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Hot Rod was always doing something with someone. He couldn’t stay still. He was on patrol, in the recreation room, out racing, etc. He loved being around other bots, but there was one thing he enjoyed that he just couldn’t ever find someone to go with him. It was fishing. Hot Rod delighted in the wait. The lake was always calm and serene with only the sounds of the water against the shore and birds singing. The rush of energy he felt whenever he got a bite on his line was just as good as any race to him. It's too bad he was the only one to think that.
Hot Rod had brought a few bots out here. Apparently, Hot Rod was the only one who didn’t find it extremely boring and monotonous. The only person who came back after their first fishing trip was Daniel. Though Hot Rod thinks that Daniel was, in reality, coming for the one-on-one time, and not his actual enjoyment of the activity. Daniel had been missing his father, and though Hot Rod was happy to be there for the kid. It’s just that Hot Rod wanted someone that he could rave about fishing to. Someone who understood his hobby.
Hot Rod ended up lamenting to Kup about his problem. Turns out the old mech had connections because Hot Rod ended up with a comm-number by the end of the week. Kup said it belonged to the only other bot crazy enough to enjoy fishing. Kup had been one of those bots to never come back to the lake. The new bot’s name was Ranger. Kup described him as a bot who couldn’t get enough of the outdoors.
Hot Rod sent a message, and the two of them ended up talking to each other a lot over the next few weeks. Turns out Hot Rod and Ranger have a lot in common. He was fun to talk to. Ranger told him all about his station in Canada. The Decepticons were active mostly in the United States, so it wasn’t as necessary to have a standing army in other countries. However, there still had to be bots in those nations in case something happened which is why Ranger was on a solo mission in British Columbia.
Other than the isolation, Ranger’s gig seemed rather comfortable to Hot Rod. He had to report to his Commander in the morning, make some reports, and then he could essentially go anywhere he wanted after his duties as long as he was on call. Ranger was the one to come up with the idea of Hot Rod spending a week with him. Since Autobot City sees a lot more fighting, they semi-regularly get time off for army morale. It would have to be approved since he was leaving the country and since he wouldn’t be able to be called back in cases of emergencies.
Luckily, Ultra Magnus had agreed to his request after some pleading. Well, he only acquiesced after Kup joined Hot Rod’s side of the argument. The Autobots had to inform Canada of Hot Rod’s entry and get approval. With everything organized, Hot Rod started packing his fishing rod and tackle box. He was nervous and excited at the same time. He’d be spending a full week with someone that he’d never technically met before. Ranger was tons of fun to message with he just hoped that it would be the same with talking face-to-face. Hot Rod took a deep breath and made his way through GroundBridge. On the other side was Ranger, he was smiling and greeted Hot Rod with a surprise hug.
“So we finally meet. I’ve been so excited all week that I could barely contain myself. I’ve come up with a whole host of ideas for things we could do. I don’t get visitors unless something bad has happened, so I’ve been antsy.”
“Me too, but don’t burn yourself out. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of fun.”
“Come on. Transform and follow me. I’ll take you to my cabin.” Ranger transformed, and Hot Rod followed suit.
The drive was scenic. Ranger lived in an evergreen forest on the base of a mountain. They passed by the lake they’d be fishing at, and it was big and blue. Hot Rod could hardly wait to fish it. He was sure that Ranger knew some good spots.
They pulled into Ranger’s driveway and a wave of confusion overtook Hot Rod when he looked around. There were a couple of buildings, but the problem was that everything was suspiciously human-sized. Ranger noticed him staring in confusion, gasped, and panicked.
“Oh scrap, did I never mention that I’m a Godmaster?”
“Uh, no, I think we were too busy talking about fishing,”
“The only place big enough for you is the garage. Unless you want to try camping?” Ranger laughed, and it was followed up by a little too much silence.
“I’ll be fine in the garage. It’s only during the night anyway. We’ll be out during the day,”
“I still feel sorry about it. After all that planning and thinking for your visit, it never crossed my mind. My unit is completely made of Godmasters, Headmasters, and Pretenders. Somehow I forgot that most Transformers can’t detach their heads.” Ranger sheepishly admitted.
“Don’t worry about it. I forgot that some Transformers can detach their heads.”
Hot Rod ended up getting the abbreviated tour of the place since he couldn’t go into the cabin. Ranger had one of those large garages made for semi-trucks. There was a workshop and radio station in it. Ranger explained that the radio tower is how he talks to his unit since they’re spread out over different continents. Hot Rod had to ask.
“I thought you were supposed to be on call. How are they supposed to reach you if they can’t over comm-messages?”
