a/n: Sorry about the delay, I had some trouble with this chapter. I hope you enjoy regardless.


Chapter 1: A Simple Spark

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A hand slammed down on the sleep button hard enough to crack the plastic casing.

"Ugh…" the girl in the bed groaned, "There goes another alarm clock…" She forced herself to roll onto her back, pushed herself up, and slid her feet into her slippers. She rose to her feet, and slowly shuffled out of the room, intent on getting some breakfast. Or lunch. Or supper depending on how long she had been asleep fo-

"SURPRISE!" a silver eyed girl with blood red hair shouted, "Happy- Eep!" she ducked to avoid the reflexive right hook the half-awake girl had thrown at her.

"Ruby?" said girl remarked, now fully awake, "How long have you been waiting outside my room?"

"That's completely irrelevant!" Ruby announced as she sprang back up, "You only turn seventeen once, and it's my job to make sure you don't sleep through it!" The silver eyed girl grinned as the blond haired girl's eyes briefly flashed red.

"It's too early for this," she announced before heading for the kitchen.

"Yang, wait up!" Ruby shouted as she dashed ahead of the girl in a burst of rose petals, coming to a stop a few feet in front of her, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to pour myself a bowl of cereal," Yang answered.

"On your birthday?" Ruby replied, "No, that'll never do! I will make you a feast worthy of a queen!"

"Ruby, you know neither of us are allowed unsupervised in the kitchen after the batter incident."

"I will get Dad to help me make you a feast worthy of a queen!" Ruby's grin notably did not leave her face, even as Yang sighed.

"Is Dad awake?" she asked. The smile vanished from Ruby's face.

"I knew I forgot something!"


Taiyang Xiao Long had decided that "pancakes" would be "a feast fit for a queen" after his younger daughter had barged into his room in a blind panic. If asked about the incident later, he would deny shrieking at a pitch that rivaled the time a racoon had wandered into the shower while Ruby was using it. Regardless of Taiyang's blatant lies, however, the morning had proceeded as normal. Yang had downed her pancakes, gotten first dibs on a warm shower, and equipped Ember Celica to her wrists in bracelet mode. All the while, Ruby was Petal Bursting around the house, offering whatever help she could.

"Ruby, I can brush my own teeth. My arms aren't broken."

Even if she was a little overenthusiastic.


"Ruby," Yang started as Taiyang started up Zippy (the Rose/Xiao Long family car).

"Yes Yang?" Ruby asked as Zwei, the family pet sat in her lap and demanded pets.

"Are you going to follow me around like a lost puppy during the entire party?" Yang asked, "Because we already have Zwei for that, and I'm pretty sure you can keep him busy."

"But you're going to be heading to Beacon next year, and I want to make the most of what time we have left!" Ruby replied.

"Ruby, I'm going to a Hunstman Academy, not a morgue, there'll be plenty of time to hang out during breaks," Yang replied. As the conversations in the car continued, the occupants failed to notice a red Atlesian Dropship and a blue Bullhead fly overhead.

.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Dropkick asked as they soared over the trees, "I mean, we're supposed to be robots in disguise, and this Relay Dish is a bit too close to Vale if a firefight starts. And you know what Megatron will do to us if we blow our cover!"

"I swung by here last night," Shatter replied, "The only time they ever guard the relay tower is when they're performing maintenance. With Patch being so close to the CCT Tower, the only reason they have the relay is for a rainy day."

"And that helps us how?" Dropkick asked.

"It means that, even in spite of our size, we can swoop in, tap into the CCT Network, see if any of those putrid organics have sighted the Autobot, and leave before anyone realizes we're there," Shatter answered, "We're coming up on the CCT Tower now, prepare to land." Shatter circled around while Dropkick simply aimed his thrusters at the ground while slowly decreasing their power. As soon as they had both disappeared under the treeline, their parts shifted and folded into a more humanoid shapes.

Shatter was taller and leaner, while Dropkick was shorter and bulkier. Shatter's eyes glowed yellow, while Dropkick's glowed red. Aside from that, both of them had the grills of cars on their chest, the window of their flying alt-modes' cockpits on their midriffs, wheels on their shoulders and legs, and the blade-like wings of their altmodes sticking out of their backs.

"You did bring the device, didn't you?" Shatter asked.

