After a full uninterrupted recharge cycle, he still noticed the novelty, Mirage arose. He took himself off to the washracks and cleaned everything. Curtains had appeared to screen cubicles, with tape demarcating territory. There was brightly coloured residue staining the unfinished floor showing splash range. Fortunately he was alone and so could remove armour panels with reasonable dignity. His protoform wasn't grubby but he felt it.
The supply of personal care items had expanded, with labelled bins for each resident. Mirage found one with his designation on it and was both touched and suspicious. All the containers were sealed. He added the ones he had bought then sampled cautiously. Nothing exploded or turned him unpleasant hues. He lingered over the polish, returning upstairs placidly shiny.
He would ask about a detailing salon. Perhaps he would invest in the venture if there wasn't one already established. Something to think about in whatever free time he might have now he was employed as well as minding Tempest. Suddenly he felt quite purposeful. Mirage paused to enjoy that sensation before knocking on Thundercracker's door.
"Come in quietly." The hurried invitation did not daunt him. The noble found his conjunx in the chair with the berth occupied by a recharging Skywarp. Tempest was sitting on his sire not looking pleased though not complaining either. He waved at his foster carrier and made 'pick me up' grabby hands.
"Should I?" Mirage asked, guessing due to the Seekers' fidgets that something tentative was happening.
"Yeah, probably best not to push it." Thundercracker stayed where he was being calm as the racer gently lifted the sparkling from his trine-mate, who didn't stir. Tempest hadn't cried but he hadn't settled even when ignored in favour of a datapad. Not much reading had actually been done.
"Perhaps if Skywarp held him while you fed him?" He suggested, settling the sparkling against his chest. Tempest patted him then looked towards the Seekers. The little jet wasn't disinterested just unsure. "Sire." Mirage pointed. "Carrier."
"'Warp wants to use Vosian." His trine-mate had opinions about everything now. Thundercracker wasn't certain how much he liked the change. It was good, of course, and if Skywarp's sire protocols were running as they should be then that was great. He couldn't shake the feeling a lot of the interest was competitive or performative now Tempest was an asset to defend from Autobot theft. "Do you need a language download?"
"Yes, for both low and high register if you wish fluency." Most 'Bots could at least swear at their enemies in their own dialects if the situation called for it. Ironhide and Kup had impressive lexicons of profanities. Mirage had avoided such crass use of his vocaliser. He had the processor streams available to learn. He had simply preferred a verified, quality program rather than a hodgepodge of noise.
"There's discussion about baseline dialect, mostly from the Neutrals." Thundercracker did think they had a point. "They're not going about it the right away, whining about linguistic drift and gutter slang. Some of our mecha didn't even have grammar suites. Glyph syntax was not a priority upgrade."
"Ratchet has all the standard cognition programs. He used them for the Dinobots, along with specialised developmental learning coding." The Autobots constructed on Earth were not exalted minds but they were very young and would improve in time. "Apparently steady progression is more easily integrated than bolting on preexisting data chunks." He had asked, tactfully he hoped, why the new additions were so astoundingly stupid. "Ratchet may be persuaded to upload his files to the central medical database."
"He often threatened prisoners with upgrades." As an officer, he had handled some PoW reintegration interviews, usually whenever Starscream was in a mood and thought admin beneath his dignity. A recurring theme of Autobot medical care was viral updates and mid-caste 'basic' maintenance. The Hatchet could be quite ranty about some things.
"His berthside manner is somewhat unpolished." Mirage managed to defend his comrade and agree with his conjunx. "I do believe he will see the issue as compassionate. A great deal of Autobot consent laws hinge on civilian scales of cognitive competence, which many Decepticons do not reach without active combat protocols."
"Phrasing it that way will get target lock on you." Thundercracker mentioned, he hoped, casually. But it had to be mentioned quick smart. "A lot of that is subtext. I know what you mean. It's just that consent, especially waived consent due to incompetence, is a trigger. An old one. Warmecha got 'edited' for compliance routinely before the revolution."
"Understood." The noble inclined his helm. "I will mind my glyphs. Particularly as I will request a chaperone for any meeting with Ratchet. I want to head off allegations of conspiracy. We need his medical expertise."
