Disclaimer: Hasbro and Takara-Tomy own Transformers. I just like hounding their giant robots.
Warnings: Uhhhhhhhhh, still mending things along with some fragged-up slag
The Reality of Saturday Morning Metamorphosis
Lockdown never thought he'd miss the background noise.
He'd been outside the bond, but the sensation was always there. There was always chatter and warmth. It was silent now. Lockdown felt like a stranger in his frame here.
The Ark looked nothing like the impressions he'd gathered from the team's youngest. The Autobot ship looked torn and abandoned.
It made it harder for Lockdown to sneak around unheard. The active three were trying to get the ship to running capacity and clear the damage.
The attack had bled The Ark's power cells dry. It's fuel, emptied into this planet's sands. The spill and the glassy, frozen Driller outside were the only reasons the other worms hadn't torn them up.
The bounty hunter still rearranged things to throw them off, but Drift's turbofox was catching on. This cycle, Gidget kept him hemmed into a dead-end hallway before finally giving up.
Now she paced in front of a utility closet, her quiet growls muted to a whine.
Lockdown edged closer as it cracked open.
Gidget went silent, then bolted in a flurry of legs.
The same lanky saurian form Prowl took in Koa came stalking out: taller, broader, meaner.
Unlike Gidget, Prowl knew he was there. Those angry amber optics never left his faceplate.
Lockdown acquiesced and uncloaked himself, "Prowler, it's just me."
The mech didn't respond, frame buckling as he transformed. He wasn't showy, and that's what worried Lockdown. With blunt saber fangs, blunt scutes, and a weird boxy head, he looked like a standard saurian quadruped. Then Prowl lowered his helm and snarled.
Mech had a metal grinder for a mouth.
Why couldn't Koa ever make something non-lethal?
"Right… You can't hear me, can you?"
Prowl took a padded step forward, sizing him up.
"Okay, then. Let's go."
Prowl darted back into his closet.
Lockdown took a couple of steps back and cracked his knuckles.
Flamewar played the same type of tricks. Wait for it. Wait.
His scaly friend came flying from the darkness like a bullet.
Lockdown snatched him by the back of his head and squeezed. It was supposed to subdue him, but the back of his neck was extremely well-armored.
Prowl made a strut-melting screech as he fought to get loose.
The bounty hunter clamped his jaws shut, "Come on, mech. Snap out of it…"
It was worse than Lockdown remembered. Prowl thrashed until oil bubbled out of his seams, and the overheating began. His frame slackened.
"That-a-boy."
And then Prowl changed tactics. The former Praxian wriggled like a fish, dragging him across the hall.
~ Can I get some help over here? ~
Jazz's squealing tires echoed from a section over.
"How did you get in-"
"Less talking, just get on his back!"
Jazz managed to get Prowl onto his side with one paw cuffed. Then he knelt beside the malfunctioning mech, trying to rouse him.
"Jazz, give it up. He's not in there."
Lockdown got decked as thanks.
"Probably deserved that." Lock didn't let on that the punch was sloppy and hadn't stung. Much. He mopped at the drawn energon, "Prowl's not in his right mind right now."
Jazz's systems slowly idled down, "I know…"
The alt discrepancy had only gotten worse. Lines were crossing, sparking, and beginning to leak.
"You got another medic?"
"No… 'Cee nearby?"
"She's working on the other nuts," Lockdown braced for an attack as Sideswipe slunk around the corner.
The red mech braced as well, "Oh, you're back. It's just the Swamp Mech."
Lockdown blinked.
Sunstreaker followed his brother's lead. Awkwardly. The frontliner was covered with welds from helm to ped, and his body wasn't happy about moving.
"You get into a fight with a shredder, Sunshine?"
No one answered.
Prowl's growls transitioned to gurgling.
Jazz sagged even before he gathered the mech up.
Eager to move him, Lockdown collected Prowl's flank.
"Med bay?"
"No."
The twin nightmares hung back.
They didn't head to the medic's domain; they wound up in what looked like Prowl's quarters.
Lockdown made sure to look anywhere but at the limp frame Jazz fussed over.
"He still doesn't decorate…"
That revived a tiny part of his once friend. Prowl's jaw twitched, "I bet your ship looks like a hoarder's den."
"More or less."
"You came back."
"More or less," Lockdown said, quieter, "Give me some warning before you try to gut me next time."
Prowl curled up on his side, misshapen tail bending further. Whatever had held him together all these vorns finally snapped. It was a bad alt, and his frame knew it.
Jazz squeezed his shoulder, "Hang tight, we're getting Cee." He worked his way to the back of his helm and helped Prowl drift off.
The saboteur sat up, "He asked about you after Koa. Damn near broke his spark."
"Later, mech," Lockdown pressed a digit into Prowl's side—more ruptures in the worst mod job he'd ever seen.
"How long has it been since he took this form?"
"Right before we left Cybertron."
Lockdown grimaced and started repairing what he could. Beast alts were the same as any other alt. If you didn't use it, your frame would lose it. If a 'former's frame didn't lock up or delete an alt, Prowl's case was a possible outcome. Worse since he was predisposed to snapping.
"If we don't reformat him, he won't make it. Bring them in."
~o~o~o~o~o~
Clarity. Blinding, beautiful clarity.
Cypress watched each dust mote pass over the nearest emergency lantern.
Gentle servos took her shoulders, and Voltage rested their helms together.
"Good cycle."
Cypress nodded, fumbling the reply back in hand. Her motor skills worked fine, but her vocalizer needed to be booted up.
Across from them, Arcee performed the same ritual with Bumblebee. They were close enough that RoadRage could clap them on the shoulder.
"Welcome back. It's been a mega-cycle."
"That long?" A deeper voice muttered.
That was Bumblebee. He offered a crooked smile, lost his nerve, and started checking his blaster arm. Cypress found her footing without a second thought. She seized both his servos and pulled.
Bee wavered and tipped into her at first. His doorwings flared, and he stood–a helm taller than her.
Cypress growled.
"I won."
"I can see that," her voice felt full and raspy. Hers.
Bee's horns had erupted from buds to sharp points. "Can you, now? From all the way down there?"
She pulled him into a tight hug. Bee drew her in and ruffled her audios. He guided her digits to etched 'S' on his back, then ran his servos over the design on her back.
RoadRage made a muffled noise of surprise, then, "Hey."
Voltage shoved her. "Hush."
And then the bond lit up with an unpleasant jab.
"Frag this…" Voltage hissed. "He's been bugging me since– Well, he's been a pain. Prowl caught a Seeker."
Cypress extracted herself from the hug. "Which Seeker, sissy?"
