A Strange Development

Chapter One: He's Back

Light assaulted closed brown eyes through the so-called barrier of their darkened lids. Felix turned away from the source and tried to drift back off to sleep; how people comfortably slept in the back seat was always a mystery to him. That seat always found ways to leave sores on his shoulders, elbows and hips. And for the record, waking up to a numb shoulder and a stiff neck isn't one life's pleasantries.

"Rise and shine, fleshie..." A gruff 'morning' sort of voice groaned through the tired man's implant. He sat up and looked through the windshield. Everyone seemed to be in statis... Other than the green Stingray flashing his headlights. The sun was only just starting to rise, so the light that woke the human was definitely from Crosshairs... Carefully, Felix opened the backseat's door and got out of Bumblebee's interior, trying his utmost not to wake the resting scout. Success. He closed the door and shuffled through the sand and dust, the tan substances finding their way into his gradually wearing sneakers. It was still chilly from the night's ice-like aria. He made his way over to sit on Crosshairs' bumper.
"Nice sleep?" The corvette asked, somewhat of a mocking undertone in his questioning.
"Goddamn early... I'm still tired," Felix replied, an involuntary grumble to his voice, "How about you?"
"Ah, it was alright."
The sky was a soothing gradient of azure, the clouds of pastel pinks, yellows, and baby blues lazing high above.
"Woah..." The man mumbled under his breath, gaping.
"What are ya gawkin' at, lad?"
"Are you not seeing this view?" He chuffed, turning to look at the gunslinger's windshield, "Drive me further out, I wanna get a better look at this."

Crosshairs reluctantly drove Felix out by a few miles, transforming after their venturing further into the desert sand. He sat on the ground, optics gazing upon the horizon. The human stood by his frame, looking in the same direction.
"You weren't kidding mate. This is a beauty." Crosshairs' optics seemed to be fixated on the view, "Wouldn't have dreamed of a sight like this back on Cybertron, even before the war."
He laid a servo in front of the organic to get on. He did so and was raised onto the larger lifeform's shoulder. Despite what people would think, it wasn't uncomfortable to sit on a Cybertronian's shoulder. It made people feel protected, given they were in an Autobot's company. Or so it was in Felix's opinion. They sat in silence for a while before either of the two piped up.
"...Hey," The brunet began, "Cybertron might not have had a sunrise, but it was still real breathtaking, y'know? You had the freaking Milky Way over your cities. And the intricacy of detail on the buildings... All those geometric patterns? And the livelihood..."
"How would you know?" Crosshairs sighed, "You've never been there. It was destroyed before you were even forged."
"Bee showed me pictures he's taken before everything... Y'know." The other leaned into the crook of the gunslinger's neck, "...I'm sorry."
He didn't know what he could say to make things better, or at least to lessen the burden. Crosshairs must've lost a lot of people he cared about back on Cybertron.

After a Decepticon attack on his school, Felix met Sam. He was 15, and an orphan. The then teen was also a pain in the ass. Seeing Sam's car - Bumblebee - transform and join the Autobots and defend the school, he was starstruck.
"Get to safety."
"What are you doing, kid?"
"Get outta here!"
But he didn't move. Instead, the blond teenager was grabbed by some sort of scrap metal vulture, who he later learned was called Laserbeak. It was ready to kill him, but its master beckoned for its return. Felix was dropped into the servos of this master of the creature. Soundwave- a smartass Felix could've easily had if he didn't happen to be some big ass alien robot. 

Soundwave had his servo wrapped dangerously tight around Felix's squirming teenage form. The boy watched in horror as the Autobots and Decepticons battled it out on what was left the school he attended. Bright multicoloured liquids spurted from clawed and gashed metal, terrifying shrills and shrieks coming from both sides.
"They have that kid!" An older male he learned was called 'Sam' yelled, ''They got him Optimus, we gotta do something!"
"Ironhide, Ratchet, hold ground until reinforcements arrive!" The Prime commanded. Megatron had said something over comms to Soundwave, and the next thing Felix knew, he was strapped tightly into the cockpit of a jet.

It was hard to breathe in the cockpit. A vicious sense of nausea and a severe panic flooded into the teen.
"Let me go!" He screamed, voice cracking, legs thrashing around in an attempt to break free.
"I have been given direct orders. You are an obstacle to the cause."

They were hovering above a collapsed building when Soundwave transformed and dropped onto his peds on top of the remnants of the building. Felix, however, was free falling to his death. But he didn't scream. In fact, he couldn't. Not until he was caught, if you could call it that. His body collided at  full force into the thick metal plating of one of Soundwave's servos. It felt like everything within the still developing human had broken. Pain surged as horrific crunches and cracks made themselves heard. Only then did he scream. He cried. He yelled. He cursed. A harsh wave of agony was enough to pull him into a state of unconsciousness.

Felix woke up in a hospital room, his left calf and foot in a cast, just as his right forearm. There was a trolley beside the bed with a canister of nitrous oxide and a nurse button to call should he have needed to. His head was pounding.
"I see you're awake."  A familiar face was worn and tired. The Sam from before. He'd been there all night with Felix. While the doctors kept the younger teen in there, Sam visited everyday. He told Felix about the Autobots, the Decepticons, and how sorry the Autobots were for what had happened to the brunet, though they tried to get him out of the situation.

The orphanage didn't take too kindly to the hospital bills; God did they let Felix know about it. They treated him as some sort of unwanted mutt. They sent him out of the building for the whole day and wouldn't let him in until dark, restricted the growing teen to one meal a day, no hot showers, and if he needed any new clothes or something? No. He might as well have been asking them for a limb. The orphanage wasn't a nice place to begin with, but it just got worse for Felix. They seemed to ensure he wouldn't be adopted. On visiting day, they told an interested couple who was considering taking him in that he was 'terribly misbehaved', and completely obliterated that chance of a family. The teen felt like storming out, but saw a familiar face that made him stay sat down in the day room. Sam. Though he couldn't hear what was being said, Felix saw Sam point to him and the supervisor shaking her head. Sam pointed again and the brunet was called to the interview room.

"Mr. Witwicky, he's a terrible child. Someone as young as y-" The supervisor was cut off.
"I don't care."
"Well, besides that, you're only twenty, so a year you're too young to adopt Felix," She said, sneering at the said teen.
" 'Well'," Sam mocked, "I'm here on someone's behalf. A VIP."
"And who would that be?"
A loud mechanical noise came from outside, and the next thing was seeing Optimus' face wavering outside the window.
"That would be me."

Even though Optimus had made his appearance, the supervisor was adamant on keeping Felix. The interview period came to an end.
"We'll be back." Sam warned, leaving. And that he did. The following day, he came in with an official document allowing Optimus to adopt. Felix often wondered how they did it, but was content all the while.