Queen's Notes:
Wreck an' Rule
Part Two
Basking
The sound of claws twitching, scraping audibly against the textured, silver-y-black of the protoform frame, warned the watching man that Roadbuster was waking up from his recharge again. The Wrecker had been in and out of it, rising and falling into different levels of recharge over the last five days. Becoming aware long enough to be assured that the seven humans were alive, to check the report of repairs (his own internal repairs and what the humans were doing to help), and skimming his sub-space pocket for supplies for them. Though what came out was more than a bit random, a mix of stolen things, stuff from Ratchet and Ironhide- maybe even from the other Wreckers. It was the mech's 'dump-stash' pocket so to say, where smaller bits were put, including parts Roadbuster used in his weapon making, and some smaller armor plates too. Epps commandeered those, as well as the smaller parts from what the mech shed off, to help with fixing him, and a lot more duck-tape then the group would have liked to hold lines together or just in place.
No one understood how or why it worked, as the mech's energon wasn't eating the tape away, at least not very fast.
A low growl came out of the Wrecker, it was equal parts annoyed and pained as Roadbuster shifted. It was more like a stretch held in as his helm hit the roof of the garage, getting another growl of annoyance from him.
"Good morning." A human voice greeted, and brightening green optics turned down to look at the man sitting on his thigh, leaning back against the living metal of the mech's front. Mongo moved to stand up, glancing over a tattooed shoulder at the large hand coming up behind him, but it didn't pull the man off his new spot. "How are you feeling boss?"
"Like scrap..." Roadbuster grunted, he tilted his head, watching the human do the checks he and the others learned from Ratchet. The mech paused to consider the damage report as it updated, "Hmm... seems like my tank might be able to hold some fluid soon... need some old fashion basking time fer' energon." He was still rasping, or what sounded like rasping to human ears as the mech looked to the garage door, and the sun light bleeding in through the cracks as well as the small two foot gap on the ground.
Roadbuster suddenly wasn't fully sure about risking fluid in his primary tank now that he started moving. Aware by hyper sensitivity in the area how the molten remains in his tank shifted with the nannies inside working, so maybe it would be a better idea not to use it. The Wrecker was glad he hadn't gotten rid of secondary tank, plus that would work better he realized. Roadbuster wasn't made or modified to fully fuel up by using solar made energon, but given time he could after a few days and some internal alterations.
Mongo shifted, dropping into a crouch, and then jumped off the mech, wisely moving out of the way as he trotted to the garage door, lifting it up with a teeth gritting sound of metallic protest from the door.
It was a good thing they didn't have to be stealthy.
The others looked over from where they were sitting, just in under the shade of the main gas station building. One of the water jugs was sitting as far away from the direct sun and heat while still being close to the men to refill water bottles.
"Something wrong?" Eddie asked, sitting up as the man tossed a small chunk of copper at Epps to really wake him up. Not that the garage door screeching in protest again wouldn't do it as a giant metal foot nudged it up the rest of the way.
"Big man wants out," Mongo said as he grinned a bit, taking this as good news as the tattooed man moved out of the way again as Roadbuster stiffly shifted his way out of the shop on his back. The man glanced over to where a pale form was laying down in the cleaner, non-stuffy air of the inside. "How's Tanner?"
"Uhh..." the pale form barely stirred, but then slowly lifted an arm and hand limply to show he hadn't died yet as the hand flopped limply at the wrist.
"He seems to have stabilized, we did get a bit of that fruit juice, from the jars in the back, down in him with the water." Jorge said from beside the injured man, he shifted his own large frame, one of the two biggest of the men present. He was darkening like the others of the group with five days of sun, and working out in it while they kept trying to hide the larger parts shed from the mech. Right now he was on the shift of staying with Tanner, much like how Mango had been staying with Roadbuster to be sure the two were alright. Eddie checked over the ashen man, carefully looking at the improvised and improved bandages.
He looked up, as the former green Wrecker that completely freed himself from the garage and was now sitting up. Roadbuster poked at a few pieces of armor still in place on his person, considering them, and then eyed the disconnected pieces covered up. With a groan he turned to the humans, half pulling himself, half scooting to lay down on his front. Roadbuster debated on rolling over but his hands slackened on the edge where dirt and the old black top met, where his helm rested on it. A broken sound came out of the mech, one that normally was something the humans had learned was a mechanical purr from a mech. It was off, but still there in reaction to the warm ground under him and the warmer sun above.
Epps moved over to the mech, rested a hand on the helm, "You alright 'Buster?" The Wrecker grunted in return as the dark skinned man shifted to look down at the green optics, finding them dimmed very low but not completely off. He stood back up, one hand carefully feeling the broken left side of the mech's visor to see if the nanites had worked on that at all to repair. "I think that's a yes." He told the others.
"Do you have any proper bandages in that magic pocket big mech?" Jorge asked as he sat up beside Tanner.