"Tall, blue, and dorky," RoadRage put in.
"Whatever. I won't interrogate TC because I'm not going back."
Another round of pings on comm and bond disturbed them. It wasn't just Jazz this time. The twins were blowing up the comm lines, too.
"Something's wrong." Arcee started.
~ You all need to find a way over here, now. Prowl's bad. ~
Everyone but Arcee and Rager flinched.
"How'd he get here?"
"Same way I did." Arcee sighed, ~ He finally broke? ~
~ I'm holding his spine together as we speak. He's stuck between two alts, and he can't control either. Runt, Kyra, Preeker, that means you all too. ~
Arcee bumped Voltage's shoulder, "Proximity. You don't have to come in."
"Might as well."
No rest for the weary, then.
Voltage took her time shutting down equipment, subtly working her way back into the lab.
Cypress took her servo, "We'll be quick."
The Preeker nodded, still pulling her along, "I need you to see this."
Cypress matched her pace through the halls.
"Something's here, but it shuts down when I bring 'Cee or Rager. I wanted you to see. Do your organic trick."
"What?"
Voltage paused, optics wild. "You turned off your natural EM once; please do that for me again."
The air turned musty and heavier at the spot Voltage led her to.
A door creaked open and they stiffened.
~ That wasn't me. ~ Voltage said.
What was back there was a vault. A pleading rumble echoed from behind it.
Cypress glanced in the corner to find a hastily written note on the floor. Someone's last, judging from what it was written in.
Whatever you do, don't open that.
Her neck plating ruffled and stood on end. Out of all the disagreements her instincts and coding had, they didn't argue about wanting to escape this place. Her spark collected dread like a hungry leech.
Sure, the 'formers were working on something here, and they took each other out. What was left here, though?
Who?
Cypress wrapped a firm servo around Voltage's and ran.
The prisoner let out a screech as she kicked the door shut. Cy only stopped when they were back outside.
The freaked-out Predas crouched to get their vents on a stable pattern.
"Take the energy back from the building," Cypress panted.
"What's wrong with you?"
"There's something locked up down there, and it's bad."
"There's nothing-"
"Hidden door, it doesn't want anyone to see because it knows there's a visual warning written in energon! Back home, we call that a 'hell naw'!"
Voltage slapped a servo on the nearest panel and drained it.
Cypress' systems were still running at capacity. It didn't feel like her spark would overheat this time. Out of habit, she ran a servo over her helm and neck.
It wasn't smooth. Her plating decided enough was enough and turned permanently spiky. Softer fiber optic filaments filled the spaces in between, cushioning the spines. She had a ruff.
Cypress studied her tail and the new filaments there, too.
She didn't hate it. The Preda rolled her shoulders and rattled her spines on purpose, the sound caught between fall leaves and a rattlesnake. Oh, this was great.
It didn't solve the 'weird presence in the basement' problem, but they wouldn't have to worry about that any time soon. Odd, no one wanted to tease them for getting scared.
Walking to an intervention should have felt worse. Cypress tried her alt out. She was still undersized, but she left deeper tracks.
Bumblebee limped until he forced himself into an even gait. With a shake of plating, he transformed and shot past the group.
Good, he was back to his energetic self. Bee went through his tricks: drifting, doughnuts, that wiggle his bumper did when he got excited…
Were alt modes supposed to be attractive?
She kept walking until Voltage dragged her back by the tail.
"Wait." The Preeker hid a smirk, "And stop drooling, you're embarrassing me."
"Bee, kill the noise and come here," Arcee called.
"What's wrong?"
They all stood on the edge of the harder-packed soil and rock before the vast sand expanse.
Arcee glared at the deeper sand, "We should stop. I don't like the way this feels. Bee? Doesn't it look disturbed?"
"Could be anything, but it looks churned up from below..."
"Cy, Vo, smell anything?"
Cypress snuffed, "Barricade."
"The Driller."
Arcee let out a metallic snarl, "It's an ambush." It slowly morphed into a chuckle, "What's his rank and age?"
"Scout, same as us now, I reckon. Recently upgraded." Cypress spat.
"Wily." Voltage added, "Smarter than he acts. Closer to a standard vehi, he's fast enough."
Bumblebee cracked his knuckles, "We've got unfinished business."
"He's cocky, pisses me off, lets his anger get the better of him," RoadRage muttered.
Arcee's EM improved, "Good. Well, this is your section of our group. How do you plan on dealing with this? Time is short."
Voltage looked to a faraway cluster of rock that reeked of Barricade when the wind was right.
"Cy, think you can sneak across to him?"
"Yeah, and then what?"
"Start talking to him. That's pretty distracting." Voltage fanned her wings out, "Bee, are you any good with explosives?"
"Rusty. I can outrun it if anything goes wrong."
"RoadRage, load him up, and you two get ready. We need a distraction. Arcee, stay close."
Cypress snatched up a rock and threw it. No reaction.
She cloaked, took a cautious step onto the sands, and waited.
A local boar plodded in the opposite direction, unbothered by her.
Cypress bolted.
Oh, this would catch up to her later, but for now?
All she felt was light.
Barricade was distracted, arguing with someone over comms. The scout was different from a Praxian. He didn't have any obvious sort of sensory panels. To be safe, Cypress skulked up the rock to watch him.
"You're looking well for a dead mech."
Cade's EM buffered, but he withheld a flinch. Every ounce of his unnerving attention landed on her. "Thanks. Heard you got skewered. Kind of hard not to, small planet."
"I got better."
Barricade had the nerve to laugh. "Wanna come over to the Decepticons? V did. Now it's your turn."
"Nah…I don't like factions," she wandered around the outcropping, forcing 'Cade to turn with her. It was all the better, so he couldn't see Bee and Rager in the background.
"You're spikier now. I like the other frame better."
"It's not for you. It's for me. It reminds me of home."
"Home," Cade echoed.
Cypress fed him trivia. "We have wolves too. Not as many now, but they're still around. Maybe not in the same form or territory, but some things never disappear."
On her third circuit, the slithering tendrils of a Driller encouraged her to stop.
"Where's your yellow friend? "
"Around." Cypress felt a bond nudge from Bee and nuzzled into the tendrils, "I don't appreciate being duped."
"Part of the job, sweetspark."
"Give my regards to Weirdwolf; he'll have a time trying to fix you."
Cypress got the pleasure of watching Barricade getting snatched and thrown against the rock wall.
The sand around them boiled with activity.
RoadRage scrambled over the edge to drop next to her.
"Call your Driller off!" Bumblebee snapped.
