Transformers Destiny's Divided
Chapter 4
"Optimus?" Oracle could admit to herself she was nervous seeing Optimus after their argument, she was also a bit ashamed of herself for running off crying. She had been training to be a warrior and she had reacted like that, how undignified. She quickly tried to wipe the coolent off her face not knowing what to say.
The two stood in silence for several minutes until finally Optimus spoke, "That was very foolish what you did."
"I-I know. . ." she finally looked up at him, "And I take full responsibility. Don't punish the others, they were under my command."
"Very noble of you, but I have a feeling there not completely innocent in this. You have a group of loyal friends Oracle."
"Their the best," she agreed.
The Autobot leader placed a hand on the young femme's shoulder and looked into her optics, "But remember, you have your friends trust, they seem ready to follow you anywhere. Don't misuse that."
"I won't."
"And I'm also thinking since you and your friends will be here awhile you can join the troop's shifts."
"You really mean it?" She looked up at him with excitement in her optics.
"Yes, mainly work in the base and patrols. But I don't want any of you leaving this base without an escort. Understand." At her nod Optimus wrapped an arm around her shoulders and lead her down the path back towards the Ark. "You know you're still in trouble right?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. Now, tell me more about Lightningstorm's landing?"
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" No one was surprised by Red Alert's response after Optimus informed them of his dissension.
Optimus and Red Alert were in the meeting room with Jazz, Prowl, Ironhide, Ratchet and Blaster where the Prime had told them what he had decided to do with the younglings.
Jazz playfully elbowed Red, "Ah, come on. It's not like they have anything else to do."
"And they'll only be here till Ultra Magnus arrives," Prowl reminded them.
"Mags must be mad to come himself," Blaster chuckled.
"He had hoped to catch them before they reached Earth," Prowl informed them.
"I agree with Prime," Ironhide spoke up, "They'll just be joining the regular shifts. No harm in that."
Red Alert still wasn't happy.
"Hey, I got no complaints," Blaster said with a huge grin.
"Pft," Ratchet didn't look up from a data pad, "That's because your girlfriend's here."
"I deny nothing," Blaster grinned with a shrug.
"Let's still be weary, they've already had a run-in with the Deceticons so I'm sure Megatron knows by now."Optimus didn't want to take any chances. There was a slim chance Megatron might not care about the arrivals but one could never be too sure.
"Well let's go tell everyone the good news," Jazz suggested jumping up from his seat.
They walked into the rec room where everyone was waiting. Optimus raised his hand to get their attention, "Everyone we've come to a decision, as of now are new arrivals will be added to the regular shifts for the foreseeable future." Everyone started talking at once but Optimus deep voice silenced them, "But." He looked each and every one of the young bots in the optic, "You are not to leave this base without alerting anyone and you will need an escort. You will listen to your commanding officers or those in charge. I don't want any problems and if there are you will be punished." He let that sink in for a moment. "Am I clear? You are to go nowhere alone." Everyone nodded. "Good," he waved his hand dismissing them.
Some bots left to return to their shifts or their own devices but some remained to show the newcomers around.
Ratchet, Rescue and the twins stayed in the rec room. Now that they were alone Rescue had greeted Sideswipe and Sunstreaker pulling the brothers into a hug. "Sides! Sunny!" she cried joyfully.
The two returned the hug. "Hey little sis. Good to see you," Sides said cheerfully. Rescue had grown up with the twins around before they had left on the Ark and she had always thought of them as big brothers.
"It's been awhile," Sunstreaker added, "And wow, you've grown Cue." He held her at arm's length to get a good look at her.
She smiled shyly, "Thanks."
"Since your here," Ratchet took Rescue by the shoulder and led her towards the med bay. "Tell me about your training, I want to know how far along you are?" The twins followed.
After Rescue's enthusiastic greeting of Ratchet earlier the Autobot's had explained to their human friends about sires and carriers which were their words for fathers and mothers. To say that their human friends were surprised to learn that Ratchet was a father was an understatement.
