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cliffjumperDesignation: Cliffjumper
Allegiance: Autobot/Heroic Decepticon (in practicality/actuality, if not claimed)
Type: Minibot
Setting: The most important thing to keep in mind for this continuity to the greater Transformers multiverse, is that there is a dark "backside" to all the "regular" continuities. That is, there is at least one (but since it's "hard to cross between negative and positive polarity space" I would think there's more than one, we simply haven't seen any others), but probably more, "negative polarity" universes, where everything from the usual continuities are flipped around.
Decepticons good, Autobots evil, and, in this particular one, Optimus Prime isn't just a megalomaniacal tyrant, but also insane and likes to decorate his walls and ceilings with corpses.
Megatron was a math professor at, probably a university in Polyhex, and Optimus Prime (Optronix) a libirarian (who worked himself upwards in the political arena) who did not like how things were and wanted to change them... with a "conflict furthers society" sort of thinking.
History/Background: After all the things that happened back on Earth, and finally being repaired after fifteen years of life-support due to lack of resources on Cybertron, Cliffjumper's relieved to not just be back in the action on Earth, but also to still have some Decepticons to fight. You could even call it relaxing, if you wanted to, because at least he was doing something. And then some 'Autobot' (Cliffjumper wasn't sure he believed that, no matter the brand) named Skyfall appeared and Cliffjumper got stuck on guard duty by Optimus Prime. That was all well and good (if annoying), until they picked up some energy readings which matched Skyfall's in South America and Prime collected his Autobots, plus Skyfall, to have a look.
Cliffjumper was really annoyed when there were Decepticons at the site and he didn't get to go fight them, but rather had to follow Skyfall down into the hole the energy reading was coming from to continue to keep an eye on their 'guest'. While down there, they met the Decepticon Landquake (who, like Skyfall, had come from another dimension with Skyfall), who immediately made Cliffjumper assume Skyfall was a traitor since he didn't want them to fight. Nothing had any chance to happen, though, as the fighting above collapsed the cave floor, making the three fall deeper down and gifted Cliffjumper with a crushed leg due to a boulder. Cliffjumper being Cliffjumper, he still attempted to shoot at Skyfall and Landquake, but the shot disturbed some rarified energon and woke another cybertronian who looked curiously similar to Skyfall and Landquake. Breakaway healed Cliffjumper's leg by laying his hands on it, saying they needed no weapons here. Then Laserbeak and Ravage found them and after fighting the two Cassetticons off, the group proceeded deeper inside as Landquake, Breakaway and Skyfall were called by something called the 'Caretaker'. This computer informed the three they were part of something bigger, and had to leave this dimension to find the next one of their group. Cliffjumper informed Skyfall under no uncertain terms that if he was going anywhere, Cliffjumper was coming with, since Prime had said to watch Skyfall.
This led to Cliffjumper being separated from the other three in transwarp transit (the three went on to Axiom Nexus), appearing in another dimension where things were quite backwards... or mirrored, from 'normal'; the Decepticons were good, and the Autobots were evil. After being shot at by a purple-coloured Optimus Prime for protesting Rumble's brutal execution, Cliffjumper was picked up by a few Decepticons. After some initial confusion, the mirrorverse's Sideswipe, who had defected to the Decepticons, explained the situation. Later, Cliffjumper participated in a battle to stop the launching of the Ark, to hinder Prime's plans of off-world domination. He also assured the Decepticons' their victory, by adding additional glass gas to the Ark's launching platform and then shooting at it, collapsing the platform.
Cliffjumper and Sideswipe worked together some time later to bring in the rampaging Dinobots Goryu and Slugfest, then followed Grimlock to a bunker deep in the Rad Zone that Sideswipe was reluctant to enter as it was here he'd been ambushed for presumably having doubts about the Autobot cause. Cliffjumper convinced him of going in and they were soon stuck inside a veritable death-trap of a labyrinth, along with Autobots Rodimus and Blurr. They had followed Grimlock down into where the Omega Terminus, the supercomputer who recycled old cybertronians and gave new ones life, was kept. After a rather furious battle in the chamber of the Omega Terminus where it gave Grimlock an ember and genius-level intelligence as long as he was in robot form, it allowed the motley group to leave, though without their memories of what the place had been, or where it was. And while Sideswipe and Cliffjumper both completely forgot, Cliffjumper still found 'their' story suspicious and strange, despite the fact that it was 'his' story too.
