Hi! First of all, thanks for checking out my story! I've written a few things on this site before, but this is my first attempt at writing a long-term fic. Please feel free to leave comments/questions/constructive criticism if you have any; I'm planning on keeping the story going as long as there seems to be interest in it, so let me know what you think in the reviews!
Also, huge shoutout to spotttedpath (author of Freedom) for their help/encouragement.
Thanks again, and enjoy!
(Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC and plot)
Chapter 1:
Meet the Neighbors
"I hate cul-de-sacs. There's only one way out, and the people are kinda weird."
-The 'Burbs
Billy Parker hummed faintly to herself as she put the finishing touches on her Calculus homework. She was in a good mood today. This was one of the rare weekdays she didn't have work right after school, so she had been able to go straight from Jasper High to her…place of residence. She couldn't really call it a home, since she was living under a freeway bridge. It wasn't exactly the greatest place to live, she was the first to admit, but it could have been worse.
In fact, she counted herself lucky just to have found this place: it had these big concrete blocks lining the sides of the structure with a decent amount of space in between each one, so she sort of had two walls around her. And she technically had a roof over her head…way over her head. Although, said roof also had cars passing over it on a routine basis.
But hey, no one's perfect.
All in all, Billy had it good compared to most of the homeless population of Jasper, Nevada. She had a decent plot, she had all her teeth, she had a job, she was still in school, which meant access to gym showers and running water, and she had plans for the future. Not many of the street-dwellers hanging around Jasper could say that.
She carefully tucked her calculus worksheet into her math folder and stored it in her backpack before pressing the canvas bag into the furthest, driest corner of her little living area. It didn't look like it was going to rain, but she never took any chances with her homework. If she ever wanted to dig herself out of this admittedly less-than-ideal situation, she had to do well in school.
That done, Billy stood and clambered on top of one of the concrete blocks to figure out what to do next. There was a while yet until sundown, and now that she was finished with her schoolwork and didn't have a shift at the dry cleaners to get to, she was out of things to do.
"Could…go to the library?" she mumbled to herself, fiddling her thumbs as she thought. "Nah, that'd mean walking all the way into town and then all the way back before sunset, and I don't really feel like that today…Another game of Solitaire? …Nah, don't feel like that either."
She fell silent again, trying to come up with other ideas. One of the many problems of being homeless was the lack of entertainment. If you're not working or in school, there aren't exactly many options for passing the time…besides heckling strangers for spare change or beating another homeless person over the head with a chair. And Billy wasn't really the sort to do either of those things.
Her worn out deck of cards was always an option, but she wasn't particularly good at learning tricks and Solitaire was the only game she knew well. And she'd already played Solitaire that day during lunch. She was almost beginning to consider trying her hand at yoga or meditation again when she heard someone approaching the open concrete lot just outside the bridge.
"Vroooom, vvvrrroooooommmm," a young boy's voice echoed through the area.
Billy looked up immediately, trying to pinpoint where the noise was coming from. It didn't take long for the body of a short kid with wild brown hair and glasses to emerge from one of the entrances to the clearing, a yellow toy car speeding around at his feet.
Raf? Again? She groaned to herself, hopping off the block and beginning to walk towards the kid. This is, like, the fourth time this week!
Billy and Raf shared a few classes, despite the fact that the boy was five years younger than her. His big brain made it possible for him to qualify for Advanced Calculus, Advanced Physics, and an extra credit English class, Studies in Classical Literature. Billy was no intellectual slouch, but this kid put her to shame.
But what she lacked in sheer genius, she made up for in street smarts and talent in harmless deception. No one so far, not even kid genius Rafael Esquivel, had figured out that she was homeless and estranged from her family. No one here knew what she was, either. And she planned on keeping it that way.
That's why, every time Raf came to the bridge near his house after school, Billy made sure to approach him before he stumbled upon her temporary living space. It was bad enough having to deal with that idiot Vince and his buddies on nights when she had to do her homework outside the little fast food joint in town. If anyone from school found out where she actually lived, her life would go from shitty to hellish in a heartbeat, in more ways than one.
She winced to herself as she began making her way towards Raf, who had yet to notice her.
Even nice kids like Raf carried a kind of danger with them, one that she feared more than anything Vince could do: if Raf saw her living conditions and told his parents, or one of the teachers at school, Social Services would scoop Billy up in the blink of an eye. And if living with her own flesh and blood was bad, she didn't even want to think about how awful Foster care could be to someone like her.
