Project Bayport, Project One
Chapter One; Arrival
After several years when the heat died down from t he big chutzpa in New York, Lake managed to finally get her vacation, though Doc and Toi insisted to go with her and Swallowtail, the town Doc wanted to really just lay low in and have a vacation was none other then Bayport, largely untouched by the Decepticons, it was the perfect place ot hide out for a few weeks to a month or so and just relax. Lake did not fell the same way.
"The way I see it," the DeLorean was saying as they drove on the turnpike. "Bayport is the perfect place ot set up shop and lie low for a while, its off the map, literally. A tiny paradise that not even the 'Cons could find if they wanted to." He said,
"Then how did you find it ?" Lake asked in Mandarin, the two cars and one truck and only woman were all talking in Mandarin over radios
"Found it in a magazine. Traverls Checks I think" Doc replied,
"Not there." Toi corrected for him, "I saw it in AARP magazine" The black pickup truck said.
"See!" Doic said gleefully, "What'd I tell ya! The perfect paradise and place to lie low, nobody would think to look in such a place for such information." the DeLorean was in a happy mood, he'd even made the reservations at a rental house, a one floor place with a bathroom and large pool for Lake to have her fun with.
"I hope you know what you are doing" Swallowtail spoke up, the Mustang had been quiet the whole drive to Bayport. So she may have been thoughtful, or just letting Lake get some well wanted rest for once. It had been almost three years since the whole battle against Unicrons Herald, and so far Skystorm was faring well on Alesia. Heck the earth born Cybertronian was doing far more good then ever before. That and somehow Commander Mark felt more and more at ease around his Puddlejumper.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, you just keep Lake from stealing dinners again and we should be OK here, they got a top notch police force here" Doc said.
"They also have a Casino too" Toi said, he'd done a lot of looking into Bayport and loved what he'd found, they also had a massive offroading area too, so that made the Toyota truck happy as well.
That perked up Lake on the spot, "Casino ?" Lake loved to gamble, but she also loved to fleece other people when she gambled.
"Yup" Toi replied, "and according to the wireframe map, the rental house is just up the road from there. We'll pass it on the way through town. Doc keep your wheels on the road please" Toi scoled, Doc just snickered, sometimes he got 'sore feet' when driving and hovered just off the road as he drove. Without a reply Doc reverted back to normal they were on a country lane that ran next to a rail line, Doc was sorely tempted to drive on the tracks.
"You're kidding right ?" Joe Hardy asked his father Fenton. Someone had rented the house across the street from the Hardy Home, and from the sounds of it Joe didn't believe it, someone had three nice cars, or just a big family, unless It was a college group. Just the mention of one person driving a very nicely kept car, a Mustang, made him want to meet their new nighbors.
But the words of his father made him think, it was too good to be true. "No Joe, it is the truth, a man by name of Emmet Brown and his son Toi, rented the house for a month long vacation from the vacation company. they're brining Toi's girlfriend along. they'll be arriving any minute. Emmet said that his son and his girlfriend were interested in the new casino. Toi, I was told, is a compuslive gambler and off roader. Used his winnings in Vegas and Detroit to outfit is truck." Fenton replied.
"So they come here later today" Joe thought, "Does Frank know ?" Fenton nodded, "What about Flicia ?" Felicia was Joe and Frank's slightly older cousin, one whom Joe was still getting used to having also a cat in his moms den. Blackie was fun to have around at times, a good talker, but complusive kleptomaniac.
"I think it best that you tell her, she listens to you over Frank or me any day, and even if I try to threaten her with arresting her for that whole Ruby theft two years ago..." Fenton grumlbed, Joe snickered, he remembered that weird theft, Blackie was said to be the thief, but it truly was not her, it was someone else posing as her, Blackie however had stolen the ruby and put it back in the bank where it belonged.
"I'll tell her dad, hopefully we wont have any thefts of stuff this time, everyone time someone new moves into town something is stolen." Joe said, it had become a weird pattern, ever since Blackie had moved in with them a weird pattern had begun, and most of the time the blame was placed sqaured on Joe Hardy's cousin Felicia Hardy.
