Chapter Text
If you give a Nightshade a home, they’re going to want to improve it. They won’t ask you to improve it don’t worry they have that handled. However, they’ll want to keep improving it and their sister Hashtag will happily encourage the odd feats. This will lead to the usual tidy appearance of the dug out to become a monster of a mess.
Mo grunts as she lifts another box to the side to uncover another box somehow. She was not expecting her day to spent like this, but over the night Nightsahde and Hashtag began planning to add more additions. From a bigger lab, to finishing the escape pods, and adding a projector room for movie nights for when the weather outside was bad and etc etc, the list was endless. For now they have to move stuff around before any construction is begun. Which is how Thrash, Hashtag and herself have been unearthing and semi organizing the dug out.
Nightshade enlisted the help of the others to get the materials they’ll need later from wherever it is they get things… Mo really should’ve tagged along to see the mystery location.
In reality the trio inside are attempting to clean. Attempting, a very important word to note, because they keep getting distracted with the things they find. Inspecting or playing or remincising or reading what ever new object they stumble across.
It’s been a few hours of their…process when Bumblebee walks into choas. He stops in his tracks and scans the room wondering if a bomb has gone off inside while he was out for a drive. The lack of scorch marks settles his spark however. He is unforntely well acustumed to bombs and the havoc left in the aftermath.
“Um, what’s going on in here?” He asks carefully maneuvering around the piles and hazardously placed boxes and knick-knacks scattered around the room.
“Hey Bee! We’re cleaning,” Hashtag shouts still playing with the magnetic gyro wheel in her hand.
Bumblebee pauses deliberately looking between the mess and the kids,” right.”
“It’s a slow process,” Mo shrugs guiltily putting down the book they were looking through much to Trash’s dismay.
“You need a hand? Or two?”
“Sure, we probably should get this done sooner than later,” Hashtag sighs before hoping to her feet her face a determined grin, “time to lock in!”
Bumblebee huffs a laugh as he turns to the nearest pile of…things. He isn’t too sure where all this stuff came from to be honest. It’s easier to not question and just start sorting the mess into a neater stack. Half way through his pile a thrill of excitement races up his spine as he unearths a long forgotten treasure.
“You guys had a basketball in here this whole time?” He exclaims tossing it up and catching it on his finger, letting the momentum spin the ball like a top.
“Look who’s slacking now,” Mo giggles as she abandons her post to join Bee.
“Sweet! Do we have a basketball hoop too?” Thrash asks jumping up attempting to grab the ball from Bumblebee who easily dripples it out of reach. The two square off as the girls scan the dugout for anything resembling a hoop.
“Haven’t seen one, but we can totally make one,” Hashtag says quickly rummaging through the mess and unearth a broken basket and a rope. In a not so graceful jaunt across the room she ties the bottomless basket to the railings of the walkway.
“Will that stay?” Mo asks tilting her head as she stands by Hashtag’s foot.
“Lets find out!” Thrash declares as he finally manages to grapple the ball from Bumblebee’s hold to immediatly shoot it across the dugout toward the makeshift hoop. A deafening clatter echos around them as the ball shoots passed the hoop slamming into the metal wall and bouncing to the ground. Thrash lets out a groan letting his body collapse with disappointment.
“I’ll show you how it’s done, pass it here Mo,” Bumblebee chuckles good naturedly, raising a hand toward Mo who easily sends the ball into it. With far too much showing off, Bee gives a little hop and sends the ball into the basket. It rattles but holds strong as the ball passes through cleanly.
“Nice shot!”
“My turn!”
“You gotta try from farther out.”
In seconds an impromptu game of basketball is started. The forgotten piles shoved to the sides hastily to make more room for the four to run and maneuver. At first it starts as a free for all, the chaos of everyone chasing after the ball and wildly aiming for the basket. Most of the shots missing entirely resulting in a mad dash for the ball before it damages anything.
After a few minutes it was clear to see Bumblebee was a good player. Mo was no slouch of course, however height was not on her side. Hashtag, on the other hand, had all the height but often fumbled the ball allowing someone to steal it. Thrash was getting better with each shot he took.
