Skywarp Safeguard is having fun and all, but if he'd known going to a nice academy involved this much work and responsibility, he would've passed. A bit of a chaotic wild-child, he's more interested in fun pranks than finishing JAAT homework. It's much more exciting to fill his time with illegal Decepticon shenanigans as the stoic but powerful Cyclonus, vigilante extraordinaire. Even then he somehow manages to procrastinate what's expected of him, like fighting Autobots, in favor of more important things, like hanging out with one specific fan.

Biography

Skywarp was forged circa v.42.165.100 by the Cybertronic Timekeeping Standard along with his trine siblings Starscream and Thundercracker. The three of them were originally raised in the city of Vos in a mid-level tier. They caused enough problems in their group home to be known as troublemakers, and by the time they were nymphs, their patron decided the problem was too much to bear. Being treated as bothersome and unwanted was deeply painful for each of them, and from this Skywarp learned deflection and distraction, and has mostly come to expect people to want him gone.

Their patron presented them with a choice: as they were too annoying to deal with, they could either be split up and no longer see each other anymore, or be given to a different group home entirely. Ultimately, they chose to remain together, but no group home in Vos would take the three of them. The only reason the trine was able to remain together was because of the Safeguard Aerie in Iacon. Founded by Jetfire and Jetstorm, twins from Devisiun, this group home specifically opens its doors to kids with siblings that other group homes may not accept all together. On the lookout to preserve sibling relationships, Jetfire and Jetstorm accepted Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp when they were shipped over from Vos.

Adjusting to a new home, a new city-state, and a new dose of trauma was difficult. As they grew into younglings, Skywarp started to get even more energetic, fidgety, and often deliberately annoying, subconsciously warning people away before they could get close. The trine met Megatron not long after moving, and he dragged them in as sort-of-friends, sort-of-lackeys. Skywarp finds it amusing to irritate him as he makes a good target for teasing, but is also oddly confident in their relationship. Megatron is prickly enough to dislike him even on his best behavior, so he's comfortable being as weird as he'd like, even when he goes too far and invite's Megatron's genuine wrath.

In v.42.168.429, the Jhiaxian Academy of Advanced Technology hosted entrance exams for its first set of students. Skywarp sat these exams and passed, to his surprise, along with his trinemates and several other Safeguard siblings. On the first day the JAAT opened, he found to his glee that his trinemates would be rooming next to him along with Megatron, all within easy reach for pranks. When the weather turned extreme the next day, Megatron dragged him along to witness the storm, and the four of them nearly died when a chunk of debris catapulted them into the school library. In the rubble, they found mysterious Primal relics of power. Skywarp took up the Blades of Time and powered up into Cyclonus. [s1e01]

Relationships

Decepticons

While he readily follows his fellow Decepticons onto the battlefield, Cyclonus isn't driven by the same thirst for violence that the others seem to be. He feels calm with his relic, more patient and deliberate than usual, and doesn't really see a point to this fighting. He'll listen to Galvatron's orders and help out his siblings, but he often ends up hanging behind. While the others squabble, he finds his own thing to do. They might not understand his drastic change in attitude from kid form to hero form, but Scourge and Hellscream are just as willing to involve him in shenanigans and then squeal at him when his powers cause those shenanigans to spiral out of control. Galvatron has come to expect that his dramatic demands may be left half-finished when Cyclonus wanders off or gets distracted, and is unusually longsuffering about it. He's not a very good Decepticon perhaps, but at least he's a decent friend.

One might think that dazzling Thunderblast wouldn't get along with stoic Cyclonus, but that is not the case. He picked up on her loneliness and fear by just quietly observing from the background, and she finds him a safe person to be calm around. When she joined the Decepticons, [s1e12] it didn't take long for this unlikely duo to gravitate to one another. They have an odd but genuine balance: Thunderblast can air her uncertainties and imperfections to an audience who doesn't care when she's less than show-stopping, and Cyclonus has someone willing to listen to him when he feels like speaking up, and won't berate him when he disagrees. While they don't fight together often, they make a devastating team when they do, awe-inspiring in a way she is always happy to capitalize on while he fades into the background.