Billy's hand lifted to trace the thin scar at the hairline of her forehead, one of three mementos she received the night she left home. Her father had never been good at keeping his temper in check.
Shaking off the unpleasant memories, Billy lowered her hand and shoved it into the pocket of her zip-up hoodie as she approached Raf, kicking pebbles aimlessly. The sound of clattering rocks finally got the kid's attention, and he looked up from his car to see Billy walking towards his seated position against one of the concrete walls.
"Oh, hey Billy. Out for a walk again?" he asked cheerfully, only glancing her way briefly before focusing back on his toy car. Billy stepped closer and sank down to sit beside the younger boy.
"Yup. It's a nice day out, figured I'd take advantage of it. You finish the calculus homework yet?" she asked in return, watching the yellow toy race around in front of them.
"Yeah, it wasn't so bad. Did you get number 5? It almost had me stumped, but then I remembered Mr. Taylor's example from last week about the chain rule, and after that it wasn't so bad," he replied.
She hummed in agreement, and the two fell into a comfortable silence, as was customary for their little meetups. After only a few minutes, though, the trilling of Raf's phone broke the silence. He shot Billy an apologetic look before sliding the phone out of his pocket and flipping it open in one practiced motion.
"Hey, Mama…Racing…Right up the street…Okay. Just five more minutes?" He paused only for a moment after his question before hanging up and returning the phone to his pocket and continuing to steer the car.
Billy leaned back a little more and sighed softly, running a hand through her light brown hair. It was a little shorter than Raf's but just as prone to growing in random directions and sticking up in weird places. It could probably use a trim soon, now that she thought about it. She was pretty sure she still had those scissors she found at school a few months ago, so maybe sometime in a couple weeks she'd get to school early so she could cut her hair and still have time to shower afterwards.
She let her hand drop and pulled her knees to her chest, listlessly following the toy car's movements with her eyes. She didn't mind these little interactions with Raf, really, but she was glad he wouldn't be here long. It would get harder to explain why she wasn't going home the longer he decided to stay.
The sound of a much larger motor revving in the distance, accompanied by someone screaming, suddenly drew Billy and Raf's attention. The two looked at each other, brows furrowed, but before either could voice their confusion, the sound rapidly grew much louder and a streak of blue leapt over the ledge of concrete they were sitting against.
A sleek-looking motorcycle, ridden by none other than Jack Darby, a kid in Billy's grade from their school, did an about face as it landed and screeched to a halt. Billy and Raf stood up in surprise, staring at Jack with their mouths open as he attempted to catch his breath.
Well, that explains the screaming, Billy mused, gaze locked on Darby's shaken appearance and pale face. Never took Darby for the motorcyclist type.
Raf found his voice first, although he seemed to have lost control of his hands in the process. The toy controller clattered to the ground as he spoke up, surprise quickly morphing into admiration.
"Whoa," he said simply, grinning at the older boy. Jack didn't seem as amused, still struggling to catch his breath.
"You have no idea," he replied, shakily disembarking from the flashy vehicle.
"You okay there, Darby?" Billy asked as Raf pulled his backpack on and the two approached the shy-kid-turned-daredevil.
Jack took a step back from the motorcycle, almost seeming…afraid of it? Billy almost laughed as soon as the thought crossed her mind. The dude was probably just having second thoughts about his foray into the dark side. It wasn't like it was Satan's motorcycle or anything.
Just as Jack took his last step away from the vehicle, another revving engine from the top of the incline near the bridge caught the small group's attention. Two pairs of bright headlights shone out from a couple muscle cars, but with the weird lighting, Billy couldn't make out any defining details of the thing, let alone the drivers.
What now? she groaned to herself, privately hoping that Darby hadn't upset Vince or some or his racing pals. One taste of excitement was enough for her. It was a school night, after all.
Turns out, her wish for some peace and quiet was not to be fulfilled. Instead of putting it in park and walking down the steep bank, like normal people, the idiot drivers of the two cars suddenly lurched forward and began speeding down towards the lot. The three teens took a couple steps back, staring at the approaching vehicles.
Billy began to feel nervous. What the hell were these guys thinking? A motorcycle was one thing, but gunning it down that hill in muscle cars? Not smart. Especially with that lip of concrete at the end.