Though when he thought about it Ratchet realized this was the first time any of their human friends had seen a female Cybertroian. The few alien species they had come in contact with had been surprised that they had females at all.
"What should we do?" Sides spoke up when they reached the med bay.
"What I always tell you to do, 'thought you always ignore it,' stay out of trouble. I'm going to show Rescue around."
"Sure thing," Sides grinned but Ratchet knew he was up to something.
The white medic grabbed the twins and pulled them close to whisper something to them. Rescue couldn't hear but she was sure it was a threat. As the two ran off Ratchet pulled his daughter inside where they found First Aid, Hoist, Grapple and Sparkplug.
"First Aid!" The young medic in training was almost thrown off his feet when the blue femme rush forward to hug him. The two had trained together until Aid's transfer to Earth. Rescue had been envious that he got to go to Earth to finish his training under Ratchet but she was still glad to see him.
"It's good to see you to," Aid greeted her.
She then greeted Hoist and Grapple and turned her attention to Sparkplug but was then startled when that Dinobot Swoop walked in, she glanced at her sire to see what he would do and was surprised when he gave the Dinobot some tasks with First Aid. Seeing her surprised look he revealed he was a medic apprentice to.
"Um, hello," she said timidly.
"Hello," Swoop answered softly not quite meeting her optics, he seemed shy around her.
Ratchet gave her a job to, as the three medical apprentices got to work Ratchet leaned against a wall and crossed his arms over his chest as he watched them work.
"Still can't believe you're a father Ratch," Sparkplug spoke up. "You've never mention her."
"Well my work has taken up a lot of my time, I've only been able to contact her a few times since we establish contact with Cybertron." Ratchet watched his daughter for a moment. "Her carrier, 'what we call mothers' was named Ultrasound."
"Ultrasound was your wife?" Sparkplug asked.
Ratchet gave a small smile, "Kind of, the correct term is Conjunx Endura,
"Con-junx En-dura," Sparkplug repeated.
"Yes, it can translate as Bondmate."
"Is she still on Cybertron?"
The smile dropped from Ratchet face and he looked away sadly. "No. . . she's dead. Died not long after Rescue was sparked."
"Oh, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, you didn't know." He look down, "She died during a mission. We were helping Neutrals when the area got bombarded. She was caught in a blast, took shrapnel through her spark chamber and. . . there was nothing I could do. I was left to raise Rescue and at first it wasn't easy."
Sparkplug patted his leg, "I-I know how you feel. When I lost my wife it was hard at first but I had to be there for Spike and I pulled through."
Ratchet turned back to Sparkplug and smiled, "I would of given up if it wasn't for Rescue. Raised her till I left on the Ark but she turned out well. Decided to follow in my ped steps and became a medic. Hoist was one of her mentors until he was transferred here."
"Well I think she turned out fine," Sparkplug offered. Ratchet nodded and they watched Rescue working with First Aid and Swoop.
Meanwhile Blaster and Dazzler were walking down a corridor. "Where'd the little guys run off to?" Dazzler asked noticing their minicons had disappeared.
"Oh their around here somewhere," Blaster replied, "So, how do you like Earth?"
"Well let's see, so far I've been in a crash, attacked by Decepticons, yelled at by Red Alert and totally dished' by Prowl. . . so far it's been great," she said with a grin.
The red mech laughed, "Don't worry you'll love it here."
"Oh, I'm sure I will," she pushed a button on her chest and a song started playing. Blaster grinned, Dazzler had already discovered Earth music.
"TURN THAT DOWN!" Someone yelled.
The two ignored him as they gazed at each other listing to the music. Suddenly Blaster pulled Dazzler into a kiss which she returned enthusiastically. The red mach realized how much he had missed her.
"Get a room you two." Startled the two jumped apart as Brawn walked by.
The two glanced at each other and grins spread across their faces. "Not a bad idea," Dazzler purred grabbing Blaster's servo and pulling him after her.
