The Bug
It was a sunny summer day in New Detroit people going about their day, children enjoying their break and even a few off world being's were enjoying a day without decepticon's.
Optimus Prime the leader of the four team ragged tagged group of earth bound Autobot's, was going through his day by checking some datapads; work seemed to be his way of relaxing.
Prowl, a former cyber ninja student who had joined the team before they arrived on earth; was meditating in his room the bot having a strange respect for nature as he sat under a large tree.
Ratchet an old war medic who you didn't want to mess with even on a good day, was cleaning up his medbay after Bulkhead had a run in with Lugnut the day before; the wreaking ball had needed to be reattached.
And finally Bulkhead a very large bot who was rather young despite his size, was driving the bots human companion to a place she called a junkyard; the description she gave him of the place sounded like a place bots went to die.
"Bulkhead it's not an autobot graveyard" Sari Sumdac, an eight year old girl with tan skin and red hair said; a strange key hung from her neck.
It had been a few months since the autobot's came to earth and the small organic girl had been the one to befriend them.
"You said it's a place where human's throw old broken car's and bots, sounds like a grave to me" Bulkhead said through his radio.
"You'll see big guy" Sari smiled, alot of things still confused her friends from space.
"If you say so" Bulkhead responded as the large green vehicle made a left turn, seeing a sign that said 'Sid's Junkyard'.
Stopping once they got past the entrance the bot let Sari out and transformed into his robot mode.
"Never thought I'd ever feel small" Bulkhead's optic's were wide at the pile's of scrap, tires and broken car's.
Some were taller than him and Lugnut put together and that was a disturbing thought.
Sari nodded as she looked around at the mountain high piles" Alright let's split up, dad said he needed scrap metal and gear's! So let's go!" The little girl took charge as usual, her large friend was more the soft spoken type despite his appearance.
Bulkhead had no say as the girl was already running off to find gear's, the mech shook his head at her energy; it was like having a sparkling for a friend.
One that could speak and move without falling over it's own servos, but a sparkling nevertheless.
Bulkhead saw a large piece of scrap metal as he began to lift it, keeping an optic out in case Sari got in trouble; he couldn't help but worry for the small organic.
She was very easily squished after all!
Meanwhile Sari had found an empty box, lugging it around as she found a few gear's; she looked up seeing a small mountain of car's.
She shivered a bit, okay so this wasn't an autobot graveyard; but if anything slipped it could crush her.
Dragging the box away she went back to looking for more gear's, knowing that eventually she'd need Bulkhead's help with the box; though she heard a small crash and sweatdropped.
A groan was heard as Sari already knew what happened.
A few pile's away Bulkhead pulled himself out of the pile of metal, he tugged the wrong gear and part of the mound fell on the mech.
Apparently karma decided to mess with him today.
Sari kept dragging the box, seeing a few servos from broken down city bots along with rusted car's.
This continued for an hour as she was considering going back to Bulkhead, to see if he was okay and ask if they had enough; when her key began to glow.
"What?" The little girl looked at it, wondering if an allspark fragment was near.
Now she really should tell Bulkhead, though before she could go back to where she left her green friend; the key began to drag her in a way similar to a magnetic pull.
"Whoa! Okay I'll go just stop! Bulkhead!" The key had a mind of it's own at time's, as Sari grabbed it to keep it from choking her; calling for her friend as she had no idea what was going on.
The green bot had folded some large pieces of metal into a small compact size, having been putting some in his subspace for travel.
"Sari?!" He turned his head to where he could hear the girl yelling at her key, the large mech slowly making his way not wanting to bring a pile down again.
He soon caught sight of the eight year old, her key glowing as it was practically dragging her toward's a pile of rusted old car's.
"I think the key found a fragment!" Sari told her large friend, his footsteps loud as ever as she stopped in front of a rusted and broken BMW from the early 2000's.
The key seemed to be trying to get to something behind it.
"Where is it?" Bulkhead asked, seeing the key was still glowing.
"Behind the car?" Sari shrugged, also not knowing as the key was trying to drag her again.
Bulkhead saw the action as he carefully lifted the old car, placing it down near by as it revealed another car.
A rusted pale yellow Volkswagen Beetle from the 1970's, a faded racing number was on it's door's along with a black racing stripes.
The key pulled Sari towards the car before it stopped, going back to normal.
"Okay, that was weird" Sari scratched her head, she didn't see a fragment anywhere only the pale yellow bug.
"Do you see the fragment" Bulkhead didn't risk anymore movement, as he turned on his scanner to check; only to get a very weird reading from the car.
"Nope! It's just an old car" Sari said, placing a hand on it.
Something about it was bugging her as she turned to look at Bulkhead, he had a weird look on his face.
"What?" She asked, seeing he was looking at the yellow car curiously.
"There's a spark signature coming from it" Bulkhead said, shocked as he realized what that meant.
