Transformers AU short stories!

by PhantomRice

Summary:

Me writing about the random collections of bots in my personal Transformers AU!
(Fair warning some ships included you have been warned, I am not responsible for your actions from this point forward!)

Chapter 1: Explanation

If you’ve read my Au explanation you can prolly skip this part but otherwise here’s a watered down and finalized script!

Essentially there are three main leaders for the Cybertronian race that each watch over parts of Cybertron whereas the colonies still follow their own leaders for instance there is a group on Earth that is led by Bumblebee!

Bumblebee and his co-leader Starscream govern relations with Earth as well as with Cybertron!

Megatron rules a significant portion of Cybertron aided by Ultra Magnus (Minimus Ambus) as his co-leader. His home region is called New Kaon! It is generally filled with Decepticon citizens less so for neutrals and Autobots.

Optimus Prime alongside Elita-one rule over another portion of Cybertron called New Iacon. (Yes they reused all the old names because they’re unoriginal and I felt it fit them.) Their territory is filled with majority Autobot citizens, less so for neutrals and Decepticons.

Rodimus Prime (Was given the matrix as Optimus is technically retired) leads the Central roads, a sizable strip down the middle of New Iacon and New Kaon. He isn’t truly the ruler or leader but more of the representative as this state votes for their leader and most chose Rodimus. His co-leader is Drift!

Peace has been reached but is still a work in progress as most are working through their mental wounds from the war as well as other personal issues! Many have finally settled down into their new lives in this new peaceful time where one is not treated differently for their frame type or alt form! There still is stigma and racism towards those who have been stigmatized for long however there is work to remedy this as the majority are working to better themselves.

The DJD are a thing and are essentially the “Bad guys” being a group who refuses to believe the war is over and will not stop until all the primes are dead. Alongside those Decepticon traitors who dare to allow themselves the delusion of peace.

They specifically choose to target Rodimus, Drift, Megatron, and many other Decepticon symbols such as Starscream who they brand a coward for his move to Earth.

I’ll give a more in depth explanation when certain characters come up simply knowing that many have let go of the past and are working to make a better life for themselves!

With that being said I hope these short stories of the random mechs and femmes who are working to keep their peace give you as much dopamine reading as it did for me writing them!

These stories are before any of the AU madness I make after this! I cannot wait to share my delusions with all of you!

Also before I go know that most of the characters are modeled after G1 unless expressly stated to assume the visage of IDW.

(For instance Magnus or Minimus look like their IDW counterparts whereas Prowl n’ Jazz look like G1 but honestly that's just how I'll be thinking of them! If you’d like you can think of them having any design that fits your mental processing style :3 )

Chapter 2: Minimus the tiny

Summary:

(Minimus Ambus focused chapter!)

Minimus was by no means a public mech, few knew of him personally. Many knew Ultra Magnus was simply a suit of armor with a mini pilot however none knew who was the pilot.

As such a private mech Minimus rarely went without his armor however recently Rung had suggested taking scheduled breaks from wearing the armor in an attempt to help Minimus come to terms with his smaller frame again. With the war over there was no true need for the armor to be worn every day.

Not to mention Minimus casually stayed in his office most cycles. There were no true dangers to be protected from despite what other Autobots said since he worked with Megatron.

In addition to the new wave of support for minicons and other smaller frames. Sure there’s still many who regard minicons as pets or lower life forms. However those bots are far and few between.

Minimus was having one of those cycles where he had his scheduled unarmored time. He was simply leaving his office to go get some energon. A simple task that doesn’t require much practice.

Megatron had gone to great lengths to be sure Minimus could get around as himself with most doors only requiring a scan to allow entry. The scanner was well within height for any mini; there were also specific paths through vents and on walls made by Soundwave for his cassettes.

The stigma surrounding minicons of any kind was heavily frowned upon within New Kaon. Megatron and Soundwave both were heavy advocates for minicon rights. They would not hesitate to defend any mini from a larger bot who assumed they could bully them.

This didn’t fully stop any racist remarks and actions towards them however it made the incidents much less likely.

As for Minimus he walked all the way only to find the canteen was empty. A nearby bot chuckled at his plight but was glad to explain that the kitchen had in fact been shut down for the day. The whole building had its energon shut off due to a scraplet infestation that was being… dealt with.

Minimus, never one to give up easily when given a task, chose to go out leaving the building to find his energon.

Walking down the streets as Minimus instead of Ultra Magnus was definitely uncomfortable however a necessary evil. At least there was no large visual Autobot symbol on his body to make any brave idiot decide to attack.

He fit in pretty well keeping to the designated walking paths for smaller frames with his bright red optics surely would keep him out of trouble.

Minimus managed to reach a small energon cafe. (They started to pop up after the Earth colony had become a thing. Many started to bring earth shapes and flavors into the energon scene using the Earth words and letters within their shops making those who’d lived on Earth nostalgic despite no one truly missing the war.)

Getting inside surely required some help that a passing larger mech was happy to oblige in opening the door for a struggling mini. Ordering was much easier as there were small stairs for minis to climb to be able to fully see over the counter and reach the tills.

Minimus was very happy to see the accommodations and patiently waited his turn in line. A brightly colored mech walked in like any other patron however he seemed to zero in on Minimus. Minimus saw how the mech did not care for the way the door had closed behind him and how the larger mech’s helm turned down to look at him in disgust.

The mech scoffed standing behind Minimus in line as they slowly moved forward he only got more irritated.

“Stupid minicons thinking their full sized mechs… should stay with their owners…” The guy mumbled impatiently.

Minimus did his best to simply ignore it seeing as it was better not to not cause a scene over some harmless racism. (Racism is bad, kill it with fire) So long as he was the target he could simply ignore the mech. Let the words roll off his back like water off a duck.

The mech seemed to only become more aggravated the more his attempts to rile Minimus up were ignored so he grew louder now openly spewing his disgust of minicons commenting that they were practically pets and how they shouldn’t be around without a larger keeper of some kind alongside more filth. This talk only served to make the other patrons of the cafe upset with the mech on Minimus’ behalf.

The mech ahead of Minimus in line even kneeled down to ask Minimus if he wanted help with the issue but Minimus was quick to refuse seeing as that mech wouldn’t have been able to fight him regardless. Minimus could handle his own even without the Magnus armor.

This attempt at help only made the mech more irate now, openly teasing and belittling Minimus personally picking apart every piece of his frame verbally as though Minimus should be ashamed of his own plating.

Minimus simply reminded himself that in this situation he was morally the bigger mech and therefore should just continue to ignore it.

Finally it was Minimus’ turn in line but when he was climbing up the stairs the rude mech kicked the stairs causing Minimus to stumble and almost fall if it wasn’t for the cashier grabbing Minimus by the servo to keep him upright. “Accident.” The rude mech spat out with a self satisfied grin. Minimus just sighed and apologised to the cashier.

He ordered and gave payment before carefully jumping down to go wait for his order with the other customers that had asked for their energon to go. Minimus was already excited for those rust sticks he’d ordered alongside his energon. It’s not often he’d buy treats like that however he felt in need of a pick me up after all the harassment.

Unfortunately for poor Minimus the rude mech wasn’t done with the torment. In broad daylight, like there was nothing wrong with it and as Minimus was distracted the rude mech wrapped his large servo around Minimus’ leg pulling him into the air as he flailed at the sudden weightlessness.

The mech laughed at his entertaining game dangling Minimus off the ground as he flailed at every swing or movement at the mech's servo.

Other patrons were quick to speak up telling the mech to let Minimus go however none were willing to stand up against the mech who was coincidentally quite large and imposing. Not much smaller than the likes of the Constructicons with a strikingly different color palette of course.

“Look at 'em' flail.” The mech laughed coldly while swinging Minimus back and forth. This wasn’t fortunate for Minimus who couldn’t find his balance in order to fight back.

A loud engine revving brought the whole shop’s eyes onto the large duo of mechs who’d just entered the cafe. ‘Megatron and Soundwave had just entered the same cafe. What a pleasant surprise I should greet them kindly.’ Minimus thought to himself.

“Megatron, Soundwave!” Minimus chirped. The mech holding him shook him at his greeting with a nervous giggle.

“Hello there Lord Megatron sir!” The mech says as he quickly hides Minimus behind his back and stretches his other arm into a salute like he didn’t already wave at the duo.

“What are you doing with that minicon?” Megatron snarled, charging his canon reflexively with how pissed he was.

“Oh this little one! Just having a bit of harmless fun sir~” The mech smoothly says as he shows Minimus who was starting to feel the energon rush to his head making his helm spin.

Megatron at the sight of Magnus so lethargic and dangling limply from a mech’s servo became absolutely irate. Soundwave wasn’t doing much better already flexing and balling up his servo in preparation.

“Are you aware you are currently holding a very important mech upside down like a doll.” Megatron growled wanting to attack the mech already but he knew Minimus would likely lecture him later over the matter.

Like he’d just been burned the mech flinched and dropped Minimus who hit the ground with a thud and a groan. Soundwave was quick to check on him fussing over Minimus until he made sure Minimus was alright. Megatron on the other hand had arrested the mech and handed him over to a nearby law enforcer.

“Are you alright Minimus?” Megatron asked as Minimus got up and brushed off his plating.

“Quite alright, simply a little hungry.” Minimus huffed as his order was finally brought out. Megatron grabbed the order for him and the trio sat at one of the tables in the less crowded section while they waited for Soundwave and Megatrons energon.

“Query: Why did you not deal with that mech?” Soundwave asked, snagging one of Minimus’ rust sticks.

“At first he was simply ranting and unlikely to harm anyone aside from me so I ignored him. I did not see the issue deserving of drastic actions until it was too late.” Minimus admitted as he sipped on his energon cube.

Minimus had indeed scolded Megatron for causing a scene so the former war lord was currently sulking.

“When outside of the building I or Soundwave should escort you when you are out of your armor.” Megatron huffed as he took a rust stick that Minimus offered up to him.

“While I appreciate that you care enough to be worried about me, I am quite capable of fending for myself. The prior situation was simply nothing more than a fluke.” Minimus insisted however the other two were already planning escorts and planning around Minimus’ schedule and their own schedules. They even mentioned getting Rodimus in on it which made Minimus upset.

Notes:

Tiny little Minimus just wanted to get some food, man. Too bad there’s still assholes who see minicons like pets out there.

Thankfully Minimus could’ve handled the situation himself however Megatron and Soundwave stole his thunder. I love the idea of little Minimus just absolutely lecturing the hell out of Megatron when he gets out of line.

That’s why he’s the co-leader of New Kaon! Because for some reason Megatron actually listens to him! As for Soundwave he just absolutely adores any and every Minicon ever made.

Soundwave would petition to adopt Minimus if he could. That mech would take every minicon ever under his wing if he was allowed to.

Chapter 3: Bumblebee’s dilemma

Summary:

Bumblebee gets a taste of human nature.

Starscream had been living with Bumblebee for the last 3 years since becoming co-leaders of the Earth colony. This living situation had brought up many questions pertaining to Bumblebee and Starscreams… relationship.

This was the third meeting of the cycle that someone had insinuated Starscream and Bumblebee were more than simply friends or “roommates” in human terms.

Bumblebee was personally insulted by the insinuation of him engaging in any of the acts with Starscream. Starscream was in the corner gagging as the human delegate attempted to explain his mistake.

“All I mean is you two have lived in close contact with one another for THREE YEARS! That aside you’ve been seen hugging and carrying one another. It’s hard not to confuse after seeing that with the knowledge your species is on average in same sex pairings!” The human sputtered trying to defend his point of view.

“Bumblebee uses a cane for Primus’ sake. Sometimes he requires assistance!” Starscream hissed.

Bumblebee just sighed giving quite the face palm at the situation.

“So you bridal carry him!?” The human was insisting on this view of Bumblebee and Starscream while others were looking away in embarrassment at the delegate's actions.

“That term is quite outdated. However even if Starscream and I were in a relationship it would be none of your business. That is private time and it’s most certainly not any of your concern what we do with ourselves after hours.” Bumblebee huffed.

Starscream nodded in agreement while the human snickered.

“So you are gay!” The human proclaimed proudly like he’d uncovered a secret.

“If you must know I have no significant other however I have been ‘dating’ for lack of better terms. Not with Starscream though.” Bumblebee added and Starscream seemed surprised at the admittance. The seeker then gave a look of disgust.

“Not that brute, Bumblebee you wouldn’t-” Starscream pleaded but Bumblebee wasn’t disproving Starscream's assessment.

And like that the meeting ended with the humans upset with their rude coworker alongside Starscream wishing that Bumblebee had better tastes in mechs.

Notes:

Starscream can’t talk, he’s in love with Jetfire.

Grimbee nation baybeeee!!!

But yeah the idea of a homophobic human trying to prove the gay robots are gay is silly to me. Like that wasn’t already a public knowledge bud. The only straight couple they know of is Optimus and Elita an even then Optimus totally had a thing with Megatron before the war.

Megatron and Optimus are bitter exes fr. Rodimus and Bumblebee are their kids caught up in the divorce. To me that’s the whole dynamic.

Bumblebee and Starscream are just pals. Two dudes that live together platonically for the memes.

That and Bumblebee definitely needs help sometimes with his leg, Starscream has some mental issues and Bumblebee is there to help him through them. They’re friends!

I hope this one was sufficiently silly! Even with how short it was lol.

Chapter 4: Prowl’s weird neighbors

Summary:

Prowl learns more about his neighbors

Prowl had been an enforcer of law for a long time, where that led him into breaking his own morals simply to rid the universe of any criminals wasn’t expressly shown. He was very upset with his own wrongdoings in the endless pursuit of justice.

When all had become peaceful Prowl was willing to give up his badge seeing as the new line of enforcers were clean. Trained. Specialized. And most importantly unbiased by the differences between Autobot and Decepticon.

They did not hold what happened during war over the heads of others unless they had truly done the unthinkable.

Those with large kill counts were given in depth psyche evaluations to be sure they would not become mass murderers after the fact as well to ensure no bot was going to extinguish their own sparks out of genuine remorse for their actions.

Unfortunately Prowl was one of the many who was found to be at risk and was subsequently assigned a partner for his mental stability. Thankfully he’d been assigned to Jazz who signed up with the hopes of being partnered with Prowl.

Prowl had chosen to live in Central roads with Rodimus’ own suggestions. Rodimus was still upset over Prowl’s actions and all but the way Jazz’s return had changed Prowl made Rodimus willing to give Prowl a chance.

Prowl was allowed to help in the process of keeping the Central roads safe by being a freelance officer under Drift’s command.

That made him the official law officer of the Central roads.

Prowl was happy to have this alongside his wonderful home which was a small two floor apartment with a large garden and patio out back that Prowl took great pride in watching over. His garden was his therapy.

Prowl had always enjoyed the quiet company of his garden. The plants he’d gotten from earth and other organic planets were his pride and joy. Jazz didn’t understand his love for them but he’d help with gardening at times.

Like any other day when tending to his garden Prowl was just peacefully moving one of his many potted plants. When suddenly a loud crash from the house next door spooked him.

Yelling and fighting seemed to be from a fight inside so Prowl kicked into action gently setting down his plant before running over to knock on his neighbors door.

The sounds inside continued as the door opened and suddenly Prowl was faced with a mech being thrown out of the house in front of him, almost hitting him on the way out.

The mech was a colorful flier who quickly muttered something before transforming and flying away.

Prowl was confused as he’d heard his neighbors were construction vehicles but when he turned back to the door he was again face to face with another mech.

This one was much larger with a neon green chassis and fully displayed Decepticon symbol.

Prowl felt his lines freeze with how aggressive the mech was likely still upset after the scuffle.
The mech growled down at him ready for another fight.

“Are you alright? I heard conflict and as a concerned neighbor I felt the right to investigate.” Prowl chirped calmly while peering behind the mech into the hallway.

“We can handle our own.” The green mech grumbled now slowly aware of the identity of Prowl as their neighbor they see tending to a garden daily through their window.

“I am Bonecrusher.” The mech coughed out now more embarrassed at his aggression leaning back in a less threatening manner.

“My designation is Prowl, as previously stated I inhabit the lot next door. I believe my garden is visible from your window.” Prowl was happy to note that his neighbors weren’t a threat; he never really saw them outside of their home and many names from the war had been forgotten in the newly achieved peace programing.

Bonecrusher gave him a small happy huff showing he was passively enjoying the conversation.

Prowl was happy to add to the file he had built on his neighbor. The knowledge that they were indeed not dangerously aggressive to Prowl even when sometimes he’d hear cheering and louder voices from next door.

 

It was yet another wonderful morning with Prowl happily tending to his plants, today he was moving a planter with minimal success. It was quite heavy so Prowl would require some assistance. Attempts to move it on his own only proved this point.

Prowl’s vents puffed in annoyance; he'd planned to move his planters over to make room for the new table and chairs he’s bought for a garden sitting space. He’d wanted a proper place to dine with his plants with a table and extra seating for any guests.

He groaned trying once again to move his planters alone after reminding himself of the need to get this done today. He couldn’t just call up Ironhide or the others for this. It wasn’t important enough to bother them.

Prowl felt his pedes slip out from under him as he failed once again at his task. The tacnet whirred giving answers to his mental struggle, something Prowl was more than happy to push out the other end of his processor.

The sounds of multiple footsteps made Prowl’s wings flare in panic as he peeked over his planter to see two of his neighbors standing on the other side.

Prowl cleared his intake with a cough. “Can I help you with something?” He asked while stretching upwards in an attempt to soothe the ache in his backstruts from his attempts to move the planters.

“We actually wanted to know if you need help.” The large green mech asked sheepishly. His companion seemed to mirror this sentiment.

Prowl thought on it for a moment, they are construction vehicles they would be sufficiently strong enough to move the planters.

“I am attempting to rearrange my planters however they have become much heavier than when I originally installed them.” Prowl admitted gesturing to the planter between them.

“Bonecrusher said your name was Prowl. Would you be okay with us helping you Prowl?” The mech asked hopefully. They seemed bored; this was probably just something to do.

“I agree with the promise of energon goodies for the both of you if you perform the task correctly.” Prowl chirped as he showed the drawn plans for his garden. (It’s more of a patio Prowl lives in an apartment building on the bottom floor, I felt the need to say this now. Though the apartment is akin to a motel in layout. They share a wall on either side of their homes essentially.)

“Secondly I’d enjoy the knowledge of your names. I know of Bonecrusher however I have not been given your designations.” Prowl asks as the duo seemed already ready for action.

“I’m Scrapper, He’s Longhaul.” Scrapper purred and Longhaul gave a small wave.

Prowl was starting to remember who these were, reading his own files on the Decepticons, finding the files on the Constructicons while going back inside to prepare energon goodies for the duo who’d agreed to help him.

Prowl didn’t even notice as two became four until he came back outside to ask their preferred flavors of goodies only to find them installing stronger holders for Prowl’s planters. They froze when Prowl came outside looking like deer caught in headlights.
“Sorry we just- The planters could… We had. There’s…” Scrapper stuttered trying to explain himself and the other two who’d appeared.

“If you wished to upgrade my planters I would have offered more than simple energon goodies.” Prowl cut him off with a flick of his door wings.

“Nah we just had extra materials lyin’ around and this seemed like a good use for ‘em.” Longhaul shared.

“Well, do you all have a favored flavor for your treats?” Prowl asked, mentally calculating how much he’d have to add to make enough for all four of them.

“Ooh do you have bronze!” The one who fits the description of Scavenger inquired.

“Any other requests?” Prowl added, but was only given mirrored responses of the want for bronze shavings.

Prowl turned around to go and start on mixing those in until Scrapper stopped him.

“There’s a table and chairs in your schematics.” He pointed out.

“Yes, I plan to set that up later.” Prowl mentioned.

“Can I set it up?” Scrapper asks and Prowl allows it. Bringing the mech inside to show him the table and chairs still within their box in his living room.

Scrapper thanked Prowl and ran back outside with his spoils despite Prowl’s insistence about him being the one who should be thanking them for the help.

Prowl didn’t understand how they went from just moving Prowl’s planters into now fully setting up the patio that Prowl had planned to set up over the course of a few weeks.

They set it all up in less than an hour and were now sitting in the chairs they’d set up after
Prowl insisted they be the first to try out his new furniture all snacking on the goodies Prowl had made with each also obtaining their own energon mix.

“What are you idiots doing!?” Bonecrusher asked as he appeared on their patio looking over to find Longhaul, Scrapper, Scavenger, and Mixmaster sitting in Prowl’s garden with Prowl, their neighbor he’d made them swear not to mess with.

“They saw me failing to move my own planters and in exchange for snacks they ended up setting up my patio for me.” Prowl explained from where he was standing. He’s just returned with more snacks after seeing how hungrily they’d eaten the first batch.

“Prowl’s tellin’ the truth we ain’t done shit!” Mixmaster insisted while shoving another goodie into his intake.

Bonecrusher sighed palming his temple like he’d just gained a processor ache.

“Would you like one?” Prowl asked, offering one of the treats up to Bonecrusher.

Bonecrusher ended up sitting in one of the chairs eating beside the other four. “I never want to leave.” He chirped and the others agreed. Prowl was none the wiser about his neighbors' admiration of his welcoming act.

Notes:

The Constructicons are down bad for Prowl.

I love how much they like Prowl and felt the need to add that. They absolutely adore their weird little neighbor. Prowl doesn’t truly know how to feel about his significantly louder neighbors.

Jazz will eventually meet Prowl’s neighbors…

I heavily am in the Prowl/Jazz mindset however I think the Constructicons just absolutely are lost on Prowl they all like him.

It’s just a silly side thing honestly as the main coupling for Prowl will be Prowl n Jazz! I just need the Constructicons being down bad for their weird ass neighbor.

Chapter 5: Minimus gets a visitor

Summary:

Rodimus meets up with his biggest little buddy and learns that they need help understanding how to seek vengeance

Minimus wasn’t the kind to be called upon personally as himself instead of Ultra Magnus.

Most would ask for Magnus not the tiny mech within so when he was asked out by name he felt inclined to at least meet them. Thankfully it was not a mech he did not know who called on him.

Rodimus excitedly waved Minimus over when he’d shown up to the meeting spot. Rodimus’ favorite Non engex spot within New Kaon.

“Minimus! My mech it’s nice to see you~” Rodimus cooed sweetly while helping the smaller mech into a chair. He started laughing when Minimus noticed the chair was made to mimic earth’s ‘baby chairs’ rather, a high chair.

“Very humorous.” Minimus sighed and Rodimus seemed to become a bit nervous.

“Y-you understand it was a joke right I don’t wanna actually offend ya.” Rodimus chirped, showing genuine concern that he’d somehow offended Minimus.

“You have not offended me Rodimus I am simply stewing on the fact I had fallen for your prank.” Minimus says with a soft smile showing he truly wasn’t irritated with Rodimus in any way.

Rodimus seemed to cheer up after that, immediately dipping back into his usual idle chatter.

Minimus was glad to find that Rodimus was having fun as the official leader of the Central roads. Alongside Drift of course. Learning they’d gotten Prowl as the Central roads official legal officer.

He didn’t like the mech after the absolute slag he’d pulled during the war; however even Prowl was starting to learn to live with himself in a much better light. Morality was lost on many during the war thank Primus it’s over and the only conflict now was within small margins. Petty squabbles over small things.

Alongside the DJD running wild however it’s better than a planet wide war that made its way across the universe.

Minimus enjoyed the small things about this time with Rodimus, how Rodimus would speak of his current projects. (Usually publicity stunts and other things since Rodimus was more of a face than a leader but most in Central roads would follow him no matter what not because he’s a prime but because he’s a compassionate leader who’s not opposed to killing to keep himself and others safe)

They both were able to enjoy their time together snacking and drinking before leaving the restaurant to walk around. Minimus could very easily fit into Rodimus’ alt form if required for a drive, however walking suited them both much more.

Rodimus was droning on about how boring politics were and how much he’d rather just hang out, thankfully Drift was more than happy to keep up with the actual paperwork. It just gave that mech more reason to go see Ratchet after all. Primus knows how much Drift adored seeing that medic.

Minimus was happy to cut in with his own hyjinx inside the offices of New Kaon.

“A while ago I was out by myself and I was accosted by a very rude mech.” Minimus said it like it was just another day but Rodimus froze.

“I’m sorry… WHAT!” Rodimus chirped as his frame started to smoke.

“I was targeted by a very rude mech who had a distaste for minicons. He even dangled me off the ground. Thankfully Megatron and Soundwave had helped me although I could’ve handled the situation myself-” Minimus chirped sheepishly but Rodimus didn’t hear much past his friend being dangled like a ragdoll by a larger mech.

“What was this mech’s name…” Rodimus asked in a tone many had never heard from him, it made Minimus a bit spooked to hear such a strong anger from the usually lighthearted Rodimus.

“The situation was handled, there is no reason to worry about it, Rodimus.” Minimus insisted as they continued their walk.

Rodimus wasn’t one to let that go. Ultra Magnus otherwise known as Minimus Ambus is a very close friend to the young prime. He wasn’t going to let some random mech bully his pal and get off scott free.

Later that night there was quite a large fire that enveloped a building. The only one injured in the attack was a very irate colorful mech who knew damn well what he’d done to deserve this.

Notes:

Rodimus is a petty bitch he will not let that bastard get away with just a beating. No way! Instead Rodimus has very generously given him a clean slate to work with.

Minimus can very much care for himself and defend his own honor but his friends feel the need to do it for him. Not out of pity for his smaller frame but as friends of his they’d do anything for him. Just as he would do anything for them.

Also didn’t state it in the chapter with Megatron but the big guy still has his cannon btw it’s just not his ultra destructive one! It’s a lower caliber one but he has it, It won't kill anybody on one hit but it’ll sting somethin fierce.

Minimus prefers to fight his own problems without property damage or a fight. The others do not agree with his preferences.

Chapter 6: Starscream’s friend

Summary:

A poorly thought out chapter just to tell you I made this one while heavily tired so it’s not very good-

Starscream like any sensible mech had a schedule made for his day to day that he followed almost religiously. Though not to one such as Prowl’s extent.

