Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Artwork by Sci-Fi

Smokescreen’s first thought, when he came back online, was that he had let Optimus and Ultra Magnus down. He had somehow gotten captured while on a solo recon trying to find Predacon bones or energon signatures. As for what happened, it was still trying to come back to his processor.

So, as he tried to remember what had happened, Smokescreen set to figuring out where he was. He was strapped down by his peds and servo bearings. It didn’t feel like Cybertronian metal. He would know after being chained in a Decepticon prison ship before coming to Earth. He managed to get out of that mess before finding himself strapped to the Nemesis’s medical table, getting an Omega Key ripped out of him a few weeks after joining Team Prime.

The sounds around him were…off. It was nearly silent except for the echo of some things shuffling around him.

“Sir. The ecto-entity is beginning to move,” a voice beside him spoke. It was human. Their vocal cords never had the same echo that Cybertronians’ did.

Well, the good news was that Smokescreen knew what was shuffling around him. The bad news was that he was going to get such an extreme talking to after he got out of this mess. Smokescreen had just gotten some respect from the rest of the team for what he pulled off with the Omega Keys and saving Optimus. Getting his cover blown and captured by humans was going to send that down the exhaust pipe.

A shock radiated across Smokescreen’s servo before he could think of a plan. The sensors quickly registered ‘danger’ to his HUD and instinctively attempted to move him away from the problem.

“Subject seems to react to stimuli four hours after capture.” The voice droned on before another zap radiated across his side. “Subject’s constitution does not appear to follow standard ecto-entity appearance or behavior. Form remains solid despite the use of anti-ecto devices.”

The human kept speaking. Energy levels and reactions. Times and theories. Smokescreen wasn’t able to follow along with most of it. That was Ratchet's job, not his. Still, if Smokescreen could break cover right now, he would correct the human in calling Smokescreen an it.

So, forcing himself to ignore that so he didn’t get into more trouble with Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime (because that was going to make Smokescreen want to be eaten by scraplets), he thought about how he even got here in the first place. He had been on a routine patrol… yeah, routine patrol. It was in a section of this continent called Utah. The section of the state reminded him a little bit of Nevada with its expanse of orange dirt and rocky cliffs. The only difference was the small streams and short shrubbery that were on the ground.

He had been out for a groon or two, human equivalent to an hour or so, when these white vans started following him. Smokescreen had been cautious as they approached. He had been keeping under the speed limit like Jack had taught him, and these cars didn’t look like the local law enforcement, so it was a simple conclusion to think that they were humans who were traveling in the area.

Then a van sped past him and hit their brakes hard. Smokescreen had to swerve to avoid rear-ending the vehicle. He was now driving side by side with the white van, but hey, better than causing an accident and having to be a hit and run. Smokescreen saw the humans opening the doors and pulling out weapons. Mission reports about MECH came to his processor. Not wanting to figure out if it was them, he revved his engine and took off. The Elite Guard figured that adding speeding to his list of broken road rules in the last few minutes would be better than trying to fight humans.

He tried to comm for backup or a ground bridge. You know, proper protocol. Smokescreen had learned his lesson after being kidnapped by Soundwave. Except, all he had been able to hear was static. So comms down, humans chasing him and Smokescreen really, really trying not to break cover. Oh of all the scrap he had to find himself in.

He was trying to figure out a way to get out of this mess when he remembered his phase shifter. The rock formations gave the Elite Guard an idea. It would be much easier to ignore a car disappearing into a rock than a car becoming a giant robot.

The humans kept right on Smokescreen’s tail pipe as he turned to follow a trail close to a cliff. The small plants were crushed under his tires as he put some distance away from the group. Patience, though, is what Smokescreen needed. He just needed to hold on until… there! The rock took a sharp turn. The perfect cover.

Smokescreen spat exhaust from his intake, showing the humans why he had his name, and took the sharp turn right as he emptied the last of the smoke. With a pull on his T-cog, Smokescreen kicked himself up as his metal shifted into his robot mode. The Phase shifter was there at his beck and call. He took two steps as he activated the ancient device before transforming back into vehicle mode. Just in time, too, as the human vans turned the corner through the smoke he had left behind.

“So long,” Smokescreen smirked as he aimed himself at a cliff wall. Orange rock quickly surrounded him as he phased through. Relief flooded Smokescreen’s frame. It wasn’t perfect, but he didn’t think it was half bad considering the circumstances. “Now to find somewhere he could comm back to bas…SCRAP!”

Smokescreen exited the cliff only to be surrounded by white vehicles and a few helicopters. If the initial surprise of the situation wasn’t enough, a wire net crackling with electricity was unfurled exactly where he was heading. The Autobot couldn’t dodge. He phased through the wires, but the electricity coursing through it still had an effect on him.

His HUD quickly flashed a warning as he transformed out of vehicle mode. A tank of all things was crushed underneath him as he tumbled down the side of the small cliff he had found himself on. Smokescreen tried to move, but his frame refused to budge. Out of the corner of his optic, he saw the phase shifter shut off as the humans swarmed him.

Smokescreen knew he was in so much trouble before he went into stasis. He still was in trouble. Figured he might as well face it as quickly as he could.

However, alarms began to ring, flashing red beams even through his closed optics, before he could come up with a plan. The humans around him began to shout and move out of the room with haste. After the last of the shuffling faded away, Smokescreen dared himself to open an optic. The room was startlingly white. No color besides himself. There were tables full of equipment, some blasters, and some other things that Ratchet and Wheeljack would probably love to take apart. A few computers were being run on the other side of the room, information too far away for Smokescreen to even attempt to read.

Still, there weren’t any more humans in the room now. This was the time for Smokescreen to escape.

The restraints on his servo bearings were tightly locked into place. Thankfully, the human that captured him didn’t realize what was already on his servo bearing. The phase shifter laid waiting and ready to help in Smokescreen’s escape if he could just reach it.

“Alright, Smokescreen.” He said to himself. “You have escaped a Decepticon Prison Ship, and the Nemesis after stealing from Megatron. You can get yourself out of this.”

He yanked his opposite servo bearing against the restraints. It moved slightly, but nowhere near what he needed to escape. It would take some time for him to snap them.

“Need some help?” a voice sounded. Smokescreen snapped his optics to where the sound had come from. Nothing was there, though. “I don’t think you will be snapping those restraints anytime soon.”

He shook his helm as the voice sounded again. Maybe whatever those humans had hit him with had caused a wire in his processor to come loose. He would have to have Ratchet look at it when he got out and back to base.

“Whoops. Sorry about that.” The voice said again. The air in front of Smokescreen shimmered before a figure appeared. A human figure… Why was a human hovering above him? They couldn’t do that. He had been explicitly told by the kids they couldn’t do that. “So, you need that help?”

The human figure was pale and had messy white hair and green optics. Eyes not optics Smokescreen had to remind himself. His clothing was odd too. Not something he had seen humans wear when he was on missions. It was black and white, hugging his frame closely. The English letter D, was stamped on his chest. Then, to make things weirder, the human was glowing. Once again, not something he knew humans could do.

“Uhhh. Sure?” Smokescreen said. “Who are you?”

“Phantom. Danny Phantom at your service,” The human smiled, doing a mock bow. “And you?”

“Smokescreen,” the bot hesitantly responded. “What are you?”

Phantom floated towards Smokescreen’s left servo bearing, the same one he had been trying to rip free of the restraints. He settled on it, studying it in the process.

“Let's not get into that right now. The GIW will be back soon and I have more people to rescue besides you,” he said. The restraint suddenly went transparent where Phantom touched it. The pressure around the servo bearing vanished as well. With a simple movement, Smokescreen was free. “Now for the other three.”

“No worries on that,” Smokescreen smirked. He reached for the phase shifter on his other side and activated it. It whirled to life with its soft green glow. The Elite Guard quickly rolled off the table and found his peds, lifting himself to full height. He nearly hit the ceiling of the place as he stood.

“Whoa. How did you do that?” Phantom asked, hovering to Smokescreen’s height. “You aren’t a ghost.”

“Ghost?”

The boy opened his mouth to answer before a loud voice spoke over the comm system of the building.

“Subject Phantom-S00 has broken the perimeter,” a human sounded on the intercom, “Capture the ecto-entity immediately.”

“And that would be my cue to leave,” The boy glared at the intercom. “I would get out and find somewhere safe to hide. I don’t know why these guys captured you, but I speak from experience when I say you don’t want to find out what they will do to you.” With a quick wave, the human figure turned transparent just like the restraint had and vanished into the walls of the building.

Smokescreen shook his helm. Yeah. He was going to have Ratchet check all his systems after he got back to base. Figuring it was too late to keep his robot form secret, Smokescreen rushed out. The facility had high ceilings by human terms, but very short for Cybertronians. His helm was phased through the second level of the base while the rest of his frame was running around the first. He would dip down every once in a while to make sure he could avoid scaring humans by ‘stepping’ on them even though we would just phase through. He wasn’t a rust flake even after the whole ordeal he had just gone through.

Still, the halls were so confusing. They were all white and gave no indication of where the exit was. With no other real choice, Smokescreen just stuck to one direction, only turning when a big group of humans found him on either floor. It caused him to make quite a few turns and probably a few circles. Eventually, Smokescreen’s frame phased through the last wall. The sun was just beginning to rise in the distance. A tall metal fence, at least by human standards, surrounded the building. Smokescreen could easily jump it.

Mountains surrounded the desert valley with less green than the area he had been captured. Okay, so he didn’t seem to be too far from where he had been chased and electrocuted at. That is if his understanding of this continent’s geography was correct. He thinks he was still in the same section of Earth he had been in? That was good news at least. Right?

Smokescreen tried to comm again. The line still wouldn’t connect. Oh well… guess Smokescreen was going to have to ignore some more speeding laws and to make a break away from the jammer or just start taking the long way to base.

“Get the subject!” A voice called nearby.

Smokescreen flinched, ready to have the humans begin firing at him. Instead he saw the group of humans empty from a nearby doorway and completely ignore the towering Cybertronian standing nearby. Instead the humans moved towards another human face down in the dirt some distance away.

Wait… that was the human or whatever that had saved him.

Phantom was struggling to stand. Red and green spilled from the smoking wound on his leg.

“SECURE IT! SECURE IT!” Voices shouted as the white dressed humans kept spilling from the building. “DON’T LET IT ESCAPE!”

The way they talked about Phantom left a bad feeling in Smokescreen’s chassis. ‘I would get out and find somewhere safe to hide. I don’t know why these guys captured you but I speak from experience when I say you don’t want to find out what they will do to you,’ Phantom had said. Smokescreen vented, knowing that he was probably about to put himself into a bigger mess than he was already in. He couldn’t just leave Phantom, weird human or not, to get captured by these other guys. It didn’t feel right just leaving the boy that had freed him.

“Mind if I cut in?” The Elite Guard called.

The simple distraction had its desired effect. Blasters the humans were carrying turned on him as he ran to where they were congregated. The blasts went through the Autobot, hitting the building, and the fence behind him among other things. They dodged out of the way as Smokescreen charged, fearing that they would be crushed under his ped.

“Alright. This is our cue to leave,” Smokescreen echoed what the kid had said earlier. “Let’s get out of here.”

The boy shook his head, flickering to color and transparency. Phantom stumbled to a foot only to fall back down. Smokescreen looked back to see the humans surrounding them again, now bringing wire lines just like they had used to capture him.

Smokescreen let out a Cybertronian swear. The boy was still flickering between solid and phasing mode (look Smokescreen didn’t know what to call it right now) and Smokescreen couldn’t risk deactivating the phase shifter unless he knew the boy would stay solid so the Elite Guard could get him out.

Then a possibly dumb thought came to him. The kids had been doing homework. A formula class of some sort. Ratchet claimed it was simple, Raf agreeing with him. However, Miko did not. She kept complaining about all the rules she had to remember to properly solve one problem. One of the rules had been that two negative numbers made a positive number. Perhaps that rule applied somewhere else, like here and now.

Smokescreen carefully maneuvered his servo to pick the boy up. Even though the boy was transparent, the Elite Guard’s servo successfully picked him up and pulled him close to the frame. The phase shifter’s energy field latched onto Phantom, keeping him tangible to Smokescreen as he flickered back to color.

“Alright. Let's roll out.” Smokescreen muttered.

The Autobot summoned his cannon in the free servo and fired at the dirt below him. Dust sprayed everywhere. The humans shouted in fear and probably a bit in pain as the stuff got in their eyes. Smokescreen transformed, careful to sit Phantom in his passenger seat. The Elite Guard made sure to secure him with the seat belt before he headed as fast as he could away from the building. Even more dust kicked up as they phased through the fence and into the valley.

“Come on, come on,” Smokescreen muttered, trying the comm line again. It still gave static. Engines began sounding, and helicopter blades drew closer. “Oh, for crying out loud!”

Smokescreen revved his engine further, pushing it to the max. He couldn’t let these guys catch up to him. The range of the jamming device had to run out eventually if that was the problem. If it was his system… well… still not letting them catch up would be nice.

Smokescreen found a road and took it. More likely to get pulled over by a cop, but hopefully that would apply to these humans, too. Not to mention more speed since his wheels weren’t spinning as much on pavement compared to loose dirt. The guard kept going, keeping his optics out for the humans. The cars and helicopters in his rearview mirror began to fade until they vanished. Still, Smokescreen kept his speedometer at 150 mph until his inner systems began to overheat due to the exertion. He dipped the speed down to half that, more road-appropriate, as he kept trying the comm.

Coughing nearly caused him to swerve in surprise. Phantom began to stir in Smokescreen’s seat. A white light suddenly came from the boy around his waist. It separated, forming two rings. One that raised to his head and the other that faded at his feet. The black and white clothing he had been in changed along the glowing rings into a dirty sweatshirt, black jeans, and shoes. His eyes fought to open, now blue instead of green, while his messy white hair was replaced with black.

His face was twisted painfully, clutching the wound on his leg. The warm liquid spilling in between his fingers pooled faster in Smokescreen’s compartment. Blood and whatever the green stuff was, Smokescreen realized. This boy needed to get to a doctor fast.

“Wha…?” Phantom asked, looking around dazedly.

“Don’t panic,” Smokescreen quickly said. The boy’s eyes widened for a moment, looking at the console of the car where his helm rested when transformed. “Just repaying you for helping me out of there. I am trying to get us to safety.”

“Thanks,” The boy coughed. “Where is safe?”

“With the rest of the team I work with,” Smokescreen answered, already hearing the lecture he was going to get. “We can get you medical attention there.”

“No, no,” Phantom said, pushing off the seat. “I am fine. Just let me out when we get far…” Phantom took a sharp breath in, biting his lip.

“Don’t think that is going to be smart,” Smokescreen countered.

“No one knows how I work.” Sweat was beginning to coat the boy’s brow now as he continued to grow paler. “I have to get… away.”

“We are getting away.”

“Not…what I…” The boy mumbled before he closed his eyes once again, his hand going slack against the wound.

Smokescreen scanned him, finding his vitals well outside the typical human’s range. Not good at all. Maybe he should find the closest human city and try to hack into a phone tower to call Jack or one of the other kids. That way, he could drop this kid off for medical attention, too.

“Smokescreen. Come in, Smokescreen,” Ratchet’s voice cackled along the comms. “Can you hear me?”

“Ratchet?!” Smokescreen vented in relief. Thank Primus! “I need a ground bridge as soon as you can. I have an injured human… or something with me.”

“Did I hear you right?” the Autobot Medic paused. “You have a human with you?!”

“I’ll do a better brief at base, but humans captured me, and he helped free me. He got injured in the process.” Smokescreen explained, keeping an optic on the road and one on the person in his seat. “I couldn’t just leave him in their hands.”

There was some sputtering on the line. “Locking onto your coordinates now.”

A ground bridge quickly opened in front of him. The Elite Guard began to slow down, knowing the base had limited room to come charging in. The familiar lurch as his tires left the pavement and into the bridge jostled the two despite Smokescreen’s efforts to keep himself steady. As quickly as it came, his tires hit the concrete floor. They squealed as they came to a stop, marking their former presence over the Autobot insignia engraved into the floor.

Smokescreen would clean that up later. He just couldn’t waste time with that right now. Joints and gears fell into place as Smokescreen transformed, cradling the boy in his servo.

“By the Allspark. What happened?!” Ratchet’s familiar voice sounded, a bit panicked, Smokescreen might add.

The doctor rushed over from where he was on the controls to Smokescreen, his servos hovering over the boy. Ratchet seemed hesitant to take him, more keen on studying what was going on with him.

”I don’t know exactly what happened,” Smokescreen responded, watching as the boy’s chest moved up and down at a slow rate. “He got hit with a weapon of some sort on his leg, and he is bleeding badly. I don’t think he is a typical human though.”

”What makes you say that?” Ratchet scoffed.

”Well, he was flying, glowing, and could move through walls like I can with the phase shifter.” The Doctor looked like he was about to argue. The Elite Guard answered with a challenging glare. “Yes, I know how that sounds, but either it happened or I have more than a few wires loose. Kind of figured it's the first since I don’t think humans are supposed to bleed green.”

Okay… so Smokescreen was a little worried. Ratchet realized the rookie didn’t mean to snap by the way he didn’t snap back. Just vented harshly and activated his scanner. He had seen eons of war and injuries. Fear and anger often came with it, so he learned how to deal with bots feeling those feelings too.

“Besides that leg wound, he doesn’t seem to have any major injuries,” the med bot stated as he scanned the boy. His optic ridges were pinched together. “I have already notified Nurse Darby. We will be ground bridging her momentarily. Keep an eye on him and hold him still until she gets here. I’ll get something to stop that wound from bleeding.”

Smokescreen gave a swift nod, pulling him closer to his chassis (which was now getting covered in more red and green) in an attempt to hold him steadier. Ratchet found a bunch of gauze, as the humans called it, to soak up the leaking wound. Smokescreen helped keep the pressure on it as Ratchet left to bridge Nurse Darby in.

As soon as she got here, followed closely by Jack, Raf, and Miko, Smokescreen lowered the boy down, letting him rest on a small, rolling bed Jack had found and let the nurse work.

“His vitals are low but steady,” the nurse declared as she ran the human version of diagnostic tests. “I am going to pull him around to the other side for some privacy.”

”Of course,” Ratchet nodded respectfully. Nurse Darby was the only human he did that for. A respect reserved for Optimus or Ultra Magnus. “Let us know if there is anything we can do to help.”

The nurse gave a curt nod, “Jack, follow me to assist, Raf, Miko, head up to the main area.”

”But we want to help!” Raf cried as he and others vanished further into base.

The voices clambered off into mutters and then whispers as they walked further and further away. Smokescreen was left looking at his own servos. Red blood and whatever the green had been was beginning to dry on his plating and joints.

“Now for you,” a voice snapped him out of his stare. Ratchet had gotten extremely close to Smokescreen.

”What?” Smokescreen instinctively backed up.

“Don’t think you are getting away that easy,” Ratchet glared unwavering. One of his digits wiped against the contents on his frame. He paused for only a moment to study it. “You are sitting here on the berth while I repair you. Ultra Magnus and Optimus will surely have questions for you when they return.”

Smokescreen looked around for the first time. It was odd to not have a bot at base right now. The day was only beginning. “Where is everyone?”

“Looking for you of course!” The doctor yelled, looking as if he was ready to smack Smokescreen across the head with one of his tools. “Now go wash that stuff off of you and report here so I can deal with your injuries while I notify the others.”

“Yes sir,” Smokescreen quickly said, not wanting to upset Ratchet even more.

The Elite Guard moved to the decontamination pod down the hall. He was thorough but quick with his work, trying not to focus on how the red and green flaked off his paint.

He wasn’t comfortable being so far from the boy for some reason. Perhaps Smokescreen just felt responsible for what happened to him. Phantom had stopped to save Smokescreen and that had cost time and energy. Time and energy that probably put Phantom in the position to get injured.

Not wanting to dwell on that just like the stuff falling off his frame, Smokescreen quickly got everything off and reported back to Ratchet. He had a feeling he was going to have to keep himself in whatever good graces he could get right now. Blowing cover, fighting humans, bringing one to base…. yeah, Smokescreen was so in trouble.

——-

“We lost their signatures sir,” Agent C reported.

Commander V let out a subtle growl causing Agent C and the rest of the agents around him to back up. Commander V didn’t have the nicest reputation. He was known to get stuff done and chew out anyone that got in his way, whether it be within the organization or outside it. It was how he had risen from a mere agent, determined to prove the GIW wasn’t a joke of an agency, to one of the five commanders of the secret government organization. Even better, he was the commander assigned over the duties of capturing the ghosts for study and experimentation. The heart of the GIW instead of those of biological studies, equipment development, government politics or security.

With his position in the GIW, the commander was quite surprised it took him this long to see the infamous Phantom. The ghost that could imitate life. A ghost that tricked humans for months, maybe even years. Better yet, it tricked the original ghost experts that it was their son for whatever time Phantom had decided to play its sick game. Nothing could have pleased Commander V more than to find out Phantom had been impersonating Danny Fenton. At last it was proven that the Ghost Investigation Ward were truly the experts on ghosts and the only ones that could protect humanity from them. Not Vlad Masters, not the Fentons, not the hundreds of naive people who claimed to be ghosts hunters. Only the GIW stood unwavering and diligent in their duties.

Still… Phantom had escaped the hold of the GIW multiple times now. Many times within Amity Park and then the incident with Base Miteen last year. Now the ghost had escaped and released fellow ghosts including their most recent and unique specimens, Subject Ir8-Gi11. It was a stain on Commander V’s perfect record. One that he would see fixed.

They had captured Subject Ir8-GI11’s energy signature right before sunset. It was so…unique in comparison to the usual ectoplasm ghosts had. They needed to take it apart and study it. Its transportation had been difficult though. They never expected anything that big nor it being unable to be captured by both GIW and Fenton equipment. They couldn’t even get it out of its armor it had housed itself in. It was almost as if that armor kept it safe from anything they had tried or perhaps… this was a different type of ghost entirely.

Hardly the time for those thoughts though. Subject Ir8-Gi11 had taken Subject S00-Phantom and escaped in the chaos. Some form of symbiotic connection Phantom tended to form with others of its kind. One Commander V would leave the scientists to study when S00-Phantom was recaptured. Now though, Subject Ir8-Gi11’s ability to alter its armor into a sports vehicle made it difficult to catch without their helicopters properly in the air.

“Commander V,” an agent shouted as he ran to the gathered group of agents and vehicles. “We have some news for you.”

“Good, I hope,” he glared. Sternly felt though the shades blocked his eyes.

“Yes sir,” the nameless agent said, delivering a tablet to the commander. “One of our blasts injured Subject Ir8-Gi11. It left traces of its ectoplasm.”

“That is… something.” The commander muttered as he took the tablet..

“Better yet sir, we are able to track it and look what we found,” he said, gesturing to the device he had handed over.

The commander glared at the screen. The energy of the blue ectoplasm found within Ir8-Gi11 was at a different range than normal ectoplasm. Guys in White scientists within Base Beehive were already conducting experiments with their limited sources. However, that wasn’t the only thing.

“There are high amounts of blue ectoplasm in Washington. We are ready to send a team there whenever you are ready, sir.” The agent voiced what the commander was reading. “There also seems to be yet another form of ectoplasm there as well.”

“Make sure those assigned to Base Coffee are ready to receive a small team of agents and scientists, Agent..?”

“Agent S, sir.”

“Agent S,” Commander V continued. “I want us to depart in two hours and not a second later.”

“Yes, sir!” Agent S saluted before running off.

”Now the rest of you!” The GIW commander glared at every single agent. “You are to clean, repair, and train every hour you are clocked in until this place is spotless and you will no longer be incompetent in your jobs! Are we clear?!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Now move out!”

Chapter Text

“... And that is when I managed to grab him from the humans.”

Ultra Magnus began asking even more questions about what happened. Jack winced. He did not want to be on the other end of a talking-to from Ultra Magnus if he could help it. Still hard to believe anything that Smokescreen was saying. Well… the humans capturing him was believable. MECH may be no more, but Jack wouldn’t put it past humanity to produce another organization that is keen on studying bots. It was that the boy had somehow rescued Smokescreen via phasing in without a phase shifter or any other assorted tech, flown, and had somehow changed his hair and eye color in the matter of two seconds. And that was from what Jack was able to overhear after everyone started arriving back at base. He figured there was more he had been missing.

It had been a few hours since the two had gotten to Unit E. Mom had gotten the wound on the boy’s leg cleaned and wrapped, but for everything else, she waited on. Not that she didn’t want to, but Mom was only a nurse. While she admitted she had seen enough in her career as a nurse to do other people’s jobs, she wasn’t really supposed to be prescribing IVs, medications, taking X-rays, or running other tests. While keeping a careful eye on the kid, she contacted Agent Fowler and arranged for a way to ‘legally’ take care of him. Mom clearly wasn’t going to let the kid die or get to the point of major problems, but she would like to keep her nursing license if anything came back to bite.

The end result ended up being an army doctor at another base giving permission for his mom to do all the tests she wanted (within reason), and he would sign off on it and anything odd that came back. So here they were now.

“You are dropping the bag, Jack,” Mom said, directing Jack’s attention back where it was supposed to be.

Jack raised the IV bag higher. Jack needed to keep the IV bag 36 inches or about 90 centimeters above the boy. Until Raf and Miko came back with a pole of some sort to do the job, at least. Jack sighed. The random knowledge that somehow stuck while he had helped his mom study during nursing school.

Jack cast his eyes to where his mom was working, ignoring the bots who were currently in the base gathering around the Elite Guard rookie. The area where his mom and Jack were treating the boy wasn’t necessarily private. They had a medical wing until one of the Wreckers decided to get way too far into their training and ended up damaging that room and the medical wing adjacent to it. So, they worked in the main room in a small corner by the main control center until the base could be repaired.

Mom shuffled back and forth from task to task. She had a clipboard and pencil sitting beside her, only disturbed when she finished taking the unconscious boy’s vitals for the fifth time. Mom still couldn’t explain why those vitals were so low. Vitals typically dropped while resting, like the boy was, but not this low.

Something else about him wasn’t sitting right with Jack. Smokescreen could’ve misunderstood something. He was still fairly new to Earth but believed he knew what he saw. Jack had a dreaded feeling that his life was about to get more complicated.

“We’re back,” Miko sang as she popped around the corner.

She wheeled the IV pole she had stolen from somewhere on the military base (hopefully with permission). Raf followed behind, carrying a small stack of clothes.

“Thank you,” Jack nearly snatched the pole from Miko to hang the bag.

Miko's eyes glimmered for a moment. She tugged, giving a bit of a fight for the pole. With a stern glare, Jack swiped it out of the exchange student’s hand. She stuck out her tongue teasingly as she let Jack hang the bag. Raf set the clothes on the small tableside beside the bed before leading Miko out of the way from where Mom was still working.

Finally relieved of his IV duty, Jack took the side of the bed. He watched as his mom felt around the boy’s hands and legs, then moved to the main body, feeling around the sides. Mom’s eyes pinched together as she felt the boy’s upper chest, hands feeling for a little bit longer.

“Jack, help me get his shirt off, please,” Mom said, meticulously producing her fabric scissors from her first aid kit.

With a nod, Jack held the shirt away from his neck as his mom snipped the fabric away, gliding down along the shirt’s seam. The specially made scissors made quick work of the task. With a small pull, the boy was free of his shirt.

“What the..?!” Mom’s voice dropped.

Jack’s mouth wobbled open, seeing the same thing she was. A jagged Y was shaped on the boy’s torso. It was red, inflamed, and clearly painful.

“Ittai nanda,” Miko whispered, peeking her head over Mom’s shoulder. “That’s not something you see every day.”

There was a pause in all motion or noise until Mom moved. She lowered her hand to the scar, hesitant and shaking.

“Who could do this?” Her voice whispered.

Her finger barely touched the scar when the boy awoke, flinching away as if his Mom’s hand had been white hot iron. His blue eyes shimmer green for a second. They went wide, quickly glancing at the person above him. The boy grasped Mom’s wrist and threw her off of him before Jack even realized what was going on.

“Mom!” Jack yelled, watching as Miko and Raf caught her.

Jack grabbed the boy, keeping him from jumping off the bed, scared he intended to harm his mother even more.

“Let me go!” The boy yelled, thrashing hard.

“Calm down,” Jack demanded instead.

The boy leaned back, causing Jack to shift his weight in an attempt to keep hold. It failed though. It seemed his hands had moved through the boy. Jack tumbled onto the concrete floor, left arm radiating with pain. He really hoped he hadn’t just broken or dislocated anything. Still, Jack quickly got back up on his feet.

The boy was standing now. His eyes shifted back and forth between Jack and his mom, and friends on his other side. His muscles were tense, ready to spring.

“My name...” Mom attempted.

The boy scrambled away, stumbling into the table behind him before Mom could finish trying to calm him. It fell over with him, dumping the contents onto the floor with a thud.

“Whoa. Calm down,” Miko called, moving to help the boy up.

“Everything okay over here?” Heavy pedsteps came from around the corner.

Miko froze. Everyone did except for Mom. She was trying to keep the bot from coming around the corner. It was too late, though. The boy’s eyes locked on Bulkhead.

“Scrap,” Bulkhead muttered as the Wrecker realized what was going on.

The teen grabbed the black shirt that had fallen beside him and bolted. Like a switch, everyone started moving after him.

“Hold on a second,” Bulkhead said, kneeling to block the way with his servo.

The boy didn’t stop, though. His skin turned translucent before he went through Bulkhead’s extended appendage. Bulkhead let out a small scream of surprise. Jack’s brain stuttered. Smokescreen had been right. Jack had just seen it, and it was still hard to believe. The teen had helped aliens fight a war for the last year, so of course, people being intangible could be real too.

“Oh, what is going on over there?! I am trying to work!” Ratchet yelled.

Jack sprinted around Bulkhead. Most of the bots were still standing around Smokescreen, who was sitting at the medical berth. Ratchet had a blowtorch in his hand, trying to repair said bot on the berth.

The boy didn’t falter at the optics staring at him as he came around the corner. Merely threw on the shirt he had grabbed and kept running towards the target in his line of sight, the open hangar doors.

“Hey. Stop!” Jack called.

Some of the bots scrambled to help as carefully as they could. Arcee, Bumblebee, and Wheeljack moved between the boy and the exit, attempting the same thing Bulkhead had. However, just like previously, the boy passed through the tangle of servos and peds as if they didn’t exist.

Wheeljack and Arcee said something in Cybertronian. Knowing them, probably nothing his mom wanted him to learn. Jack weaved and jumped through the peds and servos. He was catching up, but the distance was still too great. If the boy made it outside and went invisible, Jack wouldn’t be able to catch him.

Jack could not believe that was a sentence he thought with all seriousness.

Then, loud ped steps pounded on the ground in quick succession before a blue ped blocked the door at the last possible second. Jack expected the boy to go running, though, as he turned transparent. However…

SMACK!

Everyone who heard the sound winced as the boy tumbled to the floor. Jack even stopped running to pay respects to that wonderful run-in with a solid object.

“Oooowwww,” the boy slurred out, attempting to get back up, stumbling onto his knees as his legs gave way.

“Sorry about that,” Smokescreen said, shutting off his phase shifter.

“Wh…what?” The boy looked up, eyes dazed.

