[ti]Ep 3[/ti]Killing Time [Open - Starfall, Petrichor]

[Petrichor]

Week 3 | Day 6 | Morning
Location: Nevada

---

Petra finished adjusting her meager, yet slowly growing rock collection for the fifteenth time that morning. She had been shifting the pieces around, turning them this way and that, brushing non-existent dust from them until they sat just the way she liked them on one of the shelves in her berthroom. Only, she liked all of the positions she had rotated through - she was just bored and restless, fidgeting until something better to do came up. She had even looked into the rules for the human game of basketball Nathan had mentioned to her earlier. It seemed like an interesting, if slightly complex, game. One that she wouldn’t be playing anytime soon. At least, not until she felt comfortable enough to put herself out there and make enough friends to actually set up a game with the others at Omega.

A drive sounded really nice too. Ever since she had gone out with Bee and then Nathan, she just couldn’t keep her mind off of the next time she’d get to leave the Base. Granted, there was still very much the threat of MECH looming over their helms, so it was less than ideal to go by herself.

She glanced back at the shelf.

A servo reached out and spun a piece of red chert ninety degrees.

“This is stupid. Just send out a general message and see if anyone wants to stretch their peds with you, Petra, you silly femme.”

Pulling the chair out from her desk, she sat and quickly pulled up an empty text file on her data pad. Her digits hovered over the keys momentarily, second-guessing her conviction.

What if everyone’s busy? I don’t want to be annoying…
Primus - it’s just a message! What’s the worst that’ll happen? They say ‘no thanks’ or ignore it. At least then you’ll know and can come up with a better idea to occupy your time.

Before she could get cold peds again, Petrichor typed out a casual inquiry for anyone who had their messaging program open.

:: “Hey, all.
Anyone interested in going out for a drive? I could do with some fresh air.
-Petrichor” ::

She copied the text over (because typing a message through the actual messaging system first was just asking to be sent with grammatical errors or to an incorrect recipient) and pasted it onto an informal messaging program (so as not to muddy up any of the important communications on the formal system) and set the recipient to ‘All’.

“Okay. Here we go.”

As soon as she hit send, Petra’s anxiety sky-rocketed. What had she done? Everyone at base was going to see that. They’d probably think she was being a whiny sparkling. Or judging her on how she could be better serving her time. She could be - no, she should be doing much more productive things than ‘going out for a drive’. Standing, she unconsciously pulled out the piece of tetrinite she always kept on her and began fiddling with it while pacing around the room, going from her desk to the wall by her door and back. All the while continuing to mentally berate herself.

[Deleted]

While Petrichor adjusted her rock collection, Starfall was idly trudging through Omega Outpost, both familiarizing herself with it’s layout but also looking for the largest reflective object she could find. Though the femme was fortunate enough that the Autobots had a streamlined system for providing new Earth-based alternate modes to the degree she’d been able to get hers within a day of arriving, she was still adjusting to her new appearance. While much of her body remained largely the same, the new kibble and other details were taking some getting used to. Finding a mirror or even a reflective enough piece of sheet metal to look at herself in was something Starfall hoped would expedite the process, though so far it was to no avail.

Continuing to traipse through the hallways, another thought lingered on Star’s mind - going out. Now that she had her new disguise it was an opportunity she was eager to jump at, so why hadn’t she done it yet? Was the fearless Marauder scared? Getting cold feet? Starfall quickly dashed her doubts, and resolved to prove them wrong. As she turned back on herself to make her way back to the Control Room, a quiet ping lit up her HUD. A general message on an inter-Autobot communications channel, though one of the more informal ones. It was a request from another bot, someone called Petrichor, asking to go for a drive. It was the perfect opportunity. A chance to go outside, meet someone and hopefully make friends. Not to mention if there were two of them, it satisfied the requirements of the buddy system that Bumblebee had told her about.

