TF (OC): Tracking on Through
Rating: PG
Series: G1
Summary: Tracer spends time with Beachcomber and learns about life on earth.
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: As per usual, the good things in life are not mine to have, but belong to someone else... in this case Hasbro, Takara and IDW and anyone else I’ve forgotten…
Authors Notes: For the 28s Meme - find the claim page here! This is At-the-Beach, requested by huntingospray.
Feedback makes friends. Flames dealt with by the masters of paranoia and fire, Red Alert and Inferno.
They stepped carefully across the sand, the grains shifting under their weight. Instinctively, Tracer ducked as large birds swooped overhead.
“Relax, the gulls ain’t gonna hurt ya.” Beachcomber drawled easily.
“Gulls?”
“The birds yer trying to hide from.” Tracer straightened up, casting a glance skywards at the birds circling.
“Habit.” She offered with a shrug. Really, she hadn’t been on Earth that long, so when Beachcomber offered to show her around while Hound was out on patrol, she practically leapt at the chance.
“Well out here, you’ll hear ‘em long before ya see them.” Beachcomber gestured to the wide expanse of ocean. It was true that they couldn’t exactly be sneaked up on. Yet to Tracer, the sounds of the waves and the grating of the sand grains were loud. Thousands of energy signatures were registering on her sensors, both in the sand and the sea and on the cliff behind them.
“There’s life everywhere...” She murmured in awe.
“That’s what’s so great ‘bout this planet. Life everywhere.”
“How do they survive?”
“Life here can survive anywhere.” Beachcomber launched into a vivid description of all the environments on the planet where life could exist, both in present time and in geological history. So lost in his descriptions, Tracer forgot to keep an optic on her sensors, not noticing the waves creeping closer and closer. Back to the ocean, she peered into the rock pool, optics searching for the life Beachcomber assured her was in there. She could see the energy readings on her sensors, but she couldn’t actually locate them until one moved, the brief flash of sunlight reflecting off its scales all she needed to track its movements.
“Amazing…”
“Camouflage. Whoa, watch out.” Quickly, Beachcomber grabbed at Tracer’s hand, pulling her backwards as a wave crashed onto the shore where she’d been standing.
“Ratch’ won’t like it if he has to flush salt water from your systems, trust me.”