Fenton nodded "I hope so, in the meantime I need to hit town, This kidnapping case has me baffled." Fenton had been trying to find a young woman who had gone missing in Bayport two weeks before, and so far every lead came up empty, Joe went to the door as his father grabbed his hat and coat and left the house, watching his dad drive off in the family car.
Now all he had to do was tell their current housecat not to steal from the new nighbors. Unless they had something very important. Like nuclear rods or some sort. That was a fun case. The whole Apeman thing. Joe found himself thinking on that case as he moved to the den of the house, Blackie was in the window. The black and white exotic feline woman sat on the sindowsill looking outside.
"Bring me anything to eat cousin ?" Blackie asked as Joe arrived, they locked her in there at times when new folks were visiting, mostly to keep her from lifting something unwanted, but then again she was used to it, nobody could find her there, and her uncle was nicer then she had ever thought, though at times he threatened to put her in a kitty carrier and lock her into a jail sell.
"Yes and no, Dad said you can have access to the kitchen, and he also said to stay with me for the next month. We got new nieghbors coming in and Dad doesn't want any troubles" Joe said, the computer was left empty, normally Frank was hard at work doing something or searching something, but ever since Frank had gotten that new job at the nearest Best Buy in Bridgeport, that made him away from home more often then normal. At least he was off the next week once he got home.
"Well, two out of three ain't bad, I hope your socks are clean..." Blackie snickered and scampered for the door, she was starving. Once in the kitchen she pulled open the door to the fridge and looked around at what was in it. Lots of meats. Good meats. With her head buried in the fridge she spoke somewhat muffled, "I heard we got new nighbors coming ?"
"You heard right" Joe said, great, why did he had to let her out of the den ? He wondered, this was going to be a fun month.
"Well, if you guys can keep the fridge this stocked I think the backyard will be nice enough for me." Blackie said, though she wanted to swim.
"Well, when our new nighbors show up, you are to be on your best behavor as a cat, you know that right ?" Joe said giving her the evil eye. Blackie just nodded, but said nothing. Joe sighed, this was going to be a very long month indeed.
The day was slowly turning to night as Docs highbeam lights strobed on a sign, "BAYPORT 2 MILES" was written on it, "Guys we're almost here" Doc said over the raidio as the second sign was passed it read "BAYPORT CITY LIMTS" Doc turned onto a street exit, third street it was labeled. Now all they had to do was get ot their new home for the month.
"How much longer ?" Lake asked, clearly sleepy, she wanted to see that new Casino, Maybe bet Epps out of his money too. They were to meet up there.
"Not long, lsee those lights ahead ?" Swallowtail said softly to Lake, prodding the woman in red to see, through sleepy eyes, the top of the Casino. "That is closer to town, Doc wants us to keep a low profile so we're taking the back roads."
"Right guys, up ahead is our stop, keep your wits about you, these folks got cameras everywhere, Toi, I want you to set up the scramble firewall, anyone that tries to spy us on any camera system sees a normal car and not us particularly. Start the scrambler as of ten minutes before our arrival into town" Doc said.
"You're the doc, Doc" Toi replied, the fellow in the driverseat of the black Toyota SR5 wrote down a few things on his hand as he drove, casting his glance up and down as if acting like a human driver. Toi was not one to really multitask well, it was not as bad as his airsickness disablity though, which was one of the reasons why they drove to Bayport instead of having Lift flying them there.
The three Autobots and one Human rolled onto a street and turned into a longish driveway, pulling to a halt in front of a closed garage of a nice quiant house. Doc opened his door and got out of his car frame, Toi did the same when he rumbled to a halt, the automatic hologram of a driver seat appearing as he stepped out of the truck.
"Well here we are" Doc said, the while haired man in a loud sport shirt was looking at the house as Swallowtail pulled into the drive, her car frame was dirty enough to not have the Cybertronian lettering seen. "We got the keys and everything, according to the letter the garage door opener is inside on the kitchen counter." He said.