Cliffjumper was later charged with hand-picking the crew of the Nemesis that would follow the Ark (as Prime didn't let his one failure with the launch stop him) and attempt to stop it on its journey to Earth. They had miscalculated the humans' level of technology though, and while the Nemesis and Astrotrain was able to make the Ark crash into the ocean, they almost got blown up by a fusion bomb. Only Starscream and Cliffjumper were left on the Nemesis to manually guide it down and make sure they didn't crash in any populated areas. Cliffjumper was part of the distraction to allow Heatwave to talk to the control relay for the giant satellite laser the Autobots had taken control of from the humans, in an event that could be called "I knew something like this would happen" by Cliffjumper soon after they had gathered up most of the crew after crashing on Earth..
He was present a good while later after they'd gotten back to Cybertron when Landquake, Breakaway, and Topspin (and Skyfall's deactivated shell) appeared in the mirrorverse, courtsey of Alpha Trion, and later declined the offer from Nexus Prime to follow him as he went to wherever it was he was suppsoed to go, as this could have led Cliffjumper home. He said he wasn't finished with dealing with the evil Optimus Prime and his Autobots.
Personality: Cliffjumper is a trigger-happy, short-tempered and suspicious 'bot by nature. He has, though, had to amend his reactions lately, ever since he got shunted off into a different dimension where things are quite reversed from what he's used to. It's necessary to rein in your paranoia if you're going to work with people who you've known as enemies for practically forever, and now they're suddenly the good guys. One could probably assert that being kicked to the negative polarity universe has settled Cliffjumper in a way nothing that could have happened in his home dimension would. Having to think before you shoot what suddenly are your allies tend to make one do that (or mess up one's reaction times, in Cliffjumper's opinion). Not to say he's not still paranoid or suspicious, especially since Cyclonus' betrayal and assassination of Megatron as an undercover agent for Alpha Trion, but he's no better at sniffing out potential traitors or spies either, and has definitely toned down his public suspicions and accusations.
He's gotten slightly better at not just rushing in and shooting everything deemed "enemy" (read "Decepticon"), if only because getting caught by Autobots probably worse than any "normal" Decepticon requires him to be more careful about what he does. On the other hand, he takes the 'reversed' Autobots almost as a personal insult, and his eagerness to "sort 'em out" (especially Prime) is well-matched with Sideswipe's urge for revenge. He is, however, still prone to just act or rush right into a situation if it's right in front of him, usually not bothering to plan much. On the other hand he's also learned to think and plan when it's absolutely necessary. It's not his first instinct, but as he acknowledged to Starscream in Do Over, he would usually be the first to suggest (and the first in line) to rush to Megatron's aid when Ricochet had captured the Decepticon leader, but instead advocated for a smaller, planned strike force while they continued with the preparations for the launching of the Nemesis to follow the Autobots to Earth.
Cliffjumper's probably had more "learning experiences" since he came to this universe than he's had in his entire earlier function in his home universe... Of course, it could just be that he's never bothered to pay attention, or learn anything, from the earlier ones enough to actually let them affect him. If you're on Cliffjumper's side, he'll defend you, and the cause, until he can't move anymore, and even then, if he can still fire a gun or a cannon, or hit something, he'll do that. Size and relative strength/power of his opponent(s) doesn't matter; he'll do his best and (attempt to) get through it on sheer determination (or anger) alone. This trait hasn't been lessened by his relocation, rather strengthened and reinforced (Megatron taking a shot meant for him during the attack against the Ark's launching platform for no other reason than that all life is sacred certainly helped to convince him he could work with these backwards Decepticons, though).
