A/N: Hey all. Quick update. I'm kind of rushed off my feet because of university applications and accommodation and other things, so not much writing being done. Sorry about that, but normal service should resume around about October at the latest.
Anyhow, wrote this. (after seeing the RB season 3 finale, I almost died of feels.)
Enjoy. Review if you can. Have fun!
"Heroes", in which Prowl and Red Alert destroy Rescue Bots continuity.
They're strange Cybertronians. Much older than even the orphanage's oldest caretaker, they're a mech and a femme who live in an old house at the bottom of Chase's street.
Chase goes to their house every solar cycle after school. The house feels different somehow – it has that smell of fine Energon and titanium-A battleplate that old places have – and it looks different too. It's brighter. More close-knit. More like a home.
The femme is called Red Alert. She's white and red, with two square horns on her helm which flash blue occasionally, and peculiar writing on her door-skirt. She knows lots about medicine and she tells Chase that she used to have a see-through part in her chest armour but took it out because it "wasn't quite appropriate anymore."
The mech's name is Prowl. He is white and black, a Praxian. He also has strange writing on his door-wings and he has a red chevron on his helm like a crest. Like Chase, he has an overpowered logic core, telling the youngling that "the only way to be beaten by it is to let it beat you."
Chase likes Prowl and Red Alert.
They tell stories about The War. Chase doesn't really understand what The War was about – barely anyone does, these days – but Prowl and Red Alert tell stories about legends like Optimus Prime and heroes like Bumblebee and Arcee. About villains like Megatron; monsters like Unicron; criminals like Swindle and Starscream. They tell exciting, spark-pounding stories about high-speed Enforcer chases, daring rescue operations, covert recon missions. They tell sad stories about missing comrades and martyred leaders, friends they once knew.
Other younglings on Chase's street see Red Alert and Prowl differently. Heatwave is afraid of Prowl's cold disconnectedness and Red Alert's sharp temper. Boulder thinks their house is old and sad and their stories are just that. Airwave thinks Red Alert is pretty but she doesn't like the old pair's strange way of speaking or the odd sigils on their shoulders.
Chase has asked some of the adults what the odd sigils mean. He gets a lot of different answers. The younger caretakers at the orphanage say it's a silly old myth. His History teacher says it's an ancient military marking. The old mech with one optic and purple paint who works in the library tells of legions of terror and death.
Prowl calls it a symbol of justice. Red Alert says that it means freedom.
Chase doodles it on his datapads at school. Justice and Freedom are things that he wants.
When Chase gets his transformation upgrade, he suddenly has a huge decision to make, and he doesn't know what to do. The caretakers offer a selection of boring, utilitarian vehicle modes; his teacher for Life Skills advises a form useful for lots of future careers; his friends brag about their modes (Chase is the youngest): Heatwave's fire engine mode; Boulder's bulldozer; Airwave's much-admired jet form; but Chase still can't decide.
He asks Prowl and Red Alert, and, because he can't think of a time he's seen them, he asks to see their vehicle modes as well.
Their vehicle modes are very, very strange. They don't hover, but roll on rubber and metal wheels. Prowl transforms into a short, sleek vehicle with an odd name. It's called a "Nissan Fairlady Z" according to Prowl; it has Enforcer sirens and lights and decals which Prowl translates to mean ENFORCER SPEEDWAY PATROL in a strange, alien language called "English."
Red Alert transforms into a slim yet curvaceous vehicle called an "Alfa Romeo 4C". It has red siren lights and English symbols for FIRE CHIEF and NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT on it.
When Chase asks for help with his own vehicle mode, Red Alert winks and says that he should pick whatever he wants, because after all, he can always re-scan. Prowl, however, gets a misty look in his optics and takes a holopicture down from the mantlepiece. It's a picture of two mechs, one obviously Prowl in robot mode, and one another mech in vehicle mode. The vehicle mode is a very old one. It is full of that flash, that flair that Old Cybertron had; it's an alt mode built for high-speed chases and showing off and having femmes drool over. Chase knows this has to be his vehicle mode.
He tentatively asks whether it's okay; to just steal a mech's likeness, a vehicle mode.
Prowl smiles a half smile and says that Barricade would probably get a kick out of his likeness being at the forefront of the New Generation. So Chase scans the form.
It's perfect. It's fast, it's badass, it's hot, it's the complete opposite of the forms he's supposed to have. When Chase sees Airwave – who's suddenly grown up into a very good-looking femme, all curves and flared wingtips – shooting admiring looks and making heavily lidded optics at his new built-for-speed-and-picking-up-femmes alt mode (and robot mode, to Chase's delight. Gone are the blocky arms and legs and torso, replaced with sleek, streamlined limbs which ooze agility and flair), he feels pretty fantastic, and he doesn't stop thanking Prowl for a whole lunar cycle.
Chase feels even better when Red Alert teaches him how to do a flashy vehicle-to-robot powerslide transformation move which makes Heatwave and Boulder jealous, takes Airwave's breath away, terrifies his teachers, and makes the sensible old caretakers at the orphanage tut disapprovingly.
Chase spends most of his younglinghood at Prowl and Red Alert's; so much so that eventually they just get it over with and adopt him. They are, Chase affirms proudly, the best guardians ever.
Prowl shows up at parent-teacher meetings with his Enforcer paint polished to a burning shine and all his lights on; Red Alert scandalises the older parents with her racy alt-mode; Prowl calmly talks all the teachers' complaints down with cold, hard logic; Red Alert corrects the biology teacher on facts and figures.
If Chase comes home (HOME, not the orphanage. Home.) with his paint scuffed and his frame dented from a fight with a bully who was picking on a shy helicopter names Blades, then Red Alert patches him up and Prowl drills him in non-lethal Enforcer CQC moves.
If Chase is trying to ask Airwave to a school dance, then Red Alert teaches him how to fix his own armour and do his own detailing. Prowl walks him through a few processor and air intake exercises to stop potential glitch-outs or logic overloads.
If Airwave says yes, Prowl first calms Chase down from his mad panic then instructs him in a slow Praxian dance ("The one we first danced to, isn't it?" Red Alert says) and then Red Alert shows him how not to get electrocuted if he puts his servo in the wrong place.
When Chase is old enough to get a job, he doesn't really need to ask his guardians. He joins the Sigma 17 Rescue Team, because he wants to be a hero, just like the bots who raised him. He wants to earn the red sigil which Prowl made and Red Alert welded onto his shoulder. He wants to be an Autobot.