Chapter 1 — Ruined Yards and Twisted Parts
summary — Shadow X meets our protagonist in a... less than fortunate way.
tw / cw — swearing, injuries, blood, & vomiting, detailed descriptions of the following!
a/n — Takes place during both S1 Ep 6 and S1 Ep 7. Haha. 67!!!!!!!!!!! 🤖🤖🤖🤖 Cardbots and Cybertronians may have SOME similar terminology, but their terminology/culture is still vastly different from eachother.
wc — 3.9k+
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"Ughh.. A couple more minutes.." She complained, punching her alarm clock, turning onto her side. Though, her eyes shot open in an annoyed and tired look when she heard a crash from the backyard.
"If Astrolane crashed into the big oak tree again I swear to—" She thought, reluctantly, but quickly throwing herself out of bed, into a random hoodie, and putting on some slides. (which she was pretty sure were dated to like.. 2015)
She dragged herself outside, to see.. surprisingly not a damaged oak tree, smoke, or. a sheepish looking Astrolane. What she did see, was a bamboozled looking Astrolane, her damaged fence, and—
OH SWEET NEPTUNE! HER BACKYARD!! IT WAS RUINED!!
She had never locked in that quickly, she looked around in distress.
"ASTROLANE!! Our backyard— what happened here?" She asked, fretting over how dirty the pool was, her ruined garden, and her fence holding onto dear life.
"I..I have no clue," The rouge-decepticon started, by that tone and the look on his faceplate, she could tell he was being honest.
"A big CRASH woke me up from my recharge cycle, and when I got here, whoever or whatever was here, was gone... and they totally wrecked our backyard." He sheepishly replied, gesturing to the backyard.
"Whoever did this will pay.. literally and figuratively..." (y/n) declared, a fist clenched in vengeance and flames cartoonishly burning behind her.
Astrolane sweatdropped at the scene.
"Sure they will, kid. But, I think you should worry about getting ready. School." Astrolane states, changing the topic entirely, as (y/n) deflated at the mention.
"Wh—what!? But, we have to figure out who did this!!" She complained, as Astrolane grabbed the scruff of her PJ-shirt like a kitten, and holding her to faceplate level.
"It can wait, you little runt. How about we worry about getting your processors full of fleshy info first." Astrolane says, as (y/n) sulks to herself.
"Dang it! I guess i'll have to wait 'till after school to deal with that [android_notification.wav]..." (y/n) thought to herself... Vengeance shall be hers!
—
"REALLY? Someone ruined your backyard? Even your (favorite flower name)'s!? Those are like.. your pride and joy!" Chandler asks in surprise, as he scooched over near the window seat to give (y/n) room to sit down on the bus.
"Especially my (favorite flower name)! It's like they were trying to get under my skin or something!" (y/n) complained, slumping into the ratty, cushioned bus seat. She grimaced a bit, she didn't take the bus often. Want to guess why? '=_=
"Hmm.. That's strange, there's no way someone could've done THAT amount of damaged without either 1) a whole group of people, or 2) a whole lot of equipment. We need to investigate.." Chandler murmured, (y/n) looked around in confusion, as she swore noir music started playing in the background.
(y/n) slowly blinked, looking at Chandler, before her face morphed into an annoyed expression— an irk mark visible.
"BOY! I know you are playing with me. The last time we tried to skip school, we missed our big project in class and it dropped our grade down like 2 letters!" (y/n) scolded Chandler, while he got flashbacks and a strange sense of déjà vu; as (y/n) and Astrolane could be deathly similar if warranted.
The bus jolted, abruptly stopping in front of the school— everyone lurched, the usual, basically.
"Ugh.. Would it kill the bus driver to do something called slowing down before they break?" Chandler quipped, as (y/n) groaned from under him.
"Get.. off of me.. you, fatass.." She wheezed, as Chandler gasped in offense.
"HEY!!!"
—
(y/n) was now in class, sulking as she bid farewell to Chandler, who was in the secondary section of the school, to make things simple— Chandler was an upperclassmen.
