Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 6

"Mika!" Saka cried rushing to his fallen wife. 'Why did they not change their names more?' Rad thought. There was only one letter different in Mrs. Saka's first name.

"Mom!" Yama yelled. He looked back toward Carlos and Rad. "Go get –" He stopped and looked at Rad strangely.

"Carlos, go get a glass of water" Rad told Carlos. Carlos ran to the house to comply. "Is your mother diabetic?" Rad asked. Yama shook his head. "Tell your father to get her inside. The heat probably got to her," Rad said. Yama nodded and helped his father get his mother inside.


"So she just got over heated, right?" Carlos asked sitting on the back deck with his father, Saka, Rad and Yama.

"Yeah" Miyamory/Saka said lighting a cigarette.

Rad stared at the cigarette as he flashed back to years ago.

"How did you get those scars Daddy?" Four-year-old Rad asked. He and his father were getting ready to go out to dinner with his Mom and the twins. Actually his father was getting ready, Rad was lying on his parents bed watching Koji get ready.

"They're burns from when I got to close to a fire" Koji told him.

Rad didn't understand how a fire had caused perfect circles all over his father's torso and upper arms.

"How-"

"Are you two ready?" T-Ai asked, walking in with the twins.

It had taken a while but Rad had finally found out that they were cigarette burns. His father had been used as Saka'spersonal ashtray.

"Are you alright Rad?" Carlos asked. Rad realized he'd been staring holes in Saka's cigarette, which had almost burned down to the filter.

"Yeah, just tired. It's been a long day," Rad said. He needed to stop that. He was letting his guard down to much. Saka was going to figure him out if he kept going like this.


After dinner Mrs. Lopez had insisted that Rad go to bed early since he kept spacing out during dinner. Then she enlisted Yama and Carlos to clean the table and kitchen while she and the other adults went to the back deck to have a beer and talk (AN: that's what the adults in my family do after pigging out on crabs and shrimp during the summer). Yama didn't complain; this would give him a chance to talk to Carlos about the new kid.

"Something ain't right about that guy," Yama said.

"You mean Rad? What's wrong with him?" Carlos asked.

"Did you see him when my Mom passed out. He wasn't worried. He looked like he was thinking about something," Yama said.

"Yeah, about what to do while the rest of us were freaking out. He was just keeping a calm head under pressure. Nothing wrong with that" Carlos said.

"Mom wasn't over heated Carlos. She was fine until she saw him. I think she recognized him," Yama said.

"How? Your parents have never been to Baltimore" Carlos pointed out.

"I don't know. But the feeling I got from all of them when they were in the same room with each other… it's just weird" Yama sighed.

"I think you're just jealous" Carlos smiled.

"Huh?"

"Alexis has a thing for Rad and you're feeling the competition" Carlos smirked.

Yama blushed. He had a crush on Alexis but he'd never really done anything about it because Alexis was three years younger than him. Not only would it be uncool for him to date her it would be cradle robbing. But that didn't mean he was just going to layback and let some creepy, possibly insane, kid come in and take her. She'd grow up one day and then she'd be his.


Hot Shot knew Sideswipe was up to something before Sideswipe even left on his road trip with Rad and Ben. He was certain Sideswipe was up to something when he called asking for a favor.

He had to admit he felt a connection to the younger Bot starting when he found Sideswipe nearly dead next to his twin's lifeless body in some alleyway in one of Cybertron's less reputable cities. Sideswipe has made an unbelievable recovery considering the circumstances. Sideswipe took the loss of his brother really hard.

Apparently some rogue Autobots that had run in the same gang as Sideswipe and his brother had turned on them and tried to take Sideswipe to sell as a slave. Sideswipe's brother hadn't taken that to well and went after them. He'd caught up to them in the alleyway and fought them. Sideswipe's brother was fatally injured in the battle along with three of the Bots who tried to take him. The leader of the group had escaped with his life… for a while.

After Sideswipe had recovered he'd made friends with nine-year-old Rad and become close to Hot Shot, so close that Hot Shot had began to consider Sideswipe the younger brother he'd never had. Sideswipe had taken longer to be able think of Hot Shot as a brother since a first he felt like he was just trying to find a replacement for his lost twin.

When the rogue Bot, Spinner, had showed up in town Sideswipe went after him for revenge. Lucky for all parties involved- except maybe Spinner- Sideswipe had told Rad where he was going and Rad, possessing wisdom beyond his years in Hot Shot's opinion, realized Sideswipe was in over his head and went straight to Hot Shot. Thus leading Hot Shot to run off and save Sideswipe yet again from a fate worse than death. Sideswipe and Rad both probably believed that Spinner had planned on killing Sideswipe that night. Hot Shot thought that to for a while too, at least until they intercepted a transmission from the reforming Deceptacon army which was lead by Rollbar of all people. Apparently Sideswipe was in high demand among the Deceptacons because of who his creator was and the rogue group had been bounty hunters. They'd decided on Sideswipe because they were justifiably afraid of his twin.

"What do you want Sideswipe?" Hot Shot sighed into his long distance communicator.

"What can you do about weapons charges against a human?" Sideswipe asked sheepishly.

AN: For all Sunstreaker fans, yes i killed him before this fic even started. Go cry about it.