Lake stepped out of Swallowtail, the Mustang turned off its lights, in the roadside lamp nobody could really tell if the three new arrivals were really human or not. "So this is Bayport. Does not look like much." The woman in red said, Toi was happy though as Doc scampered to the door to unlock it and find the garage door openers. There were two of them, and Toi prefered to be out in the outdoors anyhow. That said, the Truck tossed one to Lake, Lake looked at it, "What do I do with this." She asked
"Give it to Swallowtail so she has a door opener and a place to hide out if she has to." Toi said, Doc slid his door opener into his pocket. There were two garage doors, one for each and they were labled one and two on the door openers.
"OK, first things first, we all have some devices and packages that we have to have need for" Doc said, he checked his watch, "Once we have the computers and other belongings inside we can set up shop and hopefully keep under cover. Cameras may be out, but human eyes and their memory banks are not So keep a lookout for prying eyes as much as possible, that goes for you too Mustang!" Doc said over the radio, though he also spoke it aloud so Lake could hear him.
"Right, you're the doc, Doc. Can I get out now ?" Swallowtail asked. Lake snickered and hit the button, the door on the garage opened, it was large enough for even Toi to fit in there but he insisted on parking outside. Also to give cover to the other two due to how he was parked as it was. Swallowtail pulled into the garage and the door slid closed once she was safely within the building, a second later Swallowtail stepped out of the garage in her pretender unit. "Well, that was easy" She said upon entering the house.
The house was one floor and backwards L shaped, the bedrooms along the longer side that they all faced to the north, the west facing portion of the house was the front den, the front entryway, and the entry to the basement, the rest of the house consisted of a nice full gourmet kitchen and also a island counter with a full gas stove and oven. Though Lake was not a cook.
The house was perfect size, and they had a moving truck, Pinky, arriving the next day and only had some cots for Lake and the Pretender Units to act as if sleeping, though Lake could go five days straight and not sleep at all and never feel tired for that matter. The living room and den were perfect sized for what Doc wanted to do, so was the garage, set up shop computer wise and start making more weapons. Impact was sure to visit at some point.
There was five large windows at the front of the house, and also in the den which had two large front plate glass windows. There were no curtains currently though they could buy some come morning. The first thing Lake did was take out her 'laptop' After a brief hard look at Brains Lake told the 'Bot in Mandarin not ot transform until they had curtains to shield the bot from being seen. First thing Brains did was chitter a reply and let himself get setup on a kitchen counter, which was seen from the from the front windows, if barely that.
After about five trips to and back from the tarpcovered pickup bed to the house everything was set and they were ready to crash for the night. Though Lake found it odd, nobody was chasing them, there were no Decepticons around, and so far everything was peaceful, it was impossible for Lake to relax, she was just too nervous.
Like Doc had said the cameras were out, but humans eyes weren't. Two pairs of eyes, one belonging to a human man and the other to a feline, who had human eryes oddly so. Were watching the new arrivals, Joe mostly out of curioicty and Blackie out of boredom. "So those are our new nighbors huh ?" the cat asked after a minute
"Looks like." Joe replied. He liked the look of the two cars and the truck, classics all of them. After seeing t he mint condition o f the Mustang as it pulled into the garage of the house across the street and thus out of sight his eyes settled on the silver car, a DeLorean, who had the money to keep up a car like that ? Those were some sports cars.
The pickup truck though got him hooked, the Toyota SR5 was a nice looking rig and Joe liked the look of it, he also got a good hard look at who owned the three cars, a woman, asian in appearance, and two men it appeared, no, two women both of them asian in appearance and the two guys, one of them wild haired.
"So, looks like we got us some chinese nighbors, you think they serve carry out ?" Blackie asked thoughtfully watching the four people unload the DeLorean and the back of the Toyota with several boxes and some bags. Blackie found herself wondering just what was in those boxes and bags, must be some important stuff, she hoped. "That's the house with the nice pool right ? You think we could invite ourselves over to swim ?"
"What ?" Joe asked confuse,d "I thought you hated water ?" Joe gave a confused look at blackie, what on earth was she talking about anyhow ?
