#Thunderhoof's Adoptive Demon Sons

[artsy-hobbitses]

Been reading your Sideswipe and Strongarm content, looks amazing! Now this got me thinking: How do you think things would've turned out had Strongarm gotten Terry Crowley'd instead of being Frank Serpico'd? (i.e. was killed instead of injured. P.S. if you get the show reference I'll be super super happy)

AYOOO hello there, Side/Arm connoisseur!

And oh my god you really gonna bring up The Shield with me after all these years REALLY ;;

I CANNOT SAY IT WAS MY JAM it got so dark aaaa I'm more a CSI/Law And Order SVU kinda crime bitch but DAMN VIC. MAN BROKE THROUGH THE MANTLE DIGGING HIS GRAVE

Man, if Strongarm DIDN'T survive that encounter, I imagine Thunderhoof would be raising eyebrows at actually being able to "get the full set" this time, but sorry kid, this really wasn't how he figured getting there was gonna be like. (She was a good one, yeah, he knows that too)

Because that would shatter Sideswipe's already very shaky faith in the institution, added to the fact that he now knows they've got it out for him and want to turn him into a fucking husk of a man (he likely has the last voice message from Strongarm warning him about the matter kept on the burner cell, which he continues to use. He'll give it a re-listen some days when he's wondering how he got here), and he TRIED playing it straight, he really did! Outside of the minor infractions, he figured y'know, he could sorta prove Sunny wrong! There is another way forward, a better way!

But another good cop is dead and he believes he's got her blood on his hands (because HE ASKED HER HELP TO INVESTIGATE), his union colleagues are getting taken down like flies, and sometimes.

Sometimes you really just gotta go scorched earth.

[artsy-hobbitses]

For the Thunderhoof's Adoptive Demon Sons AU, does Sunny try to step up and be what Sides believes him to be after he hears about what happened to Strongarm (like, "Oh SHIT, I'm so sorry, fratellino. I need to be the best big brother now, for his sake."), or does Sides become more like Sunny, possibly without any of the development either twin goes through in your regular canon? There's a lot of potential in this, as much as how they got there tears my heart into many pieces (Strongarm! ;A;).

He’d be 720% more protective of Sideswipe than he already was at that point ESPECIALLY once he finds out what exactly the authorities had in plan for his brother for, ostensibly, doing things the right way and being a good man.

He nor Thunderhoof tells Sideswipe any version of “I told you so” because deep in their hearts, they really wish they had been wrong about this (No one starts out life looking to go into crime).

Sideswipe going Underground with them means Jazz never finds Sideswipe as he did originally, so basically, that mayor who was behind all this wins re-election as Strongarm’s case goes cold, and Stagdad and his Sons are stuck holding on to each other as things get absolutely shitcanned and their city dips further and further into a Functionist Hellscape.

There is a silver lining though—Sideswipe is bitter, but not broken nor has he forgotten about his community and Sunstreaker and Thunderhoof actually end up becoming a little more like him as time goes by and it becomes obvious that Thunderhoof’s business cannot run without the people—looking out for themselves means looking out for the community, they have to start caring so there is a distinct shift in Thunderhoof’s gang as they take on more of a Robin Hood-type mantle and begin to protect and amass genuine support among the manuals, and the Underground becomes a safe haven for those escaping political persecution.

The old illegal pitfighting rings Thunderhoof used to run become secret clinics/care centers/housing for those who can no longer afford to be in the streets, because by this point the idea of fighting each other for money becomes even more ridiculous than it previously was given their current situation.

The more benign Union which was earlier crushed is replaced by a far more ruthless network of former and current criminals banding together under Thunderhoof for a cause bigger than all of them; angels singing songs of freedom bandying words for change didn’t get the job done, now it’s time for the devils to pick up the fight and burn the ivory towers to the ground so they can take back their city.

And Sergio becomes the definition of “Demons run when a good man goes to war”.

They become the Manhattan Resistance, though they are classified by the government as a terrorist group, and function like an in-between of Bots and the Cons; Genuinely good intentions, hellish ways of getting there because the right way didn’t work and now, they’re doing it their way.

[artsy-hobbitses]

The Thunderhoof and Adopted Demon Sons AU/Manhattan Resistance theme bc the original Gangsta's Paradise IS a Sunstreaker theme, but when the fight becomes MUCH bigger than just gangland turf warfare, the orchestrals hit hard.