Freinenemies
Alexa stood stiffly in front of Breeze the next morning. How to wake a giant alien car... She could poke it. That didn't seem polite though. Was Breeze even asleep? It wasn't like she had eyes that opened and closed or little blinky lights. Alexa backed away and inched forward, unsure. "Breeze?" she finally whispered.
Breeze came quickly out of recharge, carefully stretching in her alt-form, and then relaxed, "Good beginning of your solar cycle, Alexa." It didn't occur to her that Alexa would have no idea what a solar cycle was. She yawned and put out her sensor to check for con activity and sighed with relief when no blips appeared on her scanners.
Alexa thought for a moment. "You mean... like day? Light-time on earth?" she asked. "And why just mine? Do you stay up later?" Alexa shifted on her feet and sighed. The question flood had started. It probably wouldn't end soon.
"Beginning of light-time on earth," Breeze suddenly realized she had much to learn about Earth time, and her computer was stillbroken.
"Cybertron's time is vastly different from yours I assume. Our nights are much longer, since we have two moons and only one sun."
Alexa nodded, "Our day is 24 hours, and its 12 day hours and 12 night hours," she clarified. "And we only have one sun too, unless someone's playing some awful tricks..."
Breeze frowned in confusion, "How could someone play tricks with your sun?"
Alexa thought a moment before responding. "I suppose if they had a big enough mirror it would work out," she shrugged, stuck some sort of something in her mouth and started sucking on it.
"Oh," Breeze smiled slightly before asking, "What's that you stuck in your...mouth?"
Alexa responded by holding out something small, green and hard in her hand. It had a plastic wrapper around it with the words "Sour Apple" typed on it. "Ish candeh," Alexa managed to say, "Its kinda sour but ish good."
"Oh! We have candy too. I don't know how to describe it in your terms though... it's rather chewy and sweet. I believe some candy is sour," Breeze grinned. Humans weren't that different, but there was some difference in wording.
Alexa, for the life of her, couldn't imagine a giant robot eating candy. For instance, where did it go, and what happened to it? "How do you eat?" she asked as she tried to decide if it was rude to try to open Breeze's door.
Breeze thought for a moment how to explain about it then finally said, "Probably similar to your method, but with tubes and wires. The energon, our food, gives us energy. We absorb it into our systems."
"Then what?"
"It dissipates when we have used it up. What about you?"
Alexa blinked before giving a nervous giggle. "Can I get in first? I need to grab groceries today." Andfigureouthowthefliptoanswerthat...
"Sure," Breeze popped her door open for her, and then waited for her to get in and answer.
"Well we eat food and it doesn't just... dissipate into nothing..." Alexa began to explain as she got in, sat down and awkwardly explained the facts of life to Breeze.
Breeze blinked for a moment, and then sighed, "Anything else awkward I should know before asking something strange? Besides sparkling creation. I just will leave that topic alone."
Alexa sighed and stuck Breeze's keys in ignition without thinking, and started driving her to the store. "Well... I mean I could think of things if you want me too..."
"...Well, I'll be sure not to ask around other people and 'Bots," Breeze jolted a bit as Alexa drove her to the store, feeling rather used. She was used to driving herself.
Alexa, on impulse, pressed the gas pedal. "What's that for Breeze?" she asked.
"Speeding up?" Breeze replied with a question in her voice, "It's also used for energy boosts in robot form."
Alexa smacked her head on the steering wheel. "No! That jolty thing you did. I know what a gas pedal is," she snorted. "C'mon, I'm not that stupid..."
"I'm not used to being driven and it startled me when you started driving instead of letting me," Breeze sighed, "I know you aren't stupid."
Alexa laughed, grinned and let go of the steering wheel. "Ok, you can drive," she told Breeze. "Sorry, humans drive cars... it's like... our thing you know." It would take awhile for Alexa not to try to drive Breeze herself.
Breeze relaxed and took control. She hoped they would both get used to driving either way, just in case. There could be a time that Breeze wouldn't be able to drive herself, and she wanted to be prepared.
"It's alright, I don't need to drive all the time, I just need a little warning is all," she smiled. She didn't mind too much, as long as Alexa asked.
Alexa yawned and stretched. "So, do you guys ever- GET OVER!" Alexa grabbed the wheel and launched the poor Corvette to the side of the road. Cars honked and swerved around them while Alexa panted and leaned out the window. "Oh gosh, oh gosh is it ok? Is it... oh good. It think it made it..." she sighed. "Sorry... um... there was a squirrel." she muttered.