"I liked to swim before I became a cat OK ? Is that too much to care about for you ? Besides, those people look nice, and that house has a pool too remember ?" Blackie said somewhat indignant at her cousins words. And also somewhat embarrassed by the truth of those words.
"True they do look nice, but for the moment keep your paws to yourself alright ? I don't want to have to lock you in the den again, Dad's annoyed as it is." Joe said, Frank was also annoyed, slightly, mostly due to their computer. He wanted to look up those new renters across the street and was unable to find much of anything. Only doing a look up of the woman in red was he able to find some government files and mentions of Autobots, whatever those were.
"Don't worry Joe, I'll keep my paws to myself," she felt funny saying those words, but neverthless, she said them, after all he said them first. Joe just rolled his eyes and smirked. "Besides, how bad could these folks be ? They look nice enough."
"Yeah well, that's what you said about the last family that moved in there, you never saw the Great Dane until that day you got out to sneak over there." Joe snickered as he recalled how high strung Blackie was for the next week or so after that.
Blackie just stared at her cousin, "How in the world did you know that ?" She had told nobody of her time trying to snag and sneak into the nieghbors place, only to scamper like hell was after here to get away from the dog. She shook her head and curled up on the windowsill, still looking out at the new nieghbors "Don't answer that, its hard to keep secrets for your famly, its a small wonder still for mthat your mom let me stay when she found out what I truly am." Blackie said.
Joe nodded, his mom loved cats, and ever since Aunt Gurtude had died six months ago his mom, Laura Hardy, had taken Blackie, his cousin and her niece, into the family as a daughter, Blackie liked her aunt Laura, but sometimes the woman got a little mad for little reason, but she was a awesome cook. "Same here. I still can believe it myself." Joe never really knew just what his cousin really was until her severe illness that landed her in bed for several weeks. Only to end up as she was, able to change form between feline and human... mostly. A mutant... of sorts.
"Frank though avoided me a lot at the time, did he ever tell you why ?" Blackie asked. Frank Hardy was not exactly a cat lover, but he did put up with them, but he was unable to truly take to the fact that his cousin was both a cat and human at once, it was hard to accept. But what was most alarming was that Fenton took to Blackie almost instantly at his sister-in-laws' request. Fenton liked Blackie, mostly because of how helpful the cat-girl was in several cases.
But what was different was now, Frank was unable to findout who exactly had rented the house across the street, and he was getting to the point of wanting to do some snooping of his own. So that was startling when Frank knocked on Joe's door and entered a few seconds later. He found Joe and Blackie at the window, with Blackie curled up on the sil, "Still admiring the new nieghbors huh, Joe ?" Frank said.
"Yeah, did you knock ?" Joe asked, Frank just looked at his brother, yeah Joe was funny at times. "But yeah, we've been watching them unload their truck and car, looks like a good group, possibly a college group." Joe said. Blackie said nothing. She didn't want to get on her cousins bad side, even though the man was a few years younger then herself.
"Well, I can't find anything much on the new people there, but there is something about them I just can't shake, there is also something about that house too, the police drove by here yesterday and early this morning, a few of them had search dogs too, a tipoff" Frank set a paper on the bedside table and took a seat on the floor.
"Dad said the tipoff came last night, the police drove by when a car was spotted in the driveway of the house across the street, then this morning two police crusiers were parked at the edge of the road and also a K9 unit was here too looking around. It's possible the kidnapped person is nearby to here, but they didn't find anything and they didn't have the keys." Frank sounded worried.
"Don't worry Frank, I'm sure tormorrow we can meet our new nieghbors, maybe even get a tour of their place tomorrow too." Joe said thoughtfully, if they could manage to get into the place across the street and meet their nieghbors before the Waters Edge opened.
"And maybe go swimming!" piped up Blackie, Frank stared at his cousin, she was joking right ? Frank just snickered and set his head aganist the wall.
"I did some searches on the woman in red out there across the street, nothing much came up other then an old soldier program, Operation Red Cloak, it was started in the sixties apparently. An old program. Couldn't find out much though." Frank said.