There was another snort, and the purring sound faded to something more like an unimpressed and disappointed sound. "Not magic squishy. Sub space." Roadbuster shifted the level a look at the humans, the 'M' word was not one the Cybertronians liked, as it wasn't logical to them and just a too-weird thing of humans that just wasn't real as far as they were concerned.
Unless used in sarcasm against humans, a bit of mocking and derogatory way it seemed. Despite being a sarcastic bastard himself, Roadbuster generally didn't do that to humans, call them idiots very loudly yes, but as Epps knew from experience he wasn't really spiteful to humans.
...at least, generally.
"Alright, not magic," Epps interjected, not wanting to think of that day but at the same time couldn't help it. The Wreckers hadn't been hesitate about firing at those men that attacked them. "Can you skim some more on your subspace pocket, or pockets?"
The large left hand twitched behind Epps as the man crouched beside Roadbuster's head, running one hand down the jaw line, finding a spot the man had seen Topspin go after. It was a sensor patch, or 'pool' as the mechs called it. It was an off-switch as far as Epps could tell, but the smaller sensor pools could get a mech purring and relaxed. For him it could be a bribery tool, or just a way to comfort, and that latter option was how it seemed to be taken as the fait purring turned deeper.
After a few minutes, the mech stirred as if waking up from a sudden nap, "Frigging squishie." Roadbuster muttered, tilting his head to get a better rub away from the pressure point, and then his left hand flexed. The clawed digits curled, stretched and repeated, but on the second time there was a not so faint shimmering within the space of his hand. It was like overheated air, yet the air if one was close enough to it would be cooler.
Roadbuster set the handful of miscellaneous things down on the old blacktop, repeating it twice more before pausing. Then the mech nudged something out of the semi-controlled mess as Epps knelt down by it with Mongo, starting to sort it. Epps leaned over and picked up the box that had been pointed out, recognizing at once the universal red cross for medical supplies and opened it.
He moved over to Tanner and Jorge at once, "Thanks big mech."
The Wrecker rumbled to the humans, his optics flicking as he watched them start the slow process of carefully changing the Tanner's wrappings from duck tape to proper bandages. It wasn't hospital sterile but they were keeping things as clean as possible, and putting faith on the nanintes in Tanner. The man was limp in unconsciousness again, making it a little easier for the process, and for Jorge to add a few stitches as the tape was removed.
Roadbuster sound changed to humming, almost without thinking as he watched. He glanced from the silvery tape on Tanner, and another wrapping on Jorge's arm he didn't remember from before stasis. Then as the rhythmic old tune became a bit louder, green optics turned to regard some of the duck tape that was wrapped around the smaller fuel and coolant lines.
"Hmm..." strange how even in injury there was a connection, relation. Roadbuster rested his helm down, still humming as he just let his personal, though small, solar heat to energon system boot up, needing time to bask in the direct sunlight and get some energon. He would need to start emptying his subspace pockets, sort them out and take a better inventory soon. The Wrecker was fairly sure he had the parts to make or retrofit something into a small scale (but needed) energon converter. All this sun needed to be taken advantage of. He didn't want to resort to using the canisters... but he might.
Jack moved over to Roadbuster, motioning to Mongo over to the shade, "I'll take over, get some water." He held up a water bottle as he moved to sit against the mech's left side, above the ingrained looking exhaust pipes. Leaning against one of the secondary canisters that were just as attached it seemed, as well as being nearly as tall as he was. He shifted, starting to trace what was in reach of the engraved glyphs that were all over the grey protofrom metal. It wasn't often, even in NEST that one was aloud this close against a mech, Jack wasn't ashamed to take advantage and examine the ancient looking glyphs. They were carved into the metal of the protoform he realized, seeing the little warn edges microscopic groves to the Wrecker's scale, barley a half in long, and they were filled in with a darker seeming metal substance.
"Oy," Roadbuster grunted behind him, proving not to have dropped into recharge as they thought. "The frag yea' doing molestin' me when I can't move?" The mech's voice vibrated against Jack's back and into his chest.
There was a long pause from the men, absorbing what was said.
Then Tanner who had just stirred awake, gave a wheezing, hitching sound that had Jorge and Epps tensing for a split second. Tanner was laughing, trying to and unable to help himself, curling up slightly as his chest shook with the barely heard laughter and yes the pain that resulted. But the quiet grin as he closed his eyes was showing proof that Tanner thought it was worth it. "Jack..." he breathed, trying to look over and see his team mate in or around the mass of metal, though Tanner's eyes were closing again from this new exertion, "Stop molesting the mechs..."
"...not promising." Jack said, slowly grinning as he shifted and nudged Roadbuster, then stood back up as he rumbled a pleased tone.
"At least do a me a favor mate, and molest this Wrecker in a better place." Roadbuster said shifting ever so slightly, head tilting for dimmed green optics to regard the humans.
"Nah, I have a feeling we're going to be climbing inside you again to check that tank as it is." Jack said, coming back around the mech's shoulder, he reached over once close enough to tug as gently as he could a piece of shrapnel out of the neck cables, exposed more with some of the thick over armor off the mech.