Sari however didn't get it" Spark signature? You mean the fragment's?" The little girl asked, about to move when her key activated again.
It began to shift, similar to how it would change whenever she healed her friend's.
"I think it's an bot" Bulkhead admitted suprised, this shouldn't be possible the only bots on earth where them and the decepticon's.
He didn't even know earth existed until they came here.
"I thought you guy's where the first autobot's on earth" Sari voiced her metal friend's thoughts.
Not seeing any real harm Sari tried to lift the hood, it was stuck great!
The little girl grit her teeth as she felt it budge, only to see that it had been Bulkhead who helped.
"Thank's Bulkie!" The girl smiled using the nickname she made for the bot.
Bulkhead just rubbed the back of his head as he watched his small human friend.
Lifting the key Sari saw a place to put the key into the engine, trusting Bulkhead she slid the key in as the car began to glow.
Rust began to fade away as the pale yellow began to take on a more vibrant color, dents and broken window's began to fix themselves as soon the car looked good as new; or as good a car from the 70s could look.
Before either Sari or Bulkhead could move the car turned on giving out a loud honk, the two covered their ear's; as the sound of transforming was soon heard.
The yellow bug began to slowly change shape, small servo's being released as one of the smallest autobot's Sari had ever seen replaced the car; the reason she knew it was an autobot.
The red insignia was branded on it's chest as it looked around confused, then it saw her and Bulkhead and immediately stumbled back; falling onto an old CRV.
"Hey wait! Where not going to hurt you! Promise!" Sari raised her hands waving them around at the small bot.
It had lifted it's servos as if expecting to be attacked, it looked absolutely terrified.
"I'm an autobot too, were not going to hurt you little buddy" Bulkhead tried to calm the bot, who knew how long he had been in stasis; and not wanting to fight a bot who wasn't even half his size.
The word 'Autobot' seemed to calm the bot as he slowly placed his servos down, large blue optics looking at the two wearily; as if expecting a trick.
He looked even younger than Bulkhead" I'm Sari! And that's Bulkhead were friends" Sari explained hoping the mech would calm down, she wondered what Optimus was going to say when they got him to the base.
Well if they could convince the bot to follow them.
"What's your designation?" Bulkhead asked calmly, seeing the bot's shaking.
The yellow mech didn't awnser, as the sound of an old radio being tuned filled the air; several different stations were heard before word's came.
"Bee...Bumble...Bee" The yellow bot alternated between two different stations.
Both Sari and Bulkhead gave him a confused look" Your name's Bumblebee?" Sari decided to guess as she received a small smile and nod.
The human girl hadn't known that the autobot's could use the radio station's to talk, though she wondered why he didn't just speak.
"Hey Sari, we should tell boss bot about this" Bulkhead said to the little girl who looked up at him.
"Yeah!" Sari said excited as she turned to the yellow bot who tilted his head confused.
"There's more of us here on earth" Bulkhead said, not mentioning the decepticon's.
The bot looked young, but for all Bulkhead knew he could have been in stasis since the great war.
Bumblebee nodded in understanding as he looked around at the junkyard, something the two noticed was the confused expression on his face; like he didn't know where he was.
Or when he was, was a better way to describe him.
Sari decided to try and get a closer look, seeing the part's from the beetle that made up the chassis; as he turned to her.
She expected him to recoil in surprise at how close she was, instead he lowered himself down in a crouch reaching out a servo before deciding against it.
"What?" Sari asked wondering why he did that, she could hear Bulkhead talking to who she guessed was the guy's back at the base through his comm.
Bumblebee didn't seem to notice to busy paying attention to her"Nothing" the word once again came from the radio.
"Do you like using the radio instead of talking?" Sari decided to ask the mech.
He suddenly got a sad look on his face, vents releasing air in a sound similar to a sad sigh; as the girl began to wave her arm's.
"Oh wait! I didn't mean it like that!" She said, feeling guilty that she may have accidently insulted him.
But the yellow bot had stopped paying attention, trying to remember something, anything.
Vague flashes of a human facility, red eye's, battle and pain came; he held his helm his processor beginning to ache.
He hadn't realized the clicks of pain he was letting out until something touched his leg, he panicked and slammed into a rusted old car behind him.
That brought something back, hard enough to shock his processor as the last thing Bumblebee saw was the small girl; before he went into a forced recharge.
"Bumblebee! Hey wake up!" Sari had worried when she saw the bot tense up, then he suddenly fell over.
She banged on the yellow mech's arm, no response as she pouted.
"He's just recharging" Bulkhead spoke up, having worried as well until he noticed that he hadn't offlined.
"But how are we suppose to get him to the base now?" Sari asked.
Oh, Bulkhead hadn't really thought about that.
Somehow this idea came to me while watching Herbie fully loaded, I need someone to hit me over the head and make my brain shut up