A/N: I am so one of those kids at the back of the bus. Yee. Nerds are so kewl. :3

02 – Arrival

The Autobots were not looking forward to the day ahead of them. Cybertronian Convention, indeed! Sari had a thing for spur of the moment decisions, and this seemed like one of them. It didn't matter though. It wasn't like any of them had a chance of arguing with her.

"I bet this competition is gonna make our rep die," confided Bumblebee to Bulkhead, as they stood outside in the parking lot. He squinted in the sun, and pulled the hem of his striped yellow and black shirt down.

"Um, I don't think we have a rep yet," said Bulkhead.

"Huh, I guess not... Well, it's seven. Time to –"

"Everyone on the bus!" Sari's commanding voice pierced through any and all conversations. The band had met up at Sumdac Tower at 6:30AM sharp, and despite their misgivings, they'd be lying if they said they weren't excited. As long as they looked beyond the fact that they were going to be playing, it was actually exhilarating.

"All right!" cheered Bumblebee. "To the nerd convention!" He jumped into the bus, throwing his backpack into the seat.

It was a beautiful summer day, and negativity was not an option. Everyone was decked out in some variation of shorts and T-shirt. Sari had ultra-cool sunglasses on as well, to enhance her 'boss' role. As she double-checked everyone's luggage to make sure all the instruments and costumes were in order, the other band members filed onto the bus.

"Okay!" Sari beamed. Even though she was a terrifying manager, she was still an eight year old going on an exciting trip. Everyone seemed to prefer this side of her, although they still moved cautiously if they were in her immediate vicinity. "Bye, Dad!" she yelled, giving her father a hug before leaping into the bus to sit next to Bumblebee. "You can start driving, Optimus!" She shot Bumblebee a genuine grin. "We are so going to win this."

***
Swindle still didn't get what was so important about having a xylophone in a rock band, but he didn't linger on it. Instead, he focused his concentration on getting his bus fare out. He and Starscream were taking public transit, because Megatron didn't want them in his car.

"We should just not go," Swindle said.

Starscream stared at him, eyes bloodshot; probably the result of arguing with Megatron all last night about why he didn't want to go. "Maybe," he spat at Swindle, "if they didn't have tracking devices and microphones on us. And the only way of getting them off is to put in whatever Megatron's passwords are. Clearly you need to cover your bases before you make pointless suggestions like that."

"Wow. Uh, sorry." Swindle sighed, setting his suitcase on the bench. "What's Megatron even going to do about it, though?"

A sardonic glance. "I'm not talking about that."

"I sort of miss last week, when I was a salesperson instead of a xylophone player for the Decepticons."

***
"We're finally here," said Optimus Prime, stretching his arms out.

Immediately upon arrival, Sari was all business, all traces of excited eight year old gone. Pulling her shades off, she jumped from her seat and set to work. "Wake up, Bulkhead!" she yelled to the overweight seventeen year old sitting at the back of the Sumdac tourbus.

"Wha – ?" he said groggily, rubbing his eyes. He was suddenly face to face with one Sari Sumdac, hands on hips, eyes staring intensely. "Agh! I'm awake!!"

"All right," she said, nodding. "So, Autobots! Are we ready?!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Bumblebee flashed his best friends the thumbs-up. "Let's go kick this competition's ass," he proclaimed, arrogance temporarily returning before Sari could brutally crush it again.

Those were the words Sari wanted to hear. "That's exactly what we're going to do," she said, a sadistic smile spreading across her face, eyes alight with glee. She strode to the front of the bus. "Let's get our stuff out, guys. Time to hit the hotel, then we'll have a band meeting so I can give you the itinerary." Cheerful Sari came back, for a brief moment. "This is gonna be so fun!"

***
Half an hour of dragging luggage up to their hotel rooms later, the band met in Sari's suite, which she was sharing with Bumblebee.

"So what's the plan, boss?" Bumblebee asked the obvious question. The others nodded silently.

Sari grabbed her clipboard, which was a tackily designed piece of band merchandise. A group shot of the guys, all with jaded, tired eyes, adorned the back of the board.

"Nice clipboard," remarked Bulkhead.

"Thanks. I'll be putting 'em in mass production after we win this competition. Then they can go on the online store, next to those hoodies I had printed back in September." Sari paused for a moment, deep in thought. "We'll probably need better eyecandy for the clipboards than this test product, though. But never mind...." She checked her watch. "We have a lot of time before the actual competition starts."

"Which means...?" Bumblebee flopped onto the bed beside her, kicking his legs out over the side.

Band practice?! The thought was in everyone's head, and they really didn't want to have a repeat of last night. The sheer angst filled their eyes with horror.

But Sari said something else entirely. "We get to look around the convention for a couple of hours! I want to scout out the other bands, but you guys can do whatever." She propped her feet up on the desk in front of her, and Prowl moved back to give her room. Her voice dropped dangerously, "Don't do anything stupid, though. And get back here at six!"

The Autobots nodded their assent, and Sari handed maps of the Cybertronian Convention grounds out.

As the members left the room, Sari turned toward Bumblebee, who was still lying on his stomach, tracing the shapes of the bedspread with his finger. "Can you go with me?" she asked, giving him the full effect of Innocent and Charming Sari.

He sighed. "Oh, okay." He knew he would regret it, but... he was so weak! He got off the bed and took her hand as they made their way out of the hotel.

"You ready for some hardcore stuff, Bumblebee?" she asked, as they walked through the hotel's automatic glass doors.

"I hope so." His grip on her hand grew tighter, and she smirked.

***

"Hey we're at the convention!" said Swindle, trying to be somewhat upbeat. All the nerds, clad in their precious Nintendo hoodies, cheered from the back of the bus. In a frenzy of excitement, they bent down to rub their glasses and gaming consoles clean.

Starscream just scowled and continued to work on his plans for sabotage (none of which had a good opening to lead to step 2 – "kill Megatron") as he moved to get off the bus.

"Omguh," screeched a nerd, running up to Starscream. He was sporting grimy spectacles and a faded Decepticons T-shirt tucked into baggy jeans. "You're from my favourite band!"

As much as Starscream enjoyed attention, he found it more than a little unnerving that the kid had merchandise when they'd never even played a single concert.

"I watch Megatron's video blog," said the fanboy breathlessly, sticking his thumbs into his belt loops. "And-And," he continued, fumbling with his day pack to fish out a tuba (which really shouldn't have been able to fit), "I play this 'cause you're my hero!"

"Oh God," said Starscream, frantically looking around for Swindle. Turning to the kid, "How the hell do you know who I am? How the fuck did you manage to get a Decepticons shirt?!" Extremely reasonable questions.

The boy shuffled his feet nervously, putting the tuba back into his bag. "Um... they're on your website. I mean, I know you've never played at a concert or anything, but your manager put up an EP and I love nerdcore so I got as much merchandise as I could. You guys are awesome!" He smiled nervously.

"Ah... ha..." said Starscream, at a loss for words. Of course no one mentioned an online store to him.

At that precise moment, the kid's friend, wearing an extremely baggy EarthBound hoodie, yelled, "Damn it, Simon, we're gonna be late!"

"Oh, sorry, Jeff!" Simon turned to Starscream once more. "I'll uh... see you at the competition tonight! I can't wait!"

As Starscream fled off the bus, face flaming from the awkwardness, he overheard Jeff saying, "Ha, the Decepticons? Dude, they suck! Autobots for the win, dumbass."