Joe opened the folded paper that his brother set on the bedside table. He read the contents of the letter. "Tip; Strange dark colored SUV seen at 2501 East Thomas Street, lights were on briefly in the basement windows. Weird sounds came from the backyard and garage area. Sounded like screaming. Signed a friend" Joe read aloud, that meant trouble, and if these folks had just rented the place, they were in for a whole passel of trouble. He set the letter down and sat across from his brother. "You think these people are possibly kidnappers or some such ?"
"Dad told me a little about them, the women are racers, they work for the police in DC and also Diego Garcia, and sometimes in LA and Vegas, they race in illegal drug smuggling races to catch the crooks. Both of them do it. They use a Mustang of some sort, no add ons, no nothing. Its said the car can easily break the sound barrier. Nobody can catch up to it." Frank said. "The other two guys are a science teacher and a truck driving school student. They both work apparently with the two women that do those races."
"So you think that the kidnappers work with them or they're just in the wrong place at the wrong time ?" Joe said thoughtfully, Blackie curled up on the windowsil. Watching the nighbors, her eyes went wide at sight of the laptop being set up on the counter. Whoa, who could afford that kind of machine. Then there was the woman in red again, and something gold glinted in the womans hand. Her eyes locked on that. A necklace of some sort.
"I do not know what to think, dad thinks they're just renters without knowledge of the house true needs" Frank said "And if that's the case, if what the tip says is true, that house is a prime location foro something weird. How could someone access the basement, the house is locked tight." It was all confusing to Frank, but it didn't matter now. "How are we even going to get into the place ? 'hi my name is Frank this is my brother Joe and our cat Blackie, we thought we'd say hi and greet our new nighbors' may raise some suspiousions..." Frank said
"It may" Joe agreed, "For now we can just watch from afar I guess, they look like nice people though." Joe noticed how Blackie kept her eyes on the house across the street, constantly watching it. Every person t hat went in or out. Though her tail was wagging in the way of one stalking food. "Blackie... Don't be thinking what I think you're thinking." Joe warned
"If you are thinknig what I am thinking I'd suggest that you stop your thinking about what you think I am thinking. Otherwise I will make you stop thinking." Blackie said jokingly, Joe just smirked and looked back to Frank.
"I think we wait until sunlight and take a walk, its summer, so school is not in session. We can walk past the new nieghbors and introduce ourselves if we're spoken to, but nothing more, I want to get a closer look at the house." Frank said. And I want to get a closer look at those cars. Joe thought. Though he nodded in agreement to his brother. Finding out who owned the place was going to be hell, but finding out who was renting it, that was easier said then done.
Frank stood up, "Welp, I'm off for bed, see you tomorrow." He said, then he left, leaving Joe and Blackie once more in the room.
Joe watched the door close behind his brother, "well, that went well." He mused softly, Blackie kept her gaze on the woman in red, mostly her necklace, the blue eyed feline watched the woman in red for several minutes until she left the room, darnit, well ,that was a house to watch for sure! Joe turned out the light and laid in bed to sleep. Blackie kept her perch on the windowsil.
Morning soon arrived for Lake, sooner then expected, even on a vacation she was alert and ever watchful, being the only human in the rented house Lake had told Doc of better to keep watch then worry of intruders. She was not able to relax as easy even with a Cybertronian system running to keep watch and keep out intruders.
"We'll be fine!" Doc had said, "Nobody will intrude or try to gain access to our property as long as we're here, I got the sensors running and Swallowtail is in the garage. we're set for tonight." the man had said.
"But what if someone manages ot bypass the Cybertronian sensors ?" Lake had asked,
"Nobody has tried yet, besides Brains is ontop of everything on the counter there, if anything does go wrong, he'd alert us before anything bad happens, that's the best part of this place, if anything should go wrong, we'll know and be expecting the incoming danger" Doc replied. He patted Lake on the shoulder, "Just don't worry, relax, you're high strung after that incident at Stockton two weeks ago. Its not every day a woman like you can have the drop done on her." he said
That made Lake slightly nervous, and if someone had gotten the drop on her and tried to kidnap her, for some weird reason, that was one hell of a fight. Thankfully before she was caught she had managed to fight off her attackers and make a run for it, the louts never saw her coming, she fought them off far too easily. After all she was a supersoldier. That and Swallowtail was ready to go berzerk again. "When does Pinky arrive with the rest of the stuff ?"
