A/N: Life took over for a bit, but here's chapter 3! I'm not sure how long I can keep this up though, I have no idea how I want to end this. D:
Not beta read as usual, any mistakes let me know.
Optimus carefully picked his way across a pile of rocks and shrubbery and pushed away some bushes.
No one. He muttered a few choice curses as some bramble and leaves got stuck between the joints in his hands and fingers. He ignored them anyway and plodded on.
The troops had been searching for a few minutes after the revelation that some of their own had gone missing. Optimus still couldn't quite believe he hadn't noticed earlier, especially when some of the signs were so glaringly obvious. Of his senior officers, only Ironhide and Jazz had reported, First Aid was the only one tending to the injured, and a normally very obvious and visible mech had mysteriously vanished. Optimus looked behind a tree. Still no one.
"Prime! I found out what the machine does!"
The Autobot commander looked round at Wheeljack, who was, wisely, standing a safe distance away from Prime's arm reach. When the engineer hesitated, Optimus's face darkened impressively. Wheeljack whimpered, cowering.
"It–it, the machine, um, well it, or at least I think... I think it turns mechs to, um, humans."
ooo
Bumblebee nearly fell into the pile of rocks he was inspecting when a sudden loud and angry bellow of "WHAT!" startled him. The yellow minibot glanced in the direction the yell had come from, feeling a little worried for the engineer. Optimus Prime rarely got angry, but when he did, no one went near unless they were suicidal, or Ratchet. Bumblebee made a silent prayer to Primus for Wheeljack's safety before continuing his careful search around the larger rocks around the Ark.
According to Prime's and Jazz's suspicions, the flash had probably shrunk some of their own, which explained their missing presence among the crew. The troops present upon hearing this had various expressions of alarm and checked the undersides of their pedes. Thankfully, no one had reported strange scraps on the soles of their feet, yet.
A strange sound from Mirage, who was searching nearby, caught Bumblebee's attention.
"Did you find something, Mirage?"
The other mech didn't answer, only continued to stare at a spot behind some bushes. Curious, the minibot went over to inspect for himself what it was the spy was looking at. Perhaps the machine didn't just shrink mechs? What if it did something else to other things too, like change trees to flowers? Hound would probably be devastated... He peered into the the bushes where Mirage still stared, transfixed.
A naked male human stared back at him.
Bumblebee simply stared back, like Mirage, momentarily lost for words.
The human scowled.
"Quit staring already, slaggit."
Both mechs shuttered their optics and reboot their audios. Was that Cybertronian swearing they just heard?
Mirage found his voice first.
"What –"
"I'm Sunstreaker," the human cut in sourly as he stood up.
The two mechs were once again rendered speechless.
Then Mirage snickered. Sunstreaker, who hated humans so much, was now a human? Granted, he still did look quite fetching as a man, but oh the irony. The higher ups had a cruel sense of humour.
The smirk wasn't lost on the mech-turned-human though. Sunstreaker growled.
"Yeah, very funny. Now will you quit giggling and bring me somewhere already? It's slaggin' cold here."