Author's Note: Ah, I remember when I started this story, I was going to keep it simple and boring and not bring in new characters.
… Past me should have known better.
Old Friends
Jazz was exhausted, though he did his best to hide it. It was supposed to have been an easy scouting trip.
It had gone wrong quickly, running into Thundercracker and Skywarp who had been happy to hunt them.
To the point he had given up on the 'reunite with the Ark' plan and instead went after Prime's signal once they had escaped the two.
Much to the displeasure of his partner.
Bluestreak was a good kid, best sharpshooter they had. He was however, very determined to listen to the rules Prowl and Ironhide gave.
And he was very vocal in pointing out that Prime's signal was old and they didn't know if he was still active.
Still, he was very much a youngling compared to their pick up who was testing his patience.
"Prime's probably hiding someplace and waiting for the all clear."
"That is not the Prime Prowl describes." Bluestreak retorted. "Or Ironhide. Or Perceptor. Or-"
"OP's a good bot. I'd follow him anywhere." Jazz slid in. "How you feeling Seaspray?"
"Like I was blown halfway to the pit." The Wrecker glared at him, the field welds were haphazard at best. "I see Wheeljack, I'm going to blow him into pieces. And then I'll go for the decepticon that got me."
"Right. Anyway, we're almost to the planet Prime broadcasted from." Jazz had been relieved to be close enough to toss the two at Optimus and then explore.
Which had been another time for things to go off the rails, as Thundercracker and Skywarp caught up to them again and shot them down.
In the scramble to get to cover, however, a questionable decision was made.
"Why am I so slow?!"
"Sir, I think that vehicle is meant for water on this planet!" Bluestreak took a corner a little fast. He was rather boxy looking, silver with a blue stripe of paint.
"Now you tell me!" Seaspray grumbled.
"Keep up you two. Jazz to Prime, ya there Prime?!"
"Let me try- Seaspray to Prime, where on this dirtball-"
"Seaspray?!" A voice answered.
"Bulkhead!! What are you doing here?!"
"I'm on Team Prime. Hold on, let me get the boss bot, we had a medical emergency earlier."
"What's that got to do with anything? We just narrowly avoided Cons."
"Megatron's here with most of his high command. It's been bad."
"So? Just pound them into sheet metal!"
"Seaspray?!" A new voice cut in.
"Wheeljack you piece of scrap, I wasn't dead!!"
"You didn't show up on my scanners, I thought… scrap. I'll definitely take the hits. How did you survive?"
"How'd we get behind the lines in that orbital space station?" Seaspray retorted.
"We picked him up. Jazz here-" Jazz tried to get back on track.
"Jazz, it is good to hear you, old friend." Optimus's familiar rumble was a relief.
"Optimus! Your voice is music to my audials. Got a rookie with me, Prowler's protégé, designated Bluestreak. We could use a pick up, just dodged some cons."
"Understood. Bulkhead?"
"Got it Prime. We'll meet you at these coordinates."
Extra security. Jazz could understand that.
Though he had a feeling that they stuck out among the locals. Seaspray in particular gained a lot of looks. They headed to the coordinates, trying to hide as much as possible, there were a lot of trees the farther they got away from the city.
The clearing they arrive at has a welcoming committee.
Seaspray launched himself at the two wreckers, who swiftly transformed. Something must've gone wrong because when Seaspray turned from punching out Wheeljack he froze up.
"Bulk, you're hurt?"
"Had a run in with Tox-En and some Insecticons. Was out of comission for a bit." Bulkhead grinned. "Still wrecking though." Seaspray was grabbed into a hug.
"Wheeljack, did you-"
"Got torn up a bit, Bulkhead's little wrecker had to save my tailpipe and she got the bastard."
"Little Wrecker?"
"You will meet her at the base." Optimus interrupts and transformed.
He's bigger and bulkier than Jazz remembers, so something has happened there.
"Miss me O.P.?" Jazz smiled. "You're looking good."
"It is good to see you, old friend." Optimus looked relieved. "We have much to catch up on."
