The robin chirped, its melody echoing in the vast room and merrily preened its beautiful feathers on the windowsill.
'Fascinating......' Mantis thought. Initially, she had been slightly annoyed yet intrigued by the chirping that had roused her from her recharge.
Upon seeing the culprit- the robin perched on the windowsill of her new room, the annoyance instantly faded away and made room for something else.
Fascination.
And so she stealthily made her way up, careful not to scare it away.
Her new room was one of the remaining empty ones in the plant. Unlike the other rooms, this one was slightly smaller but had two levels. It also had ivy creeping along one side of the walls.
The moment she laid eyes on the ivy, she made her decision and claimed the room as hers.
"You sure?" Optimus had asked, eyeing the ivy and otherwise rather.......messy state the room was in. "You can have another room if you like."
"No, I think this one will do just fine." She told him.
Ok, yes it definitely needed some cleaning up-especially the graffiti in between the two windows- and it definitely, definitely needed some decorations. Luckily the plain walls offered her plenty of space for lots of color.
But what caught her attention was the ivy. Prowl had explained what the ivy was. It was a plant- an organic one. Organic specimens were a rarity on Cybertron. So needless to say, she was instantly intrigued in the organic nature much to Prowl's approval.
It was so fascinating, it intrigued her and made her curiosity flare like crazy. How nature seemed so delicate yet stubborn, being anywhere and everywhere, always clinging on and growing and evolving. All this organic plants- this....nature....
It was beautiful and she found herself growing attached to it.
The door opened and she heard Prowl- who else could possibly be so stealthy? - make his way over to her slowly with long but quiet strides to not disturb the robin either.
"It's called a robin." He told her.
"She." Mantis said. "The robin's a she." She said confidently. The robin chirped as though in confirmation.
Prowl blinked, surprised. "How do you know?"
Mantis shrugged. "Lucky guess?" she said.
He didn't believe it. Come to think of it, she did always have good intuition.
Mantis slowly stalked forward, crouched down but taking long yet deliberate strides. She stalked the robin with such grace, such stillness like a cat. Prowl couldn't help but feel a surge of pride at how natural she moved, how assertive she carried herself.
Slowly.......she stood up.....her servos went out....almost there....it was just within reach.....
"MORNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!"
And a yellow hurricane came bursting through, startling the robin away.
Ok, Prowl was going to kill someone.
Preferable an annoying noisy yellow minibot.
"Rise and shine, guys!" Bee said cheerfully. Then he blinked as he noticed Prowl's hunched form and clenched fists, denta grinding so hard they creaked and entire frame trembling in rage. Mantis herself was very....very annoyed and ticked off. Her body shook in barely suppressed frustration and one of her optics twitched in annoyance.
".....what'd I miss?" Bee asked.
Prowl turned around and clawed at the air, contemplating beating the living scrap out of the minibot and asking Ratchet and Mantis to just help him hide the body.
What? It wouldn't be too difficult.
"Can I help you, Bee?" Mantis asked, voice more or less even but with anger raging underneath.
"No, just thought you might wanna hang out. You know, go see more of Detroit and all." Bee said.
He said it in such an innocent way......darn it. Mantis told herself to calm down. Bee didn't appreciate nature the same way Prowl and her did, he didn't mean any harm and to be fair, he probably had no idea what she had been so intent on earlier.
"I'll um....leave you two to......do your...bonding stuff." He said, sensing the awkwardness and leaving.
Prowl released a long vent. "I swear I am one nanoclick away from knocking some sense into his non-existent processor." He said.
"Is he always this......rowdy?" she asked.
Prowl snorted. "More like annoying." He muttered.
Mantis frowned. "He didn't mean anything, you know."
"He's impulsive, reckless, leaps into action before even processing the situation, he's self-centered and lazy and seems to appreciate those.....electronics more than nature and he seems quite deadset on getting on my nerves!" Prowl said, finally venting for once.
Ah yes, another thing he hasn't been able to do with Mantis for a long time. Vent.
Not that either mind. Both could be good listeners and were always there to lend an audio receptor or a shoulder for support.
Prowl sighed. "I know he's not a bad kid. He's brave but it borders on stupidity honestly and he's-"
"Like the others." Mantis said.
".....what?" he asked, confused.
"He's just like all the other students Shifu once took in. And look where they are now." Mantis said.
".................he still doesn't know how to appreciate stillness and just....listen." he said.
"Like how both of us were, once?" she asked.
"Wha- I'm nothing like him!" Prowl said, offended. "Are you seriously siding with him?"