But instead of crashing into the jump and landing heavily on their axels, as she expected, Billy watched in open-mouthed awe as both cars just…broke apart and rearranged themselves into giant robots, landing gracefully on their feet.
She, Raf, and Jack, hardly had time to process that before they heard a similar noise behind them. They whipped around just in time to see the last few pieces of a much smaller robot forming, right where the blue motorcycle had been moments before.
But something about this one seemed less…menacing? It was smaller than the other two and had bright blue eyes, while the other two sported crimson ones, so that might have been it. Red doesn't exactly scream safety and comfort.
That's not to say the blue one looked like it was having a great time, though. In fact…Billy was quite sure that this one was very angry, although it was not directed at the three humans.
"This ends here, cons," it said, voice hard and cold.
Billy frowned. Could robots get angry? Is it possible that these things were…sentient? She didn't have time to finish her thought before the blue robot took off towards the purple ones in a dead sprint, dodging their shots of weird red plasma all the way.
As soon as it was close enough, it leapt into the air and came down heavily on one of the two, nailing it right in the face with its foot. The other red-eyed robot attempted to shoot the blue one while its back was turned, but it just dodged around it and roundhouse kicked that guy in the face as well.
Raf, again, recovered from his stupor first.
"Wh-What are they?" he asked, eyes still glued to the fighting robots a short distance away. Billy couldn't find it in her to speak up yet, but Jack was apparently a nervous talker.
"T-Talking cars that turn into robots…o-or the other way around," he stuttered, also keeping his eyes on the fight.
The smaller blue one seemed to be winning, as its first victim was struggling to get back up after the initial hit and the second one was currently being used as a metal punching bag. The blue one punched at the larger body relentlessly, each strike echoing loudly around the area. Until, suddenly, it wasn't winning anymore. After a solid punch to the face, the purple dude paused, and the blue one backed up, noticing that its second opponent had finally recovered.
Big mistake.
As soon as the blue one took the half step back, the purple guys started shooting at it all over again, and this time, they managed to land a solid hit. The smaller robot cried out as it fell to the ground with a loud clatter, and Billy, Raf, and Jack all held their breath as they waited to see if it would get up.
From the fight so far, as well as Jack's reactions towards the robots, Billy had gathered that the blue one was at least relatively friendly towards humans, while the purple ones were…less so.
But before the two purple ones could take a step closer to the fallen robot, a yellow muscle car flew over the edge of the bridge, transforming as it fell through the air. It landed directly on top of one bad guy and stood on top of it while it decked the second one with a powerful right hook.
While the newcomer was dealing with the purples, the blue one sat back up, holding its head and grumbling to itself before standing up completely and walking slowly back towards the fight.
The yellow newcomer had pretty much beat the purples senseless and started backing away from their sparking bodies…only to step solidly on Raf's little yellow toy car. Its mechanical eyes seemed to widen, and it lifted its foot quickly to reveal the flattened toy underneath.
"Aw, man. I'm sorry little guy," it – no, he, Billy corrected herself, said, turning to look at Raf.
It was obvious, after hearing him speak directly to them, that the yellow robot, and therefore its friends, were somehow sentient. The complex facial expressions, plus the decidedly male, although somehow also very mechanical-sounding, voice, made it pretty obvious to Billy. And to Raf as well, it seemed, who smiled at the robot reassuringly.
"It's no problem. Really!" he replied.
The robot looked as if he were about to say something else, but while his attention was focused on Raf, one of the purple dudes shot him too, sending him flying backwards just like the blue one had earlier. Raf gasped and clung to Billy's sleeve in panic.
The yellow guy fell flat on his face, and before he could stand up again one of the purples placed a foot on his head, preventing him from moving. They released him for a moment, only to point some super-charged gun at his face. Billy felt Raf tighten his grip on her sleeve before yelling in an uncharacteristic show of anger.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" he shouted, eyes narrowed and mouth drawn in a thin line.
Billy could have slapped a hand to her face in bafflement at her younger classmate's blunder, if she weren't so terrified by the robots' latest decision to point their large and probably deadly weapons at the three of them. Raf gulped, seeming to realize his mistake.
"Please?" he squeaked, losing all his former bravado. Jack leaned down to Raf's level, staring at their new audience.
