Consequences
Part 2-Interlude
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers. They belong to Hasbro and Takara. I am merely taking them for a short spin.
"I've taken my beating, I've shared what I made
I'm strong on the surface, not all the way through
I've never been perfect, but neither have you"
--Leave Out All the Rest, Linkin Park
Sam considered recent developments at the Autobot base as Bumblebee turned off the highway to the road leading to the facility. Almost six months had passed since Mission City. In those first few days after Optimus Prime sent out his message, more than a dozen Autobots radioed back with their intent to come to Earth. They had since arrived--Prowl, Bluestreak, the twins Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, Perceptor, Wheeljack, Trailbreaker, Smokescreen, Hoist, Grapple, Springer, Hot Rod and Kup.
There were even a few defections from the Decepticons, once they showed up on Earth looking for Starscream and found out for themselves what happened to Megatron. Barricade and Frenzy were the first, followed by the two jets Thundercracker and Skywarp and Frenzy's brother, Rumble, who showed up with the jets.
With so many Cybertronians and humans around, the base was pleasantly crowded, but he didn't mind. It meant more people around who knew about what he couldn't mention to anyone, and gave Bumblebee more of his own kind, and mechs closer to his age to spend time with, like the twins, Bluestreak, Springer and Hot Rod. On the other end of the spectrum, Kup tended to take everyone under his wing, so to speak. Just listening to him sometimes made Sam's eyes glaze over, but not from boredom. He told stories of his own military campaigns, but what he really seemed to relish the most was talking about the training days of the Autobots now serving as command staff. In particular stories of Optimus and Ironhide when they were younger, before the war, and the trouble they got into, which proved more than inspirational to the twins.
And Kup had, at some point, trained almost everyone at the base, with the exception of Perceptor and the former Decepticons.
It was a lot to take in, and even the welcome respite of spring break wasn't enough to help him finish assimilating it all. A week wasn't much, but it was still time away, and both he and Bumblebee wanted to catch up on anything they'd missed. Sam was especially interested in seeing how Optimus was doing, because before he and Bumblebee left for the break for a trip with his parents, the Autobot leader was well, jumpy. Not at all normal behavior for such a usually grounded and reserved being.
Bumblebee stopped as they pulled up to the main hangar row that served as both ops and living quarters for the Autobots. Sam climbed out, stepping back to allow Bumblebee the room needed to transform.
They walked inside, greeted by the twins as they hastily exited.
"Hey guys," Sideswipe said, passing. "Don't tell Ratchet you saw us, and I'd avoid Prime at all costs, too. . ."
Human eyes met Autobot optics as Sam met Bumblebee's gaze.
"Is something wrong?" Bumblebee asked.
The twins glanced at each other. Sunstreaker shrugged at his brother, and Sideswipe continued.
"Depends on your definition of 'wrong,' but things around here have been interesting the past few days," Sideswipe said. "But you didn't hear that from us."
He was about to say more, but the sound of screeching tires mixed with Ratchet's bellows reminded him why they were headed outside anyway. Sideswipe transformed almost in unison with his twin and the two took off down the road, going faster than the law allowed. Bumblebee pushed Sam back as Ratchet went by as fast as his form would allow, sirens blaring.
"Wonder what they did this time?" Sam wondered.
--
One-half of one of the smaller maintenance hangars was converted into makeshift meeting room/rec room big enough to accommodate large groups of Autobots and humans. Sam followed Bumblebee in, but came to a stop when he walked into the back of one of his guardian's legs. He peeked around to see what halted Bumblebee. Most of the Autobots inside were covered in paintball paint.
"Guess that answers that," Sam said.
Bumblebee laughed out loud, a welcome sound. Though the young Autobot had regained almost full use of his voice, sometimes he still stayed silent. Sam followed Bumblebee to get some energon, and helped himself to a soda from the refrigerator.
The yellow bot made his way over to one of the small groups of Autobots, sitting down next to Jazz. He nodded at Bumblebee and Sam, then turned his attention back to Kup, who was just getting warmed up. Sam pulled up a packing crate beside Bumblebee, taking his own seat.
After a while, he started to nod off. After all, it was getting late, and he had to be back at school the next morning. So much for seeing how things are going here, he thought, stretching and yawning. The group around Kup had grown as the night had gone on, and quite a few were sitting or standing in a loose circle around the ancient Autobot as he told the story of the first Seekers.
Sam looked around, noting the enthralled faces focused on Kup. But he noticed one in particular wasn't looking at Kup. He followed the gaze, looking back over his shoulder toward the door, where Optimus was standing, leaning against the wall, arms crossed.
Optimus noticed the pair of optics glancing his his direction. He frowned slightly, then turned, walking away.
"Told you things around here were getting interesting," Sam heard whispered in his ear.
He jumped, but Sideswipe reached out a hand to settle the human.
"Geeze, how can you move so quiet?" Sam hissed.
"Centuries of practice," Sideswipe said.
The red twin was kneeling beside Sam, grinning.
"So, you wanna hear what's been going on or not?"
Author's Note: I apologize if this part is kind of abrupt compared to the first chapter, but bear with me, I'm only trying to set up the rest of the story. Thanks.
