This popped into my head while I was studying for one of my exams. It almost literally wrote itself. Enjoy! ^^
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Rating: T (mainly for teeny tiny cursing)
~~~
A problem with his voice box,
or,
how Jetfire spoke in languages
~~~
"…And so I dove down from the sky and boom! the plasma cannon keeping our forces pinned down was nothing more than a smothering pile of debris."
Fred and Billy looked at the white shuttle with awe-filled eyes. Both of them had their hands balled with excitement and mischievous grins were plastered on their faces. Carlos was shaking with suppressed thrill.
"So cool, Jetfire!" Fred cried out and punched the air. The small room they were in echoed with the cry.
"C'mon, tell us more of your heroic adventures where you dared the Decepticreep lines and saved the day!" Billy added. Fred and Carlos nodded in agreement and looked up at the white mech.
"Now now, kids," Jetfire said hands brought up in a calming gesture. "Maybe we should leave some for later-"
"TELL US!"
The shuttle jerked back. He knew the kids could be loud but damn that hurt his audio receptors. He scratched the back of his helm sheepishly. "Well…"
The boys stared at him with gleaming eyes.
"Nah, what could one more hurt?" Jetfire laughed and placed his hands on his hips. "Any requests?"
"Oh! Tell about the time when you braved the fire storm on…er… what's-that-planet-again!" Billy voted.
"No! Tell how you and Optimus took down that space station!" Fred piped in.
Carlos shook his head. "No way! If Jetfire is going to tell about anything, it's the case of the missing ion generator!"
The other two boys whined and argued that they had just heard about it yesterday -twice. The dark-haired boy stayed adamant of his choice and soon their talking had turned into bickering and escalated into a full-scale fight. The white shuttle stood next to them trying to cool them down.
"What's going on in here?" Came the strong, calm voice of the Autobot leader.
Immediately the boys stopped arguing and turned to look at the red-and-blue mech standing by the room opening. Jetfire gave a small, slightly embarrassed 'Hi Optimus' wave.
"That's it!" Carlos said snapping his fingers, a smile appearing on his face. "Optimus will decide! Besides, I'm sure he knows a lot more of Jetfire's heroic moments!" Fred and Billy nodded eagerly.
The tall mech in question tilted his helm a bit. "Decide what?"
"Nothing, Optimus, really it's alright… You don't need to…" The second-in-command tried to reason.
"What story Jetfire is going to tell next!" Billy said, cutting off Jetfire's sentence. "My money's on the fire storm story."
"No, the space station…" Fred sniffed and ripped open a new bag of chips.
Carlos grunted annoyed: "No, the ion generator!"
"Fire storm!"
"Ion generator!"
"STORM!"
"GENERATOR!"
"Good chips…" the shortest of them mumbled and munched on another handful.
Optimus sighed and looked at the other mech. Jetfire only shrugged his shoulders weakly. The three on the floor were almost ready to throw punches when Prime stepped in:
"That's enough. The only thing Jetfire is going to tell you is see you later. He's late for his shift."
The white mech jumped in horror. "Really!? I thought it was Hot Shot's turn to…oh, riiiight. Sorry kids, I got to go, duty calls." Jetfire said quickly in an apologizing tone and hurried down the corridor that Optimus had entered through. Though, not before giving his leader an appreciating nod.
A disappointed 'Aww…' echoed in the small room.
"Maybe next time," Optimus reassured and turned to follow the white mech.
"Yeah, sure…" Carlos answered as his posture slightly slumped. Billy and Fred follow cue as they were left to come up with something else to do.
"Hey…!" Billy almost yelled. "I bet Scavenger has some frikin' amazing stories to tell!"
"Oh yeah!" Carlos and Fred cried out and together the three took off towards the cargo bay their chattering and running footsteps ricocheting from the walls and multiplying. If one hadn't known better, they would've thought a classroom full of kids was passing by on their way to an amusement park.
"Jetfire," Optimus called out as he entered the command center, crossing his arms as he came to a halt next to the other mech.
The shuttle turned around slightly, noting the presence of the Autobot leader. By the controls, Red Alert was kneeled down and working on some updates. The medic had relieved Hot Shot of the rest of his monitor duty to give the white-and-blue mech more time to properly fix the controls.
"You had gotten yourself in a quite a mess there," the truck said.
Jetfire chuckled lightly: "Yeah, tack för hjälpen."*
Optimus blinked: "Excuse me?"
"Tack för hjälp- ack!" Jetfire slapped his servos over his mouth. "Vad…?!"
The Autobot leader looked alarmed. By the second comment Red Alert had gotten to his pedes and stared at the second-in-command confused. The medic and Prime exchanged glances before setting their optics on the white mech in front of them, currently clutching his throat.
"Vad…" He tried again. "Oh nej!"
The intelligence officer walked over to him. "Jetfire, what's wrong?"
"Vad är fel? Vad är fel?! Hör du mig inte?! Jag… Jag…!" There was a clear strain in his voice. "Jag talar… Jag vet inte vad jag talar! Red Alert, hjälp mig!"
The last part was clear to both of the mechs. Help. Jetfire certainly wasn't doing what he was doing on purpose. Red Alert tilted his helm a bit and tapped his fingers.
