Chapter Text
It was still early in the morning, but the Burns family was already up and gathered in their home/base receiving instructions for the task regards how they would take care about a problem which had arisen almost a week ago. Griffin Rock was usually a peaceful island with normal troubles - excluding those caused by inventions-, about which this family of everyday heroes and their secret friends the Rescue Bots took care of, but this was different. Till today had Don been the only one in the whole town who rarely acted upon the rules of safe driving speed, but he had never been a match for Chase, but since a week there are rumours about illegal car races by teenagers and young adults cruising all around the town. Sure, it had been rumours by mostly elderly people, but when Cade’s girlfriend Hayley also notified the family about some elder siblings of her students getting involved they knew that something needed to be done before someone gets hurt or worse…
“So, the problem is that we still could not find where the races are held” Chief Burns started in a grave tone as he looked at his third eldest son who had a laptop in his hands and was typing on it.
“Boulder and I did our best, but Griffin Rock has quite the number of places where they could be.” Graham said from beside his partner while his sister Dani nodded her head, she and Blades scanned the island from the air, but there were parts which were hard to see due to the forest or mountain structures.
“Would it not be easier to try getting the information from one of the kids who might be involved?” Kade spoke up impatiently, he hated seeing his girlfriend worried and during his training on the mainland to become a fire-fighter had he seen the results of such races, one of them a classmate who did not even particificate, but he was driving back to his dorm after his part-time job and his car got rammed.
“We can’t risk those who finance these to find out that we are on their tails then I can’t see any other way why the teenagers would suddenly start such foolishness.” Chief Bruns said, he knew that Kade hated such races, but they could not be impatient, this is why he had taken matters to a different level. “I did two days ago a call to the mainland and requested some help from an old friend there, he suggested that I call up the FBI who had named a team to deal with such things” his children stared at him with confused expressions, since when did the FBI deal with illegal street races to such a degree that they immediately agree? The Bots only looked on, but Heathwave still wondered about the reaction his partner had shown not long ago. “The Agent who deals with the races will be arriving sometime today.”
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The roar of engines slowly died down in front of the monument standing outside of the Burns home as the sports car come to a stop, the window on the driver’s side whirled down as a woman with flowing brown hair gazed out on it, sunglasses pulled atop of her head.
“Quite a cute display of allegiance” the woman noted with a smirk on her lips as she gazed at the easily recogrinaisable Autobot symbol, though only those would note it who know what they are looking for.
“Pfff…may be like that, but we know that the Unmaker is still resting in the core of this planet and his powers are still at work. They are quite lucky that MECH had till now not decided to investigate this island and found them.” come a disembodied male voice at which the woman leaned back in the driver’s seat, huffing out a puff of air, arms crossed in front of her chest.
“Unfortunately I need to agree, Optimus holds also right to worry for them…speaking about Prime, did he inform these guys that the war is over? I doubt that either of us wants to spend our time on something different then our assignment though if they don’t know then we must hurry to explain or Wave might wreck them, quite literally.” she added in, she saw the medical files from both Bulkhead and Wheeljack plus she saw it once when Wave got sparked with his second sparkling…so last week and it was not a pretty sight.
“Agreed, I don’t want him to tire out and it is lucky that he is still so early in his sparked state or he would be cruising after us.” come the chuckled reply.
“You made Shade and Storm keep him at home.” she concluded which earned her a soft purr from the engines. “Though you still did not tell me why you requested to come as my ride.” she stated with a tint of curiosity, since she knew the mech was just as possessive regards his bondmate as it was the other way around, to leave his sparked bondmate for something which could take up to almost three days or two weeks depending on when the next race should be and if the sponsors decide to show for they were the main target, it was highly suspicious.
“Let’s just say I decided to do a small house visit.” come the amused reply which made her blink, but when the car door opened she knew that she would have to wait till getting an answer.
“Fine, I will be back in a few breems.” she said before making her was towards the entrance door which was not locked though she was good in hacking locks.
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“Though when will the Agent arrive and how would they come here?” Graham asked his father who opened his mouth to answer just when the door opened and a stranger stepped inside, making the Bots take up their disguise stance.
