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It was a nice day outside. The sun was out, the birds were chirping and Hashtag could hear the thumps of her siblings playing above her but there was something that had gotten her attention. It was peculiar, very peculiar.
She had been listening to G.H.O.S.T. chatter just to get a better sense of their usual strategies but they were having quite a bit of trouble trying to get a certain Decepticon under control but what was odd to her… was that she never heard of this one before.
Usually she heard about the super strong ones from dad or Bee, but she stared at the file before her completely stumped. What was so difficult about this one seemingly insignificant bot?
She must have been down in the lab longer than she thought as she heard some of her siblings come to investigate.
“She’s been down here foreeeever! Something must be super interesting, she loves playing tag with us!” She heard Twitch whine and she could hear Thrash give a “mhm” in approval.
“I’m sure we’ll find some way for her to come out.” Bee concluded as the three bots walked into the lab.
“HASHTAAAAAAG, COME PLAY WITH USSSSSS!” Thrash practically yelled, strolling over to where the bigger bot was hunched over her tablet. “Oh, who’s that?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out! She’s a decepticon that G.H.O.S.T. found hours ago and they’re still fighting her. It doesn’t make any sense!” Hashtag mumbled and Twitch looked over her younger sister’s shoulder to have a peek.
“Hm, yeah… That’s weird. I haven’t heard of her either, which is really saying something because I loooove hearing Dad’s stories.” The drone then turned to Bee.
“Bee! Have you heard of a Decepticon called… Paradox?” She asked, double checking the file on Hashtag’s tablet just to make sure.
Bee stumbled a little bit, rushing over.
“What??” He stuttered out which made the other bots around him giggle. It was rare for them to see him so shocked.
“Bingo!”
“Why exactly are you asking about Paradox?” He asked, having recovered from his little moment but it was obvious that he was still a little unsettled.
“G.H.O.S.T. is trying to capture her-“
“Where.”
“Just south of the woods-“ was all Hashtag was able to get out before he was already transforming and driving out of the base, fighting against the stairs as he disappeared out of sight.
“Well, uh… that was weird.” Hashtag stated and the other two could only nod.
“… We should probably go after him.”
“Yeah.”
In all of the commotion, Hashtag didn’t even hear how the line had turned to static.
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They could hear the fighting ages away, even over the whoosh of the wind flying past them at the high speeds they were going, and they could see smoke and stray laser fire from even further. It looks like she was still putting up a fight, somehow.
“How do you exactly know Para… Paragon?” Thrash asked to fill in the tense silence that was growing thicker by the second.
“Paradox. We… fought a few times during the war. I know she’ll be giving those agents hell.” He explained but his tone was off, it was shaky and uncertain. Almost straight up uncomfortable.
“Uh-huh, yeah sure.”
Bee didn’t respond after that and just sped ahead.
“Okay, is Bee acting super weird or is that just me?” Thrash asked.
“He is acting weird.” Twitch agreed. Especially as the three watched him just barrel through the woods, not even following the road that would’ve led them where they were going anyways.
“Super weird.” Hashtag added.
The three remaining bots were a little more careful climbing through the woods until they reached the heart of the battle. Paradox was still kicking but it was obvious that she was getting tired. She was slipping, she was fumbling, she was just getting sloppy with her hits and she was narrowly dodging anything that was shot at her.
And when she saw Bee standing there in the trees, she froze. And just like that, it was over. G.H.O.S.T. agents were on her like flies flocking to a rotten corpse and she was against the ground. There was silence for a few moments and just as Bee was about to run in (and probably do something stupid), three blurs of metal came out of nowhere.
The three blurs finally slowed down on their approach and… they were more transformers. But something was different about them, they were smaller but they weren’t mini-bots, and two of them were still in their protoforms.
Sparklings.
The one leading the young bots was the only one of the three that looked to have an alt mode. She was small, but bulky with a black and orange paint job. The Terrans just stared as they watched the absolute chaos unfold in front of them.
The small group of the young bots just unleashed everything that they could possibly think of. Agents were being tossed like ragdolls, thrown around and then kicked until they were unconscious. It was almost comical with their sizes.
Thankfully, after all of the agents had been dealt with, the sparklings relented and rushed over to Paradox.
Once the three had freed her from the restraints, she had got up and the Terrans were finally able to get a good look at her.
She was a very sleek and triangular con, she had wheels so she probably had a vehicle alt mode and she had a black and red paint job. Her bright red eyes were still staring at Bumblebee, as if he was an illusion made to trick her.