“Well, first of all, this is how I communicate with everyone including you. Secondly, my unit sends a specific signal to this tower, and then that triggers another signal that will send an alert to me that I need to return here for something urgent. I know it’s not perfect, but nothing has happened that has made it necessary for my system to be updated.”
They ended up going on a hike. They were both in their robot modes on a trail that was not made for 16-foot hikers. A lot of apologies from Ranger and a lot of reassurances from Hot Rod were to be had. Ranger said that he usually went hiking in his human form and hadn’t realized how low the branches were on the trail. Not that Hot Rod minded bending down; most of the interesting stuff was on the ground anyway.
Ranger kept pointing out different species of plants and telling him fun facts about them. He also was a lot better at spotting any animal or insect that appeared on the trail. They passed a part of the mountain that had been carved out to make the path, and Ranger started to talk about the geology of the area. It was entertaining to listen to Ranger’s passionate rants about nature. Kup was right about him being outdoorsy. He was really in this element out here. Hot Rod had to encourage him to keep going because he had been worried about boring Hot Rod.
It was getting late by the time they got back to the cabin, so Ranger decided to light a fire. He pointed out several constellations in the night sky. It was a human concept to put some sort of rationale to the stars before they knew more about astronomy.
“Can’t see Cybertron from here, can you?” asked Hot Rod.
“Nope, too far away,”
“I haven’t been there in a long time. I heard that the Decepticons fix it up a bit, so it wasn’t as war-torn,”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been,”
“You haven’t? Or don’t remember? I was very young when I had to leave Cybertron. I don’t remember a lot about it,”
“No, I was born here on Earth. It’s my home.”
“I think I’d say that too. This is the longest I’ve stayed in one place.”
A heavy quiet settled between the two of them for a while. It was another thing that they had in common. Eventually, Ranger broke the silence and suggested that they head to recharge. Hot Rod entered the garage and decided to rest in this alt-mode. It’s not preferable, but it’ll work. Hopefully, tomorrow doesn’t end on such a sorrowful note.
—
Hot Rod was awoken by the sound of Ranger speaking. He transformed and looked over to see Ranger at his radio station giving reports to his Commander. He had told Hot Rod that he would likely be busy until at least noon, so he had to amuse himself in the meantime. He wound up driving around a bit before getting a message to come back. He came back to Ranger walking out of the garage with their gear.
“Hey, Hot Rod want to know something funny?”
“Sure,”
“According to the Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Your first name is Hot, and your last name is Rod. I got you a fishing license,”
“Oh slag, thanks,”
“You better be thankful. Sounds like you forgot.”
“I didn’t forget my license. I just forgot it doesn’t work in Canada,” Ranger chuckled. He transformed and sped off.
Hot Rod grabbed his fishing gear and followed Ranger out to the lake. Of course, they couldn’t go out on a boat, so they’d be casting from the shore. Hot Rod learned that the lake was actually a reservoir that got stocked with fish semi-regularly. Ranger parked himself in the parking lot, and they headed to Ranger’s favorite spot. He said the only reason he was showing Hot Rod was because he couldn’t come back in secret to fish it.
Ranger was in his human form by now. Hot Rod had seen a Headmasters transformation before, but the head turning into a human thing was new. His processor couldn’t fully wrap his head around it. Ranger couldn’t seem to understand Hot Rod either.
“Why is your fishing rod so large?”
“Why’s yours so small? Exactly, not everyone can magically become human-sized,”
“I’m just wondering where you found it. Did you have one of the Autobots make it?”
“Like they’d bother to make a fishing rod for me. No, it’s human-made for fishing in the ocean,”
“And you fish in a lake with it? Must be hard to feel when they bite. No wonder you haven’t caught anything; you probably can’t even tell,”
“I so can… Well, most of the time,” Hot Rod admitted. Ranger burst into laughter. The two of them spent most of the day chatting about random topics. Hot Rod ended up getting no bites while Ranger caught a few fish. Much to Ranger’s amusement, Hot Rod did reel in a few times to check if there was something on the lure he hadn’t felt. His bad luck didn’t last forever though.
Hot Rod felt a massive tug from his line. The rod was almost ripped out of his servos. Ranger was cheering for him, but something was wrong. Even the biggest freshwater fish couldn’t pull their weight against a Transformer. He was proven right when a giant metal fish jumped out of the water. It was a Decepticon.
Now, Hot Rod hadn’t exactly planned on getting attacked nor did Ranger. So at this time, they both were completely unarmed. Understandably, they decided to drop their rods and run to the parking lot. Ranger could get his body which had a defense system, but that still left Hot Rod vulnerable.
“Here I thought I was getting a vacation,” Hot Rod panted.
“That’s new. Congratulations on being the first person to ever fish up a Decepticon. I think you’ll win the tourney,”
“Oh joy, what do we do now?”