Barricade instead went into one of his rages, twisting, clawing, scrambling for purchase.
The scout nodded to Rager.
Cypress hoisted herself up to see the incoming pyrotechnics. Rager didn't disappoint.
A ring of fire danced around their outcropping, laying down a sheen of glass. It scared the other worms off. Sweet En, meanwhile, towered over them, enraged. Voltage whistled from above the fray, rifle trained on the worm, "'Cade, stand down!" A mass of black fury stalked beneath her.
Barricade knew he was outnumbered. He rolled, and Bee pinned him again.
Then Sweet En slithered off, his massive writhing body emerging from the sands.
Arcee lept sideways to give the behemoth space and froze.
Cypress followed her line of sight to a monstrous, grey techno-organic squid dragging itself around the sands. The awful feeling of wrongness welled up again, delving into terror. She couldn't put it into words. Even Bee and Cade stopped fighting. A guttural screech echoed for miles, and her programming descended into cold determination.
Arcee called for silence, ~ Bumblebee, free Cade. ~
Barricade climbed to his peds, oddly unaffected by Arcee. He gave a deft nod to the Driller.
Sweet En surged forward to envelope the struggling monster in a network of tendrils. It attempted to fight back in its weakened condition, failed, and got shredded into consumable bits. Cypress' legs gave out while watching the behemoth feed. The other thing didn't look menacing, but her frame hated it. She couldn't take a picture. "Guys? What is that? Why?"
RoadRage patted her head as a prelude to leading her away, "Don't talk about it."
Arcee perched on the edge of the outcropping. "Can the bridge be operated without that facility, Barricade?"
He kept his optics trained on Sweet En and his arriving Driller friends, "Yes."
They circled back to find the door wrenched open from the escaped monster.
RoadRage entered and returned soon after, short several dozen magna bombs. They waited for a joor, back at the rocks, until the old building imploded, collapsing sand and bedrock on top of itself.
Voltage shuddered, "We're leaving."
Cypress allowed herself to be herded back across the once-dangerous sand.
No one spoke about it.
Barricade willingly drove clustered up with them.
The Drillers didn't resurface to attack.
Arcee hung at the back of their group to guard, her deceptively cheery paint cracked with black distortions.
Cypress quietly added "Quintesson" to her list of dangerous creatures.
Even ancient terror wore off after a joor of driving. Bumblebee sped ahead again. The pitch of his engine changed into something shy of a mosquito whine. Worried.
That only made everyone else speed, and Arcee tailgated her in the word's most literal sense.
Still too slow, Cypress gave up trying to keep pace with her wheeled teammates and bummed a ride with Voltage. The Ark loomed on the horizon, and she sulked on touch down. Cypress could smell traces of their missing crew, only traces. It took her too long to realize she had a shadow. Voltage attempted to hide herself behind Cypress badly. The big, bad, wannabe 'Con coming to her for protection.
Again, it would be funny if it weren't so sad.
Her spines rattled as they perked back up. Cypress threaded her digits between Voltage's talons, "Ride or die."
Bumblebee's servo nearly blinded Cy when he lolled her helm repeatedly, "No. Ride, Prima dammit."
Voltagesmiled weakly. "My heroes."
RoadRage brought up the rear, pushing them forward faster. "Not quite, but I'll take it."
Arcee glanced over her shoulder, "Cade?"
"What." Barricade could make even the shortest sentence sound hostile.
"You're our guest. Act accordingly. Step out of line, and that title will become one of prisoner. Displease me, and I'll just eat you."
He gave an unbothered grunt, shoulders lowering in acceptance, "Whatever you say."
Cypress looked between them, and Arcee gave her a covert wink.
Occupying a place in Cybertronian legend had its perks. A tank full of hydrochloric acid didn't hurt either.
Arcee pitched a rock at the belly of The Ark, with the other on her audio.
Sideswipe was the one to crank open the ramp,"About time- what happened to you guys?"
"There was a Quintesson. Now there's not, thanks to Cade. I don't want him out of sight."
Sides gestured to Arcee's plating, emitting dark EM distortion trails.
"And?"
"I didn't know you– You know what, fine. Get in here."
Cypress made a point of not making eye contact.
Sides had no hang-ups about doing the opposite.
"Mechs bad. The way I see it, you got just as fragged at Koa. Look at his helm. See if you can mend it."
Cypress finally looked up at the frontliner in all his post-battle glory.
From the lack of glassy fissures, Voltage hadn't gone as hard on him as she should have.
Sideswipe stopped walking, too, staring down without malice. He wore the expression of a detached and exhausted hiker.
The wolf Preda gauged it was safe enough to speak. "What's Prowl like now?"
"Restrained. He's lucid, but his mind goes and comes. It's getting worse. Come on, we're wasting–" He attempted to pull her along, and Cypress ducked away from the open servo.
Just as startled, Sideswipe yanked his servo back but kept skating down the Ark's halls.
Behind her, Voltage bristled.
~ Two of us, one of him. ~
~ V, he didn't do anything. Today. ~
Cypress ignored the crowd in the rec room and the new steeljaw padding after them. Judging from the blue painted-on flames, Cypress knew her owners. Sideswipe stopped at the medbay doors. "Got them."
What greeted Cypress was a nightmare of parts. "Oh…Prowl…"
An amber optic refocused, "It's been worse." He had the nerve to sigh, "What did I say about keeping your plating civil?"
Cypress gestured to all of him, "Fits the occasion. I like it this way. Looks like you should have cut loose sooner."
Prowl cracked a grin that should have been sinister on any other former.
Bumblebee joined Jazz at their hurt teammate's side.
"Look at you, so much taller." Prowl couldn't quite get his arm to cooperate with him and reach for Bumblebee.
Bee latched onto his servo and squeezed.
"You're going to be okay, right? Jazz?"
"I will."
Rager quietly guided Bee out.
Cypress laid a servo over the mutated Praxian's until his optics unfocused. He smelled like burnt wires and illness.
Voltage started scanning him, "What's he need specifically?"
"A new frame," Jazz muttered, "but overhauling his alt should work,"
Cypress observed the parts where smooth plating became pebbled and rough.
Voltage caught her optic, lifting a taloned servo sparkling with life.
Cypress pulled up two stools and a roll-away desk, "Jazz, I need you to patch in too."
The Ops mech flinched as she dragged him to the end of the exam table with Prowl's helm.
"You know him best inside and out; plug in directly to his processors and watch him. Help where you can."
Jazz made a rough squawk.
"Don't make me ask twice; I don't know what I'm doing."
