Chapter 19: Flower Child

(Alternative Title: That's Not Suspicious At All)


Rad felt like banging his head against the wall. He'd been wanting to do it since Rachel told him that the science carnival was having an extension for today. When he'd asked why, she explained it was due to some of the equipment malfunctioning and the supervisors wanting to give people a nice extra day to enjoy it.

It was why the supervisors had asked around at the college for volunteers and Rachel decided to apply. And now it was Tuesday and she was likely excused from class to help the fair personnel.

'Damn it Shadow, why'd you have to make everyone miserable on Sunday?' Rad couldn't blame the card for being mad, but he just wished Shadow had done it in a non-aggressive manner. Rad's forehead throbbed from the phantom pain. Or in a non-violent way.

"Hey, Rad, what's the matter with you?" Carlos asked.

Rad blinked, and sharply remembered where he was. It was after school, and he, Carlos and Alexis were walking to their mini-cons. "Oh, just thinking about the fair."

"And that's making you upset?" Alexis asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I mean- I can understand Alexis being a buzz kill about it." Carlos said, and the brunette glared at him.

"I'm not upset about it," Rad replied quickly before his friends could begin arguing, "just that things didn't go well for it."

"Yeah, it's almost like there's some external force at work." High Wire was close enough to hear them, and Rad scowled at his bike form. The other two warbled in agreement, and he saw his friends looked confused with what they were talking about.

"I'm still going," Rad said forcefully; High Wire always thought Kero was too distrusting, and though the blond wanted to fess up, Kero would just annoy him into submission -something really big had to happen for him to budge, "just to support it. I feel like I need to make up for how reluctant I was to go in the first place; Rachel will be happy about that at least."

Alexis blinked. "Rachel?"

Rad nodded. "She volunteered for it, probably already there." he said, and Alexis' face went an interesting shade of pink. "You thinking of going?"

"Nope!" Carlos said instead. "If Ray's not at the base, then that means Grindor and I can talk to that new Autobot and the girl without Ray being our babysitter!"

Alexis scowled, and for a moment she appeared torn. Slowly, another scowl settled onto her face. "No, Carlos-you will not bug them because I'm going to the base too."

Carlos crossed his arms. "You don't even like going there, this is just to get on my nerves isn't it?"

Alexis huffed. "I have better things to do than waste my time annoying you-this is so you don't overwhelm either of them with your questions."

Rad shook his head, and gave a quick goodbye before wheeling High Wire to the sidewalk. He couldn't believe his friends, but he'd been thinking about the new bot since he'd saved him-well, since his mini-con saved him would be more accurate. The blond frowned-how much had Sideways seen? Did he see anything? He hadn't asked about the staff, nor did he press about Rad's flimsy excuse. His mini-con was pretty interesting too; though it was actually rather quiet since it hadn't said anything at all.

"What do you think of Sideways and his mini-con, High Wire?" Rad asked.

"I don't like them." High Wire said, his tone so cold that Rad almost fell off the bike.

"What? Why?"

"I know they saved you, but-but it's hard to explain." High Wire said in frustration. "Maybe it's nothing, but I've never met a mini-con like that before. He's too tall for one, and the fact he's so quiet is...unsettling."

"Okay, so maybe they're both a bit weird, what with the mini-con being unexpected, and Sideways a bit too oblivious to traffic laws if the fact he almost ran Ray down twice is any indication," Rad said, "but come on-let's not immediately start being suspicious of them. The worst that can be said is they're both kinda rude."

"I...I suppose Ray just rubbed off on me." High Wire admitted sheepishly. "She was always paranoid about Smokescreen until they began working things out."

Rad smiled. "There ya go."

"It might also have been jealousy talking-I thought you were starting to like Sideways more than me since you haven't stopped talking about him at the Autobot base." High Wire replied.

Rad blushed. "What-that's not it at all. I only did that to convince Ray, Alexis and Carlos he wasn't so bad."

Really, why would High Wire think that?


Sideways didn't say much-that wasn't to say he didn't talk, but the mech spent most of his time observing them. It was strange, but unlike with Smokescreen, they didn't know him like they knew the orange mech. Maybe that was why Hot Shot went looking for the newcomer, but wondered how to start a conversation.

And when he found the purple mech standing outside the base, Hot Shot decided to just blurt out the first thing that came to mind. "So you were a drifter, but why'd you decide to come to Earth?" Hot Shot winced; wow, that was bad.

Sideways didn't have much of a face, and his voice was just as unreadable. "Seemed like an interesting place to be. Surprised to find the war had come here, but you all seem to be doing a good job of holding the 'Cons back."

Hot Shot grinned and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, we're kind of awesome like that." he clenched his fist proudly. "And now that we got the Star Saber, we'll keep on kicking Decepticon aft!" he winced as his knee ached-right, still needed to take it easy.

