Yes, it's a day late, but I went trick-or-Treating last night (yes, i felt like a child again, but hey, I got free candy and two guys' phone numbers slipped into my bag with my candy XD) so I couldn't post it then. y'all don't mind it being a day late, rrrriiiight? ;D Well, here's Sunburst's first halloween, without further ado.
WARNING: EXTREME CUTENESS AND SEMI-FLUFF!
A Sparkling's Halloween
Blaster grinned as he watched his giggling sparkling play with four of her five half-brothers. Currently, the tape deck was in the rec room, which was rather full for a Monday evening seeing as it was standing room only where Cybertronians were concerned. The red mech was seated with Jazz, Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker at a table that currently held four cassette-formers and one doorwinger. Multiple other mechs would grin as they passed the small, playing Cybertronians.
"Daddy! Lookit us go!" Sunburst cheered from her position on Steeljaw's back. The lion-like cassette growled playfully as he dashed away from Rewind, who was currently "it" in their game of tag. The game had started as an every-bot-for-himself type of setup. However, Sunburst's speed, or lack thereof, had swiftly made her the underdog, so her second eldest half-brother had helped her onto his back to even out her odds.
"Yeah, baby spark. Yo're doin' good," Blaster praised with a grin.
"Steel's the bestest! Fastuh, 'Jaw!" Sunburst chirped. Steeljaw happily complied as he danced around Rewind's spindly claws. "Fun, fun!"
"I remember when that was Bluestreak and the Twins," Ironhide remarked as he moved toward their table. A familiar human was in his right hand, and said human was grinning at the scene below him.
"I'onhide!" Sunburst squealed, delighted to see the huge black mech. "Sir Will'um Lenny!"
"Hello, scraplet," Ironhide greeted, while Major Lennox replied with a simple hello. Sunburst had been extremely fascinated by humans (They were smaller than her, and they were squishy! How cool was that?) ever since she had met her first one: Bumblebee's human pet, Sam. Well, Thundercracker called Sam a pet. Daddy and Opiluk frowned whenever she called Sir Lenny and Sam "pets", and Optimus always went into a long speech about how humans were equal to Transformers. Quite frankly, Sunburst was more inclined to believe Thundercracker. They were smaller than her, weaker than her, and she could do Sam's homework in fifteen seconds. Without using her logic center. It simply made more sense for them to be pets. Maybe if she asked, Thundercracker would buy her one! She'd have to look into it.
"Heya, Majuh," Blaster greeted. "I fig-ya you get this mo'e than the otha humans. You 'ave a sparklin' yo'rself, righ'?"
"Yes, I do. We actually are going Trick-or-Treating tonight," Lennox claimed. The faces of every Transformer, aside from Ironhide, went blank as they searched the web for the definition of the activity. Sunburst, unable to search the internet, stared up at Lennox in curiosity.
"Steel, down," she ordered. Steeljaw chuckled at her demanding tone and dropped down so that she could dismount. Sunburst slowly slid off Steeljaw's back and made her way to the edge of the table, where Ironhide was standing. Her progress was slow, as she could only take a few steps at a time before her door wings would pull her down. Anytime she started to fall backwards, though, Sideswipe or Sunstreaker would catch her and help her right herself, seeing as she was walking past both of them to get to Ironhide.
"Sir Will'um Lenny?" she chirped, looking up at the major. Lennox grinned at the extreme butchering of his name and title. Sunburst had heard one of the soldiers calling him "sir" and had assumed it was part of his parent-given name. The "Lenny" part had come from when Epps was poking fun at his last name.
"Yes, Sunny?" he replied.
"Wha's tick an' tweatin'?" Sunburst asked? Lennox's grin grew. Even though Sunburst still had trouble pronouncing words, one could easily tell that she spent a lot of time around Blaster and Jazz, seeing as their accent was easily noticed in Sunburst's voice.
"Trick-or-Treat is when children go around to houses in the neighborhood to get candy, which is sweet and yummy food that's made for children, but isn't very good for them. When a person opens the door, children say, 'Trick-or-treat', and the people at the door give them sweets. It's how we celebrate a holiday called Halloween," Lennox explained easily. Sunburst hummed thoughtfully, her language center working to translate various words from English to Cybertronian.
So human children said, "Trick-or-treat" and received energon goodies? That's what candy was, right? Sweet and yummy energon made for sparklings, but isn't good for them? She turned her gaze to Lennox again.