Before the boy could shake off that hit or Jack could make it to him, Smokescreen scooped up the boy in his servo. As they ascended back up, the boy became more aware of what was going on around him. Blue eyes darted between the bot holding him, the other bots around, and everything else.

“How did you do that?” The boy shouted, backing to the edge of Smokescreen’s servo.

The Elite Guard smiled, placing his other servo behind the boy to catch him in it as he tumbled off. “My phase shifter,” he answered, gesturing to the item on his free servo bearing. “Found out during our whole escape for those white fabric-wearing humans that it cancels out your own phasing when it’s activated.”

“Intangibility,” the boy said, almost calmly. Smokescreen gave a small head tilt. “The phasing. It’s called intangibility.”

“Good to know,” Smokescreen smiled.

The calmness that had been there quickly faded. “Okay. Can I make like a banana and split, please?”

“Forgive us, young one,” familiar heavy ped steps interrupted any more conversation that was going to come. “But there are some matters that we need to speak about.”

The Autobots parted like the Red Sea, dispersing the crowd that had formed around Smokescreen and the boy. Jack followed suit, still taking a place in front of the Arcee so he could see what was happening. He wasn’t the only one, as Miko, Raf, and Mom appeared beside him.

“You okay?” His mom whispered in his ear.

“Fine. You?”

Jack gave a small sigh at his mom's nod. That was good at least.

“Who are you?” The boy, as the Bot who had addressed him, approached.

The large frame of red and blue appeared. There was an aura of strong but gentle that Jack didn’t know how he was able to exude. Maybe something with the Matrix of Leadership. No… even as Orion Pax, he had that. He just had to be who he was.

“I am Optimus Prime. Leader of the Autobots.” The Last of the Primes spoke. “We have some questions we would like you to answer for us.”

-------

There were so many people. So many people he didn’t know. The lady held her wrist as she tried to regain her balance. The two kids looked at Danny in shock while the only other adult… wait, no, that was a kid too, began shouting something…Danny couldn’t process it right now because all he saw was people trying to get closer and closer. Danny’s breath caught in his throat.

There were others. They weren’t safe. He wasn’t safe. Danny had to go.

Danny had tumbled into something. He found a shirt falling into his lap a second later. More words were said, but he hadn’t heard them. Then, there was a giant robot hovering over him. Danny had had enough fights with Skulker and Technus to know that he didn’t want to deal with that. He knew his limits. With his ectoplasm so low, it was either fighting a giant robot or escaping people. Not both. Danny just grabbed the shirt to cover his scar and bolted.

Thankfully, Danny found the exit quickly. There were hangar doors just a sprint away. However, even more robots stood in his way. He was glad he was picking the running option now. Danny smiled internally though. He had fared worse before. A little intangibility would get him through as long as they weren’t anti-ecto robots. From his expert experience, that was not the case. So he bolted, phasing through the robots as they tried to smash him. The cool wash of his power kept settling him with a bit of relief. He was almost out, almost free. Just had to use the last of his ecto to switch from intangible to invisible when he….

Next thing Danny knew, he was seeing stars. Like, seriously. He would be that person in a cartoon show that had the birds flying around him as he staggered back and onto his butt. He was honestly lucky he hadn’t broken his nose when he ran into…wait… what did he run into?

The halfa staggered to his feet. Tried to anyway. He failed, tumbling down to his knees. He shook his head in an attempt to get his bearings back and try again. That was until a giant hand scooped him up, and suddenly the floor was a lot further away. One of the robots had him, one he recognized. It was the one he rescued from the GIW.

It was blue and gold with a white stripe down the center. There were headlights on the side of his chest, centered with a crest of some sort. That is right. Hadn’t the robot turned into a car at one point. The robot had introduced himself as Smokescreen. He apparently could gain intangibility too when using his phase shifter on his wrist, a strange-looking watch thingy that pulsed with a light green energy.

Danny was suddenly putting together why the Ghost Investigation Ward wanted this robot. Even Danny could assume this bot was a ghost. Thankfully he had this ghost sense to tell him the robot was indeed not a spirit of the dead.

For some reason, seeing something so familiar to him calmed him down for like two seconds. What could Danny say? He was low on ectoplasm, low on sleep, injured, and who knows fudge where? Give him a break.

Danny got some composure to make a small joke about leaving. He was begging that this robot would just let him. He didn’t know who was in charge of it, but if it wasn’t the Ghost Investigation Ward, he would assume he could just skedaddle away with an excuse that he would be heading back home.

There was no such luck as a new voice appeared and a new… power? That was weird. A quick glance at where he felt the power and the footsteps coming his way told him who had spoken.

If Danny had thought the bot that had him was big, the other one was huge. He was wider and bulkier than Smokescreen. The same shade of blue Smokescreen had adorned the robot’s feet and a few parts of the armor on his shoulders and waist. Otherwise, the bot was a bright red with silver anywhere the rest of the armor wasn’t. The same crest rested on the giant robot’s shoulder.

As the robot walked forward, the others around it quickly moved out of the way so it wouldn’t be impeded. The rest of the robots (that Danny soon realized had the same crest somewhere on them) gathered around Danny and the two robots. He could even hear the woman and three kids that he had been running from down below doing the same thing. Danny couldn’t explain it, but he just felt so much respect pour out into the room.

“I am Optimus Prime. Leader of the Autobots.” The giant robot spoke, giving a small gesture to the robots around him. “We have some questions we would like you to answer for us.”

“Uhh…” That was all Danny’s short-circuited brain could supply. “What is an Autobot?”

“We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron. We Autobots are a faction in a centuries-long civil war with the Decepticons.” The robot explained, a small wave of sadness coming from him. “We have been on this planet for some time as robots in disguise, protecting humanity from Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons.”

“Uh huh….” Danny blankly nodded. “Yeah…I have to be dreaming or something. I never thought my brain was creative enough to come up with a society of literal talking cars living secretly right under our noses. If only Mr. Lancer could see me now. Maybe I would rank up from constant migraine to immediate eye roll.” His voice edged into hysterics, and he tugged his hair to steady himself. “Fun hallucination, though. A-Plus for creativity.”

Suddenly, the hand below him tossed him up a little. He quickly latched onto one of Smokescreen’s fingers. Danny’s knees only left the metal for less than a second, but it was enough to get a small yelp out of him.

“Why did you do that?!” Danny snapped, glaring at the amused bot holding him. The halfa felt the emotion more than seeing it from the grin on the robot’s face.

“Isn’t it a human thing to wake up if you feel like you are falling or something?” the robot shrugged. “Just trying to help prove to you it wasn’t a dream. I wasn’t actually going to hurt you.”

“Yeah.” The anger faded into something Danny couldn’t identify.

That was a thing. Jazz had explained it to him. He thinks it was because of the adrenaline rush or something, if he remembers right. So if he hadn’t woken up after thinking he was falling, that meant….

“YOU’RE ALIENS?! ALIENS ARE REAL?!” His eyes nearly blew out of their sockets.

There was some comment from the people down below, one of the kids specifically, but it didn’t register to Danny. It could have been the distance, but considering his enhanced hearing, he would assume it was the pure childlike glee that he was feeling right now. Danny had dreamed of meeting aliens since he fell in love with space.

“Oh, I have so many questions,” Danny scrambled to the edge of Smokescreen’s fingers. Smokescreen’s other hand quickly shot out to the edge of the other in an attempt to catch him as if he was going to fall… again that is. The halfa wasn’t that dumb, even with his excitement. “Where exactly is your planet? How advanced is your technology? Have you had any interaction with humans before this?”

Optimus raised his hand, causing Danny to stop before he could continue. The half-ghost promptly clicked his jaw shut. Danny wanted to be offended (maybe even a little afraid), but the large alien –Alien! Oh, ancients that would never get old– felt not amused but not annoyed either. Like the way adults feel when they’re talking to someone younger than them.

“All in due time, young one. However, it has come to our attention that other humans now know of our existence and that you rescued Smokescreen here by… unnatural human means.” Danny’s body and mind plunged into icy waters. Perhaps sensing his hesitation, the leader lowered his hand. “We ask only who you escaped from and how you managed to do so, for our safety as well as humanity’s.”

Oh…Oh Fudge! Smokescreen’s secret wasn’t the only one that was blown. Danny, being a half-ghost, also was! Or at least him not being human. Like if they had no idea about humanity, sure, he could play it off, but there were four other people down there who could tell them otherwise. Though it seemed clear that Optimus already knew that. Dannny couldn’t exactly explain the Guys in White either. That would lead to a whole lot of info that could be putting a huge target on all ghosts. Danny didn’t want to chance it, considering his own species' reaction to it.

“Whoa. How are you getting so cold?” Smokescreen asked, flexing his fingers.

Danny thankfully took the distraction and looked down. Frost was slowly forming on the metal below him. The halfa quickly pulled on his core to make the ice disappear. It had been a while since he had lost control of his powers like that.

“It's… It is nothing,” Danny tried to wave off, standing as steadily as he could. “Look I am sorry, Mr. Optimus, sir, but I would really not like to talk about it. I can make sure that no problems arise with your secret and those idiots that captured Smokescreen.”

“As much as I would hope the situation could be resolved that simply,” Optimus left no room for argument, “we cannot take any risks.”

Danny fumbled. He could try to make another run for it. Just leave the conversation with a ‘Thank you for letting me check meet aliens off my halfa-bucket list’ then vanishing into nowhere. However, they could try and track him down, too, and Danny really didn’t want more people trying to find him. Yet, just like Optimus, it was a risk to himself and others that kept Danny from speaking.

“Does it have to do with them calling me an ecto-entity and you confusing me for a ghost?” Smokescreen shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“Whoa! What?!” A voice called from below as Danny stopped breathing. “Like dead people?!”

“Miko!” One of the others yelled to the voice, which promptly went quiet.

“Preposterous,” The attention in the room quickly turned to one of the other robots. He was orange and white with the heartbeat lines drawn onto his arms. He was boxier and seemed a bit older than the others in the room. “A dead human walking around? Of all the absurd things to come from this planet.”

Another Autobot came into the discussion. However, what he said was a complete loss to Danny. While the bots he had seen were accented with other colors, this one seemed to be primarily yellow but was just covered more prominently in black detailing. He wore a face guard over where his mouth would be and let out a series of whirs and beeps, talking in his own language.

“Bumblebee bears a valid point. We have seen many things since we have come to make this planet our home. Of those things, including powers that can resurrect our kind from beyond the Allspark.” Optimus turned from his comrades and back to Danny. A firm and steadfast gaze against the boy’s quaking knees. “It would not be too questionable a conclusion for Earth inhabitants to have their own means to do much the same.”

Every eye was on him, and Danny really, really was ready to jump off the hand that held him in the air as a result. “And what would you do with me if I were?” He straightened himself, trying to look a lot more confident than he was.

Optimus looked at him for a moment, as if deciding how to respond. “Smokescreen has said that you go by Danny Phantom.”

“Uh…yes or just Phantom or Danny, but usually just Danny,” the halfa stuttered before waving his hands around. “But that doesn’t answer my question.”

“Danny, your existence is new to us, and with the capturing of Smokescreen from those you have a history with, it has made it a possibility that our two entities have the likelihood of clashing.” The Leader spoke softly as if comforting a child. “It is paramount as leader of the Autobots that I must make sure no harm comes to them from any source, including humans.”

“You…you are more concerned about them than you are me?” Danny tilted his head. “That's a first.”

“From Smokescreen’s report, previous experiences, and our interaction now, yes,” Optimus said, now taking another small step forward. “So once again I ask, who are they?”

Danny took a deep breath, trying to steel his nerves. He had to remind himself that he had faced the ghost king, survived the GIW, so he could do this.

“Simply put, ghost hunters.” Danny declared, making direct eye contact. “They must have thought Smokescreen here was a ghost. He can tell you that I was surprised to see him when I found him.”

“I can confirm that Optimus,” Smokescreen nodded.

“They are only after me.” Danny continued folding his arms. “Knowing them, if they realized Smokescreen wasn’t a ghost, they would have lost interest. If they didn’t, your secret is safe. I can easily keep them distracted from looking for Smokescreen or any… Autobot was it?... until they basically forget about ‘a strange ghost’ they happened to find once.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Smokescreen said, moving his hand higher and closer to himself so Danny would be as well. “They shot at you and called you an ‘it’ and you want to put a target on yourself while you are injured.”

“Done it before and I’ll do it again if needed.” Danny shrugged. Honestly, it was just normal at this point in his life. “Besides, my being here just puts y'all in more danger of being found by them since they can track my ectoplasmic signature.”

“Your what?” A large green robot in the circle spoke.

“Green stuff that I bleed,” Danny explained quickly before looking back at the leader. “Look, sir, just throw me outside and I will leave and won’t bother you or speak about aliens being on earth.”

“We aren’t really going to throw him out, right?” A small, cobalt female-like robot asked the leader.

“Nah,” another robot voiced. He was mostly white with green and red accents on his chest. He seemed battle-worn if the scratches on him were anything to go by. “Prime isn’t like that.”

“It seems you have been learning, soldier,” another bigger bot said. He seemed like he could be related to Optimus. He was also bulkier with blue and red, except he was more blue than red. The white bot scoffed at the blue one in response.

“Arcee, Wheeljack, Ultra Magnus,” Optimus said sternly but softly. The other bots quickly quieted before turning back to Danny. “Is there any other information that you are willing to give us?”

Danny flinched under the gaze but kept his head held high. “You want to protect those you care about by making sure your secret is safe. The same thing applies to me.”

The halfa’s heart pounded in his chest. The emotion in the air still hadn’t shifted. There was no disgust, no fear, no scheming, just confusion and… pity?

“I would like to ask you to stay here until your wounds are healed. Our shielding on our base will keep these ghost hunters from finding you,” Optimus said. “It will allow us time to make sure the humans who captured Smokescreen will not be looking to find us.”

A place to rest and sleep sounded too good to be true, but even as Optimus spoke, Danny’s body was beginning to betray him. He wanted to curl up in a proper bed so bad.

“Nurse Darby,” The leader looked to the woman below. “Would you finish binding Danny’s wounds and lead him to one of the spare chambers?”

“Of course, Optimus,” The woman said.

The hand Danny stood on moved below him, slow and steady. Smokescreen brought his hand to the floor to where the humans below stood. The halfa just stood there for a moment. He had been watching the robot's emotions (still needed to figure out how he did that later), but he hadn’t really figured out what the humans thought of him.

“Raf, Miko, could you head back up to the control area. I bet Ratchet could use your help more than I can now,” Nurse Darby said, sensing Danny’s hesitation. “Jack, can you grab me the other med kit in your barracks?”

“But Mom,” the boy argued even as Danny kept himself from laughing at the boy with his Dad’s name.

“Now, Jack,” The woman said with that stern glare that no child could argue with. After a quick look at Danny, Jack and the other two kids moved away to wherever the nurse had said. “If you could follow me, Danny. I’ll bring you back to our temporary medical area.”

The nurse turned her back and walked a few steps before looking back. Not the actions someone who wanted to capture Danny would do. Slowly, he stepped off and began to follow. He kept his senses on high alert as he followed her back. Still, he took a look back over his shoulder to the robots - once again ALIENS!- to see Smokescreen standing back up. He gave a smile and nod, and for some reason, it reminded him a bit of his sister Jazz. She was always someone he could trust, so would it be so bad to trust him?

Guess Danny would find out in due time.

----------

It seemed no one respected Knockout on this spark forsaken ship. He was a medic. A very good medic. One that deserved praise and recognition. He didn’t painstakingly take care of his finish for it to get ignored. Well… maybe he did it for himself but he would like some comments of praise on how any frame looking into it shined on his chassis. Praise on how he helped buff out dents and scratches from the crew, kept Lord Megatron’s dark energon levels stable and kept his finish looking this good would probably be better actually.

But nooooo…. He was sent on a simple scout mission. Honestly, he wouldn’t have minded too much if Breakdown was able to come with him. It wasn’t to be though after that traitorous Airachnid murdered the former Wrecker. Alas, Knockout would follow Lord Megatron’s orders. At least he was leading it instead of Commander Starscream. Knockout would be punished for his own mistakes and not Starscream dragging him into a scrap heap of vodo again.

A mining operation in a state called Washington had failed to report in. With the Autobots being more of a nuisance as of late, especially with their victory destroying Dark Mount, Lord Megatron wanted to make sure they hadn’t seized the mine. So the ever loyal Soundwave gathered a force for Knockout to take to the mine and opened a ground bridge to it. The hideous thing called humidity hit Knockout (more importantly his finish) as soon as he and the other Vehicons exited the bridge.

A hole in the cliff wall indeed indicated one of their mining efforts. The line of white vehicles and mass of fleshies were not. They scurried about, hooking up offline and in stasis Vehicons to those hideous white vehicles. Seriously, dirt and grime was already coating their undercarriages. They needed a much better color if they were going to be operating in these conditions. The fleshies, still completely oblivious to Knockout and the Decepticon forces behind them, still worked.

“Sir, what should we do?” a Vehicon to the right leaned in. “They aren’t the Autobots.”

“Quite the observation,” Knockout sneered.

The Vehicon backed up to his original position. He did have a point though. The Decepticons were on strict orders not to have the human populace of the planet discover them. Something about creating another problem Megatron didn’t want to deal with. However, they clearly couldn’t let the humans drag these miners away. Once was already enough to prove how low humans could go when they studied Cybertronians.

Curse Silas too.

Knockout was about to give the order when something caught the corner of his optic. Along with the energon the humans were lifting onto their big rigs, a container of purple stopped his voice box. Of all things for these humans to find it had to be that cursed Dark Energon. If it was up to Knockout, he would toss any he found into the surface of this solar system’s sun.

However, once again, Knockout was not the one truly in charge.

“Lord Megatron,” Knockout commed to the Nemesis. “I have found the reason for the mine’s downfall but it is not the Autobots.”

“What is it then, Knockout?” The Decepticon leader growled back. Clearly he was not in the mood for a little bit of fun.

“Humans, my lord. They have seemed to uncover Dark Energon,” Knockout declared, pulling out his staff with a flourish. “I shall have them exterminated for you and your prize seized.”

“Dark Energon?” Megatron mused. Knockout could picture him giving a subtle smile to Soundwave as he thought of a plan in the depths of his mind.

“There are more of them!” one of the fleshies suddenly shouted.

Firearms and weapons were quickly pointed at the Decepticons. Knockout grinned. Sure the blood would be a pain to get off his paint, but even the doctor knew when a sacrifice had to be made. He had been wanting to squish squishies since Silas placed himself where Breakdown’s spark was supposed to be. A successful mission like this would also put Knockout back in Lord Megatron’s good graces. Only Starscream would have to worry about the warlord’s wrath for some time. It would be perfect.

“Get ready to capture the ghosts!” another shouted. “Secure the ectoplasm.”

Knockout raised an optic ridge. What nonsense were the humans shouting? Ghosts? Ectoplasm? Things from those old films at the drive-in theaters? Perhaps these humans had the equivalent to a screw loose…. or severe processor damage.

“Knockout. Hold your fire for a moment.” Megatron’s voice crackled. “I want to hear what these humans might have to say.”

“I…WHAT?!” Knockout nearly spat out oil. “Talk to these creatures.”

“Soundwave has gained access to some of their servers. They may have some information for us.” Lord Megatron spoke. “The means to locate Dark Energon has also been a hindrance to us for some time. If they have the ability to do so, I want it before the Autobots can.”

Knockout shuddered. Whether it was more at the voice of the Decepticon leader, being around more Dark Energon, or having to converse with these fleshies, he didn’t know. Either way, he wasn’t going to like this. He was sooooo treating himself to an oil bath after he got back to the ship.

“Of course, my lord.” Knockout vented.

The humans hadn’t moved in this whole time. Merely waiting for Knockout to make his move. Truly incompetent if that is indeed what they were doing. Distantly, Knockout caught the sound of a familiar buzzing. Laserbeak was somewhere above, watching the mine and probably sending it live to Megatron.

There was no way out.

“Humans!” Knockout called. “You have attacked a Decepticon Energon mine. Release our… comrades… and explain your business with us.”

The Vehicons beside him began to shuffle behind him in confusion. Knockout quickly called them back to stop with a sneer. If they wanted to question him on using human entertainment as a means of trying to communicate, they could repair themselves next time.

The humans hesitated, looking at each other, not knowing what to do. That was until one of them emerged from the group. The human was flanked by two others, carrying guns of some sort, guns that Knockout wasn’t used to seeing humans carry.

“By the order of the Anti-Ecto Acts, the Ghost Investigation Ward had taken control of this mine and the ghosts operating it,” the lead human called. “Surrender to us.”

“We seem to have a misunderstanding,” Knockout gleamed. “We are Decepticons. The future of Cybertron. Under the command of the Mighty Megatron. We are far from your fairytales of the dead.”

The leader stared, his visor keeping his dull organic optics hidden. Slowly, one of the humans beside him slowly leaned over and whispered something to him that Knockout’s audio receptors weren’t able to pick up. The human listened and mulled over whatever his lesser said to him.

“My colleague here has informed me that there might be some truth to what you are saying,” the human yelled.

Knockout fought the urge to roll his optics. Truly, how did the Autobots find the only three competent human pets on the planet?

“We came across one of your kind nearly 24 hours ago. Subject Ir8-Gi11 was found following the energy signature of blue ectoplasm, which we followed here along with the purple ectoplasm whose energy levels are closer to that of normal ectoplasm,” the man explained. “With our mission to eliminate ghosts, we must understand ectoplasm to its fullest extent.”

“They came across a Cybertronian,” Megatron mused over the comm line.

Knockout knew what he was thinking. No Decepticon had been reported missing or dead since the Terrorcon incident, well, that was until now. If it wasn’t a Decepticon they came across, it would have been an Autobot. An Autobot their own scanners weren’t able to come across.

“This subject of yours. Where are they now?” Knockout asked.

“Escaped with Subject S00-Phantom,” the man yelled, stepping closer to the Decepticon party. “He exhibited the properties of a ghost by shooting his ectoplasm from himself and becoming intangible.”

Knockout smiled… then laughed. Only one Autobot could possibly phase through walls like those old human movies depicted ghosts doing.

“The Autobot Smokescreen. Using that phase shifter like usual it seems,” Knockout chuckled. “I hope you nicked his paint for me. He deserves it after our last encounter.”

The white dressed human cocked his head just slightly as he studied the Decepticon medic. It was almost unnerving how it reminded him of Megatron. Only slightly if Megatron were tiny and wasn’t intimidating.

“It seems this planet holds more secrets than we thought, Knockout. Shockwave will be pleased to have a new project,” The Warlord cackled in his audio receptor. “Make a deal with them. They do indeed have a way to assist us in our plans.”

Knockout would love to know what was going on up there. What was Lord Megatron thinking about working with humans?! Truly, that Dark Energon must have finally gotten to him. Big M better give him praises after this.

“I propose a deal,” Knockout clicked his digits across his side. “Smokescreen is an enemy to us and he has seemed to have helped one of yours.” Not a hard conclusion to come to after all. “Let us work together to capture our enemies, and in exchange, we will share what we know about our energon, the thing you call blue ectoplasm, and you shall provide your ways in tracking the Dark Energon.”

The man sneered. “Why should we trust you?”

Well, well, well. At least they had the processor to ask that question. It seemed these humans weren’t totally incompetent after all.

“There is a human saying you have. ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ yes?” Knockout smirked. “We wish for the complete destruction of our enemies. A war that we cannot lose. So why not go at it together?”

The human put a hand to his chin. He could see him thinking it over. Mind trying to piece all the information he had and the benefits.

“You have a deal. You wouldn’t have a name would you?”

“The one and only Knockout,” the Decepticon bowed. “And your designation?”

“Commander V.” The man introduced.

Ehh… Knockout could appreciate it. Simple and easy to remember. He wouldn’t have to worry about messing it up like he had with the Autobot pets.

“Well, Commander V. Let us start our hunt.” The Medic smiled. “Where shall we begin?”

Chapter Text

Ratchet used to think that nothing could surprise him after eons of war. The old field medic figured that Earth was nothing special after five groons on the rock. It took three years to find out how wrong he had been. Humans, though small, squishy, and severely lacking in advanced technology, made up for it in quick thinking, bravery, and willpower that he hadn’t seen in any race before. Jack, Miko, and Raf were perfect examples (though Ratchet would never admit that out loud). They surprised him time and time again. Eventually, Ratchet began to think he had them figured out again.

Then Smokescreen of all bots had to bring in this… special case.

“I have no scientific explanation for it,” Nurse Darby reported. The nurse, Agent Fowler, and Optimus were conversing together. He wasn’t part of the group, but he had the perfect view and proximity to watch and listen. “I admit I am not a doctor, but Danny’s vitals are too low for a human to live with. The scars he possesses, mostly around his chest, suggest he had been under the knife for multiple surgeries. By the repeated incisions and lack of wound care, I suspect some form of torture or experimentation. By those ghost hunters or whoever they are, is my assumption.”

The nurse was near tears, a human reaction to sadness, Ratchet had learned. As another medical professional to another, he knew it was only because of Nurse Darby’s experience and sense of duty that she was even able to stand in front of the Prime and report to him. Optimus seemed to be afflicted with this information as well. The humans probably didn’t see it, but Ratchet had served with Optimus for eons, even before he became a Prime. His struts were hunched just a little, and his optics were dimmer than usual.

“And that isn’t even including the ectoplasm or whatever we are calling the green stuff in his system. I don’t even know where to start with that. It may be throwing every test I have given him off.” the nurse sighed, voice weakening. “I just know Danny went through something terrible and if that was the case of becoming a ghost- I can’t believe I just said that-, well… I can’t say much else.”

“Hmmmm,” Optimus acknowledged. “It would not be the first time that we have discovered that ancient myths are indeed real.”

“But ghosts of all things?!” Agent Fowler scoffed. The Agent had only just come charging into the base after dealing with a failed investigation of the area Ratchet had ground bridged Smokescreen from. “Of all the myths and stories, it had to be ghosts! There has to be a line where the craziness ends!”

“Agent Fowler. Other life among the stars were stories for you and the rest of humanity until we landed on your planet. It did not make us any less real,” The Prime responded. “The same goes for these ghosts or whatever this young boy claims to be.”

The human buried his head in his hands for a moment. “And how am I supposed to report this to my superiors?” Fowler asked. “Since there was an incident regarding humans and bots, I am required to communicate with General Bryce. With these guys in white suits causing a ruckus, the boy also needs to be questioned.”

“An action I cannot recommend, Agent Fowler. At least when it comes to Danny.”

“Why not?”

“Because,” Nurse Darby interrupted. “He doesn’t seem comfortable with anyone besides maybe Smokescreen."

“June,” Agent Fowler started. “There are ot…”

“No Bill, you weren’t there. I was. His first thoughts were that we were going to harm him. I could see it in his eyes when he woke up,” The nurse cut off any argument, rubbing her sprained wrist in the process. “I have only seen that once in three girls rescued from the back of a van heading from Texas to Washington. Even when it was explained that he was in a safe place he wouldn’t answer Optimus. Not completely anyway.”

“Nurse Darby is correct Agent Fowler.” The Autobot Leader said. “By the way he spoke as well, he wasn’t just concerned for himself.”

“That’s right,” Nurse Darby muttered. “After you asked about giving any more information willingly, he said his secret was also to protect others.”

“Indeed,” Optimus nodded.

The Autobot liaison was about to say something to refute before Optimus stepped in first. “I do understand your concern, though, Agent Fowler. As I discussed with Danny, the discovery of our new guest and those who captured Smokescreen, both Cybertronians and humans alike, have cause for concern regarding them.”

Agent Fowler sighed, “Look, I can try and hold off on the interrogation for now if we feel like nothing will come of it. I’ll also try and get my people to look into the humans that snagged Smokescreen in the first place.”

Optimus nodded, “I will see what I can find regarding Danny, but I fear it will take some time for him to volunteer any more information than what he has already given.”

“I hope you get something Prime,” The agent muttered, “My higher-ups are not going to like hearing this and will want answers quickly by any means they can get them… civilly, of course.” The human quickly amended, seeing Nurse Darby’s glare.

”Let us hope it does not come to that,” The Autobot leader spoke.

Ratchet stopped listening after that. The conversation carried on into the more trivial matters of the Autobot and human alliance. Energon reports, numbers of Cybertronian sightings and allotted resources among other things.

“What do you think of it all, Ratchet?” A tired voice said.

The doctor looked up to see Nurse Darby standing along the railing beside his console. She crossed her arms loosely, the opt-eyes- cast down.

“Think of what, Nurse Darby?”

Nurse Darby smirked, still unable to hide the hurt, “About Danny, Ratchet. Don’t think I didn’t know you were listening in. There is something concerning you.”

Ratchet stiffened. It had been eons since anyone besides Optimus could pick apart the medic’s inner dealings. Human lives were short, but they seemed to learn really quickly.

“It is about what should be his blood or energon. Ectoplasm we assume?” the doctor vented, looking back to his screen. “I have never concerned myself with human tall tales, but from what I understand of ghosts, they are souls of your dead, left to linger instead of returning to the Allspark, or whatever your humans Allspark is called.”

”The basics of ghosts for sure,” Nurse Darby nodded.

“With this knowledge, one would suspect an alternative power source for them, yet his body still contains quite a deal of human blood. I can only theorize that it is perhaps from when he was… alive, so to speak.” The doctor muttered over the word. “However, whatever else he has in his system has corrupted the DNA within the blood. I was unable to isolate the identifying genetic markers needed to figure out who he is.”

”You were trying to study him?” The nurse perked up, eyes wide.

“Only to see if we could get a lead to answers we need, I assure you, Nurse Darby,” Ratchet explained, sensing the Nurse’s shimmering anger. “While I am concerned about the humans that captured Smokescreen, I also see the hazards of the Decepticons discovering this once-thought-tall tale.”

”Why would the Cons be concerned with him? Because he can walk through walls?”

“One of the few reasons why, Nurse Darby,” the familiar sounds of Optimus's pedsteps clanked as he joined the two. “While I do not doubt the Decepticons would like to replicate and use his phasing abilities, knowing that others like him may be on Earth to aid in our war may be catastrophic.”

“Then his ectoplasm is nothing like I have seen before. Raw power like energon but internally made like human blood.” Ratchet sighed, displaying his research on the screen. He had found the green stuff all over Smokescreen when he carried the injured boy in. The medic had used the sample he had wiped from Smokescreen’s frame to examine it. He had originally just tested to make sure it wasn’t going to cause negative effects, but he couldn’t stop as he kept looking into it. “Even the energy signatures it gives off is similar to that of our energon. Completely different when thoroughly tested but still similar. It’s truly fascinating. I have no doubt Shockwave would do many horrid experiments to find out everything he could about it.”

”But we won’t?” the human said, raising an eyebrow. It wasn’t a question. It was a demand. “Right?”

“Rest assured, Nurse Darby. We have no intention of forcing questions or study on Danny without permission or unless absolutely necessary. It is quite clear that others have tried to do so in the past by much more violent means.” Ratchet answered. “Danny is a guest here, not a prisoner.”

The nurse nodded firmly. “And what would this ‘absolutely necessary’ entail?”

”If it was deemed harmful by contact to humans or Cybertronian and needed to be counteracted, or if one of our own is in grave danger and could be saved by information he has.” Optimus responded firmly as well, but gently. “We took an oath as Autobots that we would protect Earth and those that reside here. We would not bring any harm to them. Danny is among that, whether human or not.”

The answer seemed to satisfy the nurse, responding with a short nod towards the leader.