"Didn't I?" Dropkick replied with a grin. A battle mask closed over Shatter's face as a metal blade deployed from her left arm. "Oh, don't get your circuits in a twist!" Dropkick replied as his chest opened up, deploying a small, black and green box, "I'm not an idiot!"

"That's still up for debate," Shatter growled as she retracted her blade and took the device from Dropkick, "Now, let me handle this!" Shatter pressed on the top of the box, causing it to unfold into a six-legged drone. The little machine made a trilling sound, before hopping onto the relay dish's rim. It stumbled down the curvature of the relay dish, then scurried to the antenna at the center. Shatter grinned as the drone scaled the side of the antenna.

"Now what?" Dropkick asked.

"It's time for us to leave," Shatter replied as she folded in on herself, transforming into a red S.U.V., and driving away down the dirt road.

"No popping humans?"

"What happened to worrying about our cover?" Shatter asked.

Dropkick grumbled something incomprehensible in response as he folded back into armored car mode and drove after his partner.


"Fortunately, those Dust upgrades we applied to my saber and off-hand in case the White Fang tried to steal the bomb were more than enough to break this 'Autobot's' Aura," Winter Schnee explained into her scroll, "Unfortunately, it got away shortly after the fact."

"And you expect me to believe that what we thought was a bomb was actually not just a robot with Aura, of which only one exists in the whole world, but also happened to be from an alien planet?" the voice on the other end of the Scroll asked, "Specialist Schnee, I have grounds to put you under psych eval."

"General Ironwood, I have evidence!" Winter hastily replied as she tapped her Scroll's holographic interface a few times, "I'm sending you the footage from the Atlesian Knights it destroyed." Ironwood fell silent as he played the footage. "Also, my soldiers' helmet cameras recorded footage of the battle. I'll be sending that through later."

.

"This is worrying," Ironwood replied after the footage finished playing

"I know, who knows how many other of these things there are?"

"Not just that, this 'B-127' identified itself as part of the 'Autobot Resistance'," General Ironwood replied, "If the White Fang and Vacuan history has taught me anything, no one who wages war with their own government is up to any good." He sighed. "And you say it got away with its homing beacon?"

"Yes, which means if we don't find it fast, the whole of Remnant could be in danger!" Winter replied, "I'll alert the Vale Council and-"

"No! This is an Atlesian operation!" Ironwood interrupted, "If they learn that we unleashed an alien fugitive on their kingdom, we'll never be able to perform operations within Vale's borders again!"

"In that case, what should I do?" Winter questioned.

"Track down this 'B-127' and capture it before it can regroup with its fellow rebels," Ironwood answered, "Once you have it in custody, we can try and learn its secrets, perhaps even induce it's technology into our own prototype..."

.

Shatter and Dropkick drove down the road, listening to every word.

"This is an Atlesian Military Secret, Specialist Schnee. Share what you've seen with any unauthorized personnel and I'll have you discharged."

"Understood, sir."

"So, this is where the Ark crashed," Shatter remarked, "How very… Interesting."


The party had been very hectic. Ruby had tried to follow her sister around like a lost puppy, only for Yang's very close friends with incredibly distinctive personalities and appearances to crowd her out and reflect on all the very interesting and noteworthy trouble they had gotten into with Yang over the years. Truly, a more interesting and memorable group had never existed before or would exist since.

"Jerks," Ruby grumbled with a pout.

"Yang gets to see you all the time," Taiyang replied, "Maybe you should try making some more friends if your so worried about being left alone."

"Why would I need friends when I have you, Yang, Uncle Qrow, Zwei, and Crescent Rose?" Ruby asked, silver eyes staring up at him inquisitively.

"Because you're going to move out eventually, and working as a Huntress will be easier if you have a lot of connections," Taiyang answered.

"And I can't just work with Yang because…"

Taiyang sighed.

.

Yang's friends had given her a variety of gifts a typical teenage girl would enjoy. Things like gloves, hair-care products, and ammunition for her weapons. Ruby had gotten her a new cleaning kit for Ember Celica, her Uncle Qrow had sent her a gift card, as for her father…

"Dad…" Yang started, "Where's your gift to me?"

Taiyang simply grinned.

"Did you forget-"

"No! It's just a bit… Different from your other gifts," Taiyang explained.

"... Wha-"

.

"So…" Yang started as Zippy sped down the wooded road, "You haven't explained what you meant by your gift being 'different' from everyone else's."