"Tomorrow at noon, if you want we can set watch for three shifts of six hour each, I'll wake you at midnight. Then you can waken Toi at six. Now go to bed, Lake, you too Swallowtail. You both need sleep." Doc said giving them both a stern fatherly look. The guy was indeed something akin to a teacher, which was one of his main fronts. "Tomorrow I wont be here until around eleven thirty or so, Need to get up to that office and try and put down a buy out for the place, its perfect for what I need, I want to explore the place too, see how big our property is, the garage will only hold so much, so I'll have to see what else we can manage downstairs." Doc had said as Lake left to go to bed, Toi remained at the time for a few minutes longer talking with Doc before also heading to well, stasis lock. Or sleep mode, whatever the Autobots used for sleeping.
But it was morning and it could not come sooner, so Lake went and nudged Toi to wake him up, stepping over the supposedly sleeping form of Swallowail, tangled up in the pile of blankets. "Toi." Lake nudged the young man gently.
Toi woke up in a milisecond, "Yes ? What is it ? Oh morning Lake, anything happen ?" Lake shook her head, yawned stiffly and all but collapsed ontop of Swallowtail and the pile of blankets into a deep sleep. It was all Toi needed to know to take over the watch, Doc was also up and puttering about in the kitchen chattering with Brains.
Toi left the sleeping area of the house and moved towards the kitchen area. "Morning Doc, Pinky arrives at noon right ? What time does the office open again ?" Toi asked with a fake yawn, they had ot make it look good, Doc himself was dressed in a loud bathrobe
"The sales office opens at nine am sharp. Its in downtown, near to the casino, that does not open until three or so. So I can meet you there later if need be. I plan on being here though when Pinky and Ironhide arrive. Lennox said something of meeting up here with us along with Epps." Doc finished his glass of motor oil and put it in the sink.
He moved over to what looked to be a closet, removing his bathrobe and opening the door, once grabbing a hangar he put the bathrobe back on, only by then it was a light orange trenchcoat, "Oh, almost forgot, Pinky informed me over secure band that Screecher and Wheelie were also coming and will be here with us. Their alt modes of RC stuff is a perfect front for here to get proper survaliance of this town." Doc said as he moved towards the door.
"Right Doc, anything else ?" Toi said in reply as he poured himself a glass of refined energon.
"Yes, don't interact with anyone unless they get too nosy and only exject them if you truly must do so, some folks on this road like to meet their new nighbors, so if worst comes to worst, we can act socially. But keep up the front of being a human as much as you can, and try not to let word leak out of what is really going on here. I have two hours before the Sales Office opens so I am going to explore town a little bit and see what is here that we can use" Doc stressed before leaving to his car and pulling onto the road and soon disappearing around the corner. Heading into town.
Toi watched Doc leave and turned back to his coffee mug of Energon and stepped out of the house to get the newspaper, Doc had mentioned on the drive he requested the news to be delivered every morning. The young man then went back into the house once he had gotten the paper, seeing the first page, he whistled a low whistle
The front page read, "TEEN MISSING FOR TWO WEEKS, ANNOMOUS TIP LEADS NOWHWERE" then in smaller text was written, "WORLD FAMOUS DETECTIVE FENTON HARDY TAKES THE CASE THIS MORING" Toi read the paper but as he did so he also connected to an intralink system and did a search for Fenton Hardy, a world class detective with an eye for crime solving. Just like Lake.
In the bedroom in the pile of blankets two women slept like rocks, well sorta, Swallowtail snoozed in sleep mode, a steady thrummm as if purring came from her as she was tangled up in the blankets, Lake was also tangled up with her and the blankets in sleep as well. Using Swallowtails left arm for a pillow at that. At least until Swallowtail rolled over and Lake fell off the cot, but never woke up.