“Are there any current dangers related to Danny’s internal energy source that we know of?” Optimus turned to Ratchet.

“I am still early into studying it. So far, it doesn’t seem to have done any harm to Smokescreen.” Ratchet huffed, turning back to his research. “I will keep an optic on where he came in contact with it. We can never be too careful. Earth has yet to produce a chemical that is dangerous to a Cybertronian system, and I would rather keep it that way.”

Optimus nodded again. “Continue your research, Ratchet. Let me know if you find anything of concern.”

“Of course,” Ratchet responded.

“I am heading to bed,” Nurse Darby sighed. “It has been a long day for everyone. Danny is asleep in the spare barracks. Please do not be afraid to wake me if anything happens with him.”

Ratchet nodded, a silent promise to do just that. The nurse walked away, a slight drag to her fra-body. Nurse Darby had proven herself as an exceptional human as well. Always willing to make sure the humans of the team were taken care of, willing to learn about Cybertronian health, and ready to help in anything Ratchet would let her help with. It was a small relief to the medic to not be the only one who could properly help an injured team member. Truly their human allies had more to them than meets the eye, and that was including this new case.

“As for you, Optimus,” Ratchet said, side-opticing the Prime, “I do believe you are overdue for a recharge cycle.”

“As are you, old friend,” The Prime challenged back.

“I know well enough when to recharge. You, on the other hand…”Ratchet waved with a dismissive servo.

It was sometimes obviously clear that the same Autobot leader who insisted recharge was optional was the same archivist who refused to rest until he finished reading whatever data he was combing through.

“Just don’t push yourself too hard, Ratchet,” Optimus said softly.

Ratchet didn’t respond. No need to. The medic just returned to his tasks, listening as the Prime’s pedsteps walked further into base and into the direction of his chambers. Hopefully, Optimus was actually going to recharge. If he checked the Prime’s processor and energon levels later and discovered he hadn’t, the Prime was getting a wrench to the helm.

Ratchet was just beginning to run a molecular system diagnostic when something seemed to flicker out of the corner of his optic. Ratchet quickly turned. Nothing was there. Nothing was out of place. Ratchet let out a vent. Perhaps he really should get to recharging soon.

Unbeknownst to Ratchet, something had been there and was quickly making its escape.

------

Danny finally let out a breath. That had been too close for comfort. The halfa had overestimated his ectoplasm level. He had nearly dropped his invisibility and revealed himself the orange robot, Ratchet, if the conversation he was in with Optimus Prime was anything to go by.

The nurse, Ms. Darby, left him to his own four-bed barrack some time ago. She told Danny to let her know if he needed anything before directing him to the connecting bathroom if he wanted to get cleaned up. Danny very much did. It had probably been a week since he was able to steal some hotel shampoo and soap so he could get himself clean. Ms. Darby seemed nice at least.

Danny couldn’t sleep, though.

How could he? Danny was in an unfamiliar place with military agents in the base. Oh yeah… and there were ALIENS!!! Like from outer space! In another galaxy! Had Danny said that already? Probably… a couple thousand times, but hey, don’t blame him. It took becoming a half-ghost to believe in ghosts.

Still, there were more concerning things besides feeling like Danny was in a dream, where he was at Area 51. Those concerns were the Ghost Investigation Ward, aka the GIW, aka the biggest pain in Danny’s butt. Even bigger than the Fruitloop!

Danny tried to ignore the scar on his chest as he walked through the halls, trying to find his way back to where Ms.Darby had dropped him off. The GIW had given that to him, right after they captured the ‘ectoplasmic scum Phantom’. They had done something smart. They had lured Phantom into a trap, using an injured ghost as bait. They knew Phantom would try and rescue them. Danny could still feel the harpoon that shot through his arm on rainy days.

They dragged him to a research facility somewhere in Michigan and started cutting him open. They wanted to see how it ticked. How it was able to imitate human life. How it was different from the other ghosts? Danny had screamed until his throat turned raw, hoping that his friends or another ghost would come for him. However, Danny realized that no one knew where he was. It took four days of torture before he had to transform back to human. His ectoplasm had been spent to keep himself together, to keep him from becoming a full ghost. Danny nearly completely died then and there when he transformed back. With his chest haphazardly sewn together, cuts, bruises, and burns adorning everywhere else. Worst yet, the GIW saw him. They saw Danny Phantom become Danny Fenton.

They were both excited and repulsed.

How dare a ghost mimic a human and live among them? How dare they not notice? Oh, but how many more questions and theories came from the discovery? They wanted to find out everything about how this ghost could fake blood, be an imposter in human life, and have the instinct to keep its non-sentient self working. They didn’t even consider that the red blood in him was real. Never had the thought that Danny was alive, whether human, ghost, or anything in between.

The GIW gave him ectoplasm, doing more harm anytime Danny went to ‘his emotionally manipulative disguise.’ Danny didn’t remember much. Just pain and wishing it would stop by any means necessary. The half-ghost wasn’t even sure how he had finally escaped after failing a few times. The halfa just remembers finding himself leaving a trail of blood and ectoplasm in the snow. Not caring about the hows, he just started running and kept running until he somehow made it back to Amity Park.

Danny couldn’t stay, though. The Guys in White seemed to have the city under martial law. The ghost hunters patrolled the street, using their devices to track any ecto signature. Posters were pinned everywhere. The shop windows, light poles, and worst yet, billboards.

Turn in Ghosts, Protect the Living

Beware Danny Phantom under the disguise of Danny Fenton

Call the GIW with any information

It was all over now. Everyone knew his secret. Everyone who loved and hated him knew he was some sort of ghost freak. Danny didn’t get much time to think about it once he saw the posters. Ectoplasmic fire had interrupted it. The GIW patrol had found him. Danny quickly went to an abandoned house on the outskirts of town. Danny, Sam, and Tucker had stashed an emergency bag for each of them in case of the worst-case scenario. This situation specifically.

Danny found his navy duffle bag phased into the wall, feeling the other yellow, black, and teal duffles still located beside it. There was an access panel Danny could’ve used that was hidden behind a dresser left behind in the home but phasing was much easier. The duffle had some basics in it. A roll of cash, some rations, a burner phone, a notepad and pen, a water bottle, a Fenton thermos, ectoplasm shots, and a few of the smaller Fenton grade weapons. Tucker had been talking about getting fake IDs. He had still been learning how to falsify the paperwork when Danny had been captured.

The only bit of peace Danny had was a small note that was taped onto the duffle. It was scribbled in Esperanto, in a swirling handwriting he quickly recognized.

We are fine, Danny. We don’t know where you are, but hopefully you can get out of Amity Park. The GIW is keeping watch on us. We claimed that we knew nothing about you being a ghost, but we aren’t sure if they believe us. I was barely able to sneak this note to the safe house. We will work on getting the GIW out of here. Tucker will alter their servers as often as he can, and Sam is working on disabling their weapons. Mom and Dad are not sure what to believe about this ghost nonsense. I will work on getting through to them. But you keep moving. The GIW are ready to chase after you. We will meet again, little brother.

Love always. Your sister. - Jazz

Danny had cried after that. He had been ripped open, and now he was being ripped from his home. All by the stupid Guys in White. The sound of helicopter blades interrupted Danny’s sobs not too long after. The halfa had to move. If he didn’t, he was going to end up back in the lab.

Danny quickly grabbed the notebook, scribbled a note back to his sister and friends, apologizing for this mess and asking them to promise not to do anything reckless. The GIW were after him, not them. They needed to keep it that way. He attached his note to the same piece of tape Jazz had used for hers and phased it on top of her own duffle inside the wall before fleeing for his half life.

That had been a year ago.

Danny had hopped from place to place all across the United States. He learned how to find abandoned buildings, preferably in basements, that allowed his ecto-signature to weaken on the GIW scanners. He learned how to find and sneak into shelters to be able to snag food they were serving for the homeless. Thrift stores were constantly throwing out clothes that weren’t sold after some time. It became a needed pastime sometimes for Danny to pick through unwanted items and find something new to wear.

More importantly, Danny learned to know when he needed to find an ectoplasmic hot spot where ghosts were gathered. With access to Amity Park no longer available, Danny quickly learned that he needed to find hot spots to soak up ambient ectoplasm to function since he couldn’t get to the Ghost Zone.

Amity Park was the most prominent hotspot in the United States due to the unprotected portal. However, there were others due to the thinning of the barrier between the living world and the ghost zone in those areas. The Bermuda Triangle wasn't horrible, Danny had just learned it's much easier to fly there when he had enough ectoplasm than trying to hitch a ride on a plane flying over it.

That had been a mess and a half.

Death Valley, California, was another one. It was quite clear that the Valley wasn’t called that just for the heat. The ectoplasmic readings in the area contributed to the high temperatures there. It was killer for Danny’s ice core, but the halfa would rather have the energy to evade the GIW than complain about a bit of heat.

Danny had been on his way to this hot spot when he felt a bunch of ghosts gathered in one spot. Typically, in the living realm, that meant two things. One, a bunch of ghosts had gathered, usually to cause trouble or partake in an obsession. If they caused trouble, the Fenton Thermos was always on him so he could relocate them and make sure they knew not to cause problems. The latter was fine as long as they weren’t harming anyone or causing damage. Danny let them be. The second thing was much worse. A GIW facility housing ghosts, just like the one Danny had been held in. It may be counterproductive to run the Ghost Investigation Ward, but Danny couldn’t let ghosts suffer at the GIW's hands if he could help it. Plus, it helped him let off some steam.

It was along the Utah/Arizona border, running close to the Nevada border too. The base used to be some sort of radar facility, left abandoned. Two stories, barbed wire fence with a bunch of GIW around. All fine by Danny. He did what he did best, jump into the fight without much of a plan and a bunch of 16-year-old teenage anger and frustration.

That is when he found something that wasn't a ghost.

So now you're caught up on Danny’s Ectotastic Adventures. Stay tuned for more coming in 3…2…1

Danny had just meant to turn down a hallway. You know, he was looking behind him, towards the other section of the T hallway. When he finally looked in the direction he was going, he was already banging his head against metal once again.

“Ack,” Danny cried, stepping back from whatever he crashed into.

“You okay?” A voice asked from a lot higher than Danny was expecting.

The halfa stumbled, trying to find exactly where the voice had come from. The answer was the same alien he had helped when raiding that GIW base. Oh, come on, universe! He had been joking about the whole Ectotasic Adventures thing!

“Smokescreen? What are you doing out here?!” Danny yelped.

“I should be asking you the same thing,” the giant robot folded his arms, “Especially since it seems like you are sneaking back from the control room.”

Danny flinched. Oh fudge! He was caught and was going to be in so much trouble.

“Whoa, whoa. It’s okay,” Smokescreen quickly went into a more relaxed posture. It was hard to tell since Smokescreen’s face was metal, but it seemed like he was worried. Maybe concerned. “Though if I may ask, what were you doing?”

The half-ghost swallowed. He couldn’t say, ‘Oh. Spying on your leader and the United States government agent (which caused Danny to go into another state of panic before he realized this ‘Agent Fowler’ wasn’t related to the GIW) to see if Danny was going to have to steal some money and vamonos somewhere before he got tied to a table again.’ Big nope.

“I…got lost?”

Smokescreen stared at him for a moment before sighing. He lowered his hand down to Danny, opening the palm up to him. Danny looked at him questioningly.

“Hop on. I’ll get you back to where Nurse Darby dropped you off.” He smiled.

Danny glanced at the extended hand and back at Smokescreen before moving. He was careful, moving slowly, waiting to see if Smokescreen was going to try and grab him in a crushing hold. Despite being ready to go intangible if that happened. It wasn’t needed. The alien robot slowly raised himself back up to full height. Danny watched carefully as the metal underneath him brought him higher and closer, until the hand hovered right next to Smokescreen’s shoulder.

There was that little voice that was also reminding him that he had just overheard Optimus and the Agent guy talk about how to figure out what was going on. Good on no interrogation, but they did say that Smokescreen would be the best bet to get him to talk.

“Miko and Raf like riding Bulkhead and Bee’s struts. Figured you might like the ride to,” Smokescreen said, sensing Danny’s confusion.

“Strut? Your shoulder?” the boy asked, lowering himself to the appendage all the while.

“I believe that is the right comparison? I focused more on the traffic laws you humans have. You have a whole lot of them.” Smokescreen trailed off. “Because of that, I know my human anatomy knowledge isn’t great.”

“Like what?” Danny leaned forward slowly so he could look at Smokescreen in the eyes, or whatever the Cybertronian version was.

Don’t blame Danny. This was an alien, and if he wanted to forget about his more dangerous predicament right now, well, sue him. Once again, Danny just found out that aliens were real!

“Well, there is our servos which is the equivalent for human hands,” Smokescreen said, shaking his hand, well servo, that he was lowering down, “Peds for feet, optics for eyes, optic ridges for eyebrows, chassis for chest, frame for body, and apparently strut for shoulder.”

Danny blinked. “I may need to have that repeated to remember correctly.”

Smokescreen laughed. “Yeah. I did too.”

The robot began moving through the hallways. His… pedsteps? Echoed across the metal walls and floor of the building. Danny found a rhythm in it and the way Smokescreen walked. It was actually quite easy to stay up on Smokescreen’s strut. It was quite cool when Danny thought about it.

“So, it seemed you had a bunch of questions earlier. Want to ask them now?” Smokescreen asked.

Danny bit his cheek for a second. “I mean. There are a lot. You guys are aliens, and I love space and everything. Like… have you met other species besides us? What is your planet like? What were you doing before you came here?” There were a few more questions in there, but Danny quickly realized he was speaking way too fast for Smokescreen to catch what he was actually trying to say. “Sorry.”

“It's okay.” Smokescreen smiled, glancing at the boy on his shoulder. “There is other life out there besides us and you. I don’t know how many, though. Most other life were avoiding us because of the war.”

“War?” Danny settled onto Smokescreen’s strut as far as he could. Optimus had mentioned that, but the halfa may have caused the conversation to trail off that topic.

“The Cybertronian Civil War,” Smokescreen nodded numbly. “I haven’t been around for most of it. I was…what do you humans say?... born? while the war was happening. Right before Cybertron fell. Some time later I was knocked into stasis before waking up here on Earth.”

“Cybertron fell?”

“It did,” Smokescreen said, turning down one of the many hallways. His optics had cast themselves down.“We had poisoned our planet with our fighting. It became uninhabitable.”

“Oh…” Danny replied. Like, what was he supposed to say to that? “Sorry?”

The half-ghost face palmed. He wasn’t supposed to say that out loud!

“Thanks,” Smokescreen chuckled. “And it's okay. Despite the war, everything wasn’t horrible.”

“You can’t just say that and not tell me,” Danny sighed in relief before quickly returning his attention to the bot.

“Well, as soon as I was able, I joined the Elite Guard. It was basically a boot camp by the time I got in, but they used to be the ones in charge of protecting the Primes and Senate. When you are being trained, they have this game the recruits play to let loose called Scrapdowns.”

“That sounds like it got messy,” Danny smirked.

“Oh. It did,” Smokescreen throwing his hand up like he was about to fight. “Basically, someone would start it by grabbing somebot or somebots and yelling ‘Scrapdown.’ Anyone who then wanted to participate ran to wherever the bot who started the scarpdown was and joined in fighting those who were already in the scrap and those who joined. Everybot for themselves. The bot left standing won the Scrapdown.”

“Oh,” Danny rubbed his chin. “Kind of like King of the Hill here on Earth.”

“I mean, I guess?” Smokescreen shrugged, careful of Danny still sitting on him. “Those were the times in training. Almost makes me miss it.” “So you graduated?” Danny asked.

“Yep. Right in time to help guard the Iacon Hall of Records.” Smokescreen’s smile seemed to dip lower and lower as he continued. “I wasn’t on the shift for long. Not even a full solarcycle. That is when I got knocked into stasis.”

Danny kept his mouth shut. He wanted to ask, but he couldn’t really just go asking and asking. The halfa knew what it was like to be constantly fighting. He wouldn’t compare fighting the GIW to fighting in a war. It was some sort of fight, but not a war. That was for big groups of people with an organized leader. Still, if Danny had been fighting in a war, he figured there had been losses. Then, if what he could assume was correct, Smokescreen had been asleep in a coma for a bit before waking up somewhere completely different and unable to return home.

Danny rubbed his scar. At least Danny could understand the unable to return home part. He didn’t like talking about it and wouldn’t try to get Smokescreen to, unless he wanted to just tell Danny for fun. They had only met, maybe, less than 24 hours ago, so doubtful?

“So, excuse me if this is rude or something…” Danny jumped a little at Smokescreen’s voice. “But I don’t know much about ghosts besides what the other humans have shown me on TV. Do you like to hide and jump out of people and scream BOO.”

“Uh..well… we don’t have to,” Danny found himself stumbling into the question. “I like to do it because it's kind of expected with the whole ghost thing. Mostly to the GIW to have some fun.”

“So like that whole ‘take me to your leader’ thing the humans have with aliens?” Smokescreen gestured with a servo.

“Probably a good way of putting it,” Danny shrugged. “Why do you ask?” Danny gave a small smile.

“Just trying to get to know you better,” Smokescreen smiled back. “Besides. I think the last ghost-related movie we watched was where a ghost was haunting a hallway similar to this.”

Danny’s eyes trailed as Smokescreen gestured to the darkened hallways. They were exactly the same. Only the indications of exits really told Danny where he was in the building. Otherwise, Danny would’ve thought they were walking around in circles. It was honestly a good set for a horror movie featuring ghosts jumping out at you as you walked unsuspectingly through.

“I mean, just throw in shelves of datapads around everywhere, and it looks like the historical fiction section no one really touched in the Iacon Hall of Records,” the Elite Guard continued, shuddering a little bit. “Alpha Trion snuck up on me enough times in that section of the Hall.”

An evil grin started forming on Danny’s face. “Did you scream when he did that?”

Smokescreen looked away quickly in response. Danny laughed. He couldn’t remember the last time he had chuckled, much less laughed at anything other than his own jokes.

“Before you go thinking anything horrible,” Smokescreen said, puffing out his chest, “He only got me to do that twice. A couple times I just drew my weapon thinking he was an intruder. After that, he couldn’t.”

“How many is a couple of times? Twelve? Fifty? One hundred?”

There was a series of air puffing through metal and soft rattling that Danny could only assume was Smokescreen grumbling. Danny was struggling to breathe now. A reflex he technically didn’t need as a halfa, but just never thought to try and break it.

“Alright, alright,” the Elite Guard waved his servo near Danny. “You can stop laughing at me now.”

“What if I don’t feel like it?” The halfa challenged through his laughter.

Smokescreen sighed as if accepting fate. Still, Danny felt the robot’s emotions coming from him. Despite the embarrassment, he was happy.

Danny eventually settled down. That wasn’t the only thing that seemed to settle. The days and weeks suddenly seemed to catch up with the half ghost. His body felt like lead and his mind was beginning to wander into nothing. Danny settled further into Smokescreen’s strut. There was a small indent that connected his arm to the rest of his frame that was perfectly sized to sit between and lay his head on. The cool metal of the alien further lulled Danny’s mind away as it vanished along with the steady sounds of the ped steps and shaking of the bot.

The half-ghost’s mind danced as he slipped in and out of sleep. He was being moved by a giant hand at one point. Oh right, servo. Danny cracked his eyes open, still blurry from sleep. There were sounds… mutterings. Things that nearly woke him up completely as he was handed to be carried by someone. A human someone.

“Don’t worry Danny,” Smokescreen’s voice sounded softly. Muscles seemed to untense just at the words. “Say. How about we go out and have some fun after you have healed. We don’t want you in the base forever.”

Danny yawned. Still, Smokescreen nodded as if the halfa had said yes. Danny was too tired to process the request right now. He would do so after he got some sleep.

Something brushed along his head, moving his hair so it was out of his face. It felt really nice despite how short it was. The person carrying him moved, opening a door before setting him down on a bed. Danny immediately grabbed at the covers. Distantly, he recognized the fabric of the blanket as the same one Nurse Darby had given him.

The blanket was laid across him somehow. Danny didn’t care right now. He was just happy as sleep peacefully overcame him and didn’t let go.

Chapter Text

Danny shuffled up the stairs, leading to what he had found out had been termed ‘the human area’ of the base. It wasn’t much, especially compared to what the other humans said they had previously. Apparently, there used to be a couple of couches, a bean bag, a blanket pile, and a gaming console set up at their last base. Even if there was a couch and a small computer now with access to a game set up, Miko proclaimed it wasn’t the same.

The halfa had found that she had a familiar resistance to doing what was being asked of her if she didn’t agree. It reminded Danny of Sam. Miko had been nudging her way into talking to him whenever there wasn’t anyone there to try and stop her. Danny didn’t mind the listening part of the conversation. Miko was an excellent storyteller. She told them about their old base and all the fights she got to help with as an inducted Wrecker.

Danny learned that any Wrecker, a combat unit the Autobots had in the war, seemed to enjoy throwing their weight around. Wheeljack hadn’t meant to nearly step on him after he and Bulkhead got a little rowdy. Danny had been invisible after all. It didn’t matter to Ratchet when he saw Danny hitting the visible spectrum and dodging the ped that would’ve squished him had he been a normal person. A lecture was given, and threats were made to everyone involved in that incident.

It was just when she started asking questions that Danny had a problem. There were times when he wanted to tell her, tell someone, tell anyone a bit about himself, but Danny couldn’t. These guys were giant alien robots, but Smokescreen had nearly been dissected by the GIW after he had been captured under the pretense of being a ghost. Danny was not going to risk anyone, alien or human, getting interrogated by the GIW because he had talked. So, Danny kept quiet about himself.

Didn’t keep them from trying, though. Danny could even feel Jack coming around. He had felt the hesitation during the first few days of him being here. When he realized that Nurse Darby was his mother and, in the commotion, Danny had injured her, he understood why. Mostly, the two were just really awkward around each other.

Raf and Danny got along, though. It became apparent that all the Autobots were busy with Earth-saving and stuff, so any questions he couldn’t ask Ratchet, Raf pretty much had an answer to. Where Cybertron was, in a galaxy humanity hadn’t discovered yet. How did the ground bridge work, using a very advanced math equation and energon to produce energy to break the space barrier while keeping the time portion intact. There was a bunch of other stuff too, but Danny was thoroughly enjoying it.

Hanging out with Smokescreen had to be the best, though. The Autobot told him about his time here on Earth and himself. He introduced the rest of the team and told stories about them. How Arcee nearly skewered him after putting Jack in danger, or how Smokescreen fought with Bulkhead to protect the kids during a mission. The stories of Bee both on Cybertron and Earth, including how the scout lost his voice box. Danny talked to Ultra Magnus after the second-in-command of the Autobots had snuck up on the two. Apparently, the bot wasn’t too happy about Danny coming to the base originally. Still, the air had been cleared when Ultra Magnus had been convinced that Smokescreen had followed Autobot rule #1, protect the humans, before rule #2, they were robots in disguise.

And well… The Autobots believed him to be a full ghost, but it seemed like they had decided it still counted.

It wasn’t just the giant aliens either. Even with Danny getting along with Jack, Raf and Miko, he figured there would be some hesitancy considering he wasn’t human. Nope. To them, he wasn’t this… thing. He was just really different. Though, as Miko had said once, they really couldn’t judge. All three of them had been through a fudge ton of stuff, not limited to going to a different planet, crossing into another dimension with a robot zombie, being on a runaway train, hacking a military satellite, and staring down giant robots that could kill them. Oh, and their best friends and arguably family were centuries-old robot aliens.

“Hey y'all,” Danny said, making sure he didn’t accidentally scare them like in a horror movie. He had already done that to them, and Miko had nearly broken his eardrums before she started whacking him. “Smokescreen was planning on taking me out of the base for some fresh air and some food.”

It was another thing the two had been talking about. Danny had brought it up to Smokescreen, making sure he had heard correctly, before the halfa had passed out. The bot had smiled and said he would get right on it, finding when he could between patrol and other base duties. Smokescreen had been assigned more shifts at the base though after the GIW scare. He was clearly itching to get out of base too.

Raf flicked his eyes off his laptop for a moment, a sign he had heard Danny but was too busy to stop from where he was sitting on the floor by the couch. Miko was working on a drawing in her sketch pad on the couch while Jack, who was sitting beside her, was doing something Danny could only assume was homework.

“He said something about grabbing the ‘human card’ to use for food.” Danny scratched the back of his neck. “I assume it's a credit card or something, but I am not quite sure.”

“The Unit E-sanctioned credit card for the Autobots and their human allies whenever they need it.” Jack recited, the corners of his mouth creeping into a small smile. He would be the one to have the official use memorized.

“Or in other words. We want out of base to do something fun that isn’t too crazy, and Unit E will pay for it.” Miko exclaimed as she jumped off the couch and started rummaging in a drawer underneath where the TV sat. “A small perk for helping save the world, but still a perk.”

With a shuffle of paper and whatever else was in that drawer, the Japanese exchange student pulled out a grey credit card. Closing the drawer with her boot and weaving through the mess of paper and avoiding Raf on the floor, she handed the card to the half-ghost.

“You know the rules?” Miko smirked as Danny took it.

“Uh…” Danny thought. No one had mentioned rules. “I assume just don’t lose it or go crazy on the spending.”

“Yeah, but Agent Fowler wants us to keep the receipts,” Jack added.

“Make sure you don’t blow the bot's cover either,” Raf said, still not looking up from his laptop.

“Yeah, all that,” Miko waved her hand around. “And make sure that you don’t spill anything on the bots. I accidentally spilled a shake inside Bulkhead after we went dune bashing, and I think Ratchet was ready to throw his cybertronian-sized wrench at me. I didn’t realize it would cause some gears to stick after he transformed to Wrecker mode, but oh well.”

“You had to clean him out, I guess?” Danny laughed.

“The parts I could reach while he was in vehicle mode, at least,” Miko sighed.

“Half the rules for the card and outings are due to Miko,” Jack muttered, gathering the papers he had been working on. “Just don’t do anything dangerous or stupid, and you should be fine.”

Danny bit his lip.

“Ah ha!” Miko proclaimed, shoving her finger close to his eyes. “I knew you were a troublemaker like me.”

“I’m not,” Danny chuckled as he raised his hands. “I just attract danger and stupid without trying.”

“Yeah, right?” Miko leaned forward, too far into Danny’s personal space for his liking.

“Well...” Danny said, backing away. “I am going to go find Smokescreen. See y'all later!”

“One more thing!” Raf yelled before Danny could get too far. Raf reached into his pocket, pulling out a flip phone. “It has our contacts in it, along with the comm lines for most of the Bots.” Raf tossed the phone, which Danny easily caught. “Just in case you need it.”

Danny took a quick look at the phone. It oddly looked like Smokescreen’s paint job. Midnight blue with a gold framing. “Thanks. I’ll try not to get into trouble or anything.” He said, pocketing the device and deciding to take the yellow stairs down like a normal human being.

As he went down, Danny could swear he heard Jack say something along the lines of, “I don’t want to jinx it, but we probably should keep an eye on the comms tonight.”

Did Danny really have that much of a stigma with these guys already? Or was it Smokescreen? Actually, it could be Danny. They did think he was completely dead and liked to play human. They had seen the electrical scarring from his accident. They had seen the Y on his chest. They probably knew bad things tended to follow him. So yeah, they were pro…

SMACK

Pain radiated across Danny’s forehead as he stumbled back. His hand instinctively went to his left eyebrow where it hurt the most. That may leave a mark.

“You okay?” A familiar voice asked.

Danny looked up with his good eye to see Smokescreen lowering himself down to check on the half-ghost. Danny didn’t need to read the EM field to see Smokescreen’s concern.

Oh, that was another thing Danny figured out during his stay at the Autobot base. Cybertronians, the term for both Autobots and Decepticons, emitted their emotions through EM fields more often than facial expressions. It was how they could communicate with each other when they couldn’t ‘see’ the reaction of other Cybertronians around them, typically when in vehicle modes. Perhaps since ghosts (or just Danny being overpowered in general) were more connected to an emotional spectrum of sorts, the halfa could sense these EM fields.

“Yeah. I’m fine.” Danny said, taking his hand off his forehead. “Just got lost in thought and didn’t see where I was going.”

“Overthinking processor,” Smokescreen smirked. “I know that feeling.”

Danny smirked back. He probably couldn’t say that it was due to Danny’s ADHD. Did Cybertronians have things like ADHD and anxiety? Wait, off track again.

“You got the card?”

Danny held up his prize proudly. “Secured and ready to go.” Danny was thankful that Smokescreen wasn’t going to ask what he was overthinking about.

“Well then,” Smokescreen said. Gold and blue swirled together as Smokescreen transformed into vehicle mode. His driver’s door opened as soon as he finished. “You ready to go?”

Danny smiled, accepting the invitation to climb into the front seat. Soft black leather seats greeted him. The console and the steering wheel sent out a soft blue glow across the cabin. Danny couldn’t help but trace the Autobot insignia on the steering wheel with his thumb. The driver’s seatbelt flew across Danny and clicked in before he could even try and reach for it. Vibrations shook through Danny as Smokescreen revved his engine. The Autobot pulled towards the hole in the wall.

“Alright, Raf. Ready for the ground bridge,” Smokescreen called.

There was the sound of something energizing before an explosion of green, blue, and purple consumed his vision. It reminded him of the ghost portal back home, honestly. Just lighter, bigger, and more vortexy, if that was even a word.

“Alright, so Jack, Raf, and Miko said it took them a few times to get used to ground bridging. You may feel…what’s the word??…nauseated? But you should be fine.” Smokescreen said. “Just let me know if you are missing a limb when we come out the other side.”

“Wait! WHAT?!”

Smokescreen pushed as hard as he could on the gas. His tires spun, more than likely marking up the floor. Danny scrambled to regain some control as he was thrown into the back of the seat. He should have asked for more details sooner. The vortex grew brighter as the two entered. Panic was momentarily consumed by amazement as an energy tunnel appeared around them. Tendrils of energy flowed like a sped-up version of the stars moving in the night sky. It was beautiful. Before he knew it, Danny’s stomach dropped, and the landscape became wooded.

Smokescreen came to a quick stop as the vortex vanished behind them. “You alright, D?

“I’m fine. Not the worst I’ve been through,” Danny said as he repositioned himself in the seat. Thankfully, that mess only caused his stomach to twist and his adrenaline to spike. “Maybe next time, don’t tell me I might lose a limb before we go through the vortex at 100 miles per hour!”

Smokescreen laughed even as Danny whacked his dash, amusement radiating off his EM field. “I knew you would be fine. Just wanted to have a little fun while I could.”

With a sigh, Danny relaxed into the seat. “So, where to now?”

“There is a town a few miles away,” Smokescreen said as a map showed up on his console. “There should be a food joint somewhere for you there. We can either stay in town or find somewhere out of town.”

Danny thought for a moment, glancing out the window as he did. How long had it been since he felt safe enough to sit in one spot in a town? The GIW were always watching cameras, trying to find him. He shouldn’t risk Smokescreen’s safety even if Danny wanted to use the chance just to sit outside on one of those uncomfortable benches and chairs.

“We can do some stargazing outside of town?” Danny suggested.

“Sounds good,” Smokescreen said, probably smiling. “Hopefully, there aren’t any cops around.”

“Why are you worried about cops? I am in the driver’s seat and have a fake driver’s license?”

