A Human Friend (Sequel to A Pet Squishy)

Tense

Thundercracker found a patch of trees tall enough to shelter him from human eyes. He weaved through them until he found big tree felled long ago by lightning. With a groan in his parts he sat himself down and rested his back against it. It wasn't a berth, but it would suffice. He leaned into the tree and shut his optics. In his mind he was flying, clouds caressing his underside, cold air rushing through his vents as he thundered through the sky. He wanted nothing more than to feel that sensation again, to be unshackled from the flatness that was the ground.

Thundercracker opened his optics again and replayed Skywarp's transmission. He found it hard to believe his former trine mate had been left behind. He found it even harder to believe Skywarp was actually working alone on his own agenda for Megatron's approval. Of course, Skywarp had always looked up to Megatron and would do anything the tyrant asked without question; no matter how heinous. The problem wasn't his loyalty, it was his planning. Skywarp never did know what to do without orders.

Even Warp's tone sounded different on the transmission. He sounded...well...very serious. Thundercracker supposed his seclusion on Earth had prompted him to grow beyond himself and venture into a self-driven mission. The mission, to Thundercracker, was pointless as he knew Megatron was probably offline and the simple act of hoarding a bunch of human weaponry for his supposed "return" seemed even more useless. Was Warp's sanity diminishing or was he just lost and looking for purpose?

Thundercracker traced the signal's origin and paused. With a few alterations he could capture the transmission again and answer it, the only question was did he want to? After all, Skywarp was the one who labeled him a traitor and shot him down, confining him to this flightless existence. Knowing his former wingman, Thundercracker doubted Skywarp had changed his opinion on the matter. Not to mention, if the other grounded Decepticons found out about his actions that day they would be even less merciful. Amongst Decepticons a traitor to the faction was worse than an Autobot. He wasn't a traitor, but one point of a servo could place him in a very deadly position.

The blue Seeker vented hot air and shut off the transmission. No...not until his wings were repaired. Afterwards perhaps he would try to contact Warp, alone...but not before...if at all.

...

It was sunrise before Lana finally made it home. Her car had been totaled by that yellow race car Con, rendering it useless, so she had to hoof it home. When she finally staggered through the door and up the stairs she fell hard into her mattress. Though her body was bone-weary her mind refused to rest.

The relief in Thundercracker's voice was ever so apparent, "I'm getting my wings back Lana."

He actually sounded happy...she hadn't heard his tone lilt that way since she found him in that airplane hangar. She was happy for him...really. But why did she feel so sad? TC made no secret of his misery being grounded alone on Earth, so when he recovered Lana knew deep down he would most likely fly away and never return. Ask her a year ago if she would be saddened by the Seeker's leaving and Lana would have responded "no". Now...yes...yes she would miss him.

...

Two days later...nightfall...

Thundercracker looked to Scrapper who pointed at the assemblage of parts and tools the Decepticons had scrounged up for his wing repair. Wildrider and Tankor had brought a variety of jet wings and panels that matched his alternate mode and Spyglass and Scrapper had rounded up several tools from their subspace compartments for the procedure.

Without command, Thundercracker sat down on top of a concrete block that housed some of the power station's controls. Scrapper and Spyglass moved around to his back.