Adaptations of Love
By Winged Dreamer and Nightmare
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Chapter Two
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Ron growled in frustration as the floor beneath him continued to shake from Sam bouncing his legs in the van's backseat despite how many times he had told him to stop. Ever since they had crossed the city boundary, the youngest Witwicky had been anxious to get home and talk to his Camaro for the first time in two weeks. It was starting to drive Ron crazy. "Sam, will you stop that! Judy, tell your son to sit still already!"
"Oh, Ron. He's just excited to see that car... robot... alien again. No, offense, Chromia." Judy patted the dashboard in front of her affectionately like she would pat a friend's shoulder and then went back to her scarf knitting.
"Autobot, Mom. Au-to-bot," Sam corrected just as his father retorted with, "I can understand he's excited, but that doesn't mean he has to shake the car apart! Sam, please, just stop for five minutes! Jeez... Look, it's been a nice, relaxing two weeks and I would like to end this vacation on a good note."
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry." Sighing, Sam stopped wriggling and tried to content himself with staring out the window. While he liked Chromia and all – she reminded him very much of a female version of Ironhide – she wasn't Bumblebee and Sam was going to go crazy if he didn't see his best friend again and soon. There was so much for Sam to tell about his trip and he couldn't wait to see Bee's face when he showed him all the pictures he'd taken.
It was at that moment that Chromia turned into the Witwicky driveway. The Uplander's engine revved, an unusual sound from the normally quiet block, and at almost the same moment Judy asked, "Sam, do you know that black car with the flames? Is it, y'know, one of them?"
"What?" Undoing his seatbelt, Sam leaned forward between the front seats. In their driveway, where Bumblebee was supposed to be parked, was an old, black Firebird Trans Am with flames on the nose. Confused, he didn't even wait for Chromia to stop before he opened the side door and hopped out, completely ignoring his father's loud scold. A quick glance at the truck next to the Trans Am showed no indication that Trailbreaker had any problems with the presence of the new car, meaning it was probably another Autobot. Maybe with a message from Optimus? Oh god, what if something was wrong with Bumblebee?! Fear churned in Sam's stomach as he strode up to the new car and patted it on the roof, asking, "Hey, what's going on? Is everything okay? Is Bee okay?"
In response the Trans Am popped the driver's door open, gently bumping Sam's hip. From within the vehicle the radio fuzzed with static before a deep, resonating voice filtered out through the old car's new speakers. "Sam, this is Optimus Prime. I am sorry that Bumblebee is not there to greet you on your return, but he is still performing the duties I requested of him. He sends his own apologies as well. The Autobot I have sent in his stead in the newly arrived Hotshot. Please be patient with his..."
The audio file fell silent with the hiss of static.
"Please be patient with his what? Hey, I know there was more to that!" Sam slapped Hotshot's roof in frustration.
Another second ticked by in silence before the audio file resumed. "...Still, he is a good and loyal soldier. I would also like to take this moment to offer you and your family an invitation to visit New Tyger Pax at the end of this week at which time you will be reunited with Bumblebee. It is our sincere hope that you will accept. Until we meet again, Sam. Optimus Prime out."
Sam was about to demand that Hotshot play the bit he had clearly edited out when Trailbreaker popped his door open hard enough to actually rock the smaller Autobot on impact. The human stared for a brief moment before snickering. "I'm asking Optimus what you left out. Don't think I won't," he threatened, patting the roof one last time, then walked back to his very confused parents. "That's Hotshot. Optimus still needs Bee back at base, so Hotshot's subbing for him. And Optimus invited us to visit the base at the end of the week."
Judy looked over her son's shoulder and waved to their guest with an enthusiastic grin. "I don't know. We just got back from vacation, but if Mr. Prime is offering us a look at their new base, well, I don't see how we can refuse. Ron?"
Her husband shrugged. "So long as the visit doesn't take any longer than the weekend, sure, because I have to be back in the office on Monday. Where is their base, anyway?"
"I don't know, Bee never told me. All I know is it's on some land the government gave them."
"Well, I'm sure that we'll be taking all of them with us, so if push comes to shove your father and I can just have Trailbreaker or Chromia bring us back here. I'm not saying that I want you to stay there as long as you please, but if you wanted to stay longer than the weekend, Sam, I don't see how it would be a problem."
"And you complain about me being too easy on him," Ron grumbled good-naturedly, pulling a suitcase out of the van as Sam whooped. "Hey, Sam, help me take these back into the house."
