Work Text:
It was a lovely day in Detroit with the sun shining down onto the city. After Bee stepped outside he took in the lovely scent of spring in the air and the sun shining down on his frame. “Alright and you two are sure the list has everything we need?” Bee asked, looking at his two husbands. He was unsure about leaving the house so early in the morning after all their kids were still all asleep.
Both Blurr and Shockwave were quick to nod. “Yes, we checked for just about everything!” Shockwave informed.
“Milk, cereal, fruits,vegetables and desserts.” Blurr added.
“Alright, well I love you two very much, try not to burn down the house while I’m gone.” Bee purred, giving both of them a kiss on the cheek. “Oh and don’t let the kids burn down the house either okay?”
Blurr chuckled “of course, of course, don’t worry about us dearest, you won’t be gone long enough for anything bad to happen, you'll be back before you know it! I promise.”
“You’re sure? I could ask my father to go instead.”
“We’re sure Bee, if we’re going to raise these kids we have to be able to take care of them on our own. Everything will be fine.”
Bee tilted his helm with a playful smile before waving to the two and transforming. “Alright, I’ll see you in a bit, my loves!”
Blurr and Shockwave watched the minibot drive off before turning around to head back inside. Shockwave turned to Blurr with a smile.
“You know sometimes I think Bumblebee worries too much.”
“About us or the kids?”
“Both.”
The two mechs chuckled and decided to simply sit on the couch Blurr turning on the TV and looking at what was on. “Dearest do you think there’s any cooking shows on?” Shockwave asked.
“We’ve been watching a lot of cooking shows lately haven’t we?”
“I’ve found an interest I have, is that a crime?”
Blurr was about to reply when the sound of two sparklings entering the room caught his attention. “Good morning Zippy, good morning Radio.” Blurr purred and the older of the two yawned waving to her parents.
“Good morning papa, good morning dad... Where's other dad?” Radio asked as Zippy swayed in place looking very half asleep.
“Bumblebee’s at the store to get things we ran out of in the household like milk and cereal and… Oh! Speaking of those things, would you like me to prepare you two breakfast?”
Radio smiled and shook her head. “No, me and Zippy can get breakfast ourselves, right Zippy?”
“Huh- yea we can do it!”
Blurr smiled at the two sparklings as they wobbled off into the kitchen, Zippy nearly tripping over his own feet and Radio having her usual bouncy walk.
“So are you gonna put on a cooking show or?”
“Yeah, I’ll put on a cooking show-”
Blurr and Shockwave sat on the couch, Blurr mindlessly watching the tv and consciously glancing behind him to make sure Radio and Zippy were okay. The two sparklings were now playing with their toys on the floor, loudly voicing some strange story they had made up with the cars and dolls. And a secret affair?
Shockwave glanced to Blurr as he looked at the two sparklings and offered him a gentle smile. “You know, you’ve got to eventually be able to take your eyes off those two for more than a few minutes…”
“I do! I do that when they go to school!”
“And then you pace around the house worried about what’s going to happen to them.”
Blurr huffed, looking Shockwave up and down as he crossed his arms. “Like you’re any better, don’t you remember how worried you were when Radio was forged? You were constantly taking her to the medbay to make sure she was developing okay.” Blurr purred with a playful smile.
“In my defense, she was rather small, can you blame me for being worried?”
“Only if you can blame me~”
Shockwave chuckled and shook his head, looking down at Blurr playfully when they heard the sound of a toy being knocked out of Zippy’s servos and under the couch.
“Ow, you hit me too hard, Radz…” Zippy whined, rubbing his wrist. Radio looked at the toy before rubbing the back of her neck nervously.
“Sorry! I’ll get it!” She said, crawling over to the couch and looking under it.
Blurr and Shockwave glanced at each other before smiling softly. “Oh sweetie, do you need some help with that?” Blurr asked, tilting his helm.
