Disclaimer: I still own none of it. Don't sue me. I do, however, own Ivee, Drift, and Skidd. If you wish to use them, please ask.
Chapter warnings: Implied Longarm/Bumblebee if you squint
Notes: Ohmispark, I never expected to get that many replies in the first 12 hours! X3 Thanks everyone!
READ & REVIEW ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
Independent.C.: Don't worry, there will be much more torture coming for Sentinel in future chapters. And the giant snowball? Well, you'll see.
Randomstrike: No, sorry. Lockdown actually won't be in this fanfic, but he will appear in the sequel. There will be plenty of surprises in store. (Are you dying of suspense yet? Huh? Huh? X3)
Shirox, panthergirl29, xoxo, Hot Rod's Girl, I play wid fir3, flamingmarsh and Shizuka Taiyo: Thank you for the reviews! Updates will be coming as quickly as possible!
Chapter 2
Memories
"Keep pushing, brother!"
"I am pushing much!"
Bumblebee watched in astonishment as the snowball the twins were making exceeded even his own height. The sun had been out briefly during sunset, but did nothing to melt the snow. Now, illuminated by the warehouse external light, snow still falling hard, the two diligently continued their strenuous and mysterious task.
Bumblebee himself had retired inside for a while to play videogames after the brothers had rolled up all of the good snowdrifts. But boredom soon overtook him as there was no one to play with. Sari and Bulkhead were snowed into the Sumdac Tower, the twins were rolling their giant snowball, and Prowl and Jazz were on the roof doing…whatever it was cyber ninjas do on a roof. So he returned outside to watch the twins.
He'd asked what it was the twins were doing with the ball of snow before, but the only response he'd gotten was, "It is being a surprise."
"Maybe this would being easier with jets," Jetfire suggested.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Bumblebee said. "Not unless you want to start over. Your jets would melt it."
"He is having point, brother," Jetstorm nodded.
"Then pushing away we will be," his brother grinned.
Bumblebee leaned back against the snowdrift and offlined his optics, just listening. Prowl would be proud of how quiet and still he was being. The yellow bot listened to the sound of crunching snow, clanging steps, and accented voices. His mind wandered back to Autobot boot camp.
()()()()()()
"Move it you glitches! Push!" Sentinel barked at them. Each bot was pushing an iron ball twice the size of the average Autobot uphill, with the help of a partner of course.
For once Bumblebee felt glad he was saddled up with Bulkhead. The large, green bot could push it all on his own. All Bumblebee had to do was pretend to help and he was in the clear.
"You doin' alright, little buddy?" Bulkhead asked as they passed the halfway point.
Bumblebee glanced over his shoulder and grinned at Wasp and Ironhide, who struggled with theirs. "Oh, yeah, I'm doing great," he replied. He then added, "And stop calling me that!"
"Oh, are you doing 'great'?" Bumblebee froze and turned the other way. Sentinel stood behind them, tapping his pede on the concrete.
"Er… uh… I mean, this is so heavy! I don't know how I'm doing it!" the yellow bot said quickly.
"Yeah, nice try," Sentinel leaned down, faceplate inches from his own. "If that's so easy, then why don't you go help someone who needs it? Like, say…Wasp?" Bumblebee groaned loudly. "What was that, cog?!" the drill sergeant snapped.
"Sir!" Bumblebee jumped and saluted. "Going to help, sir!" He scrambled over to the sneering face of Wasp, and the glowering Ironhide.
"Well, well," Wasp hissed. "Look what the sergeant dragged in."
"Leave me alone, Wasp," Bumblebee huffed. He put his servos on the ball and helped push, standing between the two. Without Bulkhead there it was decidedly a lot harder. "I don't like this anymore than you do."
"Did you hear that?" Ironhide grinned. "He wants us to leave him alone."
"Well, if you insist," Wasp exchanged an equally mischievous grin.
"Huh-?" Before Bumblebee could register what was happening, Wasp and Ironhide pushed off at the same time, each stepping out of the way of the huge iron ball. "Hey!" the yellow bot stumbled backwards as the ball, now unsupported, started rolling back. He wasn't fast enough, though, and cried out in surprise and pain as the giant metal ball rolled onto his pede and threatened to crush him.
"Bumblebee!" the ball suddenly came to a halt just at his knee as Longarm and Bulkhead both caught it. The iron ball Bulkhead had been pushing rolled back down the hill, almost flattening Sentinel on the way, which would have been funny if Bumblebee weren't in excruciating pain at the moment. "Are you okay, little buddy?" Bulkhead asked as he rolled the ball back off of the yellow bot's leg.
"Do I look okay to you?!" the small bot snapped, gripping his mangled limb. He then looked at Wasp, who was giving his best innocent expression. "What was that for?!" he yelled.
"I don't know what Bumblebee is talking about," the green bot insisted. "You weren't pushing your weight. If we hadn't moved we'd all be pancakes!"
"You slaggin' liar, you did it on purpose!" Bee struggled to his good limb with Longarm's help.
"Whatever the reason, you two are both to start back at the bottom!" Sentinel snapped at Wasp and Ironhide.
"What?!" the two bots yelped.
"Don't give me that! This was a teamwork exercise! And in the Autobot Elite Guard, teamwork is essential! You never leave a bot behind, not even to save your own chassis! You two will do this exercise until you learn that!" the sergeant barked.
Bumblebee suddenly spoke up, feeling heavier in Longarm's grip as he slumped down. "Uh… Sarge-bot? As much as I love watching you crack the whip, I'm losing a lot of oil pressure here… and feelin' a bit… woozy…" he trailed off, trying to shake off the feeling of dizziness.