Starscream always started his mornings early cleaning up from the night before and then getting some housework done alongside Bumblebee who he usually pesters into sitting down while Starscream vacuums under the chairs.

Afterwards he generally attends video meetings with different earth leaders requesting his cooperation in certain things while attempting to gain his favor. Admittedly Starscream disliked most earth leaders however he and Bumblebee had chosen to live in the land of America where the young Terrans live.

Starscream had something different planned for today however as it was a day off. He’d leave Bumblebee under the watch of the Terrans and their human parents. They lived close by so they could always meet with them after all.

Today Starscream had activated his thrusters and was flying out elsewhere with plenty of energon and treats tucked away in his subspace for the trip.

The flight over to the required place was painfully long for poor Starscream who just wanted it to be over with the moment he touched the ground he was tackled by a small hug. The smaller human girl seemed to be ecstatic to see Starscream.

“You came!” She happily chirped as Starscream carefully straightened his posture allowing her to slide off carefully.

“I doubt any in their right mind would deny you Alexis.” Starscream chirped as the girl squealed happily. Starscream met her recently, a young law school graduate who was attempting to move across the country.

Starscream was speaking with her long before the end of the war since Alexis was twelve when she’d found him dying behind her home. Since then they've been good friends.

Today Starscream was going to help her fly to her new home only just in town far enough from the Maltos’ ranch while still being close to Starscream and Bumblebee’s home.

Notes:

I just wanted to show that Alexis was here and a friend of Starscream’s nothin more!

She’s here and lives closeby and most likely knows or talks to Hashtag about their friendships with Starscream. Surprisingly they aren’t the only ones in the “I actually managed to befriend Starscream” club.

Bumblebee and Wheeljack are both also very active members of the group. Jetfire likely doesn’t even know the club exists since he doesn’t visit often but if he did he’d totally be a member! Knockout and Breakdown are long distance members alongside Starscream’s trine members. (Thundercracker and Skywarp)

Megatron is banned from the club tho-

Chapter 7: Prowl’s babysitting hyjinx

Summary:

Prowl and Jazz have to look after some kiddos, that’s it that’s the plot-

Prowl when asked would usually need to remind others he was not the most suitable option for Youngling care. Let alone those as hyperactive as the terrans and the lambo twins. Yet here he was alongside Jazz watching over five sparklings, two human children, and two younglings.

(Prowl’s house had an atmospheric pressure inside similar to earth for his plants.)

They had been brought to Prowl’s house for a sleepover since Bumblebee and Starscream had a conference overseas to attend and unfortunately the human parents were going with as they were specifically requested. As for Sideswipe and Sunstreaker they were usually watched over by Ironhide and Chromia but both of them had gone on a date and Ratchet was working and likely wouldn’t have the energy to watch them afterwards.

Prowl loomed watching the kids all lay out around his livingroom with all the terrans piled on the couch alongside their human siblings watching the tv that played one of Thundercracker’s newest films he’d written. (Prowl enjoyed endorsing his films as they were quite a good watch despite their cheezy premises.)

The twins (Sideswipe and Sunstreaker) were laying on the ground both playing on datapads that held a multiplayer game for them both to play together.

“It’s alri Prowler, I’ll watch the bitlets while ya go scrounge us up some food.” Jazz smoothly chirped while slinging an arm over Prowl’s shoulder.

“I will hold you to that Jazz.” Prowl huffed as he turned to the kitchen, missing the soft sigh of Jazz.

“Ooh~ Somebot’s in loveeee-” Hashtag teased and Jazz flinched from the sudden accusation.

“You are too young ta be thinkin of such things.” Jazz scolded out of embarrassment.

“Oh come on dude it’s painfully obvious I mean just look at your wings.” Twitch says with a gag. “Crushes are gross.” (I like Jazz having those smaller door wings :3)

Jazz rolled his optics dramatically eliciting giggles from the young femmes.

“They’re right, you're absolutely fluttering back there. Your wings keep doing that.” Robby commented pointing up at Jazz’s raised wings showing how defensive he was.

“Well excuse me fer having my own adult life.” Jazz huffed as the kids all laughed at him.

“You know we should set him up~” Hashtag chirped and the others all gained a devilish smile that made Jazz’s frame shutter in abject fear.

“Yer just going to make it worse-” Jazz whined but the kids were already up and moving around excitedly, likely using silent comms to discuss their plans. The twins seemed to be in on it too as they both were up helping them.

Jazz felt stuck if he stopped them Prowl would be suspicious and the kids could just blurt out something about Jazz’s affections but if he let them do this he’d have to face the consequences.

Prowl was surprised to find all the kids wearing chef hats and bow ties alongside leaves from Prowl’s plants as mustaches. “Jazz…” Prowl huffed looking at the poor mech who was dying from embarrassment; he'd tried to stop them from using the plants; it didn't work.

“Did you desecrate my plants!? I could have given you all props for whatever it is you are doing you did not have to use my plants!” Prowl scolded and the kids were all apologizing now having their plans ruined since Prowl was upset with them for using his plants. He was even more upset to find some of his roses cut and put into a vase on his small table.

The kids were then brought outside for a proper lesson on how delicate they should treat plants. Prowl was showing them how to properly cut and prepare a plant as well as an in depth explanation on flower language.

Prowl then gave them each a pair of cutters and a small vase telling them to use the knowledge to make a sufficient flower bouquet for one another allowing them to decide who to make one for.

“Wow, didn’t think this’d turn into you teachin them ta’ cut more flowers.” Jazz chirped as he leaned onto Prowl.

“If they wish to attempt to create a proper foliage centerpiece for future machinations they’d better do it right.” Prowl huffed, proud of his lesson watching as the children built their new flower bouquets even Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were getting into it.

This fun was stopped when the kids all yelped in fear as a large neon green mech burst into Prowl’s garden.

“What are you doing!” Scrapper yelled at the younglings who huddled together with Sideswipe and Sunstreaker ready to protect.

“Calm down, they have permission.” Prowl ran between them facing Scrapper and his crew who waited on their own patio.
Scrapper seemed surprised at this development since Prowl rarely let them anywhere near his plants.

“Who are these younglings?” Scrapper asks after a moment of silence.

“These are the Maltos and those two are the twins, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.” Prowl introduced as everyone fell into more calm stances.

Jazz helped usher the children over to the outdoor table where they had their vases for their flowers.

Scrapper scowled at Jazz in a way that Hashtag couldn’t help but notice. He seemed angry at Jazz but then his look softened when gazing at Prowl.

Hashtag saw the rivalry and was immediately texting the others who slyly glanced down before showing their own thoughts on the situation. Mo decided to take a leap the others would never think of.

“Hey Prowl.” She chirped and Prowl was immediately by her side.

“Are you alright? Lightheaded? Should I get you into the decontamination room?” Prowl fussed looking over the human girl worried over whether the environment was contaminated by Scavenger’s entrance.

“I’m fine, I just wanted to ask about your neighbors!” Mo says while Prowl sighs in relief.

“My neighbors are known as the Constructicons, they work in the cities of Central roads doing what I assume is construction, however If they have another job aside from that it would be a surprise.” Prowl explained while helping JB put his flowers into a vase beside Mo.

“Do they talk to you a lot?” Mo questioned.

Prowl looked at her in abject confusion while thinking about it for a moment. “Not much no, they did help to set up my garden and patio under the promise of treats.”

“Do you know their names?” Mo asked wondering if maybe he’d introduce the one who yelled at them earlier with a more than indifferent tone.

“As I know it their names are Scrapper, the one who attacked you. Hook, Mixmaster, Bonecrusher, Longhaul, and Scavenger.” Prowl listed while subtly pointing at the other Constructicons who were watching from their porch. They all waved when they saw Prowl look over at them in return Prowl gave a polite wave.

“Maybe we should get the kids inside fer some grub now.” Jazz suggested while turning away from his staring contest.

“I believe that would be a good idea.” Prowl chirped while standing back up from where he was crouched beside Mo.

“I am sorry but I’ll have to ask you to return to your porch.”

Scrapper seemed upset but he knew Prowl wasn’t kicking him out for any reason other than the comfort of the younglings so he complied.

“They all like Prowl a lot.” Mo commented to her siblings and they all agreed with the observation.

“Looks like Prowl’s got a whole situation brewing then! Like in those shows we watched!” Hashtag excitedly giggled thinking back to the shows on earth. (You can’t tell me the Terrans haven’t watched some form of novela or any other harem piece. Hashtag would at least know of it!)

The kids were pleasantly excited to find plenty of food for them, maybe even a bit too much but Prowl insisted he had more if they were still hungry afterwards. The twins also got the super sweet cubes Prowl had made for them since he knew of their tastes for the overly sweet energon.

“So what’s with that neighbor a yers Prowler?” Jazz asked slyly like he hadn’t been glaring at that mech the whole time.

“Scrapper is smart and happens to help me with watering my garden sometimes. In return I tend to send him and his crew energon treats usually with plenty of copper shavings.” Prowl explained while laying his helm onto Jazz’s side. He and Jazz stood close many times before so leaning on one another was pretty normal for them. Jazz rarely let others get close enough to touch him Prowl was one of the few he truly trusted himself to relax around.

Prowl of course felt the same, finding Jazz especially calming compared to many others he’d interacted with.

Hashtag saw the development and practically squealed while taking a quick picture on her visor shoving it into the OTP files where she did the same with many others.

All in all the day was pretty good and uneventful as Prowl had set up many different activities for the younglings with only a few setbacks such as random visits from his neighbors who usually kept to themselves. They never really came over unless Prowl had invited them.

It was also quite odd how they’d always position themselves between Prowl and Jazz but Prowl just chalked it up to them being curious about the children running around rather than any hostility between them and Jazz.

Jazz on the other hand had to fight his own processor not to just stab them it’d be so easy but Prowl wouldn’t like that so Jazz played nice.

Notes:

Prowl loves Jazz and Jazz adores Prowl just as the Constructicons adore Prowl. The only difference is Prowl only sees them as his weird ass neighbors whereas Jazz is Prowl’s beloved best friend.

Well maybe more than a friend but that’s part 32,609/40,000 of Prowl’s plans to court Jazz. And he’s only on part 23,567/40,000. Jazz is absolutely smitten and Prowl doesn’t notice it; he's been courting Prowl for a while and the guy just won't take the hint.

Prowl’s dense as a brick because he can’t believe anyone would want to court him. Jazz is crying for Prowl to notice him but won't actively tell the guy “I love you” or anything more blunt.

The Constructicons are trying to play the long game but they’re much more noticeably flirting with Prowl. Prowl just ignores it and therefore doesn’t think they’re actually flirting with him.

It's messy and fits Prowl so much, the kids are plotting on multiple pairings getting together Prowl and Jazz are now one of them! The Maltos can’t help but want to mess with every bot they know’s love life for Hashtag’s sake.

Chapter 8: Wildbreak meets his creators

Summary:

As the title suggests our baby boy Wildbreak gets saved from a life of crime-

Wildbreak was always in the know that he’d been missing his creators. He’d been taken from the nursery as a sparkling and raised by a group of Decepticon traitors who roamed earth causing chaos. Sure he had his friend Dragstrip around but it still wasn’t enough.

They both knew they’d been taken young from the arms of their creators' trusted nursery. Their boss had told them as much.

He often reminded them of him ‘saving’ them from a broken society where Autobots and Decepticons lived together. However he had them work odd jobs and steal.

Wildbreak didn’t like this life; he'd much rather focus on his medic programming as well as keep his paint job pristine rather than drag race around the world while stealing energon and weapons. Wildbreak was never the most confident mech, usually more sheepish despite his large and sturdy frame. He didn’t even have a fighter's data; his processor had come online with the processor packets of a medic.

This helped when the others ended up getting themselves hurt making Wildbreak their unofficial medic but the boss always told him that he had the frame of a wrecker and that he needed to use that in battle instead of shying away from hits like a sissy.

Dragstip was at least willing to fight for him, always working to make it so Wildbreak didn’t have to go into battle, taking any shift where Wildbreak would see conflict. They were always together.

Then they were found. The boss had slipped up and gave away their next location bringing the full force of angry mech’s and femme’s who’d lost their sparklings in his raid on the nursery. Dragstrip and Wildbreak ended up cornered in the fray with angry creators targeting their boss and them for being with him.

One large blue mech stopped them from attacking Wildbreak and Dragstrip moving between the younglings and the angry bots. “Wait, can’t you see how young they are! They don’t know any better! That aft probably raised them.” The mech bellowed over the angry mob who listened to him.

The angry group turned back to attacking the others leaving Wildbreak and Dragstrip to sigh in relief.

“You alright Break?” Dragstrip asked as he turned to look Wildbreak over.

“I should be askin you that Drag!” Wildbreak chirped, giving him a hug that Dragstrip happily returned before both of them were reminded of the large blue mech behind Dragstrip.

He looked at them with soft recognition at Wildbreak’s frame. Dragstrip saw the way this mystery mech looked at Wildbreak and instantly hissed at him like a cybercat flaring his plating and moving to cover Wildbreak if the mech tried anything.

Wildbreak looked into those optics and found a familiar shine to them, he just couldn’t bring himself to be scared of the mech.

“Are you…” The mech softly asked but his words trailed off as the lost look in his optics became softer.

“Knockout, come here.” The mech says into his comm while the sounds of fighting still rung from outside the small cavern they had ducked into.

It didn’t take long for a bright red mech of a smaller stature walked in grumbling over the energon painting his chassis.

“Look at what happened to my paint.” Knockout complained looking up at Breakdown and the two younglings they’d seen working with Motormaster.

“Ah you found them I was wondering where they went~” Knockout cooed while bringing out his drill but Breakdown stopped him just as Knockout got to see the fear in Dragstrip’s optics.

“Knockout. Look closer at them.” Breakdown pleaded with his Conjunx. Knockout didn’t see the reason until he noticed the youngling signs showing these two were young. Not different to…

Then Wildbreak peeked over Dragstrip’s shoulder at the red mech and everything clicked.

Knockout felt his spark cry out at those familiar optics and the colors he’d always seen in his Conjunx on a frame he’d assumed he’d never see again. That beautiful mix of his and Breakdown’s frame types.

“Get back!” Dragstrip snarled swiping at the mechs trying to defend Wildbreak even though Dragstrip knew he couldn’t fight them himself he’d do all he could to defend Wildbreak. Sure he’d always rag on Wildbreak like the others but he truly enjoyed Wildbreak’s company.

“Calm down youngling.” Breakdown shushed but Dragstrip wasn’t backing down.

“It’s alright Dragstrip.” Wildbreak said softly right into Dragstrip’s audial. He sounded sure of himself for once in a way he’d only ever talked about medical journals and paintjobs. Dragstrip trusted him and allowed himself to calm down a bit while Wildbreak pulled him to the side.

“It’s alright, they don’t wanna hurt us, I can feel it.” Wildbreak says while rubbing Dragstrip’s arm soothing the other mech’s fears as his engines slowed to a calm purr while Dragstrip practically melted in Wildbreak’s servos.

“Alright but if they try anything funny I’m killing them.” Dragstrip huffed and Wildbreak gave him a soft smile.

“I can agree ta’ those terms.” Wildbreak sighed and they returned to where Knockout and Breakdown awaited for their return. Wildbreak and Dragstrip were holding hands for comfort.

“We should introduce ourselves.” Knockout cooed softly seeing those adorable audials and the bits he’d always admired in his own and Breakdown’s frame splattered onto the youngling before him.

“Yeah! That’s normal right uh- Well I’m Wildbreak, nice ta meet ya.” Wildbreak stuttered out while waving his free servo in greeting. Dragstrip glared at the older mechs wary of their suspiciously familiar frames.

They looked way too happy to see his Wildbreak, no way they weren’t thinking of trying to take away his best buddy. He wouldn’t let them!

Knockout felt lubricant start to well up under his optics just hearing that name. Breakdown was absolutely giddy with relief. They were lucky.

“This’ Dragstrip!” Wildbreak added after a moment of silence, mostly him waiting for Dragstrip to introduce himself. Dragstrip huffed looking up at Wildbreak who softly smiled despite the situation.

“I-... We are Breakdown and Knockout.” Breakdown says as Knockout sniffled, wiping his leaking optics.

“Huh you guys’ names sound familiar.” Wildbreak chirped thinking back on what the boss would say about him from time to time. Little comments on what Wildbreak would do usually when patching the others up or hauling luggage that the others found too heavy.

Dragstrip put two and two together seeing the math and now was absolutely slack jawed.

“Holy shit! Yer Wildbreak’s creators!” Dragstip yelled in shock, spooking Wildbreak who flinched away from him covering his audials with a wince from how loud the mech had yelled.

Dragstrip covered his intake and apologised to Wildbreak.

“It’s alrig— wait WHAT!” Wildbreak squealed looking back at the two older mech’s who were laughing their asses off at the exchange.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to be the one to tell him now because that was absolutely priceless!” Knockout chuckled as his laughing fit slowly dissipated.

“I don’t know how I didn’t notice it earlier that bastard looks just like ya!” Dragstrip says while pointing at Breakdown.

Wildbreak felt his processor stall as he sat on the ground and processed the information while the others just laughed at him.

“D-does he have the paint thing too?” Dragstrip asks through snorts and chuckles pointing to Knockout.

“Yes! Glad to know that’s ingrained in my coding!” Knockout huffed while wiping energon off his frame with a cloth.

“It makes so much sense now!” Wildbreak cried while flopping onto his back with a groan.

“Bet ya we are never finding my creators!” Dragstrip teased while leaning down to rub Wildbreak’s arm however he accidentally scratched his plating. “Watch the paint!” Both Wildbreak and Knockout yelled in unison.

Notes:

Knockout and Breakdown weren’t able to raise their baby but they are going to make up for all that lost time right now!! He is not leaving their sight! Until they have to go back to work.

Dragstrip is there too I guess.

I don’t know much about Dragstrip but I made him a backstory here that fits with what I had goin on for Wildbreak! He has an actual version in G1 and all that but the only place I actually know him and Wildbreak from is RID 2015 so that’s the versions of them used here!

The whole story for them is that Motormaster broke into a nursery to take sparklings for his new crew before blowing up the nursery behind him after taking a small portion of them. The others all died out along the way with only Dragstrip and Wildbreak surviving the harsh conditions. The others were found along the way.

Motormaster is a batshit guy who assumes he owns his crew like he’s their owner and they are nothing but tools to him. We haven’t seen the last of him though.

Wildbreak is a medic by design but he was forced into being a fighter by Motormaster now that he’s with Knockout and Breakdown he’s free to pursue medicine.

Chapter 9: Wildbreak’s new friends

Summary:

Wildbreak gets to live like an average youngling instead of a criminal for once

Wildbreak had been taken back to Cybertron where his creators lived. Central roads was a good place to raise any younglings due to its diverse population of both Autobot and Decepticon citizens as well as the mass amount of neutrals that choose to live there.

Thanks to his frame age both he and Dragstrip needed to be watched over by older bots still. Dragstip had been adopted by a femme duo who adored him with all their sparks calling him their sweetspark and their baby boy. Apparently during the war their sparks were deemed unstable so creating their own sparkling was never an option.

Dragstrip still lived relatively close by. But no longer did they recharge in the same space. To be honest Dragstrip missed hearing Wildbreak’s snores he always claimed were annoying. Wildbreak missed waking up every morning to find Dragstrip throwing fuel at him attempting to wake him up.

Thankfully in Central roads there was a prominent school where all younglings attended. Wildbreak and Dragstrip were set to start within the week.

Though Knockout really wanted to just keep their sparkling home where it was safe and warm they still had to allow it. After all they couldn’t shelter Wildbreak forever especially if he was to become a proper medic.

Today was Wildbreak’s first day, he’d go to the first of many medic classes he was set up to take with a personal recommendation from Knockout who nowadays was a proper medic himself.

The class wasn’t as full as Wildbreak had assumed with very few fellow younglings decorating the seats. A duo caught Wildbreak’s optics; two similarly framed mech’s with bright yellow and red plating were roughhousing in the front row with multiple other younglings cheering them on.

The students had badges that showed their main focus, Wildbreak was the only one with a Medic’s badge in this class, the fighting mech’s both showed their racer badges with pride while beating the slag out of one another.

Their squabble turned into the yellow mech throwing the red one right into Wildbreak’s arms. Wildbreak looked down at the mech he’d just caught settling him for a moment as the classroom went quiet.

“Heya!” The red mech chirped his faceplate growing almost as red as his chassis. Wildbreak carefully put him down making sure he didn’t stumble finding that the mech was shorter than him.

“Sorry bout that, I shoulda just let ya fall-” Wildbreak stuttered out realizing that many bots preferred not to be touched even if it saves them.

“S’ cool, I’d rather you catch me then let me fall on my aft.” The mech chuckled as his twin ran over.

“Are you alright, Sides?” the bright yellow mech asked looking his twin over for any damage.

“More than alright Sunny!” The red mech says with a smirk that made his sibling gag.

“You’re utterly hopeless. I hope you know that, Sideswipe.” Sunstreaker huffed as his buffoon of a twin chuckled dreamily while looking back at the blue mech who’d caught him.

“Oh right I should introduce myself! I’m Wildbreak.” Wildbreak cheerfully greeted waving while using his other servo to hold onto his datapad.

“I’m Sideswipe but you can just call me-” Sideswipe purred but was arm barred away.

“Stop that! I’m Sunstreaker, if my loser of a twin tries to harass you any further I’ll come to drag him away.” Sunstreaker introduces with a head bow before dragging Sideswipe back to their seats no matter how much his red twin squealed.

Wildbreak was happy to meet at least two of his new classmates before Dragstrip got there. They hugged and sat down beside one another as the class started.

Notes:

Sideswipe is silly; he's one of those people who has a new crush every 20 minutes and swears he is devoted to them for life. Not to say he’d cheat or anything but he wouldn’t be able to handle long term commitment.

I like to think Sunstreaker is Aroace so he’s exempt from this bs, I hate the twin tropes when it comes to love and I doubt they’d be like that.

Dragstrip is so gonna become best friends with the twins when they finally meet! Wildbreak is their only sensible friend who actually keeps them from running into traffic or something. Don't let Sunny’s calm demeanor fool you; he's just as chaotic as his overactive brother!

I like them having a school plot to meet one another because it’s funny there’s gonna be more of these four idiots because I adore the dynamic I’ve cooked up for them in my head!

Btw Wildbreak as stated is on the medic track while Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are on the racer track. Dragstrip is also on the racer track!

Chapter 10: Prowl’s ruined plans

Summary:

This was going to be chapter 11 but I scrapped 10 so here ya go!

Prowl was never one to outright speak on his own affections. Simply getting an ‘I like’ was hard as Prowl rarely said he liked anyone or anything. Yet he was always able to admit how he adored Jazz… To himself-

Yet here Prowl was planning how to ask Jazz out. He could go straight for the throat and just ask him on a date.

Jazz might not like that though and think that Prowl was being insincere. What about a passive wanna go get some fuel! No Prowl never ate out and Jazz knew that he’d be suspicious right off the bat and would be the same as just admitting.

Prowl stewed on this while sitting in his garden doorwings twitching as he jotted down the plans on his datapad.

Prowl barely even noticed the careful stares of his neighbors who were watching him from their window. They weren’t exactly the most sneaky and their stares made Prowl’s backstrut shiver.

He felt a little uncomfortable but to be fair they were probably just worried for him. Jazz always said Prowl got a scrunched look on his face when he was planning something.

Maybe they assumed Prowl was upset. He’d better wave just to show them he was alright.

Prowl returned their gaze, tilted his helm and gave an awkward wave. They scattered like spooked cats knocking down something that shattered as they hid from view.

Prowl stifled a snort, finding their actions quite funny until their door opened. Scavenger came out seemingly a little pensive about something as he waved at Prowl looking for permission to cross onto his patio.

“You can come over if you’d like to Scavenger.” Prowl sighed allowing himself to calm down as Scavenger looked over him in confusion.

“Ya doin somethin?” Scavenger chirped seeing the datapad.

Prowl noticed him trying to see and panicked, grabbing the datapad and hugging it to his chassis flaring his wings with wide optics and a flushed faceplate showing just how embarrassed Prowl was.

Scavenger absolutely took a screenshot(Optics shot??) saving that expression to his and the other’s shared dataspace.

“I was… Planning something.” Prowl stammered out relaxing as he looked down sheepishly at his plans to court Jazz.

Scavenger was having the time of his life getting shots of Prowl’s embarrassed face as well as how close he’d allowed him to get; they were practically shoulder to shoulder. (Bro just sat next to him)

The others were all yelling at Scavenger through their bond telling him to back off and to stop bothering Prowl. One or two asking for more pics as well. Scavenger just put the bond on mute so he could focus on the sounds of Prowl’s frame moving and his talking.

“Have you ever… Tried to court someone.” Prowl asked, It’d be a big help to have someone with experience help him out.

Scavenger froze gears turning in his processor. Did Prowl know!!? Did he notice! Was this his way of saying they’d been doing a shitty job!!!??!

“I have. I think I was being too forward about it though.” Scavenger coughed out trying not to look as flustered as he felt.

Prowl looked at him with big optics and a small smile as his wings fluttered a little in the most adorable way that made Scavenger’s spark spin.

Prowl was just so happy to find someone who could help him!

“I was planning ways to court someone. I believe my plans are much too forward or personal.” Prowl coughed showing his datapad to Scavenger. Thankfully Prowl had just noted down the ideas and nothing about Jazz himself so the mech likely wouldn’t be able to tell anyone.

Scavenger’s spark swelled, maybe he was trying to plan how to accept their feelings or slowly move forwards! He looked through the plans finding many things.

Hook didn’t seem it but he actually enjoyed Earth music so the concert idea was quite fitting, Longhaul would adore a drive around a mountainside where they’d faced off against Optimus Prime and that visored mech Prowl seemed to hang around.

The more Scavenger read the more he saw things he and the others may enjoy alongside small developments like holding servos, Wing hug? Sign Scrapper up!

