Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Animated or any of the characters and I did draw some inspiration from the TMNT episode "Same As It Never Was" and other post-apocalyptic episodes, so you'll probably spot some similarities.
Warning: Violence. It will build up as the story goes on.
Same As It Never Was
Chapter One
... ...What happened? How did he get here? These questions, with no answers, seemed to run through his mind on loop.
After Bumblebee slowly onlined his optics, he found himself lying uncomfortably on his side, atop of pieces of rubble and remnants of concrete. His processor stung as if someone had used it for shooting practice, while his entire chassis ached-- the result of moving so quickly after awaking from a stasis sleep. Taking a few moments to recuperate and allow the remainder of his system to reboot, Bumblebee glanced around half expecting to see the same usual buildings, roads, etc. of Detroit, but there wasn't any possible way that this...this...vestige...was the same Detroit that he knew.
What was this desolate place? Barely standing shards of aged buildings stood, where Bumblebee remembered great, giants once towered. Ruinous streets ran bare, aside from the many cracks that was etched into them. Even the sky, that was once a gentle blue, was twisted into a dark, foreboding gray above the city. Bumblebee's internal cycle programming told him it was the daytime according to the area's time zone, but if that was true, then where were all the humans?
"Hello?" Bumblebee called out hesitantly, hoping deeply that someone would reply.
No answer.
"Hello?!" Bumblebee called again, with anxiousness accompanying his voice, but still after a few cycles passed, once again there wasn't an answer.
Maybe he could contact the others on his comm-link. He had no other option at the moment. So, that would be the best thing to do.
As a sigh seeped through his vents, Bumblebee slowly brought his index digit to temple of his helmet and activated his communicator.
"Hey, this is Bumblebee! Anyone read me?" Bumblebee spoke hopingly. "Bulkhead? Prime? Anybody there?" Bumblebee asked quietly, his tone becoming more desperate with every word he spoke. "Ratchet? Prowl?..." Weird. His readings told him that there were no other frequencies online. How was that even possible? Was he truly the only sentient being here?
A sound of incoming rotors is what broke Bumblebee from his pondering of what to do next. Swarms of the little police bots swarmed down from the sky and surrounded Bumblebee in mid-flight. At first he thought there must have been a robbery or something going on, but after realizing that these little machines were aiming at him there lasers, Bumblebee began to think otherwise. "Attention. Autobot spotted. Prepare for imminent capture for Lord Megatron.." One of the 'bots ordered montonely.
"What?" Bumblebee questioned skeptically, almost unsure if he heard correctly. Megatron, the Megatron Bumblebee specifically remebered being blown up by the AllSpark? Did that thing really just say Megatron's name or was his processor frizting?
"Surrender or suffer the consequences." The same machine said, while it and the others began to charge their lasers.
Bumblebee took a step back, overlapping his servos in a confused stance. What on Cybertron was going on here? Normally Bumblebee would have no trouble with the pesky fliers (as he proved when he first met Sari), but this wasn't a normal situation. It appeared that they had a modification; they were slightly larger then the previous ones and each individually was branded with the Decepticon symbol. What next? A happy-go-lucky Decepticon?
"Resistance is futile. Surrender." The unemotional voice began and suddenly released a bolt of neon lasers that skidded past Bumblebee's faceplate and uppermost of his frame. The other 'bots followed in suit and released wave after wave of lasers at the yellow mech.
Quickly, Bumblebee darted to the closest area that could hold up as cover and plunged behind a bulky slab of concrete approximately nine or ten feet away from where he was standing. Switching his hand like servos to his stingers, Bumblebee turned over and aimed above the concrete. Hastily, he locked onto one of the nearer 'bots firing at him and returned a few short yellow jolts.
"I'm slagged!" Bumblebee whimpered after seeing that his attacks were having no effect on the flying machines. It seemed like they were built with more protection on the plating; Bumblebee's lasers were only reflected off. "Man, where's Bulkhead or Ratchet when you need them?!"