Voltage pulled her onto one stool and began opening Cypress' arm plating. "New weapons' in the way. Does Ratchet have a cortical patch?"
Cypress fiddled with the back of her helm, unfurling a few thick feeling cables. She spent hours poking around her systems in the CR chamber. They were supposed to be designed for more accessible data extraction.
"Don't know. Do you have these?"
"That'll work."
Voltage entwined their systems together, "Back from five."
\|/
There was a reason medics used cortical patches instead of connecting raw. They fell. Cy expected chaos, and that's what she found. Voltage halted their spiral and hovered them the rest of the way down.
They landed in ash.
"Here," Jazz called.
The Polyhexian had an armful of metal parts that gave way to Prowl's limp form.
"Is he already-"
"No, still here."
Cypress' horror took a backseat to the bubble of laughter that escaped her.
Prowl was human, too. The mech chose lanky, shoulder-length brown hair, polarized shades, and a state police uniform.
"You think you're human too."
His severe expression softened. "I don't see why you younglings get all the good upgrades."
"You got kaiju powers, very unfair."
Prowl raised his glasses to eye his limp frame, "Want to trade?"
"Eh, ask me again when you can get your optics human enough. Eyes don't flare like that."
Voltage forced Jazz to set the mech's body down, "Well, you can't go out like this. You don't have squishy bits."
Electricity coiled over the inert frame, "What would you like?"
"I don't care. Just make it stop hurting."
Prowl had no interest. He didn't like his body.
Cypress pulled up a set of test schematics.
There needed to be instructions on how to restructure a former mentally from the ground up.
"I don't care. Just make it stop hurting."
Cypress was at a loss, "Any form you like in particular?"
"Surprise me."
Yeah, that was specific. Out of the millions of combinations, Prowl needed one, and he couldnt get more descriptive than that. Now, the fatigue was setting in. This really wasnt a good idea for fresh systems.
Voltage nudged her urgently, "Need out?"
"No, I'm fine."
"I mean, I understand if you can't," human Prowl said placidly, "It's a little complex for you."
Her fuel pressure spiked, and she could feel her olfactory bleeding outside, "Would you like to be a flightless owl? I can make it happen."
Jazz groaned, "Mech, will you stop? You got a big mouth."
Big mouth.
Prowl's old alt had that.
Cypress' schematics scrolled through in a blur above their huddle. A prehistoric crocodile. A gharial. The club MC and the Thylacine he resembled.
Prowl's eyes brightened at the final picture, "That one."
"Tasmanian Tiger. Extinct, the last confirmed footage was of a lone male in captivity. He died the last of his kind."
"Cheery," Voltage mused.
"I like this one, though. It has a smaller snout."
"Shouldn't be that hard to change you over. And you'll have stripes on your aft," Cypress said.
She glanced over at Prowl, still wincing at his actual body.
"Hey. Prick, look at me. You'll be fine. Bee did it, and you can, too."
Prowl smiled thinly, "Do you ever get used to being two people? Does it get easier?"
At least she didn't have to lie this time.
"Yeah, eventually it does."
Later, Cypress wandered out of the med bay, fully aware her olfactory was dribbling energon. She kept her spent sister close as they stumbled to the rec room.
"Done. Be back in a klik."
Someone new attempted to stop her from leaving; Cypress sent forth a snarl that could peel plating from protoform.
"I. Will. Be. Back."
Cypress pulled her along until they got to a floor grate, slipped beneath the flooring, and into a tight maintenance room.
"Sit."
"Wh-"
Cypress stroked her helm and covered Voltage with a tarp. "I put a generator down here. It'll juice you up. Stay here. There's energon in the cabinet, data pads in the walls."
"You made this?"
Cypress beamed, taking in the tarp-lined walls and cozy interior.
"The ones upstairs are decoys. You have to have secret bolt holes." She kept up a smile until she felt Voltage drift into semi-awareness. There wasn't time to fix her face. Cypress prepared to storm in, cleaning her olfactory with a rag.
Only one would be glaring at her in a sea of distressed faceplates–no point in prolonging it.
A wall of black and green greeted her before the rec room.
It was a chore to move her helm. Cy's olfactory started oozing anew, and staring up at the robot version of Gene Simmons wasn't helping.
His optics narrowed, and an image of the same new steeljaw appeared unbidden in her HUD. He didn't appreciate the human comparison.
"You call yourself Cypress or what?"
She sneezed, felt the leakage stem, and plugged her olfactory. "Yeah, you're Lockdown?"
He grunted.
"I'd shake your servo, but…"
"I'll pass, runt. You're the current medic. How's he looking."
"Whole. Prowl's frame just needs some time. Take a look for yourself."
"I'm better at bodywork."
"Can I tell you something? Just between us?"
He leaned back, optic ridge cocked.
"I don't think it worked. Prowl was so far gone when we got there, V was exhausted, and I–I wasn't wired right to begin with. I'm sorry."
"Did you try?"
"Of course. The guy's a pain, but he's ours. Family."
"Good, you all talk like you have a hive mind now?"
"Nah." Cypress sanitized her servos, "Jazz ain't doing so hot…"
"I'm in charge. We don't have true leaders."
"Figured."
"C'mon, temp."
The rec room smelled like despair and burnt wires.
Jazz wasn't back yet.
"Right. Temp, tell `em what you told me."
She wasn't capable of mincing words.
"He's been close to death before, but this ones different. But Prowl's a tough slagger." The faint impressions of Prowl's nightmare life burned at the edge of her processor. "He'll be fine."
Her face felt damp.
"Could have just said it's 50/50. Wolfy sucks at lying," Sideswipe grumbled.
Lockdown's hydraulics hissed. "There's nothing we can do now."
"Do you even-"
Lockdown cut the frontliner off, "We need to get the ship online and airborne, or things will get worse. How are the repairs coming?"
A nasal huff, "We can hold a charge. The tanks are almost repaired. I'll need help."
"You've got it," Lock gestured to their skeleton crew, "Scouts, get on hunting energon. Rager, Slick, Sides, Sunny, let's get this dumpster fire flight-worthy. Cee…" He nodded back to the medbay, "Look after them."
The room cleared, leaving Bumblebee wringing his servos on the couch.
RoadRage glanced between them, ~ I have to yell at Lockney… ~
"We'refine," Bee said. A little too fast. A little too eager.
Cypress dragged him back to her bolt hole.
Voltage was still deep in recharge, curled on her side in beast-mode.
She barely had time to open her arms. Bumblebee tucked his frame into hers.
~o~o~o~o~o~
The day started normally enough.