"Hello, I'm Bluestreak! I was assigned patrol with Jazz from the Ark, and wow it's amazing to meet you again sir, we only met once before when loading up the Ark-"
Optimus blinked at Bliestreak in surprise before smiling in his usual way.
"It is an honor to meet you, I remember Prowl mentioning you in several reports." Optimus greeted.
"Sir, this is Seaspray!" Bulkhead introduced.
"Seaspray." Optimus looked at the Wrecker. "I have heard much about you from Bulkhead and Wheeljack."
"I haven't heard much about you." Seaspray grumbled.
"Are you still going with that?" Jazz was exasperated.
"I look forward to working with you." Optimus called for a ground bridge, leading them to their base. "So far Team Prime also includes Ratchet, Ultra Magnus," Optimus ignored the surprised 'he's still alive' comment from Seaspray, "Arcee, Bumblebee, Smokescreen formerly of the Elite Guard and Skyfire, a scientist lost before the war. We work with the human team of Agent Fowler, Nurse Darby Corporal Figeroua, Miko and Rafael. The Predacon team is under Roadhauler, who was forcibly reformatted. He's lost some memories, but we've confirmed that he's one of yours we thought lost." Optimus explained as they stepped out into what resembled a hangar. Ratchet was forcing an injured boy through physical therapy and didn't look up.
"You sure it's him?" Jazz's smile turned to a grin. There were two types of bots he had control over, deep cover agents and saboteurs. None of them had the designation of Roadhauler, even as an alias. The closest thing was a rogue constructicon who had worked as a rescue bot until decepticons had taken the unit out.
"Yes. We're hoping you can help fill in the gaps of his memory. This way." Optimus lead the way to a plane. "Skyfire?"
"You're clear, Prime." Skyfire opened up.
The bot in question was hooked up to life support. A human woman was standing as close as she could to the injured bot while Arcee was monitoring vitals.
"I'm closed, you're still clear."
"This is Roadhauler. Up until a few months ago, he was a human named Jackson Darby. We're keeping that fact from the majority of the humans at the base, the only ones who know are General Bryce, Doctor Keen, Nurse Darby, Agent Fowler, Miko and Rafael." Optimus explained. "Corporal Figeroua is possibly a member of a human enemy faction, and requires monitoring."
"Not where I thought you were going with this." Jazz admitted. Though at least he didn't have to interrogate anyone so soon.
"I need you to get a full dossier set up for him. A way to pretend he's… regaining memories, for any watchers."
"And you'd rust before you could give a convincing detailed back story. I got it O.P." Jazz looked at the bot on the table. Reformatting was horrifying, he still had memory loops of finding out what happened to the Lightning Strike Coalition. Which reminded him. "Where's Cliffjumper? Last I heard he was investigating Cybertron with Arcee?" Jazz saw it before they said anything. "How did he die?"
"Starscream killed him." Arcee looked away.
"Details are in our files. So are records of Jackson Darby."
"Got it." Be easy to mix some of the kid's original personality. "Can I access it from here?"
"Yes, my internal databanks are synced up to the base. Here." The screen lit up with the necessary files. "My chronometer is still messed up, so it'll be easy to back date the files."
It wasn't hard to make a fake background. So many records were lost, either due to decepticon protests before the war or because they'd been bombed to oblivion during.
They had a good bare bones. A peer of Smokescreen who hadn't made Elite Guard, but not truly friends until recently. Tendency to pull people out of danger, protective, and loyal, perfect for rescuing others behind enemy lines and getting caught in the process. Jazz would have loved to have a bot like this in his ranks.
Jackson Darby was a good kid and honorary prime. His one goof had been to send a signal to his mother during a communications blackout, but that was understandable for such a close knit family unit. He'd seen a couple autobots in the early days of the war make similarly worried calls to family and friends. And it could easily be spun as Roadhauler getting cut off and making a frantic distress signal only to be overwhelmed.
He just needed to talk to the kid to make some more official details, and then, well, Figueroa was up next.