It was a few minutes more when Swallowtai l got up, without too much trouble she distangled herself from the mass of blankets, and her driver, and got out of bed. Within a minute her 'hair' was distangled and she was in cleaner appearing close, better then snoozing like a robot in the true mode for the unit, Swallowtail thought, she spotted Lake, half on and half off the camp cot the two had shared. Well, Lake had slept in weirder places. Swallowtail mused as she left the room and headed for the kitchen.
Swallowtail spotted Toi drinking a glass of Energon, "Morning Toi." The Mustang said, the strangely tattooed woman looked normal, save for the weird tatoo markings on her face and neck. The Cybertronian writing circled her right eye and went also down the right side of her neck in the same pattern. Disappearing at somepoint on the transcanned skin. All of the writing matched perfectly the writing on the Mustang car frame.
"Mornning Mustang, sleep well ?" Toi smirked as he read the paper. Swallowtail noticed it and also did a intranet search on the guy, Fenton Hardy, detective... oh joy. They lived across the street from the guy! Toi noticed Swallowtails look at the paper "Doc ordered it, while we're here rather then using the intranet uplink, we can read like humans. Sure it ain't Cybertronian but hey, it does alright. Says in here an annomous tip led nowhere for the local police, after wards Fenton Hardy, detective of Bayport took the case as of noon yesterday. The missing porson, one Tamara Reese, was reported missing from her car at ten oh nine am on Tuesday June first." Toi read from the paper. "That was two weeks ago today. And 12 years to the date of the Las Vegas event with Megatron. I'm still surprised that the 'Cons never found this town, according to the wirefram maps of the place nothing here's been touched or damaged at all by the Decepticons when Sentniel Prime tried to move Cybertron here." Toi mused.
"Yeah, about that, that was six years ago wasn't it ? Then three years ago was that fight with unicrons herald," Swallowtail said
"And your death and finding of the Icegate. At least we got some good weapons out of that deal." Toi said. Que had made a full on stockpile of Autobot and human interfaced weapons, and though the nice 'Bot and weapons nut was killed by Soundwave, who was then killed by Bumblebee seconds later, Que had made dozens of weapons that worked well with the humans, like the Boomsticks, bombs that could easily penetrate a Spark casing if they were placed right, some grappling hooks, even some full on body armor for the humans too. But the main thing was the stuff he had made for his comrades, he like Doc and Impact had made so many weapons to use against the Decepticons it was nuts. Two huge silos loaded with the weapons, though thnkfully none of them nuclear in make.
"Yeah thanks for reminding me about that" Swallowtail grumbled, she hated to be reminded that she had died, but she now possessed the Starsaber in her spark casing. It was what kepot her alive at the moment, her spark had merged with it, though she was not yet fully a prime, or was she ?
"Your welcome" Toi replied as he went back to his paper. "Says here the police got the tip and the tip was for this adress, nothing was found and that the tip sender mentioned that he or she had heard screaming." Toi looked up briefly when Brains started speaking, "What is it brains ?"
"We have incoming." Brains replied, since he had control over the nearby camera systems and the fact that Toi had one through his headlights, the Toyota uploaded a feed from his truck mode.
"Looks like two young guys and a cat." Toi said, watching as a young dark haired boy, and a young blonded haired boy with him were walking on the side of the road. Swallowtail snickered
"And we wanted to keep this a low key operation." the Mustang mused softly.
"That we still do, is Lake asleep yet ?" Toi asked, Swallowtail nodded,
"Fell out of bed too, never woke." she replied
"Well that is good" Toi said, "As long as these two, looks like Fenton Hards kids I think, Names are Frank Hardy and Joeseph Hardy, looks like a pair of good hearted kids to me" Toi said mostly to himself, he went back to his paper. "let them in Brains, Swallowtail you may answer the door."
"The are hading up the driveway now. Swallowtail the floor is yours" Brains said, then he went back to being a normal laptop, playing chess, but taking his time at it rather then rushing to win, which he could easily do if he wanted to.
