Disclaimer: Hasbro owns the canon Transformers, I own the others. Songs are property of Jamie Brown and myself.
Haze.
It was back to the alleys again. After driving for what was left of the afternoon, they'd finally turned into the rather spacious alley to rest for the remainder of the day. The other four were busy fine-tuning or cleaning up their instruments while Jazz sat with his back to a wall, trying to scribble down some lyrics to a new song. Yet, for some reason – he didn't know what it was – he kept getting distracted. For the fifth time in the space of two hours he looked up and glanced around the alley – mostly deserted except for the group and a cluster of garbage cans at the far end.
"Something wrong?" Lightshow asked.
"I don't know," Jazz replied. "You ever get the feeling that something's not right?"
"You mean now or in general?"
"Now. Like right now, at this moment."
"Not really, why? You hearing something?"
"I thought I heard some scritching."
"It could have been turbomice. Alleys are usually full of the little slaggers."
"Or it could be that we're not alone."
Jazz got up, subspaced his datapad and walked cautiously over towards the trash cans. The others watched him warily.
"What is it?" Electro asked.
"Probably nothing, but just stay where you are all the same. Be ready to take off if I give the word," Jazz replied. He reached the cans, stopped and slowly bent over to look behind them. "Well melt me down and call me slag!" he exclaimed. "What in Primus' name are you doing back there?!"
The others heard what was unmistakably another robot's voice.
"I-I'm sorry, I was just recording you guys."
"You were what?! Get out here!"
Jazz leaned over and, to the others' complete and utter amazement, hauled out a little femmebot. Electro frowned, Lightshow grinned, Slowmotion gaped and Strings remained as he was. The little femme smiled sheepishly. In her hand she held a portable audio-visual recording device that she raised to Jazz's face.
"Switch that thing off and put it away," he ordered.
"But I'm just recording a documentary of your band – to sell to the big communication stations once you all become rich and famous. It'll be called 'Five Stars: The Beginning'."
"Put it away, NOW."
"Oh alright." The femme switched off the device and subspaced it.
Jazz put her down on her feet, but kept a firm hold on her arm. The others still hadn't gotten over their initial shock, so Strings spoke up.
"Who is she Jazz?" he asked.
"I don't know her name, but I saw her at all of our performances at the Lunarium. She was always close to the front of the stage."
"My name is Haze," the femme said. "And you don't have to hold onto me, I'm not going to run away."
Jazz nevertheless partially dragged her over to where the others were. "Sit down. You have a lot of explaining to do young bot, starting with what you're doing here."
"Like I said, I'm doing a documentary on Five Stars. I think you guys are like, totally awesome! So I followed you after you left the Lunarium."
"You really think we're that good?" Lightshow asked.
"Lightshow, not now," said Electro. "Does your creator know you're out here?"
Haze squirmed, her light pink and white body twitching uncomfortably. "Not exactly."
"Oh this is just great. Do you even realize the situation you've put us into? If the Autobot Civil Defense is sent out to look for you and they find you with us, we could be arrested for kidnapping!"
"Electro please, some tact," said Strings.
Electro crossed his arms and glowered, but said nothing back.
"I don't think it'll come to that," said Jazz. "But your creator will be worried about you if you're gone for too long."
"Oh please don't send me back! I'll be in so much trouble. Let me come with you guys, I wont get in the way, I promise!"
"No! Absolutely not. I will not allow it. Don't even think about it. No. No no no," Electro burst out.
"And who died and made you boss?" Lightshow asked.
"Stop it, both of you," Strings cut in. "Your petty bickering is not helping matters."
"I can help you!" Haze insisted. "I can even sing, listen…."
"Haze, slow down," said Jazz. "Now you listen to me. Why do you want to come with us so badly?"
"Like I said, I think you guys are great! I wanna live the life you guys live. All the attention and cool stuff you do, the touring, the screaming fans, being on stage. I want to experience all that."
"Primus, did you pick the wrong band to follow," Slowmotion said.
"What do you mean?" Haze asked.
"Y'know all that stuff you just mentioned," Jazz said. "We don't have any of it. Till Ignitio hired us to play at the Lunarium, we played on the streets where nobody even gave us a second look. We sleep in alleys and sometimes go for days without any energon sustenance. That's the life we live."
"Oh… but I'd still really like to come with you."
"This is not the life for you Haze," said Strings.