His ferocity is somewhat distressing to the Decepticons of the mirrorverse even if they undoubtedly are grateful for his assistance, but then, they've always questioned Cliffjumper's eagerness to get into a fight (with the Autobots), and his zeal with his weaponry. Cliffjumper himself doesn't find anything off with it, considering it only as what's necessary, especially given how much the Decepticons struggle in general. If it's the right thing to do, he'll do it – like participating in an attack on people he knows as friends and allies alongside those who would normally be his enemies, to protect an innocent planet when the former are planning to invade said planet. He didn't need to help the Decepticons beyond giving them the formula for the glass gas to destroy the launching platform, but he did anyway.
Simply put, Cliffjumper, while obviously being pretty zealous and overly prone to confrontation, is courageous to a fault and can knowingly (and not so knowingly) get into situations he might not be able to handle if it's the "right" thing to do, or if someone's in danger. He tends to be the type to draw enemy fire away from others – relying on his speed in altmode if necessary to do so, since he can avoid it easier and keep his companions out of the line of fire like that. He's kinder than he might seem like and has a strong idea of right and wrong, especially when it comes to what the Autobots (or, in the mirror universe, what the Decepticons) stand for, and speaks out for that. Even when the situation is definitely odd and Optimus Prime isn't acting like he should and it leads to being almost killed (the Shattered Glass comic). He also tends to speak up if he dislikes something enough even to people he looks up to or who are unquestionably his superiors, as he protested having to play guard to Skyfall and scout out the cavern they had picked up weird energy readings from in Crossing Over, before he ended up in the mirrorverse.
Cliffjumper isn't easily "kicked down" by a bad situation, and can cling to stubbornness and sheer anger to get through something. He's not the most... competent at apologizing, even if he can admit he's wrong when proven such (as in having an easier time admitting Sephie's "upgrade" in Transhuman went okay, but having a bigger problem apologizing to her for his earlier attitude and suspicion). He's brash, confrontational, suspicious in a way that's close to paranoia sometimes and definitely has a problem with his temper (as well as with his mouth). He is, however, also a principled, genuinely nice mech even if he's a little socially/interpersonally awkward and can get flustered at certain matters (as when he got awkward at Crasher in Eye in the Sky when she wondered what he meant by “should have recognised you” and he flailed about trying to explain he's unfamiliar with her build-type of cybertronian). He also swears quite a bit.
Abilities: As a Cybertronian, Cliffjumper has an alternate mode; his in particular is (currently) a small city sports car, inspiration taken from several different models (probably by scanning these separately and putting the pieces together; The general shape of the car is based on a heavily customized one-of-a-kind 1992-1995 fifth generation Honda Civic hatchback with lots of aftermarket "ricer" add-ons (such as a large front bumper, large fenders and a large rear wing). The front section takes some design cues from various models of the Subaru Impreza WRX, namely the hood vent present on all models, the front grille of the 2004-05 WRX and the headlights and the midsection of the front bumper from the 2006-07 WRX STi. The shape of the rear fenders is also vaguely inspired by the Volkswagen New Beetle. (From TF Wiki)
He's also armed with several weapons, one of those guns capable of a special thing; capable of shooting a gas that changes the property of metal so as to make it brittle like glass. (It is possible this ability is something inherent to Cliffjumper and his spark, modified by the power chip recitifier, and simply being "focused" through the gun, but he can also make glass gas with chemicals, so it's hard to say.)
At least one (probably more) 'regular' laser gun.
A (sniper) rifle, as he either in the SG-verse became or always was a good sniper.
One giant cannon (at least as tall as Cliffjumper himself).
He's further one of the fastest Autobots (from his reality) in altmode, and he's got access to radio/wireless communication on particular bands/to other cybertronians, as well as scanners for his surroundings and internal diagnostics. He also has access to a pocket/extra-dimensional storage, which is where he usually keeps his weapons (yes, even the giant cannon) and anything else he's carrying with him.
Standard Prose Sample:
Tilting his helm back, Cliffjumper scowled up at the cloudy sky. He'd thought he was done with being surprised by the slag this alternate reality kept throwing at him. He had, after all, spent quite some time here now, even if all of it hadn't been on Cybertron.