Unfortunately there was one plan Scavenger found that mentioned… that visored home wrecking bitch! (He knew him before you did) Prowl must only like Hook! (Oh wrong one then)
Prowl saw him look at the only plan that slightly pointed to Jazz. One about removing his visor and cuddling while watching the sunset. The cheesiest one but it was one from a movie Prowl and Jazz had watched together at a drive in theater.

Scavenger came to terms with it as the rest of his bond with the others had it settle in the sounds of fighting erupting from the home as Bonecrusher started attacking Hook who was teasing them.

Prowl coughed in embarrassment grabbing the datapad and rushing inside with an apology and quick goodbye. Scavenger and the others then decided Hook either needed to toughen up and ask Prowl out like the grown mech he is or they’ll do it.

Prowl on the other hand felt horrible that his neighbor now probably knew he was absolutely enamored with his best friend.

Notes:

HEHE Prowl loves Jazz so much and doesn’t notice that Jazz has been slowly courting his ass for years. That movie they watched?? First date mf Jazz just never told him.

Jazz and him are both so lost on one another. Down horrendous.

Just like how down bad the Constructicons are for Prowl hehe. However now they think Prowl likes Hook that’ll cause some silly hyjinx later…

Chapter 11: Bee down! Bee down!

Summary:

What Bumblebee was doing during chapter 6!

Bumblebee groaned loudly, he had a free day today with no one to meet or take care of. However his leg decided to be an ass and it hurt like hell. Starscream had already left for the day since he had plans with a friend of his.

So no one was here to help. Bumblebee then felt worse as the Terrans started asking him if he was going to come over today. He couldn’t just say no there was no good reason too!

So like a good older brother he heaved himself up wincing as his leg made a sharp squealing sound before grabbing his cane and standing shakily. He huffed feeling his leg throb like he’d just been shot or something. But there were no wounds there, his leg was just being stupid.

So Bumblebee pushed through the pain, painfully transforming and carefully pulling out of his and Starscream’s driveway. It all hurt any time he moved his leg throbbed but he’d need to get used to it before seeing the Maltos they’d notice immediately and it’d ruin their fun.

He stayed determined pushing through until he arrived transforming and trying to walk normally.

“BEE!” The kids yelled all of them running at and latching onto Bumblebee.

“Did I miss anything?” Bumblebee chirped making sure to keep his voice cycled so he doesn’t sound strained.

“We just started!” Twitch trilled as they dragged Bumblebee over to their new and improved obstacle course.

“Be careful with your brother!” Dot yelled, receiving a resounding “Alright” from her kids.

They wasted no time pulling Bumblebee along as they completed the obstacle course, then they went to play tag though Bumblebee’s turn lasted a bit longer than normal. After that they did arts and crafts then another game of tag was proposed when Nightshade tagged JB.

They ran around until JB got the great idea to go after Hashtag who was tagged easily. Happy giggles and playful remarks were shared as they ran around.

Twitch was it now she noticed that Bumblebee was slower than normal so a wonderfully easy target. She dove at him watching him yelp and attempt to run but he ended up tripping and taking a pretty bad tumble.

“Pause!” Twitch yelled as she landed beside Bumblebee who struggled to get up from where he fell. He groaned, frame shuddering as he laid there wincing in pain unable to move without everything hurting.

“MOOOOOM!” Twitch called out and everyone was now looking down as Bumblebee was just shivering on the ground in pain.

“Bumblebee, are you alright?” Dot asked as she got closer, putting her hand out to feel Bumblebee’s shivering shoulder.

“I… I’m sorry.” Bee whimpered trying to reach his cane but it all just hurt. He couldn't do anything more than lay there in pain.

“Bee just stop moving, it's okay.” Dot sighed looking over Bumblebee trying to see what could’ve gone wrong.

“I-is Bumblebee going to be okay? I didn’t hurt him, did I?!” Twitch squealed, feeling horrified at the idea of harming any of her siblings, even their cool war hero older brother.

“I-I’m alright Just a lil tired.” Bee huffed trying once again to reach his cane more successfully this time using it to heave himself to sit with a wince.

“Bee you need to lay down. Obviously something went wrong. We should get you laid down and call Starscream or someone who’ll know what’s going on.” Dot was slowly dipping into protective mom territory. She just wanted Bumblebee to take it easy while they identified the problem.

“Nothing's wrong, I just needed a moment!” Bee chirped after resetting his voice.

“Bee you’re shaking like a leaf.” Hashtag pointed out.

“That’s normal. It’s fine…. Probably.” Bumblebee coughed out. A lie, a very obvious lie, one that they didn’t need to pry to disprove.

“Kids. Get him.” Dot instructed and Bumblebee was grabbed by Hashtag and JB. They started carrying him towards the barn with Bee flailing at first before it got too painful so he just gave in.

“I said I’m fine.” He whined as they laid him onto a bed inside.

“So it won’t hurt if I do this?” Dot huffed while pressing a hand onto Bumblebee’s leg in a motion that made him flinch from the sudden shot of pain.

“Why don’t you kids go back to playing? I'll stay with him.” Dot smiled at them and Twitch quickly tagged Thrash who yelped in shock before chasing the others back outside.

Dot then turned back to Bumblebee.

“You aren’t moving until someone comes to take you home. Or you can just sleep here tonight.”

Bumblebee sighed knowing Dot could very well make sure he listened.

“So what’s hurting?” She asks while now looking into Bumblebee’s optics rather than his aching plates.

“Everything… it was just my leg this morning but..” Bumblebee mumbled looking away in shame, he wasn’t a youngling anymore he didn’t need to be babied like this.

“Bee you should’ve told us. Staying home when you’re in pain isn’t a crime. The kids would understand.” Dot cooed wishing she knew what to do to help other than call for help. The Terrans almost never got sick and if they were in pain Bee was the one she called for assistance.

She really didn’t know what to do with a hurting Bumblebee. Can’t call Optimus or Megatron with them off world. Starscream’s probably in some important meeting or something. Breakdown said he was taking family time. There’s practically no options to call for help.

Well until a certain Dinobot came to mind. One that knew how to get in contact with an elusive mech who knows how to care for injured bots.

Twitch was called back into the barn a little skittish as she thought she might be in trouble for hurting Bumblebee. She sheepishly approached not meeting her mother’s eyes.

“You aren’t in trouble baby, I just need you to ask Grimlock if he could come over to get Bee.” Dot cooed cupping the side of her face lovingly.

Twitch cheered up with a little squeal as she flew up into the air and started speaking, likely to Grimlock calling him “Big bro”.

Bee tried to stop them; he didn't want Grimlock to see him in pain, he didn’t even want the kids to see him like this. “Grim should be here in like twenty minutes. He and papa Wheeljack were out getting samples or something.” The sparkling chirped as she flew out of the barn back to her waiting siblings.

Bee felt further embarrassed when Grimlock got there and was able to hold him like a doll, weightless against the might of a Dinobot. Who refused to let Bee go until he made sure he was no longer in pain.

Wheeljack thankfully had some energon and pain killers packed away in his subspace that helped plenty.

So as to not make the kids any more upset Grimlock got the bright idea to have Bumblebee ride on his back so he could continue to play. Bee wasn’t going to say no to that and so the game continued with the kids now being chased down by a giant robot T-rex with a smaller yellow menace laughing maniacally on his back.

Notes:

Hehe, silly!!

I like the story of Wheeljack and Ratched making the Dinobots (Grimlock and his dino sibs only other dinos just appeared the same way JB did just more naturally.)

They call Wheeljack mom though just because he takes care of them and was the one to raise them. And I thought he’d probably try to get them to call Ratchet that but failed miserably when Ratchet explained the term to them and they instead called Wheeljack that.

Twitch calls him papa and Jawbreaker calls him grandad. JB sees Grimlock like a dad or older sib of some kind in all just a closely related family member.

Ratchet and Wheeljack aren’t in a relationship or anything tho they’re just friends who had kids for the memes. And by had kids I mean they made them from living metal and allat so cold constructs is what the Dinobots are. (That's the term I think)

I like to think that the Terrans are just really advanced Sparklings; they just skipped the tiny stage.

Bumblebee riding a T-rex sounds fun, if you watched RID 2015 you’d have seen that actually happen in series. :3

Enough from me hehe, hope ya’ll enjoy this chapter SEE YA!

Chapter 12: Minimus and Megatron’s day out

Summary:

I wanted to make them have a coffee date… that’s it that’s the chapter-

As with any politician or ruler/leader. Maintaining a good relationship with other leaders and lands is always a must. So after a long grueling day of visiting both Rodimus and Drift as well as Optimus and Elita. Megatron was extremely overtired.

All those passing comments and worried glances from guards with itchy trigger fingers as well as just your average citizen with a distaste for the warlord was absolutely crushing his social battery. Thankfully a very helpful minicon could help with that.

“Do you believe mass shifting would be particularly painful for you at this moment?” Ultra Magnus asked as he and Megatron pulled off into a hidden alley.

Megatron thought about it for a second before responding. “Not particularly.” He replied curiously wondering what Magnus had in mind.

“Why don’t we stop by my hab to drop off my armor and I shall introduce you to a calming place I go to from time to time.” Magnus suggested calmly. Megatron had never actually gone out with Minimus alone, usually with others around or as Ultra Magnus never the minicon inside the armor.

So why not try it out now.

This thought process ended up in yet another alleyway with Minimus urging him to shrink down to a similar size. Megatron had done this a few times before however enough to remember the feeling of his plating getting denser as he got as close to Minimus’ size as possible.

Minimus did not meet his new size with ridicule or a leering gaze; instead he met the new size with a grin soft and true. It settled on his faceplate in a way that Megatron could look at until his spark gave out.

Megatron had to tear his optics away so as to not stare too long with an embarrassed cough.

“Shall we?” Megatron asked, though he’d much rather stay alone with just him and Minimus able to explore one another’s frames with their optics or more, he was also quite hungry.
(More like thirsty- bro’s down baaad~)

“Yes we shall, I believe you will enjoy the blends at this particular establishment!” Minimus insisted as they walked along the side roads where other minicons and non vehicular bots roamed. And younglings who aren’t allowed to drive alone yet.

Megatron could see the reasons why Minimus rarely went out as himself now seeing how large everything is and almost getting stepped on thrice wasn’t a plus. On the upside no one could recognize Megatron with how small he was to the point most didn’t even recognize him as alive at all.

Minimus was shoved by a particularly rude youngling who just told him to get out of the way before running through at least three more minicons just minding their own business.

“Is that a constant?” Megatron asked with an annoyed huff, any other time he’d shrunk it was usually only for a short time around a trusted individual. (Soundwave- cough cough- Soundwave, he’s the mech to go to when you shrink tiny.)

“Quite abnormal actually, usually there’d be an apologetic caregiver running after them. I will have to remember this and query their caregiver.” Minimus is always the one to go through proper channels to solve a problem rather than exploding at the slightest inconvenience.

Megatron had tried that route before and learned it never truly got anywhere until he’d started the war though he wasn’t the best example of that going over well- So he kept quiet planning to find that youngling later for a small chat with their creators as they kept together.

Minimus subconsciously held onto Megatron’s servo to be sure they didn’t get separated. Megatron felt like a Victorian man who just saw ankles for the first time because that’s the closest equivalent to how excited the small gesture made Megatron. This didn’t last long as Minimus noticed his error and let go in embarrassment.

Thankfully they’d already reached their destination, a small homey type energon cafe the size of a slightly larger human building dwarfed by the two much larger structures beside it. The only patrons seemed to be minicons or smaller bots who seemed to be enjoying themselves quietly while a beastformer served their fuel from a counter.

“Minimus my dude! Nice ta see ya.” The mech chirped, waving his clawed servo in greeting. As they walked through, many other minicons stopped them to talk to Minimus who kept their conversations brief until they finally reached the mech behind the counter.

The mech was friendly with a jersey accent his alt mode was by the looks of him some form of dog with those signature audials and the fur lining his arms. Many wore alt form armor to cover their fluffy underneaths but here they weren’t wearing more than needed.

Minimus seemed to breeze through ordering with no issue like he’d been here plenty before which aligned with his suggestion to come here.

Megatron didn’t have any issues ordering other than how rude the counter mech became the moment he wasn’t talking to Minimus.

It was absolute whiplash the way he went from overly polite and slightly flirty to a teenager who has been working at McDonalds all day and you’re their last customer- Megatron was absolutely gobsmacked at the switch up and a little insulted by it.

“Don’t worry Rascal’s like that with everyone. Mins is just an exception because Rascal used to be his brother’s pal.” Another patron laughed out, reaching over to drape their servo over Megatron’s shoulder. Megatron jumped at the attempted contact causing the other to back away with a nervous chuckle.

“Sorry, sorry!” They cooed as they returned to their own seat.

“Quite sorry my friend here isn’t very big on contact.” Minimus explained while grabbing a sash from a nearby rack with other similar garments on it all having different labels printed onto the rack Megatron could barely read but the one Minimus had taken for him was bright yellow.

Minimus got Megatron to allow the attachment of the sash, finding it surprisingly unnoticeable once on. It was highly visible to others though showing what the sign says as aversion to close contact. Minimus grabbed his own sash.

Many of the others wore their own sash’s of multiple different colors, some wearing multiple at once. Case in point Minimus grabbed a secondary sash for the both of them that connected with a small rope.

“These are to be sure the others know we are here together and the other means you’d rather not be touched or in close quarters with others!” Minimus explained as he led Megatron over to a table.

All in all a pretty good place with table games and other entertainment set onto their table. Megatron was truly intrigued by how much of a social butterfly Minimus was among the bots of the cafe. Generally Minimus was always much more reserved and some may even call him uptight.

At this moment however he was speaking so freely with other bots who seemed to understand him and themselves a few bots who wore certain sashes stayed alone seemingly completely content being ignored while others wearing different sashes ran around as overactive as Rodimus with similar mannerisms however they avoided tables with the bots wearing certain other colors.

The unspoken rules and comforting glances from all around seemed to make this cafe all the more inviting as many came and went leaving much more comfortable than they’d been when they came in.

The food was pretty good too, simple shavings all just as ordered with call buttons for if you needed more without needing to physically ask. All had slips saying what drink they’d had and what table no vocalizing had to be done if one felt uncomfortable.

The same slips had been at the counter where they’d ordered.

“This place is made for comfort. For some comfort is different than others. Hence the sashes warning you of discomforts. That mech is wearing a purple sash to show he is uninterested in company and conversation.” Minimus explains then pointing out the different colors and their meanings. Megatron thought all who had such disabilities were usually ostracised by society yet here you weren’t judged for who you were.

Everyone has a right to comfort and stability Megatron just wished there was a place like this for fully sized mechs. Soundwave would benefit from such a place where he did not need to vocalize his order and could simply live in his own vocal silence. Goodness knows that mech hated speaking to others at times and Rodimus would certainly manage better knowing what mechs were uncomfortable with being around a hyperactive speedster.

This place had everything, quiet rooms for those with sensitivity to noise as well as dark rooms for those with a sensitivity to bright lighting. Bins with fidgets sat ready and cleaned alongside other cleaning tools free for use.

In other words this was a cafe of acceptance that truly understood what it was like to be looked down upon in society. It was a safe space where one could be truly content and safe with their sparks lulled into a sense of security.

Minimus was right, Megatron did enjoy it. Not only because of how inclusive it was but also because he was there with him softly drinking and discussing the newest poetry book Megatron had started reading on breaks.

It made for some good conversation without being too far off a destined topic. In the background soft music from earth Soundwave had once shown him called Lofi played not loud enough to disturb but enough to drown out the idle chatter of others so one could feel at home in their own space.

Of course even places as wonderful as this has their downfalls. One the entrance of a very huffy femme who was rudely ordering her fuel at the counter. She spoke poorly to Rascal calling him a beastly mutt when her grumbles didn’t make it through the music and idle sounds of a cafe.

Minimus seemed much more upset than Megatron thought when he’d glanced to see the usually calm mech absolutely steaming.

“I’m sorry Cherry but we don’t serve Engex this early in the cycle. Maybe try a bar if you’re looking for a kick.” Rascal growled out showing his pointed teeth. (They’re practically teeth man idk what u want me to type-)

This only made the femme more irate now shouting at Rascal calling him incompetent and using a few racist remarks that had other patrons glaring at her.

Minimus stood up, unhooking himself from Megatron for just a moment.

“I will be right back.” Minimus chirped before striding over to the counter. Megatron felt absolutely stunned Minimus was actually angry he’d seen it. It wasn’t something he’d seen often and from such a vantage point.

“Is there something I can help you with ma’am.” Minimus cut in, shushing the femme with a chaste servo to the face that clomped over her intake. “Because that is no way to treat the staff of such a lovely establishment. That aside, you are currently interrupting my conversations with your preaching.” Minimus says with a stern expression showing he was ready to scold this femme for her behavior.

She seemed a bit panicked with a look of recognition on her faceplate. “N-no…” She seethed before freeing herself from the situation running out of the cafe without a second glance the moment she was stood up to.

Rascal sighed wearily and some patrons started clapping and cheering before returning to their prior engagements.

“Thanks Minimus. That slagger was complaining about everything like she has nothin better to do than to light up my life with her damned problems.” Rascal chuckled fondly.

“She was interrupting my time with a good friend of mine, that aside she was being entirely rude for no reason.” Minimus huffed before turning to sit with Megatron.

“I’m quite sorry that almost never happens.” He nervously stated as he looked up into Megatron’s optics.

And like that Megatron realized that Minimus didn’t need help when it came to those interactions; the one he’d interrupted was in fact just a fluke.

Notes:

WASSUP!!! Wanted to tell ya’ll smth cool-

If you’ve read chapter’s 8-9 of this there’s now a fic about Wildbreak and his pals going up! It’ll be in the same AU madness as this and my older AU explanation. It goes in a sort of school type of fun with some multiversal shenanigans brewing for Wildbreak and Dragstrip!

I’ve made a full fic for Megs and Mins with their introduction to the new phenomenon of natural portals and their mischief- There will be ones of other groups learning about them too but in canon of this AU the one with Prowl and his pals is chronologically before the others.

It’ll be up in the AU madness soon! Prolly tomorrow. I’ve got a few chapters made rn-

Prowl and his crew find out about the portals / natural bridges before anyone else. I can’t wait to show all my ideas about them :D

That aside if you like crossovers I have a fic called !Crossovers Galore! You’d enjoy it though It’s not purely Transformers content so idk :) I’m kinda having some trouble with the next few chapters of that one so it’ll be a bit before I start posting that one again.

I get like 10 chapters done and then post them all within a week. Then I take a bit to build back up.

That aside hope we liked this trash i’ve so lovingly thrown at your faces <3

Chapter 13: Mirage and the humans

Summary:

I’m sick and decided to post the original chapter 10 because even if I’m ashamed of it I’m also mentally ill so why not just get it over with instead of re-writing it…

Mirage used to be quite the uppity mech never known to dumb down his speech or to allow for any slang to creep into his vocal patterns. That was until he met Noah.

Noah was happy to be friends with Mirage sure it was an odd time but nowadays it was much easier with humans knowing about the Cybertronians as well as the end of the war.

Unfortunately for Mirage he’d found his speech changing recently fitting the speech style of Noah over the years. (They’ve known each other for like 10yrs at this point. Mirage and Noah met when Noah was 18 in this AU because why not.)

Not that Mirage minded but it did mean he didn’t fit his highclass background now as he started to speak more and more like Noah. Using human slang and words more than Cybertronian slang.

Noah adored him and he adored Noah, I mean they’re best friends(Gay ass friends) so it’s not too weird even when Noah moved into a larger building so he could live beside Mirage.

Thankfully Noah happened to join a group of humans that also had Cybertronian partners or friends.

Today they were driving to meet them and a few of the bots they were friends with.

“I dunno about this Noah. What if one of them knew me back in the day? I’ve changed a bunch but you know-” Mirage whined as they drove along the road to the location.

“Don’t worry I think this other girl in the group’s got us beat with her friend.” Noah chuckled while texting the other humans.

Mirage felt a bit weirded out by that comment. What bot would be weirder than Mirage.

Starscream. Starscream was weirder than Mirage.

Mirage looked at the mech in terror as he chuckled with a human girl sitting on his shoulder.

“When did Starscream get a human companion!?” Mirage asked Bumblebee who was there meeting with his multiple human pals.

“A while ago. Her name’s Alexis, she's got a nice family and a law degree. That and she’s absolutely crazy for minicons. She loves the little guys and even has one that lives with her.” Bumblebee commented as he took a sip of his energon cube.

“Dang I didn’t know the Decepticons liked humans.” Noah chirped looking at the way Starscream put Alexis down softly.

“Most of them don’t.” Tracks huffed as he walked over.

“Hey dude how’s it goin?” Bumblebee chirped.

“Good. Raoul and I have been in Europe for the last couple weeks.” Tracks chuckled softly.

“Glad to know I’m not alone in having the weirdest bot friend.” Verity smirked as she leaned on Minimus.

“I wish I wore my armor now.” Minimus sighed.

“Oh c'mon Mins you look great.” Rodimus chuckled over them.

“Rodimus what’re you doing here?” Mirage questioned looking at the prime.

“Dunno actually.” Rodimus coughed out.

“I’m more confused on why I’m here.” Sari huffed.

“You are half Cybertronian, you count.” Miko cheerfully commented.

Yep they’re all here and it’s ever so funny.

Notes:

Chaos and disorder hehehehehe!!!

I hope we had fun with this one. All the human companions are silly!! And they’re all canon in my AU just in different ways.

After all, the war was LONG. They prolly stayed on Earth for a while therefore all the humans work if you just mess with the timeline a lil.

Also btw I was sick for three days so I’ve gotta build back up some chapters should get some out in like about four days. For this

Chapter 14: Rescue bots!

Summary:

The Rescue bots make an appearance!

(Rescue bots was actually the second piece of Transformers media I’d ever watched, first being the Bayverse movies as a child.

Third was Transformers: Animated where I absolutely adored Prowl and all the others. I generally liked Bumblebee or Starscream in Armada!)

Now for some backstory, if you’ve read my other story that’s all about Wildbreak and his school hyjinx you’ll know I made Chase a youngling.

That’s true here for all the rescue bots. Namely Blades, Heatwave, and Boulder! They’re a team of younglings who had a field trip with an older bot team to get some field experience, however the Decepticons attacked their mentors.

When they were attacked one of the older mechs chose to put the rescue bots into stasis for their own safety and send them into space with a distress signal but the signal was broken so they drifted for a while.

Eventually their pod got a transmission from Optimus and was pulled to Earth near the end of the war. Optimus gave them a mission to help Griffin rock and once the schools on Cybertron were up and running they’d attend them to finish their training.

That’s why Chase was in the program with Strongarm. As for the others they finished their courses early and stayed on Griffin rock.

They had less training to go through since not much changed in their fields of study versus Chase having to relearn all the new laws from the ground up.

That brings us to now.

“Where’s Chase been goin anyway? I mean it’s been a year and you guys still won’t explain to us where he keeps running off to.” Cade whined while leaning onto the railing.

“Cmon it’s not all that bad I mean he’s been doing a lot better because of wherever he’s been going.” Graham remarked remembering just how dysfunctional the group was before. Of course they got better after learning more about Earth and all.

“We don’t have to say anything. It’s a personal matter and you aren’t our creators.” Heatwave huffed jabbing a servo at the human duo just to show how heated this conversation made him.

“They’re just curious. I mean maybe we should explain ourselves, they don’t really know that much about us species wise!” Blades chirped.

Chase chose them to walk in with a loud sigh before walking over to the bot sized couch and straight flopping onto it.

The humans were definitely more concerned now.

“You alright Chase?” Cody asks as he approaches the couch.

“Optimal. Simply low on energy.” Chase responded with a yawn.

“Looks like you had a full day of fun.” Chief Burns chuckled while walking over with his older children and the other bots.

“I was able to practice a pit maneuver with a new friend of mine, however we had some trouble with the track we’d chosen for the exercise.” Chase explained as he flipped over and scooted up now to sitting idly.

“Have you been leaving to go meet other humans? Cold Chase. Real cold.” Cade teased.

“No I have been-“ Chase was about to explain but Heatwave threw a palm over his intake.

“Shut it or we’ll never hear the end of it.” Heatwave growled.

“I do not understand, it is of no consequence to have them understand our situation more in depth after all we have been cohabitating for over five years now.” Chase argued with Heatwave’s palm still over his intake making it slightly muffled.

“Because they don’t need to know!” Heatwave doubled down.

“I’d rather not say anything either. Not that I don’t trust you guys, it's just embarrassing.” Blades added.

Boulder was the remaining one who could either agree or disagree.

“I think we should tell them. The only harm would be to our pride.” Boulder calmly answered, eliciting annoyed grumbles from Blades and Heatwave.

“Is what you're hiding really that bad?” Graham asked, putting his hand onto Boulder’s leg before looking up at Blades.

“It’s just something that might make you guys lose more respect for us. Not like you really respected us much before and we’ve really worked on that so we just don’t want to ruin it!” Blades blathered while covering his face and sitting down.

Dani cooed and patted his side. “Aww, cmon Blades you know that wouldn’t happen. You’re our family at this point there’s no way we’re going back to treating you guys like that.” Referring to when they thought the bots were just robots and not aliens.

Blades sobbed and sniffled a bit dramatically but it was kinda just showing it was something they were really not interested in sharing.

“Stop crying Blades, you're no sparkling.” Heatwave grumbled while looking away.

“What’s a sparkling?” Cody chirped and suddenly Heatwave was back to being defensive.

“They are young Cybertronians who are freshly created. They do not yet understand emotions or much past their primary function.” Chase explained now that he was finally free from being muffled.

“You guys have babies? I thought you didn't have those.” Graham says while opening his notes to start jotting this down.

“They just have a weaker spark and thinner plating. They develop into younglings and get their first alt form around the youngling stage though some get alt forms as sparklings out of necessity.” Boulder helpfully explains while helping Graham fix his notes.

“So what. Is Chase going to go teach kids or something?” Cade questioned.

The bots all looked at one another. Chase seemed to be pleading with his optics and Heatwave seemed to give in after a few moments.

