A/N: Yes, yes, I know I have other stories to work on, but I wanted to write this! The story of how Riella (my Movieverse OC) and Tai (Tatyana Witwicky's Movieverse OC) originally met, because I realized that Tai just randomly started appearing in my stories with no explanation of how they know each other. So here it is. Proofread by Tatyana Witwicky, who owns the character of Tai and made sure that I kept her pretty much in-character. If you like Tai, seriously, go check out her stories; they are awesome!

Also, this story is the first one in my new Movieverse organization system! I realized it was too hard to make every single story line up perfectly, because sometimes I just want to tell a fun story and not worry about how it fits in with the others. So with Tatyana Witwicky's permission, I've decided that all of our fics featuring Riella and Tai are part of an 'aligned continuity' kind of like the one Hasbro is doing with Transformers Prime and the War for Cybertron games. Basically, that means there's a common storyline and a few basic things like Jazz being alive, other Autobots on Earth, etc., but there are stories all over the place and they don't always quite line up. The ones I consider 'aligned' (as in, they don't really fit anywhere) will be marked in the summary. Like this one. Timeline-wise, it's sometime after "Meet the Cousin" by Tatyana Witwicky and "Transformers: Operation Earth" by me, and probably a bit before "Life as a Technorganic" (another aligned fic).

My sincerest apologies for the ridiculously long author's note. Enjoy the chapter!


Riella Meets The Cousin

Chapter One

Tai skipped into the main hangar, humming under her breath. "Yo, Sam! Sam?" She frowned at her cousin, who was just staring wordlessly at her. "Dude, whatsup?"

"Um…" Sam hesitated, not totally sure how to explain. It hadn't been that long since her change and Blurr's death – there was no guarantee how this would go over.

"What?" Tai asked impatiently. "What?"

"Uh…well…" Sam backed up slightly. "You've heard us talk about Riella, right?"

Tai's eye and optics brightened slightly. "Ratch' compares me to her sometimes! Techno, right? On the other side of the planet for some reason?"

"Yeah, that's her." Sam sighed heavily. "There were a bunch of 'Con incidents in Australia or somewhere, and they sent her and Prowl to cover it. Haven't seen either one in months."

"Got that. So what about her? Or should it be them? The Jazzman says they've been sparkmates since forever." Tai helped herself to Sam's Mountain Dew. He barely noticed.

"Um, they're coming back. Tomorrow afternoon."

Tai took another drink of her cousin's soda. "Well, that's good, right? Two more warriors for the great fight against evil, and all? Arcee's gonna be pretty happy. She told me once she missed Riella. And having another technorganic – like, one who's been around a long time – can't hurt either! Right?"

Sam glared at the Mountain Dew but didn't bother trying to take it back. "Ummm…that might be the problem. I'm not sure you and she will get along very well."

"Why the hell not?" Tai frowned in confusion. "Since when do I have trouble getting along with any 'bots? She's just like me."

"Uh, not really. She turns into a full-sized robot. And a motorcycle. And she wasn't originally human. She's all the way alien. And doesn't laugh much. And she's really frickin' dangerous. Kind of like Chromia." Sam looked across the hangar at Barricade, who was currently arguing with Lennox over something or other. "Oh, did I mention she and Prowl don't get along with Barricade, either? Bee says they weren't happy when he joined up."

"Oh." Tai looked crestfallen, pushing a strand of white-blond hair out of her face. "It might still go well, though, right? I mean, she's not really trigger happy or anything?"

"Who's not trigger happy?" Ratchet's voice made both the teens jump.

"Riella…hopefully…" Sam told him, shrugging nervously.

"Oh." Ratchet glared at the Mountain Dew. "I don't think you need to worry so much about her. Must I remind you again how very unhealthy that drink is?"

Tai held it out of his reach. "Oh no you don't! It's mine!"

"Actually, it's mine…" Sam muttered to no one in particular. "Or at least it was."

Ratchet snorted irritably. "I suppose I can't stop you." He stalked away, visibly frustrated. Sam rolled his eyes.

"Well, he was no help." Tai shrugged and offered her cousin the soda. "Here, you can have it back. Don't worry, I'm sure it'll all be fine."