Chapter Text
Ratchet had not, in fact, finished admonishing Jolt for his 'reckless disregard of just-repaired injuries' by the time they'd arrived in the Med Bay. The wrenches, at least, hadn't started flying yet, though Sgt. Knight, who was watching amusedly by the door, assured Cal that it was just because Jolt was already hurt. Otherwise, 'The Hatchet' would be chucking tools at him, since Jolt of all 'Bots should know better than to attempt transformation so soon after treatment. The original plan had actually been for Ratchet to come to him, though the officer that had delivered the message to Lennox had gotten it mixed up, which was why the Major had asked them to come in so soon. That, and the fact that the bureaucrats hadn't been too concerned; they’ just wanted to deal with Cal's clearance ASAP.
It took another five minutes for the ranting to stop, and another two before Mikaela, Sam, Knight, and Lennox felt safe letting anyone near Ratchet. Cal found him to be rather grouchy, but the medic greeted him civilly enough, though he was more focused on checking over Mikaela and the others' work. The humans soon left, as it was best not to disturb the mech. They did say hi to a shorter silver mech named Jazz, whom Michaela said had recently been brought back to life with a powerful Cybertronian artifact, after dying in Mission City. It had taken Cal a few minutes to process that.
Next was the shooting range. It was divided into three sections: human, Cybertronian, and tag-team. The latter was for practicing combat teamwork between the soldiers and the Autobots. Sgt. Knight waved to one soldier instructing a group in marksmanship on the first section, and Sideswipe and Ironhide were busy on the second, blasting away at targets. The twins were nowhere to be seen, but a watching soldier had commented that they were still trying to put themselves back together in an effort to avoid going to Ratchet. Knight had taken his leave at that point, muttering that they would probably make their situation worse if they went about it unsupervised.
Cal had to agree with him there.
The next 'Bots he met took him by surprise. Three helmetless young ladies showed up at the range, each riding a brightly-coloured motorcycle. It took him a second to realise that they were the same bikes from the hangar, the ones painted bright pink, blue, and purple. The blue one split off from the others to join Ironhide, the woman vanishing into thin air before the bike transformed and started shooting as well. The other two came to a stop by Cal and the others. As both women (holoforms, evidently) came closer, he had to raise his eyebrow at how beautiful they were. Both had long, flowing black hair, pale, flawless complexions, and startlingly blue eyes, the latter just like Bumblebee's and Jolt's. With their blue 'optics' in their real forms, Cal guessed that was standard for all holoforms.
"Dad, this is Arcee and Flare-Up," Mikaela introduced them, "And that's their sister Chromia over there. They're the triplets, and currently the only femmes, female Cybertronians, on Earth."
One of the pair smiled and extended her hand. Her hair was up in a high ponytail, and she wore a black leather zippered vest, a hot pink shirt with the sleeves cut off at the elbows, dark wash skinny jeans, a dark pink belt with a circular silver buckle, brown knee-height stiletto boots, black biker gloves, and silver hoop earrings. "Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Banes. I'm Arcee." Cal accepted her handshake. She had a surprisingly strong grip.
Her sister Flare-Up grinned and waved. "Mikaela's been waiting for the higher-ups to give their approval for months. I think General Morshower was the holdout. I mean, he's the cool one out of all the brass, but he's still stubborn." She had her hair in a pair of low pigtails, and was wearing a black t-shirt with a big pink-and-blue-checked heart that showed her midriff, a purple short-sleeved jacket, purple-and-lighter-purple striped wristbands, faded jeans, and black converse sneakers.
"True," Mikaela agreed, "But most of the others are worse."
Sam snorted. "Like that pain-in-the-aft Galloway. He just wants the Autobots' weapons tech, and keeps pushing to have them sent off-world when he doesn't get what he wants. Trust me; I'm always locking horns with him."
Cal raised an eyebrow at that. Why would Sam have to deal with politicians?
The young man seemed to read his mind. "Since I was one of the first humans to befriend the Autobots, I'm sort of their ambassador in the political realm. A lot of the politicians are only interested in Cybertronian tech, though, so half my job consists of telling them 'no', repeatedly and as nicely as is possible when dealing with those people. The rest is mostly spent convincing them that the Autobots aren't weapons to be used for the government's whims and that they are sentient beings. You have no idea how many times I have to correct them for saying 'it' instead of 'him' or 'her'." He rolled his eyes with disgust. "It's annoying at times, but someone's gotta speak up for the 'Bots, since only certain people outside of NEST are allowed to interact directly with them."
"By the way, 'NEST'? How'd you come up with that name?"