Not that the Earth of this reality was much better, but with all the surprises and changes he'd thought he'd become completely inured to being surprised. No one could fault him for being surprised at the several hundred-strong herd of Dinobots Wheeljack had appeared with while they were fighting over the fuel dump in Arch-Ayr. Or incredulous over the whole slagging thing with an opposite reality where sparks were embers mostly made up of electrons instead of positrons. He hadn't reacted very well when he first arrived here, he could admit, but he wasn't going to apologise for that. He thought it was perfectly germane to yell at Decepticreeps and escape from what he'd been convinced was a Decepticon death camp.
Of course, these Decepticons didn't do scrap like that, so it hadn't been necessary, but he hadn't known that then. Optics flickering as he stared up at the dark swell of clouds above, Cliffjumper supposed it was somewhat stupid of him to not have been more wary when he got to Iacon back then. But... well. The Autobots were familiar...
Or should have been, anyway. It was hard, still, to not growl and rev his engine in rememberance of that rusted-over pretender that called himself Optimus Prime here---
Lips twisting around a smile and away from the scowl he hadn't been able to stop, Cliffjumper shook his helm. Bottom line, with all that and all the other things, you'd think he didn't have anything more to be surprised about.
Apparently he was wrong, though, because standing outside on a balcony, helm tilted back and with a fine, mist-like rain starting to turn his armour slick, Cliffjumper was surprised.
It wasn't supposed to slagging rain on Cybertron!
He knew – he wasn't sure who'd told him, or when, but he had the distinct feeling that someone had – that there was far more water on this Cybertron compared to his home one. He'd known that, fine.
And yet, he hadn't expected there to be enough to ever result in something like raining. Yet here it was, not a storm by any stretch of the imagination, but rain nonetheless and he felt the (unpleasantly) familiar side-ways drop-slide of flabbergasted surprise.
Rain.
On Cybertron.
“Rusted scrap. Guess I should've suspected this, too...” he couldn't quite manage anything more than slight annoyance, because as surprises went, this one wasn't at all bad, really.
Notes/Meta:
-Due to some conflicting information between the Classics toy bio, which has Cliffjumper as one of the near-casualties of the Underbase-powered Starscream and remaining in emergency stasis/on life support for fifteen years, and the SG fiction itself that pretty strongly implies or outright states he was present at the Unicron battle which happens after Starscream's rampage, I am going to say that some emergency repairs had Cliffjumper up and aware, probably due to sheer stubbornness, but not much more than that. So when Primus' call transports the cybertronians on Earth to Cybertron to fight against Unicron, Cliffjumper is among them, but doesn't last the whole fight through - either to right before Xaaron-as-Primus is killed, or shortly before Prime's assault on Unicron with the Matrix. He's thus present as fiction implies, but the wounds from earlier has finally taken its toll and he remains in life-support for the coming fifteen years.
-While it's impossible to say how long time there is between Cliffjumper appearing in the negative polarity universe and they leave for Earth (as no timeline is given), I would assume it is at least a few months. At the shortest I would put it between a month or two (but I would personally put it at longer).
The period on Earth I would put as, in total, either the year they would have been "stuck" (without crashing) on Earth due to Cybertron disappearing behind/inside the Plait Nebula, or slightly less (perhaps) than that. But due to some indications given in Transhuman, it sounds as if by the time they get the Stellar Spanner up and working, they've been on Earth for the year they would have been stuck. Then there's the as-of-yet unwritten story that would tie up the Earth-side story and get both the Autobots and the Decepticons back on Cybertron. Presumably, anyway, there would only be one more story, unless they would "drag it out". But, all in all, probably at least a little over a year on Earth alone.
Lastly, we have the time from when they return to Cybertron and up to the point Alpha Trion and the Nexus Prime gestalt members come to the negative polarity universe, which is unknown, but probably at least a few weeks or a month, up to several months (though probably/possibly more), and then the added weeks that Breakaway, Landquake and Topspin are hiding along with Skyfall's corpse. This adds up to a probable time of well over a year, probably nearly two at the least that Cliffjumper has spent in the SG-verse, up to the end of Reunification.
Added to this is the latest story of Invasion, which happens an undisclosed time after Reunification. My pull-point for Cliffjumper is after Reunification, but before Invasion, so I'm thus going by "over two (Earth) years at the least" spent in the negative polarity universe.
-I also go by Cliffjumper being at the most probable a bit over 13 feet tall.
