Following the Song (Firefly)

[Moonbeam]

Mozart whined a bit as Firefly forced him to look at her. He couldn't help himself, though he knew that sound. She was talking to him, explaining why he had to calm down, but he couldn't help it. He shifted a bit and, even though she gave off the hum that usually helped him calm down when he was forced to stay still for long periods. He stilled a bit and his vents cycled. ~"I'm sorry. I'll try."~

He sounded truly sorry, but it was obviously that he couldn't help himself. ~"That's all we ask, dear one,"~ Moonbeam murmured softly and when Mozart pulled out of Firefly's grip, it was to bound over to Moonbeam with a happy whine.

~"Okay Creator!"~ he answered and nuzzled against her affectionately.

~"One day, someone is going to believe you are actually my youngling,"~ she muttered, but didn't tell him to stop.

The symbiote merely wagged his tail before he began to wander around, this time much closer to the pair of them.

The promise of soon helped.

[Firefly]

They were getting ready to come upon the next road, and Mozart's seeming attempt at calm was nice. He could run around later, maybe, but now they had a task. "Alright, so we're coming upon the second road. If you'd like, we can camp out until a stray jet flies, or we can attempt to crawl closer still. Your choice at this point, but I personally think it best if we get this done as fast as possible..."

She knew her sister would know what was best for the trio at this point, what with Mozart trying to remain calm and all, but she still needed to know what was going on. Either they waited, or they risked a bit more excitement.

[/blockquote]

[Moonbeam]

Moonbeam paused. It was obvious she was thinking it over and she settled slightly, running it around in her processor. She let out a soft humming sound, which Mozart riveted to. Her head twitched to the side and suddenly pointed up. "We aren't going to have to cross the road," she answered as a jet began to fly overhead. It was larger and seemed mostly built for stealth.

She smiled and nodded to Mozart. He stilled and waited. Moonbeam scanned the jet and felt the changes overtake her as she transformed into her new alt-mode for the first time, while leaving a spot for Mozart, who already had something to transform into, carefully doing a quick flight before she landed back in her 'bot form.

Mozart immediatly bounded over and transformed, fitting into place. <"Sleeping now,"> he announced and Moonbeam shook her head.

She then smiled at Firefly. "Ready to fly?" she asked, grinning at Firefly.

[Firefly]

Firefly was very glad that that jet had been overhead. In fact, the second her sister landed, she responded with a wide grin, before hopping up and transforming herself, taking off. <"Catch me if you can!">

[/color] She called over the comm line, a hint of a mischievous tone applied to her human-tone British accent.

The jet Moonbeam had selected was actually a bit faster than her own alt mode - not that Firefly knew that - but she herself was far more maneuverable, and if it came down to it it would be a game of loops. Not that she didn't mind. Something she'd picked up from her brother was the appreciation of friendly competition - something she'd lacked recently.

So this would be fun. Getting to base might be interesting, but this would be fun.[/size][/blockquote]

[Moonbeam]

Moonbeam let out a laugh and launched herself up, transforming on the fly. She laughed and quickly chased after Firefly. <"Oh, you're on!"> she called back across the comm link, her happiness thrumming through the bond.

She took off after Firefly and began to speed up, slowly catching up with her sister. She slowly began to urge herself forward, surprised when she actually began to pass her sister. She was used to Firefly being the fastest, so actually catching up to her Trine Leader was a surprise. She picked up speed, realizing that Mozart was still recharging, though he called it sleep now. Apparently he could spend his time translating things, but couldn't heel.

<"Gonna have to do better then that, Firefly!"> she called over the comm link, putting her nice teasing voice into work.

[Firefly]

Hmm... So Moonbeam's earth alt mode was actually faster than hers. This was a new, and interesting challenge. Pushing her lousy earth alt as fast as she could, she gave up on the chase of speed, only slightly upset at the different balance of ability, as she turned in an abrupt loop, traveling in the opposite direction with a very precise motion. Maybe Moonbeam could beat her in speed, but could she outmaneuver her own smaller alt?

<"Ah, but if there's one thing I can do, a little test of turns may best you yet!"> With an amused hint to her tone, her rolled through the air almost teasingly, feeling the breeze over her wings as it bent according to the aerodynamics of the human design. She was an interruption in the sky, but she knew she belonged there, interruption or not. This was her domain - their domain. She may have lost the advantage of speed, but there were others ways to express oneself in the sky.

[Moonbeam]

Moonbeam laughed, something she hadn't done since Firefly killed their creators and ran. She banked after Firefly and began to speed up, doing some internet searching to find a comparison to their situation. She blanched at the only one she could find, but she decided to search more later.

She really didn't want to compare herself and her sister to a cheetah and a gazelle. It was disturbing on a ton of levels, but the most disturbing, to her, was that in this situation, she would have been the predator.

Oh, that really upset most of her Pacifist nature.

Of course, she loved to insult people when they did stupid things, but she couldn't hit them in the head with wrenches. Where had that comparision come from?

She shook herself off and responded with, <"Between us, we got the lines on the globe covered sis!">, trying to take away some of the competitive edge.

She picked up speed, trying to catch up with Firefly once more. <"Um...Firefly, how do you think they'll respond to a Seeker-medic?"> she asked, nervousness overtaking her.

[Firefly]

Firefly did a bit of a rocking motion in the air, before turning gradually toward their actual destination, toward the Autobot base. She had laughed mirthfully at her sister's first statement, but the next one was a bit more serious. <"I can't say, Moonbeam. I'm certain that the Aerialbots - which are not seekers, by the way - would appreciate having a medic who's a flier, simply for comfort reasons, but I imagine they'd all be fairly uncomfortable at first."> With a twitch of her wings, she shifted a bit more to express her discomfort at the odd situation that Moonbeam would be facing. This was one thing she herself could not help much with.