"You'll see in a second," Taiyang replied, "We're coming up at the place in just a few minutes." Zippy pulled off to the right, and into the lot of Witwicky Automotive.

"You're getting me a car?" Yang asked. Her hopes were dashed when her father responded with a laugh.

"Unfortunately, buying a car's a little bit above my paygrade," Taiyang replied, "That said, they do have a sale on another vehicle type."

"What do you mean?"

.

"I mean, motorcycles!" Taiyang answered.

"Did you have to wait until we had parked the car, walked inside the building, met the manager, and walked back out before answering?" Yang asked.

"Yeah, that is kinda weird, Dad," Ruby agreed.

"It sounded cooler in my head," Taiyang replied as his daughters followed the owner. Yang looked over the presented motorcycles.

One was mostly pink, save for the black metal under its seat.

"That one might look cool at night, but I'm not sure…" Yang remarked.

The next one was dark blue, with scattered little accents of pink above the front wheel, on the back, and under the bottom of the motorcycle.

"Better, but not really what I'm-" her voice trailed off as she spotted the one.

It was a black and yellow (but mostly yellow) sports motorcycle with red-to-orange-to-yellow gradients on the back panels. Yang immediately dashed over to the motorcycle, inspecting the springs, the Combustion Dust intake, and the kickstand that she didn't even notice until she got close enough.

"Find something you like?" Taiyang asked as his daughter actually climbed onto the motorcycle to look over the dashboard.

"I dunno," Yang answered, "Something about the color scheme just speaks to me."

"Huh… I don't remember bringing that in," the manager remarked noticing the red-and-black (but mostly red) sports motorcycle with yellow-to-orange-red gradients on the back panels that happened to be right next to it, "The G1 Dustfire's a pretty durable model. I've heard of Hunstmen fighting Grimm while riding it!"

"Really?" Yang asked, stars in her eyes.

"... Mr. Witwicky, I hope you realize the horrors you're about to unleash," Taiyang remarked.

"Wait, does it have built-in guns?" Ruby asked.

"No," Mr. Witwicky answered.

"Aw…"

.

Regardless of Ruby begging Yang to go for the white and green Elita-7 ("It has a built-in rocket launcher Yang, a rocket launcher!"), Yang went home with the G1 Dustfire, while Mr. Witwicky wondered why he had more motorcycles than keys.

"I mean, that yellow one had to be mine, the key went in the ignition, but that doesn't explain why I only remember buying the red one," he pondered.


Days went by in the Rose/Xiao Long household. Ruby and Taiyang helped Yang with some of the bike's upkeep, but there were some strange occurrences every now and then.

"Why did the Bumblebee fall over?" Yang asked one morning.

"Huh?" Ruby asked, looking up from her magazine, "What bumblebee?"

"My motorcycle, the Blazing Bumblebee!" Yang replied.

"You named your motorcycle?"

"Ruby, Dad named his car, you named your scythe, and I named my shot gauntlets," Yang replied, "Of course I named my Bumblebee!"

"I dunno, maybe you forgot to put down the kickstand?" Ruby shrugged.

"Oh sure, like all those times you forgot to switch Crescent Rose back into storage mode, or all those times I forgot to take off Ember Celica before going to bed, or all those times Uncle Qrow remembered to put a padlock on his 'secret' stash," Yang replied, "Besides, it didn't fall over until after I walked into the garage."

"Huh… That is weird," Ruby replied, "Maybe the garage is haunted!"

"Ruby, there's no such thing as ghosts," Yang replied, "And if there were, why would they only haunt our garage?"

"Maybe it's the ghost of a motorcycle enthusiast and they're jealous of your bike?" Ruby suggested.

Yang gave her a look.

"Hey! It could happen!"

"I'm gonna let Dad know about the dents in the garage door," Yang replied as she walked away, "I don't get what could be in our house that's making those."

"Bark!" Zwei yipped.

Yang and Ruby both turned their attention to the corgi, noticing the empty food dish next to him.

"You don't think-"

"Either that or your motorcycle's possessed."

Both girls stared at the selectively oblivious dog.


Aside from the mystery Yang's Bumblebee had brought upon them, life continued as normal for the small family, especially as they got ready for a fishing trip.

"Fishing rods?" Taiyang listed.