However the moment of peace was short lived as one of the sparklings, the one without a protoform, stormed over and started yelling at Bee.
“WHAT WERE YOU DOING?! Just standing there like an idiot! Did you give G.H.O.S.T. that tip about us, you stupid autobot bi-“ Paradox immediately walked over and picked the smaller Decepticon up.
“Queenie, that’s not how we use our words. This is… an old friend of mine, he wouldn’t sell us out. Or at least I hope he wouldn’t.” She explained which caused the smaller one of the two to relent her verbal attacks.
“Sorry, Mom…”
Mom??
The two protoforms walked over, seemingly much more curious now that their mother had deemed these newcomers not as a threat, but something familiar.
“Hold on, did that one just call you-“ Bumblebee started and Paradox sighed.
“Yeah, these are my Sparklings. This one’s Queenie-“ she lifted the one in her arms a little higher before putting her down again- “that’s Sting” -she pointed to the smallest protoform- “and that’s Nectar.” -she then pointed to the tallest protoform.
“Wait a second, why are they all named after Bee puns-“ Thrash asked and there was a very awkward silence that followed.
“No reason. I just… thought they were nice names.” Paradox mumbled after a good few of those awkward seconds.
Twitch glanced at Bee who wouldn’t look her in the eyes. Something was definitely wrong here.
“Nope, nope. Someone is not telling the truth here and I want to know why! Bee, why are you so weird about Paradox? You said that you only fought a couple of times!” She pointed a heated finger to the bot in question and he sighed.
“Okay, okay fine… there was a little more than fighting but- that doesn’t mean anything. Paradox probably has moved on from me and she has a conjux and the names are just a coincidence.” He tried to reason but Queenie just gave him an unimpressed look.
“Wow, you’re really dumb.”
“Queenie!”
“What my sister is trying to say… we don’t know who our father is. Mom doesn’t like talking about it. It’s just been us for as long as we’ve been alive.” Nectar explained and her siblings nodded along.
“Oh dang, y’all might be Bumblebee Jr.” Thrash joked but by the way the two adults winced, that kind of just proves what might be going on.
“OH COME ON!” Thrash exclaimed.
“Wait, I got this guys!” Hashtag immediately cut in. She scanned each Sparkling and the biggest grin emerged on her face.
“Oh I’ve always wanted to say this.” She giggled and she turned to Bumblebee.
“BEE, YOU ARE…” she paused for dramatic effect. “THE FATHER.”
Thrash glanced around before frowning.
“Awww, there’s no furniture to flip.”
There was another very awkward silence, one that nobody wanted to break. You could hear the birds continuing to chirp like it was a normal day. Like Bumblebee’s entire world hadn’t been uprooted and tossed on its head without even a second thought. He was a father. He had sparklings. And he didn’t know.
“You disappeared, Bee. You were gone by the time I figured it out. Your trail had gone cold too so when I tried to find you, I… couldn’t. I thought you died. I couldn’t look for you forever. So I went into hiding and… Well I’ve been in hiding ever since but I guess hiding near a G.H.O.S.T. Base isn’t such a good idea.”
“Pssshh, our mom works at a G.H.O.S.T. Base, those guys are morons.” Thrash chuckle but a quick glare from Bee quickly shut him up.
“I just… I have so many questions. It’s just… a lot to take in. I mean, how did this even happen-“ Bee began to question and Sting cleared his throat.
“When a Carrier and a Sire love each other very much-“
“I know how! I’m just… when?? I don’t remember…” Bumblebee mumbled, thinking to himself.
“It was the last time you saw me. On that old abandoned Decepticon ship.” She explained and Hashtag could hear his fans start to whirr at the memory.
“Oh. Yeah, right… that was just before the war ended.”
A long, heavy silence followed after. And it was awkward. Very, very awkward.
“Soooo uhm… want to come live with us?” Twitch offered hesitantly.
“What??”
“Uhhh, I mean they can’t really live here anymore because G.H.O.S.T. knows about it there and y’know, Mom always talks about taking responsibility…” Twitch continued. Bumblebee looked to the other two Terrans for backup but they were just nodding along with her in agreement.
“Hey, if you have babies with an evil Decepticon then that it your responsibility, Bee.”
“Wait, where do transformer babies even come fro-“ Thrash started but he was cut off by Bee.
“Okay, okay fine! They can stay with us until we can sort out something else for them!” He raised his hands in defeat.
This was going to be a long story to explain to Dot and Alex… which also meant he had to explain this to Optimus and Megatron too. Dang it.