"But if you leave me here I have nowhere to go. I don't know how to get back home."
"You should have thought of that before you decided to follow us," Electro muttered.
"Isn't there anywhere you can go?" Slowmotion asked.
"We're certainly not accompanying you all the way back to the Lunarium," Electro said. "So don't any of the rest of you even suggest it."
"Again I ask, since when did you become our fearless leader?" Lightshow asked. "I don't recall you ever getting elected."
"Lightshow stop," said Jazz. "Electro, if you've got nothing constructive to say, don't say anything. Haze, you better think of something or we'll have no choice but to leave you. Strings is right. The life we live ain't no place for a little femme like you."
"Well, there is one other option," Haze said. "I have a sister of sorts who works at a chemical plant in Sector 4. I haven't seen her in ages, so…."
Jazz considered this. "Alright," he said at last, talking over the exasperated sigh from Electro. "You can hang with us till we get to Sector 4, after which you're contacting your sister and asking her to come get you. And since you promised not to get in the way, do we have a deal?"
"It's a deal, but can I still record my documentary?"
"NO!" all five of them said together.
"Fine, but I'm telling you you're missing out on a potential future credit-making opportunity."
"I think we'll take that risk," said Jazz.
Suddenly Slowmotion sat up. "Have you been recording every single thing we did all day?" he asked Haze.
"Pretty much," she replied.
The green mech looked at Jazz, glanced at his own leg, then looked back at Jazz again. Jazz immediately understood. There was the possibility that Haze might have footage of them painting on Slowmotion's Autobot symbol, and if that ever leaked out, they would all be in big trouble.
"I think, due to copyright reasons on our part, we'll have to ask you for the disk," Jazz said.
Haze looked crestfallen. "But why? I wont do anything wrong with it, I promise. Don't you trust me?"
Electro snorted in response and the other 4 shot him stern looks, which he ignored.
"We trust ya Haze," said Jazz. "But the truth is, you recorded us without our permission or knowledge, and that's kinda breaking the rules on your part." Jazz felt incredibly guilty for saying that. Here he was lecturing a little shebot about breaking rules when only hours earlier, he and the rest of the group had done just that.
Haze relented. "Okay," she said dejectedly. She unsubspaced the recorder, took out the disc and gave it to Jazz.
He in turn subspaced it. "Thanks. You're a good kid Haze."
Haze flashed him a beaming smile. Electro rolled his optics and sighed in resignation.
---------------------------------------------------
Haze tossed and turned on the cold, hard ground, but couldn't seem to shut down. Finally she gave up trying and sat up. Most of the other bots were asleep, but to her surprise she saw Jazz still awake, bent over a datapad, muttering to himself.
"You should be sleeping young bot," he said out loud.
"I cant. The ground's too hard," Haze replied.
"Well, you said you wanted to experience how we live so, welcome to our world."
"Yeah, I guess I asked for it." She stood up and came over to him. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"
"I should, but I need to get a song done and at the moment I'm kinda lacking in inspiration."
"Can I help?" She sat down next to him, optics wide and earnest.
Jazz chuckled. "No offense li'l one, but you don't really get my creative juices flowing. Don't worry, I'll think of something eventually."
"And you're gonna sit here all night till you do?"
"Most likely."
"Good. Then I'll keep you company."
Jazz looked at her. Haze's pink and white frame was quite small compared to most femmes he'd seen and her face reflected every bit of her young innocence. Indeed she was incredibly young, probably even younger than Slowmotion. Yet there was something in her optics that reflected a tinge of unhappiness.
"Tell me Haze, what made you decide to follow us?" he asked. "I mean apart from you liking the band."
Haze looked around carefully, then leaned forward and whispered, "Can you keep a secret?"
Jazz decided to humor her. "Cross my fuel pump and hope to rust."
"My creator's a real, y'know, glitch. I mean, she creates us and then doesn't even know what she created us for – at least apart from smacking us around. She said it was to toughen us up. My sister, she's a lot older and smarter than I am, she told me she thought our creator was planning to sell us off to the Decepticons."
"What?!" Jazz stifled himself from shouting out loud. "But why would she do that to her own steel and oil?"
"I don't know, but that's why my sister left. She said she was going to try and find a job somewhere and save up some credits and then come back for me. But she's been gone for a long while now, and I'm tired of waiting."