As if on a ironic, but fortunate for Bumblebee, queue, a familiar wrecking ball swerved into the scene and sent a good dozen fliers crashing into a side of one of the crumbling buildings, after giving them a good clobbering. The silhouette of what Bumblebee thought to be his enormous, oil guzzling companion leaped down from one of the rooftops and began to ruthlessly swing at the machines, which by now had turned their attention on the large 'bot attacking them and focused the lasers on him. Undeterred, Bulkhead shook off the advances and allowed the blasts to impact on him as he maneuvered the steel ball to strike machine after machine. As the number of flying 'bots diminished, the number of lasers fired at him shrank away as well. To add a finishing touch, Bulkhead grabbed a piece of rock nearly the size of Bumblebee's alternate mode and hurled it towards the few remaining robots.
If it were any other time, Bumblebee would have jokingly commented on how the big hulk liked to take his time to help him, but for once he was just glad that Bulkhead made it.
"Good thing you got here in time buddy," Bumblebee murmured with a sigh of relief, while reverting his stingers back to his regular servos. The flying machines had finally all been destroyed. "Why didn't you answer me on the comm-link though, Bulkhead?" He asked, moving from the shelter of the concrete and taking a step forward, trying to focus his optics on his friend. Oddly, Bulkhead's form was darkened deeply by shadow.
"So...," Bulkhead's voice slowly began, but never moved from the shadow's cover, "the little coward finally came back." The voice added with a venomous grunt. Somehow Bulkhead's voice was different. Not seeming it was like a different voice module or anything, it was just a colder and maturer one than Bumblebee remembered it to be.
"Coward? Bulkhead what are you talking about? I didn't go anywhere!" Bumblebee replied in his own defense.
"Oh really? Then what about these last twenty stellar cycles?!" Bulkhead's voice questioned, fueled solely on rage. "Stop playing games and act serious for once!"
"Twenty stellar cycles?!" Bumblebee repeated in shock. How could that be? "That's not possible!"
Was Bulkhead trying to joke with him?
"It can and it is. How could you just abandon us like that?! We were a team! And then, you just leave us. Because of you...so many people..." The anger and sorrow expressed in his voice was very eery. Despite how much Bumblebee wanted him to be, he had a gut feeling that Bulkhead couldn't be lying. The evidence was lying all around him-- the wreckage of the city.
"Bulkhead...I would never leave you guys! I-I...just woke up and found myself here. I don't even know how I got here!" Bumblebee pleaded. He couldn't believe that Bulkhead, of all people, would accuse him of something so ridiculous.
Painstaking silence creeped on for a few moments as Bumblebee tried to think of someway to try to convince his friend of his innocence. Hearing the vents in Bulkhead's pedes slightly rev up, Bumblebee realized that his much larger friend was taking a few steps forward. Bumblebee was almost relieved in thinking that Bulkhead's anger had simmered down enough for him to come out from the shadows, but it was soon replaced in doubt to think how much Bulkhead had changed. His gentle, yet klutzy, happiness seemed to of evaporated. The surroundings only seemed to mirror Bulkhead's gloomy attitude, and Bumblebee sadly glanced around.
While Bumblebee was "gone" had things really turned out so horrible?
"We should get back to the base, before any more of those things show up." Bumblebee heard Bulkhead mutter behind him. He turned to give the large 'bot an agreeing smile, but his faceplate was immediately consumed by horror.
Standing where he expected Bulkhead to be wasn't Bulkhead at all. Bumblebee was utterly shocked and dazed to see Lugnut's purple and green chassis with Bulkhead's arm units and lower servos.
"Shocking isn't it?" Lugnut's mouth moved, but Bulkhead's voice filled with odium repulsion came out, instead of the deep, scratchy one of the Deceptcion. "After eleven long stellar cycles, I'm still disgusted by it."
"Bulk...head..." Bumblebee stumbled on his words; his optics never leaving that of Bulkhead's "body". "W-what...what happened Bulkhead?"
"Heh. Lugnut and I got into a good scrap a while back. I was able to get him offline, but my chassis was too damaged to be salvaged. Luckily Ratchet was still around to give me a spark transfer by using the EMP. Poor 'bot though...Without Sari's key, the EMP was too much of a toll on him and his old chassis..." Bulkhead explained dryly.
"You mean Ratchet's..." Bumblebee murmured in daze of disbelief, unable to form a complete sentence as horrific images of a life depleted, gray medic lying unattended on the battle field haunted him.
"Yep..." Bulkhead assured him with a harsh tone, while Lugnut...err.. Bulkhead's face plate made a flinch of sorrow as his single optic narrowed dimly. "He joined the well of AllSparks quite some time ago. But he isn't the only one we lost ever since Megatron gained control of the AllSpark."