"Sure, we can do that." He relaxed his wings then catching Tempest's optics on them, fluttered affectionately. Wingspeak was another cultural component Skywarp was keen on. Possibly so they could talk in front of Mirage. Thundercracker already knew he was going to have to be the disciplinarian. He was used to being the dull one.
"Mine!" Tempest asserted brightly, twitching his wing buds in mimicry. "Carry!"
"Carrier." Mirage carefully didn't laugh as he corrected the truncated glyph. "Yes, Thundercracker is your carrier."
"Carrier." The sparkling managed after some muttering and beeping. "Mine."
"That's right, bitlet." Thundercracker said fondly. "You're so clever."
"Yes." Tempest agreed. This time both adult mecha had to reset their vocalisers to avoid chuckling. The seekerling looked at them, frowning quizzically. They were careful not to smile or suggest in any way to the huffy bit that he was amusing. They were saved from a sulk by the thud-shudder of an explosion above their helms.
A breem of tumult later, Mirage was standing in the bomb shelter's security suite with his fuel pump still running fast. It had been briefly all hands, and guns for the 'Cons, until Buzzsaw had relayed the external surveillance footage to all occupants. The visuals from the cameras hidden throughout the neighbourhood, not the ones tracking the door and immediate surrounds as they had gone in the blast.
Starscream was there with a rocket launcher.
He couldn't on an absolute scale do much damage to the structure of the building. The shelter had lasted through orbital bombardments. What the irate Seeker could do was make a lot of noise and a STATEMENT about how furious he was with Soundwave.
"Wow, he's mad." Rumble observed, tapping the feed from a reinforced sentry post forward of the entrance. "If his optics glow any brighter they'll be lasers."
"No shit, half-pint." Skywarp grumbled in English, his processor sluggish after a sudden rousing from recharge. He had Earth-mandated running lights lit on his wingtips too, leading Mirage to assume he had defaulted back to previously saved operational protocols. The noble made a note not to wake the jet abruptly lest he forget the armistice.
It was difficult to confirm what Starscream was specifically angry about as his volume and pitch turned his glyphs into one long stream of vitriol. The speakers inside the security room crackled, automatically dampening as the 2IC shot the front door again. Red Alert would have envied Soundwave's set up. They were safe inside.
But that wasn't the point.
"This has to be about what you expected when you bailed the shuttle." Thundercracker shifted away from the console as Tempest tried to play with the colours on the panel. There was no point going outside to reason with 'Screamer until he had wound down. He'd just shoot them too. He'd brought a big stack of rockets.
"Affirmative." Soundwave replied blandly.
"Perhaps I could speak with him?" Skyfire suggested from the hallway. He could fit in the security suite except it was already occupied with two and a bit Seekers, a race car, a Host, and miscellaneous deployers. He did not wish to step on anyone. Some of the symbionts looked delicate; refined engineering he was pleased to see. But they were very small and after his long stasis, the scientist felt put together with old wire.
"You could offer to suck his spike, he'd still rather shout at Soundwave." Skywarp snarked.
"That is not a helpful comment." The shuttle replied austerely. "Starscream seems unwell. I am concerned he is not at full function." He said firmly and precisely, using the pre-war phrasing to request a medical intervention. The Seekers looked at him statically. Skyfire frowned at such dereliction from trine-mates. He turned to Soundwave. "Surely there is a procedure to notify psychiatric staff or to detain someone likely to be a risk to themselves or others."
"Yeah, a stun grenade." Frenzy snorted. He ducked behind Mirage when the big guy glared at him.
"Personnel alerted." Soundwave answered, paused as another rocket hit the bunker then continued unflustered. "Standard intervention assignment: Constructicons. Previous interactions support delay."
"It's better to wait until 'Screamer's bored or runs out of ammo." Thundercracker explained, petting a pouting sparkling who really really wanted to play with the blinky lights. "He keeps going longer if he has an audience.
"There's a nineteen hour livestream of him yelling at a nuclear power plant. The squishies were running around with tanks and cameras. They nearly declared war when he started kicking the reactor." Rumble sounded impressed.