Chapter Text
Scrapper had taken the Constructicons on vacation. It was fine, and there wasn’t anything they really needed to be doing, peace talks were going well, everyone was getting along. They’d even had a few halting, but genial conversations with Grapple…But it was all getting to be a little much so some team bonding and time away would do them good.
“Hey! Get back here! Bonecrusher! You can’t just tear things apart like that when it’s not a job!” Scrapper yelled at his bored gestaltmate.
Bonecrusher’s shoulders slumped at the reprimand, and his vents let out a dejected sigh. It did not, unfortunately, have the desired effect of stopping him from finishing what he’d started. So Scrapper watched helplessly as the wall and half the roof of an old wooden human structure came crashing down.
“Aww! Come on! We can’t do anything anymore! This structure is clearly abandoned, it’s falling apart, it’s mouldy and rotting. Humans can’t be using it, there aren’t even any nearby!” Bonecrusher whined. He was currently the mech who was the least content to just exist and try to relax and enjoy the peace of the remote nature reserve.
Hook was ignoring everyone and reading some medical journals he had access to from Teletran I’s publicly archived data. Long Haul and Mixmaster were playing some kind of game, it was getting kind of loud but their afts were planted in newly made holiday chairs and nothing was exploding. Scavenger was…doing something, scuttling around excitedly in the forest and on the lakeshore of their chosen holiday spot.
Scrapper was almost at his wit’s end, this was supposed to be a chance for them all to unwind. Peace was great, old friends on opposite sides were talking again. Shockwave was confident that the planetary reactors would be up and running in short order.
Heck, Scrapper himself had been able to design and build and repair things that were going to last lately! They could work with the Autobot engineers to do so many great things, things that would have been so much more difficult by themselves.
There was still something that wasn’t settling though, they could all feel it in the bond like the anticipation before an acid rainstorm. The vacation had been fine for the first two days, they’d gotten leave to take a little trip and do some relaxing.
The Constructicons had all been getting a little twitchy lately, the Victory had been rescued from the bottom of the sea, the Ark had been, to the best of everyone’s bilities, mostly removed from Mount St. Helens. The infrastructure they’d needed to add around the warehouse the humans had donated as neutral grounds for the negotiations had been completed.
Now the processor ache that Bonecrusher had started was making him re-evaluate his decision making processes. Scrapper covered his faceplates with a hand in near defeat and groaned. He had been trying to enjoy himself by coming up with some tentative building designs for Cybertron’s reconstruction, but it was not to be.
More crashing jolted Scrapper out of his thoughts, looking up with resignation he saw that Bonecrusher had knocked down the rest of the human structure.
“What did I just say!” Scrapper said sharply.
“Yeah, I heard you, I just don’t think that it matters! Look, the squishies always have utilities and stuff in their occupied structures. This is totally empty! The windows were broken out, there isn’t any squishy-sized furniture, and the door was hanging by one hinge! One! Their idea of doors may be pretty pathetic, but even they know it has to cover the entry.” Bonecrusher was just being mullish now.
Hook spoke up, “Yeah, probably abandoned, but Scrapper has a point ‘Crusher, we don’t know for sure that the humans didn’t want it for some reason still. They could use this as an excuse to cause trouble. Just because we’re all pretty pleased that odds are the war’s over for good, doesn’t mean the locals trust it.”
Hook had put his pad away and wasn’t getting up yet, but he definitely wasn’t reclining against his reading tree anymore. Long Haul and Mixmaster had looked up too, their chatter and game forgotten for the moment. Scavenger was probably still in the area somewhere, but Scrapper couldn’t see him at the moment.
“We can’t just leave it like this, but we also don’t have most of our usual gear right now.” Scrapper said, “We’ll just have to try and rebuild the thing, Bonecrusher, get over here and quit snapping the rafters off. Hook, come help me get a good look at what’s left so we can come up with a rough blueprint, then start designing the replacement structure.”
