Chapter 4: Not the Best Mech
Sideswipe pulled up to a secluded area with dim lights. It was getting dark outside and he needed some shelter. He scanned the area a for more humans, luckily there was none. He turned on his comm link and paged Optimus, "Optimus, Optimus, this is Sideswipe! Come in this is Sideswipe!" Optimus optics widened, Sideswipe! "Sideswipe, Optimus here! Are you under attack?" Optimus asked. "No sir! I am- I'm asking for shelter!" Optimus traced Sideswipe's spark signature. "Okay Sideswipe! We're letting you in now!" Jazz and Ironhide opened the door to the base and let in Sideswipe.
"Sideswipe, been a long time!" Ironhide exclaimed. "Yeah man, where have you been?" Jazz asked. Sideswipe flashed a smile, "Somewhere I shouldn't have been." Bumblebee came up to Sideswipe, "Hey there Sideswipe! Nice seeing you!" Sideswipe looked at Bumblebee, "Hey there kid, taking care of everyone's aft around here?" Bumblebee joked, "Nah, they think I'm too small." Bumblebee frowned.
"Don't worry kid, you'll get there." Sideswipe rubbed Bumblebee's helm. Optimus Prime went over to Sideswipe once he saw him. "Sideswipe, nice seeing you good friend. Where have you been?" Sideswipe hesitantly fumbled with his digits without looking Optimus in the optics, "Well, I was hiding. I was too afraid to fight, after the incident I had. I decide to stay in a cave not far from here, but two decepticons found out about my little living space. Took my energon so I could be hungry. All I'm just asking is to get some shelter here, I'll do anything. Hell, I'll even join you crew Optimus. That's all I'm asking." Optimus put a servo on Sideswipe's shoulder, "Sideswipe, you're an autobot, you can stay with us as long as you like. You belong here."
Sideswipe smiled, "Thanks Optimus." Optimus nodded. The base doors opened to reveal the rest of Optimus Prime's crew, Powerglide, Prowl, Arcee, and Wheeljack. "Man, those decepticons were harsh!" Powerglide shouted. Arcee shook her helm, "I definitely need to work on my fighting skills. I'm going to the training room." Prowl smirked, "Glad I came along, if it wasn't for me, the decepticreeps would've tore you all up!" Powerglide and Wheeljack rolled their optics.
"Well I'm going to the lab! Call me if you need me!" Wheeljack shouted. Sideswipe just wished their was one more mech that came through that door, his brother. Sunstreaker hadn't talked to Sideswipe in forever. "Bumblebee!" Optimus shouted. Prowl turned around to face Optimus, "What is it Optimus?"
"I want you to escort Sideswipe to his new quarters. It's right next to Arcee's."
"Sure thing, c'mon Sides."
Sideswipe followed Bumblebee to his quarters. "Y'know, you're really going to like it here I promise. Heck we've got a tv room, a science lab, the med bay, the control room, and an energon storage room! One of my close friends from Cybertron arrived here earlier today, she was injured really badly but she's doing much better!"
"Oh really, you've got another femme here?"
"Yep, once you get to meet her she's really cool!"
Sideswipe really didn't have time for making friends, at least friends that get too attached to you.
"Well, here's your quarters!" Bumblebee cheerily said. Sideswipe had to admit, this was pretty nice. "Thanks, kid, oh by the way, I think we're going to make good friends." Bumblebee nodded with a huge grin on his face and ran to the control room. Sideswipe forgot how dirty he was. "Might as well go by the wash racks." He said to himself. Sideswipe grabbed a cloth from the cloth dispenser and turned the water to warm. He began to get the mud and residue off.
Flashdrive got up and sat down on her chair. She opened the drawer to the desk and saw a journal and pen. "What's this?" She clicked the top of the pen and opened the journal to see it had all blank pages. This could be her journal, her own personal journal that she could write her thoughts in. She wrote about how she met her long lost friend and about her injury. She wrote about Ironhide and Jazz and how they would make awesome friends.
Just then the door to her quarters open to reveal Bumblebee with a wide grin. "So, you ready to go! Optimus said its okay!" Flashdrive almost answered when she smelled herself, "Primus, I'll be ready in a minute Bee, first I need to go to the wash racks and clean myself up." Bumblebee gave her the thumbs up and walked off. She grabbed a towel and some wax, she needed to look good for this drag race. She had to show the losers she was clean and ready to win.
The happy femme made her way to the wash racks and entered through the door. Hmm, there was somebody in here, would be better if I was alone, she thought. She turned on the shower and put her towel on floor next to her. She turned the shower to hot and steamy, just how she liked it. She began to scrub at the grime and dried energon. She got this weird feeling too, like a flashback.