“Fine but don’t cry when they treat us differently.” Heatwave snarled as he walked over to lean on the wall in the corner.

The humans then all looked up at Chase who was staring back.

“We are younglings. We were trapped in stasis throughout the war and before our training was fully completed. The others only had to finish their programs while I have to undergo a full training course with the new laws and procedures.

I have been going to school on Cybertron and meeting others our age.” Chase admitted shocking the humans.

“You mean to tell me you’re not adults!” Chief Burns yelled and it was now very apparent that he didn’t know this either.

“We’re more like teenagers, but we were in stasis for a long time so we have some development issues in our frames.” Boulder chirped.

“I feel so bad now.” Dani huffed and hugged onto Blades.

“Didn’t think you were actually a teenager Wave.” Cade says nervously now realizing he’d actually been arguing with a teenager this whole time.

“Looks like we have some talks to have now about your species because this is not enough.” The Chief sighed.

“I will have to ask an older bot to help explain the intricacies to you all. Is this also a good time to ask if I can invite my classmates over?” Chase asks.

Notes:

hehehehe. Silly Chase.

They do act like teenagers in the series, not really adults so I feel it fits them. Being younglings in stasis probably really fucked them up developmentally.

They’re going to have some health issues because of that fr. Heatwave was worried for nothing if anything this just added to what the humans knew about them.

It also gives the Burns’ more reasons to worry about their alien friends. After all they’re used to human teenagers not robot alien ones.

Chase now gets a chance to invite his friends over! I can’t wait to make them meet Wildbreak and the others but that’ll be in the other fic lol.

As for other things about bots they’ll learn it here as I plan to make more about these guys in this fic.

I’m adding more bots and their lives here since I moved Wildbreak and his pals to another fic as well as Minimus and Megs.

That being said, be ready for more duos and trios to pop up as well as some silly shenanigans!

Chapter 15: Swindle and Swerve

Summary:

Swindle is no longer interested in a life of cons and crime.

Swerve happens to lose his place of business.

Swindle, though being known for his many scams and schemes, was finally done after the war. He’d built up plenty of capital to finally achieve something with his time and money.

Though his brother wasn’t too keen on sticking around Cybertron he sure was. After all, Earth wasn’t all that cool and besides, Swindle had some business here.

So imagine everybody’s surprise when Swindle opened a bar. Not just any bar one with really good fuel. Like really good food that mimicked any natural foods you could find while being safe for bot consumption.

And even more surprising it was actually affordable! Like easy to get and consume.

But Swindle wasn’t happy with just that he wanted this place to be a bar not a diner but his drink mixing was pretty lackluster. He had all the ingredients and ideas but none of the skill.

Thankfully he’d set up in Central roads so he was able to get some help from a very enthusiastic Rodimus prime. (Central roads is my favorite place I’ve made if you can’t tell-)

“Ya see Rodimus. I need somebot who can actually mix drinks worth a damn.” Swindle sighed while setting down a plate of pasta themed fuel he knew Rodimus enjoyed.

“I mean I have someone who could help you. His last place was broken into by the DJD who was trying to get at one of his customers and it ended with the whole building collapsing.” Rodimus chirped while slurping down some of the noodles.

“Is this actually what pasta tastes like?”

“I’ve heard from reliable sources it is. My taste tester’s a techno-organic pal o’ mine. Her name’s Sari.” Swindle almost never gave information or goods away for free. Scratch that he never did.

“Guessing you want me to pull in the bartender for you in exchange for this meal?” Rodimus guessed.

Swindle smirked and nodded knowing that the Prime would keep his part of the bargain. Rodimus was never one to break an agreement.

“Just a fair warning my guy can be a little swindler at times though I feel like that’s right up your alley.” Rodimus chuckled, already forming a comm signal for Swerve who’s own bar was destroyed not long ago.

Just like that Sindle had procured a meeting with a potential business partner set up for the next cycle. He was so excited that he could barely recharge that night but was happy to see that they had arrived on time.

“Swindle right?” Asked the smaller red mech.

Swindle felt a little nervous now seeing as he didn’t know this mech actually like at all. A whole new person which was both exciting and terrifying.

“Yes and you must be Swerve! Rodimus said you were in the market for a place to mix some high grade materials and I’m sure you’ll find I have all you’ll need.” Swindle felt proud he’d made it seem like he hadn’t been the one to ask Rodimus for a meeting with the other mech but something about Swerve just made him nervous.

Swerve smiled. Like a genuinely sweet smile. “Yeah my old bar got absolutely demolished and I don’t have the funds to rebuild quite yet. I was living in New Iacon.” Swerve says while sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck cables.

He’d heard about Swindle before knowing that the con was well a con artist who lived up to his name until recently when he’d opened this bar. Though he couldn’t remember why he’d not heard anything about the drinks, only about the food.

“Well I hope we can work out an agreement and become business partners. There’s a pretty embarrassing reason why you only hear about this place’s food.” Swindle felt oddly good about revealing his deck of cards. Swerve feels reliable and despite Rodimus’ insistence of Swerve’s swindler spirit Swindle just couldn’t bring himself not to trust this mech.

They went over a few things and Swindle showed Swerve around the bar and kitchen watching how the mech’s visor lit up at the many expensive and rare bottles of liquor Swindle had managed to procure.

“How’d you even get this!” Swerve asked, holding a bottle of swirling green engex.

“Vossian high grade. I managed to get an old seeker ally to give me the formula and I brewed it myself. As compensation I brew him a good barrel of the stuff every now and then.” Swindle explained while watching the amazement dance on Swerve's faceplate as he examined both high end and cheap booze that Swindle carried.

“Do you need a place to stay too?” Swindle asked while drawing up their partnership agreement.

Swerve looked a bit surprised at the question but he sheepishly answered. “Yeah actually. Used to live in a place above my bar you can guess what happened to it. Been staying at Rodimus’ the last two weeks.” Swerve admitted while nervously fidgeting his servos.

“Well since we’re going to be business partners and all you can stay at my hab. I’ve got plenty of space and two extra rooms. Though one’s technically my brother’s room but he’s been off-world living the nomadic life recently.” Swindle chirped as Swerve read the partnership agreement.

“Should we add our cohabitation into the agreement?” Swerve asks looking up from the datapad.

Swindle hummed as he thought about it. “Probably yeah, I’ll draft that up now.” He chirped, taking back the datapad to add on the rest of the agreement.

They made plans for Swerve to move in the next cycle and Swindle couldn’t help but notice how excited he felt. It wasn’t like him to get this revved up about another bot. Oh well he’s probably just excited about the new business adventure. (Bro’s in denial.)

Swerve seemed to be pretty good at being on time as when Swindle opened his door to greet the mech he was smacked in the faceplate by Swerve who was about to knock on the now open door.

“Oh Primus! I’m so sorry Swindle I didn’t see you opening the door!” Swerve apologized profusely while trying to be sure he didn’t harm Swindle.

“I’m fine, just a little shocked!” Swindle says with a smirk as he welcomed Swerve inside and gave him a tour of the house.

Kitchen, pretty big and open concept into a living/dining room with four chairs around their table. One singular wash rack for the two of them because the other one was inside Hardtop’s room which was locked.

Swerve’s room was the same size as Swindle's, just much more undecorated with the only true piece of furniture being the comfortable berth.

This sparked the start of Swerve and Swindle’s new adventure as business partners and roommates.

Notes:

these two had pretty fun dynamics with other characters and I thought they’d get along if given the chance!

As for shipping them it was kinda a random spur of the moment thing! Swindle found someone who meets all his standards in more than one way.

Swerve finds a new job and a very nice business partner he’s totally not going to flirt with.

I plan to do a lot of random bull with these two because I absolutely adore Swindle and Swerve. They aren’t my favorites or anything. I just like them.

They make for a good dynamic.

Chapter 16: Heatwave’s bad time

Summary:

This one’s pretty short heh

Heatwave didn’t like this. He didn’t like this one bit.

Cade was over here smooching his girlfriend and it made Heatwave wanna vomit. He didn’t want to be here for this.

“You alright Heatwave?” Cade asks after pulling away to check on his friend.

“Just bored.” Heatwave grumbled.

Cade’s girl left after a few minutes of chatting leaving the fire duo alone.

“Uh well there’s something I wanted to ask you about.” Cade chirped.

Heatwave felt a bit worried Cade never asked easy to answer questions.

“Do you have, like parents or something. Because Chase said you guys are young right so you have to have someone looking after you. Right?”

Heatwave raised a brow in confusion before thinking about his answer.

“Chase doesn’t have any creator Boulder’s a construct so none there either. Blades and I are the only two who were made up of other bots sparks. My parents are alive, they probably don’t know I am though. Blades’ family on the other servo are dead.” Heatwave says it so plainly that it kinda throws Cade through a loop.

“Do you like your parents?” Cade asks after a moment of thinking.

“No they’re both idiots who shouldn’t have ever had a sparkling together. They took the Decepticon side in the war and I still haven’t forgiven them for that.” Heatwave huffed.

“Tell ya what I won’t blab to the others if we go get some ice cream.” Cade says when the silence felt too awkward.

“Sure but I’m not going through a drive through.”

“Aww cmon!”

Notes:

just a short sweet interaction with Heatwave explaining why he doesn’t talk to his parents. Blades’ parents are dead.

Chase doesn’t have any; he's born straight from the well.

Boulder is a cold construct so he was made and a spark was placed into his created frame.

Wanted to highlight that I have four ways they can be born.

Three include the help of a protoform while the last one is the way the Terrans were made!

Two or more parents can nurture a spark using their own energon and place it into a protoform for a sparkling.

A spark could just float out of the well and attach to a protoform.

And cold construction is the same as usually the sparks for it come from the well. Cept someone makes a frame around the protoform beforehand so when a spark attaches they skip the sparkling stage and are physically younglings already no matter how new their spark is.

Chapter 17: Rude Customers

Summary:

Swindle and Swerve tend to their wayward customers.

Swindle was in front of the house today meaning he was going around and taking orders for those who came for food since the bar wasn’t open yet. They’d ended up making the place a regular restaurant/bar in the end changing the name to Swerve & Swindle.

The interior stayed the same ol bar aesthetic with a few different decorations from Swerve to really make it theirs.

“Heya Swindle got any decent shit!” Asked a very memorable mech that Swindle wished he didn’t have to serve. He’d just opened for the morning; it wasn't late enough in his shift for this.

“Hey Brawl. The bar's not open until mid cycle.” Swindle reminded his wayward customer.

“Bullslag, get me the good stuff.” The mech doubled down giving Swindle that trademark glare of his. Knowing him he’d likely already been drinking he smelled of high grade and even some…

“I thought you were off of that! You can’t be doing this to yourself Brawl. I’m all for indulging but this is going to take you offline!” Swindle says while looking over the multiple charge patches that littered the mech’s frame.

“Don’t care now either you get me that drink or I'll show you how upset I really am.” Brawl growled, grabbing Swindle by the chassis and pulling his faceplate close enough to intimidate.

“Brawl this isn’t you dude. Think one of your patches might have been spiked-“ Swindle was saying before Brawl started to get angrier now denting his chassis.

“M’ not in the mood for this shit Swindle.” Brawl warned.

Thankfully there weren’t any other customers at this moment because that’d just be embarrassing. For both him and Brawl.

Swindle brought his servos up to touch Brawl’s one that was gripping him. “Look I know things have been shit for you since the gang split and all but you can’t be doing this. I mean harassing me in my own restaurant.” Swindle complained.

Brawl seemed to take this as a time to snap, moving his servos in a quick motion to grip Swindle’s neck slamming him onto a table.

Swindle fought back kicking at Brawl with all his strength but Brawl was always more powerful. Especially with those stupid patches. Even if one was faulty they still had an inherent strengthening effect.

Swindle flailed as his hud warned him of potential damages. He tried so hard but now he was going to be offlined by his old pal who’d gone and done a few too many drugs.

He felt resigned to this fate; it was fit for a conman like Swindle. Though it seemed Swerve had a different idea as the smaller red mech snuck up behind Brawl and smashed a pan over the mech’s head with a loud metallic clank that managed to knock the big guy out.

Took a few more smacks to make sure he was out but he was knocked out.

Swindle let out a sigh of relief when Brawl practically slumped over him. Swerve helped get the larger mech off and together they carried him into the break room putting him onto the couch Swerve insisted they keep in there.

“Man, this gave me some ptsd.” Swerve chucked as he tucked Brawl in with a blanket.

“You’re tellin me.” Swindle huffed in amusement.

“Feelin alright? Not light headed or anything right?” Swerve asks as he gets closer to examine the dents that now sat over Swindle’s chassis and neck.

“Heh, I’m alright. Nothing I can’t handle.” Swindle says but when Swerve ran a digit over one of the dents Swindle couldn’t stop the groan of pain.

“Why don’t we just take the day off. S’not like we don’t have a perfect reason to. Besides, I think it’ll be good for us.” Swerve says hopefully and Swindle agrees.

“Y’know if I knew your old customers were going to come in here and cause trouble like that I’d probably have told you we should hire security.” Swerve commented as Swindle finally relented allowing him to work on his injuries.

“Brawl’s actually an old teammate from the war. He and I were in a group called the Combaticons. Long story short the group disbanded. We were all really dysfunctional together so it was for the better but Brawl and Vortex didn’t take it too well.” Swindle says with a wince.

“Brawl fell into any form of performance drug he can get his grubby servos on and as someone who used to panhandle those. They and I quote myself “are absolutely disgusting and awful,” they don’t even feel good!

They just make you stronger and after the initial high it makes your whole frame ache. Not speaking from experience, I don't touch those things.” Swindle insisted as Swerve finished putting some gel on his chassis dents.

“They sound like a shitty choice to use but I can't say anything when I know someone who used to use them. He’s sober though unlike your friend here.” Swerve says thinking of what Drift had once admitted about his own past of using various drugs including charge patches.

“Can’t hold it against the guy. The war really messed everyone up s’not their fault they’re just using what they know works for them.” Swindle added with an amused chuff.

“Preach.” Swerve chuckled as they entered the main room to find Whirl sitting at their bar reaching over it to grab bottles of liquor. Though for some reason he was only grabbing cheap stuff.

“Hey Swerve.” Whirl chirped and continued grabbing his bottle like he hadn’t gotten caught at all.

“Oh cool Swindle’s here too.” Whirl says like he hadn’t read the damn sign outside.

“Why wouldn’t he be?” Swerve asks while swiping the bottles away from Whirl who made a depressing whine when his liquor was being taken away.

“Well this's the new bar right?” Whirl chirped after Swerve gave him a better drink than the gross stuff he was trying to take. It didn’t have any liquor but it was mixed and looked pretty enough to trick him.

“It’s actually Swindle’s place I only recently joined because he can’t mix drinks.” Swerve explained while Swindle walked out of the kitchen with some food for Whirl.

“And you can’t cook worth a damn. Besides, remember that we’re business partners not employee and employer. We both own this place now!” Swindle reminded him while Whirl dug into the fuel.

“Damn this is good. I think you hit the jackpot Swerve because this guy can cook! I can see now how popular this place’ll get.” Whirl cheered.

They ended up keeping the place open for the day being visited by more Autobot pals of Swerve who heard of his new bar and didn’t even think to read the other part of the sign.

“Y’know I think having Swindle’s name on the sign is what’s keeping you guys from getting more customers. They’re probably worried he’s running another scam or something.” Rewind says while taking a bite of the fuel he’d been given.

“Hey I’ll have you know most of our customers don’t even read past bar and restaurant.” Swindle huffed.

“Yeah but if they do they’ll be put off by your name being on there. You are known for being a swindler. Pits your name is Swindle.” Rewind added while his conjunx was too invested in the food to talk.

Chromedome was way too happy with this food to worry about whatever they were talking about.

“Yeah we aren’t hearing from Dome for a bit Swindle’s fuel broke him.” Swerve joked.

“It’s so good, Swindle made it? Like made it, made it? It’s not frozen or something!? Like no professional chef!?” Chromedome says in shock while standing up.

“Is it really that hard to believe?” Swerve asks, both Rewind and Chromedome nod.

“Are you sure everything he makes is safe to consume???” Rewind immediately questions.

“I’m not going to serve unfit fuel. I may be a con artist but I take my real business seriously. No health violations anywhere in this building aside from the bar because I have to replace those stools bigger bots could break them.” Swindle insisted as he went off to go serve another table leaving Swerve with his friends.

“I watch him cook, I’ve tried making the things he does following every thing he does and it never comes out the same as his do.” Swerve commented with a chuckle.

Notes:

Swerve and Swindle have a pretty chaotic life going on here! Wonder who’s going to join the team, maybe a server or security for if there’s another incident?

Maybe both because I actually really fell in love with this idea of Swerve and Swindle running a bar together. Swerve is going to be visited by all his lost light friends even if the lost light wasn’t canon in my AU. They were a part of the same squad during the war in my AU even if it was for a short amount of time.

They followed Hotrod before he became a prime. At some point in their adventures the matrix chose him and most of the crew still talk to one another after the war’s over.

Swerve’s bar was where they generally met most of the time so it being destroyed bugged their plans a bit. Now they have Swerve and Swindle’s to go to hehe

Megatron did end up in the lost light crew at some point btw but that’ll be expanded upon in my other fic.

Chapter 18: Hate crimes

Summary:

(I enjoy comments they fuel me! So any ideas are welcome if you’d like to suggest something of your favorite character I can research and make something of them!)

Swindle and Swerve deal with robot racism and gain a new pal!

Swindle on average never had to deal with anyone discriminating against him for the symbol he wore. After all he lives in Central roads, a place known to have equal amounts of Decepticon and Autobot citizens as well as many neutrals.

Maybe he should have taken Swerve’s search for security a bit more seriously.

While Swerve was on his break Swindle gladly took care of the customers informing them that they’d have to wait for Swerve to come off break for the fancier drinks. He could pour drinks now with some teaching from Swerve but he still couldn’t do those fancy things Swerve made.

This didn’t seem to bother most of the patrons who’d gladly sip what they already had while waiting, however there was one table that seemed to not get the memo.

“Damn Decepticons can’t get anything right.” The mech at the table mumbled and Swindle just pretended he didn’t hear that after all they came to a restaurant that had HIS name on it.

They shouldn’t have come here if they didn’t want to run into at least one Decepticon.

When Swerve’s break was about to be over Swindle decided to tell him that the mech at that table shouldn’t be served any drinks with liquor. He seemed pretty revved already so getting drunk wouldn’t help that guy in any way.

Just as Swindle was about to talk to Swerve the mech from before walked over and grabbed him pushing Swindle off to the side so he could speak with Swerve.

Swerve refused to give the mech anything until he apologized to Swindle and he didn’t even know about the mech’s mumblings earlier.

“Cmon Swerve ya gotta understand why I shouldn’t have to apologize to that con.” The mech whined.

“Swindle is my business partner and I won’t tolerate you pushing him.” Swerve insisted, standing his ground despite both him and Swindle being a lot smaller than this mech.

Swindle didn’t have any of his weapons on him so if this mech decided to start a fight they would barely be able to handle it. Hopefully the other customers would jump in to help but you can never trust that someone will come to save you.

Especially if it’s Swindle he’s never done anyone favors for free and that made him many enemies during the war some may still wish for his head or more simply for not lowering his prices in their time of need. Though during those times he’d always give a fair price, never an over priced item when he thought someone would die.

“Swerve you actually think this con cares you are business partners? I’m sure he’s just waiting until the right time to sweep your pedes out from under you.” The mech insists, getting more aggressive as he reaches towards Swindle who recoils instinctively.

“Hey!” A growling voice shouted as another patron stood from their table. This patron was a taller mech with an Autobot symbol on his chassis and a giant maw with horns sticking out from behind his back.

“Step off Dinobot, you’re still on probation I’m sure your creator wouldn’t wanna hear you got arrested again.” The angry mech growled back with confidence. “Not even your siblings trust you.” That made the Dino mad and he straight up slammed the other mech across the bar.

“Slag wants you out!” Slag the Dinobot growled loudly as other patrons mirrored his anger towards the other mech.

Said mech mumbled more things under his breath and in good fashion left not willing to fight one of the more aggressive Dinobots alone.

Slag snorted with smoke escaping the nostrils on his back before he turned to face Swerve and Swindle. (I just realized all their names start with S hehe. Slag’s my second favorite Dinobot because I love triceratops! Grimlock will always be my favorite Dinobot because he’s awesome!!!)

“Thanks for that.” Swerve sighed seeing that Swindle was also alright no damage whatsoever.

“You are not mad at Slag?” The dino asks, seeming a little surprised after all he’d destroyed a table in his throwing of that mech.

“Nah mech. Not mad happy you were there to help out yeah!” Swindle chuckled.

And like that the rest of the cycle was met with any overly rude customers tending to stop their antics anytime Slag looked over from his food and drink that Swindle was glad to keep up with for the save earlier that day. Not that Swindle really needed someone there for security.

He has plenty of weapons inside of his stash. The only problem is there’s no longer an easy indicator of when it’s alright to defend yourself anymore now that there’s no war.

Though he never mentioned that to Swerve after all he didn’t want to freak Swerve out after all. Having a heavily armed Decepticon around can make less armed bots feel panicked.

After closing Slag was about to leave but was stopped by Swindle. “Hold on, big guy. Me and Swerve got something to speak with you about.” Swindle purred, guiding the dino bot to sit back down.

Slag felt a bit overwhelmed after all he was used to others being angry at him but these guys fed him and kept him around. No one other than his creators ever did that.

So he stayed sitting there and waiting. Maybe they’d wait to yell at him or maybe they’d get him to pay for the fuel and table.

In the end they came over and offered Slag a position at the bar. Swerve insisted they needed a bouncer, why not one of the strongest mechs around.

Notes:

Slag’s here! He and the other Dinobots are technically tolerated by the others. Only Wheeljack and Ratchet really care for them. (Them the Maltos and Bumblebee)

So when Slag is given a job he’s honestly flabbergasted he and his siblings assume they’ll only ever be able to work with Wheeljack so this is really surprising. He’s totally going to gloat about it to the others.

Swindle isn’t too keen on needing a bouncer but he can see that it’s a good idea since most don’t really see him or Swerve as intimidating enough to respect when drunk.

Slag’s mostly just there to look scary and hang out. They actually don’t mind paying him to do that. Swindle's still running some scams on the side so he’s got lots of money. He hasn’t fully given up his old ways, he's just more sneaky about it now.

Chapter 19: Chronic illness

Summary:

Cybertronians can have chronic pain so why not see who else is on the list!

Aka I torture Prowl because I love him!

Not every morning goes well. Many suffer from old wounds or other physical or mental problems especially after the long ass war they’d barely left behind them.

But those like Prowl never stopped hurting from the moment of their creation. Prowl had always had the glitch.

It caused him to temporarily offline when his processor got overwhelmed. Most assumed this meant he’d stay offline however he was fine just really in pain. Once he rebooted he’d be back his spark would not fizzle out from the processor crash. Not many he spoke with knew about the processor crashes that plagued him.

In fact the only ones who knew were on a need to know basis. For the most part he can predict when a crash will happen with enough accuracy that he can inform his employers and any medical professional that’d need to check on him once he finished rebooting.

Therefore his neighbors did not know and Jazz did not know. Prowl tended to keep his medical history quiet so no one could use it against him even if he was very close to that person heck even his siblings didn’t know much about his medical issues.

So when a sudden crash appears there’s going to be panic.

Prowl was just watering his plants. The most simple and easygoing part of his day it’s peaceful and destressing.

All until Jazz and his neighbors appeared. Scrapper and Jazz seemed to be upset with one another when the whole group entered Prowl’s garden; both were nonstop glaring at one another just standing beside Prowl while the others caused minor chaos. Bonecrusher and Scavenger accidentally stumbled over one of Prowl’s chairs causing Scavenger’s shovel to crush Prowl’s roses.

Prowl moved to access the damage while both were apologizing profusely for their transgression. While that was happening Hook and Mixmaster managed to spill some dirt bags Prowl had left for the new pots. Speaking of new pots Longhaul tried to be careful he really tried but when Jazz’s wing threatened to hit him he recoiled and smashed one.

Too much input, too much chaos, way too much apologizing and in addition a very angry Jazz yelling while Scrapper defended his crew in an argument. Today was already going to be a slow day for Prowl! His hud barely managed to warn him before his whole body seized and he was out.
Jazz watched as Prowl stood and was about to say something before his optics shut off and his plating flared likely in pain before he just dropped like a sack of dirt. HE DROPPED.

Like full force flop onto the ground drop. Loud nasty crashing sound, drop all while the others were panicking right beside him. They all scrambled, not exactly sure what to do. None of them knew what exactly was happening except for Hook who was stunned and pretty unresponsive himself.

“Lets get Prowler inside!” Jazz insisted and Bonecrusher was the first one trying to pick Prowl up. He was so quiet his spark barely moving.

“Oh Primus we killed Prowl!” Hook yelled covering his faceplate in horror.

“His spark’s still there, we have time!” Longhaul commented as he transformed. It was now a race against time.

Hook wasn’t at all on the right side of his processor to deal with this. His medical attention may just make it worse in fact with how distraught he was. The only option would be Ratchet who thankfully set up shop nearby. Living close to the best medic on Cybertron was totally a plus.

Jazz sped ahead bursting into the medbay spooking poor Firstaid who was just sitting at the desk. “Where’s Ratchet!” Jazz yelled and the older medic entered the room face contorted in annoyance and curiosity.

“What’s wrong?” Ratchet asks before a whole group of green and purple construction cons enter the medbay, one holding an unresponsive Prowl in their arms.

Ratchet guided the nervous group to an open berth instructing them to lay Prowl on the table while he did a scan.

“Is Prowl gonna be alright?” Hook asks impatiently.

“Maybe if you were smart enough to do your own scan earlier you’d know he’s just suffering from a processor glitch. He’ll be back online in a minute. Just got lots to start back up otherwise he’d already be up.” Ratchet huffed muttering about them being idiots. “I’m more surprised he didn’t at least tell Jazz about it.” He added.

“Prowl likes to keep some things to himself. I wont push him ta tell me his medical history if he don’t wanna.” Jazz stated very matter of factly.