"Bad call," he said nervously, but refraining from moving yet, even as one of the purple dudes started walking towards them.
Yeah, no shit, Sherlock, Billy thought, looking between Jack and the approaching robot.
Both of her companions seemed to be frozen in place, which was not good. Something she learned from the few territorial fights she'd been involved in: you stay still, you lose. In this case, losing almost certainly meant death.
Billy grabbed hold of each boy's sleeve and yanked them with her, taking off in a run in the opposite direction of the approaching bad guy. Luckily, neither pulled away from her grasp, and followed her without question as she led them to a place they might be able to hide. There was a large drainpipe around the corner, which she'd used last summer to hide out from the cops when she'd been forced to steal some granola bars from a tourist's backpack.
The robot didn't even have to run to keep up with them due to its height, but Billy was counting on the massive size difference to keep the three humans safely out of reach in the drainpipe until it lost interest in them. She pushed Raf ahead of her so he could get into the pipe first before diving in alongside Jack. The robot stopped a moment, as if figuring out his next move, and then stuck an arm in and tried to reach them that way.
"Go, go, go!" Billy shouted at the two boys, urging them further into the tunnel.
She felt the tips of the robot's fingertips brush the back of her hoodie, and then…nothing. It was gone. The three of them panted heavily, hearts racing, as they listened to the loud clashing of metal against metal just outside their hiding place.
After a moment, the friendly face of the yellow robot from before appeared in the entrance to the tunnel.
"You three alright in there?" he asked.
Billy finally noticed that the reason this one sounded so different was because of the underlay of beeping and clicking noises that accompanied all his words. Jack didn't answer the guy, just stood there still looking sort of confused and panicked.
"We're ok," Billy replied, still a little out of breath.
"Thank you!" Raf added, smiling at the robot once again.
"No problem, little man," he said. He seemed to smile back at Raf before standing and walking out of sight.
Jack shook himself out of his silence, grabbing Raf's shoulder reassuringly.
"We should keep moving. Don't look back, Raf," he said, looking nervously to Billy. "This tunnel lets out somewhere on the other end, right?"
Billy nodded and stepped around him to lead the way.
"Yeah, follow me."
She started walking in the other direction, her eyes slowly adjusting to the growing darkness. As they started walking, Raf voiced one more question, his words echoing in the cramped space around them.
"What did we just see?"
Jack was silent for a second before answering.
"No idea, and I'm not sure I wanna find out," he finally said. Billy silently agreed with him, although the nerd in her was dying to find out more about their strange encounter.
The rest of the walk was silent except for the sound of their sneakers echoing against the concrete floor. When they finally reached the end, Billy waved goodbye to the two boys and waited till they were far enough down the street for her to slip back into the drainage pipe without seeing her. It was dark out, so she only had to wait a minute or so.
There may have been crazy sentient robots fighting on the other end of the tunnel, but her homework was over there too. No way was she leaving that behind.
She made the long trek back on her own, stopping and listening carefully as she approached the opening on the other end. All she could hear was the faint sounds of motors going off into the distance, so she cautiously peeked her head out of the pipe, looking out for any signs that she had returned too soon.
Nothing.
She sighed and walked back to her spot under the bridge, pulling off her worn sneakers and laying them carefully under her backpack in the corner. Then she snuggled under the cover of her sleeping bag, using one of her sweatshirts as a pillow, and slowly drifted off to sleep. Giant sentient robots? She'd deal with that tomorrow.
O*O*O*O*O*O
Bumblebee spent the duration of the drive back to base deep in thought, only half-heartedly responding to Bulkhead's attempts at conversation over comms. The skirmish had ended pretty much as soon as the larger green warrior showed up, which had left the ex-wrecker more than a little antsy.
::-so that got me thinking, maybe we could try it for ourselves one of these days. I mean, basketball can't be that hard to learn, and we have that storage room in the back that we don't really use. What do ya say, Bee?:: Bulkhead asked, swerving a little closer in the vehicular equivalent of a friendly nudge.
::Yeah, sure:: Bee answered distractedly, not really paying attention to the question.
His processor was still stuck on those human kids they'd run into. Not so much the fact that they had such a close call with that 'con at the end, although he had been worried for a moment there, but more that two of them seemed to understand him. He hadn't had the chance to speak directly to any other humans since arriving on Earth, but he'd always just assumed that they wouldn't be unable to interpret his speech with his voice modulator so damaged. The older male, at least, seemed to live up to his expectations, but the girl and the younger boy…they'd responded to him.