Breeze yelped, "Was that necessary? What the scrap is a squirrel anyway?" Her fans were whirring from the sudden takeover by Alexa.
Alexa stuck her head out the window and pointed. "That!" she practically screamed, gesturing in the vague direction of where the squirrel had been. "And unless you want it splattered all over you then I suggest you avoid them! Besides, it's cruel to hurt them!" She was breathing hard and sort of shivering at the burst of adrenaline rushed through her system.
"Well I didn't know!" Breeze growled, "I suggest you warn me of anymore small creatures that inhabit this planet that I must avoid. I don't have my Internet." She felt bad for Alexa's shivering, but she wasn't pleased when Alexa had taken control right after they had a talk about Breeze being the one to drive.
"Well why don't you fix it?" snapped Alexa.
"I can't! I'm not a medic," Breeze retorted, "Unless you want to go to base, where there are a lot of Autobots. I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to bring you there."
Alexa weighed her options. She really wasn't feeling the love for the Autobots lately. They were like big... well children so far as she had seen. It scared her. However if it would fix her... whatever Breeze was to her... gurardian? Friend? then it might be a good idea to head over there.
Breeze waited quietly, calming down. She was tired of not knowing what things were and freaking Alexa out because she didn't know. "I'm sorry for yelling. It startled me and as I said earlier, I'm not used to someone driving me," she said softly.
Alexa sighed and sat calmly. "Just go get yourself fixed or whatever. That should take care of a lot of things," she replied.
Breeze frowned, but just sighed, pulled away from the curb, and drove toward the base. Alexa was upset with her. Breeze officially hated squirrels until she could understand what they were exactly.
Alexa took a few minutes to calm herself down, staring out the window and studiously ignoring Breeze before coming back down to Earth. "So... how long does it take for you to get fixed?" she asked as she watched a police car go speeding off to who-knows-where.
"Depends on the injury or problem. This shouldn't take too long," Breeze replied softly. She messaged base to let them know she was coming in with Alexa for repairs.
Ratchet sent back a message saying he would be waiting and that Alexa shouldn't be a problem from what he had heard.
After around thirty minutes driving, Breeze pulled up to the base and opened a door for Alexa. "Stay close. I don't want anyone to accidentally step on you..." Breeze told her.
"Joy," muttered Alexa as she got out. A pair of bright blue optics peeked out at her from behind a barrel nearby before disappearing. Alexa stood stiffly, mildly nervous. The optics reappeared, this time as part a small silver and black robot, slightly taller then Alexa. "Sup!" it called over to her and Breeze. Alexa blinked and stared.
Breeze transformed and smiled, "Who are you little one?" After a few moments, a bright orange bot with black racing stripes walked out, a few feet shorter that Breeze's 14 foot height. Startled, she scanned the height and grinned. This new brightly colored bot was only eleven feet tall.
"Hello, you must be Breeze and Alexa," the orange bot grinned, "My designation is Wildstrike, I work with Ratchet. This is Soul." Wildstrike purred at the little bot.
Soul grinned cheerfully at everyone. "Ratchet told me to come out and greet you guys and lead you to med bay and stuff. Nice to meet ya!" she chirped and took a few steps towards Breeze and Alexa. Alexa, for her part, was fascinated but remained wary. She backed into Breezes foot and looked up at her, embarrassed. Soul stared at her curiously. "I'm not gonna hurt you," she grinned. "Come on, medbay is this way," she said suddenly, and started leading the others through base. Medbay was located somewhere in the middle and could be confusing to find for those who were there for the first time.
Breeze smiled down at Alexa, "It will be fine Alexa." She began following the small bot toward medbay. Wild walked with Soul, smiling back at Alexa and Breeze. Breeze was curious. Who was Wildstrike bonded to? She was a very small bot, even for Cybertronian standards. Shemusthavemini-botinher,Breeze thought to herself.
Alexa practically had to jog to keep up. She managed to keep up though and followed, studying everything and everyone they passed. The whole time, Soul rambled happily. "...and Jazz is my dad, I guess that's the human word for it. I'm best friends with, like everyone here, even Firestorm but he gets grouchy really easy. His aunts nice though, and his mom and dad, so I don't know where he gets it..."
Breeze listened carefully. Jazz's?Nowitmakessense...
A loud whine pierced the air as they reached Medbay, along with angry clicks, whistles, and chirps.
