"Get your fresh energon here! Fresh, newly harvested energon!"
"Peanuts! Boiled peanuts for sale!"
Jace smiled as he looked around at the vendors through the market district of New Cybertron. It was the weekend so it was thriving as people and Cybertronians alike were looking for a bit of shopping.
"Hey! Jace! Over here!" Aaron yelled from the outside seat of the coffee shop. Jace nodded to his family and went to sit next to them.
Anka scooted over a cup of coffee. "There's your fancy French fettuccine rocket fuel," she said sarcastically. Jace chuckled and took a sip of the drink.
"So, any reason why you called us here?" Lucas asked, looking up from his medical hologram in front of him.
Jace explained the situation to Lucas and Anka, who quietly listened. "And that is why we need to split up and start searching for Nitroblade," he said. He then placed a disk in the middle of the desk which projected a hologram of the universe. "We are going to have to split up and look for him. If he leads us to a Decepticon uprising, we can crush it before it can cause real damage."
Aaron reached forward and made the hologram zoom in on Earth. "I can go to Earth and look for leads. Since the Decepticons used to be rooted there, it could be possible that they would be there," he decided.
"I would like to stay here," Lucas said. "I can run an independent investigation as well as take care of any wounded from these occurrences."
Anka nodded towards her cousin. "I'll stay here as well to help. If New Cybertron is their target, we need as many here as we can," she explained.
Jace thought on the plan. With his family spread out across the areas where Decepticon activity would be most likely, there was only one place for him to go. "I'll take a ship and try to explore deep space to see if they could be hiding anywhere. I'll take a crew with me to search," he suggested.
Anka leaned back in her chair and eyed a nearby family buying fruit from a stand. "So, I'm guessing that this is to be all on the down low, so not to make the people panic?" she asked, turning her attention back to Jace.
Jace nodded at her. "The people of New Cybertron don't need to be alerted unless there is a serious risk to their lives. Only tell people the truth if they are essential to your investigation, and make sure that whoever you tell can keep a secret," he explained.
Jace couldn't stand the thought of keeping the people in the dark, but it was for the best. If they knew, mass hysteria would spread and people would demand his parents for immediate answers, which they did not have.
"A person is smart," Aaron commented, taking a final gulp of his coffee. "People are dumb, crazy animals."
Anka groaned and rolled her eyes. "Really? You're quoting Men in Black now?" she asked, which caused the others to chuckle.
"All quotes aside," Jace said, tossing his empty coffee cup in the nearby trash can, "We need to get ready to leave pretty soon. As soon as you can start your investigation, do. Any progress you make needs to be reported to the others so we can put the pieces of the puzzle together, cool?"
The others nodded and Aaron got up and stretched.
"Well, my dear family, it's been good but I have some business to take care of before I get ready to go. I'll talk to you guys later, alright?" he said. With that, he nodded to them and left.
Lucas reached for his medical hologram again and began to study it. "I wonder where he's off to," he muttered, looking up at Jace.
Jace knew exactly where Aaron was off to and so did Lucas: to see Casey. The two had been keeping a "secret" relationship for about a year now but Aaron wasn't too secret about it, being that his cousins both knew about it. He was able to keep it a secret from his own family, however, leaving them clueless.
Anka sighed and put her hand on her temple. "One of these days I'm just going to tail him and see what this 'business' is," she muttered. Jace smiled a bit, only imagining what Anka would think of Aaron's relationship.
"Tie it tight, right here, like this," Lucas said as he tugged on the piece of colorful yarn around Amarith's wrist. Amarith looked down at it and gave it a tug so it would wrap around her wrist.
"Stop babying her," Jace said as he took a small piece of string between his teeth and tugged it. Lucas rolled his eyes and continued to help his younger sister.
It was late in the evening at the Pax-Hide household and the children were sitting in a circle in the courtyard. Amarith had recently gotten a friendship bracelet kit for her birthday and she wanted nothing more than to exchange bracelets with her brothers and cousins.