"I'm likin' where this is going," Blaster's grin got bigger.
Brawn sputtered and turned as the two disappeared. "I WASN'T SERIOUS!" He shouted after them.
Blaster's Cassettes were currently showing Dazzler's around the base though Rewind did most of the talking as they explored. Eject had his arm around Record's shoulder, the two hadn't wondered far from each other much to everyone's amusement.
"How are you liking it here?" Eject asked.
"It's nice," Record answered with a smile. "And. . . it's nice to see you again."
"Yeah, that's all she could talk about," Playback suddenly spoke up in a slightly mocking tone.
Record looked embarrassed and Eject sent a glare at the green armored minicon femme. Playback wasn't really a mean person but she could be very pushy and clueless to others feelings.
"How is Chromdome doing?" Rewind suddenly asked hoping to defused the situation. It wouldn't have been the first time those two had come to blows.
"Oh, he's doing fine," Playback turned her attention to him.
"That's good, I haven't been able to stay in touch," Rewind glanced at his brother and Record to notice they had shifted away from each other. "Um, is there anything you hope to see before you go?"
"I guess that depends how long before were sent back to Cybertron," Record answered.
"Yeah," Playback elbowed her sister, "Not that you're going to complain. . ."
She was cut off when something nudged her, turning Audio meet her look with a leveled gaze. As the oldest of Dazzler's minicons the wolfbot took it upon herself to keep the others in check, which was sometimes hard with the likes of Playback and Stalker. Ramhorn, Strike Back and Glider had chosen to stay quiet as the scene unfolded.
As that was going on Stalker playfully nudged Steeljaw, when he turned to her she crouched down and waved her tail around playfully. When Steeljaw didn't move she jumped at him, but instead of tackling him she rubbed her head against his throat and purred. Before he could respond she pulled away giving him a playful look and bounded down the corridor. Before ducking out of sight she stopped and looked back at him.
Playback was about to say something else but Audio stomped her ped signaling the conversation was over. Rewind then noticed someone was missing, "Hey, where's Steeljaw and Stalker?" Everyone realized the two catbot's were gone.
Meanwhile Ironhide was leading his son towards a monitor room. Before they entered he turned to Ironshield, "You know you're still in trouble right?"
"I guess so," the younger bot shrugged helplessly.
"Well now it's time to face the consequences," Ironhide said leading his son inside. "Someone wants ta talk ta you."
"Kup?"
"Nope."
"Ultra Magnus?"
"Higher than that," was all Ironhide said.
"Um. . . Prime."
"Higher."
Now Ironshield was confused, who was higher up then the Prime. "Uh. . . Primus?"
"In this case even higher than that." Before Ironshield could ask Ironhide pushed a button on the console.
"IRONSHIELD!" A blue armored femme appeared on the screen and she was not happy.
The young mech jumped back in surprise, "C-Carrier. . ."
"Don't Carrier me! Do you know how much trouble you're in?!" Chromia demanded.
"Uh. . ."
"Just wait till you get back here! And don't you dare tell me you were just going along with the others, I know you better then that! When you get back here we're going to have a nice long talk mister!"
Ironshield groaned, he could tell he was going to be here awhile.
"Ohhh, what's this? No wait, what's that? How about this? Wait, what about that?"
"Please one thing at a time," Cliffjumper pleaded. He should have said no when Quickrun had asked his for a tour of the base. He loved his sister, he really did but she could be a hand full. Then again when he had last seen her she had been little more than a sparkling. It was still strange for him to see his sister all grown up.. . kind of.
"Oh come on, there's so much to see," was her reply jerking his arm again.
She pulled him into one of the labs, "Ohhh, look at that." She tried to grab a device on a table.
"WAIT!" Cliffjumper cried grabbing it out of her reach.
"What?"
"This is Wheeljack's lab, which means Don't. Touch. ANYTHING!"
"Where's the fun in listing to all the rules."