"Yes, sir!" Grinning at the very idea of spending more than a couple days at Autobot City or whatever they'd named it – New Tyger Pax, that was it – Sam grabbed another suitcase and hauled it into the house. Once they were done moving everything, he began to wash Chromia as a thank you for transporting them all over the western United States for two weeks.
"Are you excited to go see everyone again?" asked Sam, in the middle of scrubbing bug guts of Chromia's windshield. The windows had been rolled down so she could talk to him through the radio just as Bumblebee did.
"Upside down! Bouncing off the ceiling!" filtered out the window. A few days in the presence of Bumblebee had taught the other Witwicky Guardians well how to communicate through the radio even if they weren't quite as fluid or creative with it as their teacher.
Sam laughed. "Yeah, me too. I wonder how Ironhide's doing," he teased, knowing full well how close Chromia was to the weapons specialist.
"The more things change the more they stay the same. Everything's right as rain," the radio responded after a little pause for Chromia to find the right song.
"You know, maybe we can convince Optimus to give you some time off," he continued to tease playfully. "Trade guard duty with someone else for a while so you can help back at the city. You too, Trailbreaker. I mean, you guys have been here, what, over half a year now and you've both spent most of that time playing baby-sitter to my parents." Finished with the windshield, Sam moved on to the tires.
"What's with the Trans Am?" Mikaela's voice easily carried from the edge of the driveway.
Sam glanced up only long enough to give Mikaela a brief wave with his rag, focused on getting all the road dirt off of Chromia's wheel covers. "Hey. That's Hotshot. He's subbing for Bee while Bee does some stuff for Optimus. What's up?"
"Who're Hotshot, Bee, and Optimus?" That was not Mikaela's voice.
'Oh shit.' Sam froze for half a breath before getting to his feet and putting on what he hoped was the most unsuspicious smile in the world. "Miles. Hey. What are you doing here?" Mikaela was so going to die for not cluing him in to Miles' presence. They had managed to keep the existence of the Autobots from him for this long and to let something so stupid as a verbal slip give the them away was horrifically embarrassing, not to mention dangerous.
"We're here to say hi and see how your trip went." Confused by the overly huge smile on his friend's face, Miles could only give him an odd look. "What's up?"
"Oh, nothing," said Sam with an exaggerated shrug. "Hotshot's the name of the Trans Am. Bee's my car, and he needed some work done 'cause he was starting to sound a little funny. I think a couple rocks or something got up in the engine. Anyway, Optimus is the guy working on him for me and he's lending me his car until Bee's fixed. 'Cause, you know, I can't exactly drive Mom and Dad's cars 'cause they need them."
"Right. Whatever you say, man." Miles shook his head, used to Sam's bizarre tendencies, and walked over to the Trans Am to check it out, unaware of the huge breath Sam let out once he was out of immediate earshot.
Mikaela came to stand beside Sam and sized Miles up for a moment while the other boy ran his hands over the Trans Am's fender. "We need to come up with some code phrases or something," she stated in a low voice before turning to confront Sam eye to eye. "I think we should tell him."
"Are you cr- No. No, absolutely not." Firmly shaking his head, Sam crossed his arms and kept a close eye on Miles to make sure he couldn't hear them. "It's bad enough that he already thinks I spend too much time with my car. If we tell him, he'll think we've gone insane and call the guys with the white coats on us. No."
"And what are you going to do if one of the Decepticons shows up while he's with you? You remember how I got accidentally roped into this whole thing? Hm? You could at least give him some warning!" Mikaela too was keeping an eye on Miles, but her voice was getting a little louder as she got a bit more adamant. "At least ask Optimus and see what he thinks, alright? You can't just leave him in the dark until he's tossed into the fire."
"So why are you bringing this up now? Why didn't you bring this up, say, almost a year ago right after the war ended, when there was a higher chance of getting attacked? We haven't seen a Decepticon since Megatron died, Mikaela. The chances of them coming back are pretty slim without their leader. I think Miles is safe, and the fewer people who know, the safer the Autobots are. No. We're not telling him."
"Fine. You know what, I'll tell him." Throwing her hands up in the air Mikaela strode toward Miles, mumbling about the necessity of protectors and the contradictory need for secrecy against the safety of another friend.
"No! Mikaela!" Knowing full well how stubborn she could be, Sam grabbed her arm and yanked her back to him. Forcing her to meet his gaze, he hissed, "He doesn't need to know, and it'll be better if he doesn't. He'll be safer that way."