Radio however shook her helm, laying on the ground and using her servo to try and grab at the tiny plastic model. “I can get it!” She purred, her voice strained as the position she had to get in was not pleasant or comfortable.
“Are you sure about that, love?” Shockwave asked and Radio nodded again.
“Yes, yes I am okay! I can do this!” Radio whined.
With that Shockwave and Blurr both turned away, waiting for the moment when Radio would eventually ask for help. Not paying too much attention to the little sparkling besides glancing at her as she tried to stretch her arm out enough to grab her toy. Despite feeling a bit bad for her, Blurr couldn’t help but smile as Radio had forgotten about her ability to stretch out her treads.
He was just about to say something about it when suddenly he felt his feet no longer touching the ground and both Blurr and Shockwave gasped as the side of the couch was lifted causing the two mechs to slide towards the other end of the couch. Shockwave barely had any time to consider what was happening before he heard the sound of Blurr launching himself off the couch, narrowly avoiding being crushed by Shockwave’s frame.
Just as soon as it had been raised, the side of the couch was dropped with a loud THUNK, and after a few seconds of being frozen with surprise, Shockwave got up and quickly crouched down to inspect Blurr. “D-dearest- darling are you- are you alright? You leapt off the couch and hit the ground rather h-hard and…” Pausing mid stammer Shockwave looked back to the couch to see the tiny purple culprit, the lost doll in her hands as she looked at her parents. As though they were crazy for reacting the way they had.
Blurr then got to his feet and after quietly reassuring Shockwave he was alright, he also began to stare at Radio in shock. Radio only stared back at her parents, her stare switching between the two before she broke the silence.
“Pahahaha! You two are making really silly faces!” She exclaimed laughing as she pointed to the two mechs, who exchanged worried looks with each other. Blurr then quickly picked up Radio and gestured for Shockwave to come over. “Alright, alright hey Radio why don’t we go ahead and take a quick trip to the med bay for a check up?”
“What? A check up? I don’t want that! Check ups are boring and the med bay smells funny!”
“The med bay smells like medicine, sweetest… Besides don’t you want to see your grandparents?”
“Not while I’m sitting in a chair bored to death!”
Shockwave walked over to Blurr and Radio as they argued, looking over to Zippy who appeared to be trying to lift the couch the way Radio had with both her parents on it. He could only get it a few inches off the ground… Radio had lifted it much higher, while both of her parents were on it too and if she could do that who knew what else she could do.
Radio hadn't actually meant to hurt anyone but Shockwave nearly crushed Blurr… Again and while that could’ve turned out alright… What if she hurt someone on accident…
“Is Radio gonna have to go to the med bay?” Zippy asked, tugging on Shockwave’s arm and snapping him out of his thoughts.
“Uh, yea she needs uh, a check up… Because we… Forgot to get her one earlier.”
Zippy frowned, “but we were playing! That’s not fair!” He whined and Shockwave just glanced at Blurr who looked back at him and walked over.
“It’s not gonna take too long, I promise you two. We just need to make sure Radio’s okay…” He reassured them, gently patting Zippy’s helm and giving Radio a cheek kiss. Radio’s frown only seemed to get worse but regardless, Blurr turned around and with Shockwave at his side began to speed walk to the med bay. “Zippy hold down the fort for a bit will ya? We’ll be right back.”
Zippy smiled and nodded, hopping on the couch and grabbing the tv remote. Blurr smiled at the little mech before turning to Shockwave, both of them looking very nervous as they walked to the med bay… Hoping that everything would be okay..
“Can I go now?” Radio asked, scowling at Ratchet.
“No, we need to do one more test just to make sure…” Ratchet muttered and Radio sighed dramatically, throwing herself against the chair she was laying in.
“But we’ve already done so many! If we do anymore, I’m gonna die!”