It isn’t long before lines are drawn, the four split into two teams. If it could be called that. The kids taking a stance against Bee who was handling the ball as easily as transforming.
“Another two pointer for team Bee!” He boasts as the ball sails cleanly through the basket.
He makes fake cheering noises as Mo scoops up the ball quickly rushing back to Hashtag’s side.
“I didn’t see you dribble so it doesn’t count! Two points rescinded!” Thrash hollers pointing a finger at Bee who rolls his eyes.
“You weren’t even facing my direction, you didn’t see anything,” he retorts crossing his arms with a smirk.
“Ref! Red card him for manhandling!”
Bumblebee shakes his head brows furrowed turning away from blocking Hashtag and Mo’s advancing to the basket,” That’s not happening Thrash.”
“Alley oop!” Hashtag cheers as she ducks under his arm and lifting Mo into the air for her to shoot the ball across the room. The ball sails into the net with a roar of cheers.
“What hey! Cheating!” Bumblebee claims racing Thrash to the ball.
“You snooze you loose old timer,” Thrash boasts now with the ball raised triumphantly in his grasp.
“Old timer!?” Bee exclaims scandalized as the kids laugh. “I’ll show you old timer.”
Their basketball game devolves into a wrestling match over the ball. Mostly. Bee’s honor was besmirched after all. The dugout echoes with shrieks of laughter as the four tussle around their makeshift court. At one point Bee scoops up Thrash who hangs upside down with the ball firmly in his grasp while the girls try to rescue the ball.
“Man what a great game! We used to play this a lot during the war. Optimus loved it!” Bee reminisces as the game of keep away runs into a relaxed passing of the ball.
“Did you play a lot?” Mo asks tossing the ball over to Thrash who tries to grab it with his back turned. He fails and has to scramble to catch the runaway ball.
“Eh, not much personally. It’s been a while to be honest. I think the last time I played was with my conjux,” Bumblebee answers easily catching the ball Thrash passed who finally gave up attempting several tricks.
The kids all freeze.
The trio stare at eachother while Bee stares whistfukly at the ceiling, still tossing the ball into the air completely lost in his thoughts.
His expression is not as heavy as it usually gets when mentioning his conjux.
Thrash gestures not so subtly with his head urging Mo to keep the conversation going. However, her mind has gone blank with panic. The sudden conjux drop was making it difficult to find a non suspicious segway. Glancing at Hashtag frantically waving her hands immediatly rules her out of being the one to get Bee to share more.
Before any of them can actually act, Bee is tossing the ball into an open crate near the skate ramp. He turns toward them, his face bright and the kids scramble to look as natural as possible.
“Thanks for the game guys it was fun! I’m getting pinged by the others, I have a heavy suspicion they got in over their heads in their task,” he grins gesturing toward the door. With a cheerful wave Bee leaves the dug out leaving them with their thoughts.
Mo lets her shoulders fall belatedly waving back at the empty spot Bee once stood. Beside her, Trash lets out his own words of disappointment as he kicks at a stray dust bunny. With a groan Hashtag lets herself drop to the floor. A split second later her dramatic act of woe is replaced with a exclamation of intrigue, discovering a kazoo that fell out of a nearby box. Mo shakes her head as an off tuned and erratic melody replaces the missed opportunity.
~~~
“Ok so we can remove him and her and him,” Robby says ripping off the pictures of three suspects on The Board. It took a few days for all of them to gather to discuss the new developments, so they’ve wasted no time in getting to work.
“What! No that was a good one!” Hashtag exclaims picking up the discarded picture of Hot Rod.
“He doesn’t play basketball so he can’t be his conjux,” Robby states arms crosses protectively in front of the board behind him.
“We can’t prove he didnt play it at some point,” she retorts haughtily attempting to pin the photo back on.
“Not happening,” Robby moves her hands away blocking each of her attempts to repin the picture.
She sighs heavily but eventually gives up tossing the photo with the other discarded candidates,” Darn it.”