Mikaela stared at him for a moment and then frowned. "Fine. On your head be it."
"You promise not to tell him?" Sam insisted, refusing to let go just yet.
"I won't tell him."
"Please tell me you guys aren't arguing about the whole 'we make better friends than a couple' issue again," called Miles from his seat on Hotshot's hood. It seemed like every time Sam and Mikaela argued, it was about whether to rekindle the short-lived flame they'd had at the beginning of last summer or not.
"Naw, Miles. Mikaela was just complaining about her new jock and she didn't like it very much when I told her to dump him." Letting go of her arm, Sam shrugged.
Mikaela shot him a glare that promised retribution for that comment later and headed over to stand beside Miles. "Get in the car," she told him shortly and headed for the Trans Am's passenger door to get it open for the blond boy to get in the back. "We're going to Lookout. Hurry up and rinse the van off, Sam. I'll help you finish up with the wash later."
"Yeah, because Dad'll love that I took off in the middle of chores. I'm going to finish washing the van now, and then we can go to the lookout." Sam gave Mikaela a stubborn look and bent down to finish the wheel he had been working on.
"You two are scary when you're fighting, you know that?" Miles muttered to Mikaela as he slipped into the car, knowing better than to not obey when she was in a mood.
"Fine, but if you don't hurry up, Miles and I will leave without you," Mikaela threatened and threw herself into the passenger's seat to pull out her phone. Seconds later she was texting away with someone, biting her lip as if she were really concentrating on what she was saying to the person on the other end.
Miles waited for Mikaela to put her phone away before leaning forward between the two front seats. "Okay, so I totally don't buy Sam's story about sending his Camaro to a shop. Do you have any idea what's really going on?"
Lowering her voice and looking at him, Mikaela murmured, "If you're quiet and don't ask Sam any questions about it, I'll show you when we get to Lookout, okay?"
"So you do know what's going on. Jeez, I hate being left out of the loop." Scowling, Miles fell back into the backseat and crossed his arms, impatient for Sam to finish washing the van.
"Sorry," said Mikaela, sounding truly apologetic. Then she leaned out the open car door a bit and yelled, "Sam! Hurry up!"
"This would go a lot faster if you would help me!" he yelled back, almost finished with the third tire.
Huffing, Mikaela leaned back into the seat again but only for a second. In the next instant she was pushing up out of the car and moving around to the hood. "Pop it," she ordered loud enough for Miles to hear her while she ran gentle hands over the seam of the hood of the Trans Am. With as impatient as she was there was no way she would sit still and helping Sam while she was irritated with him wouldn't be the best idea, so fiddling with their new friend it was.
Sam could almost hear Hotshot purring when he was finished with washing Chromia. Mikaela was deep into the workings of Hotshot's engine, tinkering with some unseen component, and Sam just had to smirk when the sunlight hit the Trans Am's headlights in just the right way to make it look like the Autobot was begging him to wait just a little longer before telling Mikaela he was ready to go. Shaking his head, Sam climbed into the driver's seat and called out the window, "You have five seconds to get your hands out of the engine before I start the car. Five... Four..."
Delivering one last caress to one of the wires she had been examining, Mikaela pulled out of the hood and wiped her hands off on a shop rag she had acquired within the ten minutes it had taken for her to get so involved under Hotshot's hood. The metal lid closed with a soft but resounding thunk and she tossed the rag into the trunk before getting into the passenger seat and closing the door. "Let's go then."
It took a couple turns of the key and a mutter of, "Come on, don't be a dumbass," from Sam before Hotshot started and let Sam steer him towards the lookout.
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Used as he was to the Autobots doing the actual driving, it was too easy for Sam to zone out behind the wheel, even with Miles and Mikaela chatting it up. One more week. One more week and then he'd finally see Bumblebee again. He needed to develop all the photos he'd taken on the trip so he could show Bee, and maybe New Tyger Pax was close enough to the Grand Canyon for the two of them to sneak out one night and go on a really quick impromptu road trip. Maybe...
"What the hell is that?!"
Snapped out of his reverie by Miles' startled exclamation, Sam brought his attention back to his surroundings and spotted Swerve waiting for them at the edge of the lookout. Not Swerve the Corvette, no – Swerve the Autobot.
"Mikaela!" he yelled, trying to steer Hotshot back onto the road, but the wheel refused to turn.
