As it would turn out, the Dinobots would really only listen to Sam and Miles. Wheeljack had been horrified to see them up and running, stating that he had been no where near done outfitting their processors and bodies with the proper material and it was even a wonder the teens made it out of the factory alive, let alone that the Dinobots were somewhat well functioning. Then the scientist had been distracted by the ire of both Ratchet and Prowl, his creations long forgotten as the CMO and SIC tore into him.
Despite how hard and how often he tried, Wheeljack utterly failed to get his creations to even listen to him once. It had only taken Miles or Sam one word and they behaved, though. Ratchet thought this was probably because the Dinobots were associating them as their creators, the people there first when they onlined and who cared for them first, even if it was obvious by that point that Wheeljack was the real mech who had a hand in making them.
Being that they only listened to the two teens so far, one of them had to stay on base that Monday. Sam was chosen simply because Miles had missed a lot more school than he had. Miles had of course fought this valiantly, but when Prowl just picked him up and plopped him down in Bumblebee's servo that morning with strict orders to the Scout to make sure he actually went to school, there wasn't much he could do. Bumblebee had yet to return, but had informed them that he had personally watched Miles enter school after exiting 'Sasha'.
"Not that I'm not thrilled that you're here," Barricade drawled, "But why are you here?"
The 'con glared down at the teenage making himself at home on his leg. Sam just grinned up at him.
"For a walking super computer you sure have bad memory files," Sam teased, "Optimus asked me to stay here to help with the Dinobots, and Bee followed Miles back to Tranquility to keep an eye on him. Make sure he didn't try to skip school to come back."
"Har. Har. Har." Barricade flicked Sam lightly, causing the teen to slide off his leg and fall on his back.
Sam chuckled, picking himself up off the ground. He decided that sitting on the tarmac then leaning against Barricade's leg was far safer then giving the Decepticon Neutral the chance to flick him off again. Barricade knew better than to seriously hurt him, but that didn't mean the teen wanted to give him the chance more than he had to.
The two of them were sitting in between the med-bay and the main hangar that held the meeting office, Prime's office, and other such important places. The Dinobots were currently running amuck inside of the med-bay, Ratchet trying to get them to stay still long enough to scan them properly. Sam had whispered to them to keep moving for as long as possible; now he was just waiting for the medic to get frustrated enough to call him in.
It seemed that without Bumblebee or Miles there, the two only had each other. After spending so long just simply being around each other because of being friends with the same teen, they had come to a sort of understanding and even friendship, though neither would ever actually call it that.
"It's not that I'm not happy you two are back together," Sam said, making himself comfortable again. "I mean, really, I'm thrilled. And I don't mean to make it sound the way I just did, but it's just that slagging Optimus won that bet!"
Barricade let out an amused sound. Like the soldiers, Sam and Miles had started picking up a small bit of Cybertronian. Well, the small bit that Ironhide and Ratchet were most likely to use when they wanted to cuss but wanted to continue to speak in something that the humans could actually understand. Sam even had a running list of different insults, prepared if he ever got in a fight with a 'bot. He'd offered them to Miles for when he and Barricade fought but his friend had turned them down.
"I still don't know how Miles doesn't know about the betting pool whenever we fight," Barricade replied, moving his leg enough that Sam lost his backrest and instead toppled backwards to the ground.
"Stop moving!" Sam growled, scooting himself back enough to get into the same position. "And I know. He's in over half of them by this point, he only knows so few, though. Think he's afraid to find out what major ones he's in. I, however, know all the ones I'm in."
"I know of two that the Insect has been keeping from you," Barricade said and Sam glanced up at him, hearing the smirk in his voice. "One is when you'll finally break up with the human femme, the other is when you and the Autodolt will jump each other and realize your sparkmates, or some similar nonsense."
"Both of them concern my love life, that's great!" Sam retorted sarcastically, only looking down when he felt his pocket vibrate, a sign his phone had gone off. "Ain't you Cybertronians ever heard of privacy?"
"No." The 'con stated simply, watching as Sam pulled his phone out of his pocket.
"It's from Miles," Sam told the 'con, thumbing through his phone to look at the message. "I should so tell Op... Oh, fuck. Trent has an Autobot!"
Barricade raised an optic ridge, "Trent DeMarco?"
"How do you know Trent DeMarco?"
"He gave Miles a black eye. I was bored and got his truck towed and him in trouble." Barricade gave a shrug, "How does he have an Autobot?"
Sam shrugged, "Hell if I know, that's all that Miles said. 'Burger for brains has an Autobot.' Not how, but I bet Trent will be so pissed when he learns his truck got switched out for a living being!"