“Well he’s all good when he wakes up you guys can follow him home or whatever.” Ratchet says before leaving the room.

“We should go back and clean up for when Prowl gets back.” Scrapper suggests.

“I’m gonna stay with Prowler, you guys have a safe drive back.” Jazz felt a bit bad but he’d rather it just be him and Prowl again Prowl’s neighbors tend to crash all their hangouts so maybe this’ll get them to be more conscious about when they interrupt.

In the end Prowl just got told to take the rest of the day resting and was able to watch some relatively boring movies with Jazz before falling asleep. The poor Constructicons weren’t invited to the movie night but none of them would kick up a fuss about that.

With the information about Prowl’s condition they chose to only visit in duo’s no not overwhelm Prowl setting up a chart for who’s on what shift of helping Prowl while working around Jazz’s visits to separate the challenger from Scrapper and Bonecrusher because they tended to be the most aggressive to him.

Notes:

They’re making plans and Prowl doesn’t know that!! They’re actually planning stuff.

Jazz on the other hand absolutely doesn’t like Scrapper or Bonecrusher just to make it more obvious those three barely tolerate one another. Hook and Scavenger are okay in Jazz’s book they’re still rivals but he won’t actively hate on them.

They aren’t as openly aggressive to Jazz after all. And everyone’s cool with Longhaul because he tries his best to not cause problems.

Chapter 20: The bouncer was needed

Summary:

Ah Swindle my muse, I unironically love Swindle and his silly little life I’ve made for him.

Swindle disagrees about needing Slag as more than just a warning. He’s sorely mistaken.

Swindle will never admit it. Not in a million years! He will never admit getting a bouncer was a good idea.

Slag was just doing his job so well! Anytime a customer tried to get in either Swerve or Swindle’s face all he’d have to do is leer over and the patron would immediately check their manners. It was just so demoralizing.

After all in the Decepticon ranks if you weren’t intimidating in any way possible then you were liable to be attacked for many reasons. Some Swindle’s glad to not have to deal with anymore.

This particular interaction happened while Slag was on break. Swerve was doing one of his fancy little cocktail shows for a customer while Swindle took out fuel for some of the tables.

The table he was working with had a very welcome face at it alongside a femme Swindle assumed to be their date. “Everything goin alright over here?” Swindle purred, stepping over to face his valued customer (one of Swerve's friends) and their “date”.

“Everything’s great Swindle you should’ve told me you could actually cook worth a damn. Then I would’ve come here for more than just engex.” Blurr chirped holding up his glass of high grade booze Swerve insisted he try.

Swerve always invited his friends over to test out new drinks and Blurr the blue speedster was always one of his most prominent, especially since he had his own bar over in New Iacon. So the speedster knew his liquor.

“I’ll be sure to tell Swerve you like that one, since I can see you’re actually taking the time to sip it.” Swindle cooed coaxing a laugh from Blurr.

“Oh yeah where’s my manners this’ my pal. their designation is-” Blurr spoke fast but not fast enough.

“Aww do you not recognize me, Swindle? I feel a little insulted.” Skywarp chirped playfully.

“Oh Skywarp. You look different.” Swindle hummed now recognizing the purple seeker.

“Wanted to try out my new femme frame since my mech one’s getting its upgrade.” Skywarp explained while angling to show off their new curves.

(I make Skywarp a they/he/she depending on what frame they choose that day. They have both a mech and femme frame they just sort of swap between. Don’t ask how it’s just because I couldn’t choose which one I wanted to write.)

“Well I think it looks absolutely gorgeous.” Swindle playfully commented. Skywarp giggled at the compliment showing it was in fact a very welcome comment.

“Usually you’d follow that up by trying to sell me slag I wouldn’t need.” Skywarp comments getting a chuckle from both Blurr and Swindle.

Swindle took that as a cue to leave those two to their own devices before moving over to the other table behind them. “Hey, ya mind gettin me one of these?” The mech sitting at said table asks while gesturing to the exact drink Skywarp had ordered earlier when Swerve was out waiting on tables.

“Sure.” No way this mech was scheming in Swindle’s restaurant right? Nah Swindle’s just being paranoid gotta see the best in his own customers after all!

No way that mech was planning something.

Swindle brought him the drink but kept a close optic on him as he watched the mech slip something into the glass. Alright maybe it’s just some medicine or something Swindle has no signs saying you can’t put things into your own drink after all.

The mech then stands up and approaches Skywarp’s table handing Skywarp the drink. Now that’s a big nono!

Swindle quickly put down what he was carrying and sprinted over to the table spooking the trio. “Don’t drink that.” Swindle warned. The mech seemed upset by Swindle’s intrusion and chose to deal with it in the most insane way possible.

He grabbed the drink from Skywarp’s servo and when Swindle was about to yell at him for being rude the mech shoved the open part into Swindle’s intake causing Swindle to get a whole mouthful of contaminated drink. He coughed furiously but the mech didn’t seem done. He grabbed Swindle by the arm and started dragging him out of the restaurant followed by Skywarp and Blurr who were much too quick to outrun.

“Back off!” The mech growled holding a blade up to Swindle’s neck cables. The best thing about the war is that generally most could get out of this situation on their own with all the training they had to do to just survive. But who said that being drugged helped you defend yourself?

So here Swindle was barely feeling whatever drug the mech had slipped into that drink thanks to the many systems he had in place from the war to prevent being drugged. A sharp blade pressed against his neck with shaky limbs because of course the drug had to be paralytic. Thanks Primus!

“Let Swindle go ya creep!” Skywarp growled but unlike usual they didn’t have any weapons on them other than their claws. With the peace times many stopped carrying things like blasters and missiles and Skywarp happened to not keep them on their femme frame for this get together.

The mech didn’t get far with Swindle only to the alley behind the bar where… Slag!

Swindle knew just what to do. “SLAG!” Swindle yelled loudly confusing the mech, Blurr and Skywarp. But they weren't as confused when a giant robotic Triceratops bashed into the offending mech pulling him away from Swindle who fell to his knees with a breathy sigh. Truly Swindle hates whoever decided to make paralytic drugs.

The robot dinosaur then transformed into a big and angry bot who held the perp by the shoulder off his pedes. “Slag no like you attacking Swindle.” Slag growled puffing smoke from his nostrils.

“You alright Swindle?” Skywarp asks now able to check on him alongside Blurr.

“Yeah, thank goodness I stopped you from drinking it, you'd have been out like a light. Heh.” Swindle chuckled as his arms gave out and he was now face down on the ground. “Ow.”

Blurr and Skywarp helped Swindle up and started to carry him through the back door and into the break room where Swerve was waiting in a panicked state.

“Swindle!” Swerve yelled seeing the mech being settled onto the couch. “I’m fine, I just can’t move anything without a lot of effort.” Swindle commented showing he could lift his arm slightly.

“What in the pits happened!” Swerve asks as the others sit down too with Slag holding a very irate mech who couldn’t speak with the dinobot holding a servo over their intake.

“A mech tried to spike Skywarp’s drink, ended up throwing the drink into my intake, dragged me outside and into the alley where I know Slag likes to take his break. Ended up yelling for him and Slag caught the guy.” Swindle answered in one long breath.

“Blurr and I chased him but the mech had a blade to Swindle’s throat.” Skywarp added.

“I’m glad I already called the enforcers, they’ll be here in a minute. I also closed out all our customers and kindly asked them to go home for the night.” Swerve listed while now moving to check on Swindle more closely.

“Don’t even worry about it. My systems say it’s just a paralytic nothing else, maybe a recharge starter but I already decoded that. All that’s left is a slight weakness from the paralytic.” Swindle wasn’t going to mention the trace amounts of other system dampeners that would’ve absolutely taken out a seeker like Skywarp. Thankfully Swindle has a past with this sort of thing. As well as plenty of anti-virus’ to fight the contaminates in general.

This didn’t stop Swerve from fussing over him until an enforcer got there. The exact enforcer who came was Prowl and a few students from the enforcer track.

“So this mech attempted to drug and kidnap Skywarp and ended up changing targets after being caught in the act?” Prowl asks while one of the students jotted this all down on a datapad.

“That’s the situation.” Skywarp sighed feeling a bit bad this happened because of them.

“This mech may be connected to the string of Seeker disappearances. Thank you for apprehending him.” Prowl chirped, dipping his head in respect to Slag who was a bit sheepish with all the praise he was getting.

“Once this stuff's out of my system I’ll make some good fuel as a thanks.” Swindle says as he attempted to move but it really didn’t work. The most he got was almost falling off the couch before Blurr and Skywarp made sure to push him back over so he doesn’t actually fall off.

“Yeah sorry Swin but I don’t think you’re moving from this spot for a while.” Skywarp chirped playfully.

“That’s bullshit. I can get up whenever I want to!” Swindle barked back but made no move to get up.

“Whatever ya say mech. Why don’t Blurr and I go get some fuel for us and bring it back?” Skywarp suggests.

“We have a fully stocked kitchen.” Swerve comments.

Notes:

Poor Swindle good thing he’s used to getting drugged- Or handling drugs at least to the point he’s barely affected by them. But it depends on the drug he can handle most but some really get to him.

Like for instance any paralytic gets him right in the processor. As for why Swerve didn’t follow the moment he saw the chaos, he was busy making sure the restaurant would be alright before checking up on them. That aside he knew Blurr and Skywarp could handle it.

As for Slag, he's getting used to being praised by people who aren’t Wheeljack and his siblings. Ratchet rarely praises people and when he does it’s not in the normal way so it’s hard to figure out.

Prowl teaching the younglings in Wildbreak’s grade that are in the enforcer track sounded like a funny thing to force him to do hehehe. He probably has Strongarm and Chase with him this chapter but that’s up to the imagination~

Also btw I’m not shipping Blurr and Skywarp they’re just becoming pals don’t ask me how they met I’m gonna get into that eventually in another chapter! Probably one in the Wildbreak fic that I have yet to update-

BTW HAPPY 20 CHAPTERS YIPPIE!!! Just for the occasion I will be making a silly movie themed chapter for three separate groups!

I’m thinking about what I did in my Minimus and Megatron fic but with other couples and fun groups! So I’ll be working on those, It’s also as an apology for my forgetting to post for a bit-

Hope you all tune in!

Chapter 21: Snow white

Summary:

Prowl gets to be a pretty princess-

(Slight gore warning-)

Prowl doesn’t usually wake up to find himself not in his berth. He was currently sitting in a lush green forest that had trees and plants that are either a lot bigger than they normally are or Prowl is a lot smaller than he usually is. This line of thought was only added to by the colorful dress now adorning Prowl’s frame.

Getting up Prowl was approached by a very adorable deer that was much bigger than the last time he’d met such a creature. Its large eyes and fluffy ears were very alluring, practically begging to be admired for how adorable it is.

Well until the arrow struck and Prowl was left looking at a corpse as the life left its eyes and became hollow. What was once such a beautiful creature now laying in a pool of its own blood lifeless and cold.

Prowl whipped his head around to see who could have possibly felt the need to ruin such a soft existence, one that harmed no one with its life and for what! Why did this one have to die?

The man, the human who approached bow in hand, looked down at Prowl with a cold expression that made Prowl’s plating bristle. The human’s eyes softened and a small exchange occurred where the man informed Prowl of an evil woman who wished for his heart on a platter so in its place he’d take the heart of another innocent life to spare Prowl.

Prowl took the warning to spark but he also wondered why it had to happen to him. Why Prowl, why does Prowl have to deal with this!? He ran just like the man had instructed running though he didn’t need to; no human could harm him no matter how evil. Though being the same size as them may be a future issue for now Prowl had to figure out what’s going on.

The running stopped when the world got darker and Prowl tried to use the Tacnet to process what’s happening only to find it unresponsive only repeating the same thing. It spat data about being pulled into a pocket dimension based on human literature.

That complicated things since Prowl has never once read a singular piece of human literature other than their laws. That was more of Jazz’s thing Prowl had only ever watched the movies with him when he asked.

Wait, come to think about it this had a similar feeling to the one labeled Snow white made by Disney in 1937. Jazz insisted they view the film last night before they and the Constructicons fell into recharge in the living room.

Maybe they ended up here too. Just in case Prowl made a mental note to investigate in case they happened to find themselves here as well.

This line of thought was interrupted when Prowl found a house in the middle of nowhere completely and utterly empty aside from the seven human themed beds in one of the rooms. This must be where those smaller humanoid creatures called the dwarves live. Prowl would have to wait here for them then.

He couldn’t exactly remember what the Snow white from the movie would be doing at this moment but he was more distracted by the fact the outfit was incomplete. For one thing he was missing the bow and shoes. Though his decal mimicked the feel of the pop of red and his pedes seemed similar colored enough.

He just thanked Primus that his wings were not trapped under the offending fabric.

Soon seven frantic voices were heard from outside as they all stumbled into the house one by one. The Constructicons are now much smaller than Prowl, barely reaching his waist in fact.

Though that only makes six with their multicolored shirts and hats adorning their currently quite adorably stubby frames. Then came Jazz, the seventh and smallest of the group with a purple hat and green shirt that barely allowed the release of his tiny door wings that gave a little flutter when he saw Prowl. The sight absolutely melted Prowl’s spark as he gazed at his beloved now much smaller than normal though it made little difference.

Especially since Jazz was already the shorter one but now he was absolutely adorably tiny.

Prowl felt a crash coming just from the overload of emotion from seeing Jazz so cute and small. But he managed to shake it off and they got to business.

“I knew it! Wait but if we’re all dwarves and yer the princess- NO! Some rando gets to kiss you!” Jazz whined with a dramatic sob moving to try and gain some form of comfort from Prowl who gladly allowed Jazz to climb into his lap.

The Constructicons seemed to be upset with this development but they couldn’t bring themselves to say anything.

“I would rather we avoid me sharing oral fluids with another if it could be avoided.” Prowl sighed pinching the bridge of his nose knowing damn well he was more annoyed Jazz wasn’t the prince.

“Maybe one of us could kiss ya when it comes to dat!” Hook commented with a wiggle of his hook. That little stunt earned him an angry beating from Bonecrusher who lunged at him and suddenly they were running outside to fight in the lawn.

“I hope they don’t do this at home.” Jazz comments while clinging to Prowl like the happiest lil guy in the world. (Bro likes this, big Prowl for the win! He’s absolutely enamored rn-)

The day came to a close with not much happening while Jazz recited the plot of the movie as one of the few actually paying attention to it before being brought here.

So the next day when Jazz told Prowl to take a bite of an apple some old lady gives him Prowl knows that’s part of the plot. He’d already been warned of the fact it was poison and that he’d just be asleep but it didn’t make him any less worried.

Especially when he saw the very shady woman, like who would eat what this woman gave them. The apple looked completely normal otherwise and well the woman was insisting so why not just get this over with.

Prowl bit into the apple and suddenly slipped into recharge. It was so weird it didn’t take longer than a second for him to pass out.

As for the others they returned to find Prowl sprawled on the ground.

“This is way more terrifying than I expected.” Jazz sighed wearily. Seeing Prowl so lifeless again was really spark breaking.

But he still had color that showed he’s still alive, just asleep.

Jazz instructed the Constructicons to help build the same structure from the movie where Snow White would need to lay and wait for the prince. Jazz just hoped he’d be strong enough not to instinctively punch the guy.

Prowl looked beautiful surrounded by flowers in the false coffin where he would stay until the narrative was completed.

They waited, and waited. A bit too long feeling like this wasn’t going to work. They started to panic if the prince didn’t come then the narrative wouldn’t be finished!

Prowl wouldn’t wake up! They would be stuck here forever!

In desperation Jazz climbed onto Prowl’s chassis and started trying to shake Prowl awake while the Constructicons tried their own ways either by Hook and Scrapper’s yelling or by Scavenger’s attempts to hold Prowl’s servo.

“The prince ain’t comin Prowl! Ya gotta wake up!” Jazz begged trying to get Prowl to do anything but lay there. Thankfully it worked and Prowl was currently looking Jazz dead in the optics.

He reached down and cupped Jazz’s cheek ready to pull the smaller closer before a glowing orange portal appeared above them grabbing them individually and pulling them in.

Notes:

Poor Jazz and Prowl got interrupted by the portal hehe-

No kissy kissy for you~ GAY

Anyway the fact is they aren’t going to remember this shit in the morning or all are going to take it as a dream they had or some shit and never talk about it again.

YIPPIE-

Chapter 22: Rest chapter

Summary:

As a bonus I’m adding two new duos for me to write about because I forgot to add them- This one does not count as one of the 20 chapters celebration, just an extra piece of fun!

The best medic in all central roads. Some would argue that on all of Cybertron there was none as good as Ratchet. Known for his horrible bedside manners yet absolutely perfect care.

No one left his clinic unfixed whether you had enough capital or not you’d receive treatment because that's how Ratchet operated. 24/7 365 you’ll never find yourself unable to get medical care or other care for all your needs with the full healthcare system being back online.

Many doctors from both sides were getting verified and opening their own places like Knockout who works tirelessly as a frame specialist in Central roads! But this isn’t about them no no this is about Ratchet.

Ratchet who was currently skipping his third break today going through medical files and completing paperwork while also cleaning one of the many medical bays. He helped teach the medic younglings at the nearby school from time to time and he’d just finished a class for them.

He wasn’t worried about anything… well except the two rapidly approaching mechs here to drag him away from his work.

“Ratchet Firstaid said you’re skipping your breaks again.” Rodimus announces as he and Drift enter the room zeroing in on the medic in question.

“Ratty!” Drift cheerfully chirps before dashing over to hug his beloved medic.

“I don’t need those breaks. Especially with the frame upgrade I got.” Ratchet huffed showing off his fresh outer frame he was practically forced to get by almost every leader possible. Elita was probably the only one not trying to talk him into getting an upgrade.

“You out of all mecha know that a frame upgrade doesn’t mean you can forgo rest.” Drift grumbled while burying his face into Ratchet’s back. Rodimus wasted no time in joining the hug, not even feeling the slightest bit upset when Ratchet grumbled something about personal space.

Rodimus knew Ratchet would never push him away; the older mech had practically raised him. Rodimus had plenty of older mechs who helped in his growth, Ratchet just happened to be the only one to stick around and survive. Well him and Drift.

“Alright, alright enough with the hugging I’m not even touching the ground!” Ratchet yelled thrashing around when both speedsters noticed they ended up actually picking Ratchet up.

They sheepishly allowed the older medic to return to his pedes before guiding him out of the doors and into the exit.

“See ya Firstaid!” Rodimus yelled out waving to Firstaid who was sitting at the front desk.

“Make sure that geezer gets some fuel in him before he comes back here!” Firstaid yelled after them with a wave of his own.

Rodimus and Drift were all too happy to take Ratchet with them to get some fuel from Swerve and Swindle’s new place but imagine their surprise when they sit down and a very large mech starts staring at them with his optics wide open.

“Dad!” Slag says while finding his way over to Ratchet and the others table.

“Slag, what’re you doing here?” Ratchet asks, happy to see his son out in public for once. Out of all his and Wheeljack’s sparklings Slag was the least likely to leave the hab.

“Slag got a job. Swindle pays Slag to be a bouncer.” The dinobot chirped happily, gaining his father’s praise.

“Happy we got you out of that office now?” Rodimus smirked, happy to act confident despite not knowing Slag worked here.

“Very.” Ratchet chuckled, allowing Rodimus to gain some praise for his unintentional efforts.

Notes:

Not much here just wanted to do something with these sillies! I do want to say something about Starscream though while I’m here!

I absolutely adore Skyfire | Jetfire and Starscream together I really do! But I also really like Starscream and Wheeljack being together. So I’ve decided to just do both-

After all it’s not like they don’t all get along. I've seen people who ship Starscream with both of them and them with each other so yeah. StarJack and StarFire are both gonna eventually be canon- (I love making slow burns if you can’t tell. The only ones actually together so far are Rewind and Chromedome and they aren’t a main pairing. I focus on- Well them and Mirage n Noah because I love them together.)

All that aside I hope you guys don’t hate me for it lol. I’ve just been having a romance kick lately. I'll start up more angsty ones soon after I’m done with the other two movie themed ones!

Chapter 23: The Little Mermaid

Summary:

Mirage and Noah host a movie night!

Mirage and Noah had managed to set up a nice movie night with the human’s little brother and his friend Reek where they could actually watch the movie with no issues. Unfortunately with a child in attendance they’d need to boot up a pg movie because Noah was not letting Kris be influenced by whatever Reek put on.

Noah would trust in Mirage’s picks because the bot always got really flustered when a movie with any form of adult action came on. Even just kissing seemed to make Mirage uncomfortable.

The movie they’d chosen was The Little Mermaid. All in all a good pg movie that’s not boring and most importantly one Mirage hasn’t seen yet.

Finally all was ready the humans had popcorn and soda while Mirage had something he refused to repeat the name of but Noah assumed it was a Cybertronian drink. The set up was pretty simple, just a small older box tv with a dvd player Reek managed to get for cheap.

A large plush picnic blanket covered the ground allowing Mirage to curl around the humans with Reek sitting by his pedes and Noah by his chassis with Kris in the middle all sitting on cushions taken from a nearby couch. Blankets check, fuel check, cushions check, movie check.

And the film started. Mirage commented lazily that Ariel’s situation from the start was not too far off from his own situation stunning the humans.

“You do realise I’m a high class Cybertronian right? Like I was before the war, at least now we don’t have that system but I can sympathize with wanting to leave that boring life behind.” Mirage explained sheepishly while taking a sip of his drink.

“It kinda makes sense.” Reek commented and they went back to focusing on the movie.

During the part where Ariel seeks out Ursula Mirage noticed an odd presence that made his spark sink in anticipation. Noah noticing his weird behavior pauses the movie right as Ariel’s about to enter the cursed cave of the sea witch.

“Somethin don’t feel right.” Mirage growled as he rose from his spot, still keeping close to the humans in a protective manner.

“Raj!” Noah called out but he was too late to stop Mirage from being grabbed and pulled into the orange portal that had appeared in front of the tv.

Inside Mirage could feel himself plunge into water. He stuck out his servos attempting to swim upwards but his lower half wasn’t responding. In fact his pedes wouldn’t separate.

When he looked down, imagine the surprise of finding not two legs but one tail that had a similar sheen to his usual armor except it had dazzling biolights along its sides showing its dolphin-like shape.

Beside him was a terrified and whimpering Kris who had somehow turned into a merman like in the movie though he was more alike to the little blue and yellow fish… Flounder, Kris turned into a merman version of Flounder from the movie!

As for Reek he was similar to Kris but instead of a fish his lower half now resembled the crab from the movie. Sebastian.

“This is bullshit.” Reek complained looking at his little swimmy legs.

“This is… SO COOL!” Kris seemed to come to terms with what happened showing his excitement with a few flips under the water alongside his happy little giggles.

“Ya look good as a guppy. That’s what baby fish are called right?” Mirage chirped, swaying his tail sassily.

“All I gotta ask is where the hell’s Noah?” Reek sighs looking around.

“Maybe he’s on land or in the Ursula cave.” Mirage says while looking back at the cave giving it a cursory glance.

“Yeah!” Kris whooped ready to swim head first into the cave.

“Hold on Tails we gotta let me scout it out first we don’t know what to expect from that witch lady.” Mirage huffed, pulling Kris back.

“Right, sorry!” Kris sheepishly chirped before moving to swim right alongside Mirage while Reek held on to Mirage’s tail for dear life.

The room didn’t seem very big and that was concerning because Mirage was usually a lot bigger than this.

“Knuckles, I think your human size!” Kris pointed out when Mirage measured up to the human sized table before them.

“Yeah that means you two are just tiny now heh.” Mirage cooed back while moving to pat Kris’ head.

“Welcome~” A sultry woman's voice beckoned them to look up to see the purple skinned mer with a squid or octopus for a lower half.

Mirage didn’t waste a moment moving to shield Kris and Reek behind him but his arm wouldn’t transform to defend them. This woman was actually a bit bigger than him and it was kinda scary.

“You seem quite different from my usual clientele~” Ursula cooed, backing away with her tentacles raising with her hands to show she wasn’t trying to threaten them.

“By that I mean usually I’m visited by desperate singles not groups.” She clarified while moving around to start fixing up some bottles.

“Well we’re looking to visit the surface, ya know. Humans.” Mirage nervously says while pushing down his flared plating.

Ursula hummed moving around the table and bringing a few bottles that clinked when placed on the counter.

“Will you all pay your own price for the bill or separate payments for the same treatment?” Ursula asks but she sounded like an actual Doctor or business woman instead of an evil witch like the movie apparently portrayed her as.

“Same, I’ll pay the price.” Mirage insisted despite Kris trying to stop him.

“Where did that music start coming from-“ Reek yelped as loud music started to play and suddenly they were thrust into a musical number.

Ursula was using the music to explain all her wares had a price and sometimes the price was more than you’d think. The words really struck with the tone and clarity of words despite actually dodging telling them what the price the others had paid was.

She made it seem like she was fair with her prices and how they’d end up better off after her help but Mirage didn’t trust it. It seemed too good to be true, no business woman does this for a small price.

Then that line hit, she wanted Mirage’s voice something he’d learned to love and use and without any weapons it was his next best defense. He’d be like how Bee was during the war only able to speak using his radio that he doubts actually works at this point.

But anything to find Noah and get the hell out of this place. He could always just get a new vocal component. Cybertron’s not at war; it'd be easy to get another with no shortage in spare parts.

Before Ursula could do some magical bullcrap to take Mirage’s voice he just straight up detached his vocal component and set it on the counter. He then motioned to it and showed he in fact couldn’t speak without it.

“Well, not the usual way I am paid, however I should have stated the payment method more clearly. Oh well you did pay the price I have no choice.” Ursula says with a disappointed sigh before using some form of flashy magic on the vocal component that made a flashy whirlpool of color that collected in their bodies and suddenly Mirage felt the tail start to unravel.

He knew it wouldn’t be long before Kris and Reek would need air so he grabbed them and swam as fast as he could, aiming for a sandy shore he’d felt nearby. No clue how he found it but he did.