Sideswipe kicked him awake. The ship grew closer to passable repair. Rager avoided him and was short with him when that wasn't possible. Jazz didn't recharge. Arcee watched him and his ailing brother. Sunstreaker worked with Oil Slick in silence. The scouts would remain missing until sundown.
Then, an unwelcome change.
Jazz called him out of the Ark to the center of the scrub.
Cy was already there, just as resigned to what was about to happen.
Sunstreaker had had hard blows before, but this was something awful. Somehow, somewhere, someone decided to take all the misery of a pitfight and concentrate it into a prod, colloquially called a shock stick.
It dropped him to his knees.
He would have been fine if that were all, but it echoed through his frame. Processor, spine, t-cog; nothing worked.
A joor later, Sunstreaker could finally start muttering curses–quietly.
Jazz immediately lit in on them.
"What you guys forget is that I'm not Optimus. I will lock you in stasis if you don't listen to me. It's my last warning. Knock it off."
Jazz said nothing further, subspaced the prod, scanned their vitals, and left.
'Fair' his aft, the least Jazz could do was helm him up…
When Sunstreaker finally reached standing levels of ability, Cypress was still prone. And still.
Sunny didn't recall the kid making noise after her shock.
"We should go back."
Nothing.
"Kid."
She wasn't offline. The dust beside her vents was stirring with every ragged vent.
Dammit.
"It'll hurt less if you—"
Cypress climbed to her peds, transformed, and slunk away.
"You're going the wrong way."
"Don't talk to me."
"What? You're mad about a little shock? It'll wear off before the evening."
"Go away, Sunstreaker."
"I'm only trying to help. None of this would have happened if yo–"
He stopped.
The kid had closed the distance between them and transformed faster than he remembered the little glitch could. She kept stalking forward, right into his chassis.
"I what, Sunstreaker? Finish the sentence."
"You should have never come with us."
He expected fear and coolant but not the burning EM that followed.
"I didn't have a choice, and I'm tired of doing things because there wasn't one. Voltage is like me. I won't let someone else get hurt like that again."
"Cute, how–" he felt a rifle barrel snap his mouth shut.
"Do I have your full attention?" Cypress' optics emptied of color into washed-out green.
"I'm so tired, Sunny. I don't care what crawled up your aft. I'm sorry Prime, Hide, Drift, and Ratchet are gone. I am. I thought the spines were enough, but you won't quit… You made my life more of a living hell. Leave me alone. Don't talk to me. Delete my comm. You don't have to worry about me retaliating. I have better things to do.
But if you ever touch my sister again, I'll make you wish I'd only killed you."
She didn't take the rifle off him when she backed away.
Only when Jazz came out did she subspace it.
"Cypr–"
"Don't you start. You knew damn well what was going on with the Dread and about my hallucinations and said nothing."
"Cypress," he warned.
"Go ahead, shock me again. It's the truth. Sunny and I have an understanding now. Fantastic leadership. I'm going."
The kid melted back into the brush, using every bit of Ratchet's vocabulary.
Sunstreaker's frame creaked as it relaxed.
Jazz sat out of punching range, "Had enough?"
"Depends on what we find off planet."
The mech kept a placid EM, "Alright, Sunshine."
If Jazz saw his servos shaking, he declined to comment.
~o~o~o~o~o~
Cypress melted entirely down to a snarling mess for the first time in years. Instead of bark missing from trees–there was a whole line of downed vegetation leading to the coast. Venom hung around her frame like a mist.
Cypress sat in alt, nose halfway buried in the sand. When that didn't feel right, she screamed.
What came out was more of a ragged howl. Witness to her tirade was one trembling rabbit.
"Sorry, dude."
It didn't speak, but it should have. The rabbit gave off the resonance of someone sentient. They were gone in a flurry of plating before she could stop them.
Out of curiosity, Cypress leaned over a still tidepool. Her optics were barely distinguishable from the flare they gave off or the haze of venom following her spine.
It made her look like a creature dragged from the edges of a nightmare. She loved it.
Folding her plating tempered the venom; calming down shut off the haze completely. Cypress settled back to her bipedal form with a self-satisfied smirk. Voltage wasn't the only one with a long rage attack anymore.
Electricity and venom sent airborne in humidity made for a devastating attack in stormy weather. There was a peacefulness in being just as deadly as her peers.
If you could tolerate the accompanying pain.
Stupid Jazz.
It was just as bad as waiting for the punishment. Everything hurt. Cypress ran a servo over the phantom aches on her exit wound and jerked to a stop. She felt out the soft scrawl of glyphs buried partially by her spines.
'Light of my spark, pain in my aft, beloved'
Her digits trembled, and she retraced the alien wording.
"You're still out here? Jazz asked me to check on you." The warm, fluttery sensation of falling stalled as it mixed with remembering her jackass of a superior.
Cypress drained every inflection from her vocalizer, "How thoughtful of him."
Bumblebee took a step back. "Oh boy."
"What? He's only doing as a commander should."
"Nobody's around for miles; they can't hear you."
"If he were on fire at this moment, I wouldn't piss on him."
Bee whistled, "Shock stick?"
Cypress grumbled.
"I'm sorry."
"Hey, I'll live. You give me: 'I didn't get spanked 'cause I was the baby' vibes."
He shrugged, "You weren't here last vorn."
"I heard you were being a little demon Camaro. What'd our fearless leader tell you to do? Make sure I don't contact the Decepticons?"
She nudged him backward until his aft hit the sand.
"HEY!"
Cypress pillowed her helm on her arms directly over his spark. "Hey, yourself. You wrote this on my back?"
"Yeah?"
"Quit squirming and lie down," Cypress rubbed his chin before muscling a kiss from him. "Jerk. Roll over for me."
He scraped their plating together deliberately.
"Relax, we'll get there. Hold still." She took longer detailing his plating on purpose, concentrating on the whorls and jagged edges that made up Cy-Stan.
'Snows warmth, summers shade
My favorite cicada'
"Cicada?"
"You know, they don't shut up."
Bee's return kiss ground her into the sand.
"Where'd you learn to-"
"You want answers or distraction?"
Feeling something good was a surprise. So was the couple's surroundings being quiet for once. Birds. The surf. A constant breeze. Only one other EM around to hone in on. It was easy to relax and let her audios get played with.
She returned the favor by twisting kinks out of his doorwing wiring.
"My back itches."
"Yeah, that's beach sand for you."
"Wanna go see what the woods are like?"
"You're not slick, mech. Come back with a proposal, and we'll talk."
He stalled out.
Cypress pinched his cheek, "I was in your head. You're cute when you go all soft. We gotta get up, though."
"And do whaaattt. I'll comm and say we hit quicksand."