"And who would you like to tell of this development?"
Barricade still didn't have anymech's comm frequency, so the Decepticon Neutral was pretty much useless unless he could get up and go talk to somemech.
"Why tell?" Sam asked with a grin, "Want to see how Miles spins it?"
Barricade thought about that for a moment, "If he expects Trent to react the way he did then I think this will be very amusing to hear about later."
Miles felt that, from the start of the day, nothing he could have done would have made it go any better. Optimus talked a lot about freedom being the right of all beings, but apparently not when a being didn't want to go to school. And sure, he knew that the Prime was just trying to look out for him and that NEST could only pull so many strings before the school wanted to know more, but that didn't make him any happier about it.
To top it all off, his first class of the day had Trent DeMarco in it. He knew as long as he didn't do much and didn't bring up Sam or Mikaela, then he wasn't a threat, but that didn't make him like the other kid better. It was even worse because Trent's desk was directly in front of his own for that class and the jock was so much taller than him that it made it difficult to see the board and take the needed notes for that class.
Miles trudged into his first class and moved pass Trent's desk without making eye contact with the jock. He slid down into his desk and yawned, staring blankly ahead while everyone in the room waited for the teacher to get there. A stereo cassette player caught his eye, sitting just on the edge of Trent's desk, and Miles looked at it for a minute in amusement. It was outdated and just a bit too big; it seemed like the last thing the jock should have been interested in.
Something about it struck him as odd and it took him longer than he'd like to admit to realize why. Right in the middle of the stereo, beneath where a cassette could go in, was the Autobot insignia. Almost immediately he went to say something, barely catching himself and turning it into a cough instead, because what could he say? It was unlikely that whatever Autobot it may be had revealed themselves to Trent, after all. The Autobot might be trying to lay low after following Optimus' message to earth and not being able to find the others just yet.
He was distracted from the apparently sentient radio when the teacher walked in the room, quickly getting out a pencil and a piece notebook paper for the pop quiz that he was desperately unprepared for. Once he thoroughly failed that he got out his phone and fired off a quick text to Sam, using the jock's bulk to his advantage for once that year so he didn't get caught.
Miles thought carefully over what he should do, only paying enough attention to know that the teacher wasn't having them do much outside of notes the rest of class. It would probably be better if he could get the Autobot from Trent without the jock ever finding out about them. He could try to steal the stereo, but he doubted he could manage it and didn't want to see the consequences of if he was caught.
It wasn't until the end of class that Miles realized it may be impossible to get at the Autobot without getting at Trent, so he took out a piece of scratch paper and scribbled on it, folded it up, and flicked it up in the air just so it would land on Trent's desk. He watched as Trent unfolded it, read it, then turned around to sneer at Miles.
Mikaela may end up killing him for it, but he had told the jock that she had asked Miles to tell him something. He'd told Trent to meet him at the lake to talk about it during lunch, the seniors of the school allowed to go off campus for the small bit of time.
When lunch rolled around, Miles made his way out to his car. He glanced around the parking lot to check for Bumblebee, wondering if the Scout would really stay the whole day to make sure he stayed in school, but he figured by that point Sam had probably told him about Trent and the Autobot, so the Scout would let it slide.
He drove to the lake and parked just beside the tree where he had climbed up into it so long ago, back when Sam had first gotten Bumblebee and Trent and Mikaela were still dating. He was slightly surprised to see the jock already there, the disguised Autobot sitting on the hood of his truck as he played with the dials.
"Nice stereo," Miles said loudly enough to call attention to himself.
Trent sneered, barely glancing at Miles as he walked up to him. "It's a piece of shit, actually. Can't get it to fucking work right. Got it some old fucker's yard sale and shelled out more then this damn thing was worth."
"I could try to fix it for you," Miles offered. "Pretty good with old stuff like that."
"I think it's better off at the bottom of this lake," Trent said, walking down the embankment towards the lake with the stereo.
"No!" Miles cried, chasing after the jock and grabbing his arm to try to stop him. "You can't do that!"
"Oy, get off me, you freak!" Trent growled, using his free hand to shove Miles off of him and to the ground.
Miles wasn't able to scramble up fast enough to stop him anymore. The jock went to throw the stereo into the lake but it landed just short of it. Annoyed, Trent went to kick it in, but just before his foot could connect to it the Autobot transformed. The mech towered over Trent and the jock probably did the smartest thing he could at that point by just letting out a scream and stumbling backwards in shock.
He ran forward, placing himself squarely between Trent. The Autobot seemed to take this as a threat and activated his cannon, Miles quickly backing away just as Trent had, backing up into the jock.