"We should get you to med bay, and run some tests. Most likely your voice box is malfunctioning or the communications chip in your CPU is glitching. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
The flyer nodded, letting go of his throat but still looking restless. Red Alert placed his hand reassuringly on Jetfire's shoulder.
"I'll take care of things here; you look after Jetfire, okay?" Optimus stated, concern for his SIC coloring his voice.
The medic nodded and led the shuttle out of the command center and towards the medical bay.
The tall mech watched as the door closed. The day certainly hadn't turned out like he had expected the moment he had gotten up from his recharge berth.
"Red alert, jag vill inte ha någon höra mig som det här, okej?" Jetfire piped and clenched his fists, sitting on the edge of the medical berth.
The medic glanced at him.
"I have no idea what you're saying, but I assure you no one is entering the lab until I have fixed you." To empathize his point, Red Alert walked to the door controls and punched in a security code to lock the door. "But, until that time, it would be best for you to not to speak. It seems the change in language is putting a strain on your voice systems."
A frustrated sigh escaped the flyer's vents. Instead of asking (and following the doctor's orders), he merely stared at the mech, hoping that Red Alert would get what he was burning to say out loud.
"I will figure this out soon, be patient, Jetfire."
A scoff.
"Don't be disrespectful. The pressure on your voice box, caused by speaking another language without first adapting the sensor nodes to the fluctuation and pronunciation sounds of the new language, might damage it permanently."
The white mech looked horrified.
"I would advise you to lie down and relax. Before fixing you, I have to first figure out what is causing the change." The medic walked over to the shuttle and connected a few cables to his neck and the back of his helm.
Jetfire vented another sigh. He lay down, crossed his hands together on his chest and tapped his thumbs together. Being silent would prove to be difficult, very difficult. Already a hundred –no- a thousand questions and comments swirled in the shuttle's CPU, waiting to be let out and be heard.
A tiny smile tugged at the corners of the other bot's mouth as he began his work.
Jetfire snapped his optics open. The bright lights of the med bay were sharp and blinding and the shuttle had to lift his servo to shield his recharge-filled optics. A groan escaped his voice box.
"Morning," came the monotone voice of Red Alert, "did you rest well?"
Jetfire sat up shakily, his hand rubbing his cheek. Placing his elbow on his knee, he rested his chin against his palm and simply stared at the medic. The white mech didn't look too happy. Red Alert smiled.
"I had to force you into stasis so I could bring the data booster pack online in your communications systems. After that your CPU willingly continued the nap."
If not for the wires attached to his frame and the fact that he couldn't form an understandable sentence, Jetfire would have gotten up from the slab and given the medic a very well phrased piece of his mind. Instead, he glared.
The other mech suppressed a grin. "I believe I know what you are thinking." He reactivated the shuttle's communications systems and turned to face his patient. "Okay now, tell me, did it work?"
Jetfire cocked his helm. With a deep intake he said: "Ich weiß nicht. Sag du das."
"… No." The medic huffed, turned around and typed a few more commands. "How about now?"
Something sounding distantly like Japanese erupted from the shuttle's mouth. The medic bit his lip, switching the frequency up a nod and rewriting the communication protocols.
"And now?"
"C'est commence à être ennuyeux," Jetfire mumbled, voice high-pitched and wavering.
Red Alert let out a sigh. "I don't even want to know." He rerouted the language pathways and wrote an anti-crash code. "Last trick."
"That is so very comforting, Red Alert. I think we have to talk about your bedside ma- It worked!" The second-in-command cried out, jumping down from the berth, the cables disconnecting not-so-subtly.
"It truly sounds that way," said the white-and-blue mech smiling.
"Thanks doc!" Jetfire hollered and gave the medic a thumbs up. "Now, I gotta go tell Optimus!"
… And the mech was gone.
Red Alert shook his head with a chuckle and went to clean up the med bay.
"…And you should've seen me, looping around the smoke vortex, blasting the hiding Decepticon ship down, and saving the kidnapped femme from certain doom!" Jetfire boasted, arm up in a defiant stance.
The kids laughed by his feet. 'More more!' chant could be heard and the shuttle was more than willing to oblige. A bit afar from the group, Scavenger was leaning against the wall, his hand covering his face and a sigh escaping his vents. On the other side of the command center, the Autobot leader and Red Alert followed the events.
"I must say," Red Alert began, audible enough for Optimus to hear, "I, in a bizarre way, liked the language speaking Jetfire."
Optimus gave him a questioning look.
The medic smiled. "At least then he was silent."
Their laughter filled the control room, gaining confused and worried looks from the others.
Hope you liked it! The non-English sentences might not be perfect or completely correct, so my apologies for that. I did most of the translation myself, with a little help from my friends (French is definitely not my forte).
*Translations (in order):
"Thanks for helping"
"I said, thanks for hel- What?!"
"What...? Oh, no!"
"What's wrong? What's wrong?! Don't you hear me? I... I...!" "I speak... I don't know what I speak! Red Alert, help me!"
"Red Alert, I don't want anyone to hear me like this, okay?"
"I don't know. You tell me."
"This is starting to be annoying."
Languages are Swedish, German and French.
Reviews are highly appreciated!