"Check!" Ruby answered as she shoved three fishing rods into Zippy's backseat.

"Tackle box?"

"Check!" Yang called as she placed the tackle box into the trunk.

"Sunscreen?"

"Got it!" Yang and Ruby both replied as they held up two separate bottles of sunscreen.

"Alright, we're ready to go!" Taiyang announced as he opened the driver side door, "Get in Zippy and let's go!"

"Actually, could I take the Bumblebee?" Yang asked, "Looking at how Ruby put those fishing rods in there, I don't want to risk getting a fishhook in my hair."

"Only if you wear your helmet," Taiyang answered, "Aura can only get you so far."

"I know Dad," Yang replied as she ran over to the table she kept her helmet on after it kept mysteriously falling off of her bike whenever they left it in the garage unsupervised.

"Does that mean I get to ride shotgun?" Ruby asked.

"Crescent Rose is better suited to that job…" Taiyang remarked.


The ride to the beach was uneventful, with Yang following close behind Zippy on her Bumblebee. Though she did notice that it seemed to slow down without her telling it to, sometimes fought when she tried to make certain turns, and at one point went in reverse when she hit the brakes.

"Dad," Yang started as soon as they had parked, "I think we might need to take Bumblebee to a mechanic here soon. It was acting up quite a bit the whole way here."

"I noticed," Taiyang answered as he got out of Zippy, "Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if a Geist got into the engine."

"I'm pretty sure we'd notice if Bumblebee was part of a Motor Gigas," Ruby replied as she stepped out of Zippy's passenger seat, Crescent Rose still in sniper rifle mode, "For one, it would be trying to kill us. For another, Zippy would probably form the torso while Bumblebee formed an arm or leg. Finally, if the Geist did possess Bumblebee, it would've had to have happened while it was still in the dealership, and I don't think it would still be standing if a Geist decided to make a body out of its products."

"Whatever the case, the beach is just past this treeline," Taiyang answered, "Yang, Ruby, grab your fishing rods. I'm going to show you my favorite fishing spot!"

.

As soon as the family's voices had faded, "Bumblebee" unfolded into robot mode.

"Oh Primus I thought they'd never leave!" B-127 remarked as soon as they were out of earshot, "Now, that they're distracted, maybe this time will be my chance to slip away undetected." He sighed. "The fact that I didn't reactivate after crashing is worrying though. The emergency failsafes should've brought me and everyone else back online the second we crashed. Unless…" He brought a hand to his chin and started pacing. "No, when would the Decepticons have had the chance to sabotage us? I mean, that would only work if there was a mole in the ranks, and there's no way a Decepticon could sneak his way into Optimus' inner circle." He detected Taiyang's voice getting louder and shifted back into motorcycle mode.

"Ruby, you are so much like your mother it hurts sometimes," Taiyang muttered, before noticing the Bumblebee was not in the same space Yang had parked "it" in

Thank Primus he didn't hear me! B-127 thought, See Sideways, I can too talk to myself on a mission without compromising my cover!

"... Maybe Ruby's ghost theory isn't as far-fetched as we thought," he muttered as he walked over to Zippy's passenger side door, "Now where's that Scroll?" As Taiyang unlocked and opened the door, he failed to notice two red eyes staring at him from between the trees "Oh, it fell under the seat!" Taiyang remarked as he pulled out the Scroll, "Maybe we should see about buying Ruby something with actual p-" a growl interrupted his ruminations. Taiyang immediately whirled around to face the source of the growl, and stared straight into the soulless eyes of an ursine monster. Large, bone-like spikes jutted out of its armored back, it's head encased in skull-like armor, and it's black body dwarfing the car behind the human.

"Oh shi-"

.

"I wonder what's taking Dad so long," Ruby mumbled as she watched the lure bob in the water.

"Maybe you left your Scroll at home?" Yang suggested.

"I'm not tha-" the argument was cut short by a primal roar.

"Grimm!" both girls rose suddenly, the fishing rod left forgotten on the pier, and whirled to face the direction of the roar. Yang switched Ember Celica into gauntlet mode as Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose into a scythe, both keeping the built-in guns of their weapons pointed at the trees.

"Do you have any Dust rounds loaded?" Yang asked. Ruby pulled out a Lightning Dust Magazine and quickly fed it into her weapon.