Thank you Raf for not questioning that request. Was he using the Team for something…? Maybe but nothing too troublesome. A phone, a driver’s license (yes, Danny Phantom as the listed name), some changes of clothes and sleep. Basic needs really.

Danny got his answer as Smokescreen once again pushed heavy on the gas. He couldn’t help but laugh as Smokescreen raced down the back road they had ground bridged to. Danny couldn’t see a posted speed limit, but he would bet Smokescreen was breaking whatever it was. Danny didn’t mind, though. He had grown up with the family vehicle being a tank that treated every traffic law like a suggestion. The adrenaline felt great with every turn down the road.

The two finally came to the small city that Smokescreen had picked. It wasn’t as big as Amity Park, which had its own mall, but it was bigger than the middle of nowhere Jasper the others had lived. Danny knew there were some surprised looks when he pulled up in the decked-out sports car, which slowed down to law-abiding speeds when they hit the city limits. He could see a few of the guys in the back of the restaurant peeking over the cashier’s shoulders to get a look at who was at the drive-through window as he took his receipt and food.

Smokescreen started laughing quietly as they pulled away, giving an extra rev of his engine. The two of them once again sped off further out of the town in a different direction from where they came. The paved road turned bumpy before orange dirt was all Smokescreen’s wheels were catching. The destination soon came into sight, a few miles into the dirt road. A small lake appeared behind a tree line to their side. Unlike on the back road, Smokescreen took the small drop down to the lake’s edge carefully. The sun was just beginning to set with the rays of the sun dipping to be blocked by the thick pine trees around them.

“Alright. Here we are!” Smokescreen said as they came to, and even part of the lake’s bank.

Danny took his burger meal and milkshake, careful not to spill and stepped out. He paused, waiting for Smokescreen to transform to his robot mode, but the sports car didn’t budge.

“The ground may be too wet for me to be out in bot form,” Smokescreen responded as if knowing what Danny was thinking. “I have learned the hard way that mud does not get out of my peds easily.”

Danny took a look at the ground. Sure enough, the sneakers he was wearing were covered in mud after a few steps out of the car. Offended, Danny hovered a few inches off the ground and let his intangibility remove the mud from his shoes.

“Okay. I have to try that with my Phase Shifter the next time that happens.” Amazement was apparent throughout the EM field. “That is a really nice trick.”

“One of the first things I found my intangibility useful for, “ Danny shrugged. “I cannot tell you how many times I have had to phase off worse things than mud.” Ectoplasm, machine oil, dumpster trash, just to name a few.

“I can imagine,” Smokescreen said uncertainly. “Well… you can just sit on my hood while we wait for the stars to come out.”

Danny paused. “I can just float up in the air?”

“Yeah, but I doubt that would be as easy as just sitting your food down and trying to relax.” Smokescreen shot back playfully. “And it's not a problem if that is what you are worried about.”

Danny stopped the argument that was about to come out of his mouth. Did Smokescreen have mind-reading abilities that Danny didn’t know about, or was Smokescreen somehow able to read his emotions, similar to how Danny was able to read their EM field?

Still. Danny didn’t want to reject the kind offer. With a little push forward, Danny softly set himself on Smokescreen’s hood before setting his food and drink to the side where they would not fall off.

With no word from Smokescreen, Danny started digging into his food. The normal bites soon became a race to scarf and savor the food. How long had it been since he had a proper greasy burger? After taking a few bites he traded the burger off for the fries. He dipped them into his milkshake before eating them whole. Oh, fudge. That was heavenly.

“So… what do you want to talk about?” Smokescreen asked sheepishly.

“I am not sure.” Danny shrugged. He looked up, starting to see some of the brighter stars appear as the sun began to dip below. “Maybe what is your favorite constellation story?”

“Constellation story?”

“Yeah. Like how we have the story of Orion for Orion’s belt or Perseus for the Greek myth of the same name.” Danny rambled. “ I have always enjoyed Pleiades. It isn’t a constellation with one story. There are a lot of different stories depending on which part of Earth you go to.”

“Hm,” Smokescreen huffed. “ I don’t recall any constellation stories. I don’t know if we even had stories for our constellations. Optimus or Ratchet may be the best one to ask about that.”

Danny sighed, taking another bite of his burger. It was something he always loved about the stars. In a sense, they held the history of whoever they were named after. Sure, sometimes it wasn’t for the best reason, but even before he was a ghost, the idea of being remembered anytime someone looked up at the sky seemed nice.

“But…” Smokescreen continued. “I can tell you about the creation of our planet if that is something you would like to hear. Alpha Trion would’ve had my helm if I didn’t have at least that story memorized before I left the Iacon Hall of Records.”

The last bite of the burger was quickly swallowed. “Tell me,” Danny said, probably a little too quickly. “Please.”

Smokescreen laughed. “It all started with two beings. Primus and Unicron.”

“Like in Optimus Prime?” Danny asked before taking a bite of his fries.

“Maybe let me get into the story and I can explain.” Smokescreen sighed amusingly.

“Sorry,” Danny muttered. “So Primus and Unicron.”

“Primus was the entity of Order and Life while Unicron was the entity of Chaos and Death.” Smokescreen began. “They fought for thousands of eons. New stars and worlds were born and destroyed as they battled. That was until Primus decided to create new life to help him keep Unicron from destroying the universe. He called them the Thirteen Primes.”

Danny became absently aware that his fries had dropped from where he had been going for another bite.

“However, in creating them, he had taken up much of his energy. He was unable to fight alongside them. So, he bestowed the Primes with the Matrix of Leadership, which was said to be carried by Prima Prime, so Primus could help guide them as they worked together to fight Unicron.” Smokescreen’s mind seemed far away as he continued. “Many more battles later, the Primes were able to defeat Unicron. With their enemy defeated, they returned to Primus, who, due to his energy being depleted, had transformed himself into our planet, Cybertron.”

“Whoa.”

“Yeah.” Smokescreen agreed. “Primus still wanted to do more than have fought Unicron, so he continued to create life. Putting himself into stasis, he created the All Spark, where all Cybertronians come from and return to. He then tasked the Thirteen Primes with guiding the new life that now walked across Primus. The Primes did just that.”

“I knew you guys were old, but are you saying Opti…” Danny started, mid-sip of his milkshake. He then immediately spat it out when he caught a glimpse of a person sitting beside him. “What the..?!”

The person was just sitting there… Danny hadn’t heard him or sensed him. Smokescreen hadn’t said anything to alert Danny to the new presence either. He was a teen, early college age. The guy had fair skin, blue eyes, and silver hair, cleanly trimmed on the sides but longer up top. He was wearing a blue racing suit, with gold, white, and red sections along the trimming, arms, and legs. A few patches rested along the jacket. Danny could only see two. A patch of the number 38 rested on the left side of his chest, and an Autobot insignia was on his shoulder.

Even in vehicle form, Smokescreen was shaking from his laughter. The person beside him on the hood was laughing too.

“Who is he?!” Danny yelped.

“I...I haven’t given…en it a name yet,” the person laughed in Smokescreen’s voice.

“You…you’re Smokescreen?!” Danny gaped with a pointing finger.

“You like my holoform?” the human Smokescreen smirked, trying hard not to laugh again. Danny could tell the Cybertronian was enjoying the fun he was poking at Danny tonight. First scaring Danny with losing a limb, and now this.

“Your holoform?” Danny asked, staring at the person in front of him. “This is a hologram?” He didn’t even wait for Smokescreen to answer, waving his hand where the guy’s shoulder was. Danny’s hand passed right through, the form glitching where his hand went. “I haven’t seen any of the bots use this before. Do only you have it?”

“No, no,” Smokescreen’s holo form waved off. “Ultra Magnus, Ratchet, and Wheeljack are the only ones I think that don’t have it. Arcee is the only one I see using it, though, since her vehicle form will draw suspicion if a human isn’t riding her and everything. However, after leaving Jasper and being at Unit E, Jack is usually with her so she doesn’t use it as often anymore.”

Smokescreen let out a sigh, his holoform doing a close imitation of what a human would look like when they did it. Now that Danny was looking, he could tell the holoform sometimes forgot to blink, or words didn’t quite match the lip movements. There was no shadow along the hood either from the low beams Smokescreen had turned on at some point.

Smokescreen looked up at the sky, the last ray of sun beginning to fade. “I practiced using this when I was finally let out on missions, trying to do anything to prove my place on the team. Jack and the other humans helped, but I never got to really use it until now. Figured you might like to look at something human when we are talking.”

“Oh…Thanks.” Danny muttered, playing with a fry from his bag.

Silence settled between the two. Danny wondered if Smokescreen could see the stars beginning to shine while he was transformed and how he was able to see them. Was he seeing them through the eyes of his holoform or another way? The half-ghost pushed his thoughts away with another sip of his milkshake.

“So you were saying something about us being old and Optimus,” Smokescreen began a few seconds later, glancing at Danny.

Oh yeah. The previous conversation. “So Optimus was there when everyone was born? I didn’t realize he was that old.”

“No?” Smokescreen’s holoform shook his head.

“But I thought you said the Primes were there leading Cybertron after the Allspark was made by Primus.”

“Oh…Yeah, I guess I should explain that.” A lightbulb seemed to go off for him.. “Not even the Primes can live forever. Eventually, through battles, age, and other things lost to time, the Thirteen eventually joined the Allspark, and the Matrix was lost.” Smokescreen’s holoform kicked up a leg to rest one of the fake hands on. “Since Primes were considered leaders, Cybertron made a senate that, from time to time, elected Primes to help lead the people. They just didn’t have a connection to Primus. That was until Optimus Prime.”

“Optimus has the Matrix of Leadership?”

“Yep. Though he didn’t when he first became a Prime.” Smokescreen explained, his voice deepening down in a bit of sadness. “Alpha Trion petitioned for him to be elected a Prime right before the war began. Apparently many years into the war, right before the Allspark stopped generating new life and Cybertron died, Optimus journeyed to the core of our planet, Primus himself. While he was there, Primus granted him the Matrix, deeming him worthy and made him an official Prime.”

“So Optimus is the real deal,” Danny smirked.

“Real as you can get,” Smokescreen holoform agreed with a slightly too wide smile for a human.

Danny took a sip of his drink, cataloging the information. “So what would happen if Optimus died? Would the Matrix disappear again or would it try to select another Prime, especially with the war going on?”

Smokescreen’s EM field, which had been playful and happy, suddenly closed itself off. The holoform beside Danny flickered before freezing like it was a statue.

“Smokescreen?” Danny’s voice hitched. His eyes darted between the holoform and the car underneath him and then back to the holoform.

“I... It’s nothing.” Smokescreen stuttered as his EM field projected his nervousness and panic. The holoform glitched back online, a bit erratic as Smokescreen tried to regain control of it. “I…it…I just wasn’t expecting that question.”

“No, no, no,” Danny waved his hands. “I am sorry. You don't have to answer.”

“I’m…It's just…” Smokescreen stammered. The holoform jerked around as it moved its hands. Its mouth opened and closed suddenly without any sound. Eventually, a sound followed the holoform return from its erratic state. “May I ask something that may be a bit personal?”

Danny shrank in on himself a little. “Only if I can refuse to answer.”

The holoform nodded, “As someone who has… since you are a ghost… have you or any ghost you meet ever regretted leaving someone behind with a responsibility so heavy that they couldn’t do… that they refused to do?”

Not the direction Danny expected to go. Perhaps about how he was a ghost or what he thought about the bots, but not this. He took another sip of his milkshake, finishing the chocolate dessert. He drummed his fingers across Smokescreen’s hood, looking to the stars. With the sun now gone, they shone brightly.

He found an answer among them.

“Have you ever heard the story of Ignis?” Danny inquired.

“No?” Smokescreen’s holoform shuffled.

“Ignis isn’t a person, it's more like a thing. It is another word for fire,” Danny explained. “The myth goes that the Greek Gods kept Ignis from humanity because they feared it was too powerful for humans to have. However, someone stole fire from the heavens and gave it to humans. Once the humans had fire…had Ignis… things changed.”

“Changed how? Good or bad?”

“Well, both,” Danny said, gesturing to the stars above him. The holoform’s eyes followed. “Humans could use it to cook food and light their homes at night, but they could also use it to harm, bring war, or other malicious things. Just like every legend in the sky, there are some good and some bad. Only a few things are completely black and white.”

Danny sighed, stuffing his trash into the milkshake cup and setting it on fire with his ectoplasm. The fire did not harm him as he let it slowly burn in his palm.

“When I died, things changed back home. Ghosts and humans occupied my town, able to hurt each other. Before I died and even for some time after I had become one, I thought ghosts were out to harm humans. I thought even though I was a ghost, I was the only one who could stop them from doing all their evil deeds. After some time though, I realized not all ghosts were evil. They just wanted to have fun, enjoy their existence,” the last embers of the fire began to fade in his hand. “I found out that the humans weren’t all innocent either. I had to protect both sides. There was no one else to carry that burden.”

The last of the fire went out of his hand. Danny looked back up at the stars above him, the ones that had been with him since he had to run from home.

“I took that burden, but there were others I had to deny. I wasn’t right for them or there was someone better. I know others who shouldn’t have been given responsibilities that they were given. Others that I have seen grow into a person being able to do what was expected of them later on in life. Nothing is clean cut.”

Smokescreen was quiet, his holoform only moving to do the typical human blinking and breathing. “So…depending on the person,” Smokescreen’s voice hesitated after a second. “And the responsibility… it could’ve been good or bad like that fire or Ignis was given to humans?”

“Basically.” Danny nodded.

The holoform finally moved again, giving a simple nod. Silence once again enveloped them. Danny relaxed into watching the stars, sensing that the previous panic from Smokescreen had faded. He traced to constellations in his mind. Ursa Major, Big Dipper, Orion’s Belt. It was just so peaceful.

Of course, the universe had to take it as an insult.

The sound of tires along the dirt road broke the silence that had fallen on the Autobot and half-ghost. Headlights peered between the treeline, steadily getting closer.

Danny’s heart spiked to that of a normal human. “You wouldn’t happen to know if this is private property?” Danny asked, pleading to something out there that it wasn’t a white van about to come from along the tree line.

The holoform cocked an eyebrow, coming off funny as it moved a little too high. “Uhh…Didn’t realize I was supposed to check that.” Smokescreen then devolved into what Danny assumed was Cybertronian cursing.

Danny finally released a breath when a fancy red car pulled along the hill’s crest, braking suddenly when the driver saw the two at the bottom of the muddy bank. With a car like that,

Danny could understand why they were avoiding the mud where he and Smokescreen were. He would hate to wash that gold trimming along the car. That or they just weren’t expecting anyone else to be here.

“Let me see what is going on. I should be able to get it figured out, “ Danny told Smokescreen, hopping off the hood. Using his levitation, Danny kept himself from sinking into the mud even though it looked like he was still walking on the ground. “I heard one of the rules of the card was to make sure your cover wasn’t blown. We don’t want to risk them finding out that it's a hologram you are using.”

The holoform looked at the car and back at Danny, eyes pinched. Dang. For being a fake person, Smokescreen’s holoform was pretty good at using facial expressions.

“Just. Be careful.” An unusual note of concern was layered in his voice. “We will leave if you sense anything off.”

“I’ll try my best,” Danny smirked, climbing up the hill.

Danny's eyes kept shifting between the car and his surroundings. The sense of danger that had clung to him since leaving home came back in full force with each step he took from Smokescreen. Was that considered ‘sensing anything off?’ Probably not. It's not like Danny has been able to sleep peacefully in the same spot for four days in a row and was afraid of being away from it or anyone associated with it while his enemies still hunt him down….wait.

Danny shook his head. Stop running thoughts!

“Hey,” Danny waved to the driver in the car, a small quake in his voice. He cleared his throat in an attempt to cover. “Sorry if we are trespassing on your property. My friend forgot to ask.”

“No worries. I was actually just coming with a few new acquaintances myself,” the person in the car responded. Their voice was slick, maybe even sly.

“Well, we were about done anyway,” Danny responded, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Somewhere in the back of his head, alarm bells were still ringing. “I hope you and your friends enjoy the view.” Danny quickly spun on his heel, heart pounding. He had to get back to Smokescreen. The halfa just felt safer with him.

“Who said we were coming for the view?” the driver responded, their EM field boasting pleasure and confidence. “Honestly, the only reason I would get this close to ruining my paint job was because work requires me to. Even then, I would rather they do all the dirty work.”

Wait…EM field? Danny froze, glancing back at the car. They had never lowered their window, but their voice had remained crystal clear. It was as if…

“Scrap.”

What were the odds? A Decepticon? Before Danny could move, things got so, so much worse. The red car’s doors flew open, producing four men in white suits. The moonlight caught the gleam on their blue shades and white weapons perfectly. Or perhaps because each uniform and weapon had been seared into Danny’s brain during his capture by them.

The GIW. The lab. The taste of blood and ectoplasm in his mouth. His chest pulled and tore with every breath. Throat racked with pain as he yelled… as he screamed.

Instinct kicked in. RUN.

Danny’s feet pounded as he bolted for cover. The thick woods provided some from the ectoplasmic shots, but he could still hear the agents running after him. Danny moved faster, trying to pull on whatever energy he had in his core to help him levitate or phase through the giant tree roots and small vegetation he stumbled against. He just had to keep moving. Get away from them. Just get away.

A blast shot too close to Danny. He yelped, quickly weaving to another direction. Danny wasn’t healed 100% yet. Nurse Darby had said the recovery could amount to weeks, maybe even months. The GIW were going to catch up unless Danny thought of some way to get out of here. There was nothing around, though. Just trees, a lake, and a dirt road for a couple of miles in every direction. Then of course, Danny only had the clothes on him, the Unit E card in one pocket, and Raf’s phone in the…

Danny would slap himself if he weren’t running for his half-life. He had a phone to call for help. Phasing through a giant pine, the half-ghost ripped the phone out of his pants pocket and flipped it open. Thankfully, Raf seemed to know something was going to happen because in the contacts, ‘Main Base Line’ was the first option to call. The line beeped an error as soon as Danny hit the contact.

‘Stupid Guys in White. They must be jamming the signal.’ Danny thought, phasing the phone into his side. Who knows. Maybe he would chuck it at the Guys in White later. ‘Hopefully Smokescreen’s comm is fine.’

Danny halted to a stop, just like his heart had. He looked towards the way he had come, the sound of metal crashing along the trees.

“Smokescreen!” Danny cupped his hands for the yell.

With no response, the halfa took a step forward to go after his alien friend. He had just abandoned him with the GIW and a Decepticon. Pain erupted from Danny’s arm before he could get further. He bit back the scream as the ectoplasmic shots began raining down around him.

“Get back here you Ectoplasmic Scum,” an agent called.

Looking towards the area Smokescreen was at, Danny turned and ran again. He wouldn’t be able to help Smokescreen like this, not without walking right into the GIW basically in ectocuffs. The green and red mix of Danny’s blood gushed from the deep wound above his elbow. Biting down the pain, he clamped his free hand around the wound, igniting ectoplasm in his palm. Hopefully, his crude cauterization of the wound will be enough to keep the GIW from following him via blood trail.

Trees kept passing as Danny continued to trudge on. Small hills and underbrush kept slowing Danny down despite his powers. Danny flinched as his foot hit a small stream, looking back to see if the GIW had come running at the sound. With no immediate threat coming, Danny turned again and kept going. He had to make sure he was out of range of the GIW.

“Freeze!” An ectogun appeared right in his face.

Danny ducked, narrowly missing the shot where his head had been.

”No. You freeze.” Danny snarled back.

The halfa pulled on his limited ectoenergy. Ice formed around the agent’s feet. The agent growled, threat on his lips. That was before Danny threw a very solid punch right into the agent’s face. His glasses shattered as the agent tumbled back, ice breaking as he subsumed to gravity, and hit the dirt and leaves below him with a thump. Danny clutched his chest, above where his core sat. That was it. That was all the energy Danny had left right now.

“Agent T is down. Send reinforcements.” A voice crackled behind a tree.

Danny’s head swiveled. The corners of white suits peeked from the green foliage that surrounded him. They realized quickly that he had spotted him as he bolted in the first direction that seemed to be the best chance at escape.

”Subject Phantom-S00. Under the Anti-Ecto Acts,” one agent declared as his weapon powered up, “You are under arrest and subject to study by the Gho…”

A revving engine interrupted the agent. They turned, guns thankfully no longer pointed at Danny. A soft green glow came through the tree line before a familiar blue and gold sports car emerged from the row of pines and oaks. Ecto shots fired through the car as he approached the small stream Danny had been cornered at.

There was a whirl of alien metal as Smokescreen shifted forms. Danny seemed to leave his body for a second as he watched everything in slow motion. Smokescreen kicked up into a flip, powering down his phaseshifter before landing beside Danny. In another quick motion, he scooped Danny up and kicked back into another flip. The halfa found himself shoved into Smokescreen’s chassis, buckled in the seats that sat there. Somehow, Smokescreen once again activated his Phase Shifter before he transformed back to vehicle mode and took off through the trees.

”Smokescreen!” Danny yelled, coming back to his body. “You are alright! I am so, so sorry I left!”

“No problem,” Smokescreen grunted as he hit a hard bump. “Sorry it took so long. As soon as I saw you bolt and Knockout unload those humans, I tried to slow them down. They just also did the same to me.”

Danny let out a small sigh of relief. “Is your comm working? My phone is jammed.”

“Same. The cons must have brought a jammer. Thankfully for us, that means they also can’t call for help.” Smokescreen’s EM pulsed. He was probably smirking. “Let’s leave these guys in the dust.”

Danny smirked as well as Smokescreen phased out of the tree line and onto the road. Danny looked back, no red car or white van in sight. Only loose gravel and the dirt on Smokescreen’s wheels kicked up behind them. At this point, Danny really should have learned his lesson about feeling confident in winning.

An explosion rocked the road in front of them. Smokescreen drifted to a stop, trying to avoid the crater now in the former road. It was too late. Smokescreen hit the edge, sending them tumbling in and, in turn, Danny out of the Autobot. The halfa hit the ground hard, the ragged rocks cutting open the same arm he had gotten shot in a few moments ago.

Danny opened his eyes, swimming with the light of the stars above him. He had to move. The halfa tried to stand up, but the pain forced a sob out of him.

“Danny!” A metal face appeared above him. The figure moved, twisting the item on his wrist. Oh. Smokescreen was powering down his phase shifter. “Let's go…”

Smokescreen yelled suddenly. Danny watched as blue electricity arched across his frame. The halfa coughed, voice unable to call for his friend as he collapsed beside him with a thud. Danny could only stare as Smokescreen’s attacker thrusted their staff at Smokescreen’s side again, causing electricity to shoot over him for a second time.

“That is for ruining my paint job!” The Decepticon sneered.

Now transformed into bot mode, Danny could just see the vanity radiating off this guy, even if he was covered nearly completely in mud, and if his vision was currently compromised.

“Well. Smokescreen should be thanking you that you knocked him out via that rod instead of the color scheme,” Danny choked out.

Yeah. Not smart, but oh well. Danny was in pain, and when Danny was in pain, he insulted people who he felt deserved it. This bot did. What was he going to do? Kill him a second time?

The bot turned to him, red eyes flaring. “Why you fleshy meatbag!” The bot stomped over, probably intending to squish Danny until they were interrupted.

“Do not damage Subject Phantom-S00 anymore.” A GIW agent called from somewhere. Danny’s head was swimming too much to tell. “We want it in the best condition we can.”

The red blur stopped, grumbling something in Cybertronian. “Fine.” The Decepticon spat. “I hope you humans have a proper cleaning station at that spark-forsaken base. But for you.” The bot hovered over Danny. “Let me live up to my name, shall I? Name’s Knockout.”

Electricity crackled as the newly proclaimed Knockout barley tapped his side with the giant rod. It felt like the portal again. Muscles seized, and he was unable to scream as his jaw clicked shut.

Then…all was black.

----------

Jack shut the book with a thump. His brain was swimming, and his eyes were burning. Protocol this and conduct that. Why did Agent Fowler only want him to apply for the Unit E’s Special Training Program? He still had a few months before he was 18, and Miko was right behind him in age. It would be nice if he weren’t the only one dealing with the 300-page booklet he was being told to memorize. Jack threw himself back on the couch. He could use a nap right about now.

“Hey Jack?” Raf’s voice sounded somewhere on the stairs.

Jack kept his eyes shut, throwing his arm over them as well, “Yes, Raf?”

“What would happen if a government organization were found to be operating outside of standard laws?”

Jack groaned. Still, he sat up, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “There would be an investigation into everything that organization was doing, but things could get complicated based on the chain of command, special authorizations, and such,” Jack dragged himself off the sofa, finding it in him to locate the child genius nearby. Like usual, Raf was buried in his laptop. “Why do you ask?”

“I was looking into ghosts,” Raf tilted his head with a shrug. “Figured that there would be something on the conspiracy sites that I should hide. After I couldn’t find anything, I began following data trails to see if someone else was hiding the information. That’s when I recognized the military standard code after following the trail far enough.”

“You found military coding?” Jack raised an eyebrow.

Raf turned his computer slightly to face Jack. The older boy accepted the unsaid invitation, taking a seat on the stairs beside Raf.

“Yeah. Found it yesterday actually. Whatever additional tech these guys got was some advanced stuff; however, not as advanced as Cybertronian code,” Raf slightly boasted.

The mouse icon sped along the lines of data shown on the screen. Jack shifted his eyes to focus on the keyboard Raf was typing rapidly on. His head had begun to swim again, looking at the code.

“All I managed to find was the Ghost Investigation Ward or the GIW,” Raf said. Jack glanced up, seeing some pictures of some men in white suits, just like Smokescreen had described. Thankfully, Jack was able to keep his eyes focused. “They are military-certified ghost hunters as far as I can tell. They use something called the Anti-Ecto Acts to do what they do. Declares ecto-entities non-sentient.”

The flash of Danny waking up crossed Jack’s mind. The unfiltered fear that was on his face when he woke up with his mom over him.

“What do they do when they capture a ghost?” A stern tone on Jack’s tongue.

Raf looked up at him in surprise. It wasn’t a tone Raf heard from the elder boy often. Only twice could Raf count it. Both were when Optimus was MIA after fighting Unicron.

“My viruses are still hacking into their network,” Raf muttered, turning back to the screen. Jack raised an eyebrow. “I had a funny feeling about these guys, too, alright.” The boy said sheepishly, sensing the questioning look.

Jack accepted the response. Raf wouldn’t have just started hacking a government database without having some high suspicions, at least not without talking to Ratchet or Agent Fowler about doing it first.

Images and lines continued to move rapidly across the screen. Jack just couldn’t keep up. Then the fingers that hadn’t stopped the entire conversation suddenly froze. A small, disgruntled whine drew Jack’s attention from his attempts to read the screen.

Raf was stiff, unmoving except for his eyes, as he stared at whatever information he found.

“Raf? What is it?” Jack questioned, his hand reaching to Raf’s shoulder.

The genius didn’t respond. Eyes just shifting back and forth on the screen. Jack took a look back at the screen, glad to see English instead of code on the monitor.

Subject 5-10-IL

Captured: XXXX- 2- 29/ 08:12

Update: 03

“Time is 11:02. After a little more than 48 hours does subject 5-10-IL seem to weaken. Ectoplasm within is dissolving, shrinking the subject. At this rate, the ecto-entity should be disposed of in three days. Planning to use subject 5-10-IL to test new Blood Blossom Poison. Will update.”

Jack gulped. Poison… This ghost had been a test subject for poisoning. The image of Danny lying on that table changed. He was cuffed to it, struggling to break free as poison was entering his system. Hesitantly, Raf’s fingers began moving through the system. He was searching for something. After another second, a file opened.

Subject: Phantom-S00

“Phantom… That's the name Smokescreen heard the people who kidnapped him call Danny.” Jack’s eyes widened.

With a silent nod, Raf opened the file. It was meticulously organized. Jack could tell there were hundreds of video files, notes, and scientific theories within. A mouse icon moved, clicking a random report.

“Subject Phantom-S00

Captured: XXXX- 7- 10/ 10:48

Update: 09

“Subject Phantom-S00’s imprint on ectoplasm remains a unique case to study. Upon looking inside, Phantom-S00’s ectoplasm has falsified a beating heart, movement of the diaphragm, and blood flow to a maliciously crafty circulatory system. The subject still tries to falsify human emotion and pain as our experiments continue. Will update.

“Remember how much Danny panicked when Agent Fowler was nearby?” Raf’s head dipped down, voice shaking. Jack could remember. The kids had already told him about the military agent the next day into his visit. Still, Danny seemed on the verge of a panic attack anytime the two were within throwing distance. “Now we know why.”

Jack felt bile in his throat. Somewhere distantly, he could see small tears well up in the corner of Raf’s eyes. That thought of Danny being strapped down to a table … it had happened. Those scars… that autopsy scar… Mom knew that had happened fairly recently. Jack just didn’t think... His breath caught in his throat. The Honorary Prime quickly found himself on his feet, pacing back and forth, and he tried to just breathe.

“We need to contact Agent Fowler,” Jack gulped after managing to get air properly in his system. “We need to let him know.”

Raf silently nodded, eyes finding their way back to the screen in front of him. Jack went to his task, fishing out his phone from his pocket and hitting Agent Fowler’s contact. Jack listened to it ring. Once and then twice before the click of being accepted was heard.

“Agent Fowler,” the man answered groggily.

Jack didn't care if he had woken the former Army Ranger from a nap. “Agent Fowler. We have a situation.”

“Jack?” Attention quickly snapped to the line. “What is it? And why are you contacting me instead of Ratchet or Prime?”

“Because this isn’t a bot problem but a human one… a very big human one.” Jack sternly answered.

“How big?”

“MECH big.”

There was the sound of some cursing and shuffling at the end of the line. Jack waited patiently.

“What is the situation?” Agent Fowler asked, a door being closed behind him.

“Those ghost hunters that captured Smokescreen and have been hunting Danny are from a government organization called the Ghost Investigation Ward that we found has been hiding ghosts from civilians much like Unit E with the bots,” Jack reported, returning to Raf’s side. He watched as the boy kept going further into their systems. “Except they find it acceptable to cut open the ghosts and test poison and other things on them. It’s apparently legal too.”

“How did you find this out?”

“Raf hacked their servers after trying to find out who kidnapped Smokescreen. It's the same people,” Jack answered. “We figured that…”

Jack stopped abruptly as he saw Raf scroll past a map. He recognized those coordinates.

“Whoa. Go back, go back.” Raf quickly glanced at his friend before scrolling back up. “Stop, there,” Jack said as the map moved up again.

The coordinates were a small town near the Mississippi and Alabama border. There was an active dot along the road, moving rapidly.

“That is where Smokescreen took Danny,” Jack said. Oh, man, this wasn’t good. “We need to get them back to base.”

“Jack,” Agent Fowler barked from the other line. He was probably sensing the concern from the boy’s end.

“I think the GIW has tracked Danny and Smokescreen. They left base a little over an hour ago,” Jack answered.

“Smokescreen isn’t responding to his comm,” Raf said. The boy grabbed his phone, which lay beside him, and dialed Danny’s number. Both boys waited anxiously as the phone rang, and rang, and rang until it went to voicemail.

“Try again,” Jack grunted.