There was enough energon processing currently. Until it finished, though, fuel was tight.
"Something productive, or we're never going to hear the end of it."
Bee let off a quiet hiss. "It's weird being on the ship now… I don't like Lockdown."
The opposite was true for Cypress. Yes, the guy could look straight through you and strip you down for usable parts. There was a comfort in the simplicity. On the other hand, he was Bee's childhood boogey-mech. A threat always there that even your guardians feared.
Then there was that other guy with the glass dome and long digits…
She didn't have room to judge, but the two-wheeler mech's mods were off-putting.
"Bee, do you know how to fish?"
That led to her wading in knee-deep water, holding the other end of Bumblebee's subspaced cargo net. While they fished, the scrub-brush brown rabbit returned, flanked by two similar companions.
"Company."
"Predas?"
"Mhmm."
They pretended not to notice, and the rabbits kept staring.
Back on the beach, Cypress dragged one viperfish out and slit its belly with a claw, gutting its waste parts.
"Vo taught me. It's mainly the parts you need to eat. It's not like Earth, where you have to cook it, but it's better to prep predatory and scavenger fish. Drain the line energon, warm it over a blaster to burn out impurities, and it's ready."
Even after flash cooking, Bumblebee hesitated.
"Take energon first. It'll soothe your tank."
After a solid klik, Bee did.
"It's not bad…tastes okay." He fought the urge to spit out scales. Bee didn't have fangs, poor thing.
"Yeah, I swallow the whole thing and try to forget what I just did."
"Oh?" Bee purred.
That one word had her contemplating swimming to the next continent.
"Hey, I'm joking. It's good, though. Tastes like ship insulation."
"Why were you eating–"
"You know, you're playing hide and seek, you get hungry, insulation snacks."
"You ate paint chips as a kid, too, didn't you?"
"How'd you guess?"
"Explains a lot. Dirt tastes better, especially the crunchy type."
"See, this is why I worry about you."
Cypress locked eyes with an orange opticed behemoth glaring at them from the reeds. The stupid rabbits were still there, flanking the massive saurian. Cypress was ninety percent sure the fluffy one was taking a photo.
She choked on a second fish.
"Goes down a lot worse than energon, huh? Slow down."
"Dude, there's a dragon."
"Yeah, right—" Bee turned, promptly sprung a leak, and ducked down, "FRAG. How long has he been there?"
"I don't know…he's Preda, but he's not communicating."
"We're going home."
The dragon did not attempt to keep its gaudy frame hidden. He was coated in purples and oranges that bordered fluorescent.
"Hang on, leave some fish. Might be his turf."
"I don't think he wants those."
~ It's not about food, it's respect. We admit this is rightfully his, and we book it to anywhere but here. You too. ~
~ Wh– ~ Bee took a nano to reflect on the abuse from Carnivac.
~ Yeah. That. I don't think they like us to begin with. Kneel, put some fish on a rock, bow, and run. ~
"How is fishing?"
Bumblebee jerked to a stop, plating on end.
Cypress followed his line of sight to the dragon, speaking Cy-Stan and acting amused. Keyword was acting, something about his EM put them both on edge.
The scout worked his gun arm behind her and pulled her closer. "It's good. Is this your territory?"
Dragon-man strode closer, "It is."
Cypress caught movement to their rear and flared the spines on her tail. She disguised the motion as a prelude to a bow. "We thank you for your hospitality."
It wasn't a straight trip home.
Bumblebee led them on enough backtracks to make the most competent trackers confused. They couldn't do much about the feeling of being watched.
It was dusk with bad weather coming in by the time The Ark was visible.
Barricade of all 'formers sat on the open ramp.
"Where have you two been?"
"Fishing. Why do you care?" Bee snapped.
"Defensive…Voltage's still in recharge, TC doesn't wanna hang, and that gold one keeps looking at me funny."
He glared at their entwined servos. Barricade sneered, "That's embarrassing."
"Your carrier."
"At least I knew her, reject."
Bumblebee attempted to sock him, and it started another brawl. It was half-sparked, and Cade was loving it.
Cypress filed her claws back to a point, accidentally leaving her ped out for the 'Con to trip over. He hit the ramp like a brick.
"Thought you were a pacifist?!"
"Short for: will help beat your aft if it suits me."
Bee stroked her cheek.
"What's wrong with you two?"
"Alot," Cypress grumbled.
"I meant besides whatever that is. You turn into stuff like the pink one. I was talking to this overcharged guy–"
"Cade, shut up."
"And he said the only difference between a Pretender and a Terrorcon is the first hasn't gotten hungry yet." He looked from each 'former. "It's ok. My transformation got botched, too."
"You're not making any sense," Bee argued, "Into what?"
Barricade rolled all four optics, "You know… Pinky. Every former has the same base coding. It takes a special combination to make one like Arcee from a normal former. There's not many of our age group left…the ones left over…they're all like us. We're smaller and have more adaptations than the older ones. Why do you think we're like that?"
"We can't find out if we're all dead," Cypress put a clawed servo out, "Truce?"
"He's just going to stab us when we let our guard down."
"Or we could let him choose-"
In a flash, Barricade bit her wrist, then did the same to Bee, "Truce."
The disturbed Con darted halfway up the ramp, too pleased with himself.
Bumblebee was too stunned to go after him. "Is that how Cons make agreements?"
"Nope. Huh… You guys taste good. Oh, and your crewmates are waiting."
They really should have left the monochrome degenerate in the desert.
Bumblebee stopped her from boarding, "Cypress."
"Yeah…"
"Stop trying to make friends."
"Kay."
On the bright side, the lights were back. The downside was everyone could clearly see them trying to sneak past the rec room.
Jazz called them out. "You're late. What happened."
At least the truth would distract everyone from asking other questions.
Bumblebee hiked his wings, "There's a huge, dragon-like saurian out there by the shore. Looks like a drake, no wings."
Voltage, not resting or hiding out, blurted, "Is he brightly colored?"
Cypress smacked the rec room projector and showed them. "Yup."
The Preeker grimaced, "We're all going to die. That's Predaking Scourge. We're on the outskirts of Eukaris and this is one of his territories…he doesn't normally leave the planet." She glanced at Barricade.
"What's going on."
"Nothing!"
"Driller slag! What did you do?"
"It wasn't me! Cieve wanted to get reinforcements. I told her we could handle it, and she hung up on me."
"Thundercracker?"
"I'm supposed to be back home, but thanks to you lovely people…"
Lockdown waved for quiet, "No one's coming out in squall weather. There's something I need to do when it comes in, though."