She slid her backpack off her shoulders, setting it by her chair, as she sat down. She was embarrassed to admit it, but despite being the most liked in her class, she was sort of shy around her classmates.
She was an ambivert. Not too recluse, not too extroverted. Middle ground.
"(y/n)!" A voice greeted, scaring the girl shitless. She felt herself flinch, and turned to see who called her name.
She immediately recognized the hot pink hued hair from a mile away, it was Anna! She considered Anna a nice girl, she was just a little wary of her father because (y/n), despite her age, was mildly suspicious of rich, WHITE men.
"Anna..! Hello, what are you doing in class so early? Usually it's just me here before the bell rings." (y/n) greeted with a smile, and a tiny wave. Anna shot back a bright smile, (y/n) winced from how bright it was, she swore it could rival the sun.
"I heard what happened to your garden!" Anna told her in worry, patting her shoulder— trying to provide some comfort. (y/n) quirked a brow, leaning back a bit in surprise.
"...what?" She asks, in caution. Who told Anna about that? Oh [vine_boom.wav]! Did Anna see ASTROLANE!? Oh, gosh.. If she knew— this wouldn't be good, the government was already strict about Autobots being here, if she told her father...
"Oh—! Don't worry, Upperclassmen Chandler was talking about it in the halls." Anna reassured, interrupting (y/n)'s train of thought. Anna's eyes widening when she realized her initial comfort could've come off as a little... creepy without prior context.
(y/n) let out a sigh of relief; then one of irritation. That guy couldn't keep his mouth shut for 10 seconds? This is the guy she trusts to keep cybertronians existence on earth a secret?
"Oh—" (y/n) replied, albeit a little awkwardly, which she cursed herself internally for. "That makes more sense, that Junior can't keep his mouth shut." She huffed, as Anna smiled at the rare display of (y/n)'s sassy attitude.
"But, thank you for your concern," (y/n) says, in genuine appreciation, "But.. my (favorite flower name)'s were all trampled and ruined.. Even the petals and stems were ripped up.." She vented, her garden was her pride and joy— so someone destroying something so precious to her, embarrassingly— made her want to cry.
Anna's eyes widened a smidge, mostly from the vulnerability that (y/n) was displaying— (y/n) was neutral-faced at best most of the time. So this was... something entirely new, well.. at least to Anna.
Anna thought for a moment— she understood this was a moment of transparency from (y/n), so she needed to treat this situation with understanding and tread carefully.
"...I'm sorry, (y/n). That sounds terrible," Anna started, her tone quieting into a tone (y/n) had NEVER heard from Anna, so she too, was a little surprised. "
Maybe we can try planting some (favorite flower name)'s in the school garden to take your mind off it?" Anna suggested, as (y/n) perked up at the suggestion— a rare, bright smile on her face.
"I'd like that." (y/n) softly answered, before the students came pouring in, as the bell rang.
Anna gave her a nod, before returning to her desk.
"Maybe today isn't the worst." (y/n) thought to herself, taking out her notebook, books, and pencil case, and placing them neatly on her desk.
She picked up her pencil once her teacher went up to the front of the class and started to teach.
She wanted to have recess already...
(y/n) thanked the heavens that today's lesson wasn't too hard or complicated, just some simple reading, and some review of old concepts in math.
The bell for break time was about ring! Yes! (y/n) couldn't wait to eat the Spicy Gimbap Astrolane had gotten her!
When the bell rung, (y/n) got out of her seat, and ran outside to the bleachers— she wanted to have a casual conversation with Anna and Vera, speaking of Vera— (y/n) was pretty neutral about Vera, but she understood that Vera had grown up around a richer family, as her father owned the Mowtown Times Press.
(y/n) sat down next to Vera and Anna, as they started chatting about simple things, the newest magazine, a new line of manga, and exchanging notes for an upcoming test.
As the conversation turned into a more causal one, just talking about random things in general, (y/n) spotted that their classmates had started a match of soccer— (y/n) watched through her peripheral vision, watching as Jun kicked the ball around, and past the opposing team.