Jazz touched her shoulder. "Well cheer up. We'll get you to your sister somehow. Right now though, I think hard ground or not, you should be getting some rest."
"I will if you will," she said.
"Shebots first," he replied. "But don't worry, I will soon."
Haze resignedly went back to her spot and in a matter of minutes she was soon shut down. Jazz bent back over his datapad again.
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Haze awoke to the sound of Jazz's voice asking her to get up and get ready to leave. She groggily brought her optics back online and got to her feet. This was her third day with the band, and though she enjoyed being with most of them and being away from her home, the experience was far from what she had expected. The drives were long – Jazz and Electro had pushed them all to the limit the previous day – and energon was scarce. Still, she didn't complain; she knew she'd brought this on herself. At least Jazz and Strings were nice to her, and she stayed as close to them as possible, keeping a nice, big distance between herself and Electro.
She transformed with the others and followed them out onto the road. The little wheels on her alt mode were a minor hindrance sometimes, but otherwise she was easily able to keep pace with them.
Jazz kept a watchful optic on her at all times, but not for the same reasons Electro did. The dark blue mech saw her as nothing more than a pesky turbofly that needed to be swatted away. However, Jazz had been given the gift to see beyond the surface. After she'd talked to him the other night, he knew she had more depth than what was visible to the optics. He had to admit he was a smidge impressed. She hadn't complained once during their long drive yesterday. He wished he could have gone a little easier on her, but that would have been unfair to the others. They had a longer run than she did, not to mention Electro would have right blown a gasket. Still, she seemed to be handling rather well. Better a street life, he figured, than being sent to fight with the Decepticons. He slowed down a little to let her catch up to him.
"You doing alright young bot?" he asked.
"Yeah, I guess so," she replied.
Lightshow sidled up on her other side. "Not exactly the experience you signed up for huh?"
"No, not really. How do you all do this everyday?"
"Because we must," Jazz replied simply.
"But why not stay in one place and play forever?"
Lightshow was about to answer when Jazz cut him off. "That would get old fast don't you think? Imagine doing the same thing over and over again everyday, for the rest of your life."
"Yeah. I can see how that could get boring. And in a way being homeless is kinda fun too. No rules and restrictions."
"Heh, you'd be surprised," Lightshow said. "Jazz has us under strict control."
"Jazz? Really? He doesn't seem like the bossy type."
"He's not, but he's not a pushover either. That's why he's our fearless leader. Whoo! Hey I should write a song about you." Lightshow revved his engine in a way that Jazz knew he was grinning from audio to audio.
"Shut up micro-brain," Jazz said.
"Yes sir, fearless leader sir," Lightshow cackled, revved his engine once more and sped off ahead of the group.
"How come you haven't kicked him out yet?" Haze asked.
"Y'know I ask myself that question everyday," Jazz replied.
"Because in his core he's a good mech. His insanity is just a disguise to cover a pure spark. He's as loyal a friend as they come, and we're lucky to have him," Strings said from behind them. "Though some would appreciate him less than others."
Ahead of them Lightshow uttered a fake sob. "Aw, you guys DO love me! I'm so touched!"
"And then there are days where you just want to kill him and hide the body," said Electro.
"Face it Electro, you're just jealous of my good looks," Lightshow quipped.
"Yeah, if I wanted to look like something a trash compactor spat out," Electro retorted.
"Your aim's improving," Lightshow said, completely unfazed. "This one was nearer the mark."
Electro revved his own engine noisily and pulled a little more to the right – the equivalent of a grunt and an optic roll.
Lightshow snickered – another victory won.
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Late in the afternoon they reached Sector 3 and then spent a few hours looking for the bar from the list Ignitio had given them. They finally found The Grid nestled in a little corner of the street. All of them reverted back to robot mode and approached the doors. A large security bot blocked their way.
"We're closed," he said flatly.
"Oh, no worries," Jazz said. "We're not here to party, we're here to see the owner Fineline."
"Purpose of visit?" the bot asked.
"We're the band Five Stars. Ignitio from the Lunarium sent us."
The security bot activated a comm.line. "Yeah, I got a bunch of kids here. Said a mech called Ignitio sent 'em. Uh-huh. They say they're a band. Alright." He looked back at them and opened a door. "You can go in."
They filed past him one by one. Then just as Haze was about to head inside, the mech stuck out an arm and stopped her.
"Hey, what's the big idea?" she asked.
"You're not going in there," the mech said.