The purple mech noticed too, and his tone turned dry. "You gotta save your strength for them than looking for some loner."

Hot Shot's face plate warmed, and he scratched his cheek. "Well, you're never gonna get to know us if you don't interact with us." he paused as he realized how deep that was for him, and he smiled to himself.

Sideways peered at him, optics narrowed slightly. "Yeah, I guess that's true." he said quietly.

Hot Shot grinned. "So what's the story with your mini-con? Don't think I've seen one like him."

"Just found him, like you found yours, same old story," Sideways said vaguely, and abruptly asked, "What's with that pink card? I've seen you looking at it, but you get real edgy over it."

Hot Shot shifted on his good leg uncomfortably. "You saw it?" he could have sworn he'd only looked at when no one was around. Sideways was quieter than he thought to sneak around so easily. "Well, it's kind of a...complicated issue." He'd only told the basics of what happened to Smokescreen, but even he just viewed it as an amusing story than the truth.

"Complicated?"

"Let's just say...I saw something no one else believes me about." Hot Shot muttered. "It had to be a Wisp, I just know it."

"Wisp?" Sideways repeated. He straightened up and crossed his arms. "Ah, tricky beings aren't they? Can't trust anything they say. You'd be better off sleeping next to a Decepticon and believing they won't shoot you in the spark the moment you close your optics."

Hot Shot blinked, surprise crossing his face as his jaw dropped. He...someone actually knew what he was talking about? "So...if I told you I fought a dragon and it turned into a card you'd believe me?"

"Yes," Sideways nodded, his optics hard, "Wisps are nasty creatures. It doesn't surprise me at all it would be so deceitful."

Hot Shot's spark pulsed, thudding against his chest plate. Something between relief and elation overcame him, and he lunged forward. His arms wrapped around the purple mech, and due to the slight few inches he had on the mech, the yellow bot lifted the other off his pedes. Sideways had gone still, and Hot Shot's faceplate flushed. "I know you've only been here for few days, but-but it just means so much to be believed." he cleared his vocalizer and set Sideways down. "Thank you."

The purple mech slowly relaxed, and he just as slowly reached up to grip Hot Shot's shoulder. "Glad I could help then."

Hot Shot beamed at him, but the sound of honking drew his attention and he looked down to find Alexis and Carlos riding up the trail on Sureshock and Grindor. "Hey, kids."

"Hi/Hey." Alexis and Carlos called back.

Sideways tilted his head. "Where's that other kid, Rad? The one I saved-how's he doing?"

"Ah, well, he's fine." Alexis answered. "He's at a fair with Rachel, his cousin."

Carlos hopped off Grindor and the mini-con transformed. "So, what are you two doing out here? I didn't think giant robots found caves stuffy."

"If we did then we'd have found a base somewhere else." Hot Shot replied dryly, but winced. He was really glad Smokescreen hadn't heard him say that. "So why aren't you two at this fair? It sounds fun-for, you know, humans."

Carlos huffed and crossed his arms. "Little kids maybe, but you bots are way cooler than a fair!"

Alexis rubbed her brow, and let out a frustrated groan as she chased after Carlos, who'd taken off for the inside. "Hey, wait up!" Sureshock and Grindor beeped as they followed after the two.

"That was...odd. Yesterday they were leery of me, and now they barely stammer." Sideways noted.

Hot Shot shrugged. "They kinda went through something similar with Smokescreen-although you had a far better introduction." he said and grinned, gratitude in his optics. "You saved Rad; after Smokescreen I'd like to think he's one of my closer friends-they both gave me a pep talk, so does that count?" he mused to himself.

Sideways though had looked at him once he mentioned Rad. "He wasn't scared of me," he said quietly, as though it was to himself more than for Hot Shot's benefit. "He...sort of reminds me of someone, but then again-none of you bots are scared of me either."

Hot Shot snorted. "Got no reason to be. You're not exactly social but neither is Red." he explained nonchalantly. "Rad though really seems to like you, but that just might be his own gratitude talking."

"I see." Sideways said slowly. "You're more insightful than Red Alert seems to think."

"Thanks-hey!"


Rad walked through the carnival, people milling around him as though this wasn't actually a make-up day for Sunday. It was nice. Rad smiled, and High Wire felt curious as he trembled minutely. It was difficult to stay transformed, and Rad made sure to walk close enough to the booths so his mini-con friend could see what they were about.

High Wire beeped softly every now and again, but piped down completely when they walked by a human.

Rad grinned when he saw Rachel, and hurried to pull High Wire's bike form with him towards her. "Ray!"

The blonde looked behind her. She smiled back, but furrowed her brow when she saw High Wire. "He hasn't transformed, has he?"