:: ”Fresh air sounds great. Let’s do it.
- Starfall” ::

Her reply was almost immediate, even if it was a little brief. For a moment, the femme considered that as a new arrival, there was the possibility that her name would be an unfamiliar one for most of the people on the channel and perhaps even cause for alarm. But she also didn’t care. Introductions were important, and needed to be made sooner or later, and impatient as she was, Star always opted for sooner. Going for a drive sounded like fun, as it was not only an opportunity to explore Earth, but also one that would allow her to test out - or rather, break in - her new alt mode. She could get a proper feel for it’s limitations out in the open, and a better idea of how it handled. Walking with a newfound pep in her step, Star continued making her way back to the Control Room, eager to go outside for the first time and excited to meet Petrichor.

[Petrichor]

Just as she was getting ready to send a follow up message telling everyone to ignore her previous message, Petra received an alert. Someone named ‘Starfall’ had replied, wanting to join her on her outing. Petrichor wasn’t familiar with the name other than that she had seen it in a notification just the other day informing everyone that they were a new member joining the team here at Omega One.

Feeling excited and nervous about meeting someone new but getting to spend some time outside, Petra fired off a quick follow-up response.

:: “Great! I’ll meet you in the control room.” ::

She quickly grabbed the basic first-aid kit she kept stowed under her berth, stashed it in her subspace - just in case - and collected her rifle, clipping it in place on her back. Again, just in case. Then she began making her way towards the control room to meet up with Starfall. Petra didn’t know what to expect about this new team member, but she’d keep an open mind and do her best to not be abhorrently awkward like she was prone to do.

‘Hi, I’m Petrichor! What’s your name?’ Wait, no that’s stupid. You know their name. How about, ‘Hey there. I’m Petrichor. So you want to go outside too, huh?’ Ugh. No. That sounds even more dumb. Just stop. You’d be better off just winging it.
....How the blazes have I survived this long?

The hallway emptied into the open space of the control room, her optics inadvertently being drawn towards the red sandstone vaulting from the floor to above her helm. For being a smaller base than many, the raised ceiling and warm light reflected off the rock surface made most of the base’s rooms and halls feel larger while still retaining a sense of cozy comfort. Petrichor loved it. It was just so different compared to the stark, sheer metals of Cybertron.

Petra walked to the opposite end of the room where the main entrance and exit were located, leaning against the wall and set about preparing a notification of their absence. She included the general area they would probably be in and approximate length of time they’d be away while she waited for her new companion to arrive.

[Sunstreaker]

Look at them both, what with their silly little internal messaging service, sending messages to each other....

Nevermind the fact that Sunny herself was logged on and eagerly reading, as well. She'd finished her shift of small arms maintenance in the armory nearly half an hour ago, and had decided to pass the time by browsing an internet. Caught with a bit of shock and curiosity at her chat messenger lighting up, Sunstreaker had decided to tune in covertly. Nobody ever used this stupid thing, and she'd never really understood the need for it in the past, especially now. Omega One was a petrosardine can, with everything inside jammed together so tightly you might just scratch your mate's paint if you turned around too quickly.

Why didn't folks just go root around the base for somebody to kick some tires with? At least that way, you theoretically wouldn't need to alert literally everyone (including Prowl, most importantly) that you were slipping off-base for a stroll.

Kids today.

Naturally however, Sunstreaker was going to invite herself to this little outing, all unannounced like. She'd been a good 'Bot for the whole week she'd found herself stationed here, much to the benefit of Prowl's running Sunstreaker-based proximity migraine. Granted, before last week she'd been driving all up and down the continent on a road trip. That had been solitary recon on an alien planet, however. She had a berth of her own now, at least.

Popping her head out of the armory to check the coast, Sunstreaker slinked her way toward Omega's control room. No way in hell was anybody going to catch her happily trotting along to meet up for a drive, especially if her gait was sporting the same enthusiasm as the cadence of Petrichor and Starfall's messages contained.

She couldn't nail a face for either of them, however. Never in her life had she heard Petrichor's name before, even with how cramped everything at base was.

Starfall's name rang a bell, though. Sunny had a few questions that could wait until later.

Sunny, in all her golden glory, entered and subsequently became the most interesting Bot in the control room, by a metric of her own design and validation. Quietly, she maneuvered toward the wall opposite Petrichor (presumably), mirroring the femme by leaning against the mesa rock, leg kicked up, arms folded.

"Yo," she greeted, eloquent and verbose as always.

