Sometimes being mechanical sucked.
He'd suffered this fate before, but it didn't make it any less annoying. Clumsiness, plus being on a boat, plus being composed of heavy metal alloys, equaled... A dinobot stuck at the bottom of the bay. Yet another fight with some 'cons, leading to him taking an unscheduled swim...or sink, in his case.
Grimlock? Grimlock, do you copy?
The dinobot groaned as he tapped his comm. "Yeah... I'm fine, Bee..." He muttered. "Don't suppose you could drop the anchor for me?"
A little-Ergh!... Busy at the moment! Sideswipe responded. J-Just hang in there, Big Guy!
Grimlock sighed, plopping down on the sandy bottom. Why did this always happen to him? Well, at least there weren't any cats down here. But there wasn't any cons down here for him to punch, either...
A moaning sound caught his attention, and he looked up. "Huh?" The sound echoed off of the ship above him and the rocks around him, fading away before another, slightly higher-pitched moan followed it. "Uh...Bee? I don't think I'm alone down here...!"
What do you mean?
"I'm-" Another loud moan come from another direction. He was being surrounded, he knew it! "...I-"
Any bubbles trapped between Grimlock's teeth were freed by his jaw dropping. Something was swimming towards him, slightly larger than him and making loud noises. He frantically jumped up, kicking his legs and flailing his arms in an attempt to get to the surface again. Whatever it was, it was closing distance fast, and he could see darker patches getting clearer and exposing that it had much larger reinforcements. "Bee! It's gonna get me! It's gonna get me!" He screamed into the comm link. "I'M NOT GONNA MAKE IT!"
What's going to get you? Bumblebee asked firmly. Grim-
Whatever was said after that was blocked out by Grimlock's terrified screaming. He threw sand on himself, attempting to bury himself and hide from whatever the creatures were. Moaning sounds rang in his audio receptors, echoing and vibrating off of his plating, making it rattle. He was too scared to move, and from under the sand, he could see the shapes circling him, getting ever closer.
Grim? Grimlock…
Grimlock's optics widened a little as Bumblebee's voice came through the comm, the channel was still open.
Grim...Tell me...What do you see?
Grimlock moved his head slowly, looking up as the larger shapes swam overhead, the moaning and high-pitched whines coming from them as they circled the area. "Th-They're huge!" He whimpered. "Huge fish!"
There came a sigh. Grim...They're not fish, and they're also harmless.
Grim climbed out of the sand, standing up again. One of the smaller creatures came down towards him, and a series of bubbles left a hole on the top of its head as it whined and nudged him a bit. "You sure, Bee?"
Absolutely... They're called whales, Grim. Humpback whales, from the sound of them. They only eat creatures in the water that are smaller than your optic.
Grim relaxed a little. "Really?"
Really. They're nothing to be worried about. We're finishing up restraining these cons, so we'll get to you in a minute.
"They're surrounding me... Poking me with their noses!"
They're just curious. They've never seen a dinobot before.
Grimlock reached out with a hand, stroking the fin of one of the whales as it passed by, its eye looking back at him. Those sounds they're making? That's them communicating with each other. Underwater, those songs of theirs can carry for hundreds of miles.
"Cool...But they look like fish."
I know. But they're not, they're mammals like Denny and Russell.
"...They don't look like Denny and Russell."
Bee chuckled. You remember when we were fighting off Hammerstrike, and I told you that Earth's oceans were full of incredible life? This is what I meant! Life on Earth comes in so many shapes and sizes, each one so amazing and unique from any other...Humpback whales are actually one of the smaller whales, not counting their cousins, the dolphins.
"These are small?" Grimlock observed the larger members of this particular group, their moaning continuing as they spoke to each other. "...then what are the biggest?"
That would be the Blue Whale. They're too big to make it into the bay here, but they can get to 100 feet in length... I've got an idea.
"An idea for what?"
But Bee didn't respond. After a few moments, something came falling down from above, and Grimlock grabbed it as it fell. It only took a brief look to identify it as Bumblebee's Decepticon Hunter, but why would he drop it down here? Was he supposed to use it to reach the surface again?
His confusion was only increased when one of the whales came towards him, nudging his hands with its nose. "What? What is it? WHOA!"
Another whale was suddenly up underneath him, lifting him up out of the sand. Bubbles trailed past him as it whined, and then another came up to help them, and then another. Grimlock wasn't sure what to do about this, he just clung to the Decepticon Hunter.
The whales lifted him higher and higher, until he broke the surface alongside the ship he'd previously been on, hard blows of air coming out of those holes on their heads.
"Yes!"
Grimlock looked up as Bumblebee exclaimed, and then took his leader and Sideswipe's hands as they pulled him up onto the ship's deck. "You okay, Grim?"
"Yeah...That was kinda fun!" Grimlock admitted, shaking water from his chassis.
"Sir, how did you do that?" Strongarm asked.
"Yeah!" Sideswipe agreed. "How'd you get them to bring Grimlock back up here?"
Bumblebee grinned, bending down and stroking the nose of one of the whales. "Whales are very intelligent creatures, and are notorious for playing with humans. I figured that if I dropped something into the water, they'd play fetch and bring it back to me."
"And Grimlock with it!" Strongarm grinned. "Lieutenant, that's genius!"
"It's just taking advantage of my knowledge of Earth."
Grimlock leaned over the side of the boat and waved at the whales as they disappeared back under the water. "Thank you, whales!" He shouted.
Bumblebee chuckled. "Not so scary anymore, are they?"
"Nah...But if I saw those big blue ones, I might be a little scared."
Bumblebee nodded. "Yeah...But that's one of the most amazing things about Earth, Grim. The largest creatures on this planet aren't even a threat to the humans, much less us... Come on, we need to get home and get these cons into stasis pods..."