Author's Note: I really enjoy doing Humanformers stories. This one centers around Smokescreen from TFP and the TFP version of Quickslinger. If you don't know, Quickslinger is a character that got brief mention from the Cybertron series and AllSpark Almanac II. Anyway, the Autohumans have another new recruit to add to their makeshift family, and some of them get a somewhat-unfavorable first impression of her. Some of the humanformers are based on those drawn by 72stars on Tumblr.

Chapter 1: The Tale of Two Rookies

All of them still wondered how they managed to afford this place; a three-story house outside an upscale neighborhood in Jasper, Nevada. But the six of them, well it was seven now, pitched in with enough money after a solid few years to purchase this home. Imagine…seven completely unrelated people considering each other their family, along with the three children they made friends with in the process. Of course, they had been a little on edge about letting other people into their lives at first, especially after Cliffjumper died. But now…maybe things were looking up.

"Smokescreen, for the last time, stop trying to grab food off of everyone's plates! You're acting like a little kid!" A woman with pink and dark brown hair snapped at a red-haired young man.

Smokescreen blinked his eyes up at her, his cheeks full of chewed-up hamburger. "It's just a few fries, Arcee. We've got plenty!"

"Plenty?" A muscular African-American man scoffed. "That's easy for you to say; you eat like a horse! Bumblebee doesn't eat that much; even I don't eat that much!"

"And here I thought you'd have my back, Bulkhead…" Smokescreen frowned.

A man with graying hair sighed and set down his newspaper. "Enough bickering, and finish your dinner!"

The man next to him, sporting dark hair and a moustache, eyed a black haired young woman sitting in another room. "Hawkeye…why don't you come join us at the table? There's plenty of room."

Hawkeye looked up from her plate, her aloof gaze not masked by her yellow see-through sunglasses. "…No thanks Optimus…I'm just fine."

Everyone felt put off by Hawkeye's behavior. It hadn't been long since she came out virtually unscathed from Megatron's 'gang' and joined them, because she was technically still on the run from her other past. Ratchet and Arcee were at first the most hesitant to let her in, but they knew she had nowhere else to go. But…it wouldn't hurt her to open up to them and stop keeping to herself so much, much to the chagrin of Bulkhead.

But things were a lot more hectic when Smokescreen came along…and it hadn't been long since another friend of theirs left: Mimicus. She was the youngest, and due to a fallout with Arcee, she left to go with the one she considered her only friend, which was Starscream. Of course, Bumblebee and his friend Rafael were hit the hardest over her absence. Smokescreen seemed to fill a void, but everyone still missed the crimson-haired girl.

"Hawk, come on!" Bulkhead called. "You can't stay in there all by yourself!"

Hawkeye only stared at him for a second before looking back at her plate and taking a bite of her hamburger, causing Bulkhead to sigh in defeat. He wouldn't admit it, but he was starting to have a thing for Hawkeye, and he was one of the first to trust her when she came into their home. Why did she still think she deserved to be alone?

"Hey Ratchet, you gonna eat that?" Smokescreen asked as he reached over for a few stray fries left on Ratchet's plate.

Ratchet responded by growling and using his newspaper to smack the young man's hand away. Smokescreen yelped and cradled his stinging hand as he cast puppy eyes at the aged doctor.

"Keep your hands to yourself." Ratchet glowered.

As everyone finished dinner, their voices ceased when a knock on the door resided in the air. Ratchet blinked for a moment, then grumbled as he got up and went to the door. It didn't help that a voice started calling from behind the door, "Hello, anyone home? Yoohoo!"

"Hold your horses; I'm at the door!" Ratchet shouted before turning the doorknob and getting a surprise.

Standing on the concrete sidewalk was a girl, about 16 or 17, with messy blonde hair; short in the front but tied in a long ponytail in the back. Her eyes were a shade of royal purple, which was a little put off by the freckles dotting her face. She must've really liked purple, because her clothes were all different shades of the color. In her arm was a large duffel bag, an indication that she was planning on staying somewhere for quite a while…

"Hi, my name's Quickslinger!" She stopped and looked at Ratchet from head to toe. "Hey I know you! You worked with my dad a long time ago! Your name's Ratchet, isn't it?"

The older man stared at her before something clicked in the back of his head. His old colleague in one of the larger cities, Rung, had a daughter named Quickslinger. Was this the same Quickslinger; when did she become so loud and obnoxious?

"Quickslinger…what are you doing here!? Does your father know you're here!?"

"Yep! I heard you guys were here, and I asked my dad if he could let me transfer to Jasper High, and he said yeah! I guess it's where he heard you were here, and you guys were best friends and all! So he sent me here to stay with you! Isn't that awesome!?"