“It would have been suspicious if you would all come to pick up a virtually stranger, like in most small communities there would be questions as for the second one I had a ride.” replied the woman in an amused tone before striding over to a himself quickly composing Chief Burns. “Special Agent Caitlin Evangeline Fowler, it is nice to finally meet you and your family Chief Burns.” she said while holding out her hand which the Chief took.
“It is nice to also meet you Agent Fowler, we are grateful that you come to assist us” the older man said before turning to introduce his family “and these are my children Kade, Dani, Graham and Cody.” when named each of the Burns children nodded their head while still being a bit vary regards the stranger who after the introductions were over turned her head to the Rescue Bots which their father also noticed. “Ah, yes these are…”, but he was interrupted.
“Heathwave and his team Blades, Boulder and Chase, dispatched here shortly after their landing by Optimus Prime and had refused the offer to join them on their departure to New Cybertron.” Agent Fowler suddenly said which made the four Bots stagger while the family gapped at her.
“What in the…” Kade started when suddenly Blades crouched down and stared at the woman, his optics wide in shock.
“Yo…you are allied with the Decepticons…” he stuttered out, they were told that the war was over, but that their enemies would suddenly change THIS much that they even accept humans to this degree was shocking.
“True, though my uncle was the contact for Optimus and his team, also I’m hoping that you were informed about the recent happenings.” she said while looking at Heathwave who slowly nodded his helm.
“Okay, what is going on here?” Kade demanded while he glared at his partner, he did not know what a Decepticon was and that the Bots refused to leave earth, he did not know that the others had even left the mainland, leave alone the planet! He wanted answers and those better be good ones!
“Wow, you guys either have massive communications problems” Kade did his best to ignore Heathwave’s smug look “or were too busy to have small chats.” Cait said while looking from the fidgeting Transformers to the confused humans who did not know whom to look at their friends or the FBI Agent. “Ok, here is a short history class, at the beginning before our galaxy was even born, there existed two powerful beings built by cybermatter, Primus who represented order, peace, kindness, mercy, love and all other positive things and his twin Unicron, not the horse” she added in quickly when the humans stared at her and the Bots strangely “who was his opposite and represented chaos, war, bitterness, cruelty, hate and other things. The brothers battled for eons, neither gaining the upper hand till Primus created the Thirteen Primes, the first Transformers race from whom all the others descend while Unicron in his last attempt created a race of his own” Dani noted how Blades shuddered, but she would think later about that, first she wanted to hear more, it stunned her, but the Agent was right. The Rescue Bots and them lived together since almost three years and they rarely talked about the Bots’s past, the only things they knew was that they were from a place called Cybertron where everyone was non-organic, they have some enemies against whom Optimus Prime and his people fight, she guessed those were the Decepticons, that they feed mostly on energon, some games and technology about which Graham and the Professor talk with Boulder and that Blades likes human movies and was much into their popculture, but that was it. It was a bit sad and reminded her how she and her two other brothers were against working with their unusual friends… “those thought were changed by Primus. When the war between the brothers ended Primus had settled into the core of a planet and cyberformed it for his children and those that would come, so Cybertron had been born, but sadly had Unicron with this last energy sent out a taint which as time passed grew, the Thirteen disbanded, Liege Maximo manipulated his brothers and turned them against the one who had become known as the Fallen, the only one who saw the darkness threatening the future. As time passed the Transformers race thrived, but the cracks were there and with time a Prime had been chosen as leader” Cody noted that she was not using Optimus’s name so he guessed that this had been before Optimus, though he was not even sure how old Transformers could become “who had been in his own department brilliant, but in his new intention the power got to him, he built out the cast system” Graham looked up when he heard Boulder snort and mumble something in a language he did not understand, but the others seemed to look also annoyed. “The differences between the casts grew till from the gladiator pits of Kaon a gladiator, which is one of the lowest casts, rose with words of wisdom and a desire to unite all of Cybertron and force the council and the Prime to see everyone as equal” Chief Burns nodded his head, this did remarkably sound like some instances of Earth History, the myth of Spartacus the foremost who had himself been a gladiator. “Later on a young Archivist under the name Orion Pax who got inspired by the words of the gladiator joined his side and they lead the rebellion together” the four mechs looked on curiously, they had heard rumours that the leader of the Decepticons and their Prime had once fought side by side, but now they had the confirmation as well as heard about the original goal of the one they knew as a cruel tyrant, wondering if the peace would truly be able to last now. “Though the taint grew in hold when both of them stood before the council and the Archivist was chosen as a leader and after receiving the Matrix of Leadership changed his designation to Optimus,” Cody listened to this with interest as did his family and the Bots “their bond broke and a terrible war consumed Cybertron, demanding the loss of several lives and even that of the planet itself, Primus fell into a deep slumber to not awaken till the mistakes are set right again.” this confused everyone as the woman gave them a sad smile. “Primus knew what was wrong as did the Fallen, but it was not on them to correct the mistakes, but on their creations, you could say that the proverb ‘United we stand, divided we fall’ can be taken quite literally in this case.” she finished while looking at the occupants of the room, no one knew what to say the humans were still digesting what they had heard while the Bots wondered about their current line of thoughts.