Cliffjumper gave her a sourer look, "Lets. . ."
"Oh what's that?" She dashed out of the lab before he could finish.
He scowled and followed her. "Hey! Wait up will you!"
"Then keep up," was her cheerful retort. He chased her through the corridors passing several bots who had to step aside of the excitable femme and her brother. She stopped and Cliffjumper had to come to a quick stop to avoid colliding with her. "Hey look!" She exclaimed running into another room. CJ looked inside to see several of his fellow mini-bots just lounging around within. Before he could say anything she dashed in. "HEY EVERYONE!" She cried at the top of her voice.
Huffer gave a cry of fright and several went crashing to the floor in surprise.
"Esh kid, a little warning," Powerglide grumbled.
"Not cool," Beachcomber added.
Quickrun giggled, "Sorry, couldn't resist."
"So," Gears said pulling himself up, "Your Cliffjumper's littler sister, I got to say you're as loud as him."
"HEY!" CJ snapped.
Quickrun just threw an arm around her brother's shoulders, "I'll have you know I'm twice as loud as him."
Brawn threw his head back and laughed, "Kid, I like you spunk."
"Thanks," the white and red femme replied. "You won't believe how excited I'm am to be here."
"Well you always did say you'd get here one day," Powerglide chuckled.
"And bam, you already fought off the Decepticons," Warpath exclaimed.
That caused everyone to laugh, everyone but Cliffjumper. He frowned, she had been lucky. There was no guarantee it would go better next time.
Windcharger leaned closer then CJ found comfortable and grinned at Quickrun, "Maybe I can show you around sometime."
She gave the gray and red mech a sly grin, "Maybe."
"Yeah, there's lots to see and do," Beachcomber added.
"Like the music," Cosmos added.
"And the waterways," Seaspray brought up.
"Sounds like fun," Quickrun was enjoying this. Cliffjumper's optic began to twitch. "And who knows, there might be more Decepticons to fight."
"Agh! I can't take much more of this!" Everyone turned to Cliffjumper surprised. He marched forward and grabbed the young femme by the arm and pulled her away. "You can't take anything seriously! There will be no fighting! No exploring! You're going to stay on base until you go back to Cybertron!"
"WHAT?" Quickrun pulled her arm out of his grip, "You can't be serious!"
"I am!"
There was a long moment of awkward silence as Quickrun and Cliffjumper glared at each other, finally she turned and marched out of the room. Cliffjumper stood there fuming until he noticed his fellow minibots staring at him in shocked silence. Rather than say anything CJ left the room grumbling.
Meanwhile Speedzone found himself in one of the lab's looking for someone, then he finally found him. "PERCEPTOR!"
The red mech looked up from his notes surprised but a smile appeared on his face at the sight of the younger bot. "Speedzone, it's is good to see my pupil again," Perceptor said giving Speedzone a pat on the helm.
Speedzone's smile faltered a little, "You didn't stay in the rec room?"
The red mech looked at him surprised, "I'm sorry, I though you would of wanted to spend time with your cousin."
"Smokescreen, he's fine." The younger mech then noticed the other bot in the room, "Wheeljack,
it's an honor to finally meet you."
Wheeljack looked at him surprised, "I don't hear that very often. But nice to meet you, uh, Speedzone. How are things going on Cybertron?"
"It's been going find but I'm sure there are much more interesting things going on here."
"Oh, indeed there are," Perceptor was about to show his notes to his young protégée. "So, you've been able to keep up on your studies? And what about Brainstorm, I hope he hasn't destroyed anything since my transfer."
"Umm. . ." Perceptor had meant it as a joke but the look on Speedzone's face suggested otherwise. "Not. . . too much."
The two older bots decided to ask later and the three were soon busy looking over projects and notes. They were so engrossed in their work they didn't notice Smokescreen standing in the doorway. When no one noticed him he walked away.
In another room an argument was taking place. Well Tracks was yelling while Spitfire gave him an annoyed look. "I SWEAR YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING WITHOUT CAUSING TROUBLE!"