How is that even possible?
Unfortunately, Bee was abruptly shaken out of his musings by Bulkhead's voice over the comms before he could start to come up with an answer.
::Bumblebee!::
The scout swerved a little in his lane before righting himself sheepishly, earning a disgruntled 'watch it, mech' from Arcee, who was cruising along behind him.
::Sorry, sorry! What is it, Bulk?:: he asked quickly, casting his scanner around instinctively to check for 'cons.
::Calm down, mech! Primus. I was just trying to get your attention, you seemed kinda out of it. You ok?:: the green bot replied, a little quieter now that he had gotten his younger comrade's attention.
::Yeah, I was just…thinking, that's all:: Bee vented shortly.
::About what? Those humans you mentioned?::
::Sort of…Bulk, two of them understood me. When I talked to them, they responded just as easily as any of you bots do. But that's impossible, right? I mean, that's what Ratchet always seemed to think, especially since Agent Fowler can't understand me::
Bulkhead was silent for a moment.
::Well…I dunno how they did it, Bee, but I guess Ratchet was wrong. The old bot doesn't know everything, ya know::
::Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe I'll ask him when we get back::
Bulkhead hummed in agreement just as the trio reached the massive stone structure that served as their base and sped through the hidden tunnel. Ratchet and Optimus, who had been studying something on the main computer, turned briefly as they entered the main hangar.
"So?" Ratchet asked as he stepped away from the computer and made his way towards his laboratory area in the corner.
Bulkhead looked between Bee and Arcee hesitantly before speaking up.
"Well, uh, the cons high-tailed it outta there when I showed up, so I don't have much to report. I was going to do some target practice in the back, actually, so if you don't mind…" he trailed off, looking to Optimus hopefully.
"Go ahead, Bulkhead" Optimus replied, still facing the computer screen. The green bot nodded, even though Prime couldn't see the action, and clapped Bee on the shoulder as he passed.
"Thanks, Prime," he added quickly, and continued on down the hall towards the target range.
Optimus turned slightly to eye the remaining two, silently urging them to speak up. Arcee crossed her arms and huffed a little before starting to recount the events of that day.
"I was just patrolling around town, blowing off some steam, when a couple of 'con signals popped up behind me. Long story short, I led them on a quick race around the block and we ended up fighting it out just outside of town under an old freeway bridge," she explained, voice tinged with the same bitterness she'd adopted since Cliffjumper's recent offlining. "And the fraggin' cons would have been scrap metal if I hadn't been distracted by the human."
Optimus turned at her last sentence, optics widening slightly in surprise.
"Human?" he questioned quickly.
"Yeah, two males and a female. All of them looked pretty young," Bee spoke up, holding up three digits for good measure.
"Three children," Optimus echoed thoughtfully.
"I…guess the other two caught us in action?" Arcee started slowly, uncrossing her arms and throwing a servo up in exasperation as she continued. "I don't know! I was a little busy at the time."
She shot a brief glare in Bee's direction, who only shrugged lightly in return before looking back to their leader.
"If the Decepticons are targeting us, anyone perceived as our ally would be at grave risk," Optimus said, more to himself than to the other occupants of the room. He turned at that, facing Arcee and Bee directly.
"Bumblebee, Arcee. Do you recall any of them mentioning their names, or a place of residence? he asked. Arcee vented sharply but ducked her helm briefly in thought.
"One of the boys…he said his name when he was talking to some other human, before we had to make a quick getaway. Jack Darby," she finally replied.
"I didn't catch the other two's names, but they all seemed to know each other. Probably go to the same school, since they seemed to be around the same age," Bee added.
Optimus nodded, turning back to the main computer and pulling up a quick search of the governmental database Fowler had given them access to.
"Jackson Darby," he said after a moment, pulling up a picture of the boy on the screen. "Is this the human that was with you, Arcee?"
The blue femme glanced up at the screen and nodded slightly.
"Yeah, that's the one."
"Good," Prime replied, studying the information on the screen before turning back to address the two bots. "He goes to Jasper High School, so it is likely that the others will be there as well. Tomorrow the two of you will find them and bring them to base. We cannot risk the Decepticons finding them first."
