Lots of skipping around in this one, but I had to do it to get things done... Should hopefully start calming down with that within the next few chapters, y'know, when plot actually starts happening.
Also hey so this story was supposed to take place sometime in season 2 but I didn't realize Drift and Sideswipe shouldn't be there so guess what continuity doesn't exist I've only watched like three episodes of season 2 oops. I couldn't not use any notable Decepticons. This is fanfiction canon stopped existing the moment I started writing anyway.
It hadn't taken too long to find a decent spot for Arcee and Sunstreaker to park their ship, though it did take longer than expected for them to arrive. It seemed strange for a Cybertronian ship to take so long to travel around a planet, especially one as small as Earth. But upon the ship's arrival it wasn't too hard to figure out why it had taken so long.
The ship was quite badly torn up from the looks of it, and possibly ancient. It was at least moderately damaged, dented and scratched up, any cloaking devices likely far from usable. The engine was a bit damaged as well it seemed, as the ship let out a loud and somewhat unnerving noise as it landed, but it seemed to be in a somewhat decent working order.
"It was all we could really obtain at the time… It worked well for a while, but we had a few too many encounters with space debris and I'm afraid it may not fare too well with anymore space travel." Arcee explained sheepishly as she exited the ship, seeing Bumblebee and his team's concerned looks, "It doesn't have a Ground or Space Bridge either, so we may actually be stuck on Earth for a while if we can't repair it. It's still functional at least."
"Arguably functional. And it's an aesthetic mess, I'll tell you." Knock Out muttered, walking up to Arcee, Bob following behind him, "I'd fix it up, but my specialty is in living metal."
Bumblebee didn't respond, instead saying something to Drift and Fixit, as the other two took a closer look at the ship. He then turned back to his old friends and asked, "So, where's the other member of your team? Sunstreaker, was it?"
As if on cue, the yellow bot ran out of the ship and practically tackled Bob, rushing between Arcee and Knock Out, pushing them away. Unfortunately for Knock Out, this involved a rather rough treatment of his injured wing, and the red bot let out a hiss of pain as he stumbled a bit at the impact. Arcee made an effort to catch him, but the red flyer kept his footing and straightened up again to rub at his drooping wing in an attempt to soothe his discomfort.
Ignoring his crewmates, Sunstreaker began playing with his pet and asked, "Was the grumpy old jet being a jerk to you again, Bob?"
The Insecticon screeched happily, nuzzling Sunstreaker as the yellow bot continued to play with her. He kept on ignoring his teammates for a moment, before noticing a familiar red bot trying to hide behind Bumblebee.
"Yo, Sideswipe!" He yelled, jumping back from Bob, running over to the anxious red bot, nearly pushing Bumblebee out of the way. Looking Sideswipe over, Sunstreaker laughed, "I thought you were in prison or something. Guess you got an even worse punishment!"
Sideswipe just looked away, relieved when Arcee called the yellow bot over. Bumblebee looked to him in confusion at Sunstreaker's sudden outburst and Sideswipe's avoidance, to which Sideswipe replied in a whisper, "I'll try to explain later."
"Bee?" Arcee called to her old friend. He began to walk over, but stopped when Arcee made a quick glance at the agitated Knock Out. The red flyer was leaning over a bit, rubbing at his wing in an obvious look of pain, though he was trying his best to hide it. Bumblebee followed her gaze, but said nothing as he seemed to get the hint.
"Sunstreaker and I are going to head on into our ship to try and help Knock Out with his repairs, alright?" She said, gently touching the aforementioned mech's shoulder to get his attention, "You can follow if you'd like, but I can't promise you much on the ship. Maybe a quick little tour? There's not much, but it looks a lot better on the inside."
She then turned towards their ship, Knock Out and Sunstreaker following behind her. Bumblebee hesitated for a moment, but some encouragement from Sideswipe to catch up convinced him enough to follow his old friend back to the ship.
Sideswipe wouldn't admit he'd only done that to keep from explaining his relationship to Sunstreaker, but an accusing look from Strongarm seemed to imply she was at least suspicious of him.
Arcee had decided to leave Knock Out to Sunstreaker, mostly because she wanted to catch up with Bumblebee, but also because Knock Out had decided Sunstreaker needed to take responsibility for his actions. There had been a bit of arguing, but in the end the former Decepticon had made use of his old skills and outwitted the young Autobot. Arcee was hesitant to leave the two alone together, but the room had been a bit crowded with all of them in there, so she and Bumblebee had wandered off.