“Well, that was Gulf. And if I’m right, the rest of the Seacons aren’t far away,”
“Is that a combiner team?” asked Hot Rod. Ranger nodded, and Hot Rod was exasperated. “A combiner team! We can’t take on a combiner team. I don’t even have my guns,”
“I agree. We have to return to my workshop and contact backup using the radio,” There wasn’t much more to say since Gulf had caught up to them. They drove off with blaster fire on their tailpipes. It was a decent drive, so they went as fast as was safe since humans were using the roads as well.
“Do you know why the Decepticons have shown up here of all places?”
“There’s a hydro dam downstream from where we were fishing,” Ranger explained. “A better question is why did Gulf bite your lure,”
“Don’t some beastformers get instincts from the animal they scan?”
“Yeah, they do, but don’t you think this is kind of ridiculous?”
“I do. If they’re the Seacons, why are they in a freshwater lake?” Hot Rod tried to joke.
“That’s not what I meant. The difference between salt and freshwater is inconsequential in this situation,”
“Well, I’m wondering how they even got here,”
“Maybe that ocean fishing rod of yours summoned them.” Ranger quipped.
“Oh ha ha ha.”
They screeched to a stop in front of the garage, and Ranger quickly opened it up. While Hot Rod went to get his guns, Ranger sent a distress signal to his unit explaining the situation. The response was pretty quick saying that they’d be there in about 20 minutes. This situation didn’t exactly have 20 minutes to wait around for backup. There was a town below the hydro dam, and Hot Rod doubted that the Seacons would be careful about keeping it intact.
By the time they reached the dam, their backup was about 10 minutes away. They’d have to try to keep the combiner team separated until then. Ranger and Hot Rod split up and shot at the team from different sides of the dam. His earlier catch and a turtle-former went after him while the other 3 went after Ranger.
They didn’t have weapons like Hot Rod, so he used his blasters to keep them back from him. Gulf swiped at him with their fins and tried to bite him. Biting seemed to be a fan favorite since both of them were trying to crunch him with their razor-sharp teeth. The turtle kept sending a processor-crushing sound at him. It made it harder to focus as he relied more and more on dodging attacks since he couldn’t aim for the life of him.
Hot Rod heard Ranger cry out in pain. He turned to see Ranger on the ground. A sharp pain spread across his abdomen as he felt his fuel lines being cut. He had lost concentration. He grasped his middle and looked to see pink. A punch to his helm sent him to the ground. Hot Rod spit out energon and looked up to the Decepticons towering over him. He tried to raise his blasters, but they were knocked out of his servos.
Gulf put one of his ped on Hot Rod and started to crush him, but it all stopped when a blaster hit the fish in the back. All three of them turned to see that the shot came from a bot that looked remarkably like Optimus Prime. There were a couple of Autobots; looks like that backup finally came.
Hot Rod saw a white and red femme dragging Ranger away as the rest engaged the Seacons in battle. They managed to combine into their full combiner form. The Optimus-looking guy combined with another bot, and the two combiners started to fight. Hot Rod was sure the fight would’ve been awesome to look at, but he started to black out from fuel loss. The last thing he saw was a yellow blob picking him up.
—
A blinding white room and the sounds of beeping were what greeted Hot Rod when he came to. He looked around to see Kup by his bedside, and Ranger on a berth surrounded by the bots who had been called as backup. Everything hurt; he had bandages over his midsection and helm. Kup finally noticed that Hot Rod was awake.
“Just like you to turn your fishing trip into a trip to the med-bay,” Kup sighed. “I’m glad you are ok, kid”
“Is Ranger-” Hot Rod’s voice was hoarse.
“He’ll wake up soon just like you,” Kup called over that femme which turned out to be their medic Minerva. She gave him the rundown of everything that had happened. Hot Rod had received broken fuel lines, a cracked chassis, and a dislocated jaw. Everything was fixed, but it would take a couple of weeks for everything to fully heal. Ranger had similar injuries, and they were all currently in Autobot City. Hot Rod nodded and went back to recharge.
Days passed and everything was a whirlwind because Hot Rod was high on painkillers. He only remembered small parts of his stay in the med-bay. When Ranger woke up, Hot Rod was introduced to everyone in his unit. Ginrai was the combiner who stopped his chassis from being crushed, and Metalhawk was the one who carried him. He would see them a lot since they were visiting Ranger during his recovery.
Eventually, both of them were allowed out of the med-bay, but Ranger couldn’t go back to Canada until he was fully healed. His unit finally upgraded his communication system. And while they were up there Ginrai had Metalhawk recover their fishing gear which gave them the perfect activity to fill their recovery time. They both went out and fished the lake near Autobot City. Hot Rod still couldn’t catch anything to Ranger’s glee.