He heaved the now much bigger Reek and Kris onto land noticing, yep they’re a lot bigger now. Reek was in fact now taller than Mirage.

It wasn’t by much but he is taller now. “Damn you’re still human size. A short human at that.” Reek coughed out while choking on water.

Mirage flipped him off and started shaking out his plating. The water and sand carefully fell out from between his seams onto the ground.

“Where did our clothes come from?” Kris asks, seeing the shorts that replaced his fish tail.

“I think it’s because it’d be weird if we were naked.” Reek adds looking at his own shorts.

Mirage opened his intake about to say something but instead of words all that came out was garbled mechanical whirring that had his servos flying to cover his intake in surprise.

“Dang I forgot you can’t talk now.” Reek winced imagining that attempting to talk was probably physically painful from the look on Mirage’s face.

“Looks like you’re silenced Knuckles.” Kris comments and hugs onto Mirage’s side finding it a lot easier to wrap his tiny arms around the bot’s waist.

“If you were a human I’d be concerned about your lack of a gut.” Reek chuckles Mirage didn’t take the comment very seriously but returned it with another bird.

“If I remember the movie right, the prince character should show up soon.” Reek added moving to look around.

“Do you think they’ll see Mirage as a human or as him? Because Ursula saw him as a normal mermaid.” Kris questioned looking up at Mirage.

“Dunno but I’m hoping they see him as human so they don’t freak out. I know I did when I first met him.” Reek replied.

Mirage made a robotic chirping sound before seemingly getting really upset for a moment and attempting to show what he meant to say through motions.

“I think he agrees, but thinks it’d be awkward that he’s not wearing any clothes.” Kris says knowingly getting a thumbs up and happy static cheer.

Just when things were winding down a very irate man speaking Spanish ran down the beach with a large shaggy dog running after him. “Raj!” The man called out waving at the trio and by Primus it was Noah in some spiffy clothes running towards them.

He didn’t stop and kept running but his face contorted in confusion then shock when he came to a stop right in front of Mirage finding the mech was the exact same height as him. “Yer uh… A bit smaller than I remember.” Noah chuckled while huffing from his run.

“Yeah it’s weird right?” Reek says plainly.

“I’m guessing Raj can’t talk since he hasn’t made a single comment yet.” Noah expertly deduced only gaining him a dramatic eye roll from Mirage.

“Yeah the sea witch took his voice like the movie.” Kris chirped happily moving to hug his big brother.

“Well the ending should be closer since we’ve already gone through like half of the relevant points. I know Mirage is Ariel and I already love him. That’s like half the movie vetoed.” Noah says thinking back on the rest of the movie.

Mirage was going to say something but the surroundings changed and suddenly he was sitting in a boat with Noah. Cept the real kicker is that he's wearing human clothes now!

Noah chuckled seeing Mirage thrash around in surprise now suddenly wearing a very fitting blue dress. Reek and Kris were nearby in their own little boat cheering as they paddled around after the initial shock wore off.

“This is pretty nice.” Noah says with a dreamy sigh being able to see the beautiful world around them as well as seeing Mirage in human clothing. Something he’ll probably never see again since Mirage is a giant robot alien. It’d be hard to find any that would fit him and probably really expensive to make with how much material they’d need to gather.

Mirage tried to say something but coughed out static when his missing vocal component only made his throat hurt.

“I get it Raj you were about to make one of your jokes again I can guess the one.” Noah chuckled with a dramatic eye roll at the bot's antics. Kinda sucked that Mirage couldn’t really speak at the moment; it would only make this so much better if they could converse.

The music started to set in as the boat moved like it had a mind of its own; the smooth melody followed by mysterious singing that they couldn’t pinpoint where exactly it came from only furthered the plot. If that wasn’t all it’d be alright but seeing each other framed in beautiful lighting while the romantic music played was really moving.

Noah illuminated by the light and absolutely adorned by the handsome clothing this scene forced upon him was dazzling and Mirage couldn’t say anything about it. No compliments or rushed flirting! No random “I love you” nothing! He couldn’t say anything and it hurt not to be able to tell Noah how much he truly admired him.

Noah on the other hand was absolutely spilling compliments and whispered flirting that made Mirage’s plating shiver. He can’t take all this fluff he’s going to explode. He just wants to say something back or sass something smart to ruin the moment but he couldn’t.

The moment was only added to when Noah put his hand on Mirage’s cheek and they both leaned in. This was a wonderful moment. The kiss they shared opened the orange portals once again even with the tale unfinished all because the narrative was completed.

Notes:

They’re already together man idk what ya want here lol.

I love these two honestly and I think they make a wonderful couple though I’d never draw or write anything other than fluff and angst sorry guys! Lol

I just can’t bring myself to cross that line heh so yeah! That's the chapter I hope it was fun!

These are supposed to be pretty short stories so it makes sense they’re short chapters.

SEE YA!

Chapter 24: Rest chapter 2

Summary:

If I keep on the long ass chapters that follow disney movies I’m going to explode- That’s what these rest chapters are for :D That and the Minimus fic but that ones on a small stasis because I’m overwhelmed irl and following a singular storyline makes my brain itch. So yeh it’s gonna be like a few days before I post something there!

On principle Wheeljack generally lets his kids do whatever they want. Slag got a job recently so the others have been begging to go visit him at his job. He tried so hard to say no he really did but the puppy dog eyes won him over and here he was with all four of his overgrown kiddos going to ruin their siblings day.

The walk to Swindle and Swerve’s bar wasn’t very far but it was definitely tiring trying to keep his kids together. They’d always end up being challenged by over confident formers who thought they could take down a Dinobot for brownie points.

No clue where the notion that winning against some of the strongest mecha on Cybertron was meant to do anything but it was something shared among the idiots of Central Roads like a bad plague. It probably had something to do with that time Drift beat Snarl in a fight.

That situation got really out of hand. But it wasn’t a normal occurrence; many still feared the Dinobot’s for their physical prowess.

They were let in by Swindle who showed them to a table and called over Slag who was practically radiating excitement and happiness.

“Mother.” Slag chirped with a metallic coo as he practically melted onto Wheeljack like a big cuddly blanket. Wheeljack was way more used to this behavior from his more docile children.

“Are you having a good workday kiddo?” Wheeljack asks as he gives Slag a pat.

“Slag is very good employee!” Slag proclaimed cheerfully as he rose to his full height puffing out his chassis in pride.

“He’s been doing his job very well and Swerve won’t stop reminding me about how good of an idea it was to hire him. We haven’t had as many fights thanks to Slag.” Swindle commented while passing out drinks.

“We haven’t even ordered yet.” Wheeljack says, looking at the drink.

“Swerve made you what he thought you’d like, don't worry it’s on the house. Swerve’s just happy you came to visit Slag.” Swindle sighed and readily took their orders before giving Slag a shoulder bump and moving on.

“Me Swoop thinks Slag is making friends.” Swoop helpfully commented.

“Of course he is, Swoop would make friends too if he tried.” Grimlock huffed ignoring the offended squawk his brother let out. Grimlock always was much better at talking than his siblings but he still had more to learn.

Not that they are stupid or anything, they just came online without finished language settings so they’d need to learn language unlike the average Cybertronian. With such a disadvantage they ended up speaking like cave people from movies.

Though if they really tried they could speak normally but it was more comfortable for them to speak like this.

The fuel wasn’t bad, maybe a bit sweet for Wheeljack’s liking after all he was much more into sour flavors it eluded him how something had citrus in the name turned out sweet. The Dinos seemed to like their fuel though and usually he’d have to pay a lot to feed his giant kiddos but Swindle actually gave fair prices.

“Thank Slag for the discount. He saved me from getting kidnapped a few days ago after all.” Swindle comments like it’s just another day on the job.

Wheeljack didn’t have time to process that honestly as he was ushering his kids out so they wouldn’t cause any chaos at Slag’s new job.

They clambered down the street all very happy to see their sibling doing so well for himself. This only got them thinking if Slag could get a job and make money. Does this mean that he’s going to leave them?

Back at the lab Wheeljack couldn’t focus on his projects with four wallowing Dinos. For some reason Grimlock was the only reasonable one and that was because he’d already drawn up plans on how to get Slag fired.

Wheeljack knew they were possessive but this was a bit much. He’d have to stop this before they actually try to get Slag fired or worse try to kill his bosses for “stealing” their brother.

“Alright all of you stop allat before I put all of ya in a time out! You aren’t younglings anymore yer brother has a wonderful job but that doesn’t mean he’s gonna leave us. And if he does move out that just means more space fer you guys. He’s not going to disappear. Slag would visit us.” Wheeljack lectured his kids, seeing them start to feel guilty for planning to burn down Swindle and Swerve’s bar.

“Sludge misses brother Slag.” Sludge says sadly.

Wheeljack cooed and brought his poor baby into a hug making sure the bigger mech was feeling a bit better but was slowly covered by his other large children in a group hug.

“It’s alright kiddos. Slag ain’t going to leave us forever. He’s probably on the way home right now.” Wheeljack chirped allowing them to hold on for as long as they wanted likely until their brother comes home.

His kids may be adults now and have always been this size but to Wheeljack they’ll always be his babies no matter if they started small or large. They’re his sparklings no matter what anyone else has to say.

Notes:

The Dinobots love their parents. I like to think they’re very possessive and jealous but they can understand when it’s too much.

Now imagine if one of their parents starts dating- Drift and Ratchet are keeping their relationship hush hush. Only Rodimus and Wheeljack know they’re actually dating.

Minimus just has a very strong feeling they are dating.

As for Wheeljack he’s usually with the Dinos so there’s not much time to date but that’ll change soon hehehehe-

If any of them get a partner though their siblings would probably congratulate them instead of hate their partner. Depending on who the partner is of course.

Grimlock and Bumblebee are in the very awkward crushes phase of their relationship so it’s kinda obvious they like each other but they don’t interact enough for others to really see it as anything other than being excited to see one another.

Slag doesn’t have any interest in romantic relationships but he’s really enjoying having a job. Bro is gonna be married to his job like Wheeljack claims to be.

Can’t wait to write the Dinobots crashing out over their parents dating other people heh

Chapter 25: Aladdin

Summary:

Swindle finds out how chaotic world travel can be.

Swindle is never allowing another movie night in his bar. Swerve was inspired by those videos of humans going to movies and eating what the characters eat in the film.

So he practically begged Swindle to use the bar for a test of his idea before the real thing. And instead of food they’d be serving alcohol of course.

Blurr and Skywarp were glad to be the guinea pigs for Swerve’s new idea alongside Rodimus who was absolutely buzzing at the idea calling it the best idea ever.

Swindle didn’t agree, especially when he was forced into actually attending. Sitting next to Skywarp was horrible when the seeker’s wings fluttered at every sip of their drink. They'd taken out the mech frame today but that only made them bigger.

The drinks didn’t start out that bad but Swindle wasn’t really paying attention to the movie itself. Kids movies weren’t really his favorite unless a character specifically catches his optic.

The drink that really messed with him was the one that Swerve practically fell while handing him.

“You alright Swerve-” Swindle chirped but instead of Swerve he was faced with a glowing orange portal that reached around him and swallowed him whole as he yelped in panic.

The falling was surprisingly the only thing Swindle didn’t mind but what he did mind was the fact he was wearing pants. White harem pants with a square of fabric to show its been patched before alongside a yellow waist that matched his armor. On top of all that he was also adorned with a purple vest and a tiny red hat.

Beside him fell a screaming Blurr who hit the ground with a cough. He also had a lil hat and vest plus a little fluffy tail that flexed as he stood up brushing off the sand that stuck to him.

“I could’ve sworn I was sober enough to not fall into recharge.” Blurr chuckled showing he truly was not drunk as usually he’d have sped through his words when drunk.

Swindle sighed and copied his motions dusting off sand and only now noticing that Blurr was a lot smaller than he remembers.

“Looks like that whatever it was turned you into a minicon or something.” Swindle commented as he held out his servo for Blurr to climb on.

“I think we’re both smaller than we normally are Swindle. Case in point you’re smaller than those doors.” Blurr points out the human doors they were standing near and sure enough Swindle was pretty small compared to them. To be fair though the doors were fairly big.

Just when they got their bearings Swindle noticed he’d dropped a sack and curious to see what he’d landed with he opened it up to find some bread. “That’s odd.” Swindle comments holding the bread to show Blurr.

“Theif!” A man yells from down the alleyway they were pointing to Swindle.

“Run!” Blurr chirped loudly and Swindle didn’t have to hear that a second time as he held onto Blurr and started dashing down the streets. They were being chased by multiple humans who were surprisingly bigger than Swindle who was trying to access his weapons but his subspace wouldn’t open.

“Blurr I think we may want to just keep running-” Swindle chuckled nervously.

Blurr looked confused but then shocked. “Swindle look out!” He yelled but was a bit late when Swindle ended up running through a brick wall.

“I think they may want to look into their wall structure.” Swindle huffed, spitting out dust as he managed to grab onto the side of the building to start climbing barely escaping their pursuers.

“Good thinking Swindle though I kinda expect that from you.” Blurr says teasingly earning a playful shove from Swindle who chuckled in good spirit.

“I have had my days like this before. I’m simply more curious why we’re in the movie.” Swindle sighed looking at the bread he’d managed to steal.

He carefully split it in two, handing part of it to Blurr, finding that when they went to eat the bread it turned into energon before going into their intake.

“Well that was fun but what’s the next part of the movie? I’m assuming that if we finish the movie then we get to go home. So we need to figure out what the next step is.” Swindle says thinking back to what he remembers of the movie cursing his inattentiveness.

Blurr thought on it too but managed to remember the next part. “We gotta find the Genie! Big blue guy in an oil lamp. For that we gotta get out of the town though.” Blurr chirped before trying to transform and finding he couldn’t.

“Can’t transform?” Swindle asks and Blurr looks really worried.

Swindle tries his own transformation and finds it works like regular and thankfully his alt form is used in deserts anyway. His clothing was in the back and somehow he’d returned to full size but only while in his alt mode but that doesn’t matter right now.

They’d figure it out when they find the others.

Sneaking out of the city was easy but finding where they were supposed to go after was a challenge. “Didn’t someone guide him in the movie or something?” Swindle asks and Blurr gives a noncommittal hum.

“I’m not driving through the desert forever.” Swindle grumbles.

“It’s not forever just until we find-” Blurr spoke but Swindle peeled off with a surprised yelp.

“I’m not in control!” Swindle yelled in panic as his wheel and tires moved on their own even after a painful jump that had him wincing at how his wheels felt from the impact.

“I’m sure it’s just the mysterious thing that brought us here in the first place.” Blurr comments but that didn’t make Swindle any less worried.

They came to a stop in front of the large cavern shaped like a tiger's maw. Swindle questioned what could have possibly made the movie’s main character think going in there was a good idea in general but he didn’t have the time to question things he needed to find the others so they could find a way home.

Finding the treasure room was a weird jump from wandering through the empty corridor. Blurr took extra attention to all the gold within but Swindle was worried this seemed a bit too good to be true. There had to be a catch, no way this was all that would happen.

“Blurr don’t touch anything. We don’t know what happens when we do. I think this part is a trap.” Swindle comments moving past the treasures.

“Swindle!” Cheered a familiar voice that jumped from the gold hugging onto Swindle like never before.

“Skywarp!” Blurr yelled waving up at the normal sized Skywarp who was draped in pretty jewelry and other tidbits that really framed his coloring.

“You both look so cute and tiny.” Skywarp cooed, reaching down to pick up the itty bitty Blurr.

“Where’s the lamp the movie calls for?” Blurr asks, already on board with Swindle’s plan of finishing the movie as quickly as possible.

“This way!” Skywarp chirps leading them into another cavern with water that is absolutely dazzled in the moonlight showing the lamp at the top of the structure.

“I’ll go get the lamp and remember not to touch anything.” Swindle warns before skipping across the rocks. Blurr didn’t really take the warning to spark after all Skywarp was swimming in the gold earlier so why couldn’t he touch the gold.

Swindle reached the top making sure he touched as little as possible so as to not set off any traps. He carefully reached out and lifted the lamp, finding it a little lackluster but to be fair it was called for by the movie to go into the next portion.

They still needed to find Rodimus and Swerve after all.

He was about to head back down only to find the ground beneath him shaking as stalagmites around crumbled and fell. Skywarp was holding up a very guilty looking Blurr who ended up grabbing a gem from a statue.

Swindle wished he could take some of the riches back too but he’d told Blurr to be careful.

“Run!” Swindle yells as a stalagmite almost fell onto Skywarp and Blurr they managed to avoid it but started running as Swindle instructed. Swindle wasn’t far behind tucking the lamp safely into his chassis before running after them with little room to transform.

Skywarp was having trouble fitting through the passageway so Swindle had an easier time catching up to them but they still had to get out. Lava seemed to be the next part of the worry as it started rushing towards them only making Swindle panic further.

“Skywarp!” Blurr yelled as the seeker started to glow and suddenly instead of a giant seeker there was a flying carpet with all the colors of Skywarp’s armor. Swindle didn’t question it, only hopping onto Skywarp’s back as the carpet seeker flew through the rooms gunning for the entrance of the cave.

Blurr and Swindle held on for life squealing as fire rose from below with Skywarp expertly dodging any debris that would have hit them until one rock managed to change its course hitting Swindle off like it was meant to hit him the whole time.

Skywarp and Blurr yelled out for him but thankfully Swindle was able to grab onto a part of the rock. An old dusty man peered over the side instructing Swindle to hand him the lamp.

Swindle handed the man the lamp like it was second nature even though he knew he’d need it later because the man was going to help him up wasn’t he? This is a kids movie they wouldn’t possibly-

The man grabbed Swindle but wasn’t pulling him up instead the man's other hand revealed a dagger poised to stab Swindle. Blurr couldn’t let Swindle die, no way he’d just started to get to know the guy and surely Swerve would be upset!

So in true Blurr fashion he jumped at the old man biting onto his arm with no access to weapons; it was his only shot at not letting Swindle get stabbed. The rocks Swindle was holding onto gave way and he fell with the old man grabbing Blurr and throwing him in after Swindle.

Skywarp managed to dive and catch Swindle and Blurr trying hard to not fall into the lava below.

It all culminated in Blurr waking up with a groan of pain feeling all his plating throb from the impact. Finding Swindle and Skywarp passed out beside him with Skywarp in bot form laying on top of poor Swindle who was struggling to in vent from the weight of a full size seeker resting on him.

“Skywarp wake up, you're crushing Swindle!” Blurr yelled sticking his servo into Skywarp’s side cabling pulling on a wire that made the large seeker squeal in laughter as they sat up in a sudden start.

“Ow…” Swindle wheezed feeling the pain of a fall coupled with being squished by a giant seeker wasn’t the best feeling in the world.

“Sorry Swindler.” Skywarp apologised, helping Swindle off the ground and seeing the dented plating from hitting rocks and being crushed and feeling real guilty for not being able to help him. Blurr was alright with only a small dent on his side from the fall as Swindle somehow managed to hit every rock on the way down before he could.

“S’ alright. Just feeling like an idiot for giving that two faced vermin the lamp.” Swindle complained while ignoring the way his systems screamed at him to rest. He'd just have to care about those injuries later.

“Well actually I took a page out of your book and swiped this off the guy before biting him.” Blurr chirped, showing off the lamp with a flamboyant wave.

“Good job Blurr!” Skywarp cheered, pumping their fist in the air.

“What they said.” Swindle chirped carefully, taking the lamp from Blurr’s servos.

Swindle inspected the lamp, finding it a little dirty from the fall in a good attempt to remedy the plight of having a dirty lamp Swindle rubbed against his vest trying to clean off the words on the front.

The lamp giggled and fire spouted from its open spout spooking Swindle who didn’t dare drop it while Skywarp moved to shield Blurr who was now hiding behind their leg.

The lamp soon gave out a thick blue and pink smoke that coupled with a panicked scream allowed Rodimus to appear from the thick smoke with golden bracelets adorning his arms and instead of two pedes his frame formed into a wispy ghost-like tail that connected to the lamp opening.

“Finally! Man I was scared you were going to leave me with that old guy! But then Blurr yoinked me and then you guys fell and I was worried you’d fall or something and you know I felt bad I couldn’t help being stuck in the lamp and all- It sucks by the way 0/10 do not recommend becoming a genie.” Rodimus ranted while doing an exaggerated stretch.

Like Skywarp he was also full size so now the small cave had even less space for poor Swindle and Blurr.

“Lets uh get out of here. This place can’t be doing your wounds any good.” Rodimus chirped looking around for a way out.

“You know we could just fly out.” Skywarp commented.

“How there’s no opening.” Blurr questioned looking up at the giant seeker like geez were they all really this big to humans??

“We make one.” Rodimus says with a smirk as he quickly scoops up the tiny Swindle and Blurr who both voice their many complaints as Skywarp allows Rodimus to cling onto his back.

“Get ready for takeoff!” Skywarp cheerfully says while getting ready to jump. Both Swindle and Blurr are absolutely terrified but they can’t really stop them and eventually they’re back on carpet Skywarp flying across the sky as the sun rises beside them.

“See that wasn’t so bad-” Skywarp says but their comment turned into a yelp when Blurr bit the tassel on the corner.

They started to squabble playfully and poor Swindle was still in a state of shock after all that holding onto the lamp like a lifeline.

“You alright Swindle?” Rodimus chirps, finding a way to size down so he can sit beside Swindle comfortably.

“Yeah perfectly fine couldn’t be better-” Swindle coughed out while looking over the edge uneasily.

“Do you not like heights?” Rodimus questioned while floating over the side to peer down, finding it to be a pretty high height they were cruising at.

“No, I'm just worried. If we’re going through all this then what’s happening to Swerve? Like I’m pretty dented up sure but Swerve’s alone right now!” Swindle whined but his extra motions only made his injuries sting causing him to wince and retreat back to clutching Rodimus’ lamp.

“Well since I’m a genie and all can’t we just wish Swerve to us?” Rodimus questioned.

“Let’s land here and try it, we don't want to summon him mid air.” Skywarp suggests as he starts to slowly descend towards a small oasis.

“Alright I wish Swerve is with us.” Swindle says but nothing happens.

“Maybe I have to do something?” Rodimus says trying to do anything but nothing was working.

“Uh.. I wish we were transported to Swerve.” Swindle tried again but nothing once again.

“Why don’t we just hold off on wishes then.” Blurr suggests.

Swindle sighed loudly and just laid on the ground in defeat.

“I just wish we at least knew where Swerve was.” Swindle whined covering his face in dread.

“Yeah that didn’t work either.” Rodimus helpfully commented.

“Maybe we just gotta use the name of the character Swerve is!” Blurr chirped.

“Yeah but how do we know what character he is?” Skywarp questioned.

“We could just use the princess of the movie! All the other characters should be around her after all!” Blurr added with an excited hop.

“By Primus you're right!” Swindle chuckled, feeling hope return as he scrambled to get up ignoring how painful his joints were with warped plating and sand.

“Rodimus I wish we knew where Princess Jasmine is.” Swindle proclaimed and suddenly a beacon of light appeared in the distance showing them their destination.

“How’d you know the princess’ name if you weren’t paying attention to the movie Swin?” Skywarp asks as they scoop up Swindle and Blurr again.

“The name of the princess and Aladdin are the only two things I paid attention to.” Swindle admitted as they started the long carpet ride.

“So that’s one out of three wishes down the drain now we gotta get the other two turned out.” Rodimus comments tallying up the wishes.

“We have to leave one wish to free you from the lamp so we only have one left technically.” Blurr points out.

“I got pretty overcharged by this part of the movie so the rest’s a little fuzzy to me.” Skywarp admits and Blurr mirrors this sentiment.

“I wasn’t that drunk yet but I can’t remember much of the end of the movie. I do know we have to fight Jafar, the wizard guy who wants the lamp and wants to marry the princess character.” Rodimus chirped remembering parts of the movie.

“Well for now we should just find Swerve and get out worrying about the rest of the movie later.” Swindle insists.

“Since when are you the voice of reason, Swindler?” Skywarp asks with a healthy laugh.

“Since I got my act together. I do have a business to run now that’s actually legit.” Swindle proudly reminds the seeker of his success.

The moment they enter town everything seems fine, no one's out of place and more importantly no one notices them riding on a giant robot in the sky. Even if no one noticed them before Skywarp wasn’t willing to get shot down by the guards after all he’d just gotten his mech frame fixed.

So they’d have to find Swerve the old fashioned way. By breaking into a government building and ransacking the place until they find him. The breaking in part wasn’t very hard with Skywarp able to punch through the wall with ease.

“Man, they really need to check their walls.” Skywarp comments.

“I KNOW RIGHT!” Swindle chirped as they ran in.

Avoiding guards was a bit harder when Rodimus literally glowed but they managed somehow. Rodimus even managed to get them to walk through him and they never paid any attention to Skywarp like he didn’t even exist.

Yet the moment Swindle tripped and fell in the corridor they were all over the place. It was through this accident that Skywarp and Rodimus learned that they couldn’t physically touch the guards when one almost managed to nab Blurr. Blurr thankfully was able to slip away but unless Skywarp was in carpet form he couldn’t do much to help Swindle and Blurr.

Rodimus unfortunately got sucked back into the lamp when Swindle passed it over to Blurr while they ran trying to avoid any and all guards knowing how many there were and how terrifyingly strong they were in comparison to Swindle at this moment.

Blurr wasn’t doing much better when a parrot came out of nowhere and snatched the lamp from him, flying away with it towards a man with a golden staff who gladly took Rodimus’ lamp. Skywarp couldn’t do anything when Swindle was tackled by two of the guards and poor Blurr was grabbed up by another but they were having a lot less difficulty with Blurr.

“Now look at this, the lamp right where it belongs. In my grasp~” Jafar purred evilly, rubbing the side of the lamp.

Unfortunately things didn’t go as he may have expected when a very angry Swerve appeared behind him with a very large object that the mech smashed over the evil guys head.

“Hey guys!” Swerve chirped, waving at the others while using his other servo to pick up Rodimus’ lamp.

“I wish us home Rodimus and quick!”

