Notes:
Hey guys, just a heads up, make sure to reread the last two paragraphs of the last chapter! I rewrote them because my plot changed slightly. The major difference is that Soundwave told the mini-cons to stay away instead of sending Laserbeak to spy on Danny.
Also: after some deliberation and voting in my server, I have decided to change the pronouns of two of the cassettes! I know that all of them in canon are known as he/him, but when you write a scene with eight he/hims in a conversation, it gets overwhelming really quickly!
So we decided to switch both Ravage and Laserbeak to She/her, and I will be updating the first chapter accordingly! Also, big sister Ravage is the best! I hope no one is too terribly upset by this change of cannon, but I hope that we can move around it.
Also also! I don't have much information on Buzzsaw, so I mostly just guessed for his personality! I hope I do him justice.
Laserbeak sat on her perch as she analyzed the strange organic who had helped Ravage the other night: Phantom. He was sitting on the ledge of a building, looking at a small device in his hands, completely enthralled by it, not noticing the mini-con merely thirty feet away.
Laserbeak's optics scanned over him, noting the strange energy readings he was giving off. They didn't match any known parameters for organic life that they have seen thus far on this planet. It was almost as if the human was radiating energy. Laserbeak tilted her helm to the side. Human bodies conduct electricity, not release it. This was no normal organic at all.
Ravage had been pouting for the last couple of days after having been helped by an organic. Rumble and Frenzy wouldn't stop teasing her about it. Frenzy mysteriously ended up in the medbay with a few new claw-shaped gashes in his shoulder plating yesterday. Laserbeak had no idea why. Her field flickered with amusement.
Laserbeak adjusted her position slightly, her claws scraping against the metal pole. Phantom had spotted a female organic walking down the street. He purposely slipped off the building and glided down to her. Laserbeak's optics widened. It was like gravity didn't even apply to him. Even Laserbeak needed her thrusters to stay in the air.
The two organics started up a conversation, the female not even batting an optic at the fact that the human next to her could fly. They must know each other then. Laserbeak tilted her helm to the side keying in on the conversation, recording it for later use. It ended up being about some sort of outing. The girl was upset about something, and Phantom simply seemed amused. It was nothing of use in finding out what the organics' strange motives were for saving Ravage the other night.
Something interesting showed up on one of Laserbeak's scans. She tilted her helm, looking closer. Phantom floated up hovering over the female's shoulder with a smirk before flipping upside down with some sort of tease toward her. But with that smile, she sensed a change in EM field.. from the organic. Humans didn't have EM fields like Cybertronains do. This was very strange… and definitely worth looking into.
She debated getting closer to take a more thorough scan before her comms pinged, pulling her from her thoughts. /Whatcha doing?/ Buzzsaw's familiar voice chirped through the connection.
Laserbeak resisted the urge to click irritably. She wasn't in the mood for distractions, but ignoring him would only invite more pestering. /Reconnaissance/ she replied simply, keeping her optics trained on the target below.
/You went to look for that squishy, didn't you?/ Buzzsaw teased.
/No./ She snapped, her plating bristling at being caught in a lie.
/You totally are! I thought Soundwave said to leave that place alone./
Laserbeak clicked her beak in annoyance but didn't dignify that with a response. Instead, she refocused on Phantom, who was now gesturing animatedly with his hands, the black-haired female rolling her optics but still smiling.
Buzzsaw continued, oblivious to Laserbeak's annoyance. /So, what's the verdict? Is the squishy a threat? I kind of want to see what all the fuss is about./
Laserbeak hesitated, her optics narrowing. /Undetermined. Phantom exhibits abilities that do not align with standard human biology. Soundwave's concerns are valid./
/Yet you are still going out on your own./ Buzzsaw asked.
Laserbeak rolled her optics. /I can take care of myself./
/Yeah, yeah, whatever you say./ He paused. /Just don't get yourself caught, alright? Ravage will never let you live it down./ He sent a light brush of concern through their bond with the message.
/I won't./ She was slightly offended by the suggestion.
/See you back on the Nemesis. Don't miss me too much./ He then cut off the com.
Laserbeak huffed quietly, shaking her helm. She pushed the conversation aside and re-centred her focus on Phantom. If there was one thing she hated, it was wasted time.
Below, the human female turned to leave, tossing a comment over her shoulder that made Phantom laugh. He watched her go before sighing, his shoulders relaxing as he hovered in place. Laserbeak zoomed in, again the strange fluctuation of energy.
Interesting.
Phantom straightened and glanced over his shoulder suddenly, his gaze sweeping the street. Laserbeak froze, her body going completely still as she clung to her perch. She doubted he'd seen her—she had been trained far too well for that—
After another second of searching, Phantom disappeared. She cycled her optics and rescanned the area. But he was just… gone. Her plating puffed up in alarm. She didn't take her optics off of him. How did he just disappear into thin air? She couldn't have lost him! This must have been another strange ability he possessed.