"Why not?"
"You're too young. Unless you're part of the band, you're not going inside. Are you part of the band?"
Haze looked back at a loss. Jazz, Strings and Lightshow couldn't help her as they had already gone inside and were talking to Fineline the owner. Her gaze fell on Electro and she looked at him imploringly.
"She's part of the band," Electro said resignedly.
"Oh really, what does she do?" the other mech asked.
"She sings," replied Electro.
The security bot looked skeptical. "You'd better hope you're telling the truth." He let them in.
Once inside, Electro caught Haze's arm and pulled her a little roughly to one side. "For all our sakes you'd better be able to sing, or so help me Primus…."
"Electro lay off," Jazz said, coming towards them. "Now will someone please explain what just happened."
"We said Haze was a member of Five Stars so that security would let her in. if she doesn't sing, there is the highly likely chance that we could all get kicked out of here," Electro said. "And if we do let her sing…."
"What are you trying to say? That I cant sing?" asked Haze. "How do you know, you haven't even heard me!"
"She has a point Electro, we shouldn't judge; and maybe I can talk to Fineline and explain the situation."
"I don't think that's a good idea. What if he takes the same mindset as his security. We'll just have to let her sing and hope for the best."
"Alright," Jazz said. "C'mon Haze, lets go learn some songs."
"One song," Electro cut in. "Give her just one song to prove that she sings with us. That's enough."
Jazz rolled his optics. "Let's go Haze. I'll teach you an easy one. Its one of the newer ones I wrote, you would have heard us performing it: 'A Place I Can Call Home'."
"Ooh I liked that."
"I thought you would."
Electro shook his head as he watched them go...
That night the band assembled before quite a fair-sized crowd, who took a while longer to warm upto them than the crowd at the Lunarium. They finished a repertoire of about 5 songs and then retreated to the back area of the makeshift stage for a small break. Haze stood there looking really nervous.
"I don't think I can do this," she said.
"You'd better not be getting cold wheels now," Electro said. "Our very existence depends on you. You may see this as all fun and games, but to us this is our livelihood. You better not let us down."
"Electro, back off," said Jazz. "This is not what she needs to hear right now." He turned to the femme. "Haze, you can do this. Just pretend you're rehearsing with me all over again. Don't worry about the crowd, we'll warm them up for you."
Haze nodded. "I'll try my best."
Jazz gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, then went back outside with the rest of the band to start the second set. Four songs later, Haze joined them for her song. When she finished the crowd cheered. Jazz smiled at her and winked.
"And now we'd like to perform our last song for the night," he said. "And it's a little number I like to call 'Smile'."
I know you feel like
You're on a lonely road.
And you feel like there's nobody
To help you bear the load
But don't despair
You'll make it there
Just believe in you
You'll make it through, so…
Chorus
Hey young one
Lift up your head and smile
A new day'll be here
In a little while
The night will pass
Just hold on tight
And when its gone
You'll see the light
So… young one…
Lift up your head and smile.
I know you think that
You're out here alone
You felt nobody cared for you
Or made you feel at home
But don't give in
You can win
You'll find your way
To a better day, and…
Chorus
It's a lonely world out here
And some don't understand
It doesn't take very much at all
To lend a helping hand
So don't forget where you're coming from
No matter where you're going to
Happiness sometimes can be found
In the little things you do.
Chorus.
"Thank you and goodnight!" Lightshow called as they retreated off the stage.
"You wrote the song," Haze said to Jazz.
"Lets just say I had a little inspiration," Jazz replied.
"Thanks for sticking up for me. At least I'll be out of your circuits soon."
"Yeah. And I'm not gonna say we wont miss you either."
Haze grinned.
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Sector 4 arrived at last and with it came a lounge-type bar called – fittingly – Unwind. Jazz quickly realized that their brand of music would sound a little out of place in a bar like this, so from the moment they arrived he, Strings and Electro spent the rest of the time they had writing out alternate arrangements to some of their songs. Before that however, Electro turned to Lightshow and Slowmotion.
"Take Haze and find a way to contact her sister. This is where her journey ends."
The femme looked a little crestfallen, but resigned herself to following the other two mechs out of the room. They headed down to the main bar area and went upto the counter where the bartender-bot was preparing for the night.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"I need to contact my sister," Haze said timidly. "She's uh, working in one of the chemical plants in this sector."