"So now what do we do?" Anka said, examining the red and black bracelet between her fingers.
Amarith chuckled at her cousin's confusion. "Simple!" she said. "We exchange them with each other. So pick a person you want to hold a bond with and give it to them!"
After a bit of bickering, everyone had a bracelet of their own, made by another in the family. With their arts satisfied, the children then went to play hide and seek around the courtyard. Lucas was, of course, chosen as 'it' after losing an impromptu game of 'nose goes'. He went to a nearby tree and shut his eyes.
"One, enon, two, daion, three, traion," Lucas counted. The children counted like this, by counting to fifty with English first then Cybertronian.
After a bit, Lucas said, "Fifty, pentodaion. Ready or not, here I come!"
His first searching place was in a nearby bush, where he knew only one person could hide. He quickly tagged Amarith out. He knew the bush was a prickly bush, so the 'it' wouldn't think anyone would be there. But he knew there was a small opening that only Amarith could get into at this age. Aaron was an easy find as well, hiding within a nearby cabinet that held gardening supplies. Anka was a bit trickier, but he found her hidden under a blanket where a pile of logs for fires once was. Jace was nowhere to be seen, however.
"Jace, come on, I'm hungry! Come out!" Aaron shouted, looking all around. The children knew it was no use: Jace had a rule that he would not come out until he was found.
It wasn't long before Brooke came outside, wiping her hands on a dish towel. "Come on, children, dinner is ready," she told them. The kids froze and looked around but Jace still wasn't coming out.
"Mama, Jace won't come out!" Amarith told her. Brooke smiled and rolled her eyes, having dealt with her stubborn son many times.
The children all came inside for dinner and Brooke waved Optimus' holoform over to the doorway. "Go find your son," she told him.
Optimus took a few steps into the courtyard and scanned the area for his son, which gave him his approximate location. But that wasn't going to stop the Prime from having any fun.
"Well," he began, walking around the courtyard in an act, giving a wink to Brooke, "it seems that our son is missing!" He walked closer and closer to the tallest tree in the courtyard, moving his eyes upward to signal to Brooke.
"Oh, my!" Brooke exclaimed. "Well then, I guess we'll have to give away all of his things! I guess all of his toys will have to go to Lucas, won't they?"
The parents then heard a loud "no I'm right here!" and Optimus felt a weight drop down on him. It was not enough to knock him down, but he pretended to fall. Brooke laughed at the two then went inside to set the table.
Optimus rolled over and moved his son so he was laying against his chest. "Aha!" Jace yelled triumphantly. "I got you! Which means you're not allowed to give my toys to Lucas!"
Optimus chuckled and ran his fingers through his son's short blond hair. "I believe so," he said.
Jace lifted his head and rested it on his fists, with his elbows on his father's chest. "If I really did disappear, would you really give Lucas my toys?" he asked.
Optimus chuckled. "You'll never disappear Jace, I'll make sure of that," he assured.
Jace moved his lips into a thinking position. "It's happened before," he muttered thoughtfully.
Optimus knew exactly what his son was talking about: the time he spent with Pace while on Earth. He knew Jace wasn't scared of that moment, but only thought of it because he brain led to that conclusion. Honestly, Optimus was surprised Jace even remembered that day. He had never mentioned it before today.
Optimus sat up and moved his son to sit in his lap. "Jace," he said seriously, getting his attention. "On my life, I swear you will never be kidnapped. And anyone that tries will have to get through me, alright?"
Jace smiled up at his father and held out a pinky. "Pinky promise?" he asked.
"Pinky promise," Optimus said, and wrapped his pinky around Jace's.
The moment didn't last long, however, because soon Optimus heard his sister-in-law yell, "Go!" and he soon found himself tackled to the ground by his children and niece and nephew, with Brooke and Akila watching with a smile in the distance.
"Oh no!" Optimus yelled. "I have been defeated!"
The children all laughed as the sun set on New Cybertron.