"Oh boy... Scatter doesn't like checkups either..." Wild muttered. Breeze wasn't sure who Scatter was, but she sounded very young from the baby language she was hearing.
Oddly enough there was some adult whining thrown into that mix as well, and some different adult growling and... was that cursing? Alexa stuck close to Breeze but was deeply interested. Whatonearthwasallthatracket? "Wild, get in here and help me," someone growled over some slight scuffling noise.
Wild hurried in and sighed, "Star, control your children."
Breeze stared at the sight that met her eyes. A small sparkling with bright blue optics was whining and trying to avoid the resident medic, Ratchet. The sparkling was trying to hide, her little blue gray doorwings quivering along with her mouth and white chevron. A navy blue femme was trying to calm the little one and scolding the adult for being a bad influence. Breeze was somewhere between holding in a laugh and wondering what on earth was going on.
The black and white mech being scolded was hiding in a corner, sort of whimpering at the femme about the evils of checkups, and desperately begging her to let him rescue his daughter and leave. Alexa coughed, holding back a laugh. The little struggling bot was finally being held down by a bot that obviously transformed into an ambulance. "Look.. the sooner we get done... the sooner you can go play," the ambulance sighed. "Calm yourself. You too Prowl."
The navy femme sighed, "Prowl, Scatterstar be fine. You know why we have check ups. Scatter, calm down. It won't hurt."
Scatter whimpered and finally stopped struggling, but let out one defiant chirp. Breeze watched, amused. She was impressed with this femme who had a commanding air about her. From what was going on, she could only assume she was bonded to Prowl, and Scatter was their sparkling.
Wild went to Ratchet and rubbed Scatter's doorwings, purring soothingly to the whimpering tiny femme.
"Thank you," muttered Ratchet as he checked the little femme over. "Now... lets see... optics are bright, overall appearance is good... doorwings are obviously working right..." he continued to mutter as he finished off the scans and grinned. "There you go Scatterstar. All done. Go get some candy with Wild and go play." The smile dropped off his face as he looked at Prowl. "Get over here wuss," he growled.
Wild scooped up Scatter and cuddled her, handing her a piece of energon candy. Scatter happily popped it in her mouth and munched, looking around. Then she spotted Alexa and chirped, tilting her head curiously. Prowl's bonded pulled him over to Ratchet.
"Calm down and you'll be fine. Look at Scatter, does she look tortured?" she pointed out. Breeze grinned. The Tactician certainly had the right femme for him.
Prowl growled and submitted to Star, and then Ratchet. Ratchet growled at Prowl as he examined him. "You need to quit working so much. It's wearing on some of your systems," he told him. "That's all that's wrong. You can leave," he said as he finished up. Prowl blinked, and practically ran away. "Good grief..." sighed Ratchet.
Alexa was absorbed in studying Scatter. She was just so cute! Alexa wanted to try chirping back at her, but there were too many people around. It would be embarrassing. She glanced up at Breeze, then at Scatter again. Was Scatter a baby? It seemed that way...
Wild snickered slightly, "So Electrostar..."
"Don't you start. I'm not sure where he gets it from. Yes, you can take care of Scatter for a bit. Remember..."
"Yes sister, Scatter is a sparkling, and I need to handle her gently. You keep forgetting about Soul," Wild grinned at Star, "Go hang out with your poor bonded."
Star grinned slightly, nodding to Breeze as she went out after Prowl. Scatter chirped a few more times and looked up at Wild, who grinned.
"Alexa, Scatter would like to meet you. She's a baby in your terms, and she wants on the floor. Do you mind?" she asked Alexa. Breeze smiled. Such a cute little femme.
"Uh... no. I guess not..." she answered quietly, grinning somewhat nervously. Bigbaby, she thought. "Do you need something... Breeze, is it?" Ratchet asked.
Breeze nodded, "My Internet is broken, and it isn't fixing itself. I need it badly."
Scatter was set on the floor in front of Alexa. The little femme sat there and chirped softly, and then seemed to be thinking hard about something as her little nose wrinkled up a bit.
"Hi," Scatter chirped, optics bright, "I say right?" Wild grinned excitedly and commed Star, "Star,you'vegottoseethis,Scattersaidherfirsthumanwords!"
Alexa grinned at the little Autobot. "Yeah, that's right," she answered softly. She was never a real kid person, but if they were young enough she wasn't too nervous. All she usually had to do was wiggle her glasses and the kiddo was laughing away. It baffled her, but hey, whatever worked.
