Different Beginnings

Chapter 4: Battle With The Decepticons

A/N: Optimus and his crew have been on Earth for almost a week.

The next couple of days passed by quickly for Optimus, Ratchet, and Prowl who spent most of their time getting acquainted with their new base of operations. Optimus would have called it home but he couldn't; not when they were so obviously not welcome. Bumblebee had offered them a place to stay but he definitely neither trusted nor liked them; something that he had made blatantly obvious earlier, a fact which caused Optimus to be suspicious of Bumblebee's sudden change of heart.

It was possible that Bumblebee had felt sorry for them: three Autobots on a strange planet overrun with Decepticons but Optimus doubted it. He remembered something that one of the first Primes had said: "A wise bot keeps his friends close and his enemies closer." Optimus had no doubt that he and his crew fell in the second category. Why, he wasn't sure and resolved to corner Bulkhead sometime and ask him.

A shrill beeping noise cut into Optimus's musings and he exited his room and saw Ratchet, Prowl, and Bulkhead standing there; the former two looking rather annoyed while Bulkhead just looked worried.

"What is that blasted noise?" Ratchet demanded.

Bumblebee burst out of his room and immediately headed towards the monitors. He ignored the questions they flung his way and instead let his fingers fly over one of the keyboards and a minute later an image of a purple and tan bot hovering in the air appeared on one of the monitors but what caught everyone's attention was the purple symbol on his chest plate.

"A Decepticon," Optimus whispered in disbelief.

"That's Blitzwing," Bulkhead groaned. "Why'd they have to choose today of all days to show themselves? Didn't we wound 'em bad enough last time?"

"I don't know why," Bumblebee snapped then immediately looked contrite. "Sorry," he apologized "I didn't mean to snap at you, Bulky, it's just that…" his voice trailed off.

"I know," the two friends smiled at each then Bumblebee turned business-like once again. His dramatic mood swings were enough to give Optimus a processor ache. He wondered just how Bulkhead could keep up with it but eventually decided that the large green mech had probably had a lot of practice.

"Well if Blitzwing's here that probably means Lugnut's somewhere close by," Bumblebee sighed and turned to Optimus "I'm sorry that this had to happen on your first week here on Earth," it was the first time his voice had contained anything other than animosity when talking to Optimus "but if you were serious about helping us fight the Decepticons then you should probably come with us," the tone in Bumblebee's voice informed them that it wasn't a suggestion.

Optimus nodded and Bumblebee looked satisfied when he said, "Okay let's roll."

Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Prowl transformed and drove out of the building, Optimus would have followed but Bulkhead was still standing there looking at him rather uneasily.

Optimus waited until the others were gone then turned to Bulkhead. "Did you want to talk to me about something?"

Bulkhead nodded and opened his mouth a couple of times before he finally worked up enough courage to talk. "If I get captured by the Decepticons, and I'm not saying that I will but if I do, don't let 'Bee make a deal with them to get me back."

"Why not?" Optimus asked, his curiosity peaked.

Bulkhead tapped his servos together, looking even more uneasy. "I…just don't let him okay? I don't know what kind of deal he made last time but it took me two days to get him to calm down and…"

Optimus interrupted him by saying, "I promise." He would have loved to ask more questions but decided that they could wait for a later date. Right now they had Decepticons to fight.

Optimus and Bulkhead quickly caught up with the others and all too soon they arrived in the center of town where a Decepticon was hovering above Main Street freezing the street below and laughing manically as the cars skidded out of control, hitting each other and streetlights.

"That's Blitzwing," Bumblebee exclaimed. "Basically he's three mechs. This current one I call Icy, he's the most intelligent and the one only that can think rationally and his alt mode's a plane. Hothead is called that for a reason. He shoots fire and has a tank for an alt mode. Random is…just random. He can shoot either fire or ice and his alt mode is whichever one he picks. He's very stupid and breaks out in song all the time."

"Okay and these guys are our biggest threat?" Optimus was positive this would be a piece of cake if Blitzwing was anything to go by.

"Well there's Lugnut," Bumblebee said thoughtfully. "He's stupid; all he does in shoot Megatron's 'glory to the heavens'. But don't underestimate him. He packs a very powerful punch."

"Very powerful," Bulkhead agreed, rubbing his chest armor subconsciously.

"Starscream," Bumblebee hesitated. "He's whiny and hates Megatron and the only thing that he is loyal to, besides himself of course, is the Decepticon cause. There are a couple of others but I don't know their designations, to perfectly honest I don't think anybody does."

"Hey, Autobots," Blitzwing yelled even as he transformed to tank mode. "Are you going to fight us or stand there like the cowards you are?"

"And that's our cue," Bumblebee sighed and transformed to robot mode, stingers coming out. The others transformed as well and brought their weapons online and then the battle began.

One human hour later Optimus was beginning to rethink his original assessment of easy. Of course since he was lying stunned on the ground after having been thrown by Blitzwing it was easy to see why he changed his mind. In fact he was starting just how had Bulkhead and Bumblebee survived all these years on Earth by themselves? He had just a little bit more respect for them now. He winced as Ratchet went flying through the air and landed on top of Optimus. Make that a lot more respect.

It wasn't long before all of them were on the ground; Bumblebee was out cold lying next to Prowl who thought it in his best interest if he didn't try to move. Bulkhead was the only one still on his feet as he swung his wrecking ball at Lugnut who had shown up shortly after the fight started.

Suddenly everything seemed to move in slow motion as Blitzwing swooped down and grabbed Bulkhead, then flew off with his captive. Lugnut transformed and flew after him leaving the Autobots to stare after him in horror.

"You do realize one of us is going to have to tell Bumblebee about this don't you?" Ratchet said from his spot atop Optimus's chassis.

Optimus groaned and decided that unconsciousness was looking better and better all the time.

A/N/N: 3 reviews and chapter 5 will be posted tomorrow.

A/N/N/N: I do not do 'pairings' in Transformers just…because I think of them more as a family, not lovers. Sorry if you would prefer 'pairings' but I can recommend a good story or two with that but I won't write that stuff.