Breaking into a small sprint and jumping the rails, Jack made it onto the main control panel. Ratchet just had to be further into the base working on the Energon fuel lines for the ground bridge. Wheeljack, Bulkhead, and Miko were in another hangar with the Jackhammer while everyone else was on beast hunting. Jack scanned the Cybertronian keyboard, thankfully remembering the lessons Arcee had given him on the subject. He was nowhere near fluent, but he had memorized which keys in which order he needed to press for a few commands, just like the one he was inputting now.

“This is Optimus. What is it, Ratchet?” the voice of the Prime came through the console.

“It's Jack. I have Agent Fowler on my phone and Ratchet is somewhere in the base,” the boy explained. “We have reason to believe Smokescreen and Danny may be in trouble. We believe the people who captured Smokescreen may have tracked both of them down, and Raf can’t reach either one of them.”

“Understood,” the Prime answered. The main comm line crackled online. “Autobots, report back to base immediately. Jack, can you and Raf operate the groundbridge until Ratchet returns?”

“We can,” Jack answered. “I’ll contact my mom in case we need her as well.”

“What is going on over there?” Wheeljack asked.

“Smokescreen and Danny may be in danger,” Optimus answered. “Arcee and Bumblebee, you will return to base first.”

“Understood.” Arcee’s voice responded.

Jack could hear the tension in it, though. Ever since that scare with Smokescreen nearly dying by Megatron’s hand, her concern for the Elite Guard member’s safety had grown. He found Arcee and Bumblebee’s location and started activating the ground bridge.

“I am heading to base now,” Agent Fowler’s voice echoed over the comm line. Optimus must have patched him in. “ From what information I was able to get out of Jack before this mess, there is going to be Fourth of July Parade chaos. I may need to be on site to deal with any human fallout that occurs.”

“Understood,” Optimus answered. “Autobots prepare to roll out.”

Chapter Text

There was a human saying Smokescreen was struggling to remember right now. Diva…De…vo? No, there was something like a J in there somewhere. Well whatever. It was supposed to mean that he was feeling like repeating a moment that had already happened. He was coming back online, restrained against something and trying to remember what happened.

“Agent A. Perhaps we should contact Commander V. Subject I…er… the alien is waking up,” a human voice muttered just enough to reach Smokescreen’s audials.

“You really want to call the commander here?!” another human, Agent A, Smokescreen assumed, yelped. “We should wait until we are done collecting these blue ectoplasm samples for him.”

“First off, its energon and second what will happen when he realizes the alien was up and we failed to notify him?” The first human spoke hushed but raised enough to communicate their panic. “He’ll have our heads!”

“Seesh Agent L,” Agent A said. There were sounds of a scan now. “Then let’s get this done and out of here and he will have no idea.”

Agents? Commander? What was going on?

“This isn’t what I signed up for,” Agent L complained a little. “First it was doing the whole ‘join the military’ and get your college degree for free.’ Got my Infography degree with a minor in animation. I only agreed to stay to help with this new branch of government that was promising good pay. I did not think that would lead to not only hunting down ghosts that are real but working with and studying aliens!”

Deja Vu! That is what it was. This was Deja Vu! Smokescreen had been captured by the GIW again. He had been with Danny. Knockout… the Cons, they were working with these stupid ghost hunters.

“Better than me. Graduated university and still found myself working in a warehouse for a delivery company. Until that Box Ghost came and made a mess of it at least.” Agent A muttered. “Thankfully I managed in the chaos so well I got invited on. I do my job and pass the problem on.”

There was a pause and a huff from one of the humans. Smokescreen debated opening an optic for a look, get a good look at the place and find a way out instead of sitting here listening. However, whatever restraints they had on him this time were much different. It was like parts of his peds and arms were in stasis lock.

“Any changes on those scans?” Agent L asked a moment later.

“Same. The energon, as you say, is reading well. I can’t tell you how it's different from normal ectoplasm but it's there.” Agent A responded.

“While the energy conversion by both ectoplasm and energon hold the same, there are many other determining factors that make them unique to each other. Much different to the marginal small radiant energy and flux that dark energon has in compassion to energon.”

That voice. Sly and cunning. Vanity was radiating off the voicebox just as much as the EM field Smokescreen was only now picking up on.

Knockout.

“Let’s take the electrostatics of energon and ectoplasm,” The Decepticon medic continued. “Both move across many materials in various ways but while our energon converts to thermal energies, ectoplasm is a bit more… dynamic.”

“Huh…” Agent A stated. “I’m a bit lost.”

Knockout grumbled, probably rolling his optics. “That Phantom destroyed your base with a bunch of ice, correct?”

“Its ice core. Yes.” Agent L responded. “Base Mitten is still getting repaired.”

“It was my home base until I got put on the revolving team,” Agent A muttered under their breath. “I hate southern humidity.”

“I know this is satan’s armpit but don’t interrupt,” Agent L reminded their co-worker.

It went quiet from the humans again. “From what I can tell ghosts can convert their ectoplasm into many attacks, mostly based on that core. Phantom to that ice or that one ghost that I love called Ember, into pure sound.” The pedsteps of the Con got louder as he slowly approached. “Whatever their core can provide, the ectoplasm can be heterogeneous with its energy. Hot or cold. Solid, liquid, gas or even alternating currents or direct currents. However for us Cybetronians...”

Digits dug into Smokescreen’s side. He couldn’t pretend to be in stasis anymore, not as they twisted into his frame and dug in. Smokescreen’s let out a yell. He couldn’t move to fight the Con off or get his digits out of him.

“Ours can only be a solid or a liquid which we require for our systems,” Knockout continued, gesturing to Smokescreen’s energon coming from the new wound. “And while our thermal energy barrier is much higher than ectoplasm, that is all energon can do, be heated.”

With a shriek of metal, the digits were tugged out of Smokescreen’s side. The Elite Guard had to clamp his denta shut not to give Knockout the satisfaction of him yelling in pain. Energon was going to be leaking from that wound for a while. Not fatal but that would be one that needed some time to heal.

“Now go on.” The Con waved the humans off. “I got the Autobot.”

The two humans, which Smokescreen didn’t get to get a good look at, sped walked around the corner.

Now that he had his optics open, Smokescreen studied the area. It was a giant white (oh what a surprise with these guys) room. There was a hallway or perhaps another portion of the room around a corner on the left. On the right was a series of steps and guard rail that led to a small human sized door. There were some old boxes stacked everywhere. Many were stacked haphazardly while others had sheets thrown over them with no care.

No GIW in front or around him now either. Just Knockout and two Vehicon lackeys. As for Smokescreen, he was in a wall. Quite literally the side of the room wall. Just like Smokescreen had left Knockout when he wrestled the Phase Shifter from him on the Nemesis.

“Honestly. I don’t know what you see in these humans,” Knockout smirked, switching to Cybertronian. “Demanding. Incompetent. Squishy. And oh so gullible.”

“Why are you sp?…”

“Take a hint,” Knockout glared. “I’m trying to have a private conversation with you.”

Okay. Knockout wanted to do it that way. Fine. “I am kind of curious. How did you get them to work with you Cons?” Smokescreen asked with a tilt of his head.

“Give them some weapon schematics, outdated star charts, a fraction of space bridge science and they seemed happy enough,” he shrugged.

It was the upcurved intake that made Smokescreen’s rage rise. The way Knockout flaunted around. Like nothing bad was happening. Like nothing worse was going to come from it.

“Not my choice, I promise you, but Lord Megatron…” The red bot shuddered. “I do what I am ordered to do. I don’t want my helm on… what do humans say… on a serving platter?” Knockout turned again, staring at Smokescreen, optic to optic. “However, based on what I have been able to overhear, Shockwave and Soundwave have been all too eager to see this partnership to fruition. Though Starscream has been making a small fuss about it. Since he doesn’t want anything to do with this, he has been assigned the more grueling work of finding predacon bones.”

“Shockwave?! That mad bot scientist?!” The Elite Guard’s optics widened.

Smokescreen had only ever heard stories of him. The team had shared a few with the Rookie after it was discovered he was back in Megatron’s ranks. The tales of his experiments were never good. Proven by the Predacon cloning project that was taking place now. If he wanted Danny, that meant something terrible.

Knockout seemed to follow Smokescreen’s line of thinking. “If I had to guess, combining the energy source and power of these ghosts would make the Predacons even more powerful. The recordings of some of the ‘lower leveled ghosts,’ at least by these humans’ standards are marvelous. Now take that sparkling you are looking after. Destroyed a base like this in less than a minute with one fearsome attack. Add it to the might of the predacons and well… Lord Megatron would be unstoppable.” The bot walked to him, leaning to make near-helm contact. His face plate was gleaming with that evil smile. “I mean, the poor boy may not survive the study. Lord Megatron does have the hope that he would last long enough, though considering his unique biology, that conclusion is hard to predict.”

Smokescreen’s barrier finally snapped. “Don’t you dare touch him?!”

“Oooh,” The Con nearly sang, sensing the wave from his EM field. “Hit a spark plug, didn’t I?”

The resistance Smokescreen put against his prison gave him no leeway to punch the bot. He couldn’t let Knockout and the rest of the Cons do what they wanted with Danny.

“When I get out of this?!...” Smokescreen growled.

“Oh, you won’t,” Knockout showed him the Phase Shifter on his servo bearing again. “Not unless you are packing another one of these.”

A ping of a comm line cut off Smokescreen’s next remark.

“Lord Megatron,” Knockout switched back to English as he pulled away. “What do I… The voice of Megatron came through the comm, cutting off the Decepticon medic. Smokescreen couldn’t tell what he was saying, though. Cybertronian comm lines were designed so that only the intended users could listen in. Neither side of the war wanted its enemies to overhear plans that could be counteracted accidentally.

“Of course, Lord Megatron. I’ll make sure it is done to perfection.” Knockout stuttered. “Have you seen my finish after all?” The Con blinked before letting out a small growl. “Is it horrible to ask for some manners?”

“Aww. Big Boss hung up on you,” Smokescreen smirked.

Knockout glared. “Don’t push it.”

One of the white- wearing humans approached with hard foot steps. At least as hard as they could with being so small.

“Ah. Commander V,” Knockout rolled his optics.

“The ghost is ready for transport.” Commander V gave a curt response. “How is the prisoner?”

The look the Commander gave to Smokescreen wasn’t pleasant, and that was saying something. Smokescreen had been under Megatron’s gaze twice as a prisoner. Megatron always looked like Smokescreen was a puzzle. Trying to figure out whether he was worthy enough to have Megatron solve. What strategy would be the best to get what he wanted out of him, or what would let Smokescreen’s secrets come pouring out of him? If he couldn’t find anything… well, Smokescreen thankfully had seemed to have some sort of usefulness instead of being deemed as scrap.

However, this look was lower than that. The commander, even hiding behind those shades, seemed to be so impassive. Everything around him was nothing, lower than him. He couldn’t care less what Smokescreen was or anything he had. He was just the same as Knockout. An it. Still, as he gazed at the human there wasn’t burning hatred or hostility. That was only reserved for ghosts perhaps. An it that was higher than what they had called Danny.

“Not happy, clearly,” Knockout scoffed. “Have you finished your preparations, human?”

“Don’t doubt us, alien,” The Commander glared. “We will commence the transfer from here to Base Tea. After that, our alliance will be over.”

“Yes, yes,” Knockout flexed his servos a few times. “On behalf of Lord Megatron, it has been a pleasure doing business with you.”

The human sneered. With a quick turn of the heel, he walked off.

“Can no one have manners?” Knockout asked no one in particular. “Honestly.”

Something stunk, and it wasn’t the lack of manners on anyone’s part. “You are planning on double-crossing them, aren’t you?”

“Clearly. They think they are keeping that…weird human after all.” The Con picked something off his chassis, examining it with disdain. “I don’t like the idea of harming a sparkling, even that of a human, but oh well. He survived whatever lab accident he crawled out of. He should be able to handle Shockwave for a couple of decacycles at least.”

“Lab, he crawled out of? Danny died.” Smokescreen sneered.

“The same thing in his case,” Knockout flicking the pebble that he had missed when he decontaminated at Smokescreen’s helm.

“What do you mean?” Smokescreen’s spark pulsed. Had Danny lied to him?

“These humans, Ghost Investigation Ward or whatever, say he is a ghost creature,” Knockout explained, “I have managed to look over some of their files. Benefits from being the Decepticon Medical Officer. Easy to tell he isn’t a ghost… at least completely.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“I don’t know much about humans or ghosts for that matter, but doesn't this pet of yours seem a bit… different?” Knockout raised an optic ridge.“Some of those scars… not what these humans did. It was something he did, and you can’t do it in a normal human dwelling.”

Smokescreen recalled everything he could about Danny. The boy had explained about ghosts. It hadn’t been much. Danny had kept a lot of that hidden, even when Smokescreen tried to push the information just a little. Danny had never said much. ‘The Basics, ’ he had said. Intangibility, invisibility, flight, overshadowing, and some sort of energy blast that varied on the ghost. All things you had to worry about with anything that wasn’t a blob ghost. Then, once, after Smokescreen took Danny just outside the hangar to get some fresh air, Danny mentioned it. Smokescreen kept himself steady as he walked around the hangar, letting the boy stay sitting on his strut.

“I am not like normal ghosts. I’m special,” Danny spat out after Smokescreen asked about the humans in white suits. “That is why they want me so much.”

“How so?” Smokescreen had asked then.

Danny had opened his mouth to say something, but closed it after some thought. He merely sighed and looked up at the stars, mostly hidden due to the lights still shining across the military base. The boy then made a joke to try and diffuse the heavy atmosphere. Smokescreen let him. It was the Elite Guard’s favorite thing to do to escape tense situations, too.

Now, Smokescreen was wishing he had asked more.

Artwork by Sci-Fi

“Ah. So you had noticed,” Knockout strummed his servos across his torso. “Us street cars aren’t as dumb as Cybertron thought we were, right?”

“Go feed a scraplet, would ya’,” Smokescreen muttered through his clenched denta.

“Now, if you would excuse me.” Knockout tossed a smirk back to Smokescreen. “Duty calls.”

The Elite Guard really wanted to scrap that smirk off his faceplate. With his limited range of movement preventing that, Smokescreen hoped the glare he was sending would do it for him instead. It didn’t. All it did was cause Knockout’s smirk to gleam bigger as he slinked off with a few of the Vehicons behind him. Smokescreen fought against the wall, but it didn’t budge. Not surprisingly, however, there wasn’t anything else he could do.

“Stop resisting,” one of the remaining Vehicons pointed a blaster at Smokescreen’s helm.

Smokescreen growled. A habit he may have accidentally picked up from Danny when Ratchet or Nurse Darby asked about some of his wounds. It was meant as a warning to leave him alone, and Smokekscreen hoped the insinuation was brought across to them as well. They didn’t seem to really care. Just went back to standing at their posts.

Smokescreen had to think. Think! Find a way out. He had proven he could be slippery, so he just needed to prove it again. How could he get out of this mess and show everyone that he wasn’t just a rookie?

He mulled the situation over and over and over in his processor. However, nothing about an escape plan came. Just everything that had happened in a different light. It had been luck that got him out of the prison ship, his own arrogance that got him on the Nemesis and in Megatron’s servos, and now this. A human… or ghost or whatever Knockout was saying… Danny… Danny was in danger because Smokescreen had the ego to think they could handle anything that came after them if they got in trouble. Now he was here, stuck in a wall while the Cons planned to study Danny for their own means.

Why?

The phrase kept repeating in his processor. Why did Alpha Trion think he was capable of protecting the Omega Key? Was it just because he knew Smokescreen would make it to Earth, where Optimus was? The archivist did have that ability to peer into the future. It was an ability Smokescreen didn’t know much about, so who knew what he saw.

Then Optimus nearly gave Smokescreen the Matrix of Leadership. Every time he thought about it, Smokescreen’s spark seemed to stall. Optimus was injured and barely hanging on as he told Smokescreen to grab the forge. Then later, Smokescreen saw Optimus’s optics shut off, which would have been permanent if he hadn’t shoved the Forge into Optimus’s servo and doomed Cybertron to stay a waste of a planet. Why did he think Smokescreen was worthy of the Matrix?

Why? Why? Why?

Was it only because he was the only bot there to help them? Because he was the best bot in the circumstances? Or had they actually seen something in him?

“Don’t despair, my guardian. You are more than your failures and successes.”

That voice… He recognized it. It couldn’t be. Smokescreen opened his optics from his despair. What he found was the world slightly altered. The Vehicons and humans had stopped moving, mouths and peds in mid-movement. The color was faded all around him, except for his own frame and a blue orb that floated above him.

“You have much to learn, my guardian. However, you have proven to everyone that you have the potential for greatness.” The orb spoke. “Now all you must do is keep walking the path to reach that great potential.”

“Alpha Trion?” Smokescreen’s optics widened.

“Yes. It is I,” the orb spoke.

The orb grew brighter, causing Smokescreen to look away for a moment. As the light died, a transparent and wispy form of the Great Archivist appeared before him. The form was stagnant and unmoving, like the images that would be displayed in the Iacon Hall of Records. Yet, it was just as Smokescreen remembered him. The authority that came from him, despite him being an older bot. Dangerous, though never looking like he was ready to fight. Yet, still kind and understanding. Ready to listen to whatever an Elite Guard rookie was ready to talk about.

“I have to be seeing things,” Smokescreen muttered. “Optimus told me he had met you in the Allspark.”

“Ah, dear Smokescreen,” The archivist nearly chuckled. “Surely that child has taught you that life and death are not as separate as humans and Cybertronians think.”

“Danny,” Smokescreen dipped his helm down. “I failed him… I failed you.”

“Failure is a term that should not be taken as it seems,” The archivist said, drifting closer to Smokescreen. “Indeed, failure means to have lost the goal you had, but that does not mean we can’t gain some from our failures or that failures can’t lead to something better.”

“What do you mean? Like how I failed to protect you but got the Omega Key away from the Cons?” Smokescreen glared at the ground.

“Or how you saved Optimus and not the Forge’s power,” Alpha Trion said. “Or how that child has made many mistakes in trying to live what his life was molded into.”

“What do you know about Danny?” Smokescreen looked up.

Alpha Trion raised his servo to Smokescreen, touching the top of his helm. The rest of the world faded around Smokescreen. He was no longer restrained on the wall, merely floating in a void with Alpha Trion.

“You are not the only one to deny a role,” Alpha Trion said. “Phantom, or as you call him, Danny, walks a similar path that you do, my guardian.”

The void shimmered. Soon, a human city appeared, displayed like an image in the Iacon Hall of Records beneath them. It was smaller than some of the cities Smokescreen had seen, but not as desolate as Jasper. Human figures stood along the sidewalks, either walking or working. Before Smokescreen could ask what this was, two figures began racing along the city’s form. They weren’t bound by the same rules as the city was. They looked real as they zipped through the holo display of the city. Smokescreen instantly recognized one of them.

“Danny?”

“Indeed.” Alpha Trion answered.

The two solid figures raced across the city’s display. Danny looked just like Smokescreen had met him at the facility. White hair, green eyes, and wearing black with a white D stamped on his chassis. He was in pursuit of another figure with the same soft glow he carried. The figure was of a man, less human-looking than Danny was. Pale blue skin, black hair pointed up in two sections, and dressed in a white and red suit with a cape dangling from him.

“He may deny it, but he has been fighting in his own war. One, he also had no choice in joining in.” Alpha Trion spoke, but optics never left the display. “ Phantom has made errors, but also has his victories. Still, he questions himself and if he is worth the sacrifice others have made for him.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Smokescreen questioned the Archivist.

“Because Smokescreen, you two are more alike than you know.” He vented.

The display of the city altered itself. Danny was now hunkered in an alleyway of a very large city, clutching his side. His blood, both red and green, spilled through his fingers. Eyes were screwed shut as he bit on his lip.

“This reminds me of the first time you protected me,” Alpha Trion started. “You had fought off an assassin acting outside the normal ranks of the Decepticons.”

“Yeah. Injured myself badly and didn’t capture them,” Smokescreen finished, looking up. “It was only a few cycles into my assignment to protect you.”

“I found you trying to tend to your wounds,” The Archivist continued, optics downcast. “You didn’t want to bother me as I worked.”

“And?” Smokescreen shuffled, even though they were floating. “It was my job to help protect you, not…”

“Not mine to take care of.” He finished. The image of the Archivist changed slightly. A small smile graced his faceplate as his form looked at the rookie. “Sparklings forced to fight in wars, thinking you must hide your pains to not be a burden, trying your hardest, and still feeling like no matter what you do is enough. Sound familiar?”

Smokescreen nodded. It was something Alpha Trion had told him once during his time at the Iacon Hall of Records. The two had just been talking until Alpha Trion had stopped his work and made sure Smokescreen was listening to what he was saying. Alpha Trion never spoke much of the war besides relating it to events in Cybertron’s ancient history. Yet, the archivist had stopped that day to tell Smokescreen sorry that he had been born from the Well of Allsparks in the middle of the war. That Smokescreen was forced to pick a side and fight as soon as he was able.

“This road… this story applies to the child as well. Both of you have proven yourselves to others. Now you must prove your worth and courage to yourselves.” Alpha Trion explained, the hologram below fading from existence. “Perhaps there will be another time both of you are offered to carry those roles you denied, but until then, help each other, my guardian. Together, both of you might be able to help end not just one war but both wars that affect the two of you.”

Smokescreen’s optics widened, “Alpha Trion. With all due respect. Me a Prime? I…”

“Orion Pax said much the same,” Alpha Trion interrupted with a servo on Smokescreen’s strut. “I do not know everything that will happen in the future, but I see much of what I saw in Orion in you and this child. Keep learning. Keep fighting for Cybertron. Together as one.”

Smokescreen stared. His voice box tried to respond, but it refused to. The scene around them shifted once again. The rookie found himself back in the wall, colors still drained from the world around.

“I must soon take my leave, Smokescreen,” Alpha Trion’s voice sounded from the small blue ball that had greeted him. “I have sent some of those indebted to Phantom to assist you in saving him. You must act quickly.”

“Wait! Alpha Trion!” Smokescreen called.

He had so much to ask the Archivist. So many things to tell him. He… Smokescreen wanted to properly say goodbye.

“This is not the end, my guardian. We shall meet again when all are one.” Alpha Trion’s voice called, fading with the blue light. “You have made me proud, Smokescreen.”

The light faded completely. The world began to move again as its color returned. The humans were back to getting ready for whatever they were planning with Danny while the Vehicons stood guard.

Smokescreen shut his optics and vented. Lubricant was beginning to form, and he couldn’t have them leaking right now.

“What is that?” one of the Vehicons startled the other.

A green ball began moving on one of the crates on the far side of the room. It was letting off a soft glow, just like Danny had when he had met him as Phantom. Its eyes were pure red, and it had a small mouth.

“Let’s get it out of here before Medic Knockout sees.” The other Vehicon responded, tilting its helm to tell the other one to follow.

As the Decepticons approached, the little ghost chirped, sliding into the crevices of the crates. The Vehicons started setting the boxes aside as they attempted to hunt for the green ball.

“Help protector?” A chirp beside Smokescreen now startled the Elite Guard. On his strut sat another small green ghost like the one the Vehicons were looking for. This one, however, had soft purple eyes. “Help protector?” It asked again as if echoing someone else’s words.

“Huh…” Smokescreen dragged. “Are you asking to help protect you?”

“Phantom,” the ghost echoed in a voice similar to Danny’s. “Get out.”

It clicked together. “You are the ones Alpha Trion sent to help me and Danny get out.”

The ghost chirped affirmatively (at least that is what the Autobot assumed.) It floated off of Smokescreen’s strut, singing a soft hum in the process.

“Where is it?! One of the Vehicons muttered as it tossed a crate aside.

“So… What is the plan?” Smokescreen whispered, looking back at the ghost, only to find there were now six more floating by it, including the red-eyed one that the Cons were looking for. “Oh?”

The purple-eyed ghost chirped to the others. The others softly chirped back and began floating to different parts of Smokescreen’s frame. The ghost settled across him, their forms melting to shape Smokescreen’s armor just a little bit. Some were cold, others warm, and the purple-eyed ghost that settled near the Autobot insignia on his chassis felt like it was wet. It wasn’t unpleasant but strange. It got stranger as Smokescreen’s frame began to tingle. The rookie watched as his colors began to fade into a clear coating. Before he knew it, Smokescreen began falling out of the wall. Biting back a yelp so he didn’t alert the Cons, he found his footing.

The ghosts along his frame unlatched. They floated around the Autobot before gathering up in front of him, letting off small chirps.

“Hurry, hurry,” The little purple-eyed ghost said.

“Understood,” Smokescreen smiled. “And thanks.”

With one last chirp, the ghosts vanished into the air. Smokescreen quickly got his processor in gear. He would ask Danny what favor he did for those little ghosts after he rescued him. For now, though, he had some Cons to beat and humans to scare.

“Are you sure you didn’t see it scamper off somewhere else?” Vehicon #1 asked the other.

“For the last time, no,” The other one glared.

Smokescreen smirked as he quietly stalked over to the conversation. Oh, this was going to be fun.

“Then where could it have gone?” Vehicon #1 argued.

“I don’t know,” Vehicon #2 shrugged.

“Have you checked under that crate?” Smokescreen pointed at a crate in the far back of the mess they had made. He easily settled behind the two bots as they stopped arguing. “I think I saw it creep under there.”

“Oh. Thanks,” Vehicon #1 said.

Both cons stiffened at the same time. “Wait?!”

Smokescreen didn’t give them a chance to whip back around. He already had his servos at the ready, taking each Con by the helm and smashing it into the other. The Vehicons crumpled to the ground in a heap.

“I think the Wreckers would be proud of that one,” Smokescreen dusted off his servos. “Now for Danny.”

Whether it was Primus’s blessing or the GIW and Cons getting prideful that Smokescreen had been held just a single wall away from an airplane hangar, he didn’t really care. Though, it was probably Primus again or Smokescreen getting some luck that as he began creeping along the storage room that he happened to see a human exit a door. It was further blessings or luck that he recognized what he was able to see in the short second that the door closed.

Recently, Smokescreen had really been trying his best to think things through. Running scenarios in his processor. No charging into battles head on. He was trying to use more stealth, more awareness… more everything. There was just one problem with all that.

Old habits die hard.

The Elite Guard could’ve looked for the way Knockout left the building. He could’ve looked for a computer to send a signal to the rest of the Autobots on what he found. That isn’t what he did though. Smokescreen lobbed himself into the wall. It crumbled like tinfoil (that was the correct human saying right?) under him.

The dust hadn’t even settled before shots were being thrown at him. Unlike last time, this hurt. Knockout had not been lying about those weapon schematics after all. Who knew a Con could do that? As much as he would love to destroy any piece of equipment in this place so it wouldn’t harm Danny or Team Prime, Smokescreen had other things he had to get to first. There were the hanger doors, halfway open, right in front of him, separated only by distance and some GIW agents.

The pricks of energon against his frame were ignored, tossed to the side like scrap pieces. Smokescreen’s focus was that door and Danny that laid beyond it. He charged through the hangar, careful to keep from stepping on the GIW. The planes and tanks on the other hand were tossed and stepped on without care. One less thing to come chasing after him with.

Facing the half-open hangar doors, Smokescreen slid underneath. Dirt broke apart beneath peds. He turned onto his side, dragging his digits into the ground as well. It clumped together, providing the perfect friction to let Smokescreen prop himself up mid slide. It was instinct, the way his t-cog pulled in his lower chassis, the way his frame moved and folded.

There were a few buildings around the abandoned base. Another airplane hanger beside the one he had escaped from.Then there were a few buildings Smokescreen would assume were human offices and barracks further away. Gravel roads (painted white of all things) connected them together. The direction Knockout and the GIW went was easy to find though. The metal electric fence surrounding the area was still open.

Hopefully they had only just left.

The rocks along the road shot out underneath his wheels as they fought to get as much traction as they could. The scenery blurred together. The Elite Guard drove as fast as he could considering the road. It was pavement outside the fence but scrap did it have a bunch of holes in it. It would be easy for Smokescreen to hit one the wrong way and crash into one of the many trees or rocks along the passenger side.

The road tilted down, and looped as Smokescreen went. It was only the single road, no turn offs for the GIW to take. His spark pulsed rapidly, his frame rattled against the wind. Usually he would be enjoying a ride like this. Another thing to add to the list the Cons and GIW needed their tailpipes kicked for.

Then there were lights. Faint but there through the thick trees. Another turn came, sharp and narrow. Smokescreen grunted as his frame hit the side of the rock wall and he drifted the turn. It sent off sparks. It was only minor damage thankfully. Only a few seconds of being dragged across. The bot veered across the road regaining control. The second he did, a small pulse of red light caught the edge of his optic. Brake lights.

“Come on, come on.” he muttered.

Another sharp turn came. Smokescreen managed to keep himself on the road this time. The white vehicles ahead of him began to be more clear. Most of them were the white vans Smokescreen had associated GIW with. There were a few white cars that Smokescreen had never seen before. They were leaner, more aerodynamic. It all but reminded the Elite Guard of the ground base vehicles that Megatron employed. And of course, a tank was within the ranks.

There were two vans in the back of the formation, one of the cars and then the tank. It was barely visible in front of the tank but Smokescreen saw another van, this one a bit thicker than the other vehicles like it. Another GIW car led it along with two more vans and a red Aston Martian in the very front.

These humans really needed to take a lesson about their vehicles and not drawing attention to themselves. Oh well. It wasn’t his problem. Honestly, he really didn’t care. Smokescreen came up on them before they could even react.

He shoved his way in between the two rear vans. It was easy to knock one of them to the edge of the road. The van immediately hit their brakes, trying to slow down before they tumbled down into the trees. The companion vehicle tried to swerve away from Smokescreen, but it was too slow. Smokescreen was already shoving them into the rocky wall. The screech of metal filled Smokescreen’s audials. Burning rubber and fire meet his olfactory sensor. However, only until the tire’s popped did Smokescreen stop his assault. The van quickly slowed to a stop as he unpinned it. By now Smokescreen had lost the element of surprise. The tank’s cannon slowly turned around to face its rear while the car behind it maneuvered to cut Smokescreen off.

“Alright. Let’s do this.”

The cannon fired. A blue energy shot barreled towards Smokescreen. Asphalt splattered everywhere as the Elite Guard dodged. Burning pieces of the road began melting into the places they landed on his frame. Yeah, Smokescreen really didn’t want to be hit with that thing.

Smokescreen veered, trying to pull around the car. It matched his position. He tried again. The same thing. Another shot from the canon fired causing Smokescreen to tap his brakes to avoid the shot. He pulled on his engine, using the rubble and smoke as a cover at another attempt for the tank. Still, the car pulled in front of him to block. Smokescreen had to dangle his front tire off the side of the road to keep from rear ending it.

Okay, so that strategy wasn’t going to work. These cars and drivers were matching his own driving skills point for point. They would keep blocking him until the tank shot him or he was run into the rocky wall or off the small ledge and into trees.

Wait… driving skills. Oh Smokescreen could feel his EM field getting smug as the idea came.

The Elite Guard watched and waited. He needed the perfect moment to pull this off. Smokescreen pulled onto the righthand side of the road. The car followed suit. There, just up ahead. The perfect spot he needed. Right where the rock wall began to veer away from the road, which now began to head to a small human property, seemingly abandoned.