"This is just like hit manga and Anime, Blue Lock!" (y/n) thought, turning her full attention to the game now, as Vera and Anna were also focused on the game.
"You can do it!" One of Jun's teammates encouraged him from farther back on the field.
"Not bad.." Vera murmured to herself, looking at the game of soccer with some interest in mind.
"Let's go, Jun! You can do it!" Anna cheered— Vera flinched at the sudden yell of encouragement from Anna, while (y/n) sweatdropped— people really get into this sports stuff, don't they?
(y/n) gave a smile and an encouraging thumbs up, it was awkward— but she really didn't feel like yelling when their break time was like.. at 10 am in the morning.
Jun wore a determined look on his face, as he reeled his leg back, and kicked the ball with all his might— as it flew into the goal.
"GOAL!!!" Multiple people said, Anna cheering, Vera looking surprised, while (y/n) gave a happy, short clap— before checking her phone for any notifications.
"Haha, how was that?" Jun said, not paying attention to the ball that was still spinning against the net of the goal, as (y/n) quirked a brow— that was NOT normal.
"Uhh.. Jun..?" Theo asked in concern, pointing at the spinning ball against the net.
"Wh.. What the..?" Jun muttered to himself in confusion.
"Um... How is the ball doing that-" She started, before her eyes widened a bit, and she winced when she heard the ball come back like a boomerang, and hit Jun square in the face.
"Ooh—" She grimaced, wincing, as Jun dizzily fell from the impact.
She set down her phone, and walked to Theo and Jun— to help the fallen boy up.
"Jun, are you alright?" Theo asked in concern, as (y/n) came to his other side.
"Talk about Lady Luck ignoring you, there's no way the ball could've done that without some omniscient force against you.." She jokingly said, helping him up.
—
(y/n) was relaxing at the park, sitting on a bench, reading a random (favorite book genre) novel, when she heard a bench screeching from a couple of feet away, a thump, and a pained groan.
"..???" She looked at a fallen Jun, with a bicycle magazine on his face.
"I don't know if Jun's having extremely bad luck today, or if this is just everyday for him.." She thought to herself, sweatdropping.
—
"Finally home.." (y/n) thought, going into the garage to see... well...
"Snrkk— pftt— hehe! Astro, your face!" She chuckled, as Astrolane looked extremely grumpy, as there were doodles all over his frame, hood, and windshield.
Astrolane gave an irritated sigh, "The one day I choose to sunbathe outside on the curb, this happens. Just great." Astrolane mutters to himself.
"Was it the neighborhood kids or..?" She asks, wiping a tear from her eye.
"No, the doodles seem way too precise and practiced— plus when I woke, I didn't see any signs of kids being here." Astrolane explained to the girl, as she quirks a brow at his response.
"Strange things have been happening today. First my garden, then one of my classmates, Jun having the worst luck, and now this? Something's not adding up." She murmured to herself, as Astrolane transformed into his regular cybertronian mode, making sure to crouch and duck last second, so he didn't destroy the garage.
"Hold up, what's happening with that Jun kid?" Astrolane quirks an optic ridge, as (y/n) turned to face him.
"Well, when we were having break time during school, they were playing soccer, and when he scored a goal, the ball kept spinning against the net, as if something was holding it back, and it hit him square in the face... And at the park, the bench moved when Jun was gonna sit on it." She recalled, listing all of the things she remembered.
"...Definietly not normal." Astrolane slowly speaks, analyzing the situation. This definitely had to be a mech of somekind using their stealth mode, the only issue is.. was it an autobot, or a decepticon?
"...I truly hope this is just some random autobot doing this for slag and giggles, because if it's a decepticon.. I don't even want to think about what they would do to him. Or any human, for that matter." Astrolane slowly speaks, as (y/n) thinks hard about this outcome.
"...We need to definitely keep our eyes peeled if that's the case." (y/n) replied in concern, before continuing.
"More decepticons have been popping up on Earth— I hope they don't try targeting Mowtown next." (y/n) murmured to Astrolane, getting a bucket of soap and water, plus a washcloth to help clean the doodles off of Astrolane's frame.