[Deleted]

Now then, which way was it? Starfall had never been the best at directions, and as she reached a junction in the hallway system her messaging system lit up again. Briefly reading over Petrichor’s reply, Starfall opted not to respond, figuring she could at least do so in person. If she ever found the damn control room, that is.

Finally, after a few false starts and a handful of embarrassing detours that she hoped nobody was around to see, the femme approached the hallway connecting to the Control Room. Though doing her best not to show it, Starfall was excited, eager to finally see what it was that Earth had to offer. She loosened her posture, infusing an outward confidence into her gait. And as the femme came to the end of the hallway, she took sight of two others already waiting for her. It was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

Giving each of them a cursory glance, Star took a general note of how they seemed to be standing. Having no idea which of the two actually was Petrichor, she halted for a moment, considering what little she knew about the mystery femme, trying her best to figure out which one she was from what little the stilted texts had given her. And then she gave up on that almost immediately, figuring it was better to just let the two of them reveal that rather than guess and make a fool of herself.

With the two leaning on opposite walls, Starfall opted to remain in the open, standing between them. “So, where are we headed?” She asked, trying to stir up some conversation or at the very least get the ball rolling. Given Sunstreaker’s unannounced appearance, Starfall wasn’t sure if others would be coming or if they would even be waiting around to find out, but given that this was only her second day on Earth, she chose to defer to someone else’s judgement. For now, she continued to linger in place, relaxing her shoulders some so as to not tower over the others as much.

[Petrichor]

Engrossed in what she was doing, Petrichor didn’t notice the other femme enter the control room. Naturally, when the silence was broken with a “yo” thrown at her, she jumped and nearly fumbled the data pad she was working on, inadvertently flipping it a few times between her servos before she lurched forward and finally managed to catch it.

“Primus! You startled me.”

Petra tried to recover some semblance of dignity by straightening up and feigning brushing dirt off of herself - although a few bits actually crumbled to the floor when she did so. Where had those even come from?!

Her optics raised from the fallen dirt to the femme across from her and she cleared her vocals awkwardly.

“Right! Hi, umm, you must be Petrichor- UhS-Sorry! I-I-ImeanyoumustbeStarfall!Sorry. Hi.I’mPetrichor.Hi.Sorry…..Hi.”

A warning indicator lit up her HUD. Something about a temperature spike in her internals? No duh. Maybe she’d just go back to her room now. That sounded like a good idea. Yep. Solid plan. Run away. Hide. Right as she was about to make a break for it, another femme - one that towered over her nearly to the levels of Optimus Prime - entered the room, effectively blocking her escape route.

Trapped. Between awkward and scary.

“So, where are we headed?”

‘Where were they-?’ But…wasn’t that…? Then who…?

Realization washed over Petrichor like a bucket of ice water. Even after her little bolts-for-brains slip up a second ago, she’d still gotten names mixed up. This must be Starfall. Petra visibly shrunk in on herself in an effort to disappear.

I’m dying. I am dying and this is what dying from embarrassment feels like.

“Ahaha…right…umm, outside. We’re going outside. Towards Jasper? I don’t know, where would you like to go, Starfall?”

Her voice got quieter and quieter until she was nearly whispering the name at the end of her sentence, glancing nervously between the two brightly colored femmes.

“I don’t suppose you’re coming too?” She squeaked out towards the other.

[Sunstreaker]

Ah, the Analyst's Vigilance.

She'd been expecting to see it somewhere in Omega by now. 'Analyst' was a misnomer of course, given that narrow, attenuated focus wasn't exclusive to somebody who sat chaired up at a desk all day. Sunny had no idea what this femme's work situation was like, but judging from her little jump, she appeared to give whatever it was she did a healthy level of focus and dedication. Probably? Wasn't as though she were a psychologist, after all.

"That's apparent," she stated matter-of-factly, in regard to Petrichor's admission. Sunstreaker came off as lightheartedly amused, both through her tone, as well as the token grin on her lips. Anything else however, she was not. Had to do her best to walk the line between observation and ridicule, of course.

Lighthearted amusement rapidly transitioned to baffled, incredulous, and intensifying amusement as Petrichor fumbled Sunstreaker's name not once, but twice. The smile widened, and brows climbed to the top of her helm. It was becoming very hard not to fall back into the old ways, given what a huge turbo-nerd Petra came off as.