Ratchet was about to agree, after all they had done 2 complete scans already but the constant sound of Blurr nervously tapping his foot was really starting to become grating to him. “Blurr? Can you please do that outside? I promise, Radio will be taken care of in the three minutes you’re gone.”
Blurr and Shockwave both jumped, looking over to Ratchet with wide optics as Blurr nervously gestured with his hands being almost incomprehensible as he spoke. “Oh sorry Ratchet, was it my tapping again? Look I’ll happily stop if you want, but I’m bit anxious about leaving the room until we find out what’s wrong with Radio. If it’s urgent, my speed may be needed to get help or medicine or call bee or grab her something or-”
“Were you two even listening to me the last two times I scanned her? There’s nothing wrong, she is totally fine by every single metric she could be!”
Blurr was about to counter Ratchet by reminding him of what had happened when Radio let out a loud “UGHHHHHHHHHH” once again throwing herself against the chair in boredom. Blurr winced, going to Radio's side and smiling at her. “Hey, hey darling look, I know this is hard for you-”
“It's not hard, it’s unbearable!”
“Right- well, I hope you know me and your papa are so so proud of you for staying put and being so good so far!”
Radio scowled at Blurr, narrowing her optics at him. Blurr continued to smile at her trying to get her to smile back as Shockwave came to his side and kissed Radio’s forehead, taking her hands in his. “Hey come on, it’ll only take a little longer, alright? We just really need to make sure you’re okay.”
“The scan came back, there’s nothing wrong.” Ratched announced.
“What? Nothing? Again?”
“Can you do another scan?”
“No! No more scans, I'm not doing another scan! I’m gonna go play with Zippy.”
The three mechs turned to Radio, watching as the little sparkling hopped out of the med bay and stomped towards the exit. She paused for a moment before blowing a raspberry to her parents and giving them a sour look. Shockwave walked over to stop her when Ratchet stopped him, letting Radio leave, slamming the door behind her, and turning to the two parents.
“H-how can it turn up nothing? She’s clearly shown off an extreme amount of strength, especially for such a small and young sparkling!”
“I hate to cause panic but, Ratchet, I’ve heard of a condition that allows the user great strength b-before their spark snuffs itself out!”
Ratchet sighed, rolling his optics at the two younger bots. “Will the two of you just calm down and listen to me? While, yes Blurr it is true there exists a condition in which a bot exhibits extreme strength because of their spark flaring up, Radio isn’t showing any abnormalities besides her strength. For that, there’s a much more simple explanation if not a… Confusing one…”
Ratchet gestured for them to follow him as he walked towards a shelf full of datapads and books, picking one out and scanning the words in front of him before dropping it in front of the two other mechs. “Here, I don’t know if either of you have heard of those, one in ten thousand sparks as they’re called by bots on cybertron… But I do believe that may be what we’re dealing with here.”
Blurr and Shockwave both quickly skimmed over the words in front of them and Blurr, as usual, was the first to look up to the medic. “An outlier? But I thought they could only be created by using the allspark?” Instead of Ratchet, Shockwave was the one to respond as he looked to Blurr with confusion. “I never heard of such a thing… I only heard that they were extremely rare.”
“Well… Technically outliers are so uncommon it’s not really known if certain methods produce more or less of them, however what I can confidently say is that they can be created through the merging of two sparks… Really there’s not a lot of data on them in general… Regardless, what data we do have matches with what Radio is showing off. While it’s never been anything I felt I should comment on the past, because it would cause you young bots the kind of ridiculous panic you’re having right now, Radio’s frame has always shown signs of being considerably more durable and powerful than most.”
Ratchet then dropped two other datapads in front of the parents, showing a scan of Radio and Zippy’s armor, they were both noted to be at the same age but Radio’s looked far more developed and far more tough. “S-so… If Radio’s an outlier… What do you think we should do about that? Is there anything we should do about that?” Shockwave asked, as Blurr stared at the datapads in front of him with disbelief.