Ratchet grinned at the pair before looking back at Breeze. "Alright," he replied, "Internet is very important, I agree. Sit down here and we'll see what the problem is." He gestured at a sort of large, metal table that made Alexa think of horror movies.
Breeze hopped up onto the table and sat quietly. Scatter grinned happily and chirped a few times, studying Alexa. Star came in a few minutes later and knelt by her and rubbed her doorwings.
"Very good Scatter," Star purred, causing the little femme to wiggle her doorwings happily and giggle.
Ratchet proceeded to poke and prod at Breeze, trying to fix her Internet. "Probably just a busted cable somewhere... Do you mind if I put you out for a little bit to get a better look?" he asked, his voice somewhere between a thoughtful tone and a mutter. Alexa glanced up at Breeze, curious about what was going on. Scatter was being loved on by both parents by now anyway. Time to back off. Star scooped up Scatter and smiled at Alexa before walking off. Soul had apparently gotten bored and wandered off as well.
Breeze sighed and nodded. She hoped Alexa would be fine while she was out of it. Alexa, shifted nervously on her feet before making a snap decision.
"W-wait," she stammered after Star as Ratchet carefully put Breeze to sleep to work on her.
Star stopped and looked back, "Yes Alexa?" Scatter chirped, waved, and giggled when Star tickled her doorwings, making her squirm.
Alexa shrank back from the large femme. It was like being stared down by her old math teacher times ten. "I uh... I was wondering... if you could show me around...? Since Breeze is going to be out awhile..." she sort of muttered her request as she scuffed her shoe on the ground, then peeked back up at Star and Scatter. Prowl was flat out studying her, which she found mildly disturbing. Luckily he didn't seem interested in hanging around. "I have work to do Star. If you and Scatter want to show her around, that's fine," and with that he walked off.
Star smiled, "That's fine. The room we just left is called Medbay, for future reference." She nodded to Prowl and began to walk more slowly, pointing out rooms and naming them as she went.
"Me'bai," Scatter tried to repeat, but huffed when it didn't come out right and chirped in annoyance.
Alexa grinned at Scatter. It'sok.IlikeMe'baibetter.She silently thought, but wasn't brave enough to answer. Something black and white suddenly tackled Star, and Alexa ducked out of the way, startled. She thought it was Prowl again, but this one was smaller. It was smaller than Star too... Another child?
Star managed to keep her balance and grin. She shifted Scatter to one arm and hugged the black and white child. "Well hello," she chuckled.
"Hey," said a slightly gruff voice. There was a tinge of a grin to it as well. Alexa scooted closer to get a better look.
What she saw looked like a bad dream crossed with a teddy bear. The transformer hugging star (and now clicking at Scatter, whatever that was about) looked horrifyingly scary. His optics were red as well, which instantly put Alexa on guard. However, he just... stood there, hugging Star. And all was well. Alexa's brain had the brilliant thought of What?to summarize the situation.
Star seemed to listen and rubbed the 'Bot's back at the same time. Scatter made a silly face at him, and then let out a long, but soft whistle. Star chuckled. Scatter then looked over at Alexa and said distinctly, "You... wike... Me'bai... bester dan Medbay?"
Alexa stared at her. Did the baby just... nah... right? "Er... yeah. I think it's um... cute..." she managed, surprised. The other bot looked over at her, then up at Star. "Explain that," his expression said.
"Tank 'ou," Scatter grinned and purred lightly.
"Her name is Alexa. Her guardian is getting her Internet fixed in Medbay right now," Star stated calmly, "Be nice."
In response, Black-and-White growled and stomped the ground near Alexa. She screamed and fell over while Black-and-White laughed. Alexa quickly got up.
"Who do you think you are?" she snapped, embarrassed at her fear.
"I'm Barricade, carbon-wad," he snickered. Alexa wished for the millionth time that she had an ounce of threatening to her.
"Your name suits you. Big, fat, road-block," she retorted, sticking out her tongue for good measure. There was a good long silence after that where they both just stared at each other and Alexa stuffed her tongue back in her mouth.
"Nice to meet you," Barricade grinned. Alexa blinked.
"That's it?"
"Yeah."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Star snorted, "Cade, you'd better be glad you didn't hurt her." She lightly shoved Cade, frowning at him, but not too displeased with him that time.
Barricade didn't seem too worried about it. "Why would I squish her? Nasty," he made a face. "How's the parasite?" Alexa dared to inch closer, and stand on Star's other side. Barricade growled at her, and she attempted the same. It came out a sad cough. Barricade began laughing at her, and leaned against a wall to support himself.