Roadbuster grunted again, not pleased but also there were no protesting death threats or cursing so he knew it might be a needed thing to happen.
"So what's the plan?" Marc asked from his spot, nibbling slowly on a granola bar to make his stomach think it was getting more then it was.
"Short term, long term or 'Ah hell I don't want to think about that' term?" Epps snorted from where he was gently wrapping up Tanner's right thigh. The bloody duck tape, sprinkled with glitters from the nanites, was tossed aside. He reached up to triple check the pale man's blood type, grimacing as the little engraving hadn't spontaneously changed into something they could work with.
"...all of the above." Someone said.
"One of the short term ones," Eddie turned to look at the dark, but now known aware optics. "Why did you bring us out here? Other than being out of the way."
"Bolt hole." Roadbuster said, head tilting to let Jack have better access to his neck cables.
The men exchanged looks, "This place?" Marc motioned to the abandoned gas station. They were NEST, they knew unofficially that the Autobots had taken precautions, just as humans had in those first shaky, carefully years leading up to and then working together. A habit of Cybertronians in general to dig in to a safe place, literally that is. Their own home world had levels and levels all the way to the planet's core, many of the Autobots, Decepticons and more so the Wreckers felt better with secure walls and high, cavernous ceilings above them, where they could walk and stretch.
"Here?" Epps, who had a little marginal more information about these things, asked as he looked thoughtfully around, "Are you sure? Wouldn't Topspin or some of the others have come here?"
Roadbuster's humming turned into low rumbling growl like sound for a moment, "No, we were going different directions, he had some o' yea squishies that he grabbed."
"Are they alive?" Mongo wondered softly, glancing in the general direction of their former base.
"Topspin is," Roadbuster's optics had partly shuttered, then opened again. "He's my Second, he'll keep those he can safe."
"Are you sure?"
Roasbuster growled at the humans, "Ah' know my bonded is alive yea little fraggers. If he wasn't I'd have killed the lot o' yea in a berserk rage." He shifted to eye those that dared think the blue mech was gone, knowing the threads that connected their sparks and formed the Bond were muted by the distance, but still hummed with life and love… and a mix of rolling emotions like he had for their humans in general. There was also that sharper grating edge of hate for whoever attracted them.
Epps made a motion to drop that part of the subject.
"This place isn't really like anything like the bolt-hole Tracks and I made…" Jorge cut in slowly as the big man slowly peeled off the tape on his arm.
"You're 'retirement plan?'" Eddie blinked and stared.
"What?" Marc blinked.
"When I was taken out of NEST the first time," Jorge smiled slowly, "Ironhide asked a favor… and to make a deal before I shipped out. You know my metal recycling place? More stealth then I thought was possible was engaged and we made an Autobot bolt hole that turned into a recovery ward. Tracks is the guard with me, and my niece I guess, she's running the plant. But it's a place we can get to maybe?"
Roadbuster considered before shaking his head a little, almost at the same time Epps and Mongo did.
"I don't think going there right awake would be a good idea, it's your place so... 'they' might be snooping there." Epps started, glancing back at the mech. "If Tracks can lay low and avoid notice like he has been...?" He trailed off with a questing inflection.
"The lad can," Roadbuster jugged from what he remembered of the other mech. "There's at least three bots that can't move there, we won't put them in danger ta be slaughtered." The wrecker wasn't the only one to twitch and grimace at that thought and mental image, only he had seen the result of a curly raided medical centers on Cybertron. He pushed the memories away of dark shells with gaping plasma burnt wounds where spark chambers should have beam."Won't risk that lil' lass of yea'rs either."
Jorge gave a faint smile, the girl, young woman was almost his only living relative and more like his only daughter. "The place is in her name right now... had a feeling that might be a good idea. Hope it will be."
"Sure it will be," Jack said, shifting as he thought about his own daughter, safe with his parents. Hopefully still.
"Short term goal?" Epps steered the conversation back.
"Find the bolt hole?" Mongo guessed, looking at the desert and then the station with a calculating gaze.
"Hmm, more like some good basking, then searching." Roadbuster admitted, venting out and stirring the sand and some gold flakes. "Need my scanners to find the fragging place, not enough energon fer them."
"Another short term goal: things for surviving." Eddie added looking around, motioning to the water jug, "we're rationing but can't live off of what we have for long."
Roadbuster's optics flickered on and dimmed back, he was quiet for a minute, letting the humans prioritize what they would need for surviving. He carefully rerouted some energon to tap into the internet and examine a few things then shut it down. Rerouting that energon back he looked around, even glancing at Jack so close, "Right now, I need ta bask, long as I can to make energon, can't do slag without it. Can't get yea all out. Can't scan something new either."
"Something new?" Epps echoed now.
Roadbuster smirked, and then yawned, the motion like and not like what humans did. Re-setting the mandible connections in the jaws, and then the flex metal down his neck shifted back into proper position. It also exposed those fangs that were half and arm's length long, if not a little bigger.
In all that, the mech kept talking, "As much as I like that impala mate, gotta blend in again now."