"I said were, past tense." Mantis said. "Weren't all of us rebels at some point?"
Prowl thought about it...........that was something he couldn't deny. "I guess......."
"Everyone has different perspectives. Just because someone doesn't agree with a good ideal doesn't make them a bad guy. Maybe we just have to view things from different perspectives to understand the bigger picture." Mantis said.
Prowl blinked, taken aback by the wise quote. Then he smiled. "Still with the wise quotes?" he asked.
"Hey, they're good quotes!" Mantis said. "But um....I....wanted to ask you something......" she said.
"Ask away." Prowl said.
"You wanna hang out?" she asked. "I......it's been vorns, brother. I-I still love you and you're still a brother to me but.......it's just...it's been so long and it feels like I know you but at the same time, I keep questioning if I really do.
"I want to spend time with you, I want to make up for all those vorns without you- I'm not blaming you or anything!" she added. "Just, I.....I want to leave the past behind and start over again. I want to just.....move on and live but this time with you by my side and- and I want to learn more about Earth and-and...... Primus, I sound so dramatic....."
Prowl walked forward and laid a servo on her shoulder, firmly yet gently to ground her and knelt down so he was level with her.
"It's ok, sister." He told her gently. "I don't blame you for thinking like that; it's natural for you to think like that. You have a right to have doubts, there's nothing wrong with questioning others- even those you label as friends.
"There are some things.....things from the past I...I still haven't gotten over." He admitted. "But I want to move on too. Earth isn't just another wrong time wrong place sort of thing, it's a fresh start for me too. A chance. A chance to start over and learn more, expand my horizons.
"If you want to do so too then you're more than welcome to." He said. "And I swear on my spark that we'll make up for all those vorns I missed out on." His grip tightened to show his resolve. 'I promise.' He swore to himself.
Mantis smiled, spark elevating in relief and joy at his acceptance.
"Can you tell me more about nature?" she asked.
Prowl smiled. "Gladly."
^^*************^^
"Scrap!" the horrified exclamation snapped Prowl out of his meditation. He rushed over to her.......
And saw her holding a crushed flower in her servo.
"I didn't mean to, I swear!" she said, looking devastated by her carelessness. "It was gonna fall and I caught and then......." She just silently showed the flower.
Prowl relaxed. It was ok, she wasn't in danger, she was fine. "It's ok, you didn't know how fragile organic nature is." He said.
".......is everything on this planet so......." She struggled to find a word that wasn't too offensive or racist.
"The humans on this world see us as giants." Prowl explained to her patiently like what Yoketron would do. "Even minibots like Bumblebee and you are viewed as titans. That's why we have to be cautious. Humans are more similar to us than you think but we're definitely bigger than them.
"So, we have to learn." He reached out and gently plucked another flower and set it in her palm. "They're not made of glass. But here, we all have to be the bigger bot and be responsible, be cautious and most importantly, we can't take our presence or superiority for granted."
Mantis nodded, taking it all in seriously. Then she looked back down at the flower in her palm and gently rubbed one of its petals in between her digits.
So soft, so delicate, so flimsy and fragile, so velvety and smooth.
So beautiful.
There was a rustle among the branches in a nearby tree and she glanced up in time to see a squirrel scamper along it with a nut in its tiny paws. They were cuter than the dexi-squirrels back on Cybertron in her opinion.
She leaned against Prowl and took out her datapad to do one of the many things she's always loved to do.
Draw.
Prowl onlined one of his optics to sneak a glance at Mantis's datapad and both his optics widened.
The datapad was almost filled to the brim with sketches. Beautiful, livid sketches that seemed to burst with color and life. He was surprised the datapad even had storage left in there!
Mantis opened a blank palette and took out a stylus to begin her drawing. Prowl contented himself with observing her work over her shoulder.
It was......soothing. Seeing her servos move fluidly, digits nimble, line after line forming and connecting to bring the shape of the intended image to be, a process that was quite therapeutic and peaceful.
It was definitely relaxing. And both of their optics' full attention was on the work of art in progress.
"Not bad....." Prowl said.
It was then Mantis seemed to become fully aware that Prowl had been watching her all this time and she started slightly.
"Oh...um....thanks." she said then began to try and cover the drawing. "It's just a hobby....nothing much."
Prowl shook his helm at her humility. "May I?" he asked, stretching a servo out.
Mantis blinked then passed it to him. "Sure?" she hasn't really shown anyone else her drawings before other than Drift.