"What?" Mikaela asked innocently as Hotshot sped up just enough to quick turn so that he was practically sliding sideways. The driver's door popped open just as the seatbelt unbuckled and retracted, effectively dumping Sam unharmed onto the ground as the black Trans Am came to a complete stop. Smirking, Mikaela got out, pulled the seat forward and beckoned to Miles. "Come on. There's someone I want you to meet."
Pale and turning paler by the second, Miles shook his head and pressed himself into the backseat, unable to tear his gaze from the giant robot patiently standing outside. "Uh uh. No way am I getting out of the car. Sam! Get back in here so we can get out of here!"
Frowning, Sam ducked his head into the car. "Just get out of the car, Miles. You." He glared at Mikaela. "If we get in trouble for this, you're taking the heat. And you." He kicked Hotshot's doorframe. "Are an ass. Come on, let's see what Swerve has to say."
"Swerve checked with Optimus and Bumblebee vouched for Miles, so if anyone is going to be taking heat here it's you. You should have told him a long time ago and most of the Autobots actually agree with me since 'his very presence in our lives puts him in danger and he, like all sentient beings, has the right to know and choose for himself.'" Turning her attention back to Miles, Mikaela offered him her hand and motioned him out with it. "C'mon. I'm sure Hotshot wants to transform and stretch his legs a little, and you can't be in him when he shifts. Let's go. Out!"
"B-B-But I-" Miles squeaked as Mikaela grabbed him by the front of the shirt and forcibly hauled him out of the car, managing to stay on his feet only because of her grip. The sound of metal shifting and gears whirring made him turn around just in time to see the Trans Am fold and stretch in ways that shouldn't have been possible until a second giant robot stood on the cliff with them. Staring up at Hotshot, Miles quietly whimpered.
"And this is part of why I didn't want to tell him," grumbled Sam, striding up to Swerve. "Did Optimus really give the okay?"
Getting down on one knee to put himself closer to Sam's level, Swerve calmly nodded. "I contacted Optimus Prime and after verifying the boy's trustworthiness with Bumblebee, Optimus authorized telling him about us. It is in your friend's best interests."
"Right. Of course." Sam scrubbed his hands over his face in exasperation.
Meanwhile, Mikaela was busily trying to persuade Miles closer to Hotshot as Hotshot knelt in the grass and dirt so that he would seem less imposing. Exasperated, Mikaela very slowly told him, "Miles, these are our friends. You really don't have anything to worry about. Without the Autobots there wouldn't even be an Earth at this point. At least not like the Earth we know. Can't you at least show a little nerve and say hello?"
"You probably shouldn't push him too hard, Mikaela. If he is really scared of me, it'll only hurt his acceptance of the Autobots as a whole," Hotshot soothed and slowly rose to his full height once more. "Swerve! Long time no see! It's been what? A few meta-cycles?" he enthusiastically greeted the other Autobot and offered his fist for a knuckle bash over the tops of the humans' heads.
Swerve easily tapped knuckles with the younger Autobot after climbing to his feet, not surprised at all to see that Hotshot was already picking up human behaviors. "Something like that. I hear you're already getting yourself into trouble and you haven't even been here a couple days," he joked.
"Heh, I'm not in any kind of trouble," Hotshot denied with an insistent shake of his head. "Anyway, how have things on Earth been for you?"
"Comfortably quiet. It's been nice to have some downtime now that the war is in a stalemate."
Rolling his eyes as the Autobots chatted it up as if nothing was wrong, Sam strode back to his human friends and grabbed Miles' arm. The blond was staring in disbelief at the Autobots and his silence was starting to get a little worrying. "Oi. Earth to Miles. Mikaela, I swear, if he's damaged by this, I am never going to forgive you."
Swerve turned his gaze to the still pale Miles. "Is he going to be okay, Mikaela?"
Sizing Miles up for a moment, Mikaela nodded completely ignoring Sam. "It's a lot to take in but he's going to be just fine. I mean, look at Sam and I. We're great and we met you guys under far worse circumstances than this."
"Yeah, but we didn't have a choice about accepting it. It was either go with the flow or die, remember?" Sam pointed out.
"Those are giant robots," whispered Miles, pointing at the Autobots with a slightly shaking hand. "And... they've been here this whole time?"
"Well, since just before the 'terrorist attack' in Mission City," corrected Sam. "These are the good guys, Miles, I promise. Mikaela and I helped them fight the bad guys, and they're staying here on Earth because their home planet... isn't exactly habitable anymore. Blame the bad guys."
"So... you two have been hanging out with giant robots for the past year." Miles was starting to recover some of his color.
