BACK TO LIFE

by CROSSOVER KING

It's a feeling that won't disappear

Shockwave was hot on the trail of Cliffjumper and his human friends, Applejack and Pinkie Pie, relentlessly pursuing them in his vehicle mode while they drove away in the Autobot's own vehicle mode. What's more, he was repeatedly shooting at his prey with his cannon and though he was still missing each time he did so, the shots were nevertheless getting closer to their intended target. In fact, his last shot managed to hit a stop right next to Cliffjumper and caused him to swerve violently for a few seconds in order to balance himself, which was enough time for Shockwave to catch up to the Autobot and bump into his rear.

This caused to the entirety of the car to shake and the passengers to hit their heads to the windows nearby. As they both yelped in pain, they heard the sound of the cannon being aimed towards them and when they looked behind the car, they became horrified to see the cannon slowly charging for an undoubtedly powerful blast at point blank range.

Just then, however, Cliffjumper frantically exclaimed, "Guys, I've got a plan! You are not going to like it, though!"

"What?" Applejack incredulously asked. "What in tarnation do you mean by- WHOA!!!!"

Right before she could finish that sentence, both her and Pinkie Pie were thrown outside by their own Autobot guardian, who proceeded to transform into his robot mode, grabbed the cannon, swung himself upwards in the air, causing Shockwave to miss the shot. His opponent then landed at the top of the tank and began to repeatedly shoot at it with his own blasters while shouting, "Come on, Decepticon punk!"

However, none of the shots managed make a dent and Shockwave soon transformed into his robot mode as well before grabbing Cliffjumper by the head and throwing the little nuisance off his back. Fortunately, the Autobot transformed back into his vehicle mode just as he landed on the ground, drove right back to Shockwave, and then, once he was close enough to his target, transformed back into his robot mode as he leaped towards his nemesis before delivering a punch to the face.

The resulting hit knocked Shockwave flat on the ground and just as he started getting back up, he saw Cliffjumper smirking with utter confidence and aiming both blasters right at his head. Realizing that he would not be able to get himself out of this situation with brute force alone, the logical chief scientist of the Decepticons curiously inquired, "You are willing to engage me in combat all by yourself in order to protect your human companions from harm. Tell me, do you genuinely care about their safety or are they merely substitutes for your partner?"

Upon hearing that question, Cliffjumper's facial expression changed into a furious scowl and he stomped on Shockwave's head while still aiming his blasters at it. Then, he shouted, "Don't you dare mention her, you one-eyed freak! You should be regretting the fact that you chose to butcher her instead of me! She would've wanted you to be simply defeated and kept prisoner until the end of the war. Me? I just want you to suffer as much as she did! In fact, I wish it was you who got torn to shreds by Megatron's undead army!"

Unfortunately, during this rant, he failed to notice Shockwave's cannon aimed at his back and as soon as he finished his last sentence, his not-so-helpless opponent shot with him a blast so powerful that it caused him to not only cry in immense agony, but also send him flying several dozen feet away. After watching him tumble on the desert a few times and finally land face first one the ground with a heavy thud, Shockwave promptly stood back up and started walking towards the completely helpless Cliffjumper. Despite the injured Autobot's best efforts to lift himself off the ground while also groaning in intense pain, the Decepticon genius proceeded to grab him by the leg upon getting close enough, hoist him up, and then, repeatedly smash him against the ground.

After doing so half a dozen times, he threw Cliffjumper another several feet away and as he walked towards his heavily damaged and barely alive opponent, he explained, "How easily your illogical emotions can be exploited. You claim that I should be regretful for choosing to eliminate Arcee instead of you. However, based on the strength of the relationship between the two of you was, I can come to the logical conclusion that the outcome of this battle would not change regardless of who went offline first. My sole regret is not doing the same to both of you that day. If I had done so, I would not be wasting my time dealing with a completely illogical being bent on my termination and the disruption of my work."

Immediately afterwards, he aimed his cannon at Cliffjumper's face and charged it up for a shot that would finish the Autobot off once and for all. In response, Cliffjumper closed his optics and prepared himself for his imminent death, feeling a bit happy that he would get to be one with the AllSpark and reunite with Arcee in the Matrix.

However, the cannon suddenly stopped charging, and he opened his optics upon both him and Shockwave hearing a familiar voice asking, "Um, excuse me? Could you please help me out here?"

They both turned to the direction of the voice and saw Pinkie Pie standing only about a couple feet away from them. Upon seeing her, Cliffjumper became extremely worried for her safety and exclaimed, "Pinkie, what are you doing?! Get out of here! He's gonna kill you!"

"Trust me, Cliff. I've totally got this!" Pinkie declared with determination before retrieving two cupcakes from her hair (one of them chocolate-frosted and the other vanilla-frosted) and presented them to Shockwave. "So, here's the thing. My sister Marble's birthday is coming up and I just can't decide on what flavor her birthday cake should be. I mean, her favorite has always been vanilla, but I'm thinking about surprising her this year with a completely different and yet equally amazing flavor like chocolate. What do you guys think? I know you don't have every tradition that we do here on Earth, but you were at least doing something to celebrate the day you were created back on Cybertron, right?"

