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Jetfire quickly landed and transformed, running into an abandoned building. Normally, he would be more careful, but there was a storm coming quickly, and he needed shelter fast.
This was just supposed to be a quick recon mission, but it looks like he would be staying longer than expected.
<>
-Jetfire-
Flew right into a storm. Will be out longer than expected.
-Red Alert-
Oh Primus. Are you okay?
-Jetfire-
Yes. I’m in a building of some sort.
-Red Alert-
Have you checked it out yet?
-Jetfire-
Just about to.
-Red Alert-
Alright. I’ll let Elita know of your situation. Stay safe, love.
Jetfire unsheathed his ion sword, and carefully moved throughout the building, careful of any Decepticons that might be hiding out in the building.
The building was small, only two floors and a few rooms, not many places for anyone to hide. Jetfire never let his guard down, though.
Almost all of the rooms were empty, except for the last room, where he found something. Someone.
It wasn’t a Decepticon, but what seemed to be…a dog.
The build was similar to Soundwave’s Ravage, but a lighter gray than Ravage, and yellow optics. Jetfire padded carefully towards it, and found that several scars were scattered across its body. Less from direct battle, more likely from basic survival.
Jetfire got a bit too close to it, and it was made aware of his presence. Immediately, it stood into a defensive position, barking and growling at Jetfire. He sheathed his sword, and held his hands up. If he didn’t do anything else, the dog likely wouldn’t attack. It was likely just more scared, and trying to escape the storm, just like Jetfire.
He kneeled down, and slowly extended a hand out. The dog was now just growling, and backing away from Jetfire.
It was likely for the best that Jetfire and the dog kept their distance. It seemed content on the second floor, so Jetfire slowly got up and went back downstairs, leaving the dog alone.
He propped himself up along the wall, and looked outside the window. The storm had gotten worse, cold air seeping into the building. Jetfire tried to comm Red Alert, but the storm was blocking any sort of signal.
With the exception of the dog upstairs, Jetfire was alone.
*
About an hour later, Jetfire heard something from the stairs. He didn’t yet get his sword out, but he went into defensive mode-
Oh, it was just the dog.
He looked over at it, just at the bottom of the stairs. It had a sort of curious look in its optics, but kept its distance. Jetfire must’ve assumed that it must've realized it never heard him leave, and came to investigate.
Jetfire didn’t bother getting up. If the dog wanted to come closer, it would. If it went back upstairs, that would be fine as well.
The dog sat down, and watched Jetfire carefully.
*
Jetfire’s HUD warned him to refuel a little while later. He reached into his subspace, and grabbed a small ration of energon, popping off the top and slowly drinking the energon. He looked over at the dog, still sitting there.
He didn’t know how long it had been since the dog had refueled itself. He would guess not recently as energon was hard to come by, and the Autobots and Decepticons were eager to find it for their respective factions.
He drank about half of it, just enough for his HUD to stop bothering him, and set the ration aside, pushing it closer to the dog. He readjusted himself, and chose to look away from the ration, not bringing attention to it.
Jetfire wouldn’t force the dog to refuel; if it didn’t, he would likely just leave the ration here when it was clear enough to fly out. He could respect if the dog didn’t want to refuel right beside a stranger.
A few minutes had passed, and Jetfire heard the dog standing up, but refused to look at it, in fear of scaring it away. It padded slowly, and soon, Jetfire heard it start drinking. A few laps at first, just testing it out, before it drank more quickly. In no time, it had finished off the rest of the ration.
Jetfire slowly turned towards the dog, keeping his face soft and calm, hoping to not scare it off. It was a little bit startled at first, but Jetfire extended a hand to it, inviting it closer.
It stared at his hand for a moment, before slowly coming closer, and sniffing it. The god eventually started licking Jetfire’s hand. Jetfire chuckled and flipped his hand over, trying to pet the dog’s head. It accepted, moving its head to nuzzle Jetfire’s hand.
