Nightfall smothered the island, a desolate shadow against the oily black of the ocean. Only the stars and a withered sliver of moonlight cast any illumination across its jagged shore— tiny rivers of luminescent sea-foam lapping against its sands like a gossamer shawl, littered with glistening pebbles licked smooth by the tide.
A lone mountain of rock erupted from the island's heart, its jagged cliffs towering like a sentinel made of stone. Rolling hills of emerald lushness spread beneath, alive with strange shapes and shifts of shadow that slithered amongst the mist-laden foliage. An eerie chorus of croaks echoed across the isle— unearthly moans that seemed drawn from within the darkest depths of Hades —while the night breeze carried with it the scent of mossy dampness and sweet, stomach-churning rot.
Out at sea, an enormous aircraft carrier prowled in silence over the horizon. Two massive figures stood upon its deck, their edges blurred by the night sky into hazy, smudged silhouettes, seeming almost as if they had been sketched in greasy pastel chalk.
Only one thing shone brightly from that bleak darkness— the slick glimmer of cold metal, stark and white as a whale’s tooth.
Skywarp shifted restlessly, his midnight-colored wings giving off a sheen of silvery moonlight. His optics glowed a fiendish red in the dark, raking across the far-off shoreline, scanning for any signs of life. Or Anti-Life, as it were.
"So, what," he huffed in frustration, optics narrowing in suspicion as he swiveled to face Thundercracker. "The squishies said we're just supposed to sit around and wait? What for?"
Thundercracker did not immediately answer. Instead, the cobalt mech at his side stood with his arms crossed firmly over his cockpit, glowering, displeasure rolling off him in waves. Probably still fuming from Skywarp's earlier stunt, if he had to guess.
Well, that was just slaggin’ fine, in Warp’s opinion! TC could be pissy all he wanted— he’d loosen up after they finished squashing a couple enemy soldiers into paste. He almost always did.
Eventually, though, TC did deign to speak to him again. Thank Primus for that— Warp thought he was gonna have to lob one of the other jets sitting on the carrier into the ocean or something to elicit some kind of response.
"For the last time, Skywarp," TC grumped, voice laden with a long-suffering sigh. "Word came through that the rest of the Fleet will be joining us for this skirmish. We can't just storm the beach all on our own, especially considering who's coming with 'em."
"Oh yeah?" challenged Skywarp. "Well, who's this big shot we gotta wait for? They can't be that important."
Helm cocking to the side, TC's face-plates scrunched up into a slight frown. His gaze went distant as he hacked into the various electronic communications the organics on board were producing. It took several milliseconds to muddle through the chaotic digital streams, but eventually, he found what he was looking for.
His optics refocused with a soft whir, meeting Skywarp's own. "The Commandant, apparently."
TC observed with great patience as Warp looked up, then down, then all around, visibly racking his processor as his face-plates contorted in complete mystification.
"Right. The Commandant. I knew that," muttered Skywarp. He paused for a beat. Then, "... who's that, again?"
"Maybe if you'd spent less time drooling over that Red Baron guy's cockpit and paid more attention during our mission brief, you would know."
"Oh, shove it up your afterburner, TC."
The pair of mechs fell silent once more, the only sound to break the quiet being the gentle lap of the waves against the belly of the aircraft carrier.
"You're smirking," Skywarp observed suddenly, shattering the restful calm that had settled between them. He whirled on TC and stuck a talon in his face, optics narrowing in keen suspicion. "Why are you smirking? You don't smirk."
A subtle, mischievous grin stretched across Thundercracker's lip-plates. "No reason."
Warp shot him a sidelong glance. He opened his mouth as if to respond, but was interrupted by the sound of the squishy soldiers on the carrier's deck scrambling around and causing a general ruckus, all at once seeming really psyched about... well, something.
He slowly twisted his helm, scanning the area with hawk-like attention as he attempted to locate the cause of their excitement. His elevated prank-senses practically tingled, intuiting that it was in all likelihood connected to Thundercracker's bizarre behavior somehow.
It was only a matter of seconds before he noticed the armada of warships that had stealthily bobbed up alongside them, cloaked in sea fog and branded all over with Syntech's heraldry. But it took slightly longer for him to discern the silvery biplane hulking atop the deck of one carrier in particular, its unpainted metal frame appearing oddly skeletal in the dim lighting.
Still, while the biplane was undoubtedly distracting enough on its own, what truly captivated him was the man perched within its cockpit. And not just any man, either.
Skywarp's wings shot upwards, performing an oddly bird-like little flutter at the sight.
Unfortunately, TC knew that look. It was the very same expression of gleeful anticipation that Warp only ever got when Megatron gave him a special mission, or when one of his elaborate practical jokes was close to fruition. It triggered a cacophony of alarm bells and flashing notifications inside TC's processor, frantically alerting him to the impending catastrophe that was undoubtedly about to transpire.
"That’s the Commandant," he warned, putting forth at least a token effort to restrain his wing-mate. "So don’t go tackling him out of the sky or anything, alright? Unless you’re particularly eager to have an entire army drilling you full of bullets.”
“What do you think happened to that pretty red finish of his?” mused Warp, a dreamy look dancing in his optics, completely disregarding TC's consternation in favor of mooning over the Red Baron. “Though I guess plain silver doesn’t look all that bad. It’s kinda… rugged, you know? I mean, look at Megatron—“
At his side, Thundercracker pinched the center of his nasal ridge, shaking his helm. Don Isaac De Metralla’s presence was not having the pacifying effect on his wing-mate he’d been hoping for.
He cast a baleful glare over at the island in the distance, the disconcerting shine of hidden guns and white, dead eyes glittering from amidst the gnarled trees. The Unmade of the island appeared to be well aware of their approach, but one question lurked at the back of his CPU— why weren’t they doing anything about it?
The familiar clank and crunch of transformation rang out, snagging his attention. Skywarp telescoped his towering body into his jet-mode as he began to roll across the deck with reckless abandon, many of the organic soldiers forced to scatter or risk being crushed beneath his wheels.
“Warp,” Thundercracker hissed, also shifting into his jet-mode, his sky blue plating creaking and groaning as it folded inward. He couldn't help but draw a comparison between his wing-brother's behavior and trying to rein in Buster at your standard Arcadian dog park— the ailerons of Skywarp's wings were even waggling about in suppressed excitement, for Primus' sake. “Don’t do anything crazy, alright? I know you want to impress your boyfriend or whatever, but you can’t just—“
Skywarp’s thrusters ignited with a giddy roar, drowning out TC's words and sending wild dancing shadows capering across the deck.
“Come on, TC!” he cried, cannons swiveling to attention as they came online. His cockpit window twinkled merrily in the starry night. “You wanna live forever?!”
Right on his heels (or ‘wheels’, in this case), Thundercracker faltered. “That’s— that’s a loaded question— !”
Warp snorted. “Yeah, well… get a load of THIS!”
Launching himself from the carrier’s deck with a jubilant whoop, Skywarp cut across the waves like an arrow from a bow, his black fuselage silhouetted against the waxing moonlight. The night grew brighter as his two burning afterburners pulsed with a searing scarlet blaze, casting a deep crimson hue over the rippling waters below.
"What did I just say?!" Thundercracker snapped, but was quick to give chase, a crackling rumble ringing out like the roll of distant thunder as he climbed into the sky.