"I do now!" Ruby answered as Yang shot her a look, the already loud roars getting louder as the trees shook, a few toppling over. Finally, Taiyang Xiao long exploded from the treeline, flying backwards, and hit the pier hard enough to break the wooden boards, his Aura breaking on impact.

"Dad!"

The Grimm responsible burst from the treeline.

"An Ursa Major?" Ruby shouted as she fired a Lightning Round that failed to even stagger the abomination, "What's one of those doing here?"

"I don't know, but I'm gonna skin it!" Yang answered, throwing her arms back and firing two explosive rounds to propel herself towards the beast. The Ursa Major easily batted her out of the way before continuing its charge.

"Yang!" Ruby shouted.

Yang Xiao Long wordlessly growled and threw a couple of punches, firing a couple of rounds at the side of the Ursa Major. "Dislodge Dad from the pier while I teach this Grimm a thing or two!" she shouted as the massive Grimm turned to face her. The Ursa Major roared and charged Yang as Ruby tried to pull her unconscious father free from the wooden pier. Yang threw her arms out behind her and fired a couple of shots, riding the shockwave from the exploding rounds to propel herself towards the Grimm. The Ursa Major casually swatted her out of the air and into the water.

"Yang!" The Ursa Major reacted to both the sound and the delicious fear of Taiyang's and Ruby's voices, turning to face the two of them. Ruby was supporting her father's weight, while seeing his eldest daughter batted into the ocean by an unholy abomination had shaken Taiyang out of his daze.

"Run," he ordered as the Ursa Major charged them.

"But Da-"

"RUN!" Ruby flinched, but reluctantly escaped into the trees in a cloud of flower petals. Taiyang raised his fists as the Grimm roared, no time to arm. In spite of his willpower, his lack of an Aura meant that he was still knocked off his feet, the impact of the Grimm's backhand cracking his ribs, and was knocked onto his back. Taiyang froze as he stared Death itself in the face, its cold breath reminding him of his own fragility. The Ursine devil opened its jaws, revealing the void of its throat, ready to bite off the father's head.

CRACK!

The Ursa Major growled in irritation as something impacted one of the spikes on its back.

CRACK!

It reared back and roared in pain as something else struck its eye. It whirled to face the trees, where Ruby Rose fired off a third gravity round from her sniper rifle. This one plinked off the bony armor of the Ursa's claws, before it threw itself at the tree.

"Uh-oh," Ruby dispersed into petals as the Ursa Major sliced through the tree trunk. The whirlwind of petals reformed into Ruby on a neighboring tree as Ruby fired off another gravity round. This one missed entirely, forcing Ruby to jump and Petal Burst away as the Ursa toppled that tree as well. It says a lot about the intensity of the situation that neither had noticed the Bumblebee flying for the air as the Ursa Major chased after Ruby. Or the fact that the motorcycle's Aura flashed blue upon impact with the concrete.

.

"Dad!" Yang shouted as she dashed from the water to her father, hair and clothes soaking wet, eyes blue with concern, "Dad! Are you okay?"

"Damn it Ruby," Taiyang groaned. Yang froze.

"Where did she go?" she asked.

.

B-127 groaned as he shifted back into robot mode.

"Okay, Projected Spark Field's still up, but I don't think I can maintain cover and save that kid at the same time," he remarked, "Still, I'll be quicker in vehicle-"

"RUBY!" Yang shouted.

"Better not cause a panic," he muttered as he shifted back into vehicle mode. Yang burst from the trees, eyes still blue with worry.

"Ruby!" she noticed the path of fallen trees and discarded bullet casings, "Oh God…" She immediately dashed through the foliage.

"Yang! Augh…" Taiyang winced, supporting himself on the standing trees as he limped for his car, "Oh God why… Please don't take my daughters from me, I already lost Summer, I can't afford to lose either of them too" He was caught off guard when he heard Bumblebee's engines revving. "What the…" He watched, dumbfounded, as his daughter's motorcycle retracted its kickstand and sped off into the woods without a rider. He stumbled into the passenger seat of his car in shock, not noticing a raven flying overhead.

.

Ruby Rose was tired. It was a simple fact as the Ursa toppled tree after tree, none of her bullets piercing its bone armor. There were some scratches on one of the spikes, and she had managed to take out its right eye, but aside from that, the abomination didn't show any signs of slowing down. Her luck ran out when she hit a tree branch at top speed, and the Ursa took to climbing the tree instead of simply barrelling through it.