After what seemed like hours, but had been merely five minutes Blades spoke up.
“Though you need to agree that the Decepticon Third in Command is scary…” Blades said in a small tone, they were kind of cleared up about what the TIC is and it certainly explained why most freaked out near him, he had only managed not long ago to get over his bad fluxes.
“I take personal offense for my bondmate regards that, believe me I know others who can be more frightening.” come suddenly a pleasant male voice from the elevator, they did not even notice it driving down, nor that Boulder took a few steps closer.
“Who…” Cait was about to answer Kade’s question when Boulder beat both by speaking up first.
“Knockout?” the green mech asked in a stunned tone while the other smirked and did a small, fluid bow.
“The one and only, it is nice seeing you in good function Boulder.” the red mech replied as the green one approached him and placed his servos with a hint of caution on his arms while the other did the same, but without hesitance.
“So this is why you requested to come.” Cait spoke up as she looked up to the Decepticon medic who gave her an amused grin when he noted her annoyed look.
“Naturally, Boulder had been probably the only one with whom I could converse in the past when my creators dragged me to those over the top and boring to the Pit parties.” Knockout said while Boulder let out a small chuckle.
“You are speaking rather kindly about those wastes of time” Boulder replied, he was happy to know that his friend was still online, though he did not expect him to be a Decepticon, but he was not in the least surprised that he bonded with an Assassin Class. He was close to those serving his family and had admitted to him once that he finds them more appealing then all those femmes and mechs his creators want to set him up with.
“May be so, but we are both free of those bad fluxes.” come the reply when the clearing of a throat made both mechs turn to the others. “Ah yes, where are my manners” the red mech replied which made Graham stare at his partner as he stifled a small laugh “I’m Knockout, Decepticon Chief Medical Officer of Lord Megatron, Lord High Protector of New Cybertron.” the humans looked somewhat stunned seeing how they did not take the other for a doctor.
“And how do you two know each other?” Chase asked as he looked at their comrade and the medic, he still felt Blades also clinging to him due to the medic having said that he bonded with Megatron’s TIC. He wanted to know the connection between those two; the truth was they had two grounds for not joining Optimus and his team on their travel to New Cybertron. One of them had been the fact that they wished to keep the humans of this island safe and they liked living with the Burns family, the second was that they were not sure how to deal with the Decepticons, there were too many bitter feelings from the past and the fact that Optimus and Megatron ruled together made it even harder.
“Uh…we were kind of in the same cast system…” Boulder admitted, he had never revealed this fact about his past even to his comrades, but it seems that now things will be coming out.
“Meaning high society” Cait summed up before smirking “so you also took out your credits before you got disowned for wanting to do a job which is below your family status.” she said smirking.
“I was badly influenced” Boulder admitted, he was nervous to look at the others.
“Wait…you mean that you two were from rich families? Also Transformers have families?” Kade asked in a stunned tone, things were starting to make really no sense to him.
“Yes, but riches are really not everything and you can’t compare it with having actual friends and others who care about you for who you are and not how much your fortunes are.” Knockout said with an annoyed huff.