"Have you been taking scary classes from Soul?" he choked out. Alexa wilted but then stood up straight again.
"Same to you buster," she huffed. Barricade studied her, amused.
"You're all bluff, you know that? Anyways, maim you later. Bye parasite," he waved at Scatter before trotting off. Thatwasabrupt.Maybehespottedafavoritevictimorsomething.
"Good," Star rolled her eyes at Cade, and then sighed, muttering,
"Problem child." She had a slight smile on her face even at that. Scatter whistled after him and grinned.
Alexa grinned. "Figured," she grinned, watching him go.
Star grinned, "Glad someone else stands up to him even if it is 'bluff'. It's better than the cowering in fear Sam does, but I understand why he's scared of Cade."
Alexa nodded and grinned. "He looks like a Decepticon," she smiled up at Breeze. "It's pretty scary. What's a con doing here anyway?"
Star sighed, "I'll leave the explanation to when Breeze can hear too. It's a rather long story.
Alexa nodded and looked back over at Scatter. "Okay. Sounds like a good plan."
Scatter purred down at her, "See wec woom?"
"Alright," grinned Alexa. Then, just to see what would happen, she wiggled her glasses. Thecousinsthoughtitwasfunny.Whataboutbig,metal,babies?
Scatter giggled, "Is funny, agwee!" Star made her way slowly toward the rec room with a grin.
Alexa made a silly face at Scatter, pleased to have made her laugh, and followed along.
Around that time, Breeze woke back up after her Internet had been fixed. "...Mmm wake?" she mumbled, slightly drowsy still.
Ratchet looked over from where he was cataloguing Breeze's updates in her medical history. "I suppose so. Don't move quite yet, that sedative makes some patients dizzy. I'm having to use different stuff then what we used on Cybertron." Breeze sighed and merely nodded. She relaxed for a bit as she let the medicine wear off.
Ratchet kept an eye on her. "Can you sit up now?" he asked several minutes later.
Breeze slowly sat up and smiled, "Yes sir, thank you."
Ratchet nodded. "Alright. Try your internet now," he ordered.
Breeze tried her Internet and skimmed it for squirrels and sighed, "It works." She smiled.
Ratchet grinned at her and helped her up "Great. The back of your head may be a bit sore, but it should heal up in a week or so. Go relax now."
Breeze smiled shyly, "Thank you sir." With that, she headed to the rec room, passing a long hallway that had various signs on the walls reading "DANGER! EXPLOSIVE ZONE!" and "BIOHAZARD". She snickered, figuring the hallway let to Wheeljack's lab. She had heard near-horror stories about projects he had done. Right on cue, something exploded and someone else yelled they were alright.
A femme voice sighed, "Says the one missing a hand. Well, it coulda been...where's my arm?" Breeze stopped in surprise. Another femme? Star cuddled a startled Scatter as she looked for the source of the explosion in an adjoining hallway.
Alexa fell over with the slight earthquake that had followed the explosion, and picked herself back up. "What was that?" she asked. She was pleased to see she was getting over her initial nervousness around the bots.
"Wheeljack," Star sighed, "He's our resident scientist. It could have been Click... she's another scientist. Both are known for their explosive devices."
Scatter giggled, "Sposives!"
"Lovely," Alexa grinned. Suddenly, just as they entered the rec room, she spotted... jets. She could positively determine this by the large wings, and the cockpit on the chest. Iloveairplanes!She mentally squealed. Maybe she could mooch a ride off of one or something! She curiously walked over to a red, blue, and white jet that was sitting near a bright pink one. "Hi," she grinned up at him.
The jet looked down at her, looked over at the pink one. The pink one nodded and only then did the jet bend down and hold out a hand, "Hello, who are you?"
Alexa carefully stepped onto his hand, and then sat down to help her keep her balance. "I'm Alexa. What's your name?" she asked, looking up at him. Red optics greeted her for the second time that day. Maybe all Decepticons weren't bad?
The jet raised her to eye level and studied her a moment. Just then Breeze walked in and snarled.
"What are DECEPTICONS doing here?" she snapped at Star, but stopped in confusion, "How is Starscream... a youngling?"
-0-
Authors note, from Athena and Vivi:
SURPRISE!
Vivi: And we are dragging our other OCs in. You have been forewarned.
Athena: It might get OC heavy, but hey. We like OC's. Enjoy them when they come out to play.