"So…" Arcee began, walking alongside Bumblebee through the ship's cramped halls, "Knock Out said you wanted to talk with me? Is everything alright with you and your team?"
"No, nothing about my team. They work together just fine, usually anyway." The bot beside her responded, "Though, Knock Out's told me you were told to leave Cybertron by the council. Is that true?"
"Well, that's not entirely the truth, but not entirely a lie either."
Bumblebee looked at the smaller bot in confusion at her enigmatic response, prompting her to continue, "I did leave Cybertron, but more by my own free will than the council's choices. It's a bit difficult to explain why, but it does have a bit to do with the way the council treats things. I asked Knock Out and Sustreaker to come along, if you wanted to know. Neither objected."
Bumblebee would have likely questioned her further, but a sharp yelp from the other end of the hall caught their attention. The two quickly turned and ran to the room they knew the yell had come from, as Arcee pushed the door open to see Knock Out, bent over in apparent pain and clutching at his now straightened wing. Sunstreaker stood beside him, a strange tool Bumblebee couldn't quite identify in his hands.
"That is not how you fix that kind of thing!" Knock Out yelled to the other bot in frustration.
"Yeah, but it worked didn't it?" The yellow mech asked, tossing his tool away and patting the irritated jet on the back, "Just give it a minute and the energon flow to your wing should go back to normal, it'll probably hurt less. You know how it works."
It was then that the two of them noticed, or at least acknowledged, the bewildered Autobots in the doorway. Sunstreaker gave a confident smile, motioning to the other's more or less repaired wing, while Knock out rose slowly, glaring at the bot beside him. He did release his wing though, and any signs he may have still been in pain had mostly disappeared.
"So did Knock Out's scream freak you two out or did you two just have the shortest reunion ever?" Sunstreaker asked, still smiling.
"I wouldn't have done such a thing had you not bent my wing back without warning!" The other yelled back, before either of the two confused bots got a chance to respond. Looking to Arcee, he asked in annoyance, "Could we just leave him here, and go back on our way?"
Sunstreaker responded first, "After you went through the trouble of locating the yellow guy and then forcing us to come after you? Yeah, right."
"I was looking for your pet!"
"Enough arguing!" Arcee finally shouted, walking between the two bots and pushing them away from each other. Sunstreaker tried to protest, but a stern look from the small Autobot shut him up. Knock Out grumbled quietly to himself.
"Anyway, I'm sure you wanted to ask something else, right Bee?"Arcee turned back to Bumblebee, still keeping her hands to Sunstreaker and Knock Out.
"Yeah…" Bumblebee was a bit hesitant to speak in fear of another argument, but went on anyway, asking, "So why exactly did you leave Cybertron? What could the council have possibly done? Both you and Knock Out have given nothing but kind of cryptic answers, and-"
"And it's going to stay that way." Knock Out interrupted, pulling himself away from Arcee.
"He means it's a private matter, Bee." Arcee explained further, "I know it seems wrong to keep secrets from you, but there's really no easy way to explain anything right now. Forgive me, I'll try to explain as soon as I can though, I promise."
Bumblebee just nodded back, a bit upset by the secrecy, but understanding.
"Anyway," Arcee continued, "If Sunstreaker and Knock Out are up to it, I'd like for you to formally introduce us to your team."
"Sweet, maybe I can finally catch up with Sideswipe!" Sunstreaker cried in excitement, "I wonder if that bot's gotten into anything stupid since winding up on this planet."
"No thanks, I need to polish up my paint." Knock Out, on the other hand, was not as thrilled with the idea. He tried to walk away, but was stopped by Arcee as she grabbed his arm.
"Oh no, I'm sure you've been antisocial enough for the day." She told him sternly, "We'll wait for you to make yourself presentable, but hurry."
"I'll try my best, but you know it would take much less time if I had someone to help me." He replied with a grin, taking his arm from Arcee and bowing slightly, flaring his wings.
This demeanor dropped quickly as he heard some things crash to the floor. Knock Out glanced at Arcee to see the small bot now had an amused smile of her own. Looking behind him, he noticed a few items had been knocked off the nearby shelves and had clattered to the ground. Realizing what he had done, Knock Out straightening himself up, lowered his wings slowly in embarrassment, and turned towards the medbay doors quietly, walking out of the room.