Optimus didn't really deal with infiltration, Jazz did, and Jazz would get the necessary answers.
Seaspray was unsure of team Prime. Wheeljack and Bulkhead were showing him around when someone yelled.
"Bulkhead!! You ditched me!"
"Sorry Miko." Bulkhead picked up the human that ran up. "We got another Wrecker! Seaspray's alive!!"
"Really?!" The human was lifted so she could look at him.
"This is Miko. She's human, but she's one of us." Wheeljack explained.
"Hi!" Miko waved. "Ready to bust some cons?!"
"She remains on base unless necessary." Ultra Magnus interrupted, coming over.
"Or you manage to sneak her out." Wheeljack muttered.
"Wheeljack." Ultra Magnus and Bulkhead said in warning.
"Joking, Commander." Wheeljack replied.
"I can fight!" Miko objected.
"We know, but I also need to keep you alive." Bulkhead reminded her.
Seaspray was surprised. Wheeljack was listening to Ultra Magnus without snapping at him.
Bulkhead being a guardian to a young life made sense, the guy was soft sparked though he never let that get in the way of smashing cons, and the human was adorable by Wrecker standards.
Wheeljack softening was odd, though.
Seaspray frowned. He was patient, he'd observe the changes before making his decision.
"Wrecker Seaspray, welcome to Earth, we do things a little differently here." Ultra Magnus turned his attention on him.
"Been awhile Commander." Seaspray glared at him. "You learn to not fight by numbers yet?"
"I shall let you be the judge." Ultra Magnus glanced up and looked resigned. "Sky-Byte, I gave you an order to remain under cover."
"I want to see Roadhauler!" The flying shark hovered nearby.
"He's in stasis. I'm in charge of you until he recovers."
"You're keeping him from us!"
"Didn't you want to be team leader?" Miko piped up.
"Nobody will listen to me." Sky-Byte complained. "Razorclaw's on the roof again, by the way."
"I see… Seaspray, you need to be checked out by our medic, Ratchet. Wheeljack you are not taking Miko on your patrol." Ultra Magnus sighed. "She has an appointment with Dr. Keen. Bulkhead."
"Right. We'll celebrate Wrecker style later." Bulkhead set Miko down, transformed and opened a door.
"Awesome! Can I lob? Please say yes!"
"I would prefer you just supply the music." Ultra Magnus informed her.
"You can also clarify how you managed to save Wheeljack's tailpipe. Sounds like a good story." Seaspray added.
"Sweet!" Then she was in Bulkhead and he drove off.
"I'll get Razorclaw off the roof. Ratchet! Seaspray requires a physical." Ultra Magnus left with a short nod.
"Have you seen the majestic oceans of this planet?!" Sky-Byte hovered closer to Seaspray.
"We crashed into one." Seaspray studied the shark.
"Alright, what's the damage?" Ratchet came over and began to scan Seaspray. "Field welds are holding, let's get you properly patched up. Wheeljack, help me."
"Sure thing Doc." Wheeljack grinned as Ratchet growled at him.
"Wait, you're helping him?" Seaspray looked at Wheeljack. Wheeljack had stopped doing any repairs but his own a long time ago.
"Yeah. Felt like fixing things again." Wheeljack glanced at a very small human. "How are the scanners?"
"Fully operational, ready to begin scans."
"You have a youngling managing scanners?"
"Raf's the doc bot's favorite, kid can read and program in our language."
"Huh. Surprised to see you working with Prime and the Commander."
"Shockingly, Prime's the real deal. He also only gets mad if you endanger the team, otherwise, he trusts you to know what to do. Both times he was mad at me was because he thought I recklessly endangered Bulk and Miko." Wheeljack hooked up the cables.
"You're usually more pragmatic."
Wheeljack looked at him for a moment.
"You going to tell me that everything is going to be okay riding with Prime?"
"I'm not that optimistic, but … I don't know, this planet's not so bad. Even if we can never get Cybertron back, I think we're going to be okay sticking together." Wheeljack shook his head. "Scrap, I have gone soft. Start the scan!"
