Author's Note: It might seem kind of strange, to write a fic for a dead fandom, especially one of such depth and length. But you know what? There are fans left in the BF5 world, and plenty more coming in as time goes on. I wanted to write this fic for a long time, and it was my friends who encouraged me to finally do it. So thank you to everyone who reads and follows along with this fic, and thank you to everyone who encouraged me to write it. This one's for you.
Chapter One: The Return of Rawkus
Vert leaned over the desk down in the garage to study the designs he and Zoom had drawn for this custom car a tourist had ordered last time he'd been in town. It wasn't too difficult a job – mostly the guy just wanted his car to get some body work and a new paint job – but the paint itself was difficult. Zoom would have to freehand at least a few of the details around the wheels, but Vert didn't think that would be a problem for him. Zoom had steady hands and a great eye for detail. Always had.
Speaking of which… Vert looked up from the desk-table in the garage and looked around. There was no sign of Zoom. The little administrative area in the back corner was empty but for the laptop and a bunch of papers, and the various cars they were currently working on lumbered in the half-shadows of the garage, nothing but silent, slumbering beasts.
But no Zoom.
"Babe?" called Vert, straightening up. He frowned a bit, brow furrowing. Where was Zoom? He should have been down here by now. He headed toward the stairs and headed up them, back into the one-floor house over the garage that Vert had called home for years now.
He poked into the house and looked around at the living area the door led in to. Nothing. He kept walking, heading through the kitchen and back toward the long array of bedrooms that had once housed all of their friends. These days, two of those rooms were used for storage and the rest were empty, bar the master bedroom.
Vert wondered if that'd change soon.
He still hadn't brought it up with Zoom.
He should.
At some point, anyway.
Vert reached the master bedroom and rested a hand on the door, pushing it open. He could hear the shower of the en-suite going now, and he cracked a smile. Of course, Zoom was in the shower. That'd explain why he hadn't come downstairs yet.
With a good-natured roll of his eyes, Vert crossed the wooden floor of their shared bedroom, avoiding the pile of dirty laundry the two hadn't gotten around to washing yet, and pushed open the door to the bathroom.
From behind the smoky glass of the shower wall and door, Vert could hear Zoom singing quietly. It was a soft song – a ballad that Vert recognized from the Top 40 – and Zoom had it pretty well in pitch. Vert chuckled as he shut the door and leaned back against it, humming a few bars with Zoom. Zoom's singing stopped.
"Hey, Vert," said Zoom, a grin in his voice. His silhouette shifted behind the glass and Vert thought he'd stuck his head under the water to rinse. "You need something or you just wanna join me?"
Vert hummed, letting his glaze slide over Zoom's silhouetted figure. "Tempting," he said. "But I think I'll pass for now."
"Aw," said Zoom. They both laughed and, a moment later, the water for the shower turned off. "So, what, just came to grab me?"
"Yeah, we've got to finalize the design on that firebird today," said Vert. He watched as Zoom stepped out of the shower, naked as the day he was born bar the simple gold band he wore on his left hand. Vert stepped to the side so Zoom could grab a towel to dry himself off with. His gaze swept Zoom's form, lingering on the Sentient scout symbol on his left shoulder and the gold and red dragon that wrapped around the upper half of his right arm, shoulder and blade included.
When Zoom lifted his head, half covered by a towel, Vert stepped forward and pulled him into a loose hug, hands at Zoom's still damp waist.
"Morning, husband," murmured Vert, leaning forward to kiss Zoom. Zoom let go of the towel and cupped Vert's face, thumb running over the soul patch Vert had taken to wearing as of late.
"Morning, husband," replied Zoom. The two laughed. Almost two years and Vert still wasn't over that. His own wedding ring had become a part of him, and seeing the matching ring on Zoom's finger never failed to make him smile. "You wanna let me go so I can get dressed?"
"Aw, can't you just work like this?" teased Vert.
Zoom snorted. "With how cold you keep the garage? Not likely." He wiggled out of Vert's arms, leaving a damp spot on Vert's chest, and slipped past Vert, heading back for the bedroom. "What're we even doing to that firebird?" called Zoom.
Vert followed Zoom back into the bedroom and leaned in the doorway, arms folded loosely over his chest. He blew his hair out of his face and watched Zoom dig around for his clothes, mind running over everything the two had to do today.
"There's some body work I need to finish before I can go back to the quarter panels on that challenger we just got in," said Vert. Zoom nodded, his hair – long enough now to pull into a small ponytail – hanging in his face, and tugged on a shirt. Vert was pretty sure it was one of his. He didn't really mind. Zoom looked good in his colours. "Then, you need to finalize the paint you're doing for both of them. Plus, that motorcycle is in the paint booth. You should probably finish that out before the firebird is ready to go in."
Zoom stretched and gave a little grin. "Sure thing," he said. He slipped past Vert, heading for the bedroom door, and rested a hand on the door frame. "You coming?"
Vert gave a quiet chuckle and shook his head. "Yeah," he said. "I'm coming." He followed Zoom downstairs and into the garage, where Zoom clicked on the stereo and started humming along, his hips swaying to the music as he pulled out his sketchbook from the desk and started working on the firebird design. Vert watched a tad longer than was strictly necessary, then turned and started on his own work.
They worked in comfortable silence, beyond the radio, Zoom's humming and Vert's occasional singing the only things to break the rhythm. Even then, that was part of how they worked, and it mostly just led to quiet laughter and some pretty great harmonies.