Sunstreaker looked to the amused Arcee, then to the mess Knock Out had made and said, "Okay, but I'm not cleaning that up."
Sure, the ship was stocked with supplies and considered safe for them to live on. Sure, he had no reason to actually leave the ship and endanger himself being arrested and stuffed in a stasis pod by those worthless Autobots. And sure, there were plenty of smaller 'cons to mess with if they were causing him problems, or if he just felt like messing with them. It seemed nice, but to an intimidating crime boss, owner of a huge criminal empire back on his home planet, getting stuck on a mudball, being told what to do by a bunch of lower life Decepticons?.
It was boring, and quite frankly, insulting to Thunderhoof.
The large Decepticon was currently leaning against a wall, skimming through a datapad he had found. It probably belonged to one of the Mini-Cons, full of data on many of the ship's former prisoners. It could be quite useful depending on the info he found, maybe he could get some of the ship's residents to bend to his will. Blackmail wasn't usually his style, but it'd be nice to have a change in the rankings.
Hearing someone approach, he continued reading over his findings. Few Decepticons were dumb enough to bother him, they'd probably pass him without a word. Most had learned not to mess with him, or had heard from others about what he was capable of. Unfortunately, this was not one of those Decepticons.
"Thunderhoof, I've got a request for you."
The blue mech stood with a grunt, lowering the datapad as he glanced to the canid Decepticon in front of him. Of course it would be him.
"What'ya want this time?" He asked simply. He knew the wolf never bothered talking to him on the ship unless he wanted something, and he expected that this time would be no different.
"Never took you as much of a reading type." Steeljaw said simply, looking at the datapad Thunderhoof held, tail swishing behind him.
"Don't small talk me." The larger Decepticon demanded, still not looking up from his datapad, "Jus' tell me what yous came for or go bark at some other 'con."
"Well, it seems that many of the Decepticons on the ship have been spreading rumors of a Cybertronian ship wandering around the planet." Steeljaw began, ignoring the other's insults, knowing this would likely get his attention, "And if this rumor is true, and they turn out to be Decepticons, they'd make a rather fine addition to the pack, don't you think?"
Thunderhoof seemed to think for a moment, considering his partner's words before glancing over and responding, "Sure, but is there any proof that it's even a con's ship? 'S not worth my time if they're just some nuisance Autobots. Or a human vehicle, we all knows the cons on this ship are a buncha idiots."
"All possibilities, yes." Steeljaw nodded to the larger Decepticon, before continuing, "But on the off chance they're not wrong, it'd be better for us to recruit them rather than Saberhorn and Glowstrike."
Looking back to his datapad, Thunderhoof just shrugged, "S'pose so."
"Hmm." Steeljaw growled at the other's indifference, before quickly thinking of another excuse to get Thunderhoof to do as he wanted, "Well if that won't convince you, consider this: You'd get off this ship for a bit, and if it turns out not to be willing Decepticons, you could have the opportunity to stomp an Autobot or two? I know you've not been too happy being trapped on this ship."
It seemed to work, as this time Thunderhoof tossed his datapad to the nearest table and turned back to Steeljaw, "Alright, yous got me interested."
Steeljaw smirked and nodded, explaining further, "It may seem a bit suspicious to send you out on your own, so I'll try to see if I can fit you and Clampdown into the group of Decepticons going out looking for Energon tonight."
"Ey, Clampdown?" Thunderhoof stomped the ground as he leaned towards the other Decepticon, causing a small tremor as he growled at him, "Yous must got a few screws loose if you'd think I'll be working with that sad excuse of a 'con again anytime soon!"
Steeljaw merely waved away the angry Decepticon, explaining, "I didn't say you had to work with him directly, Thunderhoof. I just felt that it would seem less suspicious if you two went out together. After all, what could you possibly be trying to accomplish, working with someone you hate?"
It was a bit of a lie actually, he just wanted to send Thunderhoof with his least favorite con on the ship after his stubbornness from moments ago. Neither would be too happy with the situation, but Steeljaw knew Thunderhoof wouldn't be foolish enough to risk suspicion by harming the crab con, at least not too badly anyway.