Cyclonus isn't particularly bothered by Triptych's bizarre mood swings and unpredictable behavior, unphased even from his first introduction [s2e08] thanks to lifelong exposure to his ridiculous siblings. He's more wary of the power backlash likely to result should the two of them talk for too long. Accidentally activating his own spacetime abilities in proximity to Triptych's unnerving all-sight often means the both of them are struck by sudden visions of a reality outside their own, leaving them with migraines and meaningless memories. Otherwise, Cyclonus makes a convenient straight mech for Triptych to bounce jokes off of.

Although he'd never dream of defecting himself, Cyclonus understands why some Decepticons wanted out. Sixshot was a good teammate for a time, but he could see them growing more and more discontent from the start. [s1e09] He doesn't know why they left, but he doesn't begrudge their leaving, [s2e15] despite the wounded attitudes of his fellow Decepticons. When Drift joined, [s2e11] the mech's unearthly senses helped him tap into something that only others like Cyclonus or Triptych could see, and once again he could tell Drift didn't quite fit among their faction. When he left, [s3e14] Cyclonus sincerely wished for him to find a place he belonged. It may not be very Decepticon of him, but he relates to feeling outside of the group enough that he doesn't feel betrayed by their defections.

Other Factions

Hellscream is, in a word, obsessed with the Mistress of Flame. She claims to be an Autobot, high and mighty and morally pure or whatever, but she never fails to go after him with extreme prejudice, reacting beautifully to his taunts. She gives as good as she gets too, and Hellscream is often just as toweringly mad at her as she is at him. Yet she doesn't hold back, freely flaunting her skill and expertise by striking him down relentlessly. He can't count how many times he's died by her hand, revived by the Allspark to heckle her again. And again. And again. Of course, whenever his siblings point out this obsession, he screeches at them. Clearly he just hates all the Autobots, the whole pompous, idiotic lot of them, and finds the Mistress easy to target. Optimus is too nice, and Ultra Magnus is too boring, so he's stuck with the Mistress. That's all. Really.

It's no fun to go up against the Elite Guard. They're all such good friends, with such excellent teamwork and implicit trust. Nothing Hellscream says gets to them, and they just laugh when he gets annoyed. They're too quick to shut down his screaming, and that damned Elita 2 even has the nerve to take advantage of his healing factor to play with the very energon in his lines. And their name is just arrogant. Please, as if he's not the most elite vigilante in Iacon. The way they regularly kick his aft has nothing to do with it.

When the Predacons came on the scene, [s3e05] Hellscream was mostly irritated that he'd have even more rival vigilantes to look out for. Sixshot could've decided to form a new faction somewhere else, but their new, admittedly intimidating, team is in Iacon and thus sort of Hellscream's problem. It doesn't help that their leader Abominus is willing to give the Decepticons the cold shoulder as they go about their own work. The most annoying Predacon is Soundwave, completely unreadable, unpredictable, and a chaotic mastermind. Really, the whole faction is so offputting in the way they do anarchic rebellion.

JAAT

Starscream is a resident of Room 1 in the Navitaneon dorm of the JAAT. Megatron is one of his roommates, and Skywarp and Thundercracker are in neighboring rooms. The proximity makes it easier to arrange their jaunts as Decepticons, but also makes it easier to get on each other's nerves. Starscream puts up with his roommates most of the time, but is certainly not above picking on them. That Powerglide especially is irritating, claiming he's a better flier than Starscream and getting into that dumb show Thundercracker likes. Swindle is admittedly useful sometimes, when he happens to shill something interesting. Since Flamewar and Skywarp have gotten into an intra-room prank war, Starscream has exercised all his experience as a sibling to escape that fallout, usually more successfully than Megatron.

Going into the JAAT, Starscream was mostly interested in getting acclaim, perhaps a few toadies he could flaunt for. What he wasn't counting on was Windblade, a Camien exchange student and the most Hand-damned stubborn mech he's ever met. She is unfailingly kind, unceasingly encouraging, and absolutely, infuriatingly unwilling to leave him alone! One minute she'll compliment his intelligence before berating him for being snide to another student, and every time he snaps at her she's got something to fire back, and she doesn't even leave after that. He can't figure out her angle! Surely she's waiting until the perfect time to destroy him with mockery and disdain, but she won't succeed. If he gets grumpy when she isn't there to play nice at him, well, that's just a symptom of whatever emotional manipulation she's orchestrating.