Ratchet wanted to protest but the girl had already pushed past him and entered the residence, dropping her duffel bag with a loud thump. She stretched out her arms and groaned in content before placing her hands on her hips and glancing around the rooms.

"Wow, a lot of money must've went into this place! You guys must be rich or something!"

"Who's the kid, Ratchet?" Arcee asked with a hint of surprise in her voice.

The older man sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "This…is Quickslinger. She's the daughter of a former colleague of mine…and he's letting her come live with us."

Arcee frowned. "Seriously? We're getting an eighth mouth to feed?"

Quickslinger pouted. "Wow, someone's very welcoming."

Optimus was the first to stand up and, to Quickslinger's surprise, offer his hand for her to shake. He nodded his head and greeted, "Welcome to our home Quickslinger." He paused when a realization came to him. "Your father seems to be familiar with Ratchet, so I may know him. Who is he?"

"You don't know? My dad's Rung!"

The patriarch's eyes widened. "Dr. Rung, the psychiatrist?"

"Yep! See, I wanted to get away from the city life; you know, find someplace quieter. And when I mentioned Ratchet's name, Jasper was the first thing out of his mouth! So I'm roughing it here until I'm ready for the city again!"

Quickslinger was about to describe life in the city even further when her violet eyes caught the attention of one of the members of the makeshift 'family' sitting at the table. Her eyes focused on the red-haired young man munching on a few leftover fries on his plate. A blush formed on her cheeks, darkening her freckles, which caused Smokescreen to notice.

"You okay?"

"U-Uh, y-yeah…just a little warm, that's all." Quickslinger answered before turning away and burying herself in her thoughts. 'Wow…he's cute.'

Smokescreen glanced over at Bumblebee to see if he could get some insight as to why she wasn't so talkative anymore. His friend just shrugged, unable to communicate with words. The two didn't really know that much about girls their age; Arcee was much older than them and Hawkeye looked the part but was almost as old as Optimus. Miko…she wouldn't count, and then there was that Sierra Jack always talked about. Mimicus wouldn't even count at all because she wasn't even a teenager yet. Maybe Shane…but she wasn't into girl stuff anyway. So…they were clueless as to how they could possibly decode Quickslinger's thought processes.

"Smokescreen." Optimus addressed the now-second-youngest member of the household. "Why don't you give Quickslinger a tour and show her where she'll be sleeping?"

The redhead quickly nodded before getting up and heading for the stairs, ushering the blonde to follow. Quickslinger blinked as she picked up her duffel bag and chased after Smokescreen. Everyone else wondered as to why Optimus chose the rookie to show her around; he himself was still getting used to the surroundings. Ratchet basically figured that Smokescreen knew what it was like to be the newbie, so it was better to be shown by someone in the same boat.

"And here's the bathroom; there's one downstairs too." Smokescreen informed Quickslinger, who followed closely behind. "You sure you don't want me to carry that?"

"I-It's not that heavy… Thank you, anyway." The blonde quickly answered.

The redhead placed his hands on his hips; he wasn't fooled, especially by the way her arms were trembling under the weight of the bag. Did she pack her entire bedroom into it? He suddenly held out one of his hands and motioned for her to hand it over. With a sigh, the blonde handed it to him, and Smokescreen was surprised by the weight.

"What did you pack in this thing?" He asked when he struggled to lift it up.

Quickslinger shrugged. "The essentials, I guess. I've got enough clothes to last for almost a year. Plus a toothbrush, razor, vitamins, medi-Uh, skip that last one."

"Do you really plan on staying for a year?"

"Like I said, I'm staying until I wanna go back to the city; I wanna see what a small town's like."

Smokescreen sighed and lugged the blonde's bag to the guest room further down the hall. As they went forward, Quickslinger stopped dead in her tracks and cast her violet eyes into one of the bedrooms. It had obvious sports and military memorabilia in it, along with a video game system and a very messy bed. On the bed, to her surprise, was a teddy bear that had on military fatigues. All of the residents here were a mix of young adults and older adults; who would have a teddy bear here?

"Who's room is that?"

The redhead peered into it and offered a smirk. "Oh, that's my room. Sorry it's a little messy."

"What's with the bear?"

"That's Lieutenant Bear. It's a gift my mom gave me before I went out on my own." He suddenly cast his blue eyes down on the floor. "I wonder how she's doing…"

The blonde stared at Lieutenant Bear for a long minute; what was it like to have a mom? She always had her dad and that was it…and Smokescreen didn't know how fortunate he was. However, Quickslinger let a smirk form on her lips before she casually commented, "…Mama's boy."

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Exactly what I said."