"Whoa there!" Miles exclaimed, putting his hands up in a peaceful gesture. "I'm on your side, big fella!"
The Autobot didn't seem to believe him, but the cannon was powered down and lowered anyway. Miles let out a relieved sigh.
"I saw you watching me during the organic's learning period," The Autobot replied.
"That's because I recognized the Autobot symbol," Miles told the mech. "Trent doesn't know what an Autobot is, though, so that's why he was going to toss you in the lake. He didn't know you were alive. Either way, Optimus Prime has forbidden all of the Autobots from hurting the creatures of this planet unless it's absolutely necessary; turning Trent here into pink paste wouldn't be necessary."
Trent let out a small sound at that and the Autobot mech snorted, transforming his cannon back into a normal servo.
"You know Optimus Prime, then, organic?"
"I'm Miles Lancaster, the Charge of Second in Command Prowl, friend of the Autobots who originally came to Earth, Decepticon Neutral Barricade, and the Autobots who have arrived after the original five." Miles smirked.
"I am Communications Officer Blaster. I had been in a fight before arriving on Earth, and lost my ability to communicate with my fellow Autobots, or even give out a signal. I was able to learn English, but after that I lost connection with the satellites." Blaster informed, then looked at Trent. "He is your friend?"
Miles laughed, "Hardly. Trent DeMarco, now currently getting one of the bigger surprises of his life, probably."
"Are... are you crazy, Lancaster?!" Trent half yelled, seeming to come out of his shock when he head his name. "That giant fucking robot just tried to kill us! We have to call the cops, not make friends with it!"
"Oh, Trent." Miles sighed, taking a perverse sort of pleasure in how things were turning out for him. After so long of Sam being targeted by the jock it surely couldn't be too bad to torture him a little. "I don't think you're understanding the implications here. Blaster is a giant alien robot from outer space. With a weapon. Want to see how good his aim is?"
Trent shook his head.
"Didn't think so," Miles smiled. "Give me your phone."
Trent refused up until Blaster changed his arm back into the cannon, not even having to power it on before Trent had it out of his pocket and until Miles hand.
Miles grinned now, "Thank you. I'll be confiscating it until you have been informed of the situation more fully. Now, get in my car."
"Bu-" Trent tried to protest, but Miles gave him a forceful shove towards his car.
"Backseat, no buts." Miles ordered, marching the jock back up the small embankment and towards his care. "And if you act up any I have a set of hand cuffs in the glove box that I am not afraid to use!"
The teen left out that he didn't even have the key. He'd snatched them from the twins ages ago with a plan to use them on Sam at some point, but that was on a need to know basis and Trent just didn't need to know that. The jock hardly seemed to care, he just grunted something and climbed into the backseat. Blaster folded back down into what Miles was assuming was his alt mode, the teen watching in amazement the entire time. He had absolutely no idea how the mech could get himself to become something so small, but instead of asking he just picked the Autobot up and carefully placed him in the passenger seat. He climbed in the driver's seat and started his car up, buckling up immediately out of habit.
Miles drove them away from the lake. The teen knew the direction of the base after traveling to it so many times, but he wasn't completely sure of it's exact location. He figured if he got close enough he'd find it, or someone would come find him. He was a bit surprised by how quiet Trent was being and he glanced in the rear-view mirror, noticing how pale the jock looked and instantly feeling like a complete asshole.
"Oh, Fuck, Trent." Miles groaned, "Look, nothing's gonna happen to you, I swear. I was just jerking your chain a bit. Blaster felt threatened because you were attempting to hurt him and he reacted, but now he knows better and you know better, alright?"
"And just why should I believe that?" Trent asked, and Miles could practically feel the glare that the jock was giving him.
Miles sighed, "Look, I don't want you here as much as you don't want to be here, but we're both stuck now so I'll give you a quick run down. Remember everything on the news about Mission City? Complete cover up. It turns out that there's life out there on a planet a lot older than ours, called Cybertron. That's where Blaster is from, making him a Cybertronian. A war started up, I guess you could relate it to our civil war for how it tore Cybertron and all the Cybertronians apart. One side was the Autobots, like Blaster, and the other is the Decepticons. I won't go into the reasoning of what started the war because it's just a whole bunch of shit and I think Optimus gets off on it, but just know that most Decepticons, who have red eyes, aren't that friendly to organics. The Autobots, which Blaster here is apart of, and I am too, technically, wanted to stop the Decepticons. They sent the Allspark cube off into space as a last ditch effort, and lo and behold it landed on Earth." He paused, waiting for Trent to say something.
"So they… came here?" Trent asked cautiously, knowing that Miles was waiting for him to say something.