Prowl swiped through gallery after gallery, one work of art after another flying by and his awe grew. Some were childish but cute doodles, some were splashes of color on a canvas with an outline to form a single object full of color and life, some were sketches with shading and lighting that made it look like he could actually touch it like another object entirely, some seemed to be abstract arts or random patterns combined into one.
"Beautiful." He said, giving it back to her.
Mantis shrugged. "Gotta keep my skills sharp." She said. Then she leaned against him comfortably. "Remember that game we used to play?"
"Doodle Dribble Draw?" Prowl asked, snuggling with her like they used to.
Ah yes, another good memory from happier times. It was a simple game, really. One would have to draw anything the other told them to while singing, talking, whistling or any other action that involves the mouth.
............Mantis won more often than not.
Mantis blinked in surprise. "You....you remember?" she asked.
"I never forgot." Prowl said.
"I thought you hated that game." Mantis said.
"Never said I did." He replied.
"Never said you didn't." she pointed out.
"Because you kept winning." Prowl huffed.
"Oh? Is someone being a sore loser~?" she teased.
"Hush." He muttered.
"...........oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask. How did Sari end up hanging out with you guys? You all seem pretty close." Mantis asked.
Prowl opened his mouth then closed it. Hm......this was going to be a bit tricky to explain.
"It's......a long story." He said.
"So was ours and we told it." Mantis said. "And besides, there's something......up with that kid."
Prowl stiffened slightly. "What do you mean?"
Mantis shrugged. "I'm not saying she's bad or anything just.....not your average kid. I keep feeling this.....aura? Energy? I can't really explain, radiating off her...at least....from her. I barely feel it and have to concentrate to even more or less grasp it. Other than that it's more of a...... 'gut feeling' as they say." She mindlessly reached her servo out and stroked the soft fur of a stray cat that had prowled closer to them while they spoke.
"But this......energy or whatever doesn't feel bad. Still though, I know I'm not the only one. I know you feel it too. So tell me, what is it exactly?" she asked.
'She.......she can sense the AllSpark energy radiating from her key?' Prowl thought in surprise. Well....ok, perhaps not sense it per se like a radar but still, wow his sister's intuition was a lot sharper than he gave it credit for at times.
"It's-"
SNAP!
The cat yowled in surprise and dashed off as the two bots were bombarded by flashing lights snapping from various drones and phones alike.
"Hey everyone! Check it out! It's the Autobots! Two of them!" one teen shouted, garnering the attention of more people.
Prowl cursed. Is some alone time too much to ask for?! He had thought bringing Mantis to a more secluded part of the park would help......obviously it could only do so much.
"Where? Where?"
"Cool! I wanna see!"
"Wait, that one's new!"
"Who is she?"
"That his girlfriend or something?"
"Think they're on a date? Can they even do that?"
"What in the name of Cybertron?!" Mantis asked, trying to shield her optics from the blinding flashes. "Hey! Quit it! I can't see!"
"Time to go." Prowl said, grabbing her wrist and booking it to the streets. They transformed and zoomed off.
"What the slag just happened back there?!" Mantis asked, overwhelmed at the sudden attention. She's spent the past vorns keeping a low profile most of the time, that was too sudden a change.
"They do that sometimes." Prowl grumbled. "Because we're 'heroes' and all that."
"Remind me again how that came to be?" she asked.
"Later." He said. "And I think the others and I owe you an explanation.
"..........no you don't." Mantis said.
Prowl nearly stopped in the middle of traffic. "What?"
"Not here, back at the base." She said.
^^*************^^
"You.....don't have to do this you know." Mantis said, sitting on her berth. Currently the two ninjabots were in her room, both sitting on top of her berth which had enough space for both to sit on.
"What do you mean?" Prowl asked, confused.
Mantis sighed. "It's just, I feel like I'm cheating."
"Cheating?" he was just getting more confused.
"I appreciate the trust you all put in me. But....isn't it too soon? I mean....it feels like the only reason the others trust me is because I'm your sister. Admit it- if I were someone else, you would be pretty wary and so would the others. The fact that they're giving me so much trust already when I've done nothing to earn it feels like I'm well, cheating." She said.
Prowl thought over what she said for a moment. It was...true. He did trust her- of course he would, that's how close their bond was- but......what if she was someone else? Another bot? Someone he didn't know?
He bit his lip as he realized that what she said was true.
"Then prove to them that they were right in trusting you." Prowl said. "I......I don't know what it was like...the life you had to live for the past few vorns. But sometimes trust is like that- a two way door that one side has to open eventually to make it work.
"I'm not gonna lie. Some of them aren't the brightest bots." That was true. "But they have a good spark in them, especially Prime." Not that he would admit to any of them out loud.