"...Me too, kid." Astrolane spoke, letting (y/n) clean his frame.
—
Shadow X grumbled— what the hell did that kid mean by "secret weapon?" He bet it was some crappy thing like "the power of... fendsheep" or whatever the humans called it.
What could a silly kiddo like him even do to me anyway, Shadow X thought, as he dissipated his stealth mode, and rolled his shoulderplates.
He froze when he heard a pair of shoes hitting the pavement, panicking— and not having enough time to go into stealth mode to escape, he transformed into his alt form, a VTOL aircraft.
He tried to stay as silent and still as possible— as still as a metal cardbot like him could— as the sound of a human child mumbling to herself could be heard.
"Seriously.. it won't kill Astrolane to search with me, though— to be fair, if someone colored on my face, i'd be embarrassed to show my face in public." She murmured, digging into her pocket for her... phone?
He believed that's what those small devices that the earthlings carried around were called.
"Well, he needs it to stay active— so I guess I have to find this stuff." She finally said, as she started to walk around the abandoned warehouse.
"Just find where the energon readings are the strongest, take a picture, and get out— no big deal." The child murmured to herself, tiredly rubbing at her eyes.
What the hell was energon?
Was this another weird human term he didn't understand?
Nevermind that, maybe he could prank this human! He needed to get his processor off of the fact that "Jun" boy possibly had a secret weapon that could beat his heli-tornado!
He needed a good laugh anyway.
As the female child walked around the abandoned storage room, being careful not to step in the disgusting mulch, and possible stillwater lurking around it, she stood a little ways away from a crane carrying steel beams and pipes.
Haha! He could mess with the crane, and move it around a bit to spook the girl! And then, maybe she slip and fall into the water or something!
Perfect!
So, turning on his stealth mode, he sneaking made his way over to the crane, playing around with it.
The girl flinched a bit, looking cautious as the crane started to move on its own. She looked around, no one.
The look on her face was priceless— though he got a bit too careless.
And the beam snapped off the wire, hurling straight down at her.
—
(y/n) didn't know— she was probably paralyzed by fear, as a literal STEEL BEAM came plummeting off of the crane.
She snapped herself out of it last second, and tried to jump out of the way, and then—
CRUNCH
The steel beam had fallen on her leg.
At first— she didn't feel anything, or rather— the adrenaline didn't allow her to, as she swore she heard a gasp, and guilty whimper from somewhere else in this god forsaken building.
Maybe it was just her senses because she was sure that she was hallucinating from the shock and numbness she was feeling. All she could hear was her own shallow breaths and the ringing in her ear.
Though, that all stopped when she tried to wriggle her ankle out of the wreckage.
She had never felt such visceral pain like this before, this was 100x worse than her garden getting torn up this morning.
"FUCKING HELL! Ow, ow— OW! Fuck—! Get it off, get it off!" She wailed, her voice cracking with each swear that spilled out of her mouth.
She struggled to get her leg unstuck— it sweltered, hot and pulsating— it felt gross, disgusting. The pain felt unbearable, white, searing, and angry. But, soon she felt something else.
She felt very nauseous now. She didn't know how she went from crying and wailing from her most likely broken leg, to feeling sick from looking down, and seeing the unnatural way her leg twisted from under the wreckage of steel beams and pipes.
Everywhere felt sweaty and clammy, suddenly felt something rising in her throat, "Dammit— not now of all times. I need— I need to GET OUT!" Her thoughts flurried in her head, it felt like her brain was gonna explode from how fast everything was going.
She turned her head to the side— and gagged, before spilling the contents of the meals she had throughout the day onto the dirty and cold concrete floor. Her eyes and nose stung with acid— she didn't care if she had just belched all over the nasty-ass floor, she just wanted to get unstuck.
But, before she could cry out another swear, or try to struggle once more— she felt a hand, bigger than the average human, had.. had Astrolane heard her? Maybe her phone was left on, and she had sent an audio recording to him on accident.
Despite the writhing pain, she froze when she heard another robotic like voice, their voice sounded guilty— and crept up the strangers own panic.