He chuckled again before the dog moved and jumped into his lap, getting comfortable. He started petting the dog again as it fell into recharge, trusting Jetfire.
*
After a long while, the storm had cleared up enough for Jetfire to travel and open comms. Turns out, he had missed a bunch from Red Alert.
He looked down at his lap, the dog still recharging. Jetfire carefully picked the dog up, and placed it down, trying not to awake it. He felt bad for just leaving the dog, but he couldn’t bring it back to the theatre.
Could he?
As he was walking out of the building, he heard the dog running behind him. He smiled as he turned around.
“I have to go, I’m sorry.”
The dog came up to him, rubbing its body against Jetfire’s legs, and whining slightly.
“Seriously, I have to go, I can’t take-“
…
Ideas started to race through his mind. He wasn’t too sure what the dog’s life was before he met it, but it was likely tough with the war still raging on, and it was likely hard to survive at the war’s worst.
It might be good for the dog's survival to stay at the theatre.
And…if he and Red Alert had the dog…take care of it together…it might be the closest they could ever have to a family of sorts.
”Do you have an alt mode?”
The dog tilted its head inquisitively. Jetfire made a motion with his hands.
“Transform?”
The dog barked in what seemed like an agreement before transforming into a cassette.
Ah, he was right, a Cassettecon.
Jetfire picked the transformed dog up. “May I put you in my subspace, and travel back to HQ with you?”
The dog transformed again, in order to give an agreeing bark before transforming again. Jetfire carefully placed it in his subspace before he transformed himself, and blasted off.
<>
-Jetfire-
Sorry, Red. The storm was blocking my signal. Heading back now.
-Red Alert-
Okay, good. Anything interesting happened?
-Jetfire-
Well…I found something. Someone. Bringing it back to HQ.
-Red Alert-
Jetfire, what the frag did you find.
Jetfire.
What did you find.
JETFIRE.
*
“Jetfire, what did you find?!” Red Alert was the first thing Jetfire saw when he entered the theatre. He had worse greetings before.
He didn’t know how to explain how he was bringing back a dog over comms…it was better to show. Jetfire reached into his subspace, and retrieved the Cassettecon. He handed it over carefully to Red Alert.
“What is-“ He examined it before it suddenly transformed back into a dog, landing, and growling at Red Alert.
“WHOA! JETFIRE!”
Jetfire kneeled down to the dog, and put an arm between Red Alert and the dog. “Hey! Down! He’s a friend!” It took a bit for the dog to calm down, as Red put his hands up, trying to show himself as not a threat.
“…A friend? I’m hurt, Jetfire.”
Jetfire rolled his optics. “I meant it to the dog.”
Red Alert kneeled down to the dog, extending a hand out. “Hey. I’m not going to hurt you.” The dog, just like with Jetfire, slowly came to his hand, sniffing it before licking it.
“Where did you find it, Jet?”
“The building I was camped out at. I think it was waiting out the storm, as well.”
Red started to pet the dog. “Why did you bring it here? I don’t think we have enough supplies to include it into our…weird…gang of bots.”
Jetfire shrugged. “It didn’t want me to leave. And…I felt bad for it. Didn’t see any other bots like it in the area, and I don’t know when the last time it had fuel, at least before me.
And…if we keep the dog…if we take care of it personally…it might be the closest we will likely get to a family.”
Red Alert’s spark sank. They had both talked about it at some point, that if there was no war, they would’ve tried to get a family started…
But with no Allspark on the planet, and the state of said planet, any chance of that happening was low to nonexistent.
If the dog was so eager to go with Jetfire…it likely didn’t have a family of its own as well.
All three of them wanted a family.
“Okay.”
Jetfire raised an optic ridge. “Okay?”
“Okay. We’ll keep the dog.”
Jetfire smiled as he came closer to the dog, starting to pet it as well.
Neither of them heard Elita walk in.
“…Why the frag do we have a dog?”