"Nope, he's being good about it too." Rad said.

"Difficult, but true." High Wire said morosely.

Rachel shook her head, and put her hands on her hips as she looked around. "Can you believe it? Like Sunday's disaster never happened."

Rad winced, but Rachel didn't notice. "Yeah," he said quietly, "so how have thing's been going? A lot of people show up?"

"Some, I think people are in shock over that the fair's still going on today." Rachel said sadly. "I wish something could spice things up, get more people interested, you know?"

Rad nodded. "I hope it'll happen too, it would be nice, right?"

Rachel chuckled softly. "Right." she gestured to the booths. "Go on, have fun-" she stopped as a pink petal landed on her palm. She and Rad blinked down at it, but turned their gazes to the sky as more blew over the fair. "Well, looks like the sponsors were thinking ahead. This is beautiful." she said, her eyes soft.

Rad nodded, but a churning started up in his gut. Perhaps it was just the paranoia of Shadow's disaster, but he kept an eye out in case. "I'll get going." he paused, and sighed deeply with a faint smile. "And it is nice."

"Yeah." High Wire added, but once they were out of Rachel's earshot, added, "Anything magical about it though?"

"Nothing so far," Rad said, "but I'm keeping my senses-or whatever this detection is-open."


Alexis wasn't exactly comfortable being around the Autobots fully, especially with how the Decepticons got into the base, but she wasn't going to just drop them. Her friends and Rachel still wanted to be around them. She blushed thinking of the blonde, and smiled to herself.

The smile faded when she continued with her original thoughts. Optimus assured them that Red Alert and the hologram girl-who really needed a name-were doing their best to test and scramble their location, hiding the Autobot base behind layers of coding to mislead anyone-Decepticon and even human.

That wasn't a comfort, but it alleviated at least a little bit of her nerves. Kelly would be at home here though; she was more confident and loved this mecha stuff. She sighed quietly, trying not to draw attention to herself. Sureshock still noticed, but didn't say anything.

Kelly was well-adjusted, given her father had to go back to Hong Kong to still be the family head, leaving every summer since her parents moved to Lincoln. It was why Alexis tried to be more friendly with Kelly; they lived in the same town, while their other cousins all still lived in China. Alexis didn't understand exactly what the family clan was about, but her mother would tell her that it was magical. Alexis rolled her eyes every time-magic, right.

"What? You mean you haven't gone out yet?" Carlos' voice broke Alexis out of her thoughts, and he was staring incredulously up at Sideways, who shrugged nonchalantly.

"Don't need to, saw everything in the town I had too." he replied flatly.

Hot Shot looked just as scandalized. "This place is so cool though! There's all kinds of buildings, for almost everything. I can't go there, but the television lets me see it!"

"I still can't believe something you found it in the trash works." Red Alert muttered.

Hot Shot glared at him, but Optimus put his hand on the yellow bot's shoulder. "Actually, that's not a bad idea. We could all use some down time." he said calmly. "Sideways and Smokescreen haven't seen the fascinating place we dwell outside of." he glanced down at Alexis and Carlos. "Would you care to help us?"

Carlos slumped, but for once Alexis was willing to spend time with them. "I would be glad too." she said.

The brunet crossed his arms, but then smiled slyly. "Alexis can show you the town, but what about the mini-cons? Can I give them my own tour?"

"That is quite considerate, Carlos." Optimus said. He glanced at the hologram girl. "Please asks the mini-cons if they would be interested in seeing the town."

The green-haired girl nodded, and disappeared. A few moments later, she reappeared, her expression downcast. "Longarm, Sparkplug, and Jolt are on their way here. Runway, Jetstorm and Sonar," she looked away, "they ran into the tunnels the moment I appeared-they will not be going."

"Don't worry, they can't stay mad at you forever." Carlos said reassuringly, but Alexis doubted it. They were thousands of years old, their memories were long and being used as a weapon was probably just like yesterday for the Star Saber mini-cons.

The hologram girl likely knew it too, as she didn't say anything in reply to it. "I'll continue monitoring the systems." she said instead, and fritzed out of sight.

Grindor warbled, and patted Carlos on the back as his shoulders slumped. Carlos had such an obvious crush on the green-haired girl, that Alexis was surprised Rad hadn't noticed. Then again, Rachel was just as romantically oblivious, which frustrated Alexis a lot.

The three aforementioned mini-cons walked in, and Sureshock looked at Alexis, her voice deadpan. "I'm going with them, you're sad and boring-even more than usual."

Alexis' cheeks puffed as Sureshock walked away and followed Carlos and the rest of the mini-cons outside. She crossed her arms. 'I'm not boring, I'm driven!'

"Alexis? Are you okay? Your face is turning red."