Thunderhoof growled again, but didn't argue. Steeljaw was stubborn, and would only continue to try to smooth talk into getting his way. Picking his datapad back up, he began to walk off, muttering, "Keep forcin' me to work with that snitch an' one a' these days yous gonna find one've us near offlined in a ditch, and it ain't gonna be me."
"I'll keep that in mind!" Steeljaw shouted back, grinning as the agitated elk waved him off in response, not even looking back.
True to Arcee's words, Knock Out had polished himself quite quickly. It wasn't the best of jobs Bumblebee had noticed, but he figured the accident from earlier had the urged the bot to rush himself a bit. That or he couldn't quite reach those specific spots. Probably the latter, considering much of the grime was on his back and wings. No one said anything to him though, it was for the better.
"Drift and I think we may be able to help upgrade your ship, it mostly just needs minor repair-pair-pair-pairs" Fixit said, smacking himself, as all the Autobots sat around him, excluding the aforementioned Drift, who was already away gathering tools and supplies.
"And maybe a decent paintjob, but even I don't think I have enough paint for that here." Denny continued, "But I think we three could all handle the job, Drift and Fixit have experience with Cybertronian ships after all, and I've just got experience with fixing things."
"Oh, thank goodness" Knock Out muttered, more to Arcee beside him than to the human and Mini-Con, "It looks as if a flock of Corvicons stripped the ship bare. I suppose it makes us less of a target, though I wish it had a cloaking device at least. It's neither practical nor pleasing."
"Ugh, Corvicons, they're always hard to deal with. We had to deal with one of them once, a really obsessed one." Bumblebee said with an almost nervous laugh, remembering that particular day, "She actually stole part of a bridge. And Denny. She was certainly one of the more stressful criminals to deal with...:"
"Yes and it was a very stressful day," Denny nodded back, looking around at all the Autobots gathered in his scrapyard, "One of those days I realize living with a bunch of giant transforming car robots is probably insane, but hey, what're you gonna do? Anyways, Fixit and I should probably get going! Because after dealing with that bug I may begin to consider that again."
The two went on their own, leaving the bots in silence. Arcee and Strongarm began to talk among themselves quietly, Sideswipe sat somewhat awkwardly between an excitedly chatting Sunstreaker and unsure Russell, Grimlock seemed to be playing with Bob, and Knock Out was mostly just ignoring everyone. Bumblebee felt tempted to break the silence, but couldn't quite think of a way how.
Luckily, it seemed Russell had the same idea, though Bumblebee would have actually much preferred he didn't, considering what he brought up.
"Hey, remember when you had to deal with that Decepticon, Quillfire, I think you said his name was?" The boy asked, if at least to start a new conversation up, "Remember what his quills did to you Bumblebee?"
"If what I've been told is correct, I'd really rather not." The bot replied quietly in mild embarrassment.
"Well, it was pretty funny!" He spoke anyway, causing Bumblebee to hide his face in his hands as he continued, "The poison made him act like a kid, but he still managed to take out Quillfire! It was a mess to deal with, but it's a funny story to tell now!"
Arcee let out a laugh, while Knock Out grinned, looking to the yellow bot and saying, "Do tell more, I'm certainly interested."
"Oh no, but maybe we can talk about some other Decepticons." Bumblebee shook his head and turned to Knock Out, watching as the flyer's grin disappeared and got replaced with a look of slight irritation.
"So, do you guys do anything exciting here?" Sunstreaker asked, "Or do you guys just go after a buncha low life 'cons? The ones you've mentioned so far don't even sound that intimidating!"
"One of them literally took my head off, Sunstreaker." Sideswipe responded, looking to the other in annoyance.
"Huh, well if that's the case, you're functioning pretty good for a bot that got beheaded!"
Sunstreaker was laughing now, causing Sideswipe to become agitated. The red bot seemed just about to yell back, but a rather convenient interruption from Strongarm stopped any potential argument, "Lieutenant, if you don't mind the suggestion, it's been a very busy day and I don't think anyone's actually patrolled the area. Do you think it'd probably do some good to do a quick patrol?"
She glanced towards Sideswipe, giving Bumblebee the hint that he should probably do something before the two bots fought. He didn't get the chance, as Sideswipe had taken the hint himself and sped off, not even bothering to ask Russell if he had wanted to go with him.
"Please excuse him," Strongarm then continued, "He's difficult."