Generally, Starscream considers the people he helps (or beats up) as Hellscream as a one-and-done deal and doesn't think about them after the day is saved. Wasp, however, stuck with him. When he was possessed by another Allspark shard and turned into Waspinator, Hellscream was the one who could most effectively help him, [s2e06] but Wasp didn't really have a support group in the JAAT to return to. Starscream found himself gravitating toward him with some kind of aloof concern. A faltering relationship grew slowly out of gossip, gentle sniping, and venting frustrations to one another. It's one of the closest and healthiest friendships he's got, even if it is based mostly on complaining.

Starscream can keep a secret, easy. Now, when someone guesses that secret, he may not react smoothly, but he wouldn't tell. So really, it wasn't his fault that the xenobiology teacher Skyfire somehow guessed his secret Decepticon identity. The big softie is actually nice about it, which is surprising, but Starscream will take a fumblingly supportive adult over a narc any day. He doesn't mean to come to Skyfire with problems and questions, but it just keeps happening without his conscious decision.

Family

The most important people in Starscream's life have always been Thundercracker and Skywarp. They're a very close trine, forced even closer by the way they were made to choose between each other and a stable home when they were young. They often bicker or outright fight, rag on each other's interests, and undermine any attempts to change or experiment. But also, they defend each other, keep each other's confidence, lift one another's spirits with debatable success, and will always, always choose their trine before anything else. Starscream is particularly bad at showing steady, uncompromised affection, and will tease or neg the other two daily, especially when feeling insecure himself. Yet when push comes to shove, he'd lay down his life for them a hundred times over. Just don't make him say it out loud, he'll get all screechy in denial.

Being shunted off to the Safeguard Aerie in a foreign city-state may have let his trine stay together, but it didn't exactly engender a sense of belonging in Starscream. Rather than being offput by his prickliness, the patrons Jetfire and Jetstorm take his attitude in stride and make a fun, welcoming environment anyway. They know they can't force him to feel safe with them. But they do definitely tease him like the mischievous old meddlers they are, much to his adolescent annoyance.

Starscream can tolerate the other Safeguard kids for the most part. Many of them come from all over Cybertron, sibling groups in situations much like his own. For the ones who also made it into the JAAT, he occassionally catches up with them when passing in the halls. Siblings like Sunstorm are best in moderation, as they're different enough that it's best to just let each other go seperate ways so as to not get on each other's nerves too much.

Attributes

As Skywarp:

He's a size 4 jet, a frametype often called a "seeker" as it's relatively common. He is actually a rather good flier for his age and would likely have the skill to practice flier's ballet if he ever tried, and this skill is only enhanced by his relic. His sharp observational skills are dulled by his poor social grace, unless of course he is looking for something to insult.

Unlike any other current relic wielder, Starscream has no ghost at all in his relic. The Allspark shard is a powerful wellspring of pure life, without any sentience or emotion of its own, and the impressions of those who may have used it before are washed away in the face of that simple energy. His own experience leads him to doubt what the others say about hearing the echoes of former wielders. The Allspark's healing carries over to his civilian form as Starscream, which means he's ended up with a stunning disregard for his personal health and saftey. His flinch reflex has disappeared entirely as he relies so heavily on pushing through pain to heal near instantaneously that he forgets to shy away from any kind of danger.

As Cyclonus:

With the Allspark shard, Hellscream has a bigger frame, greater strength, and a multitude of new powers. Some of the typical relic upgrades he received include bleeding blue with innermost energon, swift healing, an internal comms system that allows him to speak with other relic bearers, and a well of subspace in which he can store items. He chose his name to spite the Mistress of Flame, as when they first met she accused him of having "a scream from the deepest hell of the Pit." Quite flattered by that barb, he took it as his moniker, with the added bonus of irritating the Mistress.

His alt mode is like a weaponized version of his civilian frame, a larger and faster jet equipped with integrated weaponry. His individual abilities are:

• extremely quick and unlimited healing, capable of regenerating anything in seconds to minutes
• resuscitation, effectively immortality, as his death is quickly reversed by the life energy of the Allspark
• a disabling hypersonic screech that he can fine-tune to any resonant frequency
• paralyzing null rays derived from Allspark energy
• superior flying skills at great speed and altitude
• the ability to push Allspark energy into others to heal and revive, something which he doesn't realize for a very long time as he is too focused on using it destructively

Trivia

Motivation:

Loyalty to friend and family, boredom, a sense of peace and direction and control found in hero form, and desire to impress his crush

Hobbies:

Singing as a form of stimming, prank wars

Favorite Food:

Literally anything sweet, especially helium poppers