Chapter Text
The first race of the season. You’re not too worried. It always starts pretty tame, especially since the war ended. It’s a nice pastime. What really sucks is it’s kind of gotten bland. You used to love this, it was your life aspiration. Now it’s more like a hobby, one that you’re really, really good at. The crowd cheers so loud you can barely hear yourself think. You line up with all the other racers, some familiar, some new.
The bot right in front of you turns around, he looks like he just waxed to perfection. To be fair most of the racers here have, you know you did. He's maroon and orange, with a bright yellow spoiler. He winks at you.
“Confident?” You say and raise an optical ridge at him. He shrugs. You feel like you’ve seen him before, maybe at a party of some kind. It's not often new racers appear out of the blue. Where did he come from?
“Bout’ as confident as I can be for the first race in the season,” He nudges you. There’s no way he doesn’t know who you are, reigning champ two years in a row. Blurr, unstoppable, uncatchable, fast-as-pit. There’s plenty of ways he could have heard of you. You wonder if he’s playing off his awe.
“You’ll get over it when you’re chasing my aft.” You say. He chuckles. Maybe he doesn’t know you, but how? He’s a racer. Any good racer knows the bots they race against. Maybe that's why you’re so curious about where he came from.
“Tell you what, after the race let's get a drink, the loser pays.” He says. Confident is maybe not the right word, cocky, maybe. You point forward, letting him know while he was busy talking a big game the starter came out. He jumps and gets back in position.
The gun goes off.
--
The bot who started the race in front of you ended right behind you, as you had hoped. You being first, him second. Number two isn’t bad for a first race, he’s probably just as cocky as he was to begin with.
“You did great out there!” Number two places a hand on your shoulder. He had found you first. He looked beat, steam coming out of his vents. He must have had a hard race.
“So you say. Tell me number two, how does my dust taste, huh? Is it a nice view from behind me? Tell me. Or would you rather tell me over a drink, loser pays?” You give him a knowing smirk. He shoots you back a wide grin. You want to lay it on thick, this random bot should have known his place.
“The name is Hot Rod. You may have beat me in speed, but just wait till you see how much I can slam down!” Hot rod throws an arm around your shoulder and jostles you a bit. “I know just the place to take a high end bot like you!”
“High end? What’s that supposed to mean-” You start to ask but get cut off.
“Blurr, hey!” Kup, you can never seem to escape him, “Good race, kid.” He holds out a hand for you to shake.
“Blurr?!” Hot rod’s optics widen. He backs off, seemingly realizing just who he was with. “Fastest bot alive, two year champ, Blurr?” Kup looks at you, you look back.
“Who else, kid? You don’t even know who you’re getting buddy buddy with?” Kup tuts, “Listen Blurr, I need you to come with me. Prime’s got a new assignment, wants you back on.” Kup starts to walk away, assuming you’d follow him. You look at Hot rod, still awestruck.
“Hey, you still owe me a drink. Don't think I’ll forget because I don’t forget things like this.” You pat his shoulder, he stands there in silence. You smile, hoping to reassure him, and then follow Kup.
At your rest stop he shoos away your team for some privacy. He takes a seat on a stack of spare tires. You wonder what prime called him here, and what they could possibly want. Megatron and the decepticons are gone, right?
“I’ll make this short, kid. They want you as an intelligence officer. Longarm Prime wanted you specifically.” He crosses his arm. Longarm is a prime now? You had spoken with him briefly before. You kind of stopped caring about all that war stuff once it was all over, so you had no idea he was promoted. You trust Kup, though.
“For what? I thought the war was over?” You used to fight on Kup’s team when it was all happening. You had both been there. You were a new cadet but had quickly gone up rank.
“You’ll see.”