"Yeah thanks, we're all well aware of that." Sunstreaker replied, before standing up and transforming, "Now if you excuse me, I believe Bob has wandered off as well. I should get to finding her."
With that, he sped off. Leaving the remaining Autobots behind. And Bob, who had not actually left from her spot drawing in the dirt with Grimlock, but upon seeing Sunstreaker take off she had transformed and flew after him.
"Aww… I thought we were havin' fun." The Dinobot muttered sadly.
"What was that all about?" Strongarm asked, ignoring the disappointed Grimlock, "Is he going after him? Permission to stop him lieutenant?"
"No, leave them be." Bumblebee responded, before getting up and looking to Arcee and Knock Out, "Alright, I know you two are keeping secrets, but if you know anything about why Sunstreaker and Sideswipe act the way they do please explain. I really don't need anything else stressing Sideswipe out, because that happens far too often."
"They're split-Spark twins." Knock Out replied simply.
"Wait, what?"
"Was it not obvious? They're physically similar, though not identical…" Knock Out was speaking more to himself than Bumblebee now, "It's interesting actually, they're so distant for twins I think they're starting to resemble each other even less."
"And no one thought to tell me this?" Bumblebee asked, exasperated.
"Or me!" Russell yelled, "Why wouldn't he tell me has a brother?"
"Probably because they don't actually get along well." Arcee explained, "I think Sideswipe's jealous of Sunstreaker. Both were helping Knock Out for a while, but only Sunstreaker really stuck around."
"And before you accuse me of anything, it was not favoritism." Knock Out said quickly afterwards, "Sideswipe's too squeamish for a job in the medical field. Sunstreaker actually helps."
"But aren't Sideswipe, and from the looks of it, Sunstreaker a bit too reckless for the medical field?" Strongarm asked, genuinely curious as to how the two could even be considered for such a job.
"I suppose you'd think that," Knock Out explained with a shrug, "But I've always found myself partnered with those you'd consider unfit for the field. Normally I wouldn't partner with those who are hardly more than children, but upon Cybertron's restoration there were shiploads of Cybertronians returning, and Ratchet and I weren't enough for the increase in patients. So I had to work with what I could get, and those two were convenient at the time."
"What about Arcee?" Strongarm asked, to which the aforementioned bot and Knock Out looked to each other awkwardly, "Well I mean, you two seem to have known each other for a while, right?"
After a moment of awkward silence, Arcee responded quietly, "Strongarm, I appreciate your apparent trust in our relationship, but there are so many reasons that would never have worked out."
"Doesn't mean I shouldn't try." Knock Out whispered, leaning over to Arcee with a smirk. She pushed him away.
Mostly ignoring the motion, the red jet got up before turning to the direction Sideswipe and Sunstreaker had raced off to. He seemed to consider for a bit before looking to Bumblebee asking, "Think we should go after them? Normally I'd allow Sunstreaker to race around to his spark's content to calm himself down, but with his pet and Sideswipe wandering around out there I'm not sure how good an idea that would be."
Bumblebee nodded, "It'd probably be a good idea. Racing around angrily isn't exactly patrolling."
Looking to Strongarm and Grimlock, the yellow bot started giving orders, "Strongarm, Grimlock, you come with me. Arcee, you're small and quick, so you can go through the forest easily to see if you can find any sign of them. Knock Out, you see if you can find them from above, you can do that now right?"
"Do you really doubt me that much Bee?" The red jet asked in mock offense, "One crash against an Insecticon and you assume the worst of me."
"I was actually asking if you were alright, but if you want to interpret it that way, go ahead."
Bumblebee's team then transformed, driving, or in Grimlock's case, running off to look for their teammate. Knock Out and Arcee didn't immediately follow, the latter instead looking to the small human below them. He looked upset.
"Any way either of you could take me?" he asked.
Knock Out shook his head quickly, crossing his arms, "Oh no, I'm not doing anything of the sort, I'm not willing to carry a human around just because they want to go on a trip. Bee'd probably accuse me of kidnapping even if I did."
Arcee's response was a bit kinder, as she kneeled down to the small human with an apologetic smile, saying, "Sorry Russell, but we might be at this pretty late into the night, and I'm not sure if your dad would approve of that. I'd give you a ride otherwise."
With a disappointed nod, the boy watched as the two transformed into their alt modes and left, leaving the boy to himself. He was beginning to feel quite left out.