"O—Oh Machina! I..I-I'm so, so, so sorry!" The voice went up a few pitches, with all of her strength— she tilted her head away from her own vomit, and to the stranger.
It was... another cybertronian..!? No.. No.
This was different.
A whole different species, perhaps?
Though— she didn't have time for that! She was going through both the five stages of grief, and all 9 circles of hell at the same time!
"I— I'm gonna help you, just! Just hold on, please!" The violet-colored robot assured her, but she figured he was also trying to reassure himself too.
The violet-colored robot removed the pipes and steel beams rather quickly, and that made the pain 10x worse, (y/n) sucked in a yelp of pain, as the stranger gently held her small form in their hands... servos? As Astrolane would call his "hands."
"Oh Machina... Ohhhhhh Machina!! What do humans do with broken parts?" He murmured in a panic to himself, trying to assess the situation, despite the panic in his core.
She spoke up for the first time in this conversation.
"G-Good god— just. Just make it stop." She stuttered, voice cracking half-way through her sentence, though she did not care. Or the fact she was snot-nosed crying to a giant robot.
The robot snapped out of his own panicked, and nodded.
—
So, after some struggle with teaching the giant robot on how to properly patch her up, she laid upside against one of the dirty walls of the warehouse.
The two didn't say anything for a minute, well, for her she hadn't said anything for quite a while, the violet robot kept apologizing, practically almost crying, she assumed he was the one messing with the crane.
While she was a little pissed his goofing off led to her leg being broken, the way he sounded and acted told her that he hadn't meant for things to go the way they did. The way he acted reminded her a bit of the time that Bumblebee accidentally dropped her once.
"Look.. Look," she started, as that got the violet robot to quiet down a bit, "I'm not saying that I'm not a little mad at your foolish actions. But, i'm not entirely upset at you." she assured, which had the violet calming down... a little bit.
"But— all of that aside.. Who.. and what are you?" She questions, it's more casual than anything. The cardbot seemed a bit surprised at the girls, well, calmer reaction than he anticipated.
He stumbled over his words a bit, before clearing his throat to sound more confident.
"Me? Ahah! I am Shadow X!" He declares, (y/n) had to wince at the sparkling aura this guy had, he reminded her a bit of a Japanese Shinobi.
"And I'm a Metal Cardbot!" He responded, (y/n) quirked brow. Metal.. Cardbot..?
"Metal.. Cardbot? What's that?" She asked, curious— this was also helping her ignore the pain in her broken leg at the moment,
"Well! Since you seem so clueless and all, I'll tell you!" Shadow X spoke to himself, (y/n) sweatdropped, this guy kinda reminded her of a tamer Starscream.
"We Metal Cardbots come from Planet Machina at the edge of the galaxy," He started to explain, now where has (y/n) heard this story.. That's right, this sounded similar to Cybertron!
"Though, we had to flee, as our planet had exploded." He somberly states, missing home quite a bit, (y/n)'s eyes widened. Holy shit! She was NOT expecting that.
"Oh— I'm so sorry." She replied, as Shadow X shook his somberness off.
"It's fine— apparently it was inevitable according to the Star Guardians." Shadow X commented, as (y/n) quirked her brow at that statement.
"Star Guardians? Is that some sort of faction or elite that.. Planet Machina had?" She asked the taller mech, who looked down at her.
His HUD eyes displaying a "0 0" before transforming into a "^ ^"
"Yeah! The Star Guardians were like the protectors on our planet." Shadow X confidently spoke, leaning against the wall with an aura that radiated playfulness.
"Huh.." (y/n) murmured to herself, wincing as she shifted her weight on the wall. The child was trying to process everything, her broken leg, and now suddenly a new robotic alien species?
Yeesh, she just wants to go home and rest.
"Uhm.. I hope this isn't too big of a favor," (y/n) started, twiddling with her thumbs, before looking up at the violet robot, who she had learned was named "Shadow X," "Could you drop me off at home?" She asked.
note — hi guys!! hope you enjoyed !! plz comment who you want y/n to meet next… i’ll do a pole for cameos as well :P
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