Phantom was certainly no ordinary squishy.
x
Laserbeak followed him for four more days, trying to analyze him and figure him out. Each time, he seemed to be getting better and better at figuring out where she was. As soon as she started watching him, he would start looking around, and then he would disappear. She would scan, and there would be nothing.
Here she sat again on a lamp post, optics narrowed. He wasn't on his normal route. She had discovered that he patrols the town very particularly every night. She had learned his routine and relied on it now. So where was he?
" —Why are you stalking me?" A voice appeared behind her. She jumped and spun around on the lamppost, already aiming her weapons. Phantom flew backwards, holding his hands up in surrender. "Hey, hey, didn't mean to scare you."
She didn't say anything. Her plating puffed up in alarm. How did he spot her? More importantly, how did he sneak up on her!? She was way better than this. Soundwave would be disappointed in her.
"Like I said, why are you stalking me?" He crossed his arms. She clicked her beak in irritation. Hoping that he would assume that she couldn't speak. Most humans did. "Look, I don't want any trouble, okay." He flew backwards. "Are you with those other guys that came through here the other day?"
Laserbeak gave him nothing. Simply staring at him. "Ah, okay, well… uh. Can you talk?" He asked. Laserbeak tilted her helm to the side. "Sorry, is that not something I should ask? The other cat robot could, and I didn't originally think that she could. Is it rude to assume?" The human brought his palm to his forehead.
"Let's start over." The human almost stuck his hand out as if to try and shake Laserbeak's wing. She stared at it and then looked back at him. Her entire frame still tense. Phantom pulled his hand back and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well, My name's Phantom." Laserbeak nodded. She knew that already.
"Well, I would appreciate it if you would please… stop stalking me. It's really creepy. And I always get this weird sensation all over that someone is scanning me. I don't like it." He rubbed his arms. So he could feel Laserbeak's scans, that must have been how he disappeared every time Laserbeak tried to watch him. Makes sense.
She was then filled with a sense of uncertainty –not fear– Phantom was so close and still an unknown. If he could fight off a thing that injured Ravage that badly, what could he do to her? The only one of her siblings that knows she is doing this is Buzzsaw. And she didn't tell him where she was. He wouldn't even know to look for her. She leaned back slightly, subconsciously puffing up her plating more to make herself seem bigger. Maybe she should have thought this through a bit more.
"Hey, I promise I'm not going to hurt you." Phantom backed up further. Her optics widened. Did he hear her thoughts? As if he noticed her concern. "I can feel the anxiety flowing all over you." he gestured vaguely with his hand in her direction. "I promise I won't hurt you or whatever you are nervous about. I just wanted to know why you are stalking me."
He could sense her field? She immediately tried to cut it off. Hoping that her siblings didn't notice through the bond. "Woah…" The human said. "I guess you didn't know I could sense that, huh." She narrowed her optics.
The human floated back more. "Well, I'm going to continue my patrol. Uh. Please don't stalk me anymore. I promise I don't want anything to do with your friends, and I don't really plan on telling everyone about it. Your secrets are safe with me… Just make sure you stay out of sight on your way out. Or I guess you have been pretty good at it thus far. Either way. I'm just going to go this way." He pointed with two thumbs in the direction of where he normally starts his patrol. "Fly home safe, I guess, feathers. I hope that you understand all this. And it wasn't just me rambling to myself the whole time."
He backed away and then disappeared into thin air again. She paused to try to figure out if he was still there before she took to the sky. She never wanted to be caught off guard again, that was for sure.
x
It had been about a week since the incident. Ravage found herself pacing back and forth in Soundwave's shared berth room with her and her siblings. Her injuries had mostly healed, and her systems had recalibrated. Ravage found herself obsessing over the strange human who tried to help her. She wanted to know more, and she wanted to know why .
The thoughts nagged at her. The human had ignored threats and pushed his way into their business with an ease that bordered on arrogance. He even tried to defend her from her moronic brothers. What did he gain from helping her?
Ravage was not accustomed to unanswered questions, especially those involving fragile, organic creatures like him. Humans were weak, impulsive, and had a short lifespan compared to their own. She shouldn't even care. Yet this one... this Phantom had piqued her interest.
She needed to get to the bottom of this before she fried her processor. So the next night, she snuck out of the Nemesis through one of her favourite secret hatches and headed back to 'Amity Park.'
x
Ravage silently crept through the town, making sure to keep an audial open for any dangers that might appear. Already weary of this town from her last visit, she kept to the shadows, winding in and out of the alleyways silently as she looked for Phantom.
She had searched for nearly an hour at this point, and still no sign. She glanced up, noticing a fire escape that led to the roof of one of the buildings. She narrowed her optics. She might have a better chance of spotting him from higher ground. He did fly, after all.
