A/N: Well, you all on are really nice on this site, made me feel nice and welcome with my first story. So welcome I think I'll just up and stay here a while. Yeah, got my TV, my couch, and refrigerator's going in the corner...what's that? I need to pay rent? Really?
Alright, then, I got your rent right here...
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Sunnyside Up - Red Tale
A few hours of battle meant days of repair work for Ratchet, First Aid, Wheeljack and me, that's assuming none of them were damaged. In a case like last week, when all of them suffered severe damage, I had to work 25 hours straight just to get them back up, in fact I put Tracks at the top of the list after that so he could grab Raul for me, and together we worked the other 76, until we had everyone up. Fortunately they hurt the Decepticons just as bad, because had they been able to marshal their forces they might have done us in for good. Instead it was just another stand off in an unending war.
Finally we were at the end of this round. Ratchet and First Aid went for a much needed recharge, Spike took a nap, and he'd been working hard. Raul had only been around ten hours, but it was a critical period getting Optimus and Iron Hide back on line. I wish that kid would actually commit to us, he prefers to remain a flash-in-the-pan ally, maybe he's there when we need him, maybe not. Wheeljack, fresh from a recent recharge, was just tuning up Bumblebee, and I debated between taking a nap and cleaning up the grease, tools, and debris strewn everywhere.
The decision was made when I slipped on oil and landed in a burnt tire. I'm no neat freak, but damn.
As I sorted through the wreckage for salvageable parts and my lucky screwdriver, I heard two autobots come in. I deliberately did not look up. I've been around enough to know which two autobots.
"Sunstreaker? Sideswipe? We just fixed you two!" came Wheeljack's exasperated wail.
We had actually put them at the end of the line for just this reason, hoping they could hold out undamaged, or in Sunstreaker's case unscratched, for at least 24 hours.
"It's his fault", Sideswipe immediately snapped.
"It came out of no where", Sunstreaker countered.
I gritted my teeth. Spike had been an only child, so I'd never had to deal with sibling bickering as an adult. Growing up I'd had more than my share with four brothers. But twins, that was something different. I never understood human twins, although at least I knew what they were physically. Ratchet had to explain the phenomenon of transformer twins to me, that they were created together and shared a spark. As I understand it this would be the only form of actual family relationships that exist, they don't have parents, and thus no other forms of siblings, unless it counts to have the same creator. So although they all knew each other, some perhaps for hundreds of thousands of years, only these two shared a unique bond.
I'd only come across one other set of twins in my life, and strangely they were also in an army fighting a war. This was the Vietnam war, which I served only briefly and only as a mechanic, I repaired the equipment and that was all, eventually I couldn't bring myself to do even that. But I remember the two soldiers, standing by their tent, rifles drawn, ready to shoot to kill, but under that they were also ready to drink and play, in that order. I would always remember them even if Sideswipe and Sunstreaker didn't resemble them so strongly, these two were fraternal, one was shorter, hair in a wild fro, always shadowing his brother, this would be Sideswipe, the taller one who kept his wooly hair tight in a well groomed ponytail and always managed to keep his outfit clean, he would be Sunstreaker. Together both the human and the transformer twins turned the tides of whatever battle they were in with cold precision. Both sets were a source of pride for their side, but at a cost. In the case of the human twins it ended badly, I only heard of it from another soldier, one of them stepped on a mine and died instantly, the other, badly injured, managed to kill himself at the hospital.
"Is that human blood?" Bumblebee asked.
Finally I had to look up.
Sideswipe looked like his name, one side of what would be the front of his car mode was bashed up, the headlight I had replaced just this morning smashed to pieces, the windshield cracked deeply, and the metal base of his hood crumpled at the left. Sunstreaker bore the worst of it, his entire front folded in on itself, both headlights gone, the front axle broken, I'm surprised he could even transform.
More disturbing was the blood covering both of them. In this war you get used to oil and grease fluids everywhere, and that's disturbing for Ratchet and Wheeljack but never fazed me.
As a mechanic I'd actually come across this scenario before, never with two cars at once of course, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker have to one up everything. Up here in the rural mountains with all the cars racing around at all hours of day it was only a matter of time before this happened. And of course these two were likely candidates, they loved their sleek automobile forms and frequented the more deserted paths to race in their off time, and their engines were quieter then the others. In retrospect I should have warned them all of this common danger.
Well, they'll learn from this.
"It's not human", Sunstreaker replied, "And it's none of your business."
"Your not recording this, are you?", Sideswipe asked.
Bumblebee didn't respond. I started gathering materials I knew would be needed to fix them.
"If it wasn't a human what was it?", Bumblebee inquired after a minute, like a little kid, just had to know.
Neither spoke.
"You hit a deer", I stated.
"Yes", Sunstreaker admitted.
"A deer did that to you guys?!", Bumblebee yelled out.
"Slag off!", Sunstreaker warned.
"Seriously, a deer like Bambi?", Bumblebee continued.
Sunstreaker got up and leered towards him, causing Bumblebee to transform and jump off the platform before Wheeljack was done.
"Hey, watch it there, guys, I'm a lot bigger than a deer. You don't know what I might do to you", he teased, careful to stay out of his grip. Sideswipe got up too, cornering Bumblebee from the other side. Never get in fight with twins.
"You don't know what we did to that deer. You should be so lucky ", Sideswipe threatened, losing his patience with the little guy.
"It splattered into little parts, would you like a demonstration?", Sunstreaker asked, pulling out his gun.
"Hey!", Wheeljack interrupted, "Stand down, both of you."
I've never been totally sure but I think Wheeljack outranks them. I've noticed how they behave towards the others, some they respect and obey, and others, most others, they clearly don't. Sunstreaker in particular openly makes degrading comments. For Wheeljack, they obediently backed off.
"Bumblebee, I'll finish you later. Just…try to stay out of trouble", Wheeljack advised.
"Sure, Wheeljack. I'll avoid all of Earth's mammals", Bumblebee replied. Sunstreaker raised his gun threateningly, but Bumblebee coolly ignored him as he left. For all the bravery I've seen Sunstreaker show in battle, he still has nothing on Bumblebee.
Wheeljack took Sunstreaker since he was more heavily damaged, I realized some of the "blood" was actually his oil, that deer had really done a number on him. I worked on Sideswipe, who mainly needed his hood, grate, and headlight replaced. They explained their side of the story, Sunstreaker hit it dead on and the force through it into part of Sideswipe's path. This was the first time either of them had seen blood, they were strangely fascinated by it.
First Aid came in about an hour later, just in time to put the finishing touches on Sideswipe before we turned to Sunstreaker, who still had a few hours of work in him. Repairing Transformer axels is a lot harder than for regular cars, you have to remove other parts before you can remove them, and the metal has to be treated to withstand the different forces put on it.
Sideswipe stayed for the whole time, quietly keeping watch. It was from this behavior in the repair bay that I first learned they were twins.
Finally Sunstreaker was back in top form.
"Okay, now, really, stay out of trouble for a while. We can't get things organized here if we keep having to fix you two", First Aid told them.
"We will", Sideswipe promised.
As they left, I heard Sunstreaker from down the hall.
"I would have won if it hadn't been for that."
"You were in my dust!", Sideswipe replied.
"Rematch?"
"You're on."