Chapter Text
It had all started as a joke, he hadn't wanted the job of being in charge and neither did Breakdown.
Besides, who else would care for all the poor refugees and survivors?
Not Laserbeak, that's for sure. She didn't even have hands to repair other mecha with.
Still, someone else did needed to be in charge. Someone needed to coordinate supplies, tell the refugees where to go, tell them what to build, figure out defenses.
He and Breakdown had looked at each other, shook their helms at once, and then they looked down at an errant squawk.
That left the last member of their little trio, Soundwave's former pet, or was it child?? - Laserbeak.
(It was never clear as to which category that Laserbeak fell into, KO and Breakdown themselves were from Velocitron. For all they knew, it was normal for armored cars to spawn birds on Cybertron. Maybe the birds pupated like insecticons and grew up into armored cars. Both of them were body modders and surgeons, not in the business of caring for carriers and their hatchlings. Besides, everymech knew that Cybertronians were weird and stupid, otherwise that war of their's would've been over by now)
--
"Hey, little buddy, do you know where your....Soundwave went?" Breakdown asked, his jovial tone, going flat in confusion as he spoke to Laserbeak. It's not like he knew what title that Laserbeak used for the Decepticon third in command. Dad??? Master??? Creator??? Boss??? Friend??? Comrade?? (Velocitron didn't really have mecha keeping smaller mecha inside of them, the extra weight would slow someone down, not really acceptable back home.)
KO looked over from where he was filing his claws, his pedes on the rickety table as he leaned back in his chair.
"Breaks, I don't think she can understand us."
Laserbeak looked at Knock Out, squawked angrily and then shot lasers out of her optics. Knock Out yelped as the lasers hit his plating, the file hit the ground with a clang.
"My...MY FINISH!!! NOW I HAVE TO REPAINT IT!"
Breakout laughed and offered Laserbeak an energon candy. She happily crooned, and perched on BD's arm as she ate it.
"Looks like she understands, perfectly."
--
As Knock Out angrily sputtered in the background, Breakdown noticed a notification on his HUD.
"Accept text message from Laserbeak? Y/N?"
--
["I...I don't know where Soundwave is. I woke up on the repair slab and saw you two. My memory files are glitched." ]
Laserbeak warbled sadly.
["Hey, is it okay if I patch KO into this? Makes things easier that he knows you can talk like this, yeah?"]
Breakdown reached out to pet her, and she leaned into his touch.
["Okay."]
"Hey babe, stop obsessing over your paint for once! Beak here can textcomm!"
Knock Out looked up, his servos clutched a paintsprayer that he was about to aim at himself.
"Huh, so the dumb animal does understand us."
[I'M NOT A DUMB ANIMAL!]
Laserbeak shrieked and more lasers fired out of her optics, it hit the paint sprayer and paint blasted into KO's faceplates.
Breakdown laughed and she crowed happily as he scritched the back of her neck cables.