“Nothing much besides keeping an optic on her. Most outliers are born with more than one special ability or power… So look for anything strange or abnormal. But for the love of god. try to be subtle about it! You’ll upset the poor girl if you make a big deal out of it… Anymore than you already have anyways…”
Blurr huffed about to respond when Shockwave interrupted him. “Okay but if Radio’s super strong… Is there… Any way to know how much stronger she’ll get as she grows?”
“Yes there is… But if I’m gonna calculate that, we should probably go see her and Zippy… But there’s something else you should consider before we go do that…”
“Hah! I win!”
“That’s not fair, I was winning there!”
“No you weren’t!”
“Yes I was!”
Zippy and Radio narrowed their optics to each other before Radio smiled and gestured to the screen with her controller.
“Want another round?”
“Yea!”
“Great, but I’ll totally win this time!”
“Nuh uh!”
“Yeah huh!”
The two kids were about to continue playing their game when their parents and grandpa walked out of the med bay. All three of them did not look very happy… Radio and Zippy looked to each other, both frowning as they turned to their parents. “Is everything okay dad?” Zippy asked and Blurr quickly nodded to him walking over to the two sparklings.
“Yes, yes everything is alright, we’re just gonna need to quickly take Radio for a little test.”
“Again?”
“Again?!”
“Don’t worry kid, this’ll be quick, just need you to get up and do a few things.”
Radio looked to Zippy, crossing her arms and huffing as she got up and walked over to the three bots.
“I just need ya to stand on this scale and then we’re gonna see just how strong you are right now… Using this I can help your parents predict how much stronger you’ll get when you grow up.” Ratchet explained and Radio tilted her helm as she got on top of the scale.
“Is this a punishment for lifting the couch?”
“Nah, it’s just something we’re doing because your strength is quite a bit more than the usual sparklings at your age…” Ratchet informed her, putting something down on his datapad and ignoring Shockwave and Blurr who nervously tried to peek over his shoulders to read it.
“Does this mean something’s actually wrong with me?” Radio asked, looking nervously at her grandpa.
Ratchet, still looking down to his datapad, shook his helm. “No, it just means you’re rather… Special…”
“Special?”
“Like uh, you’ve got superpowers, but with great power comes what?”
“Your dad’s worrying?”
Ratchet sighed and whipped around to the two younger mechs, who both quickly straightened up and smiled.
“No… It’s, it’s like that quote from those silly old movies you like… Whatever, my point is that we have to be responsible and monitor your behavior, and you need to be careful about what you use your strength for. But you’re a clever kid and more importantly a good kid, so I highly doubt you need to hear that second point.” Ratchet purred, giving Radio a soft smile that she returned.
“So are we done now?”
“Nope, we got one last thing to do.”
As Radio frowned, Ratchet grabbed a rather large looking book, placing it into her arms and pointing to it. “Alright, so now we’re gonna see how much weight you can comfortably carry, so when it starts feeling bad to hold, tell us alright?”
Radio hardly looked excited to start standing in place with a bunch of textbooks in her arms, but regardless she nodded, giving the others the okay to place another in her hold. Then another, and another, and another.
“Ratchet, do you require assistance adding these? A-and if I may ask… How strong is Radio so far?” Shockwave asked and Ratchet sighed as he gave Radio yet another ‘weight’. He looked down at the scale and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “No I’m alright and so far… Radio’s strong enough to hold about how much she weighs in books… Are you still doing good, kid?”
“Mhmm!”
Shockwave and Blurr watched quietly with growing dread as Ratchet continued to stack books for Radio to carry. The sparkling grew more bored by the moment and even Ratchet seemed more exhausted as he had to keep picking up and dropping the weights into her hold. “Okay, okay Ratchet this is getting hard to carry!” Radio huffed and Shockwave quickly took the books away from her. He felt that anxiousness in his heart increase as he realized just how heavy they felt in his arms. She really was far stronger than any normal sparkling…
She was probably stronger than a few grown mechs too…
Before Shockwave could feel his heart plummet any more than it already had, Radio hopped off the scale, happily bouncing away to go sit with Zippy again. He sighed, putting away the books and looking over to Ratchet who was inputting things into his datapad.