“What about him? There’s a lot of photos with him playing,” Jawbreaker asks raising a blurry image of a stocky red bot mid jump.
Robby squints taking the photo in his hands his brows scrunching harshly,” you want to put Inferno on The Board?”
“He does plays basketball,” Thrash nods his head as he takes the photo and tacks it toward the top adding a string to the newly added basketball requirement.
“No way! I veto it, there’s no way it’s Inferno,” Robby protests attempting to reach the image which stays firmly out of his reach.
“I’m on Jawbreaker’s side! Team Inferno he stays!” Hashtag says wrapping an arm around her brother’s shoulder.
“That’s not- Just becuase Hot Rod got veto’d-“
“He is the perfect fit! They both race and-“
Nightshade ducks down to Mo and Twitch with a tablet in hand, displaying a photograph of a group of Autobots playing a game of basketball. The grain and overall low quality of the image indicating it is most likely from an actual game. Nightshade points to a short blue bot attempting to stop Optimus from getting a basket. “Who is this? Perhaps we can add them to the board?”
“Oh and him! Smokescreen is fast and could’ve done a lot of missions with Bee,” Twitch adds pointing to another bot in the image.
“That’s true! We can put Tracks with the basketball area and Smokescreen with racing too,” Mo nods as the trio ignore the bickering now located in front of the discard pile of candidates. Jawbreaker nervously wanders back over to the board with them and watches the two new suspects get added.
“Um was Inferno a bad suggestion?” Jawbreaker asks hestiently his fingers tapping together.
“I don’t think he hung out with Bumblebee a lot, but anything is possible,” Mo says with a shrug,” plus I think Hashtag is just trying to get on Robby’s nerves for Hot Rod.”
“Perhaps we can move him to the side to the more skeptical choices with Cliffjumper and Arcee,” Nightshade suggests gesturing to the left side of the board. The collection of Autobots is small but they have yet to come to a decision on their placement.
Jawbreaker nods,” yeah that’s probably the best for now.”
“Hey don’t be so down! You suggested Blurr and I still think he’s the most likely candidate,” Twitch says brightly noticing the slump of her brother’s shoulders.
The afternoon passes slowly with the kids pouring over anything they can get their hands on. The documentation is lacking but they make do with what they do find. By the time they’re tapping out, no new names have been added but Hot Rod has been returned to the potentials, only slightly crumpled.
The kids lay in various stages of defeat staring helplessly at the looming possibilities. Despite the many hours, no choices were made clearer much to their disappointment.
“I still say we put Breakdown back up there,” Twitch sighs resting her chin on a hand staring over the board.
“It’s not him, Bee said he was like a brother,” Thrash sighs staring at the ceiling starfished across the floor.
“Yeah but maybe he was throwing us off!”
“He’s staying where he is,” Robby mumbles rubbing his eyes tiredly. All his time spent playing video games failing him in this moment.
“He also wouldn’t have been playing basketball with the Autobots during the war,” Nightshade adds on with the most obvious fact. Twitch groans dramatically falling back with her arms splayed across her face.
“You think Breakdown knows who it is? They’re super close, maybe we can ask him?” Thrash asks the group as he sits up the ceiling no longer holding interest.
“That’s a good idea!” Jawbreaker perks up before wilting slightly,” Um-Do we know where is?”
The group pauses and stare at eachother for a beat. A sigh escapes Robby’s lungs as he groans,” Ughhh why is this so difficult.”
“Oh I have an idea! What if we host a big basketball tournament and make eveyone compete in it and we can steal-“
“Hashtag, we are not making a Space Jam movie for this,” Robby interrupts sending his sister an amused smirk.
“Oh C’mon it’d be perfect!” She insists a second wind of energy fueling her to jump to her feet and start explaining just how perfect her idea is.
The rest of the night is spent talking Hashtag out of her new idea. It’s only mildly successful much to Robby’s dismay. The good news is they convinced her not to steal the abilities of professional basketball players for her scheme. So despite the new information no progress has been made by the end of the day.