Bumblebee used to be a vocal mech. He could've talked for hours on end without running out of anything to say. Now he was mute, sort of. He could beep sure, but he wanted a voice. He loved his voice. Maybe that made him vain but it was the only thing about him other than his wheels that he was proud of. When he was younger he would squeal so loud and high that more than one of his caretakers audios had been shattered. As he grew up he would talk constantly and ask lots of questions as younglings tend to do. He was trained to become a scout which was fine by him. He'd always been good at sneaking around without getting caught. He turned out to be a darn good one too. Then came the day everything changed. The day Megatron tore into his throat and broke his voice box beyond repair.
The clouds of smoke and gunfire surrounded the poor yellow bot as he struggled uselessly in the grip of Megatron.
"Tell me where they are!" the hulking silver mech snarled and Bumblebee with his optics flickering refused to say anything. Megatron tightened his grip on the young scouts neck, "TELL ME!" he shouted. Bumblebee thought of his fellow autobots and what would happen if he broke and told. Though he was dented, scratched and bleeding from several cuts, not to mention being dangled by his neck, Bumblebee decided he would stay quiet. Megatron stood for a couple more seconds before punching Bumblebee in the helm. "You want to stay silent, you can stay silent forever!" the silver mech hissed digging his sharp digits into the sensitive wires of the mech's neck. Bumblebee screamed as Megatron viciously clawed the sensitive voice box to near shreds. When he was satisfied, Megatron dropped the scout who had blacked out, and told his troops to move out. They left the yellow bot there sure he would be dead before the next breem.
Ratchet was always busy in wartime but nothing tore at his spark more than seeing a broken, beaten Bumblebee dumped onto his operating table. The medic had to work quickly to save the young bot, and though he tried his best, Bumblebee's voice box was too damaged to fix. The best Ratchet could do was stop the bleeding and patch it up knowing the scout would never be able to talk again. He finished his work and Bumblebee was taken to another room to rest and recover.
The scout woke up to bright lights and concerned faces above him. He rubbed his helm and sat up looking at the familiar faces of his friends and comrades. He tried for a smile and said hello…at least he tried to. All that came out was static and the sounds of gears grinding together. Coughing Bumblebee stopped and clutched his throat in true horror. He couldn't talk! He slid his mask over his mouth and used the secondary voice module there. It only gave out beeps and whirs but it was better than nothing.
Bumblebee hadn't meant to step on that boy's toy car. He beeped an apology and the boy nodded saying that it was fine. This made him freeze for a moment, had the boy understood him? He decided that the child must have guessed what he said since no human could be able to understand him. A day later he drove to the school and spied the same boy underneath a tree talking with another boy. Bumblebee opened his door and beeped hoping that they had already seen Arcee. She was to take Jack after all. To his surprise the smaller boy had seemed to understand perfectly. He climbed into Bee's seats and looked all around as Bumblebee sped off.
"Wow! What's your name?" the boy asked. "Mine's Raf by the way."
*Bumblebee. But I suppose you won't understand this…* Bumblebee beeped sadly.
"What do you mean? I can understand you perfectly." Raf countered confusion on his face.
*Really?* Bumblebee whirred.
"Yeah. I don't know why…are you speaking in another language? Like an alien one?" Raf asked.
*Sort of, it's not real cybertronian but they can all understand it. It's like human sign language, bots whose voices don't work use the beeps.*
"So your voice doesn't work then?" Raf said tilting his head. Bumblebee sighed.
*Yes it doesn't work.*
"I'm sorry." Raf said.
*Don't worry about it kid…now let's get to base* Bumblebee beeped back his tires squealing on the asphalt.
Just a little thing that popped into my mind. I can make it longer if you want just tell me, but otherwise It's just like this for now.