Together, they passed the time until almost noon, both of them doing their own thing. Vert managed to finish up with the firebird and Zoom disappeared into the paint booth to finish up the motorcycle at some point. He reappeared, paint in his hair and a grin on his face, just before noon.
"I think it's good," said Zoom, cleaning off his hands with a rag. Vert cracked a smile at Zoom and pushed off the firebird, strolling toward Zoom to comb his fingers through Zoom's hair. "What?" asked Zoom, furrowing his brow.
"You have paint in your hair," said Vert, teasing. He dragged his fingers through Zoom's hair again and got most of it, then pressed a kiss to Zoom's forehead. Zoom grinned at him and slid his hands around Vert's waist, humming. Vert managed to get the rest of the paint and stole the rag from behind himself, wiping off his own hands and tossing it onto one of the benches.
"I was thinking Zeke's for lunch?" asked Vert.
Zoom nodded. "Yeah, we haven't been there in a bit." He stepped back from Vert and stretched, yawning. Vert grinned. It was true, they didn't go there as much anymore, not since they'd learned how to cook, at least. Zoom was still the better baker, but Vert made up for it by being excellent at meat preparation, which had earned him a lot of stupid jokes from Zoom. The guy was as bad as Spinner for puns some days.
The two headed to their shared convertible, red with white detailing and black leather interior, but before they could get in, there was a noise from the garage. Both of them paused and looked up. The noise started quiet, muffled, and Vert wondered if it wasn't the carbon monoxide alarm.
Then, the sound grew stronger, louder, and Vert realized what the noise was, and that he hadn't heard that sound in almost six years.
"That's the Hub alarm," said Zoom, just before the noise reached a crescendo. He sounded as shocked as Vert felt, and when the two looked to each other, they both had wide, confused eyes. Together, they turned and bolted for the lift down into the Battle Force 5 Hub, a place Vert hadn't seen in years.
God, when was the last time they'd even gone down here other than to check up on the cars?
The lift shuddered a bit as it went down and Vert stumbled into Zoom, who caught him. Sure enough, the Hub alarm blared at full force down here, and Vert ran over to the computers to try and boot them up and figure out what was going on.
As he tapped at the screens, Zoom moved behind him, and Vert focused his attention on the screens.
"Um, Vert?" asked Zoom.
Vert cocked his head, only half listening as he studied the screens. Without Sage, Sherman, or Tezz to read them, there wasn't much in the way of indicators as to what was going on. "What's up?" he asked over his shoulder at Zoom.
"Rawkus is here."
Vert froze, eyes growing wide, then turned and looked past Zoom to see Rawkus, arms folded over his massive chest, staring down at them both with his glowing green eyes. He swallowed hard and stepped up next to Zoom, resting a hand on Zoom's shoulder.
"Rawkus," said Vert. "What are you doing here?"
"The balance of the multiverse has shifted once again, and as members of Battle Force 5, it is your duty to restore it," said Rawkus.
Zoom sighed. "Couldn't you just come to say 'hi' once in a while?" he asked. He looked up at Rawkus, who narrowed his eyes.
"No," said Rawkus. Zoom rolled his eyes and looked up at Vert, who tried and failed to hide his grin. "Get dressed and get in your vehicles. We're going into the multiverse."
Vert and Zoom exchanged a look and Vert spoke up. "We don't have any keys," said Vert. When the sentients had reunited and Sage's people were saved, they'd taken all the keys with them.
Rawkus shook his head. "The battle keys are currently corrupt and cannot be used safely for transportation. I will be taking you into a battle zone."
Zoom jogged over to where the uniforms were stored while Vert called up their vehicles from the second storey of the Hub, which Sage had created just before she'd returned to the Blue Sentient home world for good.
When Zoom returned, Vert had their vehicles prepped, and Zoom tossed Vert his uniform. They suited up, Vert in red and Zoom is yellow. Their uniforms had changed over the years, taking on parts of one another as they went. The red in Zoom's uniform was now the same colour as Vert's, and there was much more of it as well. The whites of his boots came over his knees now, a singular unit that made him well-suited to any sort of riding or racing.
Vert's uniform, by contrast, had picked up the white in Zoom's uniform for the piping in his own – the edges of his shoulder pads and other parts of his shock suit, and the flames on his uniform matched Zoom's more now.
They looked every bit the matching pair, right down to the streaks of yellow in Vert's Saber, and the streaks of red in Zoom's Chopper.
"Ready?" asked Rawkus. He eyed their uniforms and their vehicles with a raised stony eyebrow. Vert wondered if Rawkus had never seen the full extent of their changed uniforms and vehicles.
"As we'll ever be," said Zoom. He swung onto the Chopper and grabbed his helmet, tugging it on. Two symbols on it, these days. One for scout, one for leader, the latter much paler, much subtler, than the former.
"Right," said Vert. He slipped into the Saber, which had a similar patterning, and before he closed the pod, he asked, "What is all this about?"
Rawkus shook his head. "Sage can explain it better than myself." He turned and walked out of the Hub, allowing Vert and Zoom to follow after him, albeit much more slowly than they would have with his motorcycle.
Rawkus got back on his motorcycle outside the Hub and led them forward, opening a portal as they went. Vert and Zoom passed through it together, casting one last glance at each other before flashing through the swirling blue and into the battle zone.
Vert took a deep breath as they went.
Time to find out what had brought Rawkus to their little corner of the multiverse.
Author's Note: Reviews are lovely!