Yeager Chronicles: After Extinction

4: Cade

Cade waited outside on his porch on the still pretty new house. Joshua certainly was serious about helping out after his first home was destroyed because of Attinger and his goons, to which, he never would have to deal with ever again. That's what he hoped anyway. There was always a chance that someone from the government would try and send off the rest of the Autobots that stayed. But that couldn't happen... Could it? The certainly tried before, back when Sentinel turned into a pseudo-Autobot. A Prime that betrayed another, in hopes of ending a war that would never be won – nor finished – so simply. They are not going anywhere without a fight.

But they had a leader with them then, one that stood tall and made meer mortal men waver in his wake. And now – as far as any of the other Autobots or human allies know – he is still going through space. In an endless search for his – their creators.

The sun was still high in the sky, and Cade's drive to create something was ebbing and flowing recently. Sadly enough for the inventor, he really was losing his inspiration and motivation for the art of creation. His once haven, his kingdom, his sacred place of creation was still gone to him. At least one thing stayed with him in a sense: Tessa – least she was going to be coming back soon.

It's be a long and grueling few weeks. The thoughts that Tessa's coming back for a time was nice to think about. Hell, even being teased about having to deal with the rest of the 'bots on property, even sounded nice to Cade. But, his thoughts always did travel back to that one bot, that one mech.

Even though he still tried to hide it, from the other mecha on property and from Tessa, he still missed Optimus over all this time. He wasn't the only one to miss the giant mecha either, Bumblebee missed his adoptive creator, too. But those two stayed quiet about it – being alone and by themselves or together with friends.

It seemed like the other mecha on property didn't miss the mech as much as the two. They just went on as if he had never come back from, well, the dead. Considering that him surviving the shrapnel going through his spark's chamber would usually be fatal and if that mecha did survive there would serious complications... And could also be fatal. But neither happened to Optimus because of Cade's ingenuity and vigor.

What next is up for Cade? All he has are the memories of saving a giant alien robot – no, a friend that saved his family. How could he not be thankful to him? And perhaps he even felt a kind of love for him, but he's never going to be able to tell him about any of it. Cade doesn't even know what he would do if he saw him again.

But he can't think through that right now, he should be trying to clean up the house; especially the kitchen. He hadn't done any kind of cleaning for at least since Tess went to college... so maybe months? Either way, he'd need to do some major dusting and vacuuming to get rid of the dust and decay that littered the entire house. At least now he didn't need to 'steal power from the pole' like he did before... something Tessa was not proud of her dad for doing.

After a little while he had done a good chunk of the cleaning – which pretty much only involved vacuuming the living room and washing the dishes. None of the laundry that had accumulated had been touched. He'd get to that later he thought. Until he forgot and went on to do something else. It wasn't that bad.

Cade had come back outside and sat in the swing that swung low from a tree's branch. But his quiet lolling ride, Crosshairs came over in vehicle mode with Drift coming behind him. (Hound didn't leave the property often, it was a good thing too, he would stick out like a sore thumb. He's big, but bigger than Texas-style big, you know?) The two transformed into their bipedal modes and strolled up to the sitting Cade.

"Cade, we got news for ya." Crosshairs leaned to one side, his hand, Cade noticed, was resting on his gun that was holstered to his hip. He slid off the swing and looked up at the two, "Yeah?" He said as he shielded his eyes from the sun, it was midday so the sun was still high in the sky. "Yes Cade, I received a message from Bumblebee that he and Tessa will be coming here sooner than he had anticipated."

"Last time you said he didn't specify." Cade pushed. "He had not. But now he knows that he will coming the next week." Cade's arms were crossed across his torso. "At least I got some of the house done." He grumbled.

"Indeed. I have been told humans can be... messy." Drift sighed, pulling out one of his swords and began to check it over. He often did this when he was bored. "By who?"

"Bumblebee." Drift said matter-of-factly. "He has often said that she ingests certain things late at night she makes terrible sounds and is irritable the morning after." Cade looked at the mecha and only stared for a moment as he thought. Had she been drinking? It sounds like it. He's had to have a talk to about drinking not too long ago but that's because he found out on accident. Meaning she's been hiding whiskey and rum bottles in her suitcase before she left. Cade wanted to leave a little farewell present in her case but found the poorly hidden bottles (they were trying to be hidden at all).

"I see." He un- intentionally growled out his disapproval at his daughter's possible actions. However, he still though wanted and wished he could believe that she wouldn't do it again, he wasn't sure. "And you say it'll be a few days?" He'd have time to get an ever stronger argument. He told her no drinking! At any point in time.

Drift looked amused, but Crosshairs beat him to the punch line. "We never said when." Cade groaned and shook his head. "Could you tell me then?" Crosshairs downed around a moment and then started to fondle his gun that was holstered to his hip. "Said something about Tuesday or Wednesday. Next week."

Great, he had thought, four days or so 'til she gets here. That's enough time to clean up – or not – and have a scathing, scolding, argument for Tessa. "Alright. Well, do what you guys do. I have to do a few things inside." He had made a way to turn around and started to walk off back to the house.

After Cade was inside the house and out of ear shot, Drift sighed and walked away towards the field. "I fucked up." Crosshair followed and came up beside him. "Bein' profane ain't like you." He put his gun back on its holster, "I don't get what's up with you." Drift came to a stop, not forced but his body language spoke of something that Crosshairs hadn't seen since the time that he had just joined the Autobots: embarrassment.

He sighed, "I didn't tell him why she's coming back." The look of shameful-hurt showed on Drift's features while plain bewilderment decorated the other. "Cut the story short, Drift." He cooled his words but there was still and unintentional sting that laced them. Drift, stabbed the sword he held in the ground and just sat down, slumped over. He didn't respond. "Drift?"

"Don't tell me she's carrying from that Shane character." Drift gulped. "You're slagging me, right?" His fan clicked, usually such control over his body. "N-no. That's not it."

"Than what is it?" Crosshairs had finally sat down beside him. Still he waited for an answer. "Can't you be straight with me?" He leaned forward on his bent knee, looking at the swordsmech. "She's going to be expelled for doing things on campus."

The look of bewilderment arose again on the green mech's face. "What kind of things?" Drift didn't answer. "She's not your kid, why you actin' all scared?" He could tell that Drift was tense, stressed, and didn't really want to say what was up-tight and bothered. The two sat quietly.

Crosshairs' patience has certainly grown while being on the property with Cade and Hound and Drift. And it was a damn good thing too, Drift had started to have nightmares. Again. He'd been having them for a while after he joined the Autobot ranks all those millions ago. They were all about the same thing: the agonized screams, the cries of sparklings torn from their carriers, the burning, crumbling sound of metal plates being melted from the very frame of another mecha. And other things, other mistakes he had made had been put the extreme, nearly frying his processors every time they occur.

But right now, it would seem that the two would only fester in their silence. Drift didn't want to tell Crosshairs, and he wasn't going to. Not like this, he had thought. He wasn't really sure how to take the news he got from Bumblebee only minutes' prior.