The brunette stiffened as Hot Shot's words registered, and she coughed into her hand. "Yes, I'm okay. Sureshock is only...teasing me."

Hot Shot nodded in sympathy. "Jolt's the same way."

"Hey, Sideways," Smokescreen looked at his fellow newcomer curiously, "doesn't your mini-con want to go with them?"

The purple and yellow bot tilted his head, his lack of face making it harder to tell his mood. "No, Mirror is more interested in seeing the town."

"Given your mini-con has his own suit to appear like a biker, I'm actually kind of jealous we can't do that too." Hot Shot said, optics narrowed.

"Don't stress yourself with the schematics of it." Red Alert said dryly.

Hot Shot huffed, and Alexis jerked back when he threw an arm around the medic's shoulder. "After this tour, we have to work on your sense of humor. Maybe spend a few hours with Smokescreen and I, and we'll get you a solid personality yet."

Red Alert looked back at Optimus, who only shook his head. The medic let out a quiet huff, and Optimus sighed as well. Alexis blinked as she looked between them, and found it oddly reminescent of her parents.

'Are they...together?' Could robots be romantically involved with each other? Alexis knew from Hot Shot alone that they had emotions, but it never crossed her mind they could love one another. 'I...I think I have to pay attention more.' She blinked when Optimus walked up beside her.

"Where would you recommend we start first?"

Alexis slowly beamed. "The most important place in town, the school of course!"

She blushed; here she almost said 'Rachel's apartment'. That would have been embarrassing.


Rad hadn't seen Billy, which was rather disappointing because he wanted a rematch without a card interfering. He ended up drifting around, gazing at the tech displayed and the booths he hadn't tried on Sunday. It made him blush to realize he'd forgotten to ask Rachel for money, and as he was currently searching for her, he saw people wearing the same red vests as Rachel sweeping away petals that had began to cover the ground.

Rad blinked. 'Well, that's a bit overkill.' How many petals did the supervisors have on hand?

"Oh wow, look at the robots!"

The blond froze, and he felt High Wire's surprise and fear just as sharply. Rad looked over his shoulder, and a little boy was pointing at a group of very familiar robots being led by an equally familiar boy. "This can't be happening." he muttered and hurried to roll High Wire over to Carlos, where upon he grabbed the brunet's shoulder. "What are they doing here?" he hissed. "No one can know about them."

"Chill, Rad." Carlos shook his arm off. "Don't get all Alexis on me. Besides, it's cool; Optimus let me take the minis out while Alexis is showing him and the other Autobots around town."

That explanation didn't really answer the question. "Okay, but why did you bring them here specifically-there are people everywhere!"

"Yeah, but it's a science fair, I just say they're part of the show and it's all good." Carlos said proudly.

"It's true, someone asked and they bought it." Longarm sounded amazed by this, and the other mini-cons felt the same.

"Well..." Rad was still uneasy; he'd been so paranoid about the Sakura Cards he hadn't had time to be paranoid about the Autobots or mini-cons being discovered. Which was quite stupid of him-not to mention inherently hypocritcal. 'Here I want the minis to be kept a secret, but I want to blab about magic. The fact these mini-cons haven't spilled the beans about me yet proved they were trustworthy-is that the difference between the two situations?'

Rad didn't really know, and High Wire jerked out of his grasp. He slid into the group, and transformed behind the blockade and popped up. "Hey, little warning next time?"

High Wire rubbed his neck sheepishly, but then a determined resolve emitted from him. "Today our secret is safe-I know just the place we can explore! To the fishing booth, follow me!"

Rad slapped his forehead. "I can't believe he's thousands of years old."

Carlos raised a brow, and Rad relayed what the blue mini-con said. A grin stretched across his lips. "Oh man, I gotta see this!"

The blond groaned, and resisted the urge to slap his forehead again. "Unbelievable." he muttered. He made a move to follow, but stopped as petals fell harder from above him. Rad let one drop in his palm, and he stiffened. A large surge of happiness flowed through him, a strong flowery aroma filling his nose, and he swayed slightly. 'Why...why I feel like dancing? Is there a card that can do that?'

The thought snapped him out of it, and he shook his head. Right, Sakura Card, time to get his head in the game. Rad glanced around, and gripped his key as he hurried behind a booth.

"Release!"


Alexis was tentative to name it, but she could admit playing tour guide was...fun. She'd shown the Autobots the school, the bed and breakfast, Ms. Jay's bakery, and the hospital. "And that's where Rad and Rachel live." She'd waited until they got to the appropriate spot before bringing them to the apartment, just so they wouldn't think she was strange.

"Hmm, fascinating, they own the building?" Optimus questioned.

Alexis flushed. "Um, no, they live in a two bedroom apartment."