Smokescreen veered sharply towards the cliff face, nearly horizontal. The cliff’s location pinged onto the corner of his HUD, telling him impact was imminent. However, Smokescreen never hit it. Gears moved into place, forming his other mode. A ped hit the rock wall, then another further ahead. He had enough momentum to carry him three strides against the cliff but it was enough. The Elite Guard jumped, landing in the tank’s track with a heavy thud. The GIW car, in its attempt to keep him away, cut too hard. After hitting one of the potholes still littering the road, there was no chance of it regaining control. It spun until the vehicle flipped before rolling onto its top.

In a fluid motion, Smokescreen hopped onto the top and moved across the tank’s roof. He twisted over the cannon. It tried to follow him, charging up with energy all the while. Smokescreen grabbed it with one of his servos. The canon gave little resistance to the change of its aim.

The humans, whether they couldn’t or just didn’t think to stop, fired near their own. The shot landed right between Knockout and the two other GIW vans in front. Smokescreen thought he heard the Decepticon curse as he swerved to regain control. The vans hit the newly formed hole in the road. The two up front flew into the air as they hit the spot the tank had fired on. Knockout had managed to avoid the first van that came crashing down but the second landed on the side of his hood. The Con tumbled out of vehicle mode with the van on top of him.

That only left the tank and the van Danny was holed up in, both of which had grinded to a stop. The Elite Guard formed one of his blasters. Instead of firing, Smokescreen kept priming it. The superheated energon focused beneath, ready to fire. He thrusted it on the latch of the tank’s overhead exit. The metal along it sizzled and it began to merge into one. Smokescreen didn’t keep it on for long. It just needed to last a day or two. Enough until Agent Fowler could get over here to arrest them or even have one of their own get them out before they starved or anything like that. Using his blaster, he shot the tank’s track. Now they really wouldn’t be going anywhere.

Smokescreen undid his blaster before he hooked the cannon with one of his servo hinges. The other servo grasped further towards its base. He pulled with the hinge but pushed with the servo, his ped against the side of the tank helping with his goal. It was slow at first but metal began creaking underneath the pressure. The cannon bent and crumbled beyond use.

“Danny,” Smokescreen’s optics shot to the other van. It had tumbled onto its side during the fight but otherwise looked undamaged. “Don’t worry I am coming.”

Peds hit the asphalt below, only to have a shot graze Smokescreen’s strut.

“That’s it.” Knockout seethed. The Decepticon tossed the remains of the van off of him. “If I have to get my servos dirty to make sure I don’t lose my helm. So. Be. It.”

Smokescreen’s optics glanced over to the van. He couldn’t risk Danny getting squashed in the fight. He needed to get some distance to take care of Knockout safely.

“Want to get me?” Smokescreen smirked. “Come on.”

The Con charged with a battle cry as Smokescreen led him away. The tree line just beyond the abandoned field would give him enough distance and cover to fight. He moved at a quick pace. Just enough to keep Knockout interested.

“Scared, little sparkling?” Knockout taunted, swiping his staff at the Autobot.

They were close to the treeline now. “Well, considering I just escaped, I think it’s you who should be scared,” Smokescreen gleamed.

Then, a soft green glow got Smokescreen’s attention. The Decepticon’s servos wrapped around the Phase Shifter on his servo bearing.

“Oh scrap.”

Smokescreen took a more battle-ready stance just as Knockout activated his saw blade. Smokescreen side-stepped the swing the Decepticon sent his way. A glimmer of light was the only warning the elite guard had to jump back before Knockout undid his staff towards his opponent's chassis. Smokescreen summoned one of his blasters, attempting to shoot the Con. However, the Con clearly had the phase shifter’s settings figured out. The shot fired through his metal.

“Nice try, but you can’t touch me.”Knockout smirked, raising the phase shifter like a trophy. “Once again. You don’t have another one of these lying around to save you like it has before.”

“I’ll figure something out,” Smokescreen promised. There were still the trees behind him to give him some cover. “I am not letting you Cons get your way.”

“Tough words,” Knockout charged. “Let’s see if you can back it up.”

“It would be my pleasure,” Smokescreen jumped back into the fray.

-----------

Smoke collected in Danny’s lungs as he came to. He immediately began coughing, trying to purge the stuff out of him. Ugggh…where was he?

“Phantom,” a voice began to whisper. “Phantom.”

“Who is there?” Danny blinked his eyes open.

A blue glow covered most of the halfa’s blurry vision. Slowly, the things around him came into focus. Danny was cuffed, muzzled, and chained to the floor (which was now to his side) inside a GIW van. The halfa’s eyes darted around the wreckage. There were only two GIW agents lying unconscious inside the rubble. Then there was the giant glowing blue orb floating above him. Danny was betting the orb was talking to him instead of the GIW agents. They never called him by his name unless it was to curse him.

“My name is Alpha Trion.” The orb spoke. “I have been sent to help you and my guardian.”

“Help? From who?” Danny found the question out of his mouth before he could think about it. Wasn’t Alpha Trion the bot Smokescreen protected back on Cybertron? The one who died.

“An old friend of mine, Primus, and yours,” Alpha Trion answered. “However, I don’t have much time to explain. My guardian has escaped, but requires assistance. Optimus Prime is on the way but I fear with the enemies coming that he and his comrades will need help.”

A cold breath tingled inside Danny’s mouth. His ghost sense? The arrival of a couple of blob ghosts confirmed what his core was telling him. It was the blob ghosts he had helped save when he had met Smokescreen.

“They wish to repay you after saving them,” Alpha Trion explained as the orb floated towards Danny.

“Help. Get out.” One of the blob ghosts repeated back to Danny in his own voice.

“Hurry,” the blue orb said. “And please. Take care of my guardian.”

“I… I will,” Danny promised as the orb quickly faded away.

The little ghosts didn’t waste a moment. They chirped in their own language, and the echoes of voices they had heard. The blob ghosts slowly gathered around him, enveloping him with ectoplasmic energy. Danny’s core vibrated back in response, welcoming the kind intentions. Danny could feel his strength starting to return, better than it had been when he woke up at the Autobot base.

Now, to make a plan to get out.

As Danny stayed still for the cuddle pile he was now in, he tried to look at everything around him closely. While the vehicle was on its side and damaged, the GIW had gone to great efforts to make sure Danny didn’t escape again. His restraints only bore a few scratches. Still, on the cuffs (and Danny bet the muzzle), there was a keyhole right on top. If he knew the Guys in White well enough, he knew one of the two guards lying nearby would have the key ring.

Slowly, Danny shuffled himself to his feet and walked as close as he could to the first agent. The coat on the agent was partly flicked open, a small piece of bright silver metal gleaming. With a soft kick to the jacket, Danny could hear the unmistakable sound of keys. The chain on the wall rattled as he extended it as far as it could go as he reached for the object. Danny bit his tongue in focus as his shoes finally caught the tension needed to lift the keys out of the pocket. Slow but steady, he lifted the key ring until it finally clattered to the ground.

“Yes! Eat that, GIW!” He beamed as he toed the keys the rest of the way to him.

Well, Danny had the keys, but how was he supposed to use them to get himself free? The ecto-cuffs on his hands covered them entirely. The blob ghosts might be able to help, but the last set of GIW keys he had lifted a few months ago was coated in an anti-ecto polish. It wasn’t much of anything to high-level ghosts like Danny. Just a small burn. However, the blob ghosts wouldn’t be able to touch it without hurting themselves. The halfa didn’t want to risk it. He could try to use his feet, but he hadn’t stretched in forever, and that keyhole was on the top of the cuffs.

The sound of rumbling engines caught Danny’s sensitive hearing a second later. There were multiple of them and they were coming in fast.

“Scrap,” Danny muttered as he began working on his foot unlocking trick.

The adrenaline was causing him to miss, though. Danny would love to do this slow and steady, but the sounds of tires against the dirt sounded louder in his ears. The blob ghosts purred against his chest, calming his quaking core a little. His beating heart, on the other hand, still pounded against his rib cage.

That is when he heard it.

The sound of shifting metal. The sound of alien metal shifting as one form became another. That meant one of two things in Danny’s short experience. Either a Decepticon or…

“Yo, kids. Either one of you here?” the familiar sound of Wheeljack echoed against the rubble of battle.

“Wheeljack! Over here!” Danny called out.

The halfa’s world spun as the van he was in suddenly tossed back on its wheels. The chains rattled once again as their prisoner was thrown away from them. Danny bets there may be some bruising on his wrists later. Oh well. The blob ghosts released Danny to avoid getting squished underneath him as he tumbled against the floor.

“Owww….”

“Perhaps tossing the containment device with our ally inside isn’t the wisest move,” Ultra Magnus scolded the Wrecker.

Tearing metal blocked out whatever Wheeljack responded to the SIC with. Instead, Danny focused on the two large red servos that hovered over him and the pair of optics that looked at him in horror. No… not at him, but at his predicament.

“Optimus. Everyone.” Danny beamed from underneath the muzzle. “I am so glad to see y'all.”

Arcee hovered nearby, ready to assist her leader if needed. “You alright?” She asked promptly. Then she hesitated and pointed to something by him. “And what are those?”

“Good as I can be?” Danny looked slowly to see the blob ghost huddled around each other fearfully. “Oh! These guys are good. Don’t worry.”

Danny felt like he was talking more to the ghosts than the Bots, but oh well. The ghosts slowly relaxed as they hovered closer to Danny again. Ghost hierarchy was dictating him as the one in charge right now. Since he was considered not to be an enemy, the small and less powerful ghosts were naturally going to hide behind him. Not that he minded, but he hated that it happened frequently when he just stepped into the general area.

“Alright. Time for you to go,” Danny whispered urgently to the blobs. Slowly, they came out from behind him, letting out sad chirps. “Thank you for the extra ectoplasm. I really needed it.”

The lead ghost of the pack (the second in command of the ghosts in the area right now?), a purple-eyed blob, seemed to nod as Danny spoke. “You are welcome, Phantom,” a small voice whispered from it before they all vanished.

The cold feeling in Danny’s throat faded, signalling they had left as quickly as they had come. That’s good.

“Now that they are heading back to safety,” Danny turned back to a bunch of confused and concerned EM fields, “I would like to as well, but I have no idea where Smokescreen is. He was the one who stopped the escort. I heard him in the commotion. Have you seen him?”

“No. You are the first one we have found,” Optimus reached down, snapping the chain between two of his digits like it was a piece of uncooked spaghetti noodle. “We need to free you from these bonds so we can evacuate back to base.”

“Not without Smokescreen.” Danny scanned the van again, thankfully finding the keys not far from him. He really didn’t want to hunt for them again after getting them the first time. “If I just get unlocked, I can help.”

Danny held back a yelp as he tumbled back into Optimus's servos. The leader lifted him steadily out of the van. “I cannot allow you to partake in the battle. Much less with injuries.”

The halfa found his footing on the metal hand. “Not the worst thing I have come out of,” Danny argued, only losing his glare to let Arcee unlock the cuffs after she got the muzzle off. Benefits of having the smallest servos, the halfa guessed. “I got Smokescreen and all of y’all into this mess. I am going to help fix it.”

The cuffs and muzzle had just fallen into the leader’s servo when chaos was let loose. A groundbridge opened midair. Danny hadn’t even realized they could do that. He figured a groundbridge had to be tied to the ground. You know? Using the weight the planet had on the fabric of the universe and what not. Maybe there was some leeway? Danny needed to ask Ratchet more questions later.

One of the bots shouted as every servo besides the one Optimus gathered Danny in turned into a weapon. Pinned between the leader’s chassis and servo, Danny could only hear the sound of blaster fire. Alien blaster fire on both sides, if his ears weren’t deceiving him, as the Autobot leader moved.

Was Danny being baby carried by a legend of an alien race? Cool! Well… The whole carried by a legend of an alien race thing was cool, not the baby carried way, though. And what was Danny talking about? This was a fight! Why was he being carried in a fight if he wasn’t injured? Well….much.

Danny quickly pulled on his core, now energized after so long without the ectoplasm he needed to power it. He let his core pulse, pushing the ectoplasm further and harder into his system. The white rings that came with doing so formed around him. At the same time, he focused on his intangibility. Smokescreen was the only Bot that could touch him when intangible because he had the phase shifter active. Optimus, respectfully, stood no chance of keeping a hold on him. Falling through the gears and wires of the servo, Phantom decided to join the fight.

There were Vehicon flyers everywhere. Most of them were using their aerial advantage to circle the Autobots and fire. About a dozen of them had transformed taking a ground assault. Ultra Magnus and the Wreckers were working on the ground, taking any Con they could to lob into a flying Vehicon’s path. Arcee and Bee were taking care of dodging and shooting down flyers.

The leader of the Autobots, however, was doing both at the same time. His eyes scanned over the enemies that approached him in waves. With the mask sliding over his face, Phantom could see it. He had seen Optimus as the leader. As the bot who watched over everyone. Then Danny saw how the Decepticons were targeting the Prime like Cujo does with his toy. Optimus was the biggest threat on the field. The Cons wanted him down. However, Optimus wasn’t going to let it happen. When one Decepticon flyer fired on Optimus, he would dodge or use one of the ground units to block the attack. When a ground unit swiped at him with their claws, he would grab them and either kick or punch them away. Only a few shots landed on him in the King of the Hill (or would this be a case of Scrapdown?) tournament that he was winning one handed.

This was the legend of the Prime. The warrior who fought and made it out of everything. The hero who encouraged the Autobots to never give up on winning the war against all the odds. Optimus Prime, who not only inspired hope but also courage.

Then the leader spotted him, optics widening, his steps faltering for a second. Optimus glanced at the servo he had against his chassis, finding it empty. Optics snapped back to Phantom a second later.

“Don’t,” Phantom smirked. He knew Optimus was going to want him to run for cover. But Phantom had been doing that for too long. He was tired of running. Smokescreen and the rest of the Bots had given him his hope back. Now he was going to use that courage, or perhaps stupidity, it was hard to tell with him, to help fight for Earth. “I’ll help clear out some of these flyers so we can go find Smokescreen.”

Phantom shot away from where he was hovering before the leader could try to convince him otherwise. The first flyer he came into contact with exploded as they collided. The ectoplasmic energy Phantom had surrounded himself with kept him from getting injured during the collision. He didn’t stop there. Keeping the same path, two more Vehicons were annihilated. The other Vehicons really didn’t like Phantom doing that if the blaster fire flying past him was any indication. Well, less on the Autobots, Phantom guesses.

“Hey Cons!” Cupped hands carried the halfa’s voice a little further. “Want to play a human game? Just follow me!”

Five alien planes came after him as Phantom flew in a different direction. Pretty good pack, but something deep inside said that he could knock out more of them. With some inspiration, a brilliant idea formed. Dangerous idea? Maybe a little bit. Reckless? Also, yes. However, worse plans had worked for Phantom before so he would take the chances now.

Phantom rocketed back to the ground, taunts on his tongue. “Vehicons? More like Slowcons.”

They kept on him, firing their superheated energon past him. One had even managed to get close enough to singe his hair. Now he had a small section that was more grey than white. That was going to aggravate him later.

“Mind the party crashers.” The Vehicons evened out their flight as he did, finding themselves right in the center of the ground battle. Phantom avoided the friendly forces easily. He only had a few to keep track of. The Decepticons, however, scrambled to get out of each other’s way while still fighting. One eventually smashed into a ground fighter intent on jumping Bulkhead. Another found itself meeting the Forge of Solus Prime, a relic that was made into an oversized hammer after it lost its energy, which Ultra Magnus was now wielding (a story Smokescreen had promised for another time). “Thanks for the assist!” Phantom called over his shoulder.

Thankfully, he already had a plan for whatever remained of the forces that had followed him. Phantom phased through the tree line that surrounded the battlefield. The Vehicons couldn’t, though. With the glory of fireballs, they were no longer a problem. Sam might not be happy if she found out her best friend had destroyed a few trees purposely in a fight, but the halfa hopes she would understand.

Phantom found Bumblebee to be the closest bot to him after that fiasco. The scout was ripping the head off of one of the Vehicons in the last wave. He whirred something to Phantom that he couldn’t understand. With him fighting, it was nearly impossible to use the body language tactics he had been using since getting to the base. It seemed like a compliment or perhaps a question. Maybe even a battle plan Bumblebee had come up with. Okay, so he really had no idea what the scout had said.

“When he escaped the Nemesis,” Arcee called off a little further away, blasting one of the last Vehicons in the sky. “Smokescreen has definitely been teaching him some tricks.”

Oh…it was like that, was it?!

“For your information. Smokescreen didn’t teach me anything. By my accounts, I have taught him more intangibility tricks than the times we have gone stargazing.” Phantom crossed his arms. More than two wasn’t much, but that didn’t count right now. “And second. Tricks? Like a pet? Seriously?”

“Battle tricks,” Arcee rolled her optics. Yet the small smirk she had on her gave her away. “Trust me. Jack has surprised me with a few of his own.”

Bee whirred with a response of his own. This time Phantom could tell it was in agreement with Arcee. With his mouth half open, Phantom was cut off by another ground bridge opening in the center of the battlefield. Oh, come on! How many mindless drones did Megatron have to throw at them? Then, of course, helicopter blades had to sound in the distance. Phantom turned to where the sound originated. Search lights mounted on the helicopters swept over the trees nearby.

“The GIW,” Phantom growled. Everyone needed to get out of here fast.

“Uh oh,” Bulkhead muttered somewhere further away.

A quick glance at the Wrecker reminded Phantom of the ground bridge once again. One that had a metal dragon of all things coming from it. The frame of the dragon was a dark rust color and black. Yellow energy glowed from along its body just like its optics. Huge orange wings spread from its body.

“It's the Predacon,” Ultra Magnus declared, firing a shot at the beast. A deafening shriek responded to the SIC.

“Wreckers assist me in holding off the Predacon. Stealth Team work with Ultra Magnus, hold off the GIW. Non-lethal force,” Optimus's voice stretched across the battlefield. Phantom watched as the Prime paused for a moment as he looked at the halfa floating in the air. “Danny. Go find Smokescreen and get ready for a quick retreat.”

“Understood, Optimus,” Phantom gave a two-finger salute.

With his orders, Phantom turned intangible and began zipping through the woods. He had to think. How was he supposed to find Smokescreen? Air borne was a no go with the GIW in the air. Who knows if more Decepticons would be coming in from above either. Down here, Phantom at least had cover.

Comm link? Didn’t have one or any other way to contact Smokescreen. The GIW took the cellphone Raf had given him when they found it phased into his leg and had it promptly removed. His leg was mostly healed but he would be feeling that later along with everything. Adrenaline was amazing sometimes. Flare? No. GIW or Decepticons could track that. Lure Smokescreen out? More likely to lure out that cherry r…. That looked like a fight.

Phantom skidded to a halt in the air. Foliage was pulled up from the ground and trees snapped, branched broken and bark scrapped. The halfa hovered near the ground for a closer look at the wreckage. In certain places, giant foot prints were embedded into the soft soil. Otherwise it would look like a tornado came through and tore everything up in one clean line that Phantom was floating in.

You know, or maybe two giant sized alien robots fighting.

Trail? That seemed like the winner to Phantom.

Phantom speed along the damage. The terrain sloped at odd ends and the damage kept shifting left and right. Even better the fight kept getting further and further away as if the two had been running after something.

“You couldn’t have fought closer Smokescreen?” Phantom rolled his eyes. He had to get the Elite Guard back to where the rest of the bots were before more reinforcements for the bad guys showed up. “I am going to end up being Batman after all this trail following and fighting I am probably going to have to help you with.” Not really, but Phantom would love just to beat the bad guys and scurry off back to base as soon as possible please.

Then, he heard it. Subtle even with his advanced hearing. Blaster fire. Shooting forward, Phantom followed the trail and sound. Clashing metal, a whirling chainsaw and shouts soon began to mix with the blasters. A wave of heat flashed beside him. Splinters cut through his skin as a tree exploded right by him sending Phantom to the ground. “Ugh,” Phantom spat out dirt. “That does not taste good.”

“You will make a great prize for Lord Megatron,” a voice caught Danny’s attention. There was a battle shout and the sound of a tree falling. “Hold still would you?!”

“I know my rights,” Smokescreen was probably smirking. “I am allowed to deny this procedure.”

“Not mine you’re not.” The Decepticon laughed. The sound of a saw hitting metal preceded Smokescreen’s cry.

Phantom quickly scrambled back into the air. It only took a few seconds to reach where the two Cybertronians were. Smokescreen was dodging a giant saw blade the Decepticon was slashing toward him. The Decepticon had already gotten hits in. Energon leaked from a cut on Smokescreen’s ped, two more slashes marred Smokescreen’s chassis, one along his arm, and five holes were torn into his side. Knockout wasn’t perfect either. He was banged and scratched up like Smokescreen was, just not as much.

The Elite Guard rolled as the saw swiped near his side. The injured ped groaned as Smokescreen found his balance. However, instead of hitting Knockout on the side where there was an opening, Smokescreen put more distance between the two of them.

“Can’t play dodge and retreat forever Autobot,” the Decepticon mocked, going for another slash.

Smokescreen dodged again, a forced smile showing. “Genius takes time. Don’t rush me.”

“Desperation is not the same as genius,” Knockout grinned, going into a run.

“Why isn’t…” Phantom began.

The item on Knockout’s servo bearing cut off the mutterings. He had the phase shifter. That is why Smokescreen was just dodging him. Smokescreen couldn’t fight back against him.

The Elite Guard side-stepped another strike. This time, Knockout was ready for it. Planting his left ped down, the Decepticon switching directions. Smokescreen tried to jump back to avoid the weapon. It was too late. Spinning, Knockout caught Smokescreen’s ped hinge (Cybertronian knee as Phantom had learned) with his blade. The Elite Guard tumbled onto his back. Smokescreen began to scramble back up but the Decepticon was already above him, ready to end it.

Phantom’s body reacted faster than his brain. He nearly rammed into Smokescreen’s plating, right where he usually sat on the bot’s strut. Coldness spread through Phantom’s body. He pushed it towards Smokescreen, slowly causing his colors to fade. Every time a box nearly fell on his friends or anytime he had escaped with them from a building, his intangibility was always a lifesaver.

Then, as his energy finished enveloping Smokescreen he remembered. Knockout had the phase shifter. Phantom’s intangibility did nothing against it. Smokescreen was going to get hit no matter what the halfa did. That saw was going to slice across his friend just like the GIW did to Phantom. The feeling of having your arm ripped from its body. Muscles pulling to keep it together and…

A clash of metal froze nearly everyone. Smokescreen’s own instincts had taken over. He gripped onto the Decepticon’s servo bearing. The saw that had spun wildly now tattered to a stop. Two pairs of optics stared at the point of contact before slowly looking at each other. It was kind of funny actually. Both of them were just too shocked to say anything. It was the perfect timing to give Knockout a taunt, tell Smokescreen it was time to retreat and head on out.

The halfa found himself a victim of whiplash before he could think of an insult. Phantom dug his fingers and heels into Smokescreen’s strut, not even considering if the bot would mind later. More metal clashed as the Elite Guard found his footing. Something was being said in Cybertronian. Phantom really couldn’t tell much else in the middle of his roller coaster ride. He is focusing on not being splat under an alien or on a tree in addition to keeping Smokescreen able to fight back.

“Die already!” Knockout yelled at Smokescreen.

“But I haven’t finished my bucket list yet,” Smokescreen yelled, grabbing a kick from the Decepticon.

“Your whaaaaaaahhhh?!” Knockout's query was cut off abruptly.

Using his grip on the Decepticon's leg as leverage, Smokescreen threw the Con away. The Elite Guard had apparently been taking lessons from the Wreckers. Dirt and pinestraw flew every which way. The Decepticon was a mangle of limbs as he rolled, yelps sounding with nearly every hit he took to the ground. Needless to say, he was doing that a lot.

“It’s something humans do before they ‘kick the bucket’, " the Autobot answered smugly. “Seriously Knockout. You have been here longer than me.”

“You only know that because I taught you it,” Phantom weakly muttered.

Smokescreen’s EM field suddenly pinged against the halfa. “Danny? Are you here?”

The bot began whirling around, looking up and down himself. If Phantom could clamp down further into Smokescreen he would be doing it now.

“Back of the strut,” Phantom’s stomach tossed a bit… more.

That had been worse than that time he got stuck in the family washing machine for an entire towel cycle. Look, his parents made everything into a ghost trap. Danny wasn’t doing anything stupid to cause him to get caught. He had just wanted to clean a pile of his clothes that had blood and ectoplasm on them due to injuries. Tucker and Jazz had taken care of that one immediately after they got him out.

Thankfully, Smokescreen stopped whirling around. “You good?”

“Depends on the definition,” the halfa finally unclamped himself. He had to keep himself from wincing. That had definitely left a mark on Smokescreen. “But it isn’t the worst I’ve been through.”

Phantom absently became aware of his core. The blobs had charged him quite a bit but with that battle against the Decepticons and keeping Smokescreen intangible for those few minutes had nearly put him back to square one.

Climbing up the strut without his flight wasn’t his quickest work. He got up there though and elected to lay belly down.

“Thanks for the help,” Smokescreen’s colors returned to him.

“That is what your local halfa is for,” Phantom collapsed further on Smokescreen’s strut.

“Halfa?”

Phantom nearly melted even further into the Elite Guard. “I owe you a few stories. Can we please get back to base though? I don’t know how long Optimus and the others can hold back that dragon and the GIW.”

Phantom felt Smokescreen stiffen beneath him. “Dragon? You mean the Predacon?!”

“Yeah. That is what Ultra Magnus called it,” Phantom crawled onto his knees. “I was sent to find you so we could leave.”

Smokescreen muttered something Phantom couldn’t hear. Sounded like a curse.

“As much as I love a good action movie," movement cut off any sort of response from the two. Knockout wiped energon from his intake (mouth, Danny internally translated). “It’s time for the finale to come.”

“Dang. And I thought Skulker was dramatic,” Phantom rolled his eyes. Running some mental calculations and then deciding halfway through he didn’t have the brain power or energy to finish them, he just turned to Smokescreen. “Think you can knock out the Knockout with one punch?”

“Sure.” Smokescreen kept the confusion lacing his voice down. “He just has to stay still.”

“I got that covered.” Phantom smirked.

“Really?”

“You think that after a few days with me powered down that you know every trick in my book?”

“Oh.” Smokescreen titled his processor side to side. “You're right.”

“What… you… gahhh. I am right here” Knockout seemed seconds away from a Fruitloop sized temper tantrum.” You clearly can't use whatever trick you just did to touch me with the Phase Shifter on.”

Smokescreen’s struts hitched, fighting to stay still. “You know?” He shrugged. “Doesn’t really help if the device is turned off.”

Knockout’s faceplate quickly switched gears. Optics widened and directed themselves to the phase shifter. It was no longer glowing.

Smokescreen shot forward before Knockout could even say ‘scrap’. Phantom had thankfully been ready. With one hand hanging onto a piece of Smokescreen’s plating, the other extended out in front. Phantom’s fingers tingled and the air dropped in temperature. It was the only real warning either Cybertronian had before a ray of chilling ice shot from Phantom.

“What the…?!?!”

Ice formed around Knockout’s peds. The bot should be thankful. Phantom had at least tried to make the ice look pretty for the paint job the bot took pride in. Elegant and sharp as diamonds. Just as strong too. The Con wasn't going anywhere without Phantom letting him.

Knockout yelped. “Not the faceplate! Not the…!”

Smokescreen socked him right in the faceplate.

With it, ice shattered at his peds. The Decepticon crashed to the ground one final time with a nice, solid thud.

“I knew my sensors weren’t faulty!” Was Smokescreen’s first comment. “Is this one of those special ghost powers that you were talking about.”

“Yeah. Perks of an ice core,” Phantom flipped from laying to sitting.

“Core?”

“Spark or heart for a ghost.” Phantom quickly explained.

“I need to catch up on so much information,” Smokescreen mumbled, striding towards the unconscious Decepticon.

He put his right servo near the strut Phantom rested on, keeping the boy stable when the bot moved. He bent down and reached for the phase shifter on Knockout’s servo bearing. Smokescreen twisted the controls on top of the device. The phase shifter unlatched from the Con with a pop. The Elite Guard rose again and removed his hand from his strut once he was sure Phantom was balanced.

“We’ve been keeping them waiting long enough. Ready?” Smokescreen smiled as he put the phase shifter back on, activating it at the same time.

“Let’s get going!” Phantom nodded, letting go of the hold on his core.

Smokescreen didn’t hesitate to transform into vehicle mode even as the rings undid around Danny. The halfa found himself buckled into Smokescreen’s driver seat before he started peeling through the trees. It was a quick drive back to the battlefield. The only pause was the cliff but Smokescreen just drove into it and emerged some ways above it. White helicopters were circling the area above as the sky reflected the orange of firelight as the two continued closer.

The tree line finally broke revealing a smoldering battlefield. Bumblebee was shaking off an attack from electrical wires the GIW were firing at him. Ultra Magnus had been using the forge to smash the fronts of the vehicles and tear up the terrain to keep the GIW from coming further. Arcee was firing shots at the mounted weapons on top. Bulkhead, Wheeljack and Optimus were rotating who was attacking and who was bait for the Predacon. Its fire blasts shot toward Optimus right as Wheeljack fired a shot at him. The dragon’s head jerked, causing the fire to merely singe the Prime’s frame. It paused before turning its attention to the Wrecker.

Optimus caught sight of Smokescreen as soon as they entered the field. Danny couldn’t hear it, but by the way the Autobots began backing off the attackers told him the Prime had given the order to retreat.

Ultra Magnus smashed the forge into the ground, sending dust up in the air. Not enough to blind, but provide some cover. Arcee helped Bee out of his binds and Bulkhead helped cover Optimus and Wheeljack’s retreat. A ground bridge formed, one which the Autobots began to flock to. Danny didn’t question how they knew if it was theirs or not. He just focused on how the rest of the team kept a way open for Smokescreen to drive through first as they fired their blasters at the enemies behind.

Danny lurched forward, bruised ribs rubbing painfully hitting against the seat belt. The halfa hadn’t even gotten a chance to attempt unbuckling before the door was thrown open. Nurse Darby was there with Jack, Raf and Miko close behind. Her eyebrows pinched with worry and eyes determined.

“Are you alright? Any injuries?” Nurse Darby shot off.

“Nothing major,” Danny promised, stepping out of Smokescreen.

Nurse Darby grabbed him around the shoulders to steady him as he stumbled a little. Her eyes scanned him quickly, taking into account any cut or bruising she could see at first glance. She felt around his shoulders, continuing down his arms. Danny couldn’t help but wince as she put a little bit of pressure on his wrists. The halfa called it, he was feeling the pain now.

“Ratchet, I am going to take Danny to get treated with Jack’s help.” Nurse Darby stated, not even looking at the bot nearby. “Miko, Raf, help either Ratchet with the Bots or Agent Fowler with whatever he may need if you two want to help.”

“Let me know if you need any assistance,” Ratchet responded.

Metal shifted behind Danny. Smokescreen, along with the rest of the Autobots, were in robot mode. Damaged and hurt, yes, but they were all alive. Thank goodness.

“Be on good behavior,” Smokescreen chuckled softly, even as he shifted weight off his injured ped.

Danny nodded. A soft, “You too,” muttering under his breath.

“Alright. Alright,” The medic huffed to the Autobots as Nurse Darby led him away.

The medic’s orders to the bots slowly drifted away as Danny went around the corner to where he had first woken up at the base. Nurse Darby settled him into bed after getting him into a gown she had already prepared. He laid down quietly, letting the nurse do what she needed to do. Didn’t even flinch when she started an IV, warning him that the medicine might make him tired. The last one he had was from the GIW, full of Blood Blossom pollen. Here, he knew it wasn’t going to be that.