"So we ran off, big deal," Spitfire replied in a very uncaring tone.
"Big deal! BIG DEAL! YOU STOLE A SHUTTLE! OF ALL THE STUPID THINGS YOU'VE DONE THIS HAS TO BE THE WORST!"
She gave a shrug and muttered, "As far as you know."
"What?"
"Nothing," she added quickly. She then glared at him, "You act like you've never ran off before."
"Th-That's different!" He tried to school his features and glared at her, "It's always the same you mess up and I have to clean up!"
The two stood glaring at each other for several long minutes before Spitfire spoke, "Sure that's how it is!" She turned and started to walk away but turned back one more time, "You know if I had wanted to be yelled at I could of stayed with Kup!"
"AT LEAST HE KNOWS WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH!" Tracks shouted after her.
Lightningstorm had been wandering the corridors with no destination in mind, at one point nearly avoiding Quickrun and Cliffjumper as they ran by when he noticed four of the Aerialbots were following him. Air Raid, Slingshot, Fireflight and Skydive he thought their names were. After a while he turned to them, "Can I help you with something?"
The four flyers glanced at each other. "Not really," Skydive was the first to speak.
Fireflight jumped in, "It's just. . . We haven't meet any flyers closer to our age,"
Which was technically true, mentally they were closer in age to the young seeker then any of the other flyers on base besides Blades and Swoop.
"Um, okay," Lightningstorm said. "Is there something you wanted?"
"What's it like on Cybertroian?" It didn't take much for Slingshot to jump in.
"Are there other flyers in the Autobots?" Skydive asked.
"What do you do besides training? Is there lots of room to fly?" Fireflight spoke up.
The silver seeker was a little lost for words. "Didn't the Autobots here tell you anything?"
"Yeah," Slingshot said, "But you're a flyer."
Storm wasn't sure what to make of that. "STORM!" The group turned to see a small figure running towards them. Kit gripped the silver seeker's leg. "Hide me!"
"From what?" Lightningstorm asked confused.
"From him," she replied pointing. The five flyers turned to see Prowl marching in their direction. "You never saw me," she hissed ducking out of sight.
"Uh," Lightningstorm didn't have time to ask as Prowl marched up to them.
"Have you seen where Kit ran off to?" The flyers glanced at each other then pointed down a corridor. Prowl continued his search.
Kit looked around Storm's leg and sighed in relief. "Thanks guys."
"No problem, but I don't think you'll be able to avoid him forever."
"I can try," she answered causing the Aerialbots to laugh. Lightningstorm soon joined in, maybe these bot's weren't so bad after all.
Meanwhile Trailbreaker was walking with his nephew, the two were walking through the corridors with no real destination in mind. Offroad as usual was very quiet.
"Look I get it," Trailbreaker began finally breaking the silence, "I know it may be hard to believe but I was that young once to. You want to get out there and prove yourself." Offroad just nodded. "You want an adventure but this was really. . . reckless, you know that right?"
"Uh huh."
Trailbreaker rubbed the back of his helm and frowned, he really wasn't good at these kinds of things but Offroad was the only family he had left and he'd go to the pit first before he let anything happen to his brother's son.
"Just please be careful in the future."
"Yes," was his only answer. Trailbreaker sighed, they really needed to work on Offroad's social skills.
Hound and Tracker were walking down a different corridor, the green scout sent his younger brother a smile but Tracker's face was set in a slight grimace. Hound's smile almost faltered, "So. . . how's your training going?"
"Badly, I tried for the Scout's division but. . . I wasn't good enough."
"Oh, that's okay. I'm sure you found something your good at."
Tracker still didn't look at him, "I guess, I'm training as a Defense Specialists."
Hound patted him on the back, he noticed how Tracker stiffened at the contact, "See you found something your good at." He barely got a mutter in reply. "You know it never hurts to speak up a little." He tried for humor. Tracker just frowned. "Well. . . I hope you like it here, Earth's an interesting place. I can't wait to show you around. There's so much to see."
