So, I wanted to take this out for a spin. This may be a flop of a fic, but I'm writing this for my own amusement and anyone else that happens to adore dolphins, mermaids, and Transformers XD Inspired by a story I read on Archive of Our Own. It's really cool x3 If I remember the name of it, you could check it out. If not, you can just run around trying to find it XD
The waters were crystal clear and warm. The sun was warming the rocks and slowly, the swimmers were pulling themselves onto the rocks. The babies were playing together, chirping and learning their songs.
That was when the ship came and the mothers took their places on the rocks. Their strange appearance and the sense of danger drew all ships closer, and then eventually to the bottom. The crew was always very easily captivated by the femmes as they sang and drew the mechs in.
The younglings and the sparklings were kept close and hidden. They were the future of the swimmers, and they couldn't be allowed to be taken or destroyed. They had already lost several of the femmes to curious ships that hadn't been taken. Around the dangerous coasts where the swimmers liked to hide, captains of vessels ordered the crew to turn off their audios.
The ship coming around had a captain the swimmers knew well.
Ratchet walked to the captain. "We're coming around, Optimus."
The Prime looked up from studying a map, then he nodded as he grabbed a tattered journal. "Just observe, Ratchet. Keep the crew back. Only I will be on the lifeboat."
The medic nodded. He bit his lip and Optimus knew there was bad news coming soon after good news. "We are...also low on supplies."
"And low on what we need to get the supplies with." Optimus raised an optic ridge. "Do you think we can ask the swimmers if they have spare credits?"
"Everyone thinks that observing them is a waste of time," the mech finally blurted. "They want to catch one and-"
"Ratchet," the Prime said firmly. "That is out of the question, and you know that."
"You try explaining it to the crew!"
Optimus waved his servo to let his friend know he had been heard, then he climbed into the lifeboat. It dropped unceremoniously onto the water and Optimus grabbed the oars and starting rowing.
He heard the swimmers scrabbling to get back in the water, so he spun around in the boat and he watched them, quickly making note of the scars he could see. Yes, it appears he was correct.
The one he named Warcry was, in fact, the leader of the small pod. Warcry was a fierce-looking mech with silvery armor and red streaks down his face and down his sides, as if it was warpaint. Now the mech was glaring at the Prime, clutching a transparent pouch in his claws as he perched on a rock formation. He bared sharp denta in a warning.
Optimus reached behind him and produced his own pouch. He opened it and he winced at the foul scent of rotten Energon, which was fairly common on the ship. Too much sun rotted Energon quickly, too quickly for anyone's liking. Optimus had cubed the Energon earlier, so he reached in and produced a soft cube. He lowered his servo into the water.
The result was immediate.
Though his crew didn't like the rotten Energon, the sparklings and younglings did. When they came close, he released the cube and stroked a helm or a fin if he could reach. Warcry was slowly settling down and he lounged on the rock formation, yawning.
Him relaxing relaxed the others and soon, the mothers were investigating with tiny sparklings clinging to their backs. Optimus made sure to feed them as well.
He knew them all by name, and he knew them by their scars. He pulled his servo out of the water and dried it before he opened the tattered journal and he read what he had written so far, and then added to it, underlining what he added since the last time he visited them:
Warcry: Alpha male, silver and red, part of tail missing
Battlesong: Alpha female, blue and black, missing three digits
Siren: femme, yellow and one silver streak over left optic. Mother of Kip (small, orange mechling)
Thunderbolt: Mech, dark grey, missing half of tail
Kraken: Femme, red, missing right optic. Mother of triplets Striker (silver mech), Raysting (Blue and silver mech) and Razorbite (red and gold femme)
Starstreak: Blue and silver femme, carrying
Millie: Silver femme, carrying
Lilyburr: orphan femme
Petal: Light pink femme, caretaker
The swimmers were getting interested in what he was doing. He showed them the journal and all the notes. Siren snatched it, her wet servos leaving wet stains on the pages and smearing the ink on some. She chittered softly and gave it back to Optimus. He chuckled and gave her a towel, but she moved back in surprise before she took it and slowly dried her servos the way Optimus was showing her. Then Optimus corrected the ink, and he handed it back to her to read.