She was a cute turbo-nerd, at least.

"Hi Petrichor," she replied, her voice comparatively brimming with confidence. Before Sunstreaker was able to further her reply, her attention was drawn toward the thundering footfalls echoing from the hall.

Starfall, without a doubt.

Big, yellow, mean. Shared two of those traits herself, actually. Yep... Sunny remembered.

"That's Starfall," she posited, nodding her head in the big femme's direction. "Call me Sunstreaker."

It quickly became apparent to her that wherever this little outing took them, there'd be a theme. Sunny was no empath, but that itself was no barrier to her vicariously tuning into Petrichor's vibes. Femme was in need of some confidence, something that'd most definitely become more apparent with just how much of it her guests were radiating.

Whatever happened, Sunstreaker resolved to help boost the poor femme's social confidence.

By force.

She tipped her host a nod, her expression having fallen back into equilibrium for now.

"I sure am. Beats doing anything else, for right now."

[Deleted]

Unaware of Petrichor’s brief awkward outburst before she’d arrived, Starfall was a little surprised to see Petrichor begin to shrink at the sight of her. The yellow femme didn’t take any offense to the action, it was a natural reaction for some that she tended to get when making introductions, given her imposing stature and build. At least the other femme in the room seemed not to be fazed by her.

Who was she, anyway?

It was a question quickly answered as Sunstreaker made introductions, both for herself and for Starfall. Though at first surprised to hear this other femme say her name, Star simply assumed that the Sunstreaker knew her name through simple deduction from eavesdropping on their public conversation, though there was something about her, something familiar. The name Sunstreaker reverberated around the back of her head like a dull echo, though Starfall was unsure if she’d actually heard the name before or if she was just grasping at nothing.

Shifting her gaze back to Petrichor as the smaller Autobot began to fumble her words, Starfall offered her an honest, and frankly clueless, shrug. Jasper? Bumblebee mentioned it during his introduction, but he’d done little to elaborate on it. And aside from that, Starfall had no clue about anywhere else. Jasper was as good a place as any to start. “I’ll leave it up to you, since you’ve been here longer. I just want to stretch my legs.” It was at that point some more of Bumblebee’s advice began to creep in. Robots in disguise, and all that. “Well, you get what I mean.” She added with a curt nod.

Though it was a logical decision to let Petrichor decide given her seniority in being on Earth, it would’ve been a lie to say that Starfall wasn’t interested in seeing how someone as outwardly awkward as Petra handled making the decision of where to go.

It also seemed that Sunstreaker was tagging along too. Hopefully spending a little more time with the other femme would clear up where Starfall knew her from, or if she knew her at all. Either way, it was nice to meet yet another Autobot who shared her taste in colour schemes - perhaps Omega Outpost had been where they were keeping all of the yellow Autobots, given how otherwise scarce they’d seemed over Starfall’s experience of the war.

Turning her attention to Sunstreaker, she offered the cool and confident femme a nod of respect, a small smirk forming as she began to speak. “Nice colours.” She said as she drew attention to her own, similar paintjob.

[Petrichor]

Great. Sunstreaker was tagging along afterall. Petrichor was never gonna live this first impression down. Best she could do was move on and try to save as much face as possible. At least she hadn’t embarrassed herself in front of Starfall yet - although Petra didn’t exactly have high hopes for that lasting very long with the current rate of things.

Squaring her shoulders and clutching her datapad to her chest for morale support, Petra spoke up.

“Oh, well, I mean, I haven’t been here that long. Haha. B-but I have been out on a few occasions, including to Jasper.”

There was an awkward pause before she continued.

“Right. So umm, if neither of you have been to a human settlement before then Jasper would probably be the best place to start, especially since the kids and some of our other human team members are based there. It’d be good experience and practice for other towns and cities.”

Quickly, she finished filling out the off-base notice and sent it off then placed the datapad to the side. It’d probably be a good idea to find out what positions and duties both Starfall and Sunstreaker held before they got to the main road in-case they ran into trouble that required combat decisions to be made. Not to mention she might have to explain some of the basic rules that were human traffic laws, etc. Specifically those for the United States - she wasn’t going to make the mistake of confusing metric vs. imperial units of speed again! She’d only been to Jasper once so far and that had been with Nathan - a literal native to the country.