She was on Cybertron in the audit boot camp, except she wasn't training. She was in the wash racks washing herself up from training. Of course her and Hot Rod were fooling around, and they both slipped on mud. She dried herself off and looked in the mirror, making sure she didn't look like a bum off the streets of Kaon. As she made her way out of the wash racks she happened to spot Hot Rod, already cleaned up, waiting for her outside.
"Femmes do take long showers, the myths are true!" He joked. Flashdrive rolled her optics, "Hardy har har, you're such a riot!" Hot Rod chuckled. "I hope you know Kup assigned us to clean up, for like the 83rd time." Hot Rod informed her. Flashdrive made another sarcastic remark, "Well that's a surprise. You know 'Rod, I think Kup is at his wit's end with us. I think we should do something nice for him, like clean up his office or something like that." Hot Rod stuck out his glossa, "Boring! What about something awesome and radical!" Flashdrive forgot how insane Hot Rod's ideas were. "'Rod, did you forget he's old and cranky, just like Ratchet the Hatchet."
Hot Rod laughed, "Why don't we invite him to the race we're going to?" Flashdrive thought about the idea, "You know what, that's not a bad idea." Hot Rod began to brag, "Yes, I know, I'm a cool, handsome, fun, genius!" Flashdrive giggled and patted him on his back, "I'm not sure about the genius part sometimes." Flashdrive remembered that day, that was the first day they actually made Kup happy for once. That was also the first day Flashdrive realized that Hot Rod was actually smarter than she believed.
Sideswipe looked to the third stall away from him. That steam was filling up the whole shower room. "So much for not caring to turn down their water." He mumbled to himself. Sideswipe frowned and decided to tell the fragger to turn their water down. He walked to the stall and began to complain, "Excuse me! Can you please turn the water…" Flashdrive turned around screamed and put a towel over herself, her bare protoform was showing for Primus sake.
"Excuse yourself! I'm washing myself up in here!" Sideswipe had to admit, this femme was cute when she was mad. Wait, the frag was he thinking! "Excuse myself! For your information, your water is too steamy!" Sideswipe shouted. Flashdrive thought this mech was handsome, the way his red armor gleamed in the light and, wait, what was she thinking.
They both stared at each other and locked optics, Now those, are some beautiful optics! Sideswipe thought. Flashdrive snapped out of it and came back to her senses, "Now excuse me, since you have interrupted my calm shower, I'm going to leave!" Flashdrive grabbed her soap and wax and paced walked out of the wash racks embarrassingly. Sideswipe smirked and went back to his shower, he didn't usually act that way towards femmes, bus she was special.
Flashdrive went down the hallway to accidentally bump into Powerglide, Wheeljack, and Prowl. Double her misfortune. "What the, a femme!" Powerglide shouted. "A wet one at that!" Wheeljack added. "Hey! Who are you!" Prowl asked. Flashdrive got up from tripping over her feet, "I'm, Flashdrive. Who are you?" She asked frantically. "My names Powerglide!" Flashdrive raised an optic ridge, Poweglide's accent was different. "My name is Wheeljack! At your service!" Wheeljack winked at her which made Flashdrive giggle. "I'm Prowl, but most bots call me Prowler." Flashdrive nodded, "Nice to meet you Powerglide, Wheeljack, Prowler."
They all exchanged friendly smiles, "Well, um, I'm sorry but I kinda need to dry off, pit on my protoform." Flashdrive said with a grin. "Oh sorry. All of us should get going now. Nice meeting you Flashdrive!" Prowl suddenly said. Flashdrive walked off and waved her goodbye. As Prowl, Wheeljack, and Powerglide entered the control room Wheeljack suddenly burst out to Optimus, Ratchet, and Bumblebee, "Hey, did you guys know there's a hot femme staying here?"
Sideswipe turned off the shower head and dried himself off. Waxed himself and then suddenly relaxed, he sighed, "Now this is what I call clean." He picked up his stuff and something fell out of his pouch, the one he carried his wax in. It was a picture. A picture of him and Sunstreaker in the Nevada Desert, long story of how they ended up there. He smiled, he remembered how Sunstreaker complained about it being so hot that he thought his armor would melt. Sideswipe wasn't the type of mech to cry, but at that moment he kind of wanted to. "Don't worry brother, I'm going to find you very soon."
Hello guys, just wanted to tell you, the ending kind of bummed me out because now I have to come up with some backstory of how Sideswipe and Sunstreaker fell out! So work with me and don't be mad I haven't made it to chapter 6 by now. Don't worry I'm gettting there!