She tilted the book around, scowling before she chirred and gave it back. Optimus wanted to slap himself. She couldn't read. None of them could. But there was some hope that she could learn.
He lifted Raysting out of the water and he held him up when Kraken offered him. "Hello, little one..." He dared a glance at Warcry, who was moving closer.
Optimus set the sparkling down in the water, then left them. The swimmers followed him, chirring and purring happily as they held onto the boat. Ratchet and Prowl got the boat hooked up again and Powerglide turned the crank.
Out of Optimus' view, some of the crew dropped a net over the other side of the ship. Siren and Kip were captured in the net and then quickly put in a crate full of water.
Warcry scratched the side of the ship in anger, then swam away with the rest of the babies tucked against him. Petal cried for Kip, chasing the ship as fast as she could before she had to turn around and swim back to the others, howling her anger and sorrow.
In the belly of the ship, Siren held her sobbing son. She didn't know what was going on, but she understood one thing. Optimus was on the deck above her, talking about the swimmers he had seen as she whimpered and soothed her baby.
"I am telling you, Ratchet, they are sentient, like us, and should be treated with respect." He didn't know that his crew was taking from the pods Optimus visited. Several mothers were in similar crates with their own children if they had them at the time of their capture.
While Optimus docked the ship to sell the fish and ship wreckage they salvaged, some of the other crew went about selling the swimmers.
They only sold a few, and they quickly replaced the others before Optimus returned.
Siren laid in her crate, crying for Kip.
Optimus rubbed his audios when he heard the crying, looking around in confusion, but he was quickly distracted by his crew when they produced more Energon and more medical supplies. "Excellent. Store those."
They checked on Siren and the others they had captured, dumping the dead ones out and into the water before they left the belly.
Optimus was staring down at the side of the ship, reaching down to touch the claw marks. "Mmm.. I will have to fix this when I get around to it." He looked back at his crew, noting that most of them were staring at him with pale faceplates. "I suggest you refuel." He touched their shoulders and smiled. "It will be a long trip to the island and back. We need to find more ship parts to get credits to get fuel."
"We found some more things to sell, gems and things." One of the larger mechs, Daggertooth, produced a large pouch of what Optimus assumed was full of credits they so desperately needed.
"Excellent!" He clapped them both on the shoulder again and he chuckled. "Keep up the good work..."
They nodded, and then trooped down to the belly of the ship to make sure the remaining three hadn't died.
Optimus breathed in the air and stretched, chuckling as he walked back to his office and he settled in his chair. "Good day...good day."
Siren snapped at Dragonwing's digits when he came closer and she growled.
"They're fiesty little things."
"I can't believe we couldn't sell her," Daggertooth said as he fed a carrying femme. He patted her belly a little roughly, then put the lid back on her crate.
Dragonwing snarled as he lifted his servo. Siren had bitten him. "I wonder why..."
His brother chuckled and he shook his helm. "That's what you get."
"Let's get the rest of them fed before Optimus knows we're gone."
They ran back up the stairs, glancing back at Siren, who was too big to have the lid on her crate. She glared at them, her red optics narrowed.
She focused, trying to make her vocals work. "Op...Opti...Optimus." She gasped and clamped a servo over her mouth. "Optimus!" She squealed and flapped her servos in such a way that reminded her of a bird trying to take flight.
She would have to continue to work on speaking, and then she would be able to scream for help. She knew Optimus would never hurt her, not after how he helped Kip swim when Siren couldn't. She wondered if he could help get Kip back...
She laid down in her crate and waited, waited for the sun to set and for the moon to rise so that she could scream for her friend. She hugged herself and whined softly, missing her pod and her son.
Warcry looked around at the remainder of his pod. He chittered and he pointed in the direction Optimus' ship had went. His pod nodded, tightened their grip on their babies, then they dove to find the sharpened bits of metal and stone that could be fashioned into weapons.
Revenge was on the top of Warcry's To-Do list, and he wanted it bad.