“Understandable sight, real relationships are more valuable than fake ones.” Chief Burns said as he looked over to the Bots who seemed to finally snap out of their stasis.
“I think you did a good decision.” Heathwave said after a few more kliks, Boulder had during the vorns they had worked together proven to be a good addition to his team as well as a good mech so he did not care about his family status. He could accept an Tower Mech if they were ready to get dirty during the job and got it actually done without whining or being all arrogant.
“Agreed” Blades and Chase said which made Boulder finally relax.
“Also regards your other question about families, we Transformers are capable of siring and giving life to our offsprings, also the term bondmate is loosely translated as someone with whom we are married.” Knockout explained to the stunned humans as Cait broke out laughing.
“Uncle Bill almost fainted after he got fully updated about this one.” Cait laughed at the memory while Knockout placed his servos on his hips.
“He will just do that with an additional heart attack and nervous breakdown combination when he ever figures out why Starscream and you are banished from the medical station if you are not in need for medical treatment, bring in someone who needs such or visit someone.” he admonished the human who huffed while giving him an annoyed look.
“Oh please, that was only a small conversation between two adults who also compared tastes and past dates.” she said while everyone decided that they did not wish to know what the conversation was about.
“So, you guys can have kids?” Cody asked to break the awkward situation; somehow the idea was interesting to him while his older siblings looked at their partners.
“Of course, creator is our term for parents, I think you should have not much trouble to figure out which role the terms sire and carrier entail. Also in the case of our race when we are sparked is first the spark of our young formed and stays for some time close to that of the carrier.”
“Meaning when humans say that a mother carries their child under their hearth is this by Transformers quite literally the case.” Cait added in seeing how she had already got a full explaining how a pregnancy by a Transformer goes.
“True, then the new spark travels from the spark chamber down to the gestations chamber that is filled by nurturing fluids which encourage the building of a protoform shell around the small spark, it is still a silverly-grey colour and it takes a bit of a time till they receive their frame type and other additions inherited through the CNA of their creators the colouring of their paintjob will only be visible shortly before the birth. I hope that this short explaining helped you out.” the humans nodded carefully.
“Also you should know with Wave expecting again.” Cait chimed in while Blades tried not to whimper, he did not want to appear rude and provoke the medic, someone who makes it to the Decepticon Lord’s CMO must be dangerous, leave alone who get the interest of a Spawn of Unicron.
“Uh…again…” Kade asked, somehow the idea of their partners being able to procreate was kind of strange to him and made him also a bit squeasy, he did not want to imagine how sex between them must look. He hated his imagination…
“Affirmative, Soundwave and I have already a sparkling though it is good that he is still in the early stage so he won’t be coming also here, he gets rather possessive if in this state.” Knockout said which made Kade choke on his spit.
“Wa…wait…your married to another guy who is now pregnant!?” Kade broke out, if he thought his imagination was bad now then it was worse now!
“Of course, this is why my uncle was so shocked, their term for mech and femme refer to frame types as well as voice box frequency, but in any other case they are rather much the same in case of reproduction.” Cait added in while Kade crashed to the ground in a dead faint. “Wow, that was the exact same expression my uncle had when he found out.” she said grinning while Heathwave shook his helm, it would be funny teasing his partner with this, kind of a little revenge for all his swooning talks about Hayley. “Though now it is time for business.” the others nodded reluctantly in their dazed states while Knockout crouched down to look after the human who will be waking up with a rather bad headache…and slightly traumatised.
“Though only one more question” Graham spoke up as he pushed his brother up in a sitting position.
“Yes?” both Cait and Knockout asked.
“What become of Unicron?” he had a strange feeling when the two visitors looked at each other.
“Uh…you remember those strange nature catastrophes about two years ago?” Cait asked at which everyone nodded, it was a happening one could ever forget. “Well seems as if the fact that Unicron and Primus are twins…while Unicron tainted Primus’s children with evil so reached Primus’s kindness Unicron’s works, for just like Primus become the core of Cybertron so did Unicron become that of Earth…” Cait trailed off as Kade’s body fell back to the hard ground. “Humans and Transformers are cousin races, for we are the unintentional children of Unicron the Unmaker…”