"Must be since you never came back."
Hound froze, for a long moment he wasn't able to answer, "I. . . Tracker, that's not fair and you know it."
The young brown mech finally turned and glared at his older brother, "Isn't it!"
Hound sighed, "I knew the mission might be dangerous but Optimus Prime himself asked me to go, I couldn't turn him down."
"Yeah, sure you couldn't," the younger mech snapped.
"Tracker, I-I really don't know what you want me to say. I'm sorry I was gone so long but-"
"Whatever, you'll just say the same thing again," now there was a snarl in Trackr's tone.
Hound grabber a brown shoulder and forced his brother to look at him, "I can't change the past. We needed to go on that mission with the energy problems."
Tracker pulled out of his brother' grip, "Fine whatever, will leave it at that!"
He turned to walk away but Hound tried to stop him, "Tracker wait!"
But his brother pulled out of his grip, "You know what just-JUST STAY AWAY FROM ME!" He ran down the corridor before the green scout could stop him.
"TRACKER!" Hound called after him.
That night Silverbolt took the path to the top of the Ark. He liked going up there, sometimes he just wanted to be alone. But as he reached the top he saw someone was already there. "Starflare?"
The sky colored femme Seeker turned surprised, "Oh, uh, hi. . . um, Silverbolt wasn't it?"
"Yeah. . . What are you doing up here?"
She shrugged, "Just wanted a moment to myself. No offence, your teammates are nice but they follow me everywhere."
"Oh, uh sorry about that," He said embarrassed. "We haven't meet many femmes before, especially flyers."
She smiled, "it's ok. I've meet worst." She turned back to look at the night sky.
Silverbolt rubbed the back of his helm like he'd seen Sparkplug do. "So. . . how do you like Earth?"
She turned back to him and gave a smile that made his spark flip. "It's. . . different, but nice." Silverbolt glanced around unsure if he should stay or go. "You can stay if you want," the femme spoke up startling him.
"I don't want to impose," the Concorde jet said still unsure.
She turned to him with a smile that made his spark jump again. "Really it's okay, I don't mind the company."
Deciding to take the chance Silverbolt took a seat next to her. "So. . ." he stopped not sure what to say.
She glanced at him with a smirk, "Not much of a conversationalist are you?"
He glanced at the dirt like it was the most interesting thing in the world, "Not really."
She smiled sympathy, "It's okay. I've had all kinds try to chat me up."
Silverbolt stiffen when he realized what she meant then turned to her. "N-No! It's not like that. . . I mean. . . Why would I want to talk to you. . .GAH! Nonononono! That's not what I meant. . ." he cried waving his hands around like he could erase what he just said. Finally he lowering his head into his hands with a sigh of despair. Trying to save the rest of his dignity Silverbolt stopped talking.
The whole time Starflare watched him with a bemused expression. Then she started laughing, "I-It's okay. . . really."
Silverbolt glanced up at her, after a moment he started chuckling until he was laughing to. The two sat there for awhile laughing. When the laughter subsided they sat in silence, finally Silverbolt turned to her, "Hey can I ask you something?"
She turned to him, "I guess."
"Well, it's just I was wondering. . . aren't all Seeker's Decepticons?" Starflare stiffened and he feared he'd insulted her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
She shook her head, "No, it's okay." She drew her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "It's true most Seeker's are Decepticons, some tried to stay Neutral but then Decepticons started destroying Neutral's and. . . there aren't a lot of Seeker's left. . . especially since the destruction of Vos."
"Vos?"
"One of Cybertron's city states. It was known as the city of fliers."
"What was it like?"
"I've never seen it. It-It was destroyed early in the war."
"Oh. . . sorry." She nodded, when neither spoke Silverbolt tried another question, "So. . . why did you and your brother become Autobot's?"
She looked off into the distance, "We were rescued by them."