Mantis nodded then looked at him, gaze serious and determined. "Okay." She said simply.
Prowl nodded. "Now, I think it's time to explain about that 'energy' and the real reason behind our presence on Earth and our.....'adventures'."
And so he told her everything. Starting from the time Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Ratchet accidentally blew up his ship, how he ended up temporarily becoming part of their crew, finding the AllSpark- and by extension Megatron much to her horror, their fight against said Decepticon warlord who till now was more of a scary figure in stories meant to scare sparklings, crash landing on Earth as well as the events that soon occurred during their short but eventful stay.
"So let me get this straight." Mantis said. "You guys found the slagging AllSpark itself, fought against the Megatron- the slagging leader of the Decepticons himself and survived and ended up on Earth.
"Then you guys stopped some....out of control giant parasite monster and get hailed as heroes. And then the AllSpark transferred its energy into that key Sari wears that can heal us just like that. After that, Starscream- another slagging Decepticon- showed up and nearly stole the AllSpark.
"Optimus went offline, actually offline and went to the Well but Sari managed to revive him with her key again. Then you guys also faced off against Lockdown- one of the deadliest mercenaries slash bounty hunter out there and again, lived to tell the tale. And not too long ago, fought a.....half organic- techno-organic? Decepticon femme named Blackairachnia?" she listed off.
"Pretty much." Prowl said.
"And you also fought against human 'villains' like a guy literally made of acid and is untouchable, a speedster that turns old the more he runs- sucks to be him by the way- and the AllSpark key that Sari has ended up creating a trio of Dinobots." She added.
".......that too." He said.
"Wow." Mantis breathed, running a servo through her dreads. "Wow just....whoa. Looks like you've been busy these past stellar cycles." She grinned.
"A blessing and a curse to be on Earth, really." Prowl sighed. "Peace and quiet seem to be the true alien aspects here."
Mantis chuckled. "Yeah but seriously, you guys actually found the AllSpark? For real?" she asked, more serious now. "How?"
"More like it found us actually." Prowl said, remembering what Ratchet had said. "To be honest, a part of me is still coming to terms with what we're really protecting. I mean, Megatron and Starscream almost succeeded in stealing it. If they had that much power........."
He didn't need to finish the thought. Both of them knew the consequences that would come had that 'what if' came true.
".......Optimus won't be ticked off that you're telling me all this?" Mantis asked.
Prowl shrugged it off. "You were going to find out eventually. Keeping you in the dark was just delaying the inevitable." He said.
Then there was a knock on the door.
"It's me." Optimus's voice came. "Can I come in?"
Mantis and Prowl exchanged looks. Mantis panicked a bit. 'How long has he been out there? How much did he hear?' she thought.
"Come in." she said.
Optimus came in and for a moment, the three of them just gazed at one another, atmosphere awkward.
"How much did you hear?" Prowl asked, getting straight to the point.
"Enough." Optimus said. "You could've at least given me a heads up."
"We were just about to let you know." Mantis said.
"I'm not mad." Optimus said, surprising both of them. "To be honest, I was thinking about how to break the news to you too. But it seems like Prowl beat me to it. I'm just upset. I know you're new but I'm the leader here. Next time, at least let me know of your actions instead of doing it behind my back. I trust you two, all I ask is that you two trust me back as well." He said.
"I do trust you actually." Mantis said, surprised at her own honesty. "And I would've told you myself, honest. I just....wanted to say thanks again for....trusting me with all this."
"You're welcome." He said with a small smile.
"I had planned on letting the others know about this, you know." Prowl said. "But.....I guess you have a point. I shouldn't have just blurted out this secret like that regardless of who Mantis is to me."
Optimus blinked, surprised that Prowl would apologize to him too. 'Maybe.....maybe he wants to be the better bot for Mantis.' He thought and smiled. "It's ok Prowl, a friend of yours is a friend of mine." He said good naturedly.
Prowl just nodded and didn't say anything else.
"I'm sorry you had to be dragged into all this." Optimus said.
"You kidding me? Something tells me things here are about to get interesting." Mantis said.
Prowl sighed. "Here we go." He said.
Here we go indeed.
The first steps have been taken, a new journey has begun.
^^*************^^
"Hey, brother? I've got one more question." Mantis said while casually twirling her stylus.
"Only one?" he drawled.
Mantis ignored him. "What happened to those Dinobots you mentioned before?" she asked.
Prowl stiffened. "That's.......another complicated story."
"Only one other?" she drawled in the same tone he used against her.
".....oh hush." He grumbled.