The mech placed an audio communicator on the counter. "Just key in her comm.link frequency and speak."
"Go for it girlbot," said Lightshow. "This is your chance."
Haze nervously keyed in the frequency. "Hey sis, its Haze, can you hear me?"
There was a moment of crackling on the speaker before another female voice answered – this one older and slightly deeper.
"Haze? Is that really you? Oh Primus above, are you alright? Where are you?"
"I'm fine sis. I'm here in Sector 4, at Unwind. Can you come get me?"
"Of course I can, but how did you get here?"
"It's a long story. I'll tell you about it when I see you."
"Alright, don't go anywhere. I'll be there soon."
The connection closed. Haze turned to the two mechs with a small smile. Lightshow grinned and patted her on the back.
"Well, while our three musical prodigies are busy working on tonight's repertoire, the three of us can have ourselves a little chat till your sister arrives," he said.
He led the way to a small table in a corner and they spent the next couple of hours telling Haze a little more about themselves, or at least Slowmotion did. Lightshow fell completely silent after a while. Slowmotion glanced at him once and it looked like the maroon mech was having some sort of internal debate. Either that or he was busy talking to one of the voices in his head; with Lightshow you never could tell. The bot had a lot of voices…. Finally he gave an imperceptible nod, as if he had come to some conclusion or agreement.
"Haze, do me one favor," he said. "Once you and your sister have collected enough money for yourselves, don't stay here. As soon as you're able, head for one of the more fortified, Autobot-dominated cities where you'll be well protected."
"Protected from what?" Haze asked.
Lightshow met her optics. "That I cant tell you. I've already gone against Jazz in telling you this much. I don't think he'd like me telling you anymore. You'll just have to trust me."
"I do trust you, but the question is, will my sister?"
"Make her. Its not safe here anymore. You have to get out and make it to an Autobot-friendly area."
"I'll try my best Lightshow, though I wish you would just tell me what it is we're running from."
"Decepticons," said Slowmotion suddenly. "Is that enough for you?"
Haze fell silent and just nodded. A long moment of silence passed, during which the front doors to Unwind opened and a femme stepped in. She glanced quickly around the area, optics finally coming to rest on the trio.
"Haze!" she called.
The other femme snapped her head up in the direction of the voice, her optics widened and a smile crept across her face.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Lightshow asked. "Go give her a hug."
Haze jumped up from her chair and ran towards the older femme who scooped her up in her arms, and the two shared a long, tight embrace. Slowmotion sighed quietly and averted his optics. Lightshow patted his out-stretched arm.
"I know the feeling," he said. "Its not easy to lose family."
The green mech nodded, then looked up with a smile again as the two femmes came up. Lightshow turned to them as well.
"Hey guys, this is Arcee, my sister," Haze said. "Arcee, meet Slowmotion and Lightshow."
"Nice meeting ya," said Lightshow.
"I should thank you for taking care of Haze," Arcee said. "I was growing rather worried for her, but I had no means of coming all the way back to Sector 2. thank you for bringing her to me."
"Not a problem," Lightshow replied.
"I wish we could stay for the show tonight so you could meet Jazz," Haze told her sister. "But I guess we have a lot of catching up to do huh?"
"You got that right Hazey," Arcee said.
"Say goodbye to Jazz for me will ya Lightshow?" Haze asked. "And tell him thanks for both of us?"
"Will do," said Lightshow.
"Oh and Strings and Electro too! Eventhough I know Electro didn't like me much."
Slowmotion laughed. "I'll do that."
Arcee nudged the younger femme. "Lets go."
Haze began to walk away, then stopped, walked back to Lightshow and gave him an extra-long hug. The mech felt his faceplate warm.
"Give Jazz a hug for me too ok?" she whispered in his audio.
"Hehe, no problem," Lightshow replied.
When the femme pulled back, he saw a little optic fluid staining her cheekplates.
"Hey," he said. "No tears young bot. You found your sister. Just remember what I told you. Now go on, she's waiting for you."
Haze nodded. With a small wave to both mechs, she rejoined Arcee and the two femmes walked out of the club. Slowmotion nudged Lightshow.
"You think Arcee's a hottie don't you?" he asked.
"She's alright," Lightshow admitted. "Though if we ever got together, I'd insist she change her paint scheme."
"Not a fan of pink huh?"
"Not quite. Now c'mon, I've got a message to deliver."
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