Ghosts of the Present (Rescue Bots AU)

14. Tricked for Treats

"Augh! We almost had it!"

Myles slumped back in his seat, arms crossed and his face scrunched in a frown. Why did those pesky Burnses and their robots have to ruin everything? They were so close to nabbing that car! His control module had somehow malfunctioned, and now they'd lost their command of its operating systems.

Evan sat in the seat next to him, holding a tablet in his hand and looking just as irritated about the situation. But then he leaned over, prodding his brother in the shoulder. "What? What is it?"

Evan handed him the tablet, turning up the sound.

Four years!? I thought we were supposed to be off-the-radar!

It was the helicopter bot speaking, but it didn't sound like a robot. There was too much emotion, too much sentience in its tone. "What...?"

Myles fiddled with the dial, trying to get clearer audio.

Wrrrr...I couldn't refuse him.

A female voice was speaking now; not the Burns girl, but perhaps the spy car itself? ...You all had... this planet and back to Cybertron!

There was more conversation between the robots, but the twin thieves barely heard much of it. They were too busy processing what they'd just come to learn. "That isn't a car or a robot!" Myles announced, "None of them are, or ever have been! They're aliens, from this..."

Evan mumbled.

"Cybertron, right! Alien robots, hiding out here on Earth!" He rubbed his chin, "They're probably just the advance forces."

He tilted his head as Evan mumbled again, "Give up? Oh no no no no. We gotta let the world know about this!"

...Please, Slipchain. The bulldozer murmured, ...just until we...them.

"We them what?" Myles hissed, "This changes things, and makes that Slipchain that much more valuable. If Maven Danger's car is worth as much as you say, then imagine how much a real alien will be..."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Okay okay, so which one, Slipchain?"

Blades held out two halloween masks, one of an emoji and the other, Dracula. "Iconic scary, or cultural icon?"

Slipchain looked up from a book Boulder had offered her from his collection, and squinted her optics in confusion.

Cybertronian guests were few and far between in this house, and most of the time, they were there on business and not being under the Rescue Bots' protection. Nobody was quite sure how to keep the femme from just getting bored and leaving; they barely knew her, after all.

"...I have no idea what you're talking about." She muttered, looking back to the book. "And isn't that human holiday not for another month?"

"Well, usually, yeah!" Cody announced from the table they'd set up for carving pumpkins, "But people on Griffin Rock thought it was too bad that kids would dress up for Halloween night, but nobody could see their costumes."

"Because of the darkness." Chase explained, but was then corrected by Kade.

"Uh no, Chase. It's that it gets so cold here in October, everyone's wearing snowboots and parkas."

"Which is fine if you're going as an Arctic Explorer-" Dani added.

"-But not so fine for a ballerina costume." Graham finished.