"That's not possible! Bossbot and Megatron battled it out on the Ark, but Megatron shattered the AllSpark..."After that though, Bumblebee blanked.
"Have you fried your circuits, Bumblebee?! You were there! Long enough to see Megatron get the AllSpark anyway... Your disappearance seemed like an omen of what was to come. Megatron used the AllSpark against us and to begin conquering Earth and, we got our afts beaten badly. No matter how many times we tried to stop him, it was always the same result every single time. Sure we all tried our best to keep fighting; it took a toll on us after a while. Especially Prime. He cracked under the pressure and just left one day, though I always thought that Prowl would be the first to abandon ship. No idea if Prime's still online or not, but I could care less about that back ho-less leader."
"I don't understand...How did this..." Bumblebee spoke sadly. This wasn't the Earth he knew. This miserable place wasn't the precious home he slowly came to enjoy. All the lights of the city, the chaotic harmony of the people talking, the Bulkhead he knew, their team...
"Prowl's the same stoic ninja-bot," Bulkhead continued on, most likely not hearing the yellow mech's small protests. "Well, he's the one to change the least out of us anyway. I'm not sure if I should be surprised or not. I mean he is more bitter these days, but who came blame him? Ever since Sari..."
"Sari?!" Bumblebee snapped in attention, just at the mention of his human friend's name. Bumblebee couldn't believe how stupid he was. Sari's welfare hadn't even crossed his processor until that moment. "Where's Sari, Bulkhead?!"
Bulkhead heaved a heavy sigh and bowed his head, shame written all over his faceplate. "She's...gone Bumblebee... Blitzwing saw to that nearly eighteen stellar cycles ago," he whispered hatefully.
"No..." Bumblebee couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it! There was no way that Sari could be gone. It just wasn't believable. But, then why was his spark able to accept so easily and pulse angrily underneath his chest plate? Allowing himself to slide sorrowfully to the concrete beneath his feet, Bumblebee found himself glaring at pale concrete below him. What if it was his fault that this happened? What if it was his fault that Sari was gone? He wasn't there to protect her, even if he didn't know how he got here in the first place.
"No! No! No!" Bumblebee cried in rage. He drew back his hand and curled it into a fist. He slammed it into the ground and raised the tight fist back into the air before the pounding the ground once more; the yellow paint on his knuckles chipped away when he had finished.
"Sari thought it would be a good idea to use the key on Megatron...Turn your back for just a nano-kilk and she's blown up...But, she isn't the only one we lost since then though..." Bulkhead stated sourly. "After Megatron forced Professor Sumdac to build his robot army, he studied the schematics and decided that Sari's father was no longer necessary. And even Captain Fanzone. Poor guy was stomped on by Megatron like he was an ant-droid...It's funny 'Bee...You never notice how much you miss a guy who always gripes about how much he hates machines until he's gone..."
"Bulkhead...This future...It's a nightmare...This should have never happened!" Bumblebee cried, breaking Bulkhead from his reminiscing. If Bulkhead was still naive as Bumblebee was, he would have agreed with the small yellow 'bot, but after all that he had witnessed during the past twenty stellar cycles, Bulkhead knew that he could not bring himself to it. This constant war and fighting had changed him greatly. He had no cheery outlook on his cycles anymore and as every orbital cycle dragged on, the small hope he held for a change weaned as each moment passed
"Things never go the way you want them to," Bulkhead replied coldly and suddenly his entire body shifted over itself. Bumblebee immediately realized that he was changing to vehicle mode.
"Let's go. If we stay here any longer, more of those machines are bound to be back." Bumblebee's optics carefully studied the truck before him. It wasn't quite like Bulkhead's large van form, but still stood similar in size. This green and purple vehicle was more like a camper truck with a large and roomy cover on the backside.
When Bumblebee realized that Bulkhead was pulling off without him, he quickly switched to his vehicle mode and sped after him.
A/N: I did NOT "steal" this fanfic from ProoowlingNinja. It would be kind of impossible since we are the same person. :] If you read the Author's note on my old account, everything will make sense. I am re-uploading (and re-editing) the chapters onto this new account and finishing the story from here. Please Read and Review.