Allegiance: Autobot/Heroic Decepticon (in practicality/actuality, if not claimed)
Type: Minibot
Setting: The most important thing to keep in mind for this continuity to the greater Transformers multiverse, is that there is a dark "backside" to all the "regular" continuities. That is, there is at least one (but since it's "hard to cross between negative and positive polarity space" I would think there's more than one, we simply haven't seen any others), but probably more, "negative polarity" universes, where everything from the usual continuities are flipped around.
Decepticons good, Autobots evil, and, in this particular one, Optimus Prime isn't just a megalomaniacal tyrant, but also insane and likes to decorate his walls and ceilings with corpses.
Megatron was a math professor at, probably a university in Polyhex, and Optimus Prime (Optronix) a libirarian (who worked himself upwards in the political arena) who did not like how things were and wanted to change them... with a "conflict furthers society" sort of thinking.
History/Background: After all the things that happened back on Earth, and finally being repaired after fifteen years of life-support due to lack of resources on Cybertron, Cliffjumper's relieved to not just be back in the action on Earth, but also to still have some Decepticons to fight. You could even call it relaxing, if you wanted to, because at least he was doing something. And then some 'Autobot' (Cliffjumper wasn't sure he believed that, no matter the brand) named Skyfall appeared and Cliffjumper got stuck on guard duty by Optimus Prime. That was all well and good (if annoying), until they picked up some energy readings which matched Skyfall's in South America and Prime collected his Autobots, plus Skyfall, to have a look.
Cliffjumper was really annoyed when there were Decepticons at the site and he didn't get to go fight them, but rather had to follow Skyfall down into the hole the energy reading was coming from to continue to keep an eye on their 'guest'. While down there, they met the Decepticon Landquake (who, like Skyfall, had come from another dimension with Skyfall), who immediately made Cliffjumper assume Skyfall was a traitor since he didn't want them to fight. Nothing had any chance to happen, though, as the fighting above collapsed the cave floor, making the three fall deeper down and gifted Cliffjumper with a crushed leg due to a boulder. Cliffjumper being Cliffjumper, he still attempted to shoot at Skyfall and Landquake, but the shot disturbed some rarified energon and woke another cybertronian who looked curiously similar to Skyfall and Landquake. Breakaway healed Cliffjumper's leg by laying his hands on it, saying they needed no weapons here. Then Laserbeak and Ravage found them and after fighting the two Cassetticons off, the group proceeded deeper inside as Landquake, Breakaway and Skyfall were called by something called the 'Caretaker'. This computer informed the three they were part of something bigger, and had to leave this dimension to find the next one of their group. Cliffjumper informed Skyfall under no uncertain terms that if he was going anywhere, Cliffjumper was coming with, since Prime had said to watch Skyfall.
This led to Cliffjumper being separated from the other three in transwarp transit (the three went on to Axiom Nexus), appearing in another dimension where things were quite backwards... or mirrored, from 'normal'; the Decepticons were good, and the Autobots were evil. After being shot at by a purple-coloured Optimus Prime for protesting Rumble's brutal execution, Cliffjumper was picked up by a few Decepticons. After some initial confusion, the mirrorverse's Sideswipe, who had defected to the Decepticons, explained the situation. Later, Cliffjumper participated in a battle to stop the launching of the Ark, to hinder Prime's plans of off-world domination. He also assured the Decepticons' their victory, by adding additional glass gas to the Ark's launching platform and then shooting at it, collapsing the platform.
Cliffjumper and Sideswipe worked together some time later to bring in the rampaging Dinobots Goryu and Slugfest, then followed Grimlock to a bunker deep in the Rad Zone that Sideswipe was reluctant to enter as it was here he'd been ambushed for presumably having doubts about the Autobot cause. Cliffjumper convinced him of going in and they were soon stuck inside a veritable death-trap of a labyrinth, along with Autobots Rodimus and Blurr. They had followed Grimlock down into where the Omega Terminus, the supercomputer who recycled old cybertronians and gave new ones life, was kept. After a rather furious battle in the chamber of the Omega Terminus where it gave Grimlock an ember and genius-level intelligence as long as he was in robot form, it allowed the motley group to leave, though without their memories of what the place had been, or where it was. And while Sideswipe and Cliffjumper both completely forgot, Cliffjumper still found 'their' story suspicious and strange, despite the fact that it was 'his' story too.