"On it." The human typed a command.
"Why is there a meteorite lodged in your chassis?!" Ratchet demanded.
"By the way, if the doc's mad, it's every bot for himself." Wheeljack backed up.
"I got blown up."
"And that means you leave it in?! Are you aware of the contaminates involved?!"
The lecture was long.
Bluestreak fidgeted, he didn't really know anyone here and Ratchet was furiously going over the dangers of leaving a meteorite in him.
There was a thud next to him.
"Are you okay? You kinda just fell over." Bluestreak asked a blue bot.
"Been better. I'm Smokescreen."
"I'm Bluestreak. Oh, Smokescreen, you're the elite guard Prime mentioned. There's not many of those left, I think Prowl and Ironhide were Elite Guard, because Ironhide was an old soldier before the war even started you know, and uh, do you need help?"
"That would be nice." Smokescreen sat back down on the berth with Bluestreak's help. "Welcome to Earth and Team Prime. We'll get a human to explain the road rules around here, but anything you want to know?"
"Yes, please, I don't know anyone here and Jazz is looking after Roadhauler and I don't think Seaspray likes me very much and who or what is that?"
"That's Agent Fowler, he's our human liaison." Smokescreen pointed out everyone he knew.
Wayward Island, Maine
Thundercracker had a mission, and for the first time in too many millennia, it was not with Skywarp.
He was relieved. Though the partner he was taking for this mission was not his preference.
"I think we've just been given busy work." Knockout grumbled, going through the buried and mangled wreckage of the Vehicons. "It's going to take forever to get this dirt out of my joints."
"The scout Bumblebee didn't do all this, someone tried to patch these up." Thundercracker frowned. It was busy work, Starscream and Skywarp had their own mission, but Thundercracker hadn't liked that no one had been sent to check on the destroyed team, even if only to collect spare parts. Megatron was far too focused on the Omega lock.
"Um, what are you doing?" A voice asked and Knockout nearly dropped the body he was removing a weapons system from.
"A human?" Thundercracker studied the rather small life form. "I was under the impression this was an uninhabitable area."
"Humans like to stay outdoors on occasion." Knockout shrugged. "Though that one's a youngling and means adults are nearby."
"This is a youngling of the species?"
"Yes. Hi." The youngling waved. "What are you doing? We just finished burying them."
"Trying to get some of the intact weapons systems. Thank you for the burial." Thundercracker offered.
"You're welcome."
"Wait, why would you bury them? Humans think of us as just machines-" Knockout realized.
"Cody!" Came a yell, followed by a cybertronian call.
Thundercracker immediately scooped the youngling up. Best to have a hostage, he made sure the youngling was uninjured before holding him up.
Bumblebee burst into the clearing, followed by two bots, one green and one blue wearing the Rescue badges and a couple more humans, who were quickly picked up and hidden in the Rescue Bots carrying chambers.
"Rescue Bots … here?" Knockout sounded surprised.
'Knockout! Thundercracker!' Bumblebee shifted, battle mask on and weapons at the ready.
"Hello Bumblebee. Still can't repair your voice box, I see." Thundercracker smiled, taking care not to squeeze the youngling. "I see you have friends we haven't met yet."
'Stay away from them.' Bumblebee glared at him. 'Give me the youngling.'
"Our records indicate that you already have one for yourself." Thundercracker held up the youngling. "I don't see the appeal, judging by the scans they're easy to break, though I suppose they get stronger as they age?" He tightened his grip slightly, making the youngling whimper.
"Cody!" The older humans yelled.
Thundercracker loosened his grip. He wasn't trying to actually hurt the youngling.
"I'm okay!" The youngling managed.
'Thundercracker, let him go.'
"What I should do is execute the Rescue Bots. Offer his life for yours." Thundercracker rumbled slightly. "Megatron made his orders clear."
Next to him Knockout jerked slightly.
"If that's what it takes-"
'No.' Bumblebee stopped the green one from speaking.