“Alright, so these calculations are not exact, but if Radio continues to grow at the rate she is now, she could potentially have the strength to lift… oh boy, 66,000 pounds.”
Blurr stumbled back and Shockwave quickly came up behind him, ready to catch the blue mech if he fainted right then and there. “66,000 pounds? That’s a full cement truck! That’s-that’s the kinda strength that could rival Lugnut’s! That’s- this- I.”
Shockwave quickly scooped Blurr up into his arms as he fell over, looking at Ratchet in distress. Ratchet simply shook his head and shrugged. “I told ya the truth and I don’t know how else to put it…”
“What-what do we do? This is, this is alarming and sudden and scary and…”
“There’s not much ya can do Shockwave, but, there’s one important thing to keep in mind no matter what, we have to keep this-”
Shockwave and Blurr yelped as the door swung open, with Bee carrying various bags happily announcing “Alright!~ I’m back! What happened while I was gone?”
As the minibot walked in his smile quickly fell as he saw the scene in front of him.
“Yay, dads back!” Zippy cheered, ignoring the silent shock in the air and causing the other bots to quietly look back at him.
“Why is everyone looking at me?”
It was late at night when Radio was laying in her bed, trying to sleep. However, there was a certain noise she could hear coming from downstairs that gave her a bad feeling and despite trying to sleep it off… She couldn’t… Getting up, Radio tried her best to be as quiet as she could. she carefully opened the door and tiptoed toward the stairs. As she got closer, she could more clearly hear what the sound was… It was her parents… Talking together, this late at night?
Radio gulped quietly, feeling that bad feeling in her heart get worse as she stepped down the stairs, trying to remain hidden as she spotted her parents. The three of them were sitting at a table, with unhappy expressions on their faces. As Radio peered at them through the darkness, she could hear what they were saying…
“So, what do we do now? We can’t tell our friends on Cybertron about this, who knows what’ll happen if the information gets out.”
“Wasp is my brother Blurr, he would never be so stupid as to run his mouth about something this important!”
“But what about Ironhide?” Shockwave asked .Bee went quiet, looking down.
Blurr sighed and shook his helm. “We can’t tell them about this… if the autobots get their hands on this information…”
Shockwave looked down, his antlers drooping as he whispered. “What happens if the elite guard finds out?”
“They’ll take Radio…”
“Try to go through her programming and find out what makes her so strong.”
Bee looked horrified. “They’ll do to her what they did to Starscream… o-or wasp!”
Radio gasped quietly, leaning in carefully to hear more clearly what they were talking about. She couldn’t help but picture the scene in her head, a bunch of terrifying strangers hidden in darkness, pulling her in and taking her away forever… Would that happen? Should she have to start preparing for Earth to be invaded? For a bit, her only answer was an eerie silence that had Radio’s spark sinking, the adults were all just glancing at each other, looking nervous and sad. “So… we’re in agreement?” Blurr asked quietly, breaking the silence.
“Maybe, we could keep Sentinel away with the allspark?”
“Bee… you know the elite guard would easily overwhelm us. what about the magnus hammer? If you thought the allspark was broken by Optimus punching it… Well who knows what Sentinel magnus could do…”
Radio had heard about Sentinel Magnus before, even the elite guard and the autobots. However she had never heard of the magnus hammer, she knew what the allspark was and that it was somewhere on earth to keep bad bots away from it, could the magnus hammer really break or destroy it?