"No…" the tree toppled under the Ursa's weight, and Ruby hit the ground with a thud, her aura flashing red as it absorbed the impact.

"Ow…" Ruby groaned as she stumbled to her feet, "Wait, where's Crescent Rose?" Before she had time to look around for her Sniper Scythe, a bony paw shoved Ruby to the ground. The Ursa Major dug its claws into the ground to hold Ruby in place. It growled as it motioned towards its empty eye socket with its free paw. "I hear scars are intimidating?" Ruby laughed nervously. The Ursa Major simply growled, the pointer claw hovering over one of Ruby's eyes.

Aren't Grimm supposed to be mindless? Ruby wondered, How can this one take it so personally? The Ursa Major's claw inched closer and closer to Ruby's face, the girl's dread rising with every passing second. Just inches from Ruby's pupil, it paused as the Grimm looked over its shoulder. Why is it-

"Ruby!" a familiar voice shouted, "RUBY!"

The Ursa Major made a mumbling sound as it moved its claw away from Ruby's face.

It's using me as bait! Ruby realized, panic heightening one more as Yang's voice got louder and more desperate. The silver eyed girl glanced around, and noticed that Crescent Rose had landed just within reach of her left arm. Ruby grinned and stretched her arm to try and get the handle within reach of her fingertips. The tip of the Ursa Major's claw pierced Ruby's wrist, her Aura flaring as it tried to repel the intrusion. Ruby bit back a scream. The Ursa Major growled and pushed in its claw an inch deeper.

.

Yang Xiao Long's blood ran cold as she heard her little sister shriek in pain. She looked over her shoulder, and her heart stopped as she saw the red flicker of Ruby's aura finally giving out. The Ursa removed its claw, blood dripping off the tip. Yang's eyes turned red and her hair burst into golden flames. Steam rose from Yang's rapidly drying body as she thrust her arms out behind her, firing shots from Ember Celica to propel herself through the air, and threw a punch at the Ursa Major. Then the soulless beast's jaws closed around her right arm, and everything was pain.

.

Ruby's eyes widened in shock as her older sister cried out in pain, the Ursa Major's teeth digging into Yang's right arm. With a swing of its head, the Ursa Major propelled Yang directly into a tree, her Semblance deactivating as her Aura flickered and fizzled out. The Ursa Major released Ruby and lumbered over to the downed blonde. Yang struggled to push herself to her feet, but winced and grabbed hold of her still-bleeding right arm. The Ursa Major slowly rose to its hind legs, raising its paw to strike.

"Get away from her!" Ruby shouted as she propelled herself through the air with a gunshot from Crescent Rose, and hooked the Ursa Major's elbow with the blade of her sniper-scythe. As soon as she was certain that the barrel wasn't pointed at her sister, Ruby fired gunshot after gunshot, trying to pull the blade of the scythe through the Ursa's arm. The Ursa Major simply growled and threw its arm forward, tossing both Crescent Rose and Ruby into a nearby tree. Crescent Rose clattered to the ground while Ruby landed with a painful thud. She groaned in pain as the Ursa Major slowly stalked towards her.

"No…" Yang forced out, before using the last of her strength to throw herself over her sister, shielding Ruby's head and torso with her own body. Yang closed her eyes, grit her teeth, and wrapped her arms around Ruby's head, bracing herself for what would no doubt be a swift yet none-the-less painful death. Hopefully Ruby will be able to get away while the Grimm's busy tearing me apar- Is that an engine?

.

B-127 mentally cursed as he weaved between the trees, following the trail of munition shells.

"Okay, the gunfire just got quiet, but judging by the screams, it's probably not because the monster's dead," he muttered to himself, "Hopefully I'm not too late…" He spotted the Grimm towering over two motionless forms. Without another word, he whirled around, drove up a downed tree like a ramp, and flew straight through the air towards the Grimm.

.

Yang popped open one eye when she heard the Ursa Major utter a confused growl, and then both eyes were wide open when her motorcycle collided with its head.

"What the…"

"Yang?" Ruby opened her eyes, and yelped as the motorcycle landed on the ground a few feet away from them, "Is that…"

"I'm just as lost as you-" whatever Yang was about to say was cut off when the panels on her Bumblebee loosened, and soon the entire motorcycle unfolded into a more humanoid form. The wheels were now in the robot's lower legs, the front of the motorcycle had become the chest, and the backpanels with the red-orange-yellow gradients were now shield-like plates on the robot's forearms. "Bumblebee?"