"No." Thundercracker agreed. "I never agreed with that order. We're here to recover some weapons from the fallen. Leave us alone to do that and we shall forget seeing you." He'd make sure Knockout would agree.
'Unless you need to save your mesh.' Bumblebee noted.
"Obviously." Knockout scoffed. "We're not doing this out of the goodness of our sparks."
'After what you did.'
"You should have learned and kept your human younglings closer." Knockout huffed. "How's Roadhauler? Recovering? Or has his body finally given out? I need to update my notes."
Bumblebee went still.
"Why would you do that to someone?!" The green bot demanded.
"Professional curiosity. And just killing him would have been such a waste." Knockout sounded bored. "Trust me, I did him a favor."
Thundercracker would have to look up that story later. For now, it was time to go.
"Knockout, get the parts and go." Thundercracker ordered. "You lot don't move."
Knockout obeyed, speeding off to the groundbridge coordinates.
"That is not an acceptable speed." The lights flashed on the blue. One of the law keepers, basically a walking archive of rules and regulations, just barely above a sparked drone. Most hadn't been able to do anything but follow their basic logic programming and some had become cruel sadists finding rules to enforce. The handful of good ones hadn't been able to adapt to the war because killing others was impossible for them.
"Next time, youngling, you see our insignia, you run and hide." Thundercracker commented to the youngling. "Bumblebee, here." He held out the child, Bumblebee cautiously took it. "This is the only mercy you get from me. Next time it will be a swift death."
'Understood.' Bumblebee agreed, cradling the youngling close.
"Regulations state-"
'Chase, fallback. Now.' Bumblebee ordered.
Thundercracker transformed and hovered for a moment.
"Is he hovering?!" One of the humans asks and immediately begins rather basic equations to figure it out.
"Until next time, Bumblebee." Thundercracker flies away into the waiting groundbridge. It's not ideal to have this conversation on the Nemesis, Soundwave monitored everything and recorded the stuff he couldn't.
Knockout was already typing the report.
"I'm typing as fast as I can, would you like to review what I have?"
"Yes." Thundercracker looked over the report. No mention of the Rescue Bots, just that humans under the orders of Bumblebee had buried the dead, mentioning that Bumblebee had stumbled across them, as well as theorizing that most likely Prime's command team was now using multiple bases instead of just one. "Well done, I'll sign off on it. Who's Roadhauler?"
"Mm. That's a long story. He was a human youngling that Arcee was the guardian of. Rather clever little thing, had cybertronian spark energy so I thought it would be interesting to see if he could be changed from human to cybertronian. It worked, but the last dose used was the unstable synthetic energon, he got bridged off the ship to stop him from rampaging and the autobots found him first. He's been on the battlefield a few times since." Knockout shrugged. "His stability is definitely in question."
"Interesting." Thundercracker added his signature to the report rather than say anything else. He was never a fan of forcibly reformatting others.
There are many things he doesn't agree with, but he made his decision so long ago it's far too late for him to change. He'd enjoy being just a scientist studying different energies again.
"What's Synthetic Energon?" Thundercracker decided to ask.
"Shockwave took over the project." Knockout looked annoyed by that. Thundercracker could sympathize, Shockwave taking over a project meant he would logically lock out every one he considered inessential to his experiments, even the one who made the discovery. "Speaking of, I need to get to the lab." He made to step away only to be interrupted by a call for a medical emergency. "Oh good, they let the Predacons out of stasis again." Knockout groaned. "The beasts are ornery at best."
Hospital, Griffin Rock, Maine
"How's Cody? We got here as soon as we could-!" Dani almost lost her footing on the recently cleaned floor of the small hospital.
"Doctor Hansen is checking him now, the robot squeezed him, but he's breathing alright and no bones were broken." Her father caught her. "Officially, Boulder and Graham are taking the blame and Boulder will be down for maintenance for a few days, for recalibrating."
"That's not fair!"
"It's okay Dani. Boulder needed the excuse not to work and be at Doc Greene's and I am due for recertification. It works out."