"Wha's the rules?" she asked, knowing there has to be some sort of catch. It just seemed too good to be true. Lennox seemed taken aback by the words and considered his thoughts before replying.
"Children have to dress up in Halloween costumes. They dress up as someone else, or something else." Sunburst nodded. So she had to dress up as someone else… She nodded to herself.
"T'ankoo," she mumbled, still in thought. She trotted back to Blaster's arms, planning for her night and how to receive those energon goodies.
It was difficult. She was rooming with a spy and with a mech with superior audio receptors. She knew noise was out of the question. Luckily, she was sleeping in her rocking cradle, rather than in her crib. The cradle was rather low to the ground and would make her escape easier. As it was, escaping her mech-creators' searching sparks had been hard enough. Her plan had worked, though. She had fallen asleep at her bedtime, then she had onlined again, thanks to an internal chronometer alarm, when Blaster was supposed to be on-duty. Jazz, she knew, would already be offline, seeing as he had just come back from a long mission. The plan, so far, had gone by without hitch.
Now, she was in phase 2.
Sunburst rolled onto her front and lifted herself to her hands and knees. She slowly and silently crawled to the edge of the cradle. As she moved, the cradle leaned over a bit, making her balance a little awkward. It didn't stop her, though. With the ease that came with many practices, Sunburst gently slid from the cradle, keeping a hold on the edge of the cradle's lip. She was left dangling a foot off the ground, and she released the lip. She landed on her legs, but fell to her skidplate when her knees buckled. She resisted the urge to let out a triumphant click. That would defeat the point of her silence. Besides, spybots waited until after a mission to celebrate.
Sunburst rolled onto her knees and servos and made a bee-line for the door. It hissed open at her presence, as it had been programmed to do for creatures the cassette's size. She was lucky Jazz had fallen asleep before he had remembered to lock it. Without hesitation, Sunburst crawled out the door, headed to the supply room, which she knew would house the paints she required.
The trip was interesting to say the least, as she had to hide in doorways whenever a bot or human passed. But no fear! No bots and no squishies saw the Great Spybot Sunburst! She got into the supply room the same way she escaped Jazz's berthroom. The door hissed open for her short stature, and Sunburst moved inside.
Primus, it was so huge! Multiple gadgets and gizmos decorated the shelves, and random metal…things decorated the table-tops. Sunburst had been in this room enough with Sunstreaker to know where the paint was, so she quickly moved to the back of the room. She had to look closely at the colors on the paint cans, but finding the colors she desired was rather easy. She spotted the gray first, seeing as it was one the bottom shelf, and squealed happily. She wriggled in behind the paint can and started shoving on it. The can wouldn't move easily, but once it started moving, she knew she could do it.
She'd do it for the energon goodies.
It seemed like forever had passed by the time the can suddenly tipped on the shelf. It landed on its side, and the lid popped off, causing gray paint to flow forth from it. Sunburst trilled in delighted success. She hopped down from the shelf and plopped herself down on her rear in front of the paint can's opening. Without further ado, she shoved her servos into the paint, and after flicking her visor over her optics, she poured handfuls of gray paint over her helm and down her frame. Her plan was working perfectly! Sir William Lenny had stated that a sparkling had to pretend to be somebot else in order to get the goodies, so that was what she was doing. When she felt she was sufficiently covered, she allowed her visor, which was now crusted over by the quick-dry gray paint, to flick back into her helm, and she rolled onto her knees and servos. She planted her pedes firmly on the ground and walked her hands up to her feet while keeping her knees locked. She shoved off with her hands and forced herself to balance as she stood. She took a few steps forward and continued her search, now looking for another color that she knew for a fact was on the bottom row.
She repeated the process that got her access the gray paint with a can of black paint. The black paint can was only half-filled, so shoving it over the edge was much easier. Unfortunately, the can didn't just pop open. She squeaked in anger when she saw this. Stupid can! She kicked it.
And her pede went through the flimsy earth-metal, causing a small hole to appear. Primus! She didn't know her own strength! She chirped in happiness as she pulled her now-black pede out of the can. She then shoved a hand into the hole. Black paint leaked from her hand as she rubbed it up and down her chassis, trying to make a single back streak. Sweet success! Sadly, Sunburst knew that the red paint was on the top row, hidden by Sideswipe. No big deal. She could go Trick-or-Treating like this!
