#scaredtrain

/There/ you are! *pokes helm in and grins* I had wondered where you scampered off to! See, I have your high-grade! Your favorite flavors, even! *holds out the cubes* See?

/yep, the cave is definitely compromised. he's just going to stay back here if it's okay with you, like a cat smooshed up at the back of a carrier when it knows it's been brought to the vet/

w-well.. uh.. you shouldn't.. have?

/suspiciously squints at the cubes/

... is it poisoned?

/THERE IS A DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE. the cave may have been compromised. he knew he shouldn’t have hugged that weirdwave/

/although.. highgrade is an appealing option, as the cave doesn’t really leave much room for rampant drinking.. and he doesn’t SEEM mad anymore.. no, no, stick to your guns, little train/

… im.. im not here

/DOES NOT APPROVE OF YOUR TRANSMISSION SIR. you can’t see it, because he’s in hiding, but he’s frowning at you/

dude, no, that’s stupid

i’m pretty sure even weird versions of mechs still have some core element of their personality in there, and that’s like.. a core element of shuttle mentality

you’re just NOT a TAXI

Astrotrain was scared.

Well, no. Scared was some odd miles ago.

It was more of a grabbed by the panel, instant death is venting down your neck mortal terror than mere "scared". Self-preservation instincts didn't usually hit him, but when they did, they hit him hard. And right now, they were telling him to fly. They weren't telling him where, he just knew he had to fly.

The only thing stopping him from shooting into space was the deep gouges in his armor, clawmarks that had stripped some of his heat shields off. He couldn't break atmosphere like that. Even if space was the safest place, far far away from the mech - the creature - he still could distantly call his horribro.

He hadn't even done anything. It had been some weird pull, drawing him to Primus like an organic moth to flame. Probably gray magic.

Nevermind that. He had to get away. Had to fly.

Blinded by fear and driven to fly, he wasn't paying attention to his HUD. If he was, he might have known his fuel was almost gone. He might have seen that proximity alert.

Instead, all he saw was a gigantic white slab of something, and had just enough time to jerk aside before he could crash nosefirst into the mountain.. but not enough time to spare his wing, which slammed full-force into the rocky surface and buckled under the pressure like tinfoil.

With a rather unmechly squeal, he careened into a large snowdrift, and ended up transforming back into root mode somewhere under three feet of crystallized liquid.

Primus. Damnit. This was just not his day.

Still running on instinctive fear, he pulled himself out of the snow and skittered towards the mountains - breaking all other shuttle instincts in order to clamber into a cave that was just large enough to accommodate his mass.

It was small and dark and his spark was racing and all he could think was that Unicron wouldn't be able to find him here. He wouldn't look for a shuttle where shuttles shouldn't be.. even if he was bleeding and terrified.

... wait.

Wasn't Unicron.. the Earth, here?

He tried to block out that thought and curled up tighter, repressing a low whimper. No, he wasn't going to distrust his hiding spot. He was just going to hide and he was going to wait until he'd calmed down a bit and then he was going to repair that wing and keep flying.