Cliffjumper was later charged with hand-picking the crew of the Nemesis that would follow the Ark (as Prime didn't let his one failure with the launch stop him) and attempt to stop it on its journey to Earth. They had miscalculated the humans' level of technology though, and while the Nemesis and Astrotrain was able to make the Ark crash into the ocean, they almost got blown up by a fusion bomb. Only Starscream and Cliffjumper were left on the Nemesis to manually guide it down and make sure they didn't crash in any populated areas. Cliffjumper was part of the distraction to allow Heatwave to talk to the control relay for the giant satellite laser the Autobots had taken control of from the humans, in an event that could be called "I knew something like this would happen" by Cliffjumper soon after they had gathered up most of the crew after crashing on Earth..
He was present a good while later after they'd gotten back to Cybertron when Landquake, Breakaway, and Topspin (and Skyfall's deactivated shell) appeared in the mirrorverse, courtsey of Alpha Trion, and later declined the offer from Nexus Prime to follow him as he went to wherever it was he was suppsoed to go, as this could have led Cliffjumper home. He said he wasn't finished with dealing with the evil Optimus Prime and his Autobots.
Personality: Cliffjumper is a trigger-happy, short-tempered and suspicious 'bot by nature. He has, though, had to amend his reactions lately, ever since he got shunted off into a different dimension where things are quite reversed from what he's used to. It's necessary to rein in your paranoia if you're going to work with people who you've known as enemies for practically forever, and now they're suddenly the good guys. One could probably assert that being kicked to the negative polarity universe has settled Cliffjumper in a way nothing that could have happened in his home dimension would. Having to think before you shoot what suddenly are your allies tend to make one do that (or mess up one's reaction times, in Cliffjumper's opinion). Not to say he's not still paranoid or suspicious, especially since Cyclonus' betrayal and assassination of Megatron as an undercover agent for Alpha Trion, but he's no better at sniffing out potential traitors or spies either, and has definitely toned down his public suspicions and accusations.
He's gotten slightly better at not just rushing in and shooting everything deemed "enemy" (read "Decepticon"), if only because getting caught by Autobots probably worse than any "normal" Decepticon requires him to be more careful about what he does. On the other hand, he takes the 'reversed' Autobots almost as a personal insult, and his eagerness to "sort 'em out" (especially Prime) is well-matched with Sideswipe's urge for revenge. He is, however, still prone to just act or rush right into a situation if it's right in front of him, usually not bothering to plan much. On the other hand he's also learned to think and plan when it's absolutely necessary. It's not his first instinct, but as he acknowledged to Starscream in Do Over, he would usually be the first to suggest (and the first in line) to rush to Megatron's aid when Ricochet had captured the Decepticon leader, but instead advocated for a smaller, planned strike force while they continued with the preparations for the launching of the Nemesis to follow the Autobots to Earth.
Cliffjumper's probably had more "learning experiences" since he came to this universe than he's had in his entire earlier function in his home universe... Of course, it could just be that he's never bothered to pay attention, or learn anything, from the earlier ones enough to actually let them affect him. If you're on Cliffjumper's side, he'll defend you, and the cause, until he can't move anymore, and even then, if he can still fire a gun or a cannon, or hit something, he'll do that. Size and relative strength/power of his opponent(s) doesn't matter; he'll do his best and (attempt to) get through it on sheer determination (or anger) alone. This trait hasn't been lessened by his relocation, rather strengthened and reinforced (Megatron taking a shot meant for him during the attack against the Ark's launching platform for no other reason than that all life is sacred certainly helped to convince him he could work with these backwards Decepticons, though).