"You know, kinda curious that it's just them," Sideways said casually, while Mirror looked up at the apartment, "don't they have other relatives?"

"Uh, yeah, but the situation's...Rad doesn't like to talk about it." Alexis coughed into her hand. "You'll have to ask him. Rachel's a great guardian though. She takes our safety very seriously."

"Given she held a grudge against me, she's real intense about it too." Smokescreen said.

"Hey, she let up eventually, you just had to save Rad." Hot Shot teased the orange bot.

"Rad seems to be her blind spot, that kind of devotion can be dangerous." Sideways drawled.

Alexis stiffened. She didn't know if it was the undercurrent of deprecation in his voice or just the fact he singled out Rad specifically, but she felt...uneasy. Rad spent the better part of Sunday trying to vouch for him, rallying hard to convince her and Carlos that Sideways wasn't bad. It never did diminish how little he actually seemed to care he almost killed Rachel-how little he actually seemed to think of her. 'Maybe I'm just getting worked up over nothing. Rachel's my weakness after all.'

"Alexis?" Optimus' voice broke her out of her thoughts, and she realized they were on the move again. "Are you well?"

"Hmm? Ah, yes, I'm fine." The brunette said. "Where were we? Oh yes, over there's the electronic store and-stop."

Optimus halted, and Alexis' eyes widened. "Alexis, what's the matter?"

"That...that's footage from the fair." she tapped the window and Optimus rolled it down, allowing her to lean out and hear the reporter, who was holding a clipboard over her head as a snowstorm of pink petals fell to the ground with people trying to sweep them away.

"As you can see behind me, volunteers are becoming overwhelmed by this strange occurrence. No word if this is an event gone wrong or a strange weather phenomenon." The woman said, the petals now up to her waist. "We'll continue to stream live, this is Kelly Bomgartner from Channel 4 Eyewitness Weather-ek!" she jumped when a very familiar orange mini-con brushed past the woman and swept the petals up, and moved on just as promptly.

"Uh, we all saw Sureshock, right?" Hot Shot asked.

"Yes." Red Alert said. "Alexis, is this storm normal weather?"

"No, not at all." Alexis said, furrowing her brow. "Wait, Sureshock was there...Carlos took the mini-cons to the fair! Rachel and and Rad are there too!"

Optimus' tone became all business. "Alexis, strap yourself in. Mechs, we must hurry to the fairground."

"Optimus, what about being seen?" Smokescreen asked.

"If this is indeed a dangerous situation we cannot allow the humans to be harmed." Optimus said firmly.

"Yes, sir." The orange bot replied.

Alexis bit her lip as they drove to the fair, clenching her fists. Was everyone okay? Sureshock was helping out, but how could Carlos have thought taking them there was a good idea? She sighed in frustration, and once they arrived she was allowed to be let out. The petals continued to fall, and she saw how some booths were overrun completely. "Stay here and I'll go look for Rachel."

"What the pit is that?!" Hot Shot's sudden shout startled her, and she whirled around but saw nothing.

A blue powder fell on the ground, and Alexis's eyes drooped as she collapsed to her knees. She collapsed to the ground, but her gaze caught the sky, and yet she could see nothing up in the air.

And then her eyes closed completely as she fell asleep.


Rad looked wildly from side to side, his eyes peeled but he couldn't sense getting any closer to the source of the petals. Maybe he was too worked up, but he couldn't bring himself to calm down. This was turning into a storm, and everywhere he looked booths were getting flooded and people were running under the emergency tent.

'Where, where, where-' Rad's mantra stopped as he finally let himself get another thought in. 'I can't do this with worrying about everyone.' he reached into his pocket, and ducked around another booth. He tossed a card into the air, and the circle appeared under him as the card stayed in mid-air. "Let's have everyone take a nap, Sleep!"

The spirit flew out of the card, wand at the ready as he saw her float along the sky, blue powder falling in her wake. Rad sighed in relief, but stiffened when just as he heard vehicles pulling in, he saw Optimus' trailer. He paled when Alexis got out of the cabin.

"What the pit is that?!" Rad's eyes widened at Hot Shot's shout. Alexis staggered as Sleep's powder fell over her, and she drifted off to sleep.

The Autobots, who were clearly covered in it as well, did not. Sleep looked confused, and tried to sprinkle more powder on them, but let out a silent shriek when they transformed. She flew off rapidly, and Rad's hand dug painfully tight into the wooden pillar of the booth. He caught Sleep's card when she flew in beside him, and he pocketed her.

This was bad.

"Red Alert, is Alexis still alive?" Optimus questioned.

The medic leaned down, and scanned her. "Vitals are steady, she's merely resting." his voice became strained. "I can't explain it though, how could this powder cause all these humans to just...drop?"