"Doesn't feel right." Dani muttered, before slugging her brother in the arm.
"Ouch!" He yelped.
"Please don't hurt each other in my hospital." Dr. Hanson wheeled Cody out. "Good news, he's just bruised. There's no signs of internal bleeding, but he needs bed rest and twenty four seven monitoring and you bring him back the instant he has trouble breathing, do not try to wait it out." The doctor instructed. "I gave him a shot for the pain and here's a prescription."
"Got it!" Dani ruffled her little brother's hair. "You get to pick the movie tonight, and Taylor taught me how to make some chocolate covered popcorn!"
"Noble!" Cody perked up, then yawned. "Sorry."
"Honestly I'm impressed that there wasn't such an incident with those robots sooner. They are very well made." Dr. Hansen noted.
"I thought Cody was going to fall." Graham took over wheeling Cody out to Chase.
"You've already started beating yourself up, I won't contribute." Dr. Hansen sighed. "We really need more staff for the hospital, and a new ambulance. At least for the tourist season. Having your helicopter air lift to the mainland should be a last resort."
"We're working on it." Their father assured Dr. Hansen.
"At least your family took an interest in rescue work, Tim's in college but all I hear about is his girlfriend of the week, not his major, and I can't get Bud to give up his hunt for aliens even after what Prescott did."
"I wouldn't worry just yet. Kids find their own way when they're ready."
"He fried the fuse box trying to make his own SETI dish. I nearly lost my own project data." The doctor grumbled.
"They do that too."
Cody was bundled into the back of Chase and Graham made sure to prop him up on one side as well as pad the seat with pillows.
"Sir, I don't think these pillows are regulation."
"It's just to get Cody home."
"They do not match the medical pillows I have see advertised." Chase grumbled.
"They'll do to get him home. Bumblebee said he'll explain everything, and talk about safety going forward."
Cody was in danger of being smothered upon arrival to the firehouse.
Graham had to pass him to Kade in order to get out of Chase's backseat, though Cody didn't stay awake long after being brought to the bunker so everyone could keep an eye or optic on him.
"Okay, what's the plan to deal with the decepticons?!" Kade demanded
"According to Optimus, our shielding is still intact. We're still restricted to the islands and the mainland base, the decepticons being close is scary, but they don't know our location." Heatwave reported. "Bumblebee says Thundercracker has kept his word before, and Knockout … Knockout's got an interest in humans. He's kidnapped a couple, one who is still missing but presumed alive."
"He was weird about Roadhauler, too."
Bumblebee beeped at them.
"Bumblebee says he's left us a couple emergency numbers. They'll see about transferring a guard out, but the decepticons have all their signals on record which is why they weren't visiting more." Blades reported.
"The emergency numbers should be sufficient, we'll have to stay close to home anyway with Cody being injured." Their father sighed. "Boulder's going to Doc tonight, officially for maintenance after gripping Cody too tight in a rescue simulation."
"I still think it's unfair." Dani crossed her arms.
"We don't have another way to explain the bruises, or why Boulder's going to be out of commission. We need to be on the same page because once Prescott's done with the new dentist chair, he's gonna be at our door."
Bumblebee gave a whirring trill.
"He says he'll keep in touch and he's sorry for the trouble."
"I went over all the possibilities with Optimus. We'll be alright as long as we stick together." Their dad assured them.
End Notes: Jazz is a blend of multiple canons and my favorite fanons. According to the show's what could have been, Seaspray was going to have the personality of Quint from Jaws. I am blending that with his g1 curiosity about new planets.
You just know there was a lot of finagling before the rescue bots were able to stay at Griffin Rock. The rescue bots kinda gloss over that.
Dr. Hansen and his sons are named after the human family in Transformers Cybertron. Everyone on Griffin Rock seems to have some sort of specialty or doctorate and ongoing projects, it's basically the kid version of Eureka.
okay, next chapter is MECH, another attempt to kidnap Raf, Knockout dealing with Predaking's poor decision making and Jack gets the answer to what Robots dream about.