Voltage shot him a sour look, wings twitching downward. She shouldn't have been up as soon as she was. "I'm not rerouting lightning."
"Didn't ask. Anyone who's mobile: check the wiring. I don't want anything blowing up."
It was all in her helm, it had to be, but she couldn't shake the sensation of being watched. It burned like cracking eczema.
Thankfully, Lockdown wasn't one to drag meetings out. She was the first out dragging the Preeker behind her. Being around everyone as a group still irked Cypress more than she cared to admit.
So much for pack coding.
"Why are you out?"
"I feel better. And someone has to make sure TC doesn't get mobbed."
Old Cypress would have argued. New Cypress just nodded and handed Voltage a smaller sack of fish.
"You stole."
"We left him some caught fish, too."
"I can't believe he let you two leave…"
"What's with the rabbits? I thought Eukarians were just predators."
"When there's less of a chance of kidnapping and being kept as amusement, different forms are allowed branch out in peace."
"Huh," Cypress paused at the medbay and nearly called for Ratchet.
The designation never left her vocalizer. The Preda-wolf forced herself in.
To her surprise, Prowl was awake.
Arcee glanced up from her routine check of the ailing Praxian. "About time. Find anything good?"
"Fish, a few mesh bandage substitutes, I'm not versed in local healing. How are you feeling, Prowls?"
"Fine."
Arcee shot a 'see what I have to deal with' look their way, "He's tired and too quiet. It's pissing me off. I almost wish you'd start attacking us again."
"I'm sorry to disappoint," Prowl hissed, just enough like his old self. Then he went back to being quiet. After Arcee's check, he laid tank down and dimmed his mismatched optics. "I'll be sure to surprise you later."
"It's going to take some time. He looks better."
"Stop talking about me like I'm not here."
"Get up and make me, Prowler," Arcee barked back, smiling, "You two good to watch him?"
"Fine."
~o~o~o~o~o~
"You going to stand there and glare at me the whole time?"
Bumblebee flinched and shuffled to the other corner of the Ark's surface. Lockdown still eyed him.
Bee had come up to the hull to escape the rec room, only to have the last mech he wanted around to follow him up.
He was doing something with a huge array that looked more like a giant circuit board. "Hand me some wire cutters."
Lockdown glanced over, "Hurry."
Bumblebee resigned himself to crouching beside the bounty hunter, handing him tools when asked.
"What are you doing?"
"You saw that light show when your team got snatched? That was a warp anomaly. Skywarp's fault. They knew this area was unstable. Ergo, it was easier to do weird slag. This is one of the places where reality gets thin. I'm making it so when we get struck by lightning, we don't wind up in the past or worse."
"Worse?"
"Geting thrown into another timeline. It has happened."
With every flash of electricity, blooms of smaller warps appeared. And they lasted longer. The sky started bleeding neon into the molten sand around them. The more he looked around, the more the area seemed distorted into other places.
Lockdown punted a furry creature back into a nearby warp, "Yeah, we're going inside."
As soon as they were back, Bee wanted out. He settled next to a half- awake Prowl.
Sideswipe slammed a set of pliers he'd been spinning down, "Anyone else got an Eldritch horror level alt-mode, or are we in the clear? Anyone else in on this mutant bond thing? No? Good. So level with me, what is going on with you all."
Arcee groaned, "Who told?"
The red frontliner swept a servo out to the assembled 'formers. "Does it matter? Anyone with basic functions knows something's up."
"You remember what we used to call it, Lock?"
He snorted, "Pit."
"You're no help. There's not a word to describe it, it can only be felt."
The rest of their haphazard team responded in kind.
"Yeah, purging, body aches, hallucinations…uhh."
"Grabbing distance."
"Yeah, you gotta stay close for a few orns while you heal."
"Seizures."
"Headaches."
"Memory loss or remembering stuff that didn't happen to you."
"You just have a cascade of medical issues until your frame balances out."
The twins' faceplates twisted in horror.
"That's not how a bond works…it's not supposed to feel like that."
"You ever thinking about getting it removed?"
"NO." The unanimous statement surprised everyone.
"Y'all hate it."
"Yeah, but not that much!"
"Just my personal opinion, but I think you should keep yourselves bound. It's grounding isn't it?" Thundercracker offered. His plating was relaxed for a stasis cuffed mech. Someone freed him previously and sat him in the corner with a energon cube. "I don't like my trine all the time."
All helms turned to the blue Seeker.
Oil Slick's helmet let out a pneumatic hiss, "What should we do about him?"
"We…" RoadRage bristled up, "Lock, who's this guy?"
"Colleague, he lives in my basement. Don't worry about it."
The Seeker sat up taller, "I don't recommend anything drastic. There aren't enough of you for an assault."
"We don't want that," Prowl snorted, "Just what's ours back.
Lockdown rose, "The way I see it, you're the one in danger. You've been taken care of better than most prisoners." He casually transformed his left arm into a chainsaw and revved it, "Talk."
Thundercracker looked to Barricade.
Bumblebee decided to do Cade a favor by digging his digits into the Decepticon scout's shoulder wiring.
Jazz's smile didn't reach his visor, "Like he said, we need some information."
The Seeker bristled, thrusters warming.
Voltage sighed, "Alright. You two stow it."
Jazz growled, and she elbowed him away as she pulled up a chair. "TC."
"Don't bother. I don't want what they're selling, and you're better than bribery."
"It's an offer. Listen up, or they'll sic the last Polyhexian on you. We need our bosses back, you want some time away from Screamer. Am I wrong? My team's upset. I'm upset. The Vengeance wasn't here for them–"
Thundercracker eyed her, "Not everything is about you and your Predas." He said carefully, "We each have our own missions. It's none of your concern."
Voltage seemed to cup his cheek while scraping her talons over it. "It's my concern when I have a head full of seven angry 'formers and the only genuine Autobot I've met is with his mortal enemy."
Voltage's energy slammed the chair against the rec room wall, forced him halfway to the ceiling, and held him there. Her tendrils crept toward his spark.
"You're cute, but I have my limits. Don't make me shatter your casing in front of the kids."
It seemed Voltage had gotten hold of the feral processor coding.
Barricade raised an optic ridge, sending Bee looking to his higher-ups.
RoadRage cleared her vocalizer, "V?"
Voltage ignored her and intensified her output.
"Hey, Voltage, that's enough." Jazz called.
"What? You'd do the same. You asked me to interrogate him."
TC broke free but didn't get far.
Voltage hissed, "Is this about what they'll be going through?"
The pain wasn't enough for TC to lie still, the electrified spark invaders were his main concern. He was able to get to his hands, "V are you okay?"