"Right, Longarm! Take him to repair!" Sentinel barked.
"Sir!" Longarm saluted and gently picked the little bot up, carrying him to the repair ward.
The resident medibot, Ivee, was a tough ol' femme with a bad attitude. She had a rusty red paint job and was possibly the oldest bot Bumblebee knew at the time. "What the pit happened to you?" She was also extremely crude.
"He needs to get some oil and a diagnosis on his leg," Longarm replied. "It got crushed pretty good in the teamwork exercise."
"Ah, iron ball treatment," Ivee stood up, waving at one of the berths. Longarm set Bumblebee down on it. "You're lucky it was just your leg. Once had a bot that came in after that exercise with his whole lower chassis flat as sheet metal. I always get a few accidents from that every stellar cycle."
"This wasn't… accident…" Bumblebee's processor was spinning at this point.
"Hold your energon, I'll get you some oil and an inspection and you'll be back to driving laps in no time," the medibot grinned.
Soon Longarm was helping his fellow cadet down some oil while Ivee prodded at the mangled mess of his leg. "Did a number alright, but nothing fatal. We'll have to have the slaggin' thing replaced, though. Congratulations, kid. You just won ten solar cycles off from training."
"Lucky me," Bumblebee smiled weakly. Ivee had clamped off the exposed wires and tubes, removing anything that looked useless. A small EMP pulse had knocked out any feeling he'd had in that leg, for which he was grateful.
"You should have seen back in the day, we had these twins here," Ivee started into one of her famous stories. "One brought the other into here with so many dents he was called 'crater-aft Skidd' until he was in the Elite Guard."
"Twins? What're twins?" Bumblebee asked, confused.
"Ah, you're still young, aren't you?" the rusty medibot looked up at him. "Never seen a twin, huh? Well, twins are when one protoform splits into two during their earliest stage, liquid metal. It's extremely rare, only happens once every about hundred stellar cycles. This is gonna pinch."
"Wha-? OW!" Longarm had to hold Bumblebee to the berth to keep him from jumping off of it. "What'd you just do?!" the yellow bot all but squeaked.
"Sorry, you had a loose wire I had to pull out," she replied with a half-hearted apology. "I'll get you some more oil, sounds like it's doing good."
Ivee walked out of the room, leaving Bumblebee and Longarm alone. Bumblebee sighed. "Why do those two hate me so much? I mean, what did I ever do to them?" he muttered.
"Some bots don't need a reason," Longarm shrugged. "You're lucky we caught that ball, though. We'd be referring to you as the late Bumblebee otherwise. What were those idiots doing? It's one thing to pull a prank on someone, but you could have been offlined."
"I don't think they much cared about that," Bumblebee said bitterly. "Look at me, I'm sans a leg! I must be a pitiful sight!"
"You're not that bad," the other bot assured him. "A few loose wires here and there, but they'll have to fixed up in no time."
"You sure it's okay for you still to be here?" Bumblebee asked, pushing himself onto his elbows. "I'd thing the Sarge-bot would want you to return to your cadet duties."
"Don't worry about me," Longarm held up his servos. "I'll deal with it if it comes along. I just don't feel like it would be right to leave you here all alone."
"Really?" Bumblebee felt a bit of color creep into his faceplate. For some reason, Longarm was the only bot he felt really cared about him. It was stability he never really had before the Autobot boot camp. It was stability he rather needed, though.
()()()()()()
"Please to be looking out!" Bumblebee was started out of his stasis nap by an accented yelp. The giant snowball was heading straight for him.
"Whoa!" Bumblebee jumped out of the way, optics wide. A large ball almost flattening him? It was deja vu. The twins were chasing the snowball, but losing hope as it was heading straight for a wall. If it hit, all of their work would be for nothing.
"Oh, no!" Jetfire groaned as they skidded to a stop. But the snowball suddenly halted, a few feet from the wall.
"I believe this is yours," Prowl's voice drifted from behind it. His head soon appeared, looking at them questioningly.
The twins let out an air of relief. "Many thanks, Prowl, sir!" the chirped, running over. Bumblebee followed.
It wasn't just Prowl who had caught it, though. Jazz was standing next to him. "You cats want to tell us what you're doing with this thing?" he asked.
"It is being a surprise!" they repeated what they had told Bumblebee, pushing the snowball away with a grunt. Bumblebee didn't blame them, it was huge.
"Well, that was a rude interruption to our sparring match," Prowl huffed.
"First one back on the roof gets a free kick?" Jazz grinned.
The black and gold ninjabot snorted at him. "Jazz, that's completely juvenile."
"Aw, you're no fun," Jazz pouted.
Prowl smiled a bit wickedly. "I said it was juvenile, I never said I disagreed." Without another warning, he took off for the warehouse.
"Hey, that's not fair!" Jazz shouted after him, taking off as well.
Bumblebee smiled a moment, but it soon faded. The memory of Longarm was painful. He was a Decepticon spy. He didn't really care about the small, yellow bot. He was just using him. An innocent bot not only went to the stockade, but also became a techno-organic monster because of it. Sure, Bumblebee still thought Wasp was a jerk during their time in Autobot boot camp, but he didn't deserve to be punished for a crime he didn't commit.
Longarm was the one who deserved it all. And he'd get it, if Bumblebee had any say. Not only for what he did to Wasp, and not only for being a Decepticon. No, this was personal. He'd pay because he lied to Bumblebee. Pay because it had hurt.