"It's as good a name as any," the robot replied, shocking Yang and Ruby further. It, or rather he turned to face the two, a comforting smile on his surprisingly human (if not metallic) face. "Mind if I tag in?" Bumblebee asked.

"Uh…" Both girls were still trying to process what just happened. The Ursa Major interrupted their pondering with a roar, and Bumblebee rolled his glowing, blue eyes.

"I'll take that as a 'please do'," he replied as a wasp-like mask closed over his head, "This shouldn't take long." Shotguns deployed from under Bumblebee's shields as he opened fire on the Ursa Major, cracking several of its bone spikes and pushing it back a few feet. He then retracted both blasters in favor of blades made of glowing-blue metal as he charged the beast with a shout of his own. The Ursa Major roared and charged the newcomer. Bumblebee's left blade sliced right through the elbow Ruby had tried to sever earlier, while his right glanced the bone-like helmet and severed one of the damaged spikes. The Ursa cried out in pain and backhanded the former motorcycle, sending him sliding through a tree. Ruby took the prerogative to push Yang off of her and switch Crescent Rose back into rifle mode, firing off an ice round into the Ursa Major's empty eye socket. The devil-like beast cried out as the damaged tree landed right on top of it.

"Nice shot Rubes!" Yang said, finally out of her stupor.

"... Probably should have used my other hand…" Ruby groaned as she sat down Crescent Rose and massaged her injured wrist.

.

Bumblebee folded back into a motorcycle and sped to the fallen bone spike, then transformed back into a robot to pick it up.

"This could come in handy," he remarked. His musings were interrupted by the now severely lopsided Ursa Major throwing the tree off of its back, most of the bone spikes on its upper back either severed or shattered, and then charged Bumblebee. The robot groaned in annoyance. "You just don't know when to give up!" As soon as the Ursa lunged, Bumblebee jabbed the bone-spike into one of the monster's hind paws, and forced it back to the ground. The Ursa major roared in pain as Bumblebee hammered the bone-spike through the monster's foot and into the forest floor. The Grimm managed to knock Bumblebee away with its flailing, however, but the robot seemed more annoyed than anything. "I think it's time I wrapped this up!" The robot announced as he kicked off the ground to throw a punch at the Grimm. The Ursa Major caught Bumblebee's punch with its remaining forepaw. Bumblebee retracted his mask to smirk at the Grimm. The Ursa Major let out a confused rumble, before roaring in pain as the tip of Bumblebee's sword stuck out of its elbow. "You forgot about that, didn't you?" Bumblebee taunted, before throwing another punch at the Grimm's head. The Ursa Major, out of options, bit down on the robot's fist, applying enough pressure to cause a blue light to flare across his entire body. "Okay, OW!" Bumblebee replied, "But it won't hurt as much as this!" The Grimm's remaining eye seemed to widen in shock as a mechanical whirring sounded from inside its mouth. Its shock was short-lived, as a blue energy blast shot out of the back of its head, the Ursa Major's entire body disintegrating mere seconds later.

.

As soon as there was nothing left of the beast, B-127 retracted both of his weapons.

"Can you guys still walk?" he asked the two girls.

"Uh…" Both girls were speechless as they helped each other up. Yang supported her sister's weight by throwing her good arm around the younger girl's shoulders as Ruby used her good hand to attach Crescent Rose (now back in storage mode) to the back of her belt.

"I'm okay except for my arm," Yang answered, "What about you, Rubes?"

"Everything hurts at the moment," Ruby answered, "But I should be fine once my Aura kicks back in."

"Aura?" B-127 racked his processors, "Oh right, that's what you call your Projected Spark Fields on this planet!" Both girls fell silent. "... Oh, will you need a ride back to the street in the meantime?" Yang and Ruby shared a glance.

"Probably," Yang answered, and B-127 shifted back into his motorcycle mode.

"Just let me handle the steering," he instructed, "I can explain everything once your injuries have been treated." Yang and Ruby exchanged a glance.

"Still think my bike is haunted?" Yang asked.