"I haven't slept well lately. I'm prepared to give you that permanent gift. Where. Are. They?"
Lightning hit the ship and the two Seekers vanished through the floor.
In the next nano, they reappeared, falling from the ceiling.
"Dammit, Voltage," Lockdown growled, "You opened a portal."
"NEW KAON, they're back at New Kaon," the Seeker shrieked, "DON'T MAKE ME GO BACK IN THERE."
"Are y'all okay?!"
Voltage sat quietly, "Fine, just fell for a little. I don't know where he went."
TC was still freaked out, "I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you are a bunch of freaks!"
"Kay," Arcee chided, slapping a stronger set of cuffs with a mute function on him. "Back to your corner. Thanks for your help."
Bumblebee felt himself scooped up by the waist, along with Cade, and Cypress appeared on the other side of their "savior".
RoadRage huffed, "Lockney, was that a dimensional hole?"
"Yeah…"
"I told Drift, and I'm telling you: I draw the line at dimension hopping. Fix it. I'll be back to yell at you later. And you." She paused at Voltage, "Get some rest."
Barricade squirmed, "Put me down, Autobot! I'm not a sparkling!"
"Not a Bot. You're one of the youngest, deal with it."
"Relax, Rager. They only open with extreme electrical output."
Bee felt her grip shift and tighten.
"It's not just the portals; how do you know so much? What happened to you?"
The mood tanked further, sending everyone's EM with it. Flamewar whined.
"Let's just say I know what I'm talking about."
~o~o~o~o~o~
Cypress stiffened and sneezed in the early dawn air. Her back spasmed, sending the attached spines and plating outward. Everyone around her had scattered as well. It was also the fifth time in a row.
Voltage started whacking her with a cleaning rag, chasing her around the Ark's half-buried landing gear, "Will you stop that?!"
"Excuse me for having engine trouble!"
"That noise."
Transformers didn't sneeze quite like humans despite having a similar method of expelling ventilation debris. Cypress blamed it on her jacked-up insides. Her sister hadn't commented on it before. Voltage also hadn't been obsessed with watching their surroundings.
The Preeker flopped down, wings tucked. "He's here."
They'd been waiting for the Predaking. Partially because of Lockdown, and partly because they didn't need any more enemies.
Hostile or not, seeing the mech in full was fantastic, a Western dragon come to life.
The mech transformed, meeting the Ark's substitute command halfway. Lock, Jazz, Arcee, and Sideswipe.
"What brings you here, Cybertronian?"
Lockdown snapped into a direct, insult-free manner of speaking, "Here to collect some friends and start a retrieval mission elsewhere."
"Like New Kaon?"
"With all due respect, your majesty. What's it matter to you?"
Cypress joined her sister in feeling their tanks drop into the peds.
~ Shut. Up! ~
The grungy bounty hunter ignored them.
"It matters you have trespassed on my personal territory, taken fuel, stolen prey, and desecrated not only a tomb but a sacred beach as well."
"We took out a Quint; I'd say we're even."
Cypress mused if she transformed very slowly, maybe she could crawl back onto the ship before melting into goo. Looking around to see a dozen other Predas of assorted sizes made her freeze. The weird rabbits were right behind her, too.
"You are every bit as disrespectful as Crankcase warned."
"I don't have time for slag. There's a hunk of junk ship to get airborne, and I have to listen to this sparkling whine about the past all the way there."
Jazz was back to glaring at Lock as if he'd murder him where he stood. Again.
"Is this all your crew?"
"Yeah."
"I see. Cieve? Take care of your business."
Voltage took her in with open arms.
"You're on your own now. I won't be there to save you."
"Take care of yourself, okay, Cieve?"
The silver wolf nodded, "And you, imitateur."
Cypress braced for an insult.
"Mwen te wè sa ou te fè. Mèsi. Pran swen li." (I saw what you did. Thank you. Take care of her.)
"Ou te resevwa li." ("You got it.")
"And you?" Cieve bellowed to Barricade, "Lose my comm, I don't want to speak to you again."
"Frag you too, I'll comm when we land."
"Fine."
Cypress watched Scourge watching them.
"Diahatusu's daughters…"
Voltage dipped her frame. "Predaking."
"I believe I have seen you before as well, Earth-dweller."
Earth was just an open secret to everyone but humans, then. And that meant…
"Are you the strange beasts that appear there?" Cypress winced, "Predaking, sir."
"I believe you already know that answer. You are on thin ice already."
One of the rabbits warbled behind her.
"Neither of you were sparked here and you will inevitably return to your–associates' lair. But this is your home in spark. When you go to these Autobots, I have one command. In all you do, show them why Eukaris should not be stolen from."
The sisters shared a smirk and bowed deeply. "Yes, Predaking."
He returned to making final preparations with their team.
Cypress ducked down to the nearest rabbit's level: this one, a tawny-sand-colored 'former.
"You're the first prey Predas I've seen. Mind if I get a picture?"
"Only fair," he chirped back.
It should be. She knew the one in the back had been taking pictures the whole time. The other two, a hare and bizarrely fluffy rabbit, scooted together in alt.
"What are your designations?"
"Brussel."
"Fennel."
"Warhammer."
Cypress blinked at the fluffy one, "Warh-ok. Nice names."
"We're the Predaking's vanguard."
"I'm Cypress." The confusion might have shown in her optics.
"The strongest may lead, but they'll always need cunning and support."
Dragon Scourge from TF:Cybertron!
Dude's jerky alt-mode jaw movements scared the bejeezus out of me back in the 00's.
I love it when beast-formers just carry on a conversation in alt. Same energy as someone arguing with a "car"
Rabbit OCs because IRL rabbits/hares are way more capable than you'd believe.
Source: I had two farm rabbits. One docile and one sporadically violent.
We called the aggressive one Bluestreak, ironically.
Blue escaped, tried to fight the dog, and vanished into the woods.
He refuses to come back.
We've been seeing him on field cameras eating with the deer.
But his bro is still doing great, super chill with his other rabbit friends.
Speaking of gray things with behavioral issues…
Shout out to whoever decided ROTB Mirage should be like however he is .
He's the type of character you don't expect to like, grows on you, and then shared habits/ other characters' reactions make you realize how you might come off to others irl–and that you need to talk to a doctor.
Part of my tipping point was the goddamn rambling Pete Davidson robot. (affectionate)
That's the Kidz Bop version of the story, but I'm on occasional PMDD meds now, and they're working.
Moral of the story: don't self-diagnose with fictional characters, but ask questions if you think something is wrong.