"NEST stands for 'Network Elements: Soldiers and Transformers'," Arcee supplied, "And not 'Need to Eliminate Stinking Terrorists', as Sideswipe and a couple other jokers on base will have you believe."
At this point, Ironhide and Chromia had stopped shooting and come over to say hello, while Sideswipe stayed put. Both transformed back into their vehicle modes, and both their holoforms appeared. Cal had the feeling they'd all been given some sort of memo telling them to try and stick with the holoforms when being introduced to him. He honestly appreciated it, as no matter how friendly they might be, their true forms were still quite intimidating.
Cal also noticed that Ironhide’s truck-mode still had traces of glitter on it.
Chromia looked a lot like her sisters, with her long black hair, flowing freely down her shoulders, and bright blue eyes. She wore a blue camouflage-pattern fitted t-shirt, a grey jacket, army-green cargo pants, and black combat boots. Silver stud earrings glinted in the noontime sun, as did the gold wedding band on her finger. Cal blinked at that. She was married? How did that work?
Ironhide's holoform was that of a tough-looking guy in green camo pants, a black wife beater, and black combat boots. He had dark hair shaved into a buzz cut, a couple scars on his face, and again bright blue eyes. He also had a wedding ring. So he and Chromia were husband and wife, or something like that? He could see the similarities in their personalities. The pair of them both had a distinctive air of 'don't mess with me', but they smiled nicely enough as they approached the group.
"Mr. Banes, right?" Chromia introduced herself, "Nice to finally meet you. I'm Chromia, this is my mate Ironhide." Mate? So they were married.
Ironhide smirked and shook Cal's hand. "We wanted to see who raised such a brave – and somewhat crazy – daughter."
Mikaela frowned. "Excuse me? Crazy? I'm not the one who thought snow was a new Decepticon weapon!"
"And I'm not the one who drove a beat-up tow truck into a warzone... backwards."
Cal snapped his head around to look at his daughter. "Backwards?! What warzone?!"
Mikaela bit her lip. "Mission City. Bumblebee got his legs blown off, so I hotwired an abandoned tow-truck to hook him up and evacuate him. Then, I decided I didn't want to just run and hide, and I knew 'Bee felt the same way, so I drove back into the fight."
"Backwards?!"
"He was hooked up to the back, and he was the one shooting! Would you rather I drove in without the alien robot warrior and his plasma cannons between me and the bad guys? Besides, Will's the one who rode a motorcycle underneath a Decepticon to get a better shot."
"You and I are going to talk about this later, young lady."
"You ready for this?" Lennox asked.
"You can never be ready for this," Sam interjected.
"It's not bad," Mikaela assured her father, "It's just... a bit overwhelming at first."
Cal was already feeling overwhelmed. He was about to meet Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Everyone who'd gotten on the subject had spoken so highly of him. If what they all said was true, this was the most gentle and benevolent and good Cybertronian anyone had ever met. Yet his presence was also said to be the most... well, overwhelming.
"You'll be fine," Lennox assured him, before patting him on the shoulder.
Cal took a deep breath and followed them into the main hangar, which was apparently command central. They entered through a huge set of doors, into a large, clear area lined with catwalks, atop which numerous technicians worked at computers, officers going back and forth with clipboards or tablets. The spaces directly below the catwalks seemed to be reserved for storage, so there was pretty much no activity within twenty feet above the floor.
In the centre of the room sat a HUGE red-and-blue Peterbilt semi truck. Cal felt his breath catch in his throat. Mikaela walked right up to it. "Optimus, there's someone I'd like you to meet."
There was a pause, and then the semi transformed, parts and panels and gears moving and rearranging themselves into a VERY tall Autobot whose head almost reached the ceiling. Cal blinked up at him, craning his head back to see his face. "Cal Banes, it is an honor to finally meet you. Your daughter has spoken highly of you." His voice held a wisdom and power that had Cal in awe.
It took him a second to respond. "Uh, likewise. I've heard, well... I've heard a lot of great things about you."
Optimus Prime smiled down at him. "Thank you. I understand you have already been shown around the base. May I ask of your impression?"
Cal laughed breathlessly. "When I woke up yesterday morning, believe me, I wasn't expecting any of this. But I understand you've all been great friends to my daughter when she needed it, and I'm very grateful. As for being introduced to alien robots... it's been interesting, to say the least."
A deep, baritone chuckle came from high above. "I take it you have met Mudflap and Skids, then."
At this, Cal grinned. "Yes, I did."
"I assure you, they are not examples of the abilities or professionalism of the rest of my Autobots." He said it with a completely straight face.
Sam scoffed. "We'd be dead already if they were," he muttered under his breath.
Mikaela elbowed him. "They held their own against Devastator."