"Got it in one!" Miles said cheerfully. "The Decepticon leader, Megatron, followed the cube all the way here and ended up frozen in the arctic. Sam's grandfather, Archibald Witwicky, ended up finding Megatron, and one thing led to another and somehow he got the coordinates of the cube's location imprinted on the glasses. Hoover Dam? It held the cube and Megatron's body. Everyone thought Megatron was dead, but nope. That's where most of our technology comes from, reverse engineered from Megsy or some stupid bullshit like that, so these fuckers can hack into it and ruin everything like nothing. Anyway, when the other Decepticons got here in search of both Megatron and the cube, they found Sam's eBay page, and tracked him through that. Luckily, Sam had just bought that camaro, which turned out to be the Autobot Bumblebee."
Trent snorted, "You mean that piece of shit came from outer space?"
Miles considered telling the jock off for that, but he knew as well as the Scout himself did that he had appeared to be nothing more than a barely running car. He continued the explanation, mentioning Sector Seven and what really happened in Mission City, including how Sam had been the one to kill Megatron, destroy the cube, and save their planet in one fell swoop.
"Wait, is that why you and Witwacky weren't so buddy buddy early this year?" Trent demanded once Miles had finished.
"You could say that." Miles answered in surprise, not realizing the jock payed enough attention to notice something like that. Half of his other friends hadn't even noticed. "It was confidential information and he was afraid he might put me in danger if I knew. But I ended up finding a damaged Decepticon without knowing it, and started to fix it up, planning to sell it so I could get my own car. You remember how your truck got towed? That was Barricade, the 'con I made friends with."
"Why would he target me?" Trent asked.
"He didn't like that you gave me a black eye," Miles grinned into the rear-view mirror. "If it makes you feel any better, I think he was just really bored more than him being ridiculously overprotective or some nonsense. Wanted to see if he could do it. If I remember right he became a lot more active on police scanners after that, so..."
"He is with the Autobots now?" Blaster asked, surprising both Trent and Miles by speaking up in the first place.
"Yeah," Miles shrugged a bit, making a sharp turn off road and into the desert. "Like I said, I found him and started fixing him up for reasons of my own. He revealed himself and I stuck with 'im, he was gonna lay low for a while but I accidentally ruined that. Long story short? You 'bots tracked him down and I made sure he didn't get killed, so, uh, if you hear anything about me taking Hide down with a bouquet of roses, could you not laugh? Sunstreaker and Sideswipe only just stopped tormenting him with flower themed pranks because of Halloween and I don't want to die."
Trent actually laughed at that, but Blaster just made a confused sound. Miles sighed, realizing the mech didn't know much about Earth outside of how to speak English, and explained what roses were. He explained what he could to both of them, making use of how long it took to get to the base. He could only push his car so far over the speed limit, after all, and he hardly wanted them to break down half way there. They were nearly there when Miles remembered that he hadn't said anything about the Dinobots.
"Not all of the 'bots are Cybertronians, by the way." Miles mentioned, saying it to Blaster more than to Trent.
"What do you mean?" Blaster asked, sounding confused.
Miles was about to reply until he glanced at Trent in the rear-view mirror again. He grinned, "You'll see."
The jock caught the look and scowled back at him, but said nothing. Miles just kept his grin and pulled onto the secret road that would take him straight to the base. It was another five minutes but it was the only way that would place him close to the med-bay, where he was sure Ratchet would want Blaster to be. He parked just outside of it, letting Trent get out before he went around and picked Blaster up.
Miles barely had time to place the mech down on the ground so he could transform before he could hear something thundering towards them, followed by a loud yell.
"ME GRIMLOCK MISS MILES!" Grimlock yelled as he came racing towards them.
Grimlock was soaking wet, water dripping off his metal hide and pink bubbles on his tail. Sam had probably tried to and failed to bathe the Dinobot. The teen would have taken some enjoyment in Trent's terrified gasp if he hadn't been nearly mowed over by the excited Dinobot, just to then be picked up and squeezed in as good of a hug as he could give.
"Hey Grimmy, I missed you too!" Miles said affectionately, hugging Grimlock's face. "Did you behave for Sam?"
"Me Grimlock no like bath!" Grimlock growled, defending himself before Miles even knew he was in trouble. Miles grinned, and Grimlock looked as pouty as a Tyrannosaurus Rex robot could. "Who they?"
"That's Blaster, another Autobot." Miles squirmed out of the Dinobot's grasp, half turning to grin at Trent. "This is Trent DeMarco. Trent, say hi to Grimmy before you hurt his feelings."
"H-hi!" The jock sputtered, backing away slightly when Grimlock peered down at him.