Scrap! He was my cover for my janky-aft holo! 
No, it's fine. This is fine. The holo works well enough so long as I just focus only on producing the upper torso and head. Nobody's gonna be seeing her legs anyway. Just...don't get pulled over. Yeah.

There was a whirring of mechanical parts as Petrichor transformed into her chosen Subaru Crosstrek. She rolled back a bit to give the two yellow femmes space to do the same, should they need more room for their alt modes. Eyeing Starfall in particular, considering her much taller frame, especially now that she herself was lower to the ground. Seriously, what did she even used to do back on Cybertron? What vehicle did she even pick? A tank? It honestly wouldn’t surprise Petra, given the armor she was equipped with.

“Tall. ….Oh my gods, did I say that out loud?”

And just like that, there went her other chance at a good first impression. At least she was in alt form so neither of them could see the stupid look of embarrassed horror on her face. Although if the sound of her spluttering engine was to go by, they probably wouldn’t have needed to see her face to know.

[Sunstreaker]

Finally, an Autobot of taste.

Bee didn't count, since he wasn't here to actively compliment her.

Sunstreaker offered her the happiest of winks in acknowledgement of her obviously-enlightened sense of color theory, that being the enjoyment of yellow more than anything else. It was really just in her name, though. Not many other colors on the wheel tended to correspond with the name of 'Sunstreaker', than a bright, obnoxious yellow. Which she of course was.

"I've been to dozens of human places," Sunny confidently swaggered, folding her arms against her chest in smug fashion.

Judging by Petrichor's particular phrasing, it was easy to surmise that most Autobots must've gotten a free ride straight to Omega, what with how unfamiliar with human settlements she presumed them all to be. Of course Sunstreaker had to be the one to need to drive cross-country to get here; it'd be breaking the narrative for her to ever catch a break.

"Well uh.... through 'em, anyway," she admitted.

Never a femme to slow down or stop to appreciate things, Sunstreaker wasn't really all that familiar with human settlements. Her modus operandi for the several weeks she'd been driving west had been, if no Autobots, keep driving. Still, she'd manage to scan enough humans on the trip over to form a concrete opinion of them. That opinion, in its totality, was that they were very.... very gross. No way in hell she'd ever let one of those fleshbags take a ride around in her, no thank you Primus.

They shed for Allspark's sake.

Just thinking about it was enough to send a shiver through Sunny's actuators.

Eugh.... never.

Watching as Petrichor was the first to shift modes, it dawned on Sunstreaker that she was probably the runt here. She'd held a few nascent hopes that wouldn't have been the case, and that she could at least muscle out Petra by a few centimeters. But nope. No way she'd be beating Starfall, either.

Not as though she were insecure about her height, no sir.

That said, Sunny was about to compensate for those couple of centimeters.

With a spring in her servos, Sunstreaker took two steps off the wall behind her, before she began to bend at the waist. She outstretched her right arm, and kicked her left leg behind her body to maintain a sort of balance in her form. In a practiced manner, Sunny had hoisted herself into a one-servo handstand. Just as she appeared to start tipping, she planted her left palm down flat on the stone floor as well, taking a quick moment to hand-walk herself around 180 degrees. Then, she started to fall once more.

This time however, Sunstreaker chose to instead shift forms rather than continue to balance herself upside down. With a bouncy test of her suspension and a proud roar of her engine, her procedure was finally complete. In spite of whatever (definitely real and not imaginary) contests she was losing to Petra and Starfall, she at least had them both in the aesthetics department. 'Streaker's form was downright refulgent, as though she'd snuck in a can of polish during her handstand.

"Uh, yeah...?" Sunny replied. "She certainly is."

She was quick to remind herself, by force.

[Deleted]

Starfall’s purple optics darted back and forth between her two companions as they each laid out their experiences on Earth. It seemed that while Petrichor had been here longer, Sunstreaker had the experience advantage when it came to driving about - though either way, both of them had Star beat. As much as the yellow femme was looking forward to getting to see Earth for the first time, she didn’t much like her relative lack of experience. In truth, much like Petra, Star had been hoping that Sunstreaker, as a newer arrival, was also similarly out of her depth and new to things, but that evidently wasn’t the case.