Mikaela nodded. "Yeah. Swerve is also my Corvette. Sam's Camaro is actually an Autobot named Bumblebee."
"And Mom's van's name is Chromia, and Dad's truck is Trailbreaker. They got assigned baby-sitter duty to my parents, kind of like how Bee's my guardian and Swerve is Mikaela's." Sam shrugged.
"You two have been hanging out with giant robots... and you never told me?!" Miles yelped, shoving Sam's chest. "Do you have any idea how cool this is?! Giant robots, man! Giant robots!"
"Giant alien robots," offered Swerve, highly amused by Miles' new reaction.
"Giant alien robots that turn into really hot cars," Mikaela added with a playful near-to-flirtatious smile for her guardian.
Hotshot laughed and folded his arms. "I like yours, Swerve. She's a lot more than she seems to be when you first see her."
"You have no idea." Swerve chuckled lightly.
"O-okay! Uncle! Ow! Miles, quit it!" Protecting his head from Miles' continued assault, Sam stepped backwards towards Hotshot in hopes of using the Autobot as a meat shield. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you, but it wasn't our secret to tell! OW! Mikaela! Help!"
"Oh, no you don't! No hiding behind the girl, Sam!" Miles managed to catch his old friend in a firm headlock and delivered a rough noogie until Sam begged for mercy. Releasing Sam from his grip, he turned back to Hotshot and Swerve. "So where do you guys come from? Can you only turn into cars? Why cars? Why Earth? How many more of you are there?"
Hotshot laughed again this time at Miles' suddenly eager curiosity. "Relax, Miles. You and Mikaela have been invited to New Tyger Pax as well, so you'll get all of your questions answered next weekend. But we come from the planet Cybertron, we did not choose Earth so much as Earth held by chance what we were looking for, and there are more of us arriving every so many weeks."
"So how many of you are there right now?" insisted Miles.
"Approximately fifteen. I believe the twins arrived yesterday." Swerve turned to Hotshot for confirmation.
That caught Sam's attention. "Twins? You mean you guys can actually have siblings?" Bumblebee had told them how Cybertronians were "born" from a protoform that had been given "spark," but he had never mentioned the possibility of siblings.
"Yeah they did," Hotshot answered. "Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are... well, I guess you could call them Spark Siblings more than twins, but then the Spark split between them forces them to take on the appearance of the other. It's really just the personality that varies, so yeah, by all definitions they're twins."
"That's so cool," Mikaela murmured and stepped closer to Swerve. Her pleasure in the fact that he had the courtesy to kneel down so he could be closer to eye level with her was plain on her face when she smiled and asked, "So do you have, like, a brother or sister, Swerve?"
"No. I am an... only child, I think your expression is. We don't have parents the way humans do, so the only way to have a sibling is to share a Spark with another Cybertronian."
Miles' face was bright enough to rival a kid who had been let loose in a candy store. "This is so frickin' cool. God, I have a hundred million questions and I don't know what to ask first."
Swerve chuckled. "As Hotshot said, you are all invited to visit our new home this coming weekend. You can ask all the questions you want then, as just the two of us probably won't be able to answer them all."
"I am so there. You guys are going, right?"
Sam nodded. "Me and my parents got the invitation a while before you two showed up."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Mikaela promised and then folded her arms. "So what do we want to do now?"
The blond boy immediately sat down on the dusty grass, making it very clear that he refused to be moved. "I want to hear about how you two met these guys."
"That is a story I would not mind hearing again," said Swerve as he readjusted himself into a sitting position.
"We can do that." Grinning, Sam flopped down next to Miles. "So who wants to start?"
"I think you should start with the whole 'Gettin' chased by my car right now. Gotta go,' bit, Sam. Or at least really launch the story from there." The wrinkle to Mikaela's nose definitely told them that she was picking on Sam. However, Miles was the only one who didn't know that it was because of how excited and animated Sam got when he started talking about the day his life was turned upside down.
"And I have yet to actually hear a telling of the story itself. I've only ever been given the barest facts of the whole ordeal," Hotshot agreed as he too settled on the ground on the other side of the humans. He watched as Mikaela sat at last and leaned back on her hands. Hotshot glanced at Swerve then, knowingly, before returning his attention to Sam Witwicky.
"Naw, I won't start there. Actually, the whole mess started when Dad and I went to Bobby Bolivia's Used Car Lot to buy a car..."
TBC…
Song Credits:
"Upside Down" by the ATeens
"Right As Rain" by Rosette Stone