"GRIMLOCK!" They heard Sam yell, looking as the teen came running towards them. He was soaking wet, and as he came to a stop he scowled up at the Dinobot before noticing Trent and Blaster. "Oh, you must be the new comer! I'm Sam Witwicky."
"Hello Sam Witwicky, I am Bla-"
He was interrupted by Barricade and Bumblebee running up in their bipedal forms. They ignored Trent as he gawked up at them, and Miles looked at the two once before laughing. Several areas on the two were covered with pink bubbles. It was mostly their servos and peds that were affected, but it still made for an amusing sight.
"Wow Barry, those are some nice bubbles. Really suit you." Miles said in between laughs.
"Oh look, here's a conveniently placed rag for me to use to wipe these pesky bubbles off." Barricade retorted, reaching out and picking Miles up. He then used him to do just that, holding the teen in place as he wiped his servos against him, though it became quickly ineffective as the teen's clothes weren't made to soak up bubbles. Miles protested loudly, squirming in his grasp and trying to find a wire to tug to annoy him while Sam and Bumblebee just enjoyed the moment. Once he was satisfied he set Miles down, glaring down at Trent. "I know you. You're that stupid brat who gave Miles a black eye."
Trent gulped, "And I'm really, really, sorry about that!"
"Oh, calm down. He glowers threateningly at everyone." Miles smirked when Barricade's glare turned towards him, "Everyone, this is Blaster. Blast you probably know Bee and Barry at least a little bit. Sam just introduced himself and the big lovable puppy here is Grimlock."
Bumblebee immediately took over then, moving Blaster to the side and talking to him. The Scout didn't take over very often, but when he did it was rare for anyone to step in his way. He was an effortless leader, and even Jazz had no problem deferring to him if Bumblebee was actually stepping up to say something. It wasn't long before the two walked off, the Scout leaving pink bubbles in his wake.
"I love how even after Optimus has Bee cart you off to school you manage to get out of it somehow." Sam said accusingly, grinning.
Miles huffed, "It was for a good cause! I practically saved Trent's life. The idiot was about to kick Blaster, after trying to toss him in a lake, and it's not like Blaster would have known any better."
"Oy, I would watch what you call me," Trent snapped in annoyance, but as soon as he actually took a step towards Miles he was pinned in place by red optics and a teeth baring T-Rex. "Fine, call me what you want."
"Kind of wish you would have brought Mikaela," Sam commented, looking at the jock with mild amusement for once. He made sure to move over to Grimlock and give the Dinobot a pat to make him behave. "It's not like we get on."
"Bit too late now," Miles replied, "And he needs to see a soldier about being briefed and officially filed away, anyway. Who should we take him to?"
"Epps," Barricade suggested.
Knowing him as well as he did, Miles could pick up the slightly mischievous tone and couldn't help grinning himself. Epps would have a field day with the jock.
After taking Trent to Epps and explaining the situation, they didn't see or hear anything from them for the next five hours. Barricade had correctly assumed that the Sergeant would be the best to introduce the jock to first, given his previous treatment of Sam and Miles, how he openly acted, and how they reported he usually behaved. There was something to be said about a man who can talk in such a way that even Annabelle Lennox would seem frightening.
The trio then joined up with Bumblebee and Blaster. The Scout had taken Blaster to see Optimus first, defending himself by saying that the mech had demanded to see the Prime and that he also happened to not have any personal experience with Ratchet. After the initial introduction and a lot of talk that Miles and Sam couldn't understand, Optimus rushed Blaster out of his office and sacrificed him to the medic's clutches.
"So, what exactly were you guys hoping to achieve? The dinosaur version of a car wash?" Miles asked as they neared the wash rack, seeing more bubbles then he ever thought possible.
Sam huffed, "The twins messed with the stuff I was going to use. By the time I noticed I was practically in a sea of bubbles and had to call for 'Cade and Bee to come get me out and Grimmy had already escaped."
"It was rather amusing hearing Sam's voice underneath a sea of bubbles," Bumblebee commented with a laugh. "But I almost think that 'Cade here loved them even more."
This, of course, set Barricade off, the 'con stating just what he'd love to do if he had a weapon and Bumblebee responding in like. The two bantered back and forth effortlessly at this point, though both made sure to keep it light to avoid any actual fights happening again. As they bantered back and forth playfully, Sam and Miles did several games of rock, paper, scissors. Bumblebee noticed first, his attention drawn immediately when Sam let out a cuss. The Scout asked why they were doing it.
"To decide who has to tell Miks about Trent," Sam replied just as he beat Miles.
"God fucking damn it!" Miles cursed, "She's your girlfriend, you aft!"