Not willing to let herself fall by the wayside despite her lack of knowledge, Starfall nodded to Petrichor. “Sounds like we’re going to Jasper then.” The femme added, watching as the blue bot adopted her alt mode.

The display from Sunstreaker that followed had been impressively acrobatic, and her alt mode was easy on the eyes too - especially with that bright yellow paintjob. Petrichor on the other hand seemed a little more standard and utilitarian in both conversion and alt-mode, but not everyone could be the life of the party. And Petrichor clearly wasn’t that. Not that Starfall was judging her, everyone had their own comfort zones, and she at least respected enough that the blue femme was stepping out of hers by even suggesting this. But as average as Petrichor was, now Sunstreaker had set the terms of the game by showing off, and Star wasn’t about to lose.

Taking a step forward, Starfall loosened up her joints and mechanics as she cracked her neck from side to side, mentally and physically preparing herself. She’d only had her Earth alternate mode for less than a day, and was still getting used to it, having only transformed a handful of times since. Her hands balled into fists as she drove her right servo down into the ground, punching the solid stone floor beneath it - though she did take a degree of care to try not to break anything. Her left fist followed an instant later as Star then lifted her feet off the ground, legs outstretched behind her, her body now suspended entirely by her hands like a hands-only pushup. It was a position she couldn’t hold for more than a few seconds, but that was all she needed.

The femme’s waist rotated 180 degrees as panels of yellow metal shifted about, panes of windshield glass rising out from within her chest and smokestacks emerging from her forearms as Starfall lowered herself to the floor, the rubber of her tyres and her suspension comfortably cushioning herself on the ground. By now, she largely had the shape and silhouette of her chosen form, the Mack Titan, but there were still details and intricacies sorting themselves out, as gaps and seams were closed by shifting plates.

With a roar of her engine, Starfall rolled forward a few feet, as her transformation finally came to a close. It was a little more drawn out than either Petrichor’s or Sunstreaker’s had been, but again, she was still getting used to the form. And she was showing off, just a little. Pretending not to hear the other two openly discuss her height, largely for the sake of Petra’s embarrassment, she instead interjected with a topic change. “I’m still not sure how I feel about this form. It’s nice, but I think it’s missing… something.” She wasn’t necessarily complaining, though when Fowler had been walking her through her options (which had been slightly limited given her size), the femme had somewhat rushed to make a choice - eager to go out and do exactly what she was about to do now.

Revving her engine once more, Starfall eagerly spoke up, almost shouting her words from both excitement and also to be heard over her own revs. “Come on then, let’s get going!”

[Petrichor]

Petrichor watched as both femmes transformed - outstandingly she might add - into their respective alt modes. Petra felt practically underdressed and inadequate next to the two. One insanely flashy sports car, and one massive hauling unit; both as bright yellow as the Nevada sun they’d soon be cruising under. Yeah, they totally wouldn’t attract attention. If anyone were to speak what they saw outloud, it’d sound like the start to some ridiculous human joke: ‘so a lamborghini, a semi, and a subcompact SUV exit a secret base…’

Thankfully, Petra was saved from further embarrassment from her malfunctioning mouth - maybe she should run a self diagnostic later? - when Starfall either didn’t hear her outburst or chose to politely ignore it and changed the subject. Also thankfully, Sunstreaker didn’t do more than simply acknowledge it and say nothing more. Also also thankfully, they were ready to go.

“Well I, um, I think you look fine! You both look fine. Like human vehicles. Yep! Right! Ok. Going to Jasper now! Here we go. We're leaving.”

The rubber of her tires squeaked a bit on the smooth cement as she turned her wheels and rolled into the tunnel that led to the cleverly disguised exterior door.