Shockwave simply stared at her in complete silence for a few seconds and then, blasted the spot she was standing on, causing Cliffjumper to scream in despair, "NOOOOOO!!!!!!"

However, as soon as the resulting dust settled, Pinkie appeared on the left side of Shockwave's head and asked, "Sooo... Does that mean you never celebrated something similar to birthdays on Cybertron or you just don't like the flavors I showed you a second ago? If it's the latter, I've got lots of other flavors to choose from, like strawberry and banana."

As she retrieved two more cupcakes from her hair that were frosted with the aforementioned flavors, Shockwave once again stared at her for a few seconds and said, "What? How is what you are doing even possible? It is completely illogical."

He then tried to grab her, but when he opened his palm afterwards, Pinkie was nowhere to be seen. That is, until he heard her voice coming from his right shoulder saying, "Hey, if you really wanted to taste these cupcakes, you could've just asked and I would've given them to you! Though, I honestly don't know how you can eat anything since, you know, you don't exactly have a mouth. At least, not one I can see."

Right after the Decepticon scientist hear the still alive girl say all this and see her sitting on his shoulder, he started rambling, "What is going on? I am... unable to comprehend how you are unharmed and... able to transport yourself across great distances in an instant. There is absolutely no sign of logic in your nature. Error... Error... Unable to process the data on your abilities. Only logical conclusion: you must be wiped from existence."

So, he continued to try grabbing Pinkie, but every time he did so, she effortlessly dodged before appearing on a different part of his body and asking about his thoughts on two more flavors. While all that was going on, an equally confused Cliffjumper was also trying to process what Pinkie's endgame was. However, he soon felt himself being lifted from the ground and looked down to see a grunting Applejack using her super strength in an effort to help him get back up.

"AJ? What in the name of Primus is going on? What are you and Pinkie up to?" he incredulously asked.

Then, once he was finally back on his servos, the girl who had assisted him in accomplishing this in the first place took a short while to catch her breath before sternly replying, "What do you think we're tryin' to do? We figured you needed some time to get back up and we're givin' it to you whether you want our help or not! Look, you might be pushin' us away to keep us safe, but that's not what partners do. They stick together no matter what and that's exactly what you, me, and Pinkie are supposed to do. So, what do ya say, Cliff? Parners?"

She then stretched out her right hand and after Cliffjumper stared at it for a handful of seconds while silently contemplating on the points she had just made, he eventually shook her hand with his right index finger and declared with a smile on his face, "Partners."

Applejack smiled at this as well and stated, "Glad to hear it. Now, we've a plan to bring down the big boy here, but I'm warnin' ya, you ain't gonna like it."

Even though a confused expression soon appeared on Cliffjumper's face, he nevertheless let out a sigh and said, "Can't be any worse than me throwing you guys out during a high speed chase. Sorry about that, by the way."

"Nah, it's fine," admitted Applejack. "Pinkie and I only have tiny bruises on our arms and elbows. Speaking of Pinkie..."

She proceeded to give a whistle so loud that Pinkie heard it from at least a dozen feet away and smirked with determination before appearing right in front of Shockwave and repeatedly throwing explosive sprinkles at him. Although the bulky Decepticon reacted quick enough to block all these attacks with his right arm and even began charging his cannon for a counter-attack, Pinkie suddenly threw a large batch of sprinkles to the cannon itself, resulting in a huge explosion that knocked Shockwave back several steps and made him scream in agony.

Despite the loss of his limb, he furiously walked back towards Pinkie and once he was close enough, he exclaimed, "YOU INSOLENT PEST! I will grind you into nothingness for this!"

Upon seeing her friend about to be stomped on, Applejack yelled at Cliffjumper, "Quick! Throw me!"

"WHAT?!" the shocked Autobot asked. "Are you insane?!"

"Just do it! Trust me!" retorted his human friend.

Although he groaned at this, he nevertheless did as Applejack asked and as soon as she reached Shockwave's head, she delivered one powerful punch to his optic, completely shattering it and causing him to fall on his back with a heavy thud. She then landed safely on the ground, and shared a hug with Pinkie and Cliffjumper, all three of them cheering for their epic victory.

"We did it, guys! We really did it!" the Autobot happily declared. "I can't thank you enough for this. Partnering up with you is truly an honor and easily the best decision I've made in a long while."

"Awww... You're welcome, Cliff! We feel exactly the same about you!" revealed Pinkie.

"Darn tootin'. Glad to have met you in the first place, partner," Applejack added. "By the way, what are we supposed to do with that big hunk of junk over there?"

After looking at the unconscious, blind, and mutilated body of his nemesis for a few seconds, Cliffjumper finally let out a deep sigh and announced, "That's enough punishment for what he's done. In this state, he can't hurt anyone or even find his way back to his comrades, who all have their hands full with our friends. Speaking of our friends, how about we go help them win the day already?"

Both girls nodded in approval and hopped on to his vehicle mode as soon as he tranformed into it. Cliffjumper then started driving away from his defeated nemesis, satisfied that he was finally able to bring the murderer of his previous partner and sister figure to justice.

Comments

[Roboman3000]

Good for you, Cliffjumper