"This...this is like when I was fighting the dragon!" Hot Shot shouted, looking at each bot desperately. "You have to believe I wasn't making up that something weird is going on!"

No one said anything, and Rad's stomach dropped. They weren't saying he was wrong either.

"Sir, may I go off on my own? It would help to have recon." Sideways said, his tone even. Rad blinked, and furrowed his brow as he noticed that the petals falling had all turned yellow and red.

Optimus glanced over the fairground, and nodded. "Very well." Sideways saluted and transformed before taking off. "We should also look for the cause of this, but be careful. We don't know what's responsible."

Rad thought he heard Hot Shot mutter "Wisp" but couldn't be sure. His attention was instead turned to the mini-cons who hurried up to him. They were all incredibly anxious.

"I know, this isn't good." The blond said. "We should follow them though, just stay out of sight."

They warbled in agreement, and the group followed after the Autobots.


Though he knew the humans were alive...it was still freaky just seeing them all lying there, unmoving. A shiver went up Hot Shot's spinal strut. What was that thing? It was small and blue, but he hadn't gotten a good look at it. Was it the Wisp? Did it come back to screw with his head again?

At least this time the other Autobots finally weren't just humoring him. They'd all seen that blue thing, it left behind a tangible powder. Even Red Alert couldn't explain it!

Now there was just the cause of the petal storm to find, and he swatted away the petals which had turned from pink to yellow and red not long after they'd arrived. Optimus was being stoic as usual, with Red Alert following closely beside him, while Hot Shot and Smokescreen were looking around the area.

The yellow mech didn't know where Sideways went off too, but at least he was taking this seriously.

A bright glow from the center of the fair caught his attention, and Hot Shot's optics zoomed in on the ball of light, where inside twirling around in place was what appeared to be a young woman. "S-sir, over there!" he said, bring not only Optimus' attention to the woman, but the others as well.

The young woman had pale, borderline off-white skin that faintly glowed, with pink hair and two large corkscrew curls on the sides of her head. A light pink flower pattern was on her forehead and her chest. She wore a pink dress that had a large poofy hoop skirt, and on her outstretched arms her wrists had flower bracelets on them with similar flowers dangling from her ears.

She didn't notice them, as her eyes were shut and she was flicking her hands to and fro, red and yellow flowers pouring from her palms that blew in the wind. She twirled, her feet gliding on the ground and a wide smile was on her lips.

Hot Shot stared, unable to understand the thrumming that started in his spark, or why his tank churned. Was this vindication or something else? He wasn't sure, but what he was certain of was how much prettier this strange creature was than the dragon.

And not trying to kill him, but he digressed.

"What...what is that?" Smokescreen's incredulous voice snapped Hot Shot out of his daze, but not before being taken in by how when the young woman's eyes opened, her deep green orbs struck him silent.

Maybe not vindication, but something definitely fluttered in his spark. What was going on?

The woman's gaze slid over the group in confusion, but when her eyes landed on Hot Shot, a rosy pink hue colored her pale cheeks and a shy smile tugged at her lips. She did a final spin, and floated along the ground towards them, gracefully sidstepping any booth in her path. Amazingly, the closer she got, flowers swirled around her and in one slow movement, she grew from human-sized to just around Hot Shot's height.

"This-how is this possible?" Red Alert questioned, as though he was trying to wrap his processor around this defiance of physics.

Hot Shot was too stunned to soak in proving once and for all that something weird was going on, and his spark nearly broke out of its casing when the woman reached forward and tugged him along with her. She was astonishingly strong, as the yellow mech needed to scramble to keep from falling.

Hot Shot grew bemused when the woman wrapped one arm around his neck, and he began to fall into a dance with her. Maybe this was joy, as he hadn't felt this great since Wheeljack had been alive. "This is nice but...what are you? You're not some hallucination we're all having are you?"

The woman only smiled.


Rad stared incredulously, and his fingers were sloppy in dialing home, but unable to look away from watching Hot Shot and the Sakura Card dancing. Not even the other Autobots knew how to react, and the blond was glad he'd had the foresight to use Sleep on the normal people.

"What is it, Rad?"

"Kero, has-has something weird ever happened with the cards before?" Rad asked. "Like, I don't know, being strange around someone?"

"Yes." Kero answered flatly. "Why, what's going on?"

"Well, everything was going fine at the fair, but then all these pink petals began falling, and they just turned red and yellow!" Rad exclaimed. "What card can do that?"

"Tell me, is it a woman wearing a pink dress, with corkscrew curls?"

"Yeah."

"Her name's Flower," Kero sounded bored, "she's a gentle spirit. Just get her away from the fair and whoever she's got a crush on. I don't want another Mirror thing happening."