Danny was so relaxed here. He didn’t know if it was the medicine or adrenaline crash that was pulling him under so fast.

“I think I am going to take a nap,” the halfa slurred to the nurse. He didn’t want to scare her after all.

“Get some rest.” she smiled softly, taking something from her son instinctively. Almost like they had done it many times before. “You have had a long couple of hours.”

“Got that right.” Danny laughed softly. His eyes began to get heavier and heavier. “Can you.. Can you tell the bots I need to talk with them afterwards?”

The nurse paused from undoing the gauze in her hands. Oh? Had Jack handed her gauze? “Why?”

“I owe everyone an explanation on what I am,” Guilt tugged on Danny’s heart. “I haven’t been completely honest about it or what happened to me.”

There was an emotion that caught Nurse Darby’s face before it softened. Horror or perhaps guilt but it faded away before Danny could name it. Instead, the nurse looked at him softly.

“I’ll let them know. Just get some rest.”

Danny nodded and stopped fighting. The world disappeared into black.

Chapter Text

It took four days for Danny to recover. A fractured wrist and ankle, a few cracked ribs, that shot to his arm, and enough bruises to paint him more black and blue than his actual skin color. Nurse Darby had been on his case the entire time. Not even when the medical wing was fully repaired was Smokescreen allowed to see him except for a few glances. Jack and the others visited a few times a day, giving Smokescreen updates while Nurse Darby was away or asleep. She had told the Elite Guard that she was surprised that Danny was even walking and coherent as he was when he got back to base. She had seen humans override their pain receptors and body limits before but Danny had apparently ‘taken the cake.’

Still, Nurse Darby assured Smokescreen that Danny would be fine after some proper rest. She had talked with a doctor and given him medicine that would force him to sleep and recover. Even with his advanced healing, rest was going to give him a better chance at a good recovery. So all Smokescreen could do was wait… and wait… and wait.

Smokescreen would be the first to admit he wasn’t a patient bot. He had a reckless streak to prove it. Still, how long did it take for a human with advanced healing to heal under a medical professional like Nurse Darby. Ratchet treated her like she did her job better than he does.

“He’s awake.” Nurse Darby’s voice startled Smokescreen out of his processor as he exited the groundbridge.

The nurse stood at the human area of the command center, clipboard in hand and bags under her eyes. Smokescreen shook any negative feelings towards the nurse away. June clearly had been doing everything she could for Danny. She didn’t even complain about Smokescreen’s pestering once (though Smokescreen hopes he wasn’t too bad with it).

“How is he doing?” Smokescreen tried his best not to rush towards the human.

Bumblebee thankfully said nothing to him about putting up the equipment from their latest hunt of Predacon bones. Smokescreen didn’t think he would be nice about telling him he didn’t care right now. Merely exited the groundbridge and went to do it himself.

“Moving and alert.” The nurse reported. “He only woke up an hour ago. He should be getting out of a shower and preparing to talk to Optimus and the rest of you bots.” Smokescreen opened his face plate to speak before June cut him off. “And yes. You can go see him.”

“Hey Bee. I am…” Smokescreen didn’t waste a second.

“Go. I got it.” The scout answered before the Elite Guard could finish.

“Thanks Bee,” Smokescreen said, already heading towards the human medical wing.

Bumblebee answered before the Elite Guard was too far gone. “No problem.”

Smokescreen used every ounce of control to keep himself from running through the base. He wasn’t a child. He wasn’t a nervous wreck either. He could calmly walk to check on…

CLANG.

“Oww,” an injured Danny rubbed his head from beside Smokescreen’s ped.

The Elite Guard was silently thankful for the fact he hadn’t been running. Danny had dodged being squished so far but Smokescreen didn’t want to risk that count failing. Looking at Danny though, the boy looked a lot better than when Smokescreen had handed Danny over to Nurse Darby. Cuts and bruises were fading on him. The dirt and grime that had been everywhere was long gone, likely due to the shower Nurse Darby had mentioned. Water still clung to Danny’s body and hair indicating he had just gotten out.

“Okay, I am getting tired of this,” Danny softly growled. He spun and took a few steps away. “Ghostwriter, Clockwork or whoever is making me crash into Smokescreen like every chapter. Stop it! Now!”

Smokescreen blinked, unsure of what to say. Humans were weird, and Danny was an even weirder human or well being by those human standards. Maybe Smokescreen would figure out their quirks… someday. Smokescreen chose to ignore the feminine giggling he heard in the very depths of his processor. Just his processor making noises up…right?

“In other news,” Danny seemed to whisper to himself while looking up to Smokescreen. “How are you doing Smokescreen?”

Smokescreen’s spark swelled at Danny’s bright smile. It almost made it easy to forget the trouble they had gotten into a few days ago. Almost was the word though.

“Better now that you are awake,” The Elite guard kneeled, offering his servo for Danny to climb up on.

“Oh come on. It wasn’t that bad,” Danny didn’t hesitate to climb up onto the servo. “Besides. You have to have been up to something while I was on bed rest.”

“Just hunting Predacon bones again,” Smokescreen answered. He wasn’t really wanting to mention that he was too distracted to do anything else besides that and busy work around the base. Ratchet was ready to run the bot off by how much he stayed inside Unit E over the last few days. “Nothing much besides that.”

Danny took his place on Smokescreen’s strut, snuggling into the divet of his frame. The one that had been feeling empty as of late. It was surprising how much the boy’s presence had just become something Smokescreen had expected.

“Nothing? Seriously?” Danny asked.

“Well. Maybe planning a small surprise,” Smokescreen rose to full height again.

“A surprise?” The boy looked up at the bot. “For me?”

The look on Danny’s face was as light as it was spark-wrenching, a term Smokescreen didn’t use often. Behind the smile on the boy’s face was genuine shock, as if he didn’t believe he was worth a surprise. Smokescreen was ready to wrangle the GIW again after what they did to Danny.

“Who else?” Smokescreen smiled past his feelings. Hopefully Danny wouldn’t pick up on the negative ones through the EM field. “I don’t think I could make a good enough surprise for anyone else. Well maybe Bee? He loves collecting small things from Earth.”

“Good to know.” Danny laughed, steadying where he sat as Smokescreen walked back to the center of base. “What type of surprise could you have gotten for me, though?”

‘Hopefully one you will like,’ Smokescreen thought. “Well. It's a surprise. I can’t go spoiling it.”

“Aww,” Danny gave a fake pout. “Not even a hint?”

“Nope.”

Danny sunk further into the strut for dramatic purposes. Smokescreen knew it was for dramatics and Smokescreen also knew Danny knew that he knew. It wasn’t gonna work like it had the first three times Danny had done something similar. Honestly, how did Bulkhead resist Miko’s pouting about going on missions?

Danny injured on the ground as Knockout shocked Smokescreen into stasis came to the forefront of his processor The Elite Guard quickly shooed it away as quickly as it came.

“Hi Smokescreen. Danny.” Jack waved without looking up from papers Raf had handed him.

“How did you know?” Smokescreen asked.

“Recognized your pedsteps,” Jack shrugged, head still down. “The only one softer than you is Arcee. Bee is close but a little heavier. You also have… how do I put it?”

“Bee has more of a thump sound than a tink to his steps?” Suggested the younger boy beside him.

“That.” Jack nodded.

Smokescreen vented. He and the others were still being surprised by the humans around the base. Most Cybertronians would learn to recognize each other on the EM fields before even considering pedsteps. Even then, learning which bot was which with similar frame builds would be even harder. The fact that the humans figured out how to do things like with their biological limits was always fascinating.

“What about me? You have no footsteps to recognize me by,” Danny pointed to himself.

Jack finally looked up, still turning the pages he was holding. “Smokescreen hasn’t left the hallway outside the new medical wing since you moved there besides missions and recharging in his own quarters. With all the bots at base and your healing progress, it was safe to assume that Smokescreen would only leave once you were moving around.”

The ghost on his strut turned to look at Smokescreen. “You didn’t leave the outside of the medical wing while I was there?”

“Like Jack said,” Danny looked behind them to the bot speaking. Arcee’s EM field established her presence to Smokescreen. “He did leave. Just not often.”

The boy quickly turned back to the Elite Guard. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah well…” Smokescreen really hoped energon wasn’t heating his face plates. “I kind of owed it to you. Didn’t want to take the chance of the GIW or Cons coming back for you while you were down.”

“Wait..? What?!” Danny’s eyes widened. “Was that…”

“No, no,” Arcee assured, walking up to stand beside the two. “Smokescreen is just making excuses for himself.”

Smokescreen internally hit himself upside the helm. Joking about the GIW or Cons coming to raid the base or even being around Danny was not going to be funny for a while. Maybe at all. He was supposed to be better than this.

“Yeah...” Smokescreen shifted his weight. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Oh…” The boy exhaled. “No worries.”

“Don’t thank him yet.” Jack tucked the papers under his arm. “He can’t save you from that briefing you asked for.”

Danny slouched. “Yeah… I do have some explaining to do after all.”

“Well. How about you explain some of these files to Raf real quick while I get the rest of the team in here?” Jack pointed a thumb to the youngest human.

“What’s the issue?”

“Commander V’s password. Can’t seem to guess or bypass it,” Raf sighed, continuing his typing.

“Hold on,” Danny stood, taping the strut softly. Smokescreen kept a narrow optic in case he lost his balance. “I have a few passwords we can try before we can try to bypass the whole thing.”

With Danny having no issues standing, Smokescreen extended his servo towards the human area to let him slide off. He had done it a few times while at base after seeing Miko do it on the railing. It had scared Elite Guard the first time, thinking he was going to fall. After some apologies and conversations later, Danny figured out how to signal to Smokescreen that he was dismounting from the strut.

“Good. That means I can borrow Smokescreen for a second.” Arcee smirked.

Oh. That probably wasn’t going to be good. Smokescreen had to admit that he had gotten off on the wrong ped with most of the Autobots. However, Arcee and Bulkhead were who he had upset the most. Arcee took the longest to bridge the gap he had accidently formed. She was ready to rip out his spark after taking Jack along to find the Starsaber. They had ‘cleared the air’ a while ago but… let's just say the fear she instilled in him during that time hadn’t quite left yet.

Still, he took up courage, prayed to Primus that Arcee wasn’t about to lay into him and followed her towards the lab. Ratchet had his tools under lock and key right?

“Before you leak some oil. I’m not going to hurt you,” Arcee turned to face him. Her servos rested on her axels.

“Yeah. I know that,” Smokescreen said confidently, broadening his struts. Or at least tried to. They were feeling a bit stiff.

“Your EM field is saying otherwise.”

“Oh…” Smokescreen melted. He didn’t think he was that nervous to have his EM field projecting past the typical barriers. “Really?”

Arcee shook her helm, chuckling all the while. “I know we didn’t start off great but I just wanted to give you some encouragement.”

“You want to give me,” Smokescreen pointed to himself. “Encouragement?”

“I could just walk away,” Arcee glared. Smokescreen’s spark hitched a little until he realized she wasn’t angry.

“No, no,” Raising his hands in surrender to the motorcycle. “What wisdom do you have for me?”

“Did Optimus talk with you earlier?” Arcee asked, a little more solemnly.

“Um… yeah.” Smokescreen rubbed the back of his helm

It was mostly just the Prime checking in on Smokescreen. It had been late at night and most of the team and humans were in recharge or sleep respectively. All except for Smokescreen who was having a hard time keeping his spark steady any time he stepped away from Danny and Optimus who Smokescreen only saw rest when he was injured. It wasn’t a long talk. It was small. Only a question. One that Smokescreen had been expecting deep in his processor. Everyone had probably expected it and now, the entire team probably knew it had happened.

“I just want to let you know you have been doing a good job.” Arcee leaned closer, making sure Smokescreen could see her even as he stared at the floor. “Don’t beat yourself up for everything that has happened so far.”

Smokescreen huffed. “Kind of hard not to. Danny had to save me through half of it.”

“Probably not the last time he will do so either.” Arcee replied. Smokescreen looked up at the Autobot again. She straightened her posture, removing her servos from her side. “Don’t forget, you saved him too.”

“Yeah…” Smokescreen muttered. “Will… will it get better?”

Arcee looked away, her optics going distant. “The fear? The concern? The worry? By the pits, no. You have seen it first hand with me.” Her gaze turned back to the Elite Guard. Softer than usual, but still with that unbinding strength Smokescreen had come to respect from Arcee. “That is all part of it though. The more you worry the more you know you care. He cares for you too, Smokescreen. Don’t doubt that.”

Smokescreen went quiet, contemplating everything the last few weeks. “Honestly. Do you think this is a good idea?”

Arcee rolled her optics. “Smokescreen. Now isn’t the time to be losing that confidence you came strolling to Earth on.” She teased.

“Weren’t you the one that insisted on knocking me down a few pegs?” Smokescreen shot back.

“On your ego. Not anything else.”

“Fair. I did need it.”

“Got that right.”

Pedsteps interrupted the banter. Bulkhead and Wheeljack entered through the hangar doors, Miko being carried in Bulkhead’s hand while Bumblebee followed Ultra Magnus and Ratchet from further in the base. Optimus would be coming in soon more than likely.

“Besides. You have had practice with Miko and she gets into places she isn’t supposed to be without a phase shifter or powers of the sorts.” Arcee folded her arms, perhaps squeezing them a little too tight for a moment. “But…if it makes you feel any better, you are starting off better than I did. Much better. So, honestly, as long as you don’t do anything stupid or dangerous, you’ll do fine.”

“I am not that bad… anymore.” Defended Smokescreen. The two slowly walked towards the team gathering at the hub center of the base. “I just attract danger and stupid without trying.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Arcee said. “Maybe it will be true eventually.”

Smokescreen rolled his optics. Yeah. Arcee had a point. He was working on it but Smokescreen typically got in over his helm because of his own stupid choices, not by chance. However the danger could definitely be argued. The Elite Guard would just gesture vaguely to the last two weeks as proof.

“Forgive my tardiness,” Heavy pedsteps echoed across the base. The red and blue mech paced himself as he walked through the hangar doors, closing one of the sides gently.

“No worries, Optimus,” Danny answered. The boy was front and center at the railing on the human area. Jack, Raf, Miko, Nurse Darby and Agent Fowler stood nearby, trying to give Danny space. “You have a lot on your plate you got to deal with.”

“Thank you for understanding, Danny,” Optimus’s faceplate turned up the slightest of a fraction. “Now I do believe you wish to discuss a few things with all of us present.”

Danny nodded. He paused for a moment, looking down. Smokescreen watched as the boy took in a deep breath, held in and then slowly released. “This is going to be a long story and an even crazier explanation but after everything, I hope I can trust you with it.” Danny’s voice shook slightly.

Smokescreen wanted to walk over and let Danny hug in his servo or curl back up on his strut.

“We understand many have persecuted you for what you are. However, all sentient beings have the right to freedom.” The Prime spoke. Smokescreen was always amazed how Optimus could balance the firmness of authority and yet the gentleness to calm any fear. “Our actions speak for themselves, no matter the materials our forms are made of. We have seen yours. Whatever you tell us today will not change that.”

Danny slowly nodded. He was picking apart every word, trying to buy time. If Smokescreen was in Danny’s position, his spark would be going wild. That was probably what was happening.

“Well…” Danny began. “Let’s start with the fact that I am not exactly a ghost…”

—----------

“So… your full name is Danny Fenton but you also go by Danny Phantom because you are both dead and alive?” Arcee questioned.

“Yes.” Danny nodded.

“And the reason being because your parents, who are the leading researchers in the field, didn’t operate their lab within proper safety parameters.” Ratchet looked as if he was about to blow an energon line or throw something. Maybe both.

“That one was on me being a dumb teenager.” Danny swayed his head back and forth. “But mostly right either way.”

“And at first you kept your town safe from ghost attacks with the help of your friends and sister.” Bulkhead nearly muttered.

“Which is cool!” Miko interjected. Jack quickly waved her to be quiet.

“Also, yes.”

“That was until the GIW came to your city and started attacking ghosts for no reason.” Wheeljack said. “You had to then defend the very… things for the lack of a better word, that you had been fighting.”

“Just use ghosts. It's fine.” Danny responded. “But, yep.”

“Which worked until you were captured by the enemy and your identity exposed,” Ultra Magnus continued. “You eventually escaped your capture and have been leading them on a chase for you since.”

“Correct, sir.”

“Until they found me and assumed I was a ghost,” Smokescreen folded his arms. “Which lead us to the current events of you coming to base with me and the GIW and Decepticons teaming up.”

“Just about sums it up.” Danny answered.

Bumblebee whirred something, his wings fluttering ever so slightly.

“Well, to be fair. Aliens are hard to believe in too, if you hadn’t seen them,” Raf responded to his friend. The youngest of the humans always seemed to be good at giving enough context for the scout so everyone else didn’t have to keep asking what Bee said.

“I did,” Danny said. “Believe in aliens at least. I just didn’t think they were here on Earth.”

“Good for you.” Jack muttered. The boy was leaning forwards on the safety rails. He dropped his head between his arms. “It was a nice big surprise for all of us.”

There was a small movement from Optimus. The stoic leader had been quiet most of the time. Asking a question here or there but mostly still, buried deep in thought. With the movement, everyone went quiet.

“You have been through quite the ordeal.” Optimus said softly. “With your predicament, I would find it hard for many Cybertronians to keep their helms held high and keep fighting for others at the cost of their own.”

Danny blushed. That… that was some really high praise. “T..thanks Optimus.”

“However, in light of recent events, I do not feel this is the end of the Decepticons and their quest for knowledge… on ghosts or anything adjacent to them.” The Autobot leader said solemnly.

“Unfortunatly Optimus is right,” Jack said from beside Danny. “Raf found Decepticon tampering in the computers at the facility Danny and Smokescreen were being held at. The three of us were able to shut down the system after drawing the information from it but who knows what Soundwave got.”

“Even if it is false claims and biased against ghosts, the GIW do their research well.” Danny growled. The memories flickered briefly in his mind.

“And with Project Predacon still underway under Shockwave’s unrelenting optic, it is easy enough to assume what he may use that research for.” Ultra Magnus stated.

“That is what Knockout said to me,” Smokescreen nodded.

“While it is paramount we continue to stop the Decepticons and their work, we must not forget the victory we have won,” Optimus spoke, turning to face Danny directly. His optics locked with Danny’s eyes. They were gentle and kind. “And the ally we have undoubtedly gained.”

The halfa nearly tumbled over as Miko slung her arm around his shoulders. “It's official. You are stuck with us. Hope you are up for a bunch of crazy and danger.” She said with a devilish grin.

“Crazy and danger?” Danny looked up as if he was contemplating something. “Sounds like a typical weekday for me.”

“Say goodbye to those normal weekends then,” Jack smirked.

Danny shrugged, smile plastered on his face. “Didn’t need them anyway.”

“While you continue to deal with Megatron and his ship of crazy nutjobs, I have been working on humanity’s own,” Agent Fowler interrupted a bit more sternly. “The GIW have officially been declared enemies of the state and every personnel has been asked to turn themselves in or face worse consequences than they are now.”

“How long until it gets done?” Wheeljack asked with a cock to his faceplate that meant the bot was skeptical.

“It depends.” Agent Fowler sighed. “Raf has already been working with an inside source to uncover all the GIW’s bases and satellite facilities. The information so far has turned in a great number of them. Our main concern is the five GIW commanders. Once Commander V was captured, the remaining four went into hiding. With their help, we are anticipating a quick clean up.”

Danny looked questioningly at the boy standing nearby. Catching his gaze, Raf only smiled with a shrug before turning his attention back to Agent Fowler. Technus could be the inside man or perhaps Tucker? However, Raf figured out just about everything regarding Danny’s secret identity while the halfa was recovering (and that had been a shock Danny had found out during this meeting). The boy genius actually had a few things figured out before Danny even left the base with Smokescreen and that fake driver’s license. Surely Raf would’ve mentioned if he had made contact with Danny’s best friend.

“Still unsure about how many are out there, but we have cleaned up a good deal of them.” Agent Fowler reported. “They could all be in custody within a month and the trials involving them finished up in a few years.”

“A few years?!” Bulkhead’s optics threatened to bulge out.

“Its a long and complicated process,” Jack answered. Agent Fowler had his mouth open but Jack had beat him to the punch. “They need to get all the evidence gathered and organized before the GIW can be charged with everything they did.”

“They will still be in jail awaiting those trials. They won’t be able to cause much of a fuss.” Smokescreen had a glare that Danny hadn’t seen on the bot before. “Right?”

“Whoa. When did you learn so much about human custody and trials?” Miko finally released Danny, only to throw herself halfway over the bars to look at Smokescreen just a few inches closer.

“Overheard it,” Smokescreen shrugged.

“Either way,” Fowler said, softly tugging on Miko to get off the rail. “The GIW will hopefully be a problem of the past after it is all said and done.”

“Understood Agent Fowler,” The Prime regarded the military liaison. “I do believe that is everything we needed to meet about today.”

“For me, yes,” The agent said, his eyes turning to Danny.

Danny froze, confused. Looking for an answer, he looked to Optimus who was also looking at him. Actually, now that he was paying attention, everyone in the room was looking at him. Why?...

“Anything else you want to talk about?” Jack leaned over to whisper to him.

Why would he…Oh…Danny had called for this meeting hadn’t he.

“No…no… I’m good.” Danny managed to stutter out.

“If that is all, Autobots you are dismissed.” Optimus said.

Bulkhead and Wheeljack immediately went back out of the hangar with Miko on their peds. Ratchet focused back on his work station while Ultra Magnus left into the depths of the base. Raf followed Ratchet’s line of thinking and planted himself back at the computer on the desk. Jack was with Nurse Darby and Arcee speaking about something. Danny wasn’t sure where Optimus and Bumblebee went.

Danny slowly started walking backwards. He wasn’t quite sure what he could do right now. Smokescreen had promised him a surprise but Danny didn’t know if Smokescreen had to do something before that. The bot was still helping defend Earth from an alien invasion.

“There is actually something else I would like to talk to you about, Mr. Fenton,” Agent Fowler sounded behind him. It seemed the agent had already suspected Danny’s escape. “Do you mind joining me over here?” He said, gesturing to an area a little further away in the human area.

Danny gulped. It was instinct. Danny had nothing against the Autobot liaison but… a month is all it took for Danny to fear any sort of military agent.

The man stiffened, eyes widening a little. Before Danny could apologize for whatever he did, Agent Fowler raised his hand to stop the apology and then sighed.

“Mr. Darby. Can I see you over here, too, please?” the agent called.

“Coming, sir,” Jack called, quickly leaving whatever conversation he was in with his mom and Arcee.

The Agent led them a bit away. Danny caught Smokescreen’s optics. His gaze trailed after the three of them as they got further away. Danny gave a nod, which Smokescreen returned a moment later. The Autobot looked away right as Agent Fowler stopped them to form a little huddle.

“So, first things first,” Agent Fowler sighed. “On behalf of the US military, I would like to issue a formal apology for the actions of the Ghost Investigation Ward and any harm they caused you, your family and acquaintances in any way.”

“Uh… apology accepted?” Danny said nervously. Like, how was he supposed to respond to that?

“Second. I would like to propose something to you in light of… recent discoveries,” the agent said before returning to the boy beside Danny, “ Jack here is currently enrolling in Unit E’s special forces program. We are always in need of good men and women to serve the unit. There are only so many people who don’t mind giant aliens.”

Danny's eyes widened. “You want me to join Unit E?”

“Not quite,” the man said. “It’s my hope that Jack will take over Unit E when I have to step down.”

“Wait, what?” Jack stammered. “Me in charge?”

“Don’t doubt yourself, Mr. Darby. You were quite the leader while Optimus was suffering from amnesia. Or how you took command in making sure Danny and Smokescreen were alright.” The agent smiled softly. “The big bot himself agrees that he couldn’t think of anyone better to take over after I retire.”

Jack scratched the back of his head. Danny could understand. If a thousands of years old leader of an alien race thinks you did a good job, you probably did. Danny felt that way with Frostbite and Pandora sometimes.

“As for you, Danny, I would still like you to take part in the program with Jack and eventually Miko. Help out around Unit E while training.” Agent Fowler said. “However, while the way the GIW went about protecting the world from ghosts, we do have concerns about the safety of humanity an…”

“Ghosts don’t always mean to harm people,” Danny rambled. “They just don’t realize things, and then they have their whole biology with obsessions that caus….”

“Hold on. Let me finish,” Agent Fowler interrupted, putting a hand on Danny’s shoulder.

He clicked his mouth shut. Danny’s shoulders felt like they had hiked up a few inches, too.

“We have concerns about the safety of humanity and relations between our two… states of being,” the Agent trailed off, releasing Danny’s shoulder. “We would like to form a new organization that protects humanity from ghosts while maintaining civil interactions with them. With your unique circumstances, I felt it would be best to recommend you to lead it once we get through the paperwork and legalities getting set up over the next couple of years, after the GIW have completely been dealt with.”

“Wait…what?” Danny muttered, mirroring Jack’s reaction earlier. “You want me to lead a new GIW?”

“Unit G, yes,” Agent Fowler smiled. “When you are of age and have been trained. If you would accept, that is.”

“Uh…”

Error. Unable to process information. Please reboot. Please reboot.

Him, lead a military unit?! He was going to get someone killed! The best thing Danny had done leadership-wise was leading a ghost jailbreak and an attack against the Ghost King. Needless to say, his resume was not good for the position he had been offered.

“No need to decide right now,” Agent Fowler said. No doubt noticing the halfa’s panic. “In the meantime, we wish to keep a lookout for you in case the Cons try and capture you again. Optimus has assigned Smokescreen as your guardian if you’d be willing.”

“Ratchet probably wasn’t too happy, was he?” a smirk tugging on Jack’s lips.

“Actually. He seemed fine. Just happy it wasn’t him on babysitting duty,” Fowler shrugged.

“Guardian. Like Arcee and Jack?” Danny asked. He had heard about the whole guardian thing, but it had never been explained.

“Similar to Bulkhead and Miko and Raf and Bumblebee,” Jack answered with a head nod. “When we were living back in Jasper, the bots watched us when they weren’t on missions. Making sure we were safe. Not that it worked like that, though. Sometimes we would get dragged into stuff because of it.”

Jack sighed, looking back towards Ms. Darby and Arcee, who were still talking. His eyes were a bit distant as if he was seeing something else.

“Soon, it just turned into a weird battle partner, guardian, sibling, friend, family relationship thing after a bit,” Jack continued, turning back to the group. “You and Smokescreen would just be sticking with each other and helping each other out when needed.”

“Oh…sweet,” Danny smiled. Inside, he was much more excited, though. He could hang out with Smokescreen whenever they wanted. Though weren’t they sort of doing that already? Danny wonders why Agent Fowler was the one telling him and not Smokescreen. “I’m good with that.”

“I’ll let Prime know then,” the agent said. “Any questions for me before I go handle a Valley Forge worth of paperwork?”

A dismissal was about to slip out of Danny’s mouth when the thought hit like lightning. Danny nearly started laughing just at the thought of it. He had to get an answer.

“One actually,” Danny gritted his teeth. He. Could. Not. Laugh. “ Unit E and Unit G. Are they supposed to stand for Unit Extraterrestrial and Unit Ghost?”

Jack tried to strangle the laughter in his throat but failed. The two of them couldn’t help it. Agent Fowler himself stood with his mouth opening and closing like a fish. It took a few moments for the Autobot liaison to regain his composure.

“I can’t confirm or deny that claim,” he coughed out, sending Danny and Jack into some more laughter. “If that is everything,” Agent Fowler said, gesturing behind Danny.

Danny looked to see that Smokescreen had shifted further from where the bots had been gathered and closer to them. He was very obviously trying to keep his optics on something in the main area and not the humans.

“I’ll keep in touch? I guess?” Danny said, trying to give a smile.

Agent Fowler nodded before he walked towards his office on the side of the base. Jack patted his shoulder before walking back to his mom and guardian, face lost in his own thoughts. Guess Jack had to wrap his head about taking over Unit E. As for Danny… Smokescreen was clearly waiting on him.

“So…”Smokescreen drummed his digits across his folded arms. He was trying to look innocent. “What was that about?”

“US Government giving me and ghost-kind an apology.” Danny simply stated.

Smokescreen raised his chin, optics narrowing. “That wasn’t it was it?” He smirked.

Danny looked away, pouting and grumbling under his breath. The offer of Unit G was still ringing in his mind. It was happening again. The offer of leadership he didn’t want. However, why wasn’t Danny so conflicted about it this time around?

“Okay. We can talk about on the way to that surprise,” Smokescreen extended his servo.

“Who said I wanted to talk about it?” Danny huffed, still getting on the servo.

“After the last few days we need to talk.” Smokescreen explained cheerfully. He didn’t leave any room for argument. He carried Danny back towards the main hub. There was only one Autobot still there. “Hey Ratchet. Can I get that ground bridge?”

They were leaving base again? Danny just figured that Smokescreen was going to take him to one of the adjacent hangars the Autobots were allowed to be in. Show him some cool alien tech or something.

“Yes, yes.” The doc muttered. “I trust you won’t get into trouble like last time?”

“I think the doc has a point. Remember what happened last time we left the base through a groundbridge?” Danny chuckled nervously. He wasn’t liking the odds.

“Don’t call me doc,” Ratchet grumbled.

“Sorry Ratchet,” the apology came quickly.

“It will be fine I promise,” Smokscreen laughed. “I made sure to check for possible trespassing, Decepticon activity, and then went over possible escape routes and retreat protocols.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t help my confidence as much as you think it should.”

“Just trust me.” The Autobot whined.

Shaking his head, Danny finally relented. Giving a small victory fist- servo- pump, Smokescreen shifted around Danny. The seatbelt slid across him not even a second after landing in the seat. The ground bridge roared to life in front of them, just like it had done a few days ago.

“Hang on,” The Elite Guard’s EM field joyfully bolstered.

There seemed to be no ‘slow’ mode with Smokescreen going through a ground bridge. Tire treads marred the floor underneath as the two of them shot through. On the other side was a simple paved road, surrounded by fields. Honestly reminded Danny of the countryside outside of Amity Park.

“Alright. Now that we are out of base,” Smokescreen said. “Let's get started on that list.”

“List?” Danny questioned.

“Look. I had a bunch of time to think while you were recovering.” Answered the Autobot. “I was curious about some stuff and figured you may want to ask some things as well.”

The halfa winced. Had Smokescreen really not left Danny for too long when he was recovering? “Well. I did already explain what I was. I don’t know what else you would want besides that.”

“Well…” Smokescreen’s EM field flickered. “ I don’t know if I was seeing things but….” A vent. “You didn’t mention how you were fighting your own war.”

“Own war?” Danny paused. “I am not in a war?”

“Not what Alpha Trion told me… though he also said you wouldn’t admit it….” The Elite Guard responded. “But whatever. You have clearly been trying to keep ghost kind from becoming extinct. I think that counts.”

“No, no, no. Not a war,” Danny shook his hands as if he was telling someone not to fire. “That would mean battles against each kind and a leader taking command to help push back the opposing force. Doesn’t there have…”

“There is more than one type of war,” Smokescreen cut him off softly. No aggression, just gentle firmness. Reminded Danny of Optimus. “The Decepticons didn’t officially declare war until they had slaughtered thousands. The Autobots were divided among leaders for some time. Some following the senate, others with different bots that had good experience in battle or who just was of higher class. It wasn’t until the senate fell and Optimus received the Matrix that the Autobots were unified and an official side in the war.”