She lept vertically into the air the hydraulics in her legs were silent as she easily cleared the first level of the escape and landed on the second. From there, she prowled up the stairs with only the slight creak of the metal under her pedes.
Once on the roof, she remained crouched low, her red optics scanning the street below. She stalked the edge of the building around all sides, searching for her prey. Then she spotted him. She hunkered down next to a brick chimney that she could use as cover and observed.
There he was, floating lazily between the buildings, scanning his surroundings with an easygoing confidence. Her tail flicked behind her, betraying her irritation. It would be easy to approach him now, to pin him down and demand answers. But no—Ravage preferred observation.
She ran a thorough scan over him, hoping to gather more information than she had before. Suddenly, he stopped mid-air. She froze mid-scan, pulling back. He slowly began to move again, this time floating to the ground. He crossed his arms before looking right up at her hiding place.
"I know you're there," he called out.
Ravage hesitated. How had he sensed her? She'd masked her energy signature and kept her movements silent. There should have been no way for him to know that she was there. Her tail flicked again. "What did I say about stalking me? I thought we talked about this before." Ravage tilted her helm. Maybe this was her chance to ask her questions.
She raised to her pedes and walked over to the edge of the building. The human's eyes widened as she padded along the lip of the building with skillful precision, then crouched and silently dropped four stories to the ground. Phantom held his ground as she approached, her helm held high.
"Oh, hey, it's you again?" He said. A nervous smile etched his way across his face. "Sorry, I thought you were someone else." He rubbed the back of his neck.
Curiosity got the better of her. "Who did you think I was?"
The human shrugged. "There was this big red and black metal bird that kept following me for the last week. I confronted them the other day, though."
Ravage's field pulsed protectively, and she snarled, stepping further into the human's space, baring her teeth. "Laserbeak. What did you do to her?" She had certainly been off when she came back from whatever mission she was on the other day. Was she hiding an injury perhaps? If this human hurt one of her siblings. She glanced towards his throat.
The human held his hands up in surrender. His smile disappeared instantly as he tried to step further away from Ravage. "I promise I didn't do anything! She just kept following me around everywhere, and it was really creepy. I just appeared behind her and asked her to stop. Maybe I gave her a fright. But I needed to talk to her before she flew away."
Ravage looked over the human with her optics. Scanning him for any sense of a lie. Laserbeak would be upset if she was spotted on a mission. She held herself in almost as high a regard as Ravage did. "Your explanation seems plausible. But if I find you are lying. I'll be back here to personally remove your spine." She flashed her fangs again.
The human laughed awkwardly. "I get it; I'm protective over my family, too." Ravage started to circle him slowly, her movements fluid and deliberate. He seemed to be more uneasy with the response. "How are your injuries, by the way?"
"Healed." She said.
"That's great, uh…" Danny turned to keep her in his line of sight. "Well, If you're just here to threaten me, you've done that, I guess." He paused, then added, "Unless you're here to say thank you, in which case, you're welcome."
Ravage stopped, her tail flicking sharply. "Why?" She asked, her voice low.
Danny blinked, caught off guard. "Why what?"
"Why did you help me?" She clarified, her optics boring into him. "You had nothing to gain. We posed a threat to you, yet you tried to help anyway. Why?"
For a moment, Danny just stared at her, then shrugged. "I don't know. You were hurt. I couldn't just leave you there." He acted as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
Ravage growled softly, more out of frustration than anger. "Illogical. Most humans would have fled or attacked when they had the chance."
Danny sighed, running a hand down his face. "Yeah, well, most 'humans' haven't dealt with half the stuff I have." He frowned, his tone softening. "Look, I've been where you were—cornered, injured, not knowing what's coming next. I couldn't just...do nothing."
She didn't fully understand his reasoning— Yet there was no deceit in his tone, no ulterior motive she could detect. "Strange," she murmured, more to herself than to him.
Danny raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, well, you're not exactly normal either, so I guess we're even." Ravage huffed, circling him one last time before heading back towards the shadows. She glanced over at him again, her piercing red optics glowing brightly. "You know the way out?" He asked.
"I remember," she said simply. "I should not encounter any humans. Don't concern yourself." She easily disappeared into the shadows.
"I'm also going to take that as a thank you, by the way!" He called out after her.
Her tail flicked again. Phantom really was a strange human.
Also, some amazing fan art has been posted by 'thegatorsgoose' on Tumblr if you want to check it out!
Sorry, this chapter took so long to come out! I had written it weeks ago, but I really didn't like how much it was rushed and how much it divulged from my original plan, so I ended up scrapping it and re-writing it entirely! I am so much more happy with it and I hope that the wait for a good chapter was worth it rather than rushing a bad chapter and getting stuck. I love you all. Thank you so much!