Rad blinked at the mention-there was a Mirror card? But aside from that, the blond was uneasy to explain himself. "That's gonna be kind of hard, since she looks pretty attached to Hot Shot."

"WHAT?!" Kero shouted and Rad jerked away from his phone, but Kero's loud voice still rang loudly through. "She's with that tin can? This is bad, this is real freaking bad! Get her away from him now before our secret's blown!"

'Our?' Rad thought indignantly, but sighed deeply. "That's not going to be easy, but I'll give it my best shot." he ended the call, and looked back at High Wire and the other mini-cons. "You'd all better get out of here, but don't you worry, everything will be alright."

"You'd better keep this promise." High Wire said morosely. He pulled Rad in for a hug before he led his fellow mini-cons away.

Rad bit his lip, and narrowed his eyes. Now, how to go about this. His eyes widened when Optimus, seemingly tired of his soldier being twirled around, reached in when Flower turned and pulled Hot Shot out of her grasp.

Hot Shot dreamily shook his head. "Huh? What happened?"

"You've been vindicated, but you need to get that head back on your shoulders, mech." Optimus said.

Rad's stomach dropped as Flower's expression began to crumble. Her eyes prickled with tears and she held her chest. She gritted her teeth, shoulders shaking. The blond tensed as she narrowed her eyes, and the ground shook before several large flowers sprang out, curling and unfolding to reveal purple and red petals and a yellow center.

One flower spit out a thorn, and Rad's eyes widened as it grazed Optimus' arm, leaving a trail of acid that seared the red metal, and the ground the thorn hit fizzled the grass. Rad's jaw dropped, and the Autobots looked just as shocked.

"Mechs, fall back!" Optimus ordered. "We must lead her away from the humans!"

Rad clenched his fists. 'Gentle spirit my butt!'

Now he had an angry card to deal with, this was just great.


"What the frag, what the frag!" Smokescreen chanted, and Hot Shot couldn't blame him for being shocked. He'd felt the same with seeing the dragon.

"Alright, you've been proven right," Red Alert said tersely, "what did you do with the dragon?"

Hot Shot's knee throbbed, and he would have made some snarky remark before. That is until he saw how the woman hurt Optimus. Not cool. "I just jumped on it and fought it. Don't know what happened-maybe some kind of timer ran out and it turned back into a card."

Optimus looked down at the cut along his shoulder. It wasn't spreading, but Hot Shot didn't doubt it hurt like scrap. Their leader looked around at the deserted area they'd fallen back too, away enough from the fair and the trees gave them some cover. "Autobots, split up and draw it's attention. The more we tire it, the better chance we'll have to defeat it."

Hot Shot grimaced, and nodded. "Right!" his agreement was echoed, and he broke left while the others scattered. He saw the woman gliding along the ground, those bizarre flowers flowing along on spidery vine legs. He aimed his blaster when she saw him, but as he looked at her hopeful face, the yellow mech gritted his denta and let his arm drop.

'Scrap, I can't do it.'

A red laser shot one of the plants, where it singed and faltered before repairing itself. The woman looked up, a frown on her face. Smokescreen glanced at Hot Shot. "I got your back!"

Hot Shot almost smiled, but then he saw the other flower ready to shoot. "Watch out!" he yelled, and Smokescreen jumped out of the way as a thorn pierced the tree where he'd been standing. "Come on, let's keep going!" he shoved the orange mech to get him moving, and they ran further into the forest.

When he felt himself freeze up, his body unable to move, his spark dropped. What was happening now?


Rad looked over his cards, pacing back and forth as he tried to formulate a plan. One wrong step and the Autobots would see him using magic. That would take more time to deal with than just Flower. 'I can't Wood to restrain them, they could break out of it, Sleep doesn't work and I don't exactly want to use Sweet to stick them to the ground. How can I make sure they don't move?' His eyes roved over Shadow, and he sighed heavily.

Worth a shot. Rad tossed Shadow into the air, and he pointed his wand at him. "Make sure the Autobots can't move, Shadow!" The card's form slithered along the ground, breaking into five parts, with four going into the forest and the other through the fair.

Rad gulped when he thought of those alien flowers and their acid stingers, but his fingers gripped his wand tightly and he saw Flower herself looking around the edge of the forest. "Hey!"

Flower looked up, and she tensed, the flowers at her side writhing angrily. Her brows furrowed, but slowly relaxed and tilted her head.

Rad wasn't instantly attacked, so he gestured to the area. "Did you do this?" She nodded. "Why?" When she pointed at him, Rad's face paled. "Because of me? Wh-what did I do?"

She stared into his eyes, and Rad felt the surge of power like with what happned between him, Dash and Glow. Rad tentatively let her in, and he felt an overwhelming desire to please, of hoping to be good enough. Flower had seen how sad he and Rachel were about the fair needed a...flair, and wanted to help, to make people happy and have fun.