"They survived long enough for Simmons to call the US Navy and get them to fire a highly-classified weapon on the bastard. They didn't come anywhere close to actually beating that creep."
Cal decided he didn't want to know.
Mikaela looked over at her father with mild concern. "You dealing okay, Dad?" she asked gently. They'd finished their talk with Optimus and were now on their way to the Lennoxes' for dinner, per the Major's invitation, in Bumblebee. Sam was looking forward to it, waxing poetic about Sarah Lennox and Monique Epps's cooking (the Lennox and Epps families lived next door). Sideswipe, Ironhide, and Jazz, the latter two being the Lennox and Epps family Guardians, respectively, would be coming as well.
Cal let out a shaky breath. "This is a lot to take in." Less than twenty-four hours ago, he'd been thoroughly unaware of the fact that there were aliens in his garage on a daily basis. Now he was going to sit down to dinner with a bunch of them. It was a lot to process. Not the least of which was the ease with which Mikaela and Sam handled it. This was normal for them.
Maybe that was what had him so disoriented. He'd been gone long enough that his daughter had grown into a strong young woman without him. She'd found a place in a strange world that he hadn't known existed. Cal just hoped he'd still be able to fit into her new life just as well.
The house sat among many others just like it on a normal suburban street, the kind Cal had never really grown up around. He'd expected all the houses in the area, owned by the base and rented to the families of NEST soldiers, to be identical, but each had its own unique colour scheme and little touches added by the residents. Flower gardens out front showed the individual preferences of the people tending to them, some put out little front-yard decorations, and there were a few lawns littered with toys. One unique feature of the Lennox and Epps houses was that the fence that separated their backyards had been taken down. A group of children ran around, and came charging when Bumblebee pulled in.
"Bee! Bee!" one little black girl cheered, "Come look at my painting! I did it in school today!" And she grabbed Bumblebee's holoform by the hand and pulled him inside.
Sam shook his head. "I think Cindy has a crush on him," he said in a low voice, "Anyway, guys this is Mr. Banes, 'Kaela's dad. Mr. Banes, these are Sgt. Epps' kids Aisha, Ashlee, Kerry, and Fred - that was their sister Cindy - and Lennox's daughter Annabelle."
Aisha was clearly the eldest at around thirteen. Ashlee, Kerry, Fred, and Annabelle were about nine, eight, four, and three, respectively. Cindy had looked like she was five or six years old.
"Where's Wheelie?" Kerry asked impatiently. Wheelie was still hiding in Bumblebee's backseat, but then the seat tilted rather suddenly so that the drone was ejected onto the driveway. Kerry immediately rushed up and picked him up and hugged him like a big metal toy.
"Ack! Kerry, put me down, please!"
Two silver sports cars and the big, black pickup pulled in behind them. Annabelle squealed and ran up to her dad before he'd even finished climbing out of Ironhide's cab. The younger three Epps kids swarmed their father and Jazz, while Aisha hung back to avoid the crowd.
Sideswipe’s holoform sauntered up to them, in a better mood than he'd been in since Cal had seen him last. "How you doing, Aisha?" he greeted her, winking.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm up to my eyeballs in crazy little kids. I could use your help with distracting them from time to time."
He clapped his hands together. "Okay, guys, story time! Out in the back!" He nodded to Cal and the others before jogging to the backyard, all the young children trailing along in his wake. Kerry still hadn't dropped Wheelie, who was still protesting loudly.
Aisha sighed. "Finally. I was running out of things to keep them occupied. It's nice to meet you Mr. Banes." Then she turned and followed them.
Mikaela grinned. "Sides likes telling them stories about Cybertron before the war. Ashlee's a novelist in the making, and I wouldn't be surprised if she goes into sci-fi when she gets older, using his tales for inspiration."
The front door of the Lennox house opened, and a pretty blonde woman exited, smiling warmly. "Hi, guys," she greeted them all, "Dinner's almost ready. We're eating out back since we have so many people." She then turned to Cal. "Sarah Lennox, you must be Mr. Banes."
He shook the offered hand. "Call me Cal. This is a beautiful home."
She smiled more broadly. "I try. Come on in, we've got spaghetti tonight."
Cal was led through the house to the back door, meeting Monique Epps, a tall woman with an air of authority in her own right. A few barked orders once Sideswipe's first story was finished had her children scrambling in an ordered chaos to set the table and wash up.
As they sat down, Cal soon found himself engrossed in the flurry of conversation and arguments while enjoying some of the best spaghetti he'd ever tasted. If this was the new world that Mikaela had found her place in, he would do his best to do the same, aliens and all.
THE END