“Ha! Rough blueprint he says, nothing I do is less than the best, and your designs are at least as good. There’ll be no “rough” about this, right guys?” Hook said looking over to Long Haul and Mixmaster who had wandered closer to the activity.
“Yeah! And when we’re done, it’ll be one thousand percent better than that old piece of scrap! Since the humans seem to like it so much, it’ll have to be made out of wood– but even if the material is inferior, I can definitely make a preservative solution that’ll make it last as good as anything.” Mixmaster said excitedly, Long Haul nodded, and was starting to look kind of excited himself.
The bond was starting to hum with positive energy now, Scrapper hadn’t realized just how stifling the atmosphere in the bond had been until now. He could even feel Scavenger perk up the sudden improvement, hopefully the little menace would be curious enough to come back on his own… Aaand, yeah, that influx of cyber-pup like joy definitely meant he was on the way back.
“Alright mechs, let’s get to it then! Scavenger’s on his way back, Hook and I are gonna start on the building plans, you guys go start gathering materials. If we’re gonna build this thing out of wood again, we’ll need some lumber, looks like they used whole trees, and we’ll need a better foundation than dirt this time.” Scrapper didn’t mean to, but he was starting to smile.
A resounding “Whoop!” was the answer he got from everyone except Scavenger, who was just arriving and looking confused but eager. Scrapper also noted that he was hauling a tarp full of…something? Nevermind they could deal with that later, the bond was humming with excitement and they had a project to start!
Scrapper started handing out fairly specific orders, if only because they’d already made a mess so it was better safe than sorry.
Long Haul and Bonecrusher went off to carefully select a rough estimate of the trees they’d need, without pruning the whole forest. Mixmaster and Scavenger were off back towards civilization to get any of the tools and materials they’d need for construction and weatherproofing, and some basic interior fixtures.
﹏↟☖↟﹏
A joor and a fairly spirited debate with Hook later, Scrapper had finalized his plans. The structure Boncrusher destroyed was on the medium-small side, only two rooms and what may have been a rudimentary washrack, poorly insulated windows, and decomposing walls. The new structure wasn’t going to be so much a step up from the old as it was going to be in an entirely different galaxy.
“I think this is gonna be great, maybe not our most impressive job, but there’s not gonna be any comparing the old with the new!” Said Hook.
Scrapper had to agree. “Yeah, maybe not the grandest, but it’s gonna be pretty cutting edge, and it’ll maintain the basic aesthetics and appearance of the original structure. Top of the line Constructicon quality for sure.”
Hook’d been advocating a big size and material upgrade at first, and normally Scrapper would be all for massive improvements. That — mostly — wasn’t the point this time though, it was a project to restore the structure as close as possible to original specifications. It just meant that the massive upgrade would be in the quality and functionality of the construction instead.
The new plans did end up slightly larger, not too much though, and incorporated some amenities that the old structure lacked, but that modern human constructions generally had. Scrapper had accounted for the offgrid nature of the location and included solar power generators and storage for electricity, and a recycler for waste disposal.
A brief consult with Mixmaster over comms and they would be increasing the insulation value and exterior weather resistance with a special coating. Mixmaster was vibrating. Since Cybertronian design was far superior to what the humans had, it would be durable and never have any issues with electricity.
Scrapper shared an excited smile with Hook as they started clearing the old structure away and prepping the building site. The vacation started out pretty mediocre, but things were looking up. They had a project and there was no pressure, it was going to be fun and a challenge to do it within these slightly silly limits, with materials they didn’t normally use.
“Maybe this was the break we really needed. Not so much time away from anybot, and not so much a vacation from work. Just…a project that we can take our time on and kind of have fun with.” Scrapper said quietly to himself.
“What? You say something boss?” Said Hook, stopping his work in marking out the foundation and utility structures locations.
“Nah, nothing important. Let's get this done so that we can start early tomorrow when everyone’s back.” Scrapper could see Hook looking at him a little funny. Instead of saying anything else Scrapper just gave his brother a playful shove which made Hook squawk and curse him, and the both got back to work.