Bumblebee skidded to a halt and the desert sand flew up. His scanners went wild. He was already on edge with the memories ofEgyptfrom a few months ago bugging him. Now he was even more jumpy when he kept sensing something was following him. And it wasn't his patrol partner Sideswipe. The eerie feeling kept sneaking up on him all night on patrol. After every stop, Bumblebee drove off again a little faster, trying to get away from whatever was out there. Earlier that night, he and Sideswipe were sent to investigate the ruins of the Fallen's sun harvester. Just to make sure nothing was salvageable for the Decepticons. Bumblebee had no problem with accomplishing the task until he got back out in the familiar desert area. As soon as Bumblebee and Sideswipe passed by the familiar sight where Sam died, (and was resurrected from the Matrix) Bumblebee hit top speed and wheeled out of there. Sideswipe hadn't realized what an impact that moment made on Bumblebee and drove after him. When Bumblebee stopped to scan again, Sideswipe pulled up next to him and transformed before Bumblebee had the chance to leave.
"What's gotten into you?" Sideswipe asked. His vents were running loudly. "I don't know...what kind of...fuel you've been taking...but I've never seen a healthy mech...move that fast...on a regular basis." Sideswipe panted through his vents. Bumblebee transformed too. He shook his head, trying to get a hold of himself. Sideswipe punched Bumblebee's shoulder. "Seriously. Are you alright?"
"I don't like it here." Sideswipe made a puffing noise and walked on.
"What's there to be afraid of out here?" he laughed.
"I'm not scared, okay? I just don't want to be here." Bumblebee replied with a cocky voice that didn't match his mood at all. He swiftly followed close behind Sideswipe. It didn't take long before Bumblebee froze dead still again and started scanning all over again.
"Will you calm down? Nothing's out there. C'mon, we're almost there." Sideswipe said, grabbing his antsy partner by the shoulder and pushing him along. Bumblebee shook it off and distanced himself from Sideswipe. They walked for some time in silence. Bumblebee thought about Sideswipe as a distraction from the mysterious something in the dark. Bumblebee knew Sideswipe's twin Sunstreaker and was surprised when he didn't come to Earth with Sideswipe. Bumblebee heard a couple different exclamations. For example, Sunstreaker went missing or Sunstreaker was injured and had to be left in the care of another Autobot team. None of these exclamations, Bumblebee heard from Sideswipe though. Bumblebee occasionally considered asking Sideswipe about Sunstreaker. Sideswipe obviously trusted Bumblebee, the way he was relying on him as if Bumblebee were his little brother. But Bumblebee never asked. He decided it wasn't his business anyway.
When Bumblebee and Sideswipe came to the remains of the sun harvester, Bumblebee almost forgot completely about his fears. Then he felt it again. Something was coming. He didn't know what, and he didn't know where, but something was coming for him. He stared out into the darkness, just waiting for something to move. Suddenly a light tap on Bumblebee's back made him jump and immediately turn his cannon on whatever was behind him! He stumbled back and hid his cannon away when he saw a half startled, half irritated Sideswipe on the other end of his gun. Sideswipe was about to yell at Bumblebee, but stopped when he saw Bumblebee was still shaking.
"Just wait here." Sideswipe sighed.
Bumblebee watched Sideswipe climb inside the half wrecked pyramid. When Sideswipe's shining silver figure was gone, Bumblebee listened to the noises of destruction rumbling out of the broken harvester. Bumblebee imagined Sideswipe wasn't even 'breaking a sweat' as humans would say, ripping the machine apart. Bumblebee paced back and forth in the sand. He didn't want to be near the place where he failed to protect Sam. He didn't like the feeling in the back of his processor that told him something was coming, but his scans always came up negative. Bumblebee looked up at the stars. It was a clear night with not a single cloud in the sky. Bumblebee stared off into space, literally, and daydreamed about his memories of making planet fall to Earth. All of a sudden Bumblebee realized the memories were coming true! Bumblebee gazed at what looked like a flaming meteor, plummeting towards Earth. He took a quick scan of the object and took cover behind the pyramid. Bumblebee's scan confirmed, the object was cybertronian, and it was falling fast!
The object from space made a deafening boom when it hit the unforgiving Earth. It toppled and rolled, leaving a long scarring trail in the sand. When the whole thing finally slowed down enough, it slammed into the sun harvester's pyramid and tipped on its side. Sideswipe felt the shudder in the ground from when the falling object crash landed. He pulled himself out of the ruins of the sun harvester and slid down the pyramid. He spotted Bumblebee on the other side.
"What was that?" Sideswipe hollered. Bumblebee pointed at the fallen object. When he approached it, he could see the object was obviously a cybertronian spacecraft. (Not a model he'd ever seen before.) Bumblebee inched closer and closer, until the spacecraft started to come apart. Bumblebee watched intently. It was when Sideswipe joined him when Bumblebee realized he was letting his guard down. Bumblebee aimed his cannon and Sideswipe raised his arm blades. The spacecraft's top slid back and a metal figure stood up. But Bumblebee caught the sight of the stranger's red optics, faster than a human could blink. Bumblebee jumped onto the hood of the spacecraft and pinned the stranger back down into the spacecraft. Bumblebee strangled the stranger by the throat with one hand and held his cannon dangerously close to the stranger's head. The stranger didn't dare struggle.
"Saaay you're prayerssszz!" Bumblebee managed to say in Cybertronian.
"Wait! Wait, wait you can't do this!" the stranger pleaded. Bumblebee charged his cannon. "Stop!" the stranger screamed. "I'm your BROTHER!" Bumblebee shook his head and disregarded the stranger's words. He clutched the stranger's throat tighter. The stranger screamed in agony. Bumblebee prepared for the kill again. The stranger gave one last attempt to save himself. "I'm your brother!" he repeated. 'It's impossible! He's lying!' Bumblebee thought. Bumblebee squeezed at the stranger's throat harder. "If you rip out my voice, that will be one more thing we have in common!" the stranger cried. Bumblebee stopped. He took his cannon away from his 'brother's' face and released his throat. Bumblebee gave his 'brother' a hand and helped him out of the spacecraft. The mech who claimed to be Bumblebee's brother, was about to thank Bumblebee for listening to him, but he was out like a light when Bumblebee slugged him from behind. Sideswipe watched in confusion.
"I have this pressure point in the back of my neck that only I know about." Bumblebee admitted. Sideswipe studied the mech collapsed in the sand.
"Weak wiring in the back of your head makes you shut down when you receive a heavy blow to certain wires?" Sideswipe guessed. Bumblebee nodded. "Must be hard wires to find, because I would have never figured that out. Is it like a creation defect?" Bumblebee nodded again. "And he has it too." Sideswipe observed.
"Zazu get help." Bumblebee ordered.
"And help bring a 'Con back to base, who could possibly be your brother? Why?"
"Tooo prove 'im..." Bumblebee switched back to his radio. "...dead wrong."
Bumblebee's quotes belong to their rightful owners.
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