His ferocity is somewhat distressing to the Decepticons of the mirrorverse even if they undoubtedly are grateful for his assistance, but then, they've always questioned Cliffjumper's eagerness to get into a fight (with the Autobots), and his zeal with his weaponry. Cliffjumper himself doesn't find anything off with it, considering it only as what's necessary, especially given how much the Decepticons struggle in general. If it's the right thing to do, he'll do it – like participating in an attack on people he knows as friends and allies alongside those who would normally be his enemies, to protect an innocent planet when the former are planning to invade said planet. He didn't need to help the Decepticons beyond giving them the formula for the glass gas to destroy the launching platform, but he did anyway.
Simply put, Cliffjumper, while obviously being pretty zealous and overly prone to confrontation, is courageous to a fault and can knowingly (and not so knowingly) get into situations he might not be able to handle if it's the "right" thing to do, or if someone's in danger. He tends to be the type to draw enemy fire away from others – relying on his speed in altmode if necessary to do so, since he can avoid it easier and keep his companions out of the line of fire like that. He's kinder than he might seem like and has a strong idea of right and wrong, especially when it comes to what the Autobots (or, in the mirror universe, what the Decepticons) stand for, and speaks out for that. Even when the situation is definitely odd and Optimus Prime isn't acting like he should and it leads to being almost killed (the Shattered Glass comic). He also tends to speak up if he dislikes something enough even to people he looks up to or who are unquestionably his superiors, as he protested having to play guard to Skyfall and scout out the cavern they had picked up weird energy readings from in Crossing Over, before he ended up in the mirrorverse.
Cliffjumper isn't easily "kicked down" by a bad situation, and can cling to stubbornness and sheer anger to get through something. He's not the most... competent at apologizing, even if he can admit he's wrong when proven such (as in having an easier time admitting Sephie's "upgrade" in Transhuman went okay, but having a bigger problem apologizing to her for his earlier attitude and suspicion). He's brash, confrontational, suspicious in a way that's close to paranoia sometimes and definitely has a problem with his temper (as well as with his mouth). He is, however, also a principled, genuinely nice mech even if he's a little socially/interpersonally awkward and can get flustered at certain matters (as when he got awkward at Crasher in Eye in the Sky when she wondered what he meant by “should have recognised you” and he flailed about trying to explain he's unfamiliar with her build-type of cybertronian). He also swears quite a bit.
Abilities: As a Cybertronian, Cliffjumper has an alternate mode; his in particular is (currently) a small city sports car, inspiration taken from several different models (probably by scanning these separately and putting the pieces together; The general shape of the car is based on a heavily customized one-of-a-kind 1992-1995 fifth generation Honda Civic hatchback with lots of aftermarket "ricer" add-ons (such as a large front bumper, large fenders and a large rear wing). The front section takes some design cues from various models of the Subaru Impreza WRX, namely the hood vent present on all models, the front grille of the 2004-05 WRX and the headlights and the midsection of the front bumper from the 2006-07 WRX STi. The shape of the rear fenders is also vaguely inspired by the Volkswagen New Beetle. (From TF Wiki)
He's also armed with several weapons, one of those guns capable of a special thing; capable of shooting a gas that changes the property of metal so as to make it brittle like glass. (It is possible this ability is something inherent to Cliffjumper and his spark, modified by the power chip recitifier, and simply being "focused" through the gun, but he can also make glass gas with chemicals, so it's hard to say.)
At least one (probably more) 'regular' laser gun.
A (sniper) rifle, as he either in the SG-verse became or always was a good sniper.
One giant cannon (at least as tall as Cliffjumper himself).
He's further one of the fastest Autobots (from his reality) in altmode, and he's got access to radio/wireless communication on particular bands/to other cybertronians, as well as scanners for his surroundings and internal diagnostics. He also has access to a pocket/extra-dimensional storage, which is where he usually keeps his weapons (yes, even the giant cannon) and anything else he's carrying with him.
Standard Prose Sample:
Tilting his helm back, Cliffjumper scowled up at the cloudy sky. He'd thought he was done with being surprised by the slag this alternate reality kept throwing at him. He had, after all, spent quite some time here now, even if all of it hadn't been on Cybertron.