With that little push a portal appeared just like before pulling Swindle, Skywarp, Blurr and Swerve in with Rodimus turning back before diving in after them.

“That was really cool!” Swerve exclaimed before he and the others realized they were crushing poor Swindle again.

Notes:

Torture heh!

I just realized I don’t actually know much about the Combaticons so I’ll try to learn more about them. The only one I was ever interested in was Swindle so yeah.

I didn’t plan to use them much so it made sense not to reference them much yet but still.

Anyway enough about my shortcomings were here to uh let me explain idk.

Swerve being a badass Jasmine was funny and I also thought it’d be hilarious that none of them just thought of wishing to go home.

Swindle getting absolutely beat on by everything makes it funnier. Bro got thrown, watch the movie because Aladdin should not have been okay!!

Other than that I think I like how I made this turn out! I honestly enjoyed it!

Though I’m very excited to go back to shorter lengths because longer form content makes me lose focus. This is my escape from that.

Anyway 20 chapters was a big milestone so yay! I’ll set another one but my google docs only has so many tabs-

So yeah. May move some to their own fics probably. But I like having these ones all in one place. Minimus and Megatron are the only ones with their own one other than Wildbreak.

Anyway that’s all for this one and I hope you guys enjoyed the celebration chapters! I had to rewatch old Disney movies for this…

Chapter 26: Dad’s day off

Summary:

Wheeljack gets a break!

The Dinobots usually spent their days with their creator Wheeljack in his lab but today they were invited over to their other creator’s home leaving Wheeljack and Slag as the only two left behind. That wasn’t the full truth though as Slag only stayed behind to go to work so Wheeljack had his first free day in a long, long time.

And how you may ask will he be using this coveted freetime? By doing field research without a giant dinosaur looming over his shoulder for once.

The groundbridge to Earth crackled and buzzed allowing him easy access to the area he’d chosen for his arrival. The arctic greeted him with an icy wind that made his winglets shiver. Walking past the vast landscape of beautiful white and blue.

Wheeljack loved the arctic, a calming white overtaking any color in a way that made you feel calm well except for the bright orange building in the distance where Wheeljack was moving towards.

Two small humans escaped the orange pod excitedly running through the snow towards Wheeljack with excited yelling in a language other than English.

“Hold on kiddos I’m not patched into your language yet!” Wheeljack chirped, tweaking his language settings to be able to decipher what the children were speaking.

“Jack’s here, Jack’s here!” One of the kids giggled loudly squealing the abbreviation of Wheeljack’s name.

A large mech came out of the hanger portion of the building which was mostly underground but definitely big enough for the unusually tall mech who was now running towards Wheeljack with open arms.

“Skyfire, wait!” Wheeljack yelled but was tackled onto the ground by the excited Shuttle.

He squirmed as Skyfire easily pulled him away from the ground into a hug. “I’m so happy you came to visit Wheeljack!” The shuttle cooed, bringing Wheeljack and the two giggling children inside through the bot door.

“Wheeljack!” Chirped another human who was standing on one of the human perches.

“Heya Miko, been having fun at the arctic station?” Wheeljack asks while moving to greet the small girl.

“Absolutely! My college admission went through so I only have a few more weeks here before I have to move into a dorm but I’ve had fun playing with the penguins!” Miko chuckled excitedly.

“How’s Bulk doing back on Cybertron?” She asks.

Wheeljack thinks on it for a second before showing some pictures of Bulkhead at his new job. They both reminisce for a minute before Wheeljack goes back to business.

“So you wanted to go with me or are you still avoiding Starscream?” Wheeljack asks knowingly while ignoring the whole body flinch Skyfire shook off.

“I want to see him, I really do but I just can’t. I can’t face him knowing what I’ve done.” The shuttle says with a weary sigh.

Wheeljack didn’t come up tall enough to really give Skyfire a good hug but he’d have to hope a leg hug would suffice. The shuttle seemed to really appreciate the hug reaching down to pick up Wheeljack for a real hug that made Wheeljack’s finials flash in surprise and alarm before allowing the embrace.

Wheeljack wasn’t upset that Skyfire didn’t want to see Starscream after all that was his choice but the fact he continued to use his desertion of the Decepticons as a reason was starting to become concerning. It seemed stuck in the big guy’s processor.

Maybe Wheeljack should bring Rung over for a house call.

That idea was put on the backburner while Wheeljack entered his next bridge. The bridge brought him to the Malto’s ranch where Twitch and Jawbreaker were waiting to tackle Wheeljack with excited hugs.

“Whoah I’m getting a lot of hugs today.” Wheeljack chuckles while carefully moving away from the closing bridge.

“I missed you!!” Twitch chirped, clinging onto Wheeljack’s arm.

“Me too, me too!” Jawbreaker added excitedly.

“Kids you better not be crowding Wheeljack!” Dottie called out reminding both the terrans not to crowd Wheeljack.

They hurriedly ran back to their siblings leaving Wheeljack to talk with Dot and Bumblebee.

“Hey Jack!” Bee chirped, giving Wheeljack a fistbump.

“Haha, hope yer doing well Bee.” Wheeljack chirped back, returning Bumblebee’s gesture.

“Doing great just hope you and Grimlock come and visit again soon. Twitch and Jawbreaker have been missing their big brother and Dad 2.” Bumblebee expressed openly but he kept out the part where he missed seeing Grimlock.

“Grimlock’s been missing his little siblings… and you of course. Don’t tell him I told you but he’s been using your picture as his datapad background. It’s adorable how much he likes you.” Wheeljack says with a teasing chuckle watching Bumblebee’s face turn blue in embarrassment.

The instinctive giggling he gave was only adding to Bumblebee’s embarrassment and finally the younger mech couldn’t take the teasing, letting out unintelligible static and garbled words before running off to the Terrans.

“You broke my son Wheeljack.” Dot says with mock anger but the smirk on her face and soft giggling showed she wasn’t actually upset.

“Hey yer boy broke mine first. Don’t tell Bee but Grimlock keeps a chip of his paint in a baggie. It’s in, like a small shrine he made in his closet. Saw it while I was fixing Grim’s light.” Wheeljack huffs and Dot’s soft giggles turned into snort and stifled laughter.

“What about you, Wheeljack, any dating going on? I can’t even begin to understand how you lived being a single parent.” Dot asked with a sigh showing she was done with her giggling at Bumblebee’s expense.

“Don’t really have the time let alone the ability to. The Dinos won’t let anybot I take an interest in close enough. If they aren’t chased off by my kids, usually my work ethic finishes it.” Wheeljack admits calmly while moving to lay beside Dot who sat on the green grass.

“Sounds like you need to take time for yourself more often. Your kids are grown, they can handle being without you for long enough to go on outings.” Dot says but she doesn’t really understand Cybertronian courting in general all she knows is what Megatron told her which isn’t much.

He always was pretty bad at admitting those things after all but yeah.

“They are but they insist on keepin me safe. Preferably where one of them can keep an optic on me. Like they’re the parents and I’m the youngling. I raised them for Primus’ sake!” Wheeljack groaned, rubbing his face in annoyance. He loves his kids he really does but they need to get a life.

“To make things worse their other parents got a new partner. They’re all worried I’m gonna get one too like that’d be a bad thing!” Wheeljack complained hoping that Dot would somehow see his plight and give some magical mom advice.

“Wait, you had kids with another bot? I thought you just made them on your own.” Dot asks, genuinely confused.

Wheeljack blinked heavily judging her for a second. “I’m not an idiot. A friend and I constructed them together but I’m the one who raised them and cared for them. My friend still claims them as his kids but we aren’t a thing. Our kids seem to think we should be though.

They keep setting up elaborate dates between me (and as they lovingly refer to him) their ‘dad’.” Wheeljack scoffs, he's not upset with the Dinos; they just need to realize Ratchet and him were never together like that and never want to be together like that.

“Have you tried being in a relationship with their dad?” Dot questions.

“Yes and we both agree we’re better off as friends. Honestly the only reason he was brought into the Dinos creation was because I was worried for their long term health.” Wheeljack admitted.

Dot hummed for a second obviously thinking of something. “Why don’t you come here for your date nights? Like tell the Dinobots you’re coming to visit the kids or something.” She suggested.

“Nah they’ll just wanna come with and Twitch would rat me out.”

“Well you can say something about helping me. Wheeljack.” Purred a very familiar seeker who walked over.

“Hey Screamer, did the humans kick you out of their meeting again?” Wheeljack says with a smirk hidden by his mask but you could see it in his optics.

“I’ll have you know I left of my own volition. Besides, anything is better than hearing the squishies act all high and mighty just because Bumblebee isn’t there.” Starscream huffs as he lays down on the grass as well.

“I think I might take you up on the offer. I need some time without a giant robot dinosaur leering over my shoulder every now and then.” Wheeljack admitted with an amused chuckle.

“Sounds like you two have a plan.” Dot chirped as she got up to go check on her kids.

“So you planning something or just askin me to visit ya out of the kindness of your spark?” Wheeljack asks with a hum.

Starscream rewards his baiting with a chuckle. “I simply believe you’d like some company when you aren’t around those overgrown sparklings of yours.” He says with a dismissal wave of his servo but Wheeljack could see Starscream getting slightly more embarrassed with each jab.

“Do weekends work for you?” Wheeljack asks jokingly while also pulling up his calendar.

“Saturdays are key.” Starscream says with a cough.

In the end Wheeljack managed to obtain a way to be without his overactive creations for one day a week. Also gaining a reason to talk to Starscream more often so a win win.

Notes:

Starscream wants to bag the single mom so bad!

I like to think Starscream has a type. His type is a silly scientist. Good thing there’s two of those around.

Skyfire | Jetfire and Starscream have a rocky relationship and are currently both too awkward with what they did to one another to interact yet.

But interacting with Wheeljack is okay. Then Wheeljack will go and interact with the other one.

I’m bad at tagging but I’m going to fix that eventually- I hope. But they are a trio thing! I want to specifically say that they are all three a thing!

Starscream likes Wheeljack and Skyfire but he’s too anxious about hurting Skyfire to actually talk to him face to face.

Skyfire has the same problem.

So yeah that’s the fun! They’re fun like this.

As for Skywarp and Thundercracker they have their own stuff going on. I don’t really see Trines the way others do. They seem more like a family group to me.

Trine bonds are like Amica bonds to me so close family/friendship in a non romantic context however those inside those bonds will seek a similar trio in their romantic life as well therefore creating a second Trine bond with romantic partners!

So one’s a romantic bond and the other isn’t! They take their own parts of one’s spark and processor. Conjunx is the second type of bond so that's the real term for the second one! It’s not rare for fliers to have more than one partner but they generally stay in groups of three their whole lives!

The groups of three can be influenced by those outside the bond too, so say you get a dog or roomie well they count as a part of your Trine if you love them enough even if you can’t form that same spark bond with them.

Chapter 27: Swindle being Swindle

Summary:

Swindle doin illegal things and refusing to do things! (TW! Swindle did things during the war)

No one could say Swindle didn’t try! He was trying very hard!

But there was just so much cash to be made he really couldn’t resist.

What did he do you might ask?

“Where the hell did you get all this!” Swerve asks as he and Slag come into the storage only to find Swindle unpacking a whole crate of weapons.

“I got it at an auction, don’t worry it’ll all be gone by tonight I’ve already got buyers lined up I just couldn’t keep them in my subspace or my house so here was the best option.” Swindle says sheepishly while carefully putting a gun into a case.

Slag looked at one piece that sprang up at him and was only stopped when Swindle outstretched his arm and nabbed it away in mid air before stuffing it into a box. “Sorry that one would’ve been bad if you touched it.”

Swindle didn’t even flinch, just moving all the boxes around so they wouldn’t tamper with his real products.

This wasn’t the only time he’d done that though.

On another occasion-

“SWINDLEEEE!” Yelled a very angry mech who burst through the door spooking Swerve and Slag.

The mech huffed and puffed while making his way over to Swerve slamming his servos onto the counter threateningly.

“Where is he.” The mech seethed unaware of the death glare Slag was giving him.

“Where’s who?” Swerve says nervously with a grin knowing damn well this guy wasn’t on the hunt for Swindle with good intentions. He wasn’t going to sell him out.

“Swindle. Now.” The mech huffed in anger still gripping the counter.

“Swindle no here.” Slag growled posturing himself to show off his larger frame.

“Who’s not here?” Swindle asks, poking his head out from the kitchen.

Swerve facepalms while Slag continues to give the angry mech a death glare.

“You didn’t answer my comm.” The mech grumbled, being much less aggressive than before.

“I told you I’m not answering those anymore. Nor am I in that business. Now please stop making a scene in my establishment and harassing my staff. If you are that desperate we can speak after closing.” Swindle says while moving to stand beside Swerve.

The mech mumbled something incoherent and walked off leaving the building without a fight. Swerve let out a sigh of relief while Slag grumbled his own grievances.

“What was that about Swindle?” Swerve asks as things start to return to normal.

“Just an old customer who’s asking for a service I don’t provide anymore. I’ll point him in the direction of someone who does provide the services he’s looking for.” Swindle sighed looking a bit deflated after the interaction.

The situation stayed on Swerve’s processor all cycle; he really couldn’t get it out of his thoughts. What did that mech want from Swindle? How was Swindle going to handle that mech alone without Swerve and Slag to help him?

Swerve refused to go home until he made sure Swindle wasn’t going to get attacked or something. He helped close the restaurant and stayed outside to follow Swindle after work.

Sure it was kinda creepy but he was just trying to make sure Swindle doesn’t get hurt. Usually he’d just wait for Swindle in the kitchen of their shared hab but tonight there was no way he’s going home without Swindle.

Following Swindle was surprisingly hard with how shifty that mech could be. No matter how large Swindle is (he’s average Cybertronian size) he somehow manages to have nearly silent pede steps alongside his ability to duck around corners and hide in shadows almost as good as Soundwave’s minicons.

If it wasn’t for his giant purple optics Swerve would have lost him a few times now. Eventually they finally reached where the mech from earlier was sitting stewing angrily until he saw Swindle and perked up.

Swerve couldn’t get close enough to hear what they were talking about but the other mech kept inching closer to Swindle every chance he could. Swindle definitely wasn’t comfortable with that, showing his displeasure openly with a step back.

The mech only got more angry insisting something slightly louder but not loud enough for Swerve to understand him. Swindle managed to calm him down and handed him something. The mech seemed a lot more interested in Swindle though but Swindle was setting a hard boundary.

He wouldn’t take whatever slag the other mech tried to pull without a fight. So the mech had to take what he was given, handing Swindle a bag likely of currency before stomping away.

Swindle turned and caught sight of a glimpse of that red he’d started to associate with safety. “Swerve. Did you follow me?” Swindle chirped watching Swindle stumble out of his hiding spot nervously with a sheepish expression.

“Sorry mech, I was just you know… worried about you and all.” Swerve admitted while being unable to look at Swindle in the optics.

“No need to be so worried pal. Curiosity is perfectly fine. I just hope you won’t view me any differently if you overheard anything of my old ways. Though I’m sure rumors are more telling than anything else.” Swindle sighs as they start their walk home together.

“There’s no way I’d see you differently, Swindle. Unless you like sold your own sibling or something. Illegal trafficking and slavery are two big icks Y’know.” Swerve says with a giggly tone showing he was joking.

“Absolutely not, I’ll have you know I never sold any living thing that was sentient! Let alone my brother! No if anything I’d sell myself.” Swindle and Swerve just let that last statement hang in the air as the rest of their walk became awkwardly silent.

“Why don’t we discuss your business tomorrow.” Swerve suggested with a soft smile.

“Deal but don’t blame me if you don’t like what ya hear.” Swindle relented.

Notes:

Swindle is still Swindle after all. Seeking illegal weapons isn’t out of his mind yet.

He refuses to carry anything that’s sentient inside of his wares. If he finds anything that happens to have a hint of sentients he’ll deal with it properly instead of selling it.

No pet trading or trafficking for Swindle enterprises. He is very nuanced in his dealings.

As for what I’m eluding to… yeah I think Swindle would have probably had to do that at some point. Not everyone wants his wares or money, some may want something more personal.

During a war you don’t really have many options so sometimes you run low on fuel and maybe someone’s offering to give you some for a very easy job. Swindle would never sell out his brother though.

That’s just how I see it probably going down and now that everything’s back to relatively normal Swindle doesn’t take those deals anymore. He’s not ashamed of what he’s done; he did it to keep himself and his brother alive.

He also just doesn’t bring it up because some people get really upset when he tells them about it. He just doesn’t want Swerve to view him differently in the end, Slag wouldn’t care he knows that but Swerve’s a bit of a wildcard.

Many Autobots look down on the practice of selling yourself and so Swindle is worried about how it’ll affect their partnership.

Swerve is just worried Swindle is going to get himself hurt. He doesn’t care what Swindle did or continues to do; he's a good mech and Swerve trusts him.

Swerve and Swindle will talk about this, believe me!

Chapter 28: Bee-live it

Summary:

(Ao3 is crashing out on me so I’m reloading to see if it fixes the issue-) TW for relationship explaining!

Bumblebee was starting to feel worried about Hashtag. The femmling kept going on about “ships” and romance in ways that made Bumblebee’s plating crawl.

How could she be so fixated on others' relationships?

He didn’t mind much until she started poking into his admittedly dry love life.

“So Bumblebee, you said you and that one guy Mirage were close right?” Hashtag chirps obviously thinking of something.

“Yeah, we’re war buddies. He was best friends with a colleague of mine, Cliffjumper.” Bumblebee replied thinking back to all the times Mirage and Cliff would bring him in on their pranks.

“Why do you ask?”

Hashtag coughs wildly before sputtering some nonsense and retreating. This wasn’t the only odd interaction he’d had with Hashtag; usually she’d come around with some form of question Bee would dodge as quickly as possible.

This only seemed to make her more determined to find something. Thankfully she turned away from Bee’s love life for now but she and the others seemed to be on the same topic he’d hoped to have longer before teaching the terrans about any form of Cybertronian relationship but apparently they needed a crash course on relationships.

Since obviously no one else was teaching them.

He gathered the whole family into the barn for a very, VERY much needed chat.

“So what’s this family meeting for?” Dot asks, sitting next to her husband on the human couch while the kids sit around them.

Bumblebee let out a long sigh leaning onto his cane thinking about just how he was going to go about this without someone more experienced around to help him. He regretted not getting Starscream to come with him or Megatron.

“I have witnessed a lot of misconceptions you all have about Cybertronian relationships. I genuinely can’t handle you guys not knowing the general way they work anymore.” Bumblebee expressed his frustration with hand movements and a genuine grimace on his face.

“I-Is this because of something I did?” Hashtag asks seeming really concerned.

“Yes actually, you keep poking in others' love lives and that’s not something we do on Cybertron. Well unless you’re family or bonded. Or interested in courting someone.” Bee added the last part with a cough.

Dot gave her kids a gaze and they all didn’t meet her eyes except for JB who wouldn’t feel any guilt over his actions.

“Have you all been looking into the Cybertronian dating scene without telling me or your father?” Dot asked but it didn’t sound like a question.

“We were curious and well we already know how humans do all that! We just wanted to know how it works between transformers.” Twitch quickly came to the defense of her younger siblings.

“Well we should start with the fact our courting system is really weird. Like marriage is a concept we don’t really have. Rather we have three versions of it.” Bumblebee stated while pulling out a whole drawn presentation for them titled “Transformers relationships - brought to you by Bumblebee.”

He flipped the first page to show off the familial bonds like most trines and combiner teams. “This here’s your basic spark bond. It’s basically saying we’re a team for life. It’s like being married to your friend group or adopting siblings in a way.” Bumblebee says while showing holo pictures of the elite trine alongside other teams like the Constructicons or Combaticons.

“This bond is easy to break but it’s similar to you guys and the Cyber-sleeves. You can feel each other and if the bond is strong enough you can hear each other's thoughts.” He explains while flipping the paper again to show another drawing.

“Next is Amica Endura, it’s like being married to a friendship. You promise to be friends for life and always support one another. Similar to the other bonds you can feel each other and in some cases hear each other's thoughts.” He showed pictures of Rodimus and Drift as a show for this one alongside one of him and Starscream.

“Me and Starscream aren’t on that level or anything but we’re pretty close to it.”

“So wait, is this an average thing?” Thrash asks, looking at the prompt again.

“Great question and none of these are normal. Generally they used to be rare but with the new age it’s much more common. I should also add the next one and this one has most of the same prerequisites so it’s hard to tell which someone is going for so it’s better not to ask about their advances.” Bee says with a pointed look at Hashtag and Dot.

“I feel so much worse for asking Wheeljack about that now…” Dot hissed through clenched teeth. She’s also very glad she didn’t attempt to push Megatron to discuss his relationships with her now.

“Wheeljack’s always been open about his relationships. I'm sure he doesn’t hold it against you. As for our last topic we have Conjunx Endura which is marriage in the romantic sense. It’s uncommon but some had more than one. Most seekers have trines throughout their whole lives so that goes for every bond.” Bumblebee says with a wave of his servo.

“Do you have any examples?” Hashtag asks with a cheeky grin. Bumblebee doesn’t even try to suppress the sigh that escapes his intake as he shows another picture of Drift but this time the shapely swordsmech was draped over the medic known as Ratchet.

“Again not official but these two have been going through the rites for a while.” Bee comments before sliding to a picture of Megatron and Ultra Magnus.

“Those two have been practically dying over one another and both don’t see it.” Bee huffs while sliding to a picture of Elita and Optimus.

“Elita and Optimus recently finished the rites and are official. There’s also Rewind and Chromedome but I don’t have any captures of them.” Bee admits sheepishly.

“Wait Megs is trying to get with someone and we didn’t know!” Twitch chirped loudly in surprise.

“I knew.” Hashtag coughed out earning a disappointed glare from Bumblebee.

“Megatron is notorious for… what was the word you all used again? Fumbling. He is really bad at not messing up any relationship he gets into. Optimus and him had something going on before the war. Then he had something with Starscream that ended really badly now he’s trying to get with Mags.” Bumblebee says while obviously being invested in Megatron’s love life.

“I thought you said we shouldn’t get invested in other bots' business. Yet here you are with a detailed background on all Megatron’s failed lovers.” Nightshade comments showing their amusement at the hypocrisy.

“It’s not my fault that I happened to have front row seats every time he fumbled a relationship.” Bee hissed defensively.

Notes:

Bee teaches the terrans to not mess with other’s love lives by first teaching them the different forms of relationships transformers have.

By also showing them how much he sticks his nose in others' love life’s.

He would know everything about Megatron and Optimus’ love lives you cannot tell me otherwise. Bro has been there long enough to know how badly Megatron fumbles everything.

Chapter 29: Workplace Harassment

Summary:

Swindle gets a very weird visit. Swerve and Slag don’t like how this is going-

Swindle explained to Swerve about how war makes mechs do crazy things they’d usually never do to keep themselves and their loved ones fed and safe. As well as the many things he did to make a profit to keep himself and Hardtop afloat.

Swindle was really worried Swerve might see him differently. He just couldn’t figure out why he felt so nervous about sharing this with Swerve of all bots.

But the only thing that changed was Swerve started glaring at customers that even slightly hinted to Swindle’s past. As for Slag they explained it to him too and all it did was make the Dinobot shrug. He really didn’t care.

“Then was then and now is now.” Slag stated when asked how he felt.

They both now understood that Swindle really did have a shady business history and more on why some customers came in just to talk to him not for fuel.

At least the majority of them Swindle informed the others that they were trying to purchase weapons from him. He felt the need to tell them about his dealings for their own safety.

Unfortunately not every customer leaves satisfied with their service.

“I’m here to see Swindle.” A mech huffed approaching the counter with two femme’s following him.

Swerve eyed them suspiciously but if they wanted to talk to Swindle it was probably for a reason Swerve would rather not know. There weren't any customers other than the three at this moment with the time of day they’d walked in. So Swerve commed Swindle to inform him of the trio while moving to lock the doors with Slag staring down the customers.

Swindle walked out with surprise overwhelming his faceplate at the sight of the mech. “What are you doing here!?” Swindle asks with a smirk and chuckle showing how calm he was with this trio.

“Well I thought it’d be better to see you here rather than break into our hab and wait for you.” Hardtop chirped, greeting his sibling happily.

Swerve now saw the mech in a different light obviously this guy was close to Swindle. But the two femme’s seemed pretty uncomfortable.

“Swerve, Slag. This is my brother Hardtop. Dunno who the other two are though.” Swindle introduces, showing off his brother.

Swerve gazed at Hardtop in muted recognition. “Oh yeah his name’s on the third door in our hab.” He pointed out seeing surprise stain Hardtop’s face.

“You got a roommate!” Hardtop squealed in surprise looking utterly distraught at the idea of his brother getting close to another person.

“He needed somewhere to stay and I had an open room. That aside we run this place together you should try his drinks. And Slag over there’s security.” Swindle explained, ignoring the way Hardtop strayed away from him to look over Swerve.

“What’s with your friends? I thought you were traveling as a ‘lone wolf’.” Swindle asks while helping get Swerve back over to his bar motioning for his brother and his friends to sit on the stools.

“Well they’re apparently looking for a certain someone I thought you’d know. At least you’d know about them, maybe where to find them.” Hardtop says with a dismissive wave of his servo.

Swerve mixed some drinks for them, handing out two without any alcohol for the femme’s.

“Have you heard of the name Brainstorm by any chance?” Hardtop asks while taking a sip of his drink, finding it absolutely delicious.

“Of course I do. I buy weapons he makes a lot. He’s one of my best suppliers of wacky one of a kind firearms.” Swindle says showing concern for what they could possibly want with the scientist.

“Well these two wanna buy one of his weapons. A specific one he’s holding onto for them. But the issue is they’re being targeted by a very specific group that wants to kill them and buy the weapon in their place.” Hardtop says with a weary sigh showing he’d probably had to do a lot to keep them alive.

“Hardtop you don’t mean.” Swindle scoffs in betrayal.

“You brought them in here knowing it’d just put a target on me again!” Swindle adds, seeming more upset with his brother now.