Arcee looked like she was about to argue for a moment, but quickly decided against it.
"If that's all, I'm gonna go to my quarters. See you tomorrow, Bee," she said, nodding to Optimus and Ratchet as she left.
Bee chirped an affirmative, watching her disappear down the hall before turning back to Optimus.
"We'll find them, Optimus, don't worry."
Optimus' mouth plates twitched upward in a brief smile.
"Of that, I have little doubt, Bumblebee," he replied, turning back to the computer array.
Bee took that as a dismissal and started to follow Arcee's lead, until he remembered the strange incident with two of the still-unnamed humans they'd encountered. Glancing briefly at Optimus's turned back, he made his way past the computer setup and towards the little laboratory in the corner where Ratchet had remained for the duration of the debriefing.
"Hey, Ratchet? Do you have a breem?" He asked hesitantly as he approached the medic.
Ratchet looked up from the tool he seemed to be repairing, eyeing the younger bot carefully.
"Depends. You didn't dislocate a wing-strut again, did you?" he asked gruffly, placing the tool down on the table and turning to face the scout completely. Bee suppressed a grin at that, shaking his helm and waving off the older bot's concern.
"No, no, nothing like that. I just…had a question about my voice modulator," he started, immediately noting the flash of guilt that crossed Ratchet's face at the mention of the old injury. Not wanting to cause the older bot any undue distress, Bee hurried to continue. "Sort of. I mean, it's related, but also has to do with humans, and I know you're not -"
"Primus, Bumblebee, spit it out already!" Ratchet cut him off, crossing his arms with a huff.
"Right…sorry," Bee smiled sheepishly. "It's just…two of the humans we encountered today understood me, Ratchet. I only said a couple things to them out of habit…I didn't really expect them to respond, but they did! Two of them! How is that even possible?"
Ratchet's optics narrowed in thought.
"Are you sure? I don't think there's any human language that sounds even remotely similar to the Cybertronian sparkling dialect you're using. It shouldn't have been possible for them to understand your speech without a modulator," he replied slowly. "Your interactions with Agent Fowler have only served to further that theory."
"I'm sure, Ratchet," Bee nodded quickly.
Ratchet vented, looking away briefly as he pondered this, muttering quietly to himself. Bee waited patiently, familiar enough with the old medic's thinking process to know not to interrupt unless he wanted a fresh dent on his helm.
"I can't say for sure, mechling, but my best hypothesis would be that those two humans - for whatever reason - are more perceptive to pattern recognition than the humans you've encountered before," Ratchet finally started, raising a servo to his chin as he spoke. "Your language is similar to the humans' binary computer code, so they could have some experience in that area, or even just speak more than one human dialect…but that's all just speculation, of course."
"That's alright, Ratchet, I was just curious is all," Bee replied, shrugging for good measure.
"I'm…sorry I couldn't be of more help," Ratchet said, voice slightly quieter than before. Bumblebee flashed him a quick smile, even though the older mech couldn't see it under his face guard and flared his EM field out just enough to brush against the medic's with understanding and optimism.
"Really, Ratchet, I don't mind. I'm just happy to have found someone besides you old bots to talk to," he teased as he pulled his EM field back to its normal position.
"Watch it, youngling," Ratchet growled back, pulling one of his wrenches from subspace and lifting it threateningly.
Bee's optics twinkled with amusement, fully aware that the old bot was only half-serious. Even so, he quickly transformed and sped out of the hangar with a short farewell beep of his horn. He knew better than to wait around for Ratchet to make good of his threat. Those wrenches of his hurt.
Unseen to Bumblebee, Ratchet's mouth plates twitched upward slightly as he watched the young scout's hasty retreat. But as the echoes of the yellow bot faded down the hallway, he turned back to his work, doing his best to ignore the wave of guilt that arose as his thoughts turned back to the one injury of Bumblebee's he'd never quite been able to fix.
He snorted quietly to himself. Trust a couple of humans to add some more mystery to the already-complicated mess of that topic.
"These humans are starting to seem like more trouble than they're worth," he muttered, casting a quick glance towards the computer terminal across the room where Optimus was still working. The Autobot leader didn't so much as twitch, but for a brief moment, Ratchet could've sworn he saw a glint of amusement in the other bot's optics.