"Shut up," Ruby replied. Neither of the girls, nor the motorcycle, noticed the masked woman watching them from the branches of one of the trees near the newly created clearing. Not even as she unsheathed a red blade and slashed through empty air.


The ride home was awkward, to say the least. Taiyang had been too stunned by Yang and Ruby riding back on the self-driving motorcycle (and the severe injuries on both of his daughters) to scold Yang for running off on her own, and the awkward silence remained as Yang and Taiyang collected their things from the beach and headed home, Ruby keeping an eye on Yang and Bumblebee as she road with her Dad in Zippy.


Taiyang stared between his daughters, Ruby's hand in a splint as Yang's right arm was bandaged, all three of them gathered in the garage.

"You said you had an explanation for why your bike just drove off on its own?" he opened. Yang nodded.

"You wanna show him what you showed us, Bumblebee?" she asked. Taiyang's eyes widened when the black and yellow motorcycle unfolded into a robot so tall it needed to kneel down to fit in the garage, with a metallic yet undeniably human face. Well, maybe a Faunus face if those two antenna were anything to go by.

"Where would you like me to start?" Bumblebee asked, surprising Mr. Xiao Long even more.

"The beginning," Yang answered, "Where did you come from, and why are you here?"

"That's… A long story," Bumblebee replied.

"We've got all night," Taiyang answered. Bumblebee seemed to sigh.

"My story begins on a distant planet known as Cybertron," he began, "With a visionary named Megatron."


a/n: So... The fight with the Ursa Major was ALWAYS going to be how the Rose/Xiao Long's discover Bumblebee's secret. As for the Ursa Major itself, I wanted to show how, even if both girls are exceptionally skilled fighters, they've still got a LONG ways to go before they're ready to fight something like that. Bumblebee's transformation is based off the animated version of Prowl. You might've noticed that I mentioned the White Fang in the description, but they have yet to appear in the fic itself. They were ORIGINALLY going to debut at the end of this chapter, but I figured the current cliffhanger did a better job of seguing into the next chapter. That and writing goatman and catgirl interacting makes me uncomfortable on a molecular level. I do intend to introduce them soon, however, just gotta rip off that band-aid.

On another note: I'd like to share some "behind the scenes" information. The original idea for this fanfic was born from the realization that the fanfic "Spark to Spark: Dust to Dust" over on Spacebattles is the only Transformers/RWBY crossover to do anything with Yang's motorcycle sharing its name with a Transformers character (okay, "The RWBY Loops" had a one snip gag where Bumblebee asked out Yang's motorcycle, but I'm not counting that!), and even then they had Yang buy a car to replace her bike so they could keep Bumblebee's "Punch Bug" altmode. When that story didn't end up having as many Yang and Bumblebee friendship moments as I was expecting, I decided to write this. On a semi-related note, the title of this Fanfic is just one word off from StS:DtD's first chapter: "A Girl and Her Car". So... I'm thinking of changing the title to "The Dragon and the Motorcycle" or "The Dragon and the Bumblebee". I don't want it to sound too shippy though... Maybe I'll set up a poll if I can't figure it out by chapter 3...

Now, to answer some of your questions: Bumblebee here is not an OC, he's based off of the general "Bumblebee" archetype, but I imagine him with his Cyberverse self's voice. I do not intend to ship Bumblebee with Yang, as I HC Bumblebee as aroace and ship Yang with someone else. Please do not demand chapters. It does not make me work faster, it just slows me down. I gave the Transformers Aura because, well, Aura is canonically the manifestation of one's soul, so I figured that even if the technique to unlocking it is exclusive to Remnant, anything with a soul could theoretically have an Aura (also, the Autobots and Decepticons had personalized force fields in Transformers Prime). Bumblebee was originally going to lose his voice and memories, but then I realized that would grind the story to a halt, and decided against it.

As for my future plans, I'm going to tweak the prologue to be more in line with Winter's canonical power set (luckily that shouldn't be too hard to pull off), then get started on Chapter 2: which will be called either "Cultural Exchange" or "World of Cybertron". I haven't decided which yet. I hope you all have a pleasant day!

Update 7/19/2020:
So... I made some minor tweaks to a few sentences.

Update 9/25/2020: Made a quick fix to better line up events with Yang's canon birthday (July 28th). I will be making similar edits to the other chapters that refer to the timeline of the show.

Update 4/8/2021: Added two extra lines to Ironwood's and Winter's conversation.