[ti]Ep 3.5[/ti]Canada Day [Sparkplug/Vega/Sunstreaker]

[Sparkplug]

Episode Three point five | Week One | Day Six

The important thing was, it wasn’t an excuse to go outside and have a drive.

Definitely.

All around, for hundreds of miles, the wilderness of northern Quebec spread out around her, rolling hills, sudden, treacherous cliffs, lakes, forests, streaked with seasonal frost. The sky was vast, thick with rolling cloudbanks between which a fractured view of deep, deep blue could be seen. Under her wheels, a dirt and gravel road, often edged by piles of boulders, sinuous and winding.

It was absolutely, utterly joyous. As a by-product of productive work, obviously. Surveying. Scouting. That sort of thing.

Sparkplug whooped over her local comms, her deep-throated V8 roaring as she slewed around a tighter corner beside the grey-blue waters of a lake, kicking up a spray of gravel. Her triple axles rolled and shifted, smoothing out the bumps and potholes, deeply treaded tyres biting into the ground and powering her shovel-nosed vehicle form forward.

[This is so much fun! Road, open road!] she broadcast upwards.

Above her, visible now and then through gaps in the cloud cover, the looming black and red shape of Vega cruised overhead in lazy circles as Sparkplug sped gleefully down the endless gravel ribbon of the Trans-Taiga road. Her brakes tensed, slowing her abruptly as she launched over a sharp, lopsided bump, then her thick tyres bit once more, spraying a rooster tail of small rocks behind her.

[I have no idea how long I was stuck in that asteroid, with the same handful of mecha. I mean – good people, great researchers, we knew how to get along and how to let each other alone, but – I had pretty much forgotten I had hover units. And even if I went vehicle mode, it’s just corridors, dead straight, dead flat, rock walls. Where’s the fun in that? I – oops!]

Taking a corner rather a lot too fast, her tyres lost traction against the loose, shifting ground, and she skidded sideways. A port halfway down her bodywork popped open, a six-barrelled gatling blaster snapping out into position, and she blew a slim, stubby tree out of her way with a hail of violet bolts.

[I’m fine! I’m fine!] she broadcast, chassis tilting upwards as she rolled over the rocky slope back onto the road. Setting off at a very slightly less deranged pace, she went on cheerfully, [Feels like my alt was made for this terrain. Love it. Seriously, Vee, you just don’t know the feeling of your wheels running over open ground like this.]

[Deleted]

Her shadow followed behind, disappearing for brief moments as the clouds rolled under her and away. Watching their surroundings closely but glancing at the white and green blur below at regular intervals. While it was for business sakes it was nice to get out. She looped again, small puffs of clouds following her as she did. Clear skies, and nobody in sight. Perfect.

She chuckled softly as Sparkplug excitedly quipped just how much fun she was having, and just how terribly long she'd be sequestered in that old research base. With nothing but long, uniform hallways to offer in lieu of actual open space. Finally enough room to stretch, run, and careen off any old thing one came across. As happy as it made her to see her partner happy, seeing her being so reckless was anxiety inducing.

"I am glad, but dove please be care-"

Fear spiked in Vee as she watched Spark skid, before the grounder blasted a tree in her way and corrected herself. Going much slower than she was before. Vee huffed a small sigh "-ful. Gracious." She muttered with a bemused chuckle. She truly felt like this was something she SHOULD have expected from Sparkplug. Why she didn't she couldn't really say. At least she was alright.

Back as if nothing had happened Spark exclaimed how Vee would never know what exactly it was like. Getting tread to the road. Well there was…quite an obvious reason for that. "I most certainly never will dove. Damn this flight frame of mine." She groaned teasingly. Another slow, almost lethargic circle would just have to do.

Straightening out Vega took a more serious tone. "A few more clicks and we'll need to call in a report. Though it seems all is quiet."

For the moment at least.

[Sparkplug]

Every single time Vega called her ‘dove’, it brought a smile to Sparkplug’s lips. Contented happiness radiated outwards from her flourishing EM field, she broadcast her laughter upwards to her partner, amused by Vee’s entirely-too-late admonishment to drive more carefully.

[I’ve never flown. Well, I’ve flown, but that’s being carried by larger mecha or systems, I’ve never felt the wind like you do, buoying you up and carrying you. ...huh. I wonder if marine mecha are smugly chugging about the horrible brine, collecting sea encrustations on their hulls and telling themselves, well, no one else will understand the fun of being tossed around by the ocean like a kickball and being covered in biological debris]

There was a triple thud-thud-thud as Sparkplug’s multiple axles crossed onto fresh black tarmac, gravel clinking and pinging away as her deeply-treaded tyres shed a hail of small stones half-wedged into the grips. The six-wheeled femme inwardly consulted her mapping system.

[I ran out of gravel! New hydroelectric dam near here, I think. Oh, but this is smooth]

She picked up speed again as the fresh tarmac unrolled before her, leading her on a series of smooth, sweeping curves. Her wheels left the ground, and for a moment, she felt the caress of the wind all around her as she crested the top of a hill before her wheels slammed into the road once more.

[Commander Soundwave has a mean sense of humour, you know] she broadcast conversationally. [He decided to test me, see how good I was at repairing something under stressful situations, I think. So there the Nemesis is, way up above the clouds, nothing but sky above and below, the wind whipping past, and there I am, crawling along the hull, not so much as a safety rope – I asked, he wouldn’t let me get one – with a toolbox, rebuilding one of the turrets. Oh, how I cursed his name. But, you know. Jokingly, he knew I wasn’t being serious]

She slewed around a corner, leaving multiple streaks of black rubber along the road as she gleefully kicked out the back end of her chassis, then powered out of it. Up ahead, she saw a heavy transport truck rolling along the road, and she swerved around it, engine roaring with gleeful, unrestrained energy.

[Guess there’s not much to report out here. Unless you want to tell the Warlord about a really gorgeous stretch of road]

[Deleted]

One would never know to fly, and the other would never know to roll across the earth. A younger, less stern version of her had been curious what it was like for a time. It was always in her to wonder about things she didn't really know. Though, she never considered those whose vehicle modes traversed the sea…and Spark wasn't exactly making their case. The thought of having small organic pests attach to you so firmly that you need assistance to remove them made a shudder run through her transformed frame.

She would never understand true, but she wasn't exactly eager to do so either.

The dark black jet listed slowly to follow as the grounder moved to the fresh asphalt. Keeping her in view as, with renewed vigor, Spark took off down the road. Regaling the flier with a story about just how "mean" Soundwave's sense of humor was. Having her scramble across the Nemesis mid flight to perform repairs.

For a moment, worry flickered through her EMF thinking of Spark with nothing to stop her from falling. But here she was, fine as always. So it wasn't much use to worry now. And Soundwave surely had his reasons for it. He was not a mech known for a flippant manner. "I am sure he knew your intentions." She assured.

A chuckle over the comm link. "Absolutely, 'oh you simply must come in the summer. It's breathtaking!'" Vee listed softly to the left to follow along the curving road, the highway following the curve of the mountain range it nestled against.

"Perhaps if we have some free time we should come back."