With a happy vent, she dropped back down to her servos and knees, headed to her first and closest stop: the medbay, wet black paint dripping after her, seeing as it took an hour for the black paint to dry.
::Did you find her?:: -Jazz
::No. Calm down, Jazz. Dreadwing in on his way back, as it Blaster. We will find her. Every abled-body mech is searching.:: -Optimus Prime
:Dear Primus, I can't believe this! It's all my fault!:: -Jazz
::Calm down, you slaggin Pit-spawn! We'll find her! Now help us look instead of running around like a headless cyberduck!:: -Ratchet
::Easy for you to say! You're in the medbay!:: -Jazz
::I'm preparing it, just in case Sunburst is hurt.:: -Ratchet
::Oh, Primus! What if she hurts herself!:: -Jazz
::Thanks, Ratchet. We definitely needed him to have that extra reason to worry.:: -Optimus Prime
::Don't you get snappy with me! I have a wrench in my hand, and I will hunt you down and use it.:: -Ratchet
::Pit-spawn medic…:: -Optimus Prime
:WHAT WAS THAT!:: -Ratchet
– Optimus Prime is unavailable –
::That's what I thought.:: -Ratchet
A quiet knock sounded at the medbay door, distracting Ratchet from his ire. His helm tilted in confusion. Was there a single mech that ever knocked at his door? Curiosity grew, and Ratchet made his way across the medbay to the door just as another knock sounded. He hit the activation button and looked around once the door opened.
"T'ick o' tweat!" a small voice squealed. Ratchet looked down, and his confused ocean blue optics met with wide, excited cerulean ones. Sunburst was, to say the least, a total mess. Gray paint streaked down her red frame, barely covering her red chassis and red legs. Her helm and arms were completely gray with a few red spots, and the base of her doorwings were gray while the rest of them were still red. The center of her chest plates was covered with wet black paint, which was dripping down the rest of her frame. Her right pede and left servo were completely black. The only part of her that was left untouched was her skidplate, which she had undoubtedly sitting on while she painted herself, effectively keeping the paint from touching it. Despite all of this, Ratchet couldn't help but chuckle at her expectant smile and outstretched palms. He knelt down after taking a still for his growing file filled with pictures of Sunburst doing remarkably cute things and lifted her into his servos, ignoring the wet black paint. He could always repaint himself later.
::I think we found our sparkling. Someone got into the supply room. I'm following a trail of black paint.:: -Sunstreaker
::Don't bother. She's with me. Apparently, she wanted to go Trick-or-Treating. She spoke with Lennox today, didn't she?:: -Ratchet
::Thank Primus, you found her! Yes, she spoke with him.:: -Jazz
"What are you supposed to be?" Ratchet asked, walking back into the medbay, toward his sink.
"I B'uestreak!" she squeaked. Ratchet let out a highly amused chuckle.
"I can see the resemblance."
"You give en'gon goodie?" she questioned. Ratchet laughed again and pulled one from his subspace. He always kept one with him, just in case he needed to bribe Sunburst into cooperation at any given time.
"Her you go. Only touch it with this servo while you eat it. I have to clean this one off," he ordered gently, giving her the goodie as he set her in the deep sink. He turned on the water as she ate it, ensuring that the water wasn't too hot or too cold. He started by washing her free hand. Then he methodically moved on to her foot. She was about to clean off her chest plate when Jazz and the Twins walked in.
"How is she?" Jazz asked, moving to Ratchet's side. Sunburst chirped tiredly at her opi. "You 'ad quite an adventure, didn' ya?"
"Yup," she squeaked. Her systems whirred a little, and Jazz grinned when she slipped into recharge.
"Tomorrow, you will have to repaint her. Send her visor to me. My scans show that there's paint on it as well," Ratchet said as he finished cleaning her up. He wrapped her in a towel and handed her over to her adopted creator.
"Thanks, Ratch," he said gratefully.
"You're welcome. Keep a closer optic on her next time," Ratchet groused. The four mechs went their separate ways and wouldn't meet up until morning, at which time, Sunburst's nighttime escapade would become well known on the base.
The next night, Ratchet would find a smiling green sparkling at his medbay door, saying, "T'ick o' tweat, Doc'er Watchit! I Spwinguh tonight!"
Please, review. I want to know if y'all would like little things like this more often for more holidays...