Not that the Earth of this reality was much better, but with all the surprises and changes he'd thought he'd become completely inured to being surprised. No one could fault him for being surprised at the several hundred-strong herd of Dinobots Wheeljack had appeared with while they were fighting over the fuel dump in Arch-Ayr. Or incredulous over the whole slagging thing with an opposite reality where sparks were embers mostly made up of electrons instead of positrons. He hadn't reacted very well when he first arrived here, he could admit, but he wasn't going to apologise for that. He thought it was perfectly germane to yell at Decepticreeps and escape from what he'd been convinced was a Decepticon death camp.
Of course, these Decepticons didn't do scrap like that, so it hadn't been necessary, but he hadn't known that then. Optics flickering as he stared up at the dark swell of clouds above, Cliffjumper supposed it was somewhat stupid of him to not have been more wary when he got to Iacon back then. But... well. The Autobots were familiar...
Or should have been, anyway. It was hard, still, to not growl and rev his engine in rememberance of that rusted-over pretender that called himself Optimus Prime here---
Lips twisting around a smile and away from the scowl he hadn't been able to stop, Cliffjumper shook his helm. Bottom line, with all that and all the other things, you'd think he didn't have anything more to be surprised about.
Apparently he was wrong, though, because standing outside on a balcony, helm tilted back and with a fine, mist-like rain starting to turn his armour slick, Cliffjumper was surprised.
It wasn't supposed to slagging rain on Cybertron!
He knew – he wasn't sure who'd told him, or when, but he had the distinct feeling that someone had – that there was far more water on this Cybertron compared to his home one. He'd known that, fine.
And yet, he hadn't expected there to be enough to ever result in something like raining. Yet here it was, not a storm by any stretch of the imagination, but rain nonetheless and he felt the (unpleasantly) familiar side-ways drop-slide of flabbergasted surprise.
Rain.
On Cybertron.
“Rusted scrap. Guess I should've suspected this, too...” he couldn't quite manage anything more than slight annoyance, because as surprises went, this one wasn't at all bad, really.
Notes/Meta:
-Due to some conflicting information between the Classics toy bio, which has Cliffjumper as one of the near-casualties of the Underbase-powered Starscream and remaining in emergency stasis/on life support for fifteen years, and the SG fiction itself that pretty strongly implies or outright states he was present at the Unicron battle which happens after Starscream's rampage, I am going to say that some emergency repairs had Cliffjumper up and aware, probably due to sheer stubbornness, but not much more than that. So when Primus' call transports the cybertronians on Earth to Cybertron to fight against Unicron, Cliffjumper is among them, but doesn't last the whole fight through - either to right before Xaaron-as-Primus is killed, or shortly before Prime's assault on Unicron with the Matrix. He's thus present as fiction implies, but the wounds from earlier has finally taken its toll and he remains in life-support for the coming fifteen years.
-While it's impossible to say how long time there is between Cliffjumper appearing in the negative polarity universe and they leave for Earth (as no timeline is given), I would assume it is at least a few months. At the shortest I would put it between a month or two (but I would personally put it at longer).
The period on Earth I would put as, in total, either the year they would have been "stuck" (without crashing) on Earth due to Cybertron disappearing behind/inside the Plait Nebula, or slightly less (perhaps) than that. But due to some indications given in Transhuman, it sounds as if by the time they get the Stellar Spanner up and working, they've been on Earth for the year they would have been stuck. Then there's the as-of-yet unwritten story that would tie up the Earth-side story and get both the Autobots and the Decepticons back on Cybertron. Presumably, anyway, there would only be one more story, unless they would "drag it out". But, all in all, probably at least a little over a year on Earth alone.
Lastly, we have the time from when they return to Cybertron and up to the point Alpha Trion and the Nexus Prime gestalt members come to the negative polarity universe, which is unknown, but probably at least a few weeks or a month, up to several months (though probably/possibly more), and then the added weeks that Breakaway, Landquake and Topspin are hiding along with Skyfall's corpse. This adds up to a probable time of well over a year, probably nearly two at the least that Cliffjumper has spent in the SG-verse, up to the end of Reunification.
Added to this is the latest story of Invasion, which happens an undisclosed time after Reunification. My pull-point for Cliffjumper is after Reunification, but before Invasion, so I'm thus going by "over two (Earth) years at the least" spent in the negative polarity universe.
-I also go by Cliffjumper being at the most probable a bit over 13 feet tall.
