These Paths We Tread (Autobot x OC)

XXI. Bad Moon Rising

“Mornin’, Catherine!” one of them called out happily.

“Good Morning, Knock Out,” she smiled back, recognizing the small, lime-green-armored Autobot. He beamed at her acknowledgement and smirked at the blue-armored mech next to him that she knew was Gears. The mech merely rolled his optics at his younger companion, whom was all too happy to prove how more well liked he thought he was. It hadn’t taken long for her to find out that Knock Out was one hell of a show-off. He was especially bad when he was paired with the Triplets—Arcee, Elita-1, and Chromia—who all shared the similar alternate form of a motorcycle. He couldn’t compare, but he would never admit it and always tried to outdo them. She pitied him a little with how desperate for attention he acted sometimes, but she also thought he was being kind of cute, too; acting like a little kid wanting praise from the adults.

Gears, on the other hand, was content with his place, which was complaining about it. She had first thought he really was unhappy, which had made her think he was a little annoying, but Jazz informed her on the side that he complained all the time because everyone thought it was funny, and, in a way, it was. The short, but stocky blue-armored mech was a damned fine comedian when it came to complaining. He was a nice guy, too, and polite when he wanted to be. He’d also somehow ended up Knock Out’s “best friend”. While he told everyone it was because he’d accidentally praised the kid too much, Catherine had a feeling it was because the much smaller motorcycle mech was comedy material gold.

She shook her head with a smile as she heard the younger mech spout some great deed to Gears, and continued on. She knew the way by heart now, and also where every mech’s room was. For instance, she knew Evac’s was to her right just around the corner. He was always in the room closest to the humans’ side due ton his concern with the safety of the soldiers to the point it was unhealthy. He'd actually gotten so bad he caused some problems when he’d suddenly bolted—as in, he flew through the halls in his helicopter form—to “save” some humans from their training session. He was quickly told what was going on, and there hadn’t been an incident since. He was a little overly friendly at times, but he was alright.

“Okay… Almost there… Just don’t encounter anymore Autobots, especially the Twins and you’ll be okay,” she mumbled to herself as she increased her pace.

For whatever God-forsaken reason, the Twins had been given shit-for-brains and were now seemingly infatuated with her or something, and were always trying to hang out with her or just be around her in order to talk with their stupid accent and try to impress her. It. Was. Ridiculous. And annoying. She couldn’t even count the number of time she had to get Jazz, Ratchet, or Sideswipe to come rescue her from them because they wouldn’t leave her alone! They sometimes even followed her over to the human side, freaking out most of the soldiers and making life much harder for her. Thankfully, Prime had put a stop to that, but now they’d doubled their efforts to hang out with their “girl”—she hated when they called her that—when she was on the Autobot side.

Thankfully, this Sunday she was not going to be bothered by the infernal, rusty-colored Twins, and she made it to the Med Bay doors without trouble. Since the Autobots used the hanger rooms now, it was basically humanly impossible to open the doors except, so Ratchet had kindly made it so that the door was always opened a little. It allowed her to slip in quietly while the medic and his aid, Jolt, ran scans on the Triplets. She was pretty sure Jolt has already noticed her, as his sensors were much better at detection, but the electric-blue-armored mech didn’t lift his head to look in her direction while he scanned the teal form of Chromia. Ratchet was busy with the pink one, Arcee, but Elita-1 was free, her purple frame balancing smoothly on her one wheel so the redhead made her way over and stood beside the “Femme”—the Cybertronian term for her type.