Swallowail went to the door, she noticed the two boys get closer to Toi's truck, which by then was clean from the nights early rainshower. Tan colored mud was on the driveway and dripping off the black truck. The two men stopped at the truck, admired it for a moment, though Swallowtails gaze was on them she also watched the cat closely. She was not very fond of cats, and Brains liked them even less.
Joe spotted movement inside the house near the door as it opened, a young apparing clearly Asian woman with light brown hair was seen, though what stood out was the markings on her face and neck. Swallowtail called out to them, "Good morning! Is there something I can help you guys with ?" She had an asian accent to her voice.
Joe spoke up first before his brother could put his foot in his mouth, "Good morning, Yesterday evening I couldn't help but notice this truck arrive, I'm a fan of nice classic cars, and I told myself, better meet the owner. So yeah, My name is Joe, this is my older brother Frank. We live across the street. Is the owner home ?"
Swallowtail sent a comm connection to Toi, who shook his head, No, he was not leaving his spot in the kitchen until Pinky and Ironhide arrived at noon, "He is" Swallowtail said, "But he's asleep still, I'm the only one up at the moment." She said stepping out onto the porch, allowing both Frank and Joe Hardy to see her, clearly asian in clothing style as well as looks. Though what stood out the most was the strange tattoos on her face and neck. But it didn't matter at the moment At least the womanwas outside. "I'm Swallow" Swallowtail said, her brilliant unblinking blue eyes stared out at the world. Which made Frank nervous.
"Nice to meet you, is there any chance we could speak to the owner of this truck, it looks great, I'd like ot see it in action at some point, how long are you guys here for ?" Joe said, hoping that the woman, Swallow, and her friends, or if they were family or some such, were going to be there a while.
"Right now a month last I knew, wont know until later today when Uncle Emmet gets back if we'll be here longer" Swallowtail replied. She hated putting up a front like this, though was shocked that these people here had no idea of the Cybertronians being on earth. Not that it really mattered much.
"That's good to know, we might see you guys later then before you leave, Nice meeting you" Joe said all but pulling his brother and Blackie with an unspoken word, away from the house, Blackie was staring at the strangely tattooed woman, no necklace was on her, where was it ? Swallowtail watched the two men and the cat leave before going back into the house, locking it behind her as the two young men left when she reentered the house. She went back to the kitchen "That went well."
"So I heard" Toi said taking a sip of his Energon.
"They live across the street, they're Fenton Hardy's sons apparently, and they have a cat." Swallowtail said.
"Wonderful, just what we wanted," Brains grumbled from where he sat on the counter near to the portable energon refinery they had bought from ther Junkion Prybar with scrapmetal. Bolts was still surprised it worked so well.
"Quiet Brains, those boys may be helpful over time, the dark haired one seemed more interested in my truck then anything else at the moment, if only Doc were here..." Toi mused reading the paper some more. There was one thing he liked to see there, a local off roading group was having an outing later that week, perfect cover. "That boy, Joe Hardy, wants to see me in action huh, I'll give him some action." he smirked, already folliowing the link provided in the paper and registering now just himself from Swallowtail and Lake as well.
"The perfect cover, we can explore the town a bit more and get to know the locals a bit while we're at it, Doc said he'd try and get back before Pinky and Ironhide get here though." He said.
"Lets hope he gets back, because at the moment Lake is asleep, out cold, and I doubt even Wheelie can waken her up." Swallowtail said.
"No worries" Brains said, "Wheelie can wake up the dead with his screaming if he really wanted to." That was true in itself, the little combat drone was not much more then a screamer alarm, heck if he screamed loud enough he could waken the whole nieghborhood.
"Let us hope then that screaming wont be needed" Toi said, thinking the same as Swallowtail, "At least he wont have access to energon goodies" Toi mused.
Swallowtail just stared at him, "What ?"
"Nothing" Toi replied, turning a page in his paper.
"Its about Screecher isn't it ?" Swallowtail pressed. Screecher had been given an Energon Goodie after doing something right to plan for once, from Doc, so if anything went wrong, they could blame him and him alone. So far so good...
Toi said nothing, he merely continued to read the paper as if nothing was wrong. Swallowtail felt in her spark that Bayport was going to be a fun town for sure.