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Humans on dates were boring. Why did Cliffjumper have to wait four hours for Spike and Carly to eat and watch a movie? Normally Bumblebee was on it, but he had to go help Optimus with some kind of speech at the United Nations. Or White House. Something big and important. Bumblebee was well known, well loved. Cliffjumper is - Cliffjumper. So he waited.
Parking garages were neat though. You got to see all kinds of Earth vehicles that might make good alt modes, if keeping it fresh was your thing. He’d heard Mirage talk about changing alts, but Cliffjumper was pretty sure he preferred window shopping to the reality. He could pick out the vehicle Tracks had scanned, and even ones sturdier bots like Hound had chosen.
Sometimes he even got to see humans doing human things down here. Talking, walking, laughing. Right now Cliffjumper swore he heard - arguing?
Nudging forward out of his parking stall, Cliff peered for the source of the sound. He heard voices - three? Four? Harsh, trying not to be loud but failing. Something about owing, and money? Cliff kept peeking out of the stall until he was halfway out of it. That was stupid, but he was curious. No one else was around. He kept moving, stalking the aisles, getting closer to the source of the noise.
There, around that pillar. Easing into a space, Cliffjumper was surprised to see a group of three humans ganging up on what appeared to be one, much smaller human. “Come on, if you just give us the money you have we won’t take the whole wallet. Just the cash, that’s all we want.”
“Pound sand, you freaks!”
“Don’t make more trouble than you’re worth, short stack!”
Cliffjumper didn’t remember transforming. He remembered walking forward behind the very loud little humans, so big that all three of them had to gang up on one. He remembered reaching out and grabbing one by the back of its jacket, pulling it into the air as he turned it around. “Who you calling short stack, shit heel?” The screaming satisfied Cliff to hear. The one in his hand flailed until it was dropped, then it popped back up and everyone ran.
Everyone except his fellow short stack, who looked just as terrified now as they had a moment ago. “Hey. I’m Cliffjumper. Are you okay?” They stared at him a moment longer, keeping still after blinking away the stare. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I just couldn’t put up with those guys. They were noisy. Hey, say something would you?”
A grin spread on their face. “You’re so tall.” Not what Cliff expected to hear, and he put a hand up to the back of his helmet returning a grin. “I’ll be okay,” she, Cliffjumper thinks based on the pitch of voice, finally offers. “They didn’t get anything from me, I socked one of them in the face for grabbing me in the food court, I didn’t think they’d be stupid enough to follow me,” her chest puffed. “It’s nice to meet you, Cliffjumper.”