Smokescreen vented giving himself a short pause. “Alpha Trion taught me that war wasn’t just when two sides fight to oversee the other. It's a conflict, whether inside yourself or against another that won’t or sometimes can’t be resolved in a short time. That conflict can be one sided. It can be two vs twenty thousand but it's a war all the same.”

“Um… gah… well…” Danny stumbled. “It… it couldn’t have been a war. It couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because… because.” Danny shuddered. He clenched his teeth hard. His hand clamped around his leg. “Because that means I have been fighting this war alone for the last year.”

It meant that Danny had been all alone carrying the weight of a war. Sure Tucker and Sam had helped out where they could. Jazz had provided so much support to him. However, at the end of the day, Danny had done 90% of the fighting. He had been the one fighting ghosts and the GIW in Amity Park. Then it really was just him after he escaped that horrid lab.

“Not anymore you’re not,” a small push of comfort came from Smokescreen. “And soon, hopefully, your war will be over.”

“Hopefully,” Danny muttered. “Still have to help you with yours though.”

“Danny…” Smokescreen quickly went to argue.

“Nope. If you get to come in and help me with my war, I get to help you with yours,” Danny tutted him. “Besides, Alpha Trion made me promise to watch over you and I am not about to break it.”

“Alpha Trion spoke to you too?” There was an awe in Smokescreen’s voice. Along with a longing plea hidden in there too.

Danny had been suspicious of it. The way Smokescreen always looked up to Alpha Trion, praised him, spoke of how much the bot had taught the Elite Guard, Danny figured Smokescreen thought of him as a mentor. Now, after hearing Alpha Trion ask for Danny to protect his guardian, the way a parent would ask someone to look over their child, the halfa felt like he was a bit closer to understanding exactly what Smokescreen had lost in the raid of the Iacon Hall of Records. A father.

“He did,” Danny nodded. “He asked me to help you. Then he said something about a mutual friend of ours sending these blob ghosts I had helped out of that lab I found you in. How they were there to help me get my energy back and everything.”

“Mutual friend?”

“Eh. Probably Clockwork,” Danny shrugged, lowering himself into Smokescreen’s seat. “He is the ghost of time. The dude tries to help me out when he is allowed and since you said Alpha Trion could glance into the future a little bit, I feel like if they didn’t know each other then, they probably do now.”

“Huh,” was all Smokescreen had as a response.

“Besides. Aren’t we partners now?” Danny asked.

“Oh. Fowler told you that?” Smokescreen asked.

“Surprised it was him and not you or Optimus honestly,” Danny said. He wasn’t trying to sound annoyed.

“Sorry.” Smokescreen’s EM field went lower. “I have been trying to come to terms with it myself. I was worried if you would even want me to be your partner.”

“What…?” Danny scrambled up in the seat. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because I failed to protect you back at the lake,” Smokescreen muttered angrily at himself. “Because the GIW, your worst enemies, got to you again and I didn’t stop it.”

“Oh,” Danny said. He understood where Smokescreen was coming from but it wasn’t like the bot knew about the Decepticon and GIW team up. They had caught both of them off guard after all.

“But you did rescue me.” Danny answered. “You had my back.” The air grew quiet for a moment. It was a little awkward but not tense.“That seems like the type of partner I would want. I’ll sit here and try and find some words of encouragement if you don’t believe you did a good job either.”

A soft chuckle escaped the sports car. “Arcee already beat you to the punch, so no need.”

“Is that what you two were talking about when I was helping Raf?”

“Yep,” Smokescreen popped the p.

“Huh,” was the response Danny had this time around.

“So…What else was Agent Fowler and Jack were talking to you about?” Smokescreen said. “You seemed a little shaken by it. If it wasn’t me being your partner, what was it?”

“I..” Danny hesitated. He really didn’t want to talk about this, but maybe Smokescreen would be on his side. Danny needed the validation. Him in charge was a bad idea. “Agent Fowler and the US government want to form an organization that basically does what the GIW were supposed to do. Protect humanity from ghosts as well as protecting ghosts from humanity.”

“And that is a bad thing, why?”

“They want me to lead it,” The words came off a bit too harsh. Danny paused for a breath before continuing. “Like. Why me? I was running around for my half-life for a year. It wasn’t like I was leading this great rebellion against the injustice of it all.”

“But you have the experience for it. No one would be better equipped.” Smokescreen argued back. Was no one else thinking this was a bad idea? Somebody (or bot) had to see it.

“Just because I have the experience doesn’t make me the best person, do it.” Danny nearly yelled. “I would be responsible for lives. Humans and ghosts. I would be the one in charge. Every injury, every issue, every lost comrade would be on my shoulders. I…”

Danny slumped into the seat unable to finish. It was too much. Danny had already turned down the crown of the ghost zone. Even though he knew he could be asked about it again, the thought still made him nauseous. Danny couldn’t be a king. He couldn’t be a general or agent for ghosts. He was just a kid.

“I know what it feels like,” the Autobot said after a moment of silence.

“How?” Danny managed to let out a wet laugh.

“I was nearly made a Prime.”

Danny laughed further. “I hate to say Smokescreen, but a Pr…” Smokescreen’s admission suddenly hit Danny in the face. Hard. The halfa nearly choked on air. “You were nearly a Prime?!?!”

Smokescreen swerved slightly at the yelp. Danny would apologize for hurting his ears or whatever the Cybertronian version was later. Right now, he needed this story.

“Yeah,” Smokescreen chuckled softly. “You are the first bot or person to know that besides Optimus.”

“How?! I thought you said you had to have the Matrix to be a Prime unless you did that whole voting thing you were talking about.” Danny rambled. “Did you do something awesome to get recommended to be a Prime?”

Sensing nervousness from Smokescreen’s EM field, Danny snapped his mouth shut quickly. The Autobot was eerily quiet. The only sound was the wind against the Elite Guard’s windshield and doors.

“Remember when I asked about refusing a burden while we were at the lake?” Smokescreen quietly asked. Danny nodded slowly. “The Decepticons had destroyed our old base. Optimus had sent everyone out while he stayed behind to destroy the ground bridge to keep everyone safe. However, I went back for him. Optimus was badly injured. I used the phase shifter and got him to an underground cave near the old base.”

Smokescreen let out a heavy vent. Danny was unsure of how to comfort. Hoping the meaning was received, he patted the dashboard.

“He was dying. Optimus sent me to get the Forge of Solus Prime. I went and retrieved it, but he told me that it was not for him. It would be used to repair the Omega Lock, a device Optimus had to destroy. One that was supposed to save Cybertron.” Smokescreen continued. “The Forge needs the Prime to operate it. Its energy could create or repair anything with a few swings. However, its energy was already running out. It would only be able to do one more miraculous thing. I told Optimus it would be useless without him even if we saved the power for the Omega Lock. Then… then he said the Matrix would choose a new Prime…. He told me I was worthy of it.”

“And as a Prime, you would be responsible for leading Cybertron…its people,” Danny muttered. “You didn’t want that burden.”

“I couldn’t accept it. I refused to,” Smokescreen sighed. “I used the forge to repair Optimus instead of the Omega Lock.”

Danny had to chew on the words. He thought about Optimus. How the leader looked at the halfa with concern as he was avoiding answering questions. The legend that took on dozens of Decepticons on his own. The absolute kindness he had when he found out Danny was a halfa. Just acceptance despite how different he was from the Autobots, from other humans. Still, Danny could sense his EM field. It was deeply guarded. Only fragments of tiredness, guilt, and sadness leaked through to Danny when they were in the same room together. Danny couldn’t imagine how hard the war had been on the leader.

Danny was scared to think what that would have done to Smokescreen. Still…

“I understand why you didn’t accept the Matrix,” Danny smiled softly. “But I think you would’ve made a great Prime. I wonder what your name would’ve been.”

Smokescreen sighed. “I haven’t thought about it. Honestly, I try to avoid it.”

Smokescreen’s EM field was slowly getting looser. It was lighthearted. More relaxed. Alright. Danny could work with that.

“I mean. It would have to be awesome. Something to know that you mean business,” Danny readied a fist into the air.

“Awesomeness Prime does not sound good,” Smokescreen’s voice cut out a little. He was holding back laughter. “It has to represent you anyway. Like how Optimus is always inspiring us to look past the bleak and towards a brighter future. Optimistic, you know?”

“Hmmm…” Danny thought. Something that represents Smokescreen. A small memory formed into Danny’s mind. He snapped his fingers. “Ignis Prime.”

“Ignis? Like that story you were telling me?”

“Yeah.” Danny relaxed further into Smokescreen’s seats. “Ignis means fire. Like I explained, fire was both a good and bad thing for humanity to wield, but in that sense fire is so versatile. It can be found anywhere. In home, warfronts, space or among other planets. It's not bound like other elements are. Fire goes until it can’t anymore.”

Danny kept a sense out on Smokescreen’s EM field. It hadn’t changed so he kept going.

“It's like you. I heard from the other bots that you have adapted to everything since waking up from stasis. You may have made mistakes, granted don’t we all, but you still don’t let them stop you from what you need to do. Whether in the war, or at the base. I feel like if you had accepted being a Prime, you would commit to it. You would do what you thought you needed to do to help everyone, even at the price of yourself. Helpful to your allies, yet dangerous for those who wanted to hurt those around you.”

Smokescreen took a second to respond. “Thanks.” It was so soft Danny nearly missed it. “And I still think you would do amazing forming Unit G.” It was subtle, but Danny felt Smokescreen’s engine purr, almost like it was giving a comfortable pat on the shoulder. “Someone has to show those nutjobs how protecting the world is supposed to be done.”

That got a small laugh out of Danny. “Maybe? We will see…” And Danny actually meant that. “I don’t know if I would be good at it. I get into more ghost fights than I should.”

“I’ll be rooting for you all the same,” Smokescreen spoke softly.

For some reason, just talking it out with Smokescreen made him think that maybe he could do it. Knowing that someone else who knew how Danny felt was encouraging him, not trying to force him to take the responsibility. Maybe that’s why Smokescreen took him out on the ride. Just to talk and relax. It was nice.

Speaking of the ride…

Danny looked out the window. He had been aware of the field outstretched everywhere. He hadn’t thought about it much as they drove. That was until he caught a sign.

Welcome to Amity Park

Most Haunted Place on Earth

His breath stuttered. Amity Park? The halfa couldn’t even convince himself that he was imagining when a familiar landscape of buildings greeted him as Smokescreen went over a small hill.

“Smokescreen..?” Danny dragged, eyes darting from building to building.

“Why so nervous? You finally get to go home,” Smokescreen laughed, apparently ignorant of Danny’s fear.

“Because my secret is blown and the GIW are probably still around here,” Danny yelped, peeking up to look for the white vans or any other signs of danger. “I can’t be here.”

“Don’t worry, Agent Fowler made sure any GIW were out before he gave us the all clear to allow you home.” The Elite Guard said, slowing down to the town speed limit, “He actually said he didn’t need to do much. Everyone here seemed to kick the GIW out themselves when they got word that they were being disbanded.”

A small glimmer in the driver’s seat caught Danny’s eye. Smokescreen had activated his holoform again. It was sitting, acting as if it were driving the sports car. Instead of its racecar uniform, the holoform now had a military uniform on, still complete with the Autobot insignia.

“But you don’t understand,” Danny said, dipping further into the seat. “I was both a human and a ghost in disguise. My parents didn’t even know what I was. Who knows what everyone in town is going to do to me if they see me!”

Smokescreen vented, the holoform doing the motions of an eye roll. “While you were recovering, Raf made sure to research Amity Park. I think you would be quite surprised how wrong you have things.”

Danny opened his mouth to respond when he felt Smokescreen pull onto a curb.. Curiously Danny looked out the window. The halfa stopped moving, stopped thinking even as he caught sight of a familiar place. A brick building on the corner of the street.

Home… This was Danny’s home.

It was nearly as he remembered. The giant neon sign reading FENTON WORKS pointed to the door. A giant metal contraption on the roof with satellites and scanners of all types. There was the Ghost Assault Vehicle in the driveway, a near literal tank, with the side door open. Danny’s eyes slowly moved towards the front door, which was swung wide open.

“Surprise,” Smokescreen laughed a little. Danny could imagine him doing some jazz hands with it. “I know what it is like to miss home. Figured you would want to get back to yours as soon as it was safe too.”

“But…I…” Danny stopped, chest tightening.

His hand started tracing the scars along it. The Y that would never heal. The memories that came with it. The GIW had called him everything they could while they tore him open. Monster… freak… scum… nothing… Danny couldn’t handle it if his family didn’t want him back. If his parents looked at him with disgust for what he was. If Jazz realized that her life was so much easier without having to wrap his wounds after a ghost fight.

“It’s okay Danny,” Smokescreen spoke softly. The bot’s EM field reached out, surrounding him with the feeling of calm. “I will save you again if they try anything or if you want, we can just leave right now and go back to base. Your choice.”

“I… I…” Danny stuttered.

Then something came out of the house. No, it was someone. A young girl with red hair tied in a half-up pony tail. A teal ribbon tied in that matched her eyes perfectly. She was slinging a cooler over her shoulder as she carried a duffle bag with the other. Her eyes were pinched together fiercely, and her lips in a thin line. With the combat boots, jeans and jean jacket she was wearing, Danny knew she was not to be crossed. Something Danny only thought about Jazz on occasion.

Then, halfway towards the GAV Jazz looked up at the sports car sitting by the house. Danny wasn’t able to duck down in time for Jazz not to notice him. The halfa wonders if he even tried to avoid her sight. She froze. Danny didn’t even think Jazz was breathing for a moment, not until she dropped the duffle and cooler onto the concrete below. Still, his sister didn’t move towards or away. She just watched.

“Is everything okay out… here?” a voice came from the house of the doorway

Danny’s eyes snapped to see his mom, dressed in her regular blue jumpsuit. She was also carrying a suitcase and a blaster over her shoulder. They seemed to be packing the GAV for something, but what?

“Danny?!” She shouted as she tracked Jazz’s line sight.

The halfa flinched at the sudden outburst. The two went running straight towards him. The door opened right as the two got to him. Danny had the thought to smack Smokescreen on purpose later for that before he was finding himself yanked from the seat.

Memories tore through his mind first. The GIW dragging him when they had captured him or his first escape attempt that had failed. Next was a crushing weight. He was unable to move, trapped. Then… he heard it. Crying.

The panic in Danny settled a little at the sound. He recognized the sobs and unyielding grips that were around him. The cries weren’t out of anger and the grips didn’t mean to be entrappening. It was relief, happiness and desperation.

“Danny,” His sister sobbed into his shoulder. “You’re back home.”

“My baby,” His mom’s voice joined his sister’s.

Danny’s voice quivered as his mind tried to catch up to what was going on. Then, another force crashed into the three of them. The halfa found his feet off the ground as he was pulled tighter to his mom and sister.

“Dann-o! You are alright.” His dad’s voice came through his own sobs.

The halfa’s own cries soon joined the symphony of the family’s. They stayed like that for some time, even when his dad set the group hug down.

“Oh Danny are you alright,” his mom said as soon as they were able to let go. “Anything we need to go to the hospital for?”

“Mom, mom. I’m good.” Danny told his mom as she started looking over him, grabbing his face to check for any injuries. “I got them taken care of.”

“I don’t count sewing yourself up as ‘taken care of’,” Jazz folded her arms.

“I didn’t do it,” Danny responded, finally getting his mom’s hands off him. “Actually ran into some… people who were able to help me last week… maybe two?”

“How did they get you to stay once you figured out where you were?” Mom asked. “Especially with the GIW hunting you with the half-ghost stuff.”

Danny faltered, “You know about all that?!”

Mom and dad blinked at him, glancing at each other for a second.

“You didn’t think we weren’t worried about you Danny?” His mom asked.

“Well…I…” Danny bit his lip. The words kept getting caught in his throat. It wasn’t easy to tell your parents you questioned their love. At the end of the day, Danny still wondered if anyone loved him despite being Phantom as well. “I…I thought about how you wanted to rip Phantom apart molecule by molecule.”

“Oh Danny,” his mom clutched a fist to her chest.

She suddenly wasn’t able to look Danny in the eyes. Dad either.

“We were wrong Danny.” Dad spoke a moment later. “There was so much about ghosts that we didn't know about. So much we didn’t know about you.”

“I don’t know how we didn’t see it,” tears formed once again in Mom's eyes. She moved closer to Dad, who embraced her into a one sided hug. “How everything we made targeted you. How you pulled away any time we spoke about studying ghosts. It took Jazz explaining everything to us. Showing us the Infinite Realms that we finally realized.”

Danny quivered, casting his eyes to his sister. His sister had been a strong rock in all of this once she had found out. She was the one who made plans and contingencies. She sought out ways to prove their parents wrong with scientific methods. It was his sister that learned how to do every part of first aid so she could help him get patched up when he wasn’t able to make it to Tucker’s or Sam’s. His sister nodded, firm and resolute. They truly meant what they were saying.

“So… no fixing me right?” Danny asked his parents, almost begging.

Danny looked directly at them, challenging them to look him in the eyes and say it. He had to see for himself. Danny couldn’t just hear it. He had to see it. His dad looked up first, followed by his mom.

“We hurt you more than we can even imagine,” his dad whispered. “We are sorry you ever doubted our love for you, whether human, ghost or inbetween.”

Relief coursed through Danny. His parents accept him. They didn’t care that he was a half-ghost. It was better than he could ever dream.

“By the way. You were with us for nine days,” Smokescreen’s holoform said as he came around the car. It stuck close to the car’s frame. Danny wondered how far the holoform could get from Smokescreen before it had problems. Questions for another time though. “You were passed out for a third of that though.”

“I… needed some sleep after everything,” Danny stuttered out a defense. “You got knocked out as well.”

“Not as much as you,” the holoform smiled.

“So…” Mom motioned to the Autobot hesitantly. “Who is your new friend?

“Oh. This is Smokescreen,” Danny introduced while his friend had the holoform wave at the family.

“Smokescreen? Is that like a nickname or something?” Jazz squinted.

“Oh…huh…It’s his…callsign. Yes! That's his callsign for the military.” Danny stuttered. Thank you, Top Gun: Maverick, for letting him know about callsigns. “His real name is…Ignis…Ignis Vega….Smokescreen’s family is… foreign.”

Danny smiled brightly, hoping no one would call him out on that last-minute lie. If he had known Smokescreen was bringing him home, he could’ve prepared for the situation better than that. So yeah, using the name they were just talking about using if he was a Prime along with a star aligned last name was going to have to work. Hopefully, the bot wouldn’t mind the lie and play along with it.

“Uhhhh, yeah?” Smokescreen hesitated. “A lot of people just call me Smokescreen, so I sometimes forget to use my… real name?”

There was a short pause before Jazz chuckled, wrapping her arm around Danny’s shoulder. “Of course you would get along with a guy whose last name is a star.”

Danny visibly relaxed, Smokescreen’s EM field doing the same thing. That was close. It seemed that after he got settled back in, he would have to work on making sure he had stories to cover the Autobots and Unit E. Though he was quite proud of the whole call sign thing. It would help keep him from people asking why he was using weird names for his soon-to-be co-workers.

Dang. Danny was really considering the Unit G thing now.

“I found Smokescreen and he brought me to his military unit when he found out I was injured.” Danny explained with extravagant hands.“Smokescreen was the main guy that helped me get away from the GIW and get the government to realize what those idiots were actually doing. Wouldn’t be here without him, even though I saved him the first time we met.” Danny declared proudly.

Ignis, Danny guessed that was what he could call the holoform now, leaned back against the alt-mode with a smirk. “If I recall correctly, I had to turn around and save you from the GIW.”

“I’m not denying that,” Danny jabbed back, “I am just saying I saved you first.”

A few more chuckles were released into the open air. The heavy atmosphere that had been around them seemed to vanish.

“Well, whatever happened, thank you for helping our son,” Dad beamed.

Before Danny could stop him, the man went barreling towards Ignis. The holoform glitched so quickly that the halfa hoped only he had noticed. Ignis rapidly took a step to the side to avoid the bone-crushing hug. Dad barely stopped himself from running fully into the transformed car. The ecto-scientist blinked before glancing to the side to see his escaped captive.

“I really don’t want to be touched right now,” Ignis winced. “I got injured recently, and it hurts to move or make contact nearly everywhere...”

“Oh,” Dad said, slumping momentarily before shooting right back up. “You at least have to take back some homemade Fenton Fudge. Maddie just made a fresh batch. I’ll go grab it.”

Danny tried to hold in his chuckling as Ignis watched the mountain of a man run back into the house. The holoform shot a confused glance at Danny as soon as the orange jumpsuit was nowhere to be seen.

“I should probably go help your Dad,” Mom said. “It is probably a mess with how we have been packing lately.”

“Packing?” Danny asked.

“Well we weren’t going to let our son stay missing as soon as the travel ban got lifted,” His mom huffed with her hands on her hips. “We were loading everything into the GAV to go on a ghost hunting trip. Just this time for our son, rather than ghost study.”

“Oh…” The halfa breathed.

Mom paused. Her eyes were still filled with tears as she looked at Danny, still tight under Jazz’s arm. The ecto-scientist cupped her boy’s face, forcing him to look her in the eyes. Danny nearly gulped when he realized he came eye to eye with his mom now. Had he really grown that much in a year?

“I am so glad you're home, sweetie,” Mom pecked a small kiss on Danny’s forehead.

Danny reeled back, “Moooommmm. Really???” Danny cried, ducking out of Jazz’s hold.

Laughter echoed as Danny wiped the kiss off his forehead. Despite the pout, Danny hadn’t felt this happy in a long while. The halfa was no longer on the run, his friends and family knew his secret, and they accepted him. Danny had met aliens, fought with them, fought against them, and had an idea of what he could do for the rest of his life.

“Can we at least save all the family feel stuff until Smokescreen is gone? He has to get back soon,” Danny leaned in whispering, “and I don’t need him to spread stuff around the base. I will never hear the end of it.”

Mom and Jazz laughed again. Ignis looked over at the family questioningly. Smokescreen had the holoform fold its arms as Danny responded by waving him off the unasked question.

“I promise sweetie,” His mom smiled. “Jazz will stay out here, and I’ll go help your Dad find that fudge.”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t run off,” Jazz promised with a small two-finger salute.

Mom strolled up the driveway and back into the house, leaving the car and two Fenton siblings outside.

“Alright. There is more to this than you are telling us. What is it?” Jazz crossed her arms.

“What do you mean?” Danny huffed, turning his back. He couldn’t help the smile on his face, though, as he did. “I am telling the truth.”

His sister smiled as she brought her hands to his shoulders and forced him to turn back around. She had to look up at him now. Danny really had grown, hadn’t he? Jazz’s hands were trembling slightly as she grasped onto him tightly.

“I won’t ask the details. I know sometimes you need to keep your secrets,” Jazz whispered. She choked as tears spilled down her face. “I just don’t want you to ever think you can’t ever rely on us because we were apart… because we sent you away to safety. We… we didn’t mean to break your trust.”

Danny’s stomach dropped. “I didn’t stay away because I didn’t trust you, Jazz,” The halfa took his sister's hands off his shoulder, shifting them to hold her hands. “The Guys in White knew who I was. They knew I would want to return home. I couldn’t put you, Mom, Dad, Tucker, Sam, or anyone else in Amity Park in danger. I wanted you there by my side. I promise.”

Jazz sniffled, rubbing her hand across her face, leaving water shimmering on her cheeks in the sun. “And Smokescreen?”

“It… was an accident,” Danny sighed, recalling that night. “The GIW had kidnapped Smokescreen, thinking he had something to do with ghosts. I was breaking in to free some ghosts when I ran into him. We ended up escaping together.” The halfa glanced back at the blue and gold car parked along the road. “He and his…unit helped get me patched up, offered me a safe place from the GIW even though I refused to tell them anything about it… that was until the GIW started hunting with some other guys.”

The red-haired Fenton smiled softly, “But you kicked their butts didn’t you.”

“Well…maybe got captured again before we had a chance to do that,” Danny sheepishly said. “But yes.”

“That was point three of me rescuing you,” Ignis shouted from the car.

Danny rolled his eyes, even as Jazz laughed. “There are some things I can’t get into right now, that is true, but please don’t you ever think I don’t trust you, Jazz. You are my sister.”

“Awww,” Jazz cooed, squeezing Danny into a hug. “I am so glad you’ve grown up.”

“Okay, okay,” Danny swatted his sister’s back. The hug was tightened as a result. “Jazz…I know I don’t technically need to, but I…would…like to…breeeeeath.”

Jazz only let go when Dad and Mom came tumbling out the door with a lot more than Fenton Fudge in their arms. There was the plate of fudge stacked precariously on almost every anti-ecto device his parents had ever made in Dad’s arms. How he managed to get the Fenton Bazooka and Jack-O-Nine-Tails to perfectly balance the plate would remain a Fenton Family mystery. Mom carried a fruit basket in one hand as she hefted a case of water bottles with the other.

Ignis’s mouth hung open just a little bit as Mom approached. “Would you mind popping the trunk of your car. I know it isn’t much, but I bet you and the others in your unit would love to have some water and fruit to snack on between whatever y'all do. Just as a token of thanks for taking care of Danny.”

“Uh..well…” Ignis stuttered. “I think we can get them used around the base in no time?”

Danny hid his smile as Smokescreen’s trunk popped open to allow the ecto-scientist to throw in the water and fruit. Dad followed around too, dipping low to allow Mom to take the fudge off the top before dumping the Fenton Works inventions into the trunk as well.

“There you go, Ignis. The best Fenton Works has to offer,” his Dad declared with a slam of the trunk. The holoform winced, just like the bot under the hood probably was too. “Now you can take care of ghosts until our expert ghost hunter can come bail you out.” The breath was knocked out of Danny as Dad patted his back proudly.

Ignis smiled, deciding to address Danny instead, “I will eventually need to set the record straight of who saved who more often.”

“I mean. For now. Who knows if I will have to come to save your tailpipe again,” the halfa shot back.

“Let’s hope that isn’t the case,” Jazz quickly interjected before clapping her hands. “Now, as Danny said, Smokescreen needs to leave here soon, and I can tell they need to talk about something really quickly, so let's just head to the doorway and wait for them to finish up.”

Danny smiled at his sister, thankful for her amazing ability to read other people and know what he was thinking. Mom stepped forward, handing the plate of fudge to Danny

“Don’t take too long sweetie. We have so many things to catch up on and ask about.”

“"Yes! Like how ghosts send a chill into an area or how to stop the colds they cause,” Dad declared, a mix of hand motions in the air. “And later we can talk about how ghosts form cultures and societies.”

Danny was taken aback. His parents had actually changed their views on ghosts? So much so that not only was he sentient, but ghosts had social norms and cultures too? Jazz patted him on his shoulder, taking him out of his daze.

“Alright. The more we stall, the longer it's going to take Danny to get back inside,” Jazz smiled as she pushed her parents up the drive.” The girl turned her head back, tossing a smile to her brother before leaving his sight.

“Did your parents just throw a whole bunch of weapons in me?” Ignis questioned, walking up beside Danny, staring at the doorway his family had walked through.

“Yeah,” Danny chuckled. “You mind putting those in a spot Miko, Wheeljack or Raf won’t find. I don’t trust those three not to try and use them or figure out how they work. I’ll take care of them when I get back to Unit E.”

The holoform broke into a grin, still a bit too wide for a human being, “Yeah. Just have to find a place at the hanger that Miko won’t look.”

“Just distract her with the fudge. Most people love it.” Danny smiled, gesturing to the fudge in his hands.

“And what are call signs?”

“Nicknames in the American military. They may sound cool but most of the time they are a reference to an embarrassing story,” Danny grinned evilly. “I mean… Technically Smokescreen is your real name but since I have to use it as a call sign, I am going to have to think of a story to tell my family about how you got it. Say… running so fast that you kicked up smoke when a certain archivist snuck up on you while guarding him.”

Ignis stiffened. “That isn’t what happened.”

“No, but it's close.” Danny laughed, spinning on his heel.

“Well…This was….interesting?” Ignis sighed, watching as Danny approached the transformed sports car.

“I mean. It is about as interesting as your family,” Ignis squawked, even letting the hint of static into his voice. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You basically have to two fresh out-of-jail uncles, a grumpy grandpa, a teen with too much fighting experience to not be scary, a near ninja of an older sister, a military veteran and a living legend within your family not including Jack, Raf and Miko,” Danny listed off, opening the back door on the driver’s side. “That is a very odd setup for a family even by human standards and we will pack bond with nearly anything.”

“Well, add you and it just gets weirder,” The holoform chuckled.

Danny froze. He would’ve dropped the fudge if he hadn’t already set it down in the seat. The words ran over in his mind for a second before he had the courage to look up at the holoform. His blue eyes, the same color as Smokescreen’s optics, held no intent to trickery.

“You consider me family?” a soft whisper came from the halfa.

“Well…yeah,” Ignis shrugged. “I thought it came with the whole partner thing. We watch each other's backs, help each other when we need it. That’s family right? Or did I get the definition wrong?”

Danny smiled, letting the door he had been standing in shut. “No, you're right. It just still caught me by surprise. He looked up and stared at the sky. There weren’t any stars in sight. Wouldn’t be any for hours. Yet the halfa couldn’t help being pulled back to the time he had looked at Smokescreen and thought of Jazz. When they hung out around base together or that time he and Smokescreen spent at that lake. “I have just been alone, fighting for my survival for so long… I think I forgot…”

“Forgot that you don’t have to do everything alone,” Ignis finished.

“Yeah,” Danny sighed, leaning against Smokescreen’s finish. “So…what now?”

The holoform followed suit, “Well. Agent Fowler will probably want you to keep checking in. Raf is working on making sure the Cons can’t track this place down. Apparently it’s not the first city that we have had to intentionally hide from the Cons. An island I think? Grey Rock or something like that. Once we get that settled, we can get everything set up for you to come on base to help out whenever you can… You know… not including me being here to help keep an eye on you when I am not doing anything for Team Prime.”

Danny laughed, “Guess I am not going to be able to get rid of you. Unit G or not.”

“Nope,” Ignis laughed, “You can try, but I’ll still catch you whether you turn intangible or not.”

There was silence for a bit before Danny broke it. “I always thought it would be cool to have a brother.”

The world suddenly got blurry, and his legs weakened. He slid down the door, the sidewalk below him greeting him on the way down. Smokescreen’s engine revved a little in comfort as Danny cried. He sat and cried for what seemed like hours. It clearly wasn’t that long. He knew that if he had, his parents would’ve come out to make sure he was alright, or someone from base would have contacted Smokescreen.

The Guys in White were gone. Danny was safe. Danny was back home. Danny wasn’t alone anymore. He wouldn’t be ever again.

“Than…thank you so… so much Smokescreen,” Danny sobbed. “For everything.”

“That’s what a partner does right?” Smokescreen mumbled softly as Danny’s cries slowed. “I’ve got you.”

“I got you too, partner, ” Danny responded back, tapping the Cybertronian metal he laid against. Danny knew he and Smokescreen still had many challenges ahead of them.

But knowing they would be facing them together, Danny thought they could handle anything.