If she was lucky, though, she might get to work with Ratchet for a while. She may not need to learn more, but it was always worth watching somebody who was considered to be the best in his field. She didn't say that, though. That was Moonbeam's choice. All Firefly could do was encourage her. They may be a trine, and a trine might work great together, but there were some things they had to work apart on, and this was one of those situations. Firefly really wasn't sure how much to suggest to Moonbeam, or how much Moonbeam wanted her to tell her. So she was a bit squirmy about it.

[/blockquote]

[Moonbeam]

Moonbeam listened, following after Firefly. She could really just see this either being really good or really bad. She let her wings twitch slightly as she slowly caught up with Firefly. <"The Aerialbots, who are not Seekers...and who are they exactly?"> she asked, curious about these other fliers. She was curious about them now. She wondered when she would meet them.

And wondered what they were like. Actually, she was wondering about all of the Autobots. She knew that she wasn't going to be well liked, mostly due to the fact that Seekers just seemed to be hated. <"Firefly, who are the other medics?"> she asked suddenly, curious about those that shared her profession. She was wondering about them.

She also wondered how they would treat her. She flew up next to Firefly and let out a sigh. <"So....want to come up with a plan so Mozart won't accidentally kill a human?"> she inquired.

Oh, how she wished she was kidding.

[Firefly]

Twirling in a bit of a corkscrew to ease the tension off of her own processor and her concern for Moonbeam, as she thought a moment of the wording before she answered her first two questions. "The Aerialbots are a combiner team on the Autobot side, and their primary group of fliers. They're often lumped in the same group as seekers such as us, but the only difference between them and any other bot is their chose in alt mode - not family patterns, customs, lifestyle... Just the form."

[/color] With a dip and rise in her flight, a little wave in the air, she continued. "Their primary medics are the chief medical officer Ratchet and his assistant, Jolt. There are a couple of other medics, but I am not acquainted with them, and they are not seen as the primary medics."[/color]

Finally, with a wing twitch, she started to think. Sometimes, Mozart could be reasoned with, but there was always a need for a backup plan, because sometimes her sister's symbiot just got a little bit overexcited. "As for Mozart... I'd suggest we try to explain to him that humans are brittle creatures, and be prepared to hold him back should the situation call for it. Fortunately for all of us, human leash laws don't apply to symbiots, or we'd have that to worry about, too...[/color] She was deadly serious in saying that, although the image it provided was admittedly highly humorous.

There were a lot of concerns that could be brought up, but hopefully they'd make it through each aspect of it - be it on-the-spot solutions, or carefully thought out plans that didn't necessarily work.[/blockquote][/size]

[Moonbeam]

Moonbeam listened. She was a good listener, knowing when to jump in to diffuse while at the same time knowing when to let the fights get over with. The picking up afterwards was never fun, however, and sometimes was a bit painful. She listened and gave a bit of a mental nod. "I suspect that this 'Jolt' is not of a flying type," she stated and became slightly pensive. She would not mind learning from new medics, however she wondered how anyone would take her pacifist nature into affect.

She had disabling weapons, not harming ones, and she even winced to use those. However, she had to pause in her thoughts to look up 'leash laws' and actually chuckled. "I might consider it anyway. He'll have a hard time remembering that they are brittle, and he'll want to play, not help, most of the time. And having him anywhere but within sight of me is just asking for the base to get destroyed," she responded, still thinking.

"What if we warned the humans?" she questioned.

[Firefly]

She made a kind a faint giggling sound at the notion of Jolt being a flier, sending a firm sense across the sibling bond that Moonbeam's presumption was accurate. As it was, expressionism could be fairly difficult in her alt mode, what with a twitch of the wing actually adjusting the flight path of a non-attentive bot.

Moonbeam's suggestion was a good one, though. If she had been in bipedal mode, the response would have started with a thoughtful nod, but instead she merely twitched a wing to indicate a similar motion in her alt mode, careful to adjust thrusters so her flight path remained straight. "I suppose that'd be a start. Hopefully the humans won't be too unappreciative of the threat. Sometimes it takes a bit of reinforcement before it gets through to them, and I don't think any of us want to go through that. And the leash thing... Might be interesting. Might put some of the humans at ease, but it'll certainly drive Mozart crazy."

That was the next challenge, it seemed. Of course, she wasn't sure what Kitty'd do, but Kitty was generally fairly laid back, and so thinking about that hadn't been at the top of her mind. Perhaps dealing with Mozart would help create a worst scenario plan, but she didn't see a problem occurring along those lines. No, she would deal with the here and now. And the here and now was Mozart and Moonbeam.

[/blockquote]

[Moonbeam]

Moonbeam understood what her sister was trying to tell her without actually saying it. She carefully shifted so she could do a barrel roll away from her sister before she came back to fly at her side. "I do not mean to threaten the humans, just...warn them. Mozart is excitable and curious, a combination that is disastrous if people are not properly prepared, or warned. Keeping him on a leash will, most likely, harm him, however if I were to explain it in ways he would understand, it would do less to stress then normal. It is what the humans will do to him should he accidentally harm one that has me so concerned. I have reviewed laws that talk of 'manslaughter', but I am unsure of how anyone will view him. And I cannot exactly go ripping through people who try to kill him," she answered, knowing this was a serious topic.

Normally, Moonbeam would try to avoid such things but talking them over with her sister before they reached base would allow for a plan to form. There is also the fact that Firefly always was, and always would be, her Trine Leader.

And, despite the fact Moonbeam could easily figure out everything for herself, it was best to get a plan of action from Firefly. The remaining member of their Trine could easily have input, but he was not present at this time. However, Moonbeam was not worried about that part so much.

She was sure he would join them on Earth soon enough.