Hardtop reeled back showing he wasn’t used to Swindle lashing out at him like that. “Look I just need you to stall them for a cycle so I can get them into the other settlement!” Hardtop says with pleading optics.

Swindle grumbled and pinched his nose bridge knowing he couldn’t say no if it meant there was a possibility of his brother getting hurt. “Fine but just know if they end up hurting Swerve or Slag I’m shooting you in the pede.”

“Wouldn’t settle for any less!” Hardtop chirped, obviously happy with his exchange.

“I wish I never taught you how to bargain.” Swindle hissed.

“Wait who’s after him!” Swerve asks nervously.

“Just some of the most annoying wannabe arms dealers on Cybertron.” Swindle huffs sticking out his chassis to show he viewed himself as better than the ‘wannabes’.

“Slag does not understand.” The Dinobot grumbled, obviously confused.

“Some bots are trying to kill them because they’re buying a really cool weapon. The bots are idiots who don’t understand the nuances of weapons trading; they're just going for the biggest and baddest weapon they can get their servos on.

Brainstorm just so happens to be a very powerful name in the weapons community alongside Wheeljack. I’ve bought weapons from your creator once or twice.” Swindle says with a smirk.

Slag finally understood that but didn’t understand how Swindle had purchased Wheeljack’s weapons before.

“I usually buy Wheeljack’s from a broker who I can trust won’t upsell me. That’s how I hadn’t met him before the other week.” He added explaining before Slag even had the opportunity to ask a question.

“So what’s going to happen?” Swerve asks, still being worried but knowing that Swindle has it covered.

“Oh they’re just going to come in here and try to threaten us into submission. Happens from time to time.” Swindle says it like it’s just another day on the job. No issue.

Swerve couldn’t even try to suppress the face he made seeing how Swindle flinched away from him only made it worse. Swindle started laughing uncontrollably showing how unserious he was about the situation.

Well they just signed themselves up for a whole week of trying not to die.

Notes:

Swindle being Swindle. That’s the joke. He’s a swindler.

Hardtop is taking a page out of Swindle’s book and Swindle is not here for it. Bro wants Hardtop to not get into the shady shit he does.

Now here’s his brother who he worked so hard to keep out of this shit getting into it to help a girl. Swindle’s gonna crash out.

Swerve and Slag are just wondering how they got here and why it always has to be Swindle getting targeted by the craziest shit they’ve ever witnessed. Like let them have one day where they don’t have to fear for Swindle’s life.

Too bad Swindle won’t let there be a day where his life isn’t in jeopardy.

Chapter 30: Brainstorm and Percy

Summary:

What are the lost light’s silly science pals doing in my au!

Brainstorm never gave up his life of making wacky inventions that outclassed any other. He grew bored of normal machinery as well as the overused concepts of “create immortality” or “Time Machine” no he wanted to go bigger!

He wanted to make something really cool. Introducing!

Brainstorm proudly presented his latest invention to Perceptor. A can opener that sings a prerecorded tune while opening whatever you chose to use it to open.

Perceptor felt appalled that this was the same mech who could build a whole ass Time Machine in less than a day. Yet here he was acting so proud over something so… stupid.

“You do know humans have already created that.” Perceptor pointed out while Brainstorm was gushing over his can opener.

“Yeah, and? I think it’s wonderful and genius like me!” Brainstorm chirped holding the invention like a baby.

“Besides I made it way better than those fleshies!” He added with a huff.

Perceptor just couldn’t believe this was his life. How did he get here.

Brainstorm on the other hand was absolutely ridiculously excited to show off his “baby.”

Honestly the jet just liked to make things that made him happy. The occasional doomsday device or whatever was fun and all but what he really enjoyed making was random bullshit like this. Or that other thing he worked on with Shockwave that’s been making random orange portals appear-

The color was his idea. Shockwave wanted them to be blue like a normal Groundbridge.

“Brainstorm, you are wasting our money and energy on stupidity.” Perceptor proclaimed while swiping through Brainstorm’s idea datapad vetoing ideas he’d rather not have to clean up after.

“Will you stop designing bombs for one damn cycle! If you make it we’d have to make sure it doesn’t explode on Rung!” Perceptor hissed, swiping away as many doomsday devices he could while Brainstorm bitterly grumbled over how much of a buzzkill Perceptor is.

“Rung survived many wars and other things. I'm sure one doomsday device won’t do anything to him! He’s literally god!” Brainstorm comments just as the mentioned mech walked into the room.

“Good to see you two are as lively as ever.” Rung chirped, walking over to the scientist duo.

“Brainstorm keeps designing doomsday devices.” Perceptor snitched immediately leaving Brainstorm to sputter nonsense.

“I know, aren’t they wonderful? It’s so nice that he can express his creativity so freely without fear of persecution!” Rung says like a proud parent showing how happy he was with the projects not at all worried for his own damn safety.

Perceptor now wonders how he somehow became the voice of reason in this place.

Notes:

The science crew’s coming together folks! Also Rung is here (robot Jesus)

He knows about his connection to Primus and fully accepts it. No one else knows aside from a hand picked few including but not limited to Brainstorm and Perceptor. Alongside the prime’s (Rodimus and Optimus)

Ratchet, Drift, Elita, Minimus, Megatron, Hell even Starscream and Bumblebee know! So basically just leaders of Cybertron and Earth colonies.

Wheeljack knows too he’s just really nonchalant about it. Same with Swerve.

They just don’t bring it up.

Rung hangs out with Brainstorm and Perceptor when he’s not being a therapist or playing god.

Also btw it doesn't seem like it here but Perceptor and Brainstorm do very much love one another they just also bicker like an old married couple. (More like siblings than an old married couple with how childish Brainstorm gets)

Also their lab is in Central roads just in a different city inside the nation since it’s pretty big. There’s like four cities inside Central roads.

New Kaon is just one big ass city and lots of empty land. Same with New Iacon.

Chapter 31: Rodimus learns to wingman

Summary:

Rodimus doesn’t know how to be a good third wheel. Someone helps him with that though it isn’t the solution to his problems.

No one could say Rodimus wasn’t trying.

He was trying so hard but he just couldn’t deal with the fact he kept third wheeling Ratchet and Drift. Not just them but Minimus and Megatron too! He had no one he could hang out with that wasn’t in some form of relationship! (Or dead)

Who could he possibly find that shared his “I’d rather stay single” approach to life!

Well he did know of one mech…

So he talked to Wheeljack and after a few pretty please’s Rodimus was driving down the roads of Earth looking for the building he’d been told of.

In front of the large government looking hangar was Thundercracker who’s sitting in his yard with his dog just watching Buster play while writing his screenplays.

“Hey Thundercracker!” Rodimus yelled over his own engine drawing the seeker’s attention away from his work and onto him.

“Hey there Rodimus. How are you?” Thundercracker chirped, showing interest right off the bat by putting away his datapad and giving Rodimus his full attention.

“I’ve been better. But the reason why is because everyone and I mean EVERYONE! Is getting into relationships. And I can’t stop accidentally third wheeling people!” Rodimus complains loudly while moving to sit beside TC in the grass.

“I know what you mean. But unlike you I actually enjoy seeing others get together~” TC cooed pulling back out his datapad.

“How could you not feel like you’re being weird for watching them?” Rodimus asks, showing his displeasure with a grimace.

“Nah it doesn’t feel like that. At least not with how I third wheel.” TC says pulling up his tutorial for third wheeling. (He made it for anyone who’d actually listen to him)

“You actually made a guide on this.” Rodimus chuckles ignoring the playful punch he earned from TC.

“Don’t laugh!” Thundercracker chuckled alongside him.

They spent most of the afternoon reading the datapad and discussing how to be more efficient when third wheeling.

Notes:

Thundercracker just wants to chill with his dog and write his crappy (they’re better than my writing 100%) movie scripts.

Rodimus wants to stop being a third wheel. Bro is not finding any help in that situation.

He will eventually find someone to hang out with that isn’t in a relationship with another friend he hangs out with.

Also sorry it’s short I’m writing this as 1 am because I was too paranoid to sleep-

Is it just me or does Sonic give the same vibes as Rodimus? I like to think they sound the same too- idk it’s just Roddy’s voice to me.

Just what I think of when I hear Rodimus’ voice in my head. If you wanna be more specific, Boom Sonic is the specific voice.

Chapter 32: Construction side quest

Summary:

Scavenger is somehow the smartest one here while also being the dumbest.

Firstaid gets an appearance! And Hook gets to be a silly medic man who’s scared for his “brother’s” safety.

Scavenger came to terms with the fact Prowl didn’t like them back. He knew his idiotic crew mates wouldn’t understand that.

So he moved on alone. It’s not like he didn’t like Prowl anymore or anything he really does like him. But he also realizes that Prowl likes his friend who comes over almost everyday.

He kinda wonders how the others haven’t noticed all the couple things Jazz and Prowl do.

He was somehow the only one to witness Jazz and Prowl being lovey dovey in the “dream” they all swore to never speak about.

So now begs the question… What is he going to do?

It’s not like he’ll magically fall into a new prospective partner. He tells himself while on the job.

Scavenger honestly half expected the ground to open up and he would fall into the void. Doing his job helped a bit with the pain in his spark from the others being upset about him closing off the bond anytime the others thought of Prowl.

Hook started to get a bit more upset than the others with the fact Scavenger and him were pretty close.

“You’re going to the hospital. Something’s wrong with you and I want you to get checked out by someone with a full medical degree.” Hook insisted while enlisting the help of Longhaul to help get Scavenger to comply.

In the end they went to Ratchet’s medical clinic. Only because the other two wouldn’t stop thinking about Prowl and how this was his place for medical attention.

Sitting in the lobby being forced to wait between them like an unruly youngling was so embarrassing.

The mech at the desk seemed almost as unhappy as Scavenger was feeling at this moment. He was a smaller medic with mostly red paint and a mask/visor combo.

He and the counter mech both locked optics and Scavenger couldn’t help but look away nervously. He felt weird just staring at the guy.

Firstaid remembered that mech from when Prowl came in after his last crash. He and the other construction vehicles were known as Constructicons if he remembered correctly.

They didn’t really request a specific doctor on their paperwork so Firstaid didn’t see the harm in taking them for himself. Ratchet gave him the option to take on any patients he wanted.

He took their number and gave one last cursory glance before going to speak with Ratchet leaving a med student to watch the front desk. (It’s all paperwork anyway so it should be fine for a couple seconds)

Ratchet reviewed the file and gave Firstaid a questioning look since he never took on cases on his own and usually just gets told to take this or that patient.

So this was a very VERY uncommon situation.

“Scavenger!” Firstaid calls out absolutely ecstatic about choosing his own patient for the first time. Before now no one ever caught his optics.

And if they did seem interesting generally Ratchet or the others took them before Firstaid could get first dibs.

Well jokes on them he got the chance to check out a coldconstruct combiner!

A very nice looking Decepticon cold construct combiner.

Being led to an empty room was really just par for the course. But Hook seemed to realize this wasn’t Ratchet’s section.

“I thought Ratchet was the primary physician here.” Hook commented as Scavenger just followed Firstaid’s instructions to sit on the medical berth for his physical.

“Ratchet’s the lead doctor, yeah. But I’m allowed to take any patient I want as long as they don’t have a primary doctor on file.” Firstaid chirped as he set up the instruments.

(I have hospital trauma man. I'm not looking up anything for this- I’m relying on years of childhood trauma and tv shows for my information. Hehe)

“They’re just being picky. It’s my frame. I think you’d be a fine doctor. Hook is just looking for a second opinion to his own opinion.” Scavenger spelled out ignoring the huffy upset noises from Hook.

Longhaul looked unfazed.

“Why thank you Scavenger. I’m sure whatever the problem is you came here for because you didn’t outline it in your paperwork- that we can get it all fixed up.” Firstaid almost never actually talks to people like this but blame it on the peace coding and sparkling-like excitement that he has no clue where it came from.

“He’s having a processor issue or spark issue but I can’t figure it out since it affects us too. He keeps shutting off our bond.” Hook growls as he glares down at Firstaid daring the smaller medic to challenge his authority.

Firstaid shrugged off the challenge and just went to request access to Scavenger’s medical panel that popped open without a second thought.

“Oh come on! It usually takes me an hour to get you to do that!” Hook complains as Longhaul chooses to drag him out of the room.

“Sorry for him, please figure out what’s wrong with our crew mate.” Longhaul sighed, bringing a kicking and screaming Hook with him away from the room and likely out of the clinic.

“All things say your systems are clean. Nothing's wrong as far as I know.” Firstaid says with a satisfied hum.

“I told them that. I just keep shutting off our bond because they won’t stop being weirdos. They’re crushing on our neighbor who definitely has a partner! And I’m over it!” Scavenger says with a tired groan covering his face in annoyance.

Firstaid sat in his chair rolling it over to face Scavenger for the obvious gossip sesh he’d stumbled into.

————————

“So let me get this straight your bond-mates are all in love with the same mech and you were too. But then you found out he was in love with another mech not in your bond. So you gave in and moved on and the others haven’t given up yet.

They keep sending you their thoughts and feelings through the bond and it’s making you uncomfortable.” Firstaid recaps their discussion and Scavenger nods his head.

“Sounds like it sucks. But it’s your comfort that matters. If the bond is causing discomfort, shutting it up even if it’s only momentary seems like the best solution.” Firstaid adds showing he understands.

“I’d rather do that instead of shutting off the bond completely but I don’t like Prowl like that anymore. He likes Jazz and the others can’t accept that. I just want to move on and find something or someone else.” Scavenger huffed looking down at his pedes.

Firstaid liked the sound of that. Moving on forgiving the past and occupying yourself with the here and now. He’d like to forget… that incident.

“How about I help you with that? I mean you can tell your bond-mates I’m just giving you counseling on your processor issues.” Firstaid suggested.

“That’s actually a really good idea. Hook would go for it.” Scavenger relented, finding a good reason to shut off his bond makes sense. If he’s going to counseling it needs to be his thoughts and his thoughts and feelings alone.

So he left very happy with himself and Hook was given a reason why Scavenger was suddenly so cold towards him.

Notes:

Scavenger wasn’t cold or anything Hook’s just being dramatic. Bro just didn’t want to see, feel or hear about the others’ crush on Prowl anymore.

I saw a post somewhere about Firstaid and Scavenger being shipped and I just thought it was cute. It was a fluff post of Firstaid holding his hand. I couldn’t resist. (Couldn’t find it for reference but it existed I swear!)

I feel like Scavenger deserves his own partner that isn’t shared by his bond. Firstaid deserves a fresh start after the BS with Pharma and the end of war medical boom.

So yeah they may be shipped or not. Idk I’m thinking yeah rn but first they gotta be friends.

Hook and the others don’t like sharing unless it’s with each other. So safe to say Firstaid is going to have his hands full trying to stick around Scavenger with the guys whole crew trying to break them up or something.

I think it’ll make for silly adventures for him and Firstaid who I was just going to use as a background character.

Chapter 33: Matrix issue

Summary:

(Finally another Roddy chapter for the Rodimus fans!)

Rodimus gets slammed back into Hotrod and Ratchet gets cuddled by two very clingy speedsters.

Rodimus never agreed to not remember what he acted like before the matrix. Optimus didn’t know how he acted as Orion so why would he remember acting like Hotrod?

The matrix changes people. Orion was once a troublemaker who was reckless and much less trusting. If you were to ever meet the guy he was pretty irresponsible.

But with the matrix he did a 180- personality wise. He became, as his name suggests, a very optimistic person willing to trust. Much less reckless than before while leaning into his nature as someone who generally looked on the bright side in any situation even if he was much more immature about it as Orion Pax.

As for Rodimus…

“What do you mean we need to use my energy?!” Rodimus yelled looking at the others like they’re crazy.

“I don’t see any other Prime around! Optimus’ off world right now so that leaves you to fix this. Unfortunately.” Megatron huffs motioning to the giant ass crater that looked like it went on forever.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Drift chirps showing he was here too by laying a servo on Rodimus’ shoulder.

“And don’t forget about me. I’ll make sure nothing goes wrong.” Ratchet grumbled, allowing a worried Rodimus to hug onto him.

“We don’t know how your matrix will react to fixing a hole this big. You should be careful.” Ultra Magnus warns.

Rodimus sighs and remembers he’s not alone in this. It’s fine. If something happens Drift and Ratchet will help him. And if it’s something they can’t handle then Megatron and Ultra Magnus will step in.

Easy peasy right? Wrong. So wrong.

Opening the matrix was the first mistake. They should’ve just called Rung to deal with this. Instead they were now left with a “low battery” matrix and a very confused Hotrod.

“What just happened?” Hotrod asks confused but without the usual flair Rodimus boasted in his now uncharacteristically flat tone.

“Well you tried to fix the crater, did fix it actually and uh… you reverted to Hotrod.” Drift explains while helping the now smaller speedster up.

“That sucks.” Hotrod sighs, seeming a lot calmer with that explained at least.

“Do you remember being Rodimus? Optimus once commented that reverting to Orion made him lose his memory.” Ratchet asks while having Hotrod open his medical panel for a scan.

“Course I do. Just a little fuzzy on how I should… exist.” Hotrod says with a shrug.

“I’ve never seen him this calm.” Megatron says with a grimace.

“Well you knew him during his Rodimus stage and the time when he was practically high off adrenaline mid war.” Drift chuckles giving Hotrod a side hug.

“We don’t have adrenaline Drift. That’s a fleshy thing.” Megatron hissed.

“At least he called you Drift.” Ratchet comments when Drift gives Megatron a middle digit.

“You seem fine, all things considered just a little low on Energon which is an easy fix.” The medic sighs, closing up their connection and carefully giving Hotrod room to move.

Hotrod just moves closer to him hugging onto Ratchet’s side and burying his face into Ratchet’s shoulder sleepily.

“So he’s just tired?” Drift chirped, rubbing Hotrod’s shoulder lovingly. (They are his unofficial older siblings to me! Ultra Magnus is his mom-friend.)

“Yes.” Ratchet huffed allowing the two to cuddle into him.

“Well with that fixed up me and Magnus are going to head out I assume you both can handle Rodimus on your own.” Megatron says while waving goodbye.

“Do call if you require any assistance.” Ultra Magnus says, patting Hotrod on the head before chasing after Megatron.

“Should we just make a day out of this?” Drift asks finding the now recharging Hotrod snuggled up to Ratchet.

“We can take him to Earth for a bit once he’s regained his stamina.” Ratchet sighs moving to pick up Hotrod holding him like a baby.

Drift snorts and takes a few cheeky pictures with his optics as a form of blackmail for later when Rodimus returns to normal. They carried him back home allowing him to use the couch for sleep but when Ratchet tried to leave him there Hotrod held onto his servo.

This ended with Ratchet being laid on by both Drift and Hotrod in a cuddle pile he wouldn’t dare try to escape.

Their nap was filled with many dreams of the peace they’d finally found after the war reminding them that it could be so much worse. They could be dead or alive and hate each other.

Notes:

Silly Hotrod gets to hang out with Ratchet and Drift for a bit! (This will have a part 2)

Also btw I love the “Matrix of Leadership changes people” part that tends to be overlooked. Orion used to be an absolute menace and with the Matrix he became amicable.

As for Roddy, he was much calmer and more pessimistic as Hotrod, maybe a bit more angsty with less flamboyance other than his paint job. When he became Rodimus he became a menace.

That’s what I think at least!

As for Drift and Ratchet they’re dating but Rodimus is just their third wheel who they absolutely adore. Neither like him romantically but they’ll gladly cuddle him. Rodimus feels the same finding both of them feeling more like family.

Ultra Magnus / Minimus Ambus is a close friend to Rodimus and he shows how much he cares for the guy but as with Ratchet and Drift it’s platonic. Sure when they first met he may have thought the guy looked good but that was quickly forgotten as he got to know Magnus.

Megatron is that frenemy you are close with half the time and the other half you’re trying not to kill one another for the sake of your shared friend.

That’s their group dynamics to me with Drift not liking Megatron too but Ratchet is unbiased he doesn’t care now that Megs isn’t trying to kill Optimus. Magnus is friendly to all of them but trust me there’s people who hate him and who he dislikes in return.

Chapter 34: Scav n Aid

Summary:

Scavenger and Firstaid hang out! Well until Hook crashes out-

Scavenger and Firstaid were surprised to find how compatible they were showing their shared love for certain vids they’d seen such as Legally Blonde. (Hook made Scavenger watch it once and he’s loved it since. Firstaid watched it with some of the med students)

Today they decided to meet outside of the clinic instead of at the clinic before moving elsewhere since no one had followed them so far. Too bad they were absolutely incorrect.

Hook was suspicious of this medic. He just knew that something was going on! Scavenger always shut off the bond around him and sometimes just out of nowhere when feelings of admiration seeped through his side of the bond.

Obviously something was wrong so it’s up to Hook to protect his best pal. The others were getting antsy about it too with Scavenger shutting down the bond so often.

It’s a miracle Bonecrusher and Mixmaster haven’t gone on a rampage about it yet!

Scavenger didn’t even notice being followed after all he was much too busy mentally gushing over his new friend and the plans they’d made for today. He just couldn’t wait any longer!

He walked all the way to the middle of a plaza looking around anxiously for Firstaid while holding the small gift he’d acquired for the medic based on what he liked and what Hook said professional medics used regularly. (He got him a Cybertronian sized lab coat with Firstaid’s name embroidered on the collar)

Hook watched from behind a building wondering just what was happening. Why was Scavenger holding a package? He was going to be giving the medic a gift!

No, no way he’d do that! It’s probably just a misunderstanding, maybe he’s trying to return something the medic had lent him. But then why didn’t he just drop it off at his hab or the clinic!?

Hook spiraled in jealousy, sending the others pictures and feelings through the bond while Scavenger had it shut off. Bonecrusher seemed to get very upset by the feelings being pushed through along with calming waves coming from Longhaul who was probably trying to stop him from destroying something in rage.

“Scav!” Firstaid chirped loudly waving at Scavenger from across the plaza while running through the crowded area.

“Aid!” Scavenger chirped back his shovel trembling in excitement. Hook could feel murderous intent enter his mind through the bond with it not being completely clear who it was coming from at this point.

They couldn’t do anything yet lest they wish to feel the wrath of a brooding gestalt member pushed through the bond. Even worse, Scavenger could completely shut off the bond instead of allowing them to feel where he is and if he’s alright. It’s the one comfort they had when he shut them out of his emotions and thoughts.

Hook could not chance that. He was absolutely a control freak and feeling where his gestalt was is his #1 comfort! Without it he’d spiral even further into the depths of obsessiveness!

Firstaid and Scavenger greeted one another warmly with Scavenger giving him the coat and Firstaid giving him a bag full of his favorite Energon goodies with copper flavoring.

Both adored the gifts given and excitedly tested out their items. Firstaid found the coat to be very soft and silky with attention to the way his arms rested by shortening of the cuffs to allow better motion in his servos.

Scavenger absolutely devoured one of the treats, finding it just to his liking, perfect in every way with a good aftertaste of rubber.

They both were equally happy with their things so the “hangout” continued. They walked through the plaza moving into the commercial center finding many shops around for them to visit.

They entered a few of them discussing all the things within and how they function while enjoying one another’s company. Hook watched them like the stalker he is only slowly getting more and more upset as their time together went on.

Finally after half the day of hanging out Firstaid was peeled away by his demanding job. They said very sweet goodbyes leaving Scavenger to walk back to the hab with a flutter of happiness in his spark that he’d have to push down so the others don’t get suspicious.

He dreaded any of them finding out he’s avoiding them to hang out with other friends. (Buddy is a little behind on events-)

Hook noticed the direction he was heading in and knew just where Scavenger was going, determined to beat him home and stage a protest with the others to stop this madness was an absolute must!

Racing home as fast as his generally slow alt form could carry him, Hook took in the scene of the others all sitting in the living room also ready to do the same thing. An intervention instead of a protest seemed to be the plan.

Scavenger barely finished opening the bond before finding it completely empty with only the locations of the others. A very odd occurrence but maybe they’d gotten angry at him for something.

“Did I do something wrong?” Scavenger asks sheepishly, lowering his shovel pitifully showing he was worried.

“You cheated on us!” Mixmaster proclaimed like a scorned lover before sobbing loudly and dramatically. Longhaul and Bonecrusher slowly inched away from him looking to be the only two being reasonable by opening the bond to push out feelings of worry for Scavenger.

Hook and Scrapper on the other hand were both scowling at Scavenger looking very jealous while also patting Mixmaster on the back. Mix stopped sobbing and began quietly giggling at his own antics after just a moment.

“What’s this all about? I haven’t entered another gestalt bond have I?” Scavenger says looking for some kind of answer.

“No but you keep shutting us out and the bond is weakening.” Hook insists despite the fact he and Scavenger had just cuddled last night. The bond wasn’t weakened in any way.

They were just being pissy and jealous.

“He’s going crazy, I think it’s great you’re making new friends that aren’t in the bond Scav.” Longhaul says in an oddly calm manner while the bond gives away his lingering jealousy. Yeah they’re all like that.

Bonecrusher seemed to be the only one also in favor of Scavenger getting his own friend outside of the bond. So Scavenger looked at him for his take.

“Less to share with. You get your own conjunx and I won’t have to share mine with you when I get one.” Bonecrusher says proudly obviously having thought this through.

This only devolved into Hook insisting they needed “bonding time” which was just a cuddle pile every couple of days. Something they already did anyway.

Notes:

Scavenger has to deal with his jealous besties. Hook and the others don’t like that Scavenger is chancing getting a relationship without them sharing with him.

It’d be the first time and they’re just being jealous and worried for him.

As for Bonecrusher he wants his own bond but he’s also much more jealous than the others at times. He’ll see Firstaid hug Scavenger and crash out at some point.

With Mixmaster he’s just going with the flow man he doesn’t really care. Sure he’s just as possessive over his bondmates as the others are but he’s more chill about it.

He’ll just have to drug someone if it gets to a point he can’t handle it. (He just does that sometimes)

Notes:

Hope you’re having a good Day/Night cycle

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of Transformers AU madness