temporary." I told them. "Let's get the rest of this energon back to base, we can process it later." Ratchet suggested, I nodded and continued to haul some of the heavier energon crystals into the cart and into the groundbridge, after a few more minutes we got all the energon we needed so we headed off back to base.
(In the Autobot base)
I continued to process the crystals into cubes even when the rest of the team took a break, I got the team a few cubes of energon, taking it to the main part of base where the team was taking a break, I put the energon on the table and told Ratchet. "We have one hundred and six cubes of energon in storage right now." "Good job, Ace, why don't we look through those vehicle options for ya." Cliffjumer suggested.
"I have nothing else to do and the sooner I get my vehicle mode the sooner I can learn traffic laws, then that is out of the way." I told him. He suddenly pulled me down to the floor, grabbed a bit of energon and a data pad, we scrolled through the options until I found one that I liked, "wait." Was all I said, a moment later, a green light came out of my optics, scanning the vehicle. "Come on! Let's go racing!" Was all Cliffjumper said before him, Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee transformed and raced out.
I look at Optimus confused, "go, have a break." Was all he said and with that I raced out of base, still in my bipedal form. Everyone was waiting outside for me to show them my new mode, "Come on let's see it, Ace." Bumblebee said. I tried to transform but my plates were stuck, I tried once, I tried twice, I tried three times! Until on the fourth I finally got it, I transformed into a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, I revved my engines and I heard Cliffjumer whistle and say, "that a beaut." "Let's first tell Ace the laws before we go racing." Arcee suggested.
The explanation was quite fast and in a few hours we were racing. It was the finale; me versus Cliffjumper, "Ready? Set. Go!" Arcee shouted to which me and Cliffjumper left her in the dust. Cliffjumper got ahead of me at first but soon I took him over and went twice his speed. I got to the finish line first and quickly transformed and slid on the ground waiting for Cliffjumper. Only a few seconds later did he show up. "Good game." "Good game." We shook servos. "Femmes and Mechs, may I introduce you to the new champion of the track, Aerialace!" Cliffjumper held my servo up as everyone clapped. This is going to be an interesting chapter of my life...