Rad sagged in on himself as she retreated, and breathed in slowly. "So that's why." he smiled, hoping it was disarming. "And you got a crush on Hot Shot just from seeing him?"

Flower's cheeks turned pink, and she looked shyly down at the ground.

Rad slowly approached her, and made sure his movements were non-aggressive. "That's kind of cute." he said, and Flower tilted her head. "But I'm sure you know you can't just get mad when something you don't want to happens." Her cheeks puffed out and she looked away. "Look at it from Optimus' perspective; you were a strange entity that dragged his soldier off, he didn't know whether you would hurt him or not."

Flower jerked back, expression offended. Her shoulders sagged, and she frowned.

Rad knew he needed to be extra careful now. "I can't promise you'll see him soon, but you will meet Hot Shot again. Please," he held out his hand nervously, "and I know I'm not much, but I'll dance with you."

Flower stared down at him, and slowly she shrank until she was around Rachel's height. She grabbed his hand, and smiled gently, sadly. She didn't pull him in, and Rad froze when she began to glow and her whole form shrank to the point he was holding, revealing a pink card with Flower smiling serenly on the face, eyes closed.

Rad blinked. 'The...cards can seal themselves?' he thought in disbelief. He furrowed his brow when Shadow returned to him, and his eyes widened. 'Oh no, the Autobots are gonna be coming out soon.' he pocketed both cards and shrank his wand as he hurried to a stall. Rad laid on the ground, and closed his eyes as he heard the sound of someone approaching. He tried not to give himself away when his shoulder was shaken. "Hmm? Huh?" he 'sleepily' opened his eyes, and saw Mirror kneeling beside him, Sideways' motorcycle no where in sight.

The mini-con didn't say anything, and Rad 'groggily' got up.

"Where's Sideways? I thought you two were attached or something?" Rad asked.

Mirror stared at him, visor reflecting the blond's confused expression, and the mini-con pointed over to a motorbike circling around the fairground before it came to stop beside them.

"Ah, you're alright." The bot said. "I couldn't go through the center easily, so I sent Mirror to check on you. You're not hurt are you?"

"Yeah," Rad answered, and knew he needed to play along with being 'asleep,' "but the last thing I remember is this weird blue powder falling from the sky and then it was lights out. Do you know what happened?"

Sideways was silent for a moment. "Something...odd." he said eventually.

"Really?" Rad said in wonder, and hoped it was convincing. He noticed the other Autobots come out from the forest, and smiled. "Hey-what happened to your shoulder?!" he didn't have to fake the concern at least as he looked at Optimus.

The Autobot leader touched the seared edges of the cut. "I will be fine, what about you?"

"Oh, I'm alright. I was just sleeping." Rad pretended to notice everyone else was still asleep like it was the first time. "This is so strange."

"It's been that kind of day." Smokescreen agreed. Red Alert nodded, but didn't say anything.

Hot Shot was frowning, and Rad guessed it was about Flower. "Glad to see you're okay, Rad."

The blond beamed at him. "Of course I am." he made a 'shooing' motion with his hands. "Though wouldn't want your secret blown."

"Yes, but we still need to be vigilant-that strange woman may have left, but she could reappear." Optimus said. "Please be safe, Rad."

The blond rubbed his neck. "You got it!" he grinned, and waited until the Autobots were out of sight before the smile slipped into a frown, and he called home. "Kero, we have a problem. The Autobots are going to be on the look-out for Flower, and they could find more Sakura Cards. This secrecy needs to end-we trust the mini-cons, what's so different about the Autobots?"

"High Wire is a blabber mouth, that's what! He told those other little robots when he shouldn't have!" Kero retorted fiercely.

Rad sighed heavily. "Look, we can either tell them and work with them, or we can be found out and I lose their trust."

"They're not gonna trust you anyway." Kero said grumpily.

Rad rubbed his brow. It was talking to a brick wall. "I trust them, they're my friends. And these cards are dangerous-they can help me with subduing them. And it's not like you're exactly forthcoming; you didn't even mention the cards could reseal themselves."

Kero was silent for a long time. "One, you can tell one of those tin cans. We'll...see how it goes from there."

It wasn't much, but Rad admitted it was better than nothing. And he knew just the bot to tell. "We tell Hot Shot, he's been the most affected. I hate lying to him, thinking that he's going crazy because of us."

"Fine." Kero bit it out sullenly, and ended the call.

Rad ran a hand through his hair, and put his phone away. At least they were getting somewhere now.


A/N:

Just a short thing, but Mirror the mini-con and Mirror the card are two completely different things. I just wanted to say this because Sideways' mini-con was never named in the show, and I didn't want things to be confusing.