There was another bit of silence before Shockwave crossed his arms. “Blurr is right, the others can’t know about this…you know what the autobots did to other bots they considered too powerful to keep around. This has to be kept under wraps, away from the autobots and certainly away from-”
Silence fell over all the mechs as the sound of creaking filled the air and Radio froze, realizing she had leaned in far too much, looking down to see the wooden floor gently bending beneath her pedes. Radio’s spark sank and she slowly turned around to see her parents all staring at her, their optics wide.
“...Hey sweetie, it’s past bedtime, is-is something wrong?” Blurr asked, getting up and slowly walking over to her.
“I um… I couldn’t sleep… can I have some hot chocolate…?”
“I’m on it!” Bee purred, quickly walking to the kitchen and leaving Blurr and Shockwave to give Radio very nervous smiles.
“So uh, wanna sit down while Bee gets that hot chocolate for you?” Shockwave offered and Radio nodded, sitting down next to her papa as her dad sat on her other side.
“So any reason you’re having trouble sleeping, love?”
Radio shifted uncomfortably, looking down. “I heard you guys talking… I um, didn’t hear much but, it sounded scary and serious… is-is something wrong?” She asked and Blurr and Shockwave looked at each other before smiling and shaking their helms.
“No no, course not love!”
“Things are gonna be okay, we promise.”
“We’re just discussing adult things, but we promise you have nothing to worry about.”
Radio relaxed. she wasn’t sure about how much she believed that, but her parents would never lie to her right? Lying hurts people… and her parents would never do that to her.
When Bee got back and gave Radio her cup, she could feel her parents all staring at her… even when they looked away, she knew she was the focus of their attention. Somehow it made her feel even more anxious… Regardless, she slowly took sips from her cup and with a small yawn, sleepiness finally came back to her.
“You ready to go back to bed?” Bee whispered, giving Radio a soft smile and she nodded. Getting out of the chair as Bee reassured his husbands he’d be back and held onto her hand. The silence came back as Bee and Radio walked together to her room . as Bee opened the door, Radio hesitated and her father frowned.
“Darling, are you okay?” When Radio wasn’t sure how to reply, he put a hand on her cheek and she leaned into the warm touch. he asked quietly “how much did you really overhear?”
“All of it… Or… A lot of it, I think…”
“Oh sweetie…” Bee crouched down to be face to face with Radio, giving her a forehelm kiss and gently rubbing her cheek. “I’m so sorry you had to overhear all of that… we didn’t wanna make you worry, your gift is wonderful and I promise you’ll be safe with us…”
Radio fidgeted, looking away for a moment before asking.
“Even from the autobots?”
Bee’s optics widened. he hugged Radio and nuzzled her cheek. “Especially from the autobots, I won’t let them anywhere near you… and neither will your other fathers, I promise.”
Radio relaxed into her father’s hold, nuzzling him back and taking in how nice and warm it made her feel. After he pulled away, Radio smiled at him and he gently petted her helm. “Now do you feel better? Ready to sleep?”
“Mhmm, thank you dad!”
“Aww of course sweetie, now get to bed, you may not have school tomorrow but if you mess up your sleep schedule, it won’t be fun for any of us. You’re always so grumpy without your sleep~”
“Nuh uh! You guys make me grumpy!”
“Yeah? Well if you don’t sleep, I’m gonna be the grumpy one here young lady.”
Bee chuckled as he picked up Radio and gently laid her in her bed, tucking her in and giving her one last kiss on her forehelm. “Goodnight, sweetheart…”
“Goodnight, daddy…”
“Sweet dreams.” Bee purred before he saw Radio’s screen shut off as she fell asleep and he smiled to himself. As he opened the door and stepped into the hallway, he couldn’t help but look back to Radio, trying his best to stifle the anxious feeling in his spark as he closed the door.
The most comforting thought he had in his processor right now was that most bots would never want to live on earth because of the fact the planet was so covered in organic life. it was unlikely any bots would move in anytime soon; earth was such a small faraway planet, it couldn’t be on most bots radar, right? Certainly not Sentinel’s or anyone else they should be worried about…
Right?