Why was it that whenever she left base with someone other than herself, Petra always felt like she was trying to break free from a trap? It was like interacting with others in an enclosed space made it that much more awkward and claustrophobic, and Petrichor was not one to mind cramped spaces usually. And yet, as soon as she was out, blasted by the morning sun, it was like Petra could think and breathe clearly again. She hadn’t really been to too many other environs on the planet other than here and a more mountainous, forested area with Bumblebee, but she was still pretty sure the desert, particularly this desert with its dry air, clear sky, and dramatic bluffs and buttes, was her favorite. Petrichor took a moment to temporarily forget how awkward things had started and simply soak it all in, paired with the simple comforting fact that there were others like her nearby.

She peered through her rearview mirror to watch Sunstreaker and Starfall exit the base behind her.

[Sunstreaker]

There was no hiding just how badly Sunny wanted to get lost. As Petra sounded the call to inform everyone that yes, they were indeed leaving, Sunstreaker let loose a monstrous roar of her engines, far too loud for a car of her supposed size. She eagerly rolled into position just behind their tour guide for the day, not willing to take responsibility for leading everyone around, nor willing to sit behind somebody as large (and presumably slow) as Starfall for however many kilometers they were going for.

Perfect arrangement.

She glistened as the early morning sun struck her glossy coat, leaving little doubt as to the origins of her name. But, how to play it? Could be Sunny just got stuck between an SUV and a hard place, having to tough it through traffic with these two on her fore and aft. Ideally, her new friends would be in similarly-gaudy alt modes as to complement her own, because why else would someone who looked like her be hanging around with motorists that looked like that?

Petra and Starry didn't look bad, per se.

Sunny just happened to look better.

But, as a promise to herself, she was going to do her best to hold onto that little observation. But she knew. Probably going to have to throw Petra a honk or two just to keep up appearances, down the road. But, that'd come later.

They hadn't made it more than half a mile out of Omega before the itch hit Sunny, a familiar one.

Just gun it and leave these chumps in the dust; you're fast enough. You could lap them before they knew what hit them.

It'd feel great.

Sunstreaker did no such thing, nor did she indicate she had any intentions of speeding off. She kept right behind Petrichor, like a good soldier. Though she really, really wanted to show the both of them just how high her speedometer went...

Later.

"Hey up front; there any stops on this drive?" She asked from the middle.

[Deleted]

If it hadn’t been for the millions of years of conflict and battle, Starfall might’ve found herself startled by the roar that erupted from Sunstreaker’s engines. It seemed that the other yellow femme was just as eager, if not more, to leave Omega behind and get outside. Then again, she had invited herself along, so perhaps such eagerness was to be expected.

Petra meanwhile, seemed to once more be stumbling over her own words. For a guide, she didn’t seem overly confident, leading Starfall to almost question whether or not she was fit for the task, or rather if she even wanted to be here at all. Though she had initiated their meeting, to which Starfall reasoned that perhaps the awkward femme was simply trying something new, and she respected that. Not that getting out of her comfort zone was something Starfall was particularly familiar with. Four million years of fighting and throughout it all she’d been ever the same femme.

As the other two took formation, Starfall found herself at the back of the pack. It was logical, given that she had the largest and slowest mode, but also that she was the newest to Earth. Of the three, she could only claim to know little about this world, it’s roads and it’s laws. And yet still, part of her mind gnawed at her that it was wrong for her to not be the vanguard. The femme was accustomed to taking point and barging in head first, and though the proposed outing was far more relaxed than any combat operation, it still left her feeling uneasy.

Wheels rolling, the femme took her position at the rear of the convoy as they exited the base. At any rate, she reasoned, perhaps being the rearguard had some merit to it. Her new alternate mode still required some getting used to, being of human origin and construction, the vehicle’s performance didn’t readily compare to what she’d been used to in her original form. Whereas before she could simply gun it, she now found herself struggling to start, straining to shift her mass forward as her engine growled. Though once she’d gotten moving, she’d found it a far smoother experience.

Of course, that wasn’t the only thing on Starfall’s mind. In fact, it was only a fraction of what occupied her thoughts in the moment that the trio exited the base. Rolling out onto the dusty, sandswept road, Starfall could hardly contain her excitement at getting to see this new world with her optics - though being in truck form certainly helped maintain a facade of composure. To those familiar with Earth, Jasper was hardly anything special, certainly nothing to write home about. But to someone like Starfall, who’d only ever seen their metal homeworld of Cybertron, this was the beginning of one grand adventure.