Chapter 4.
"So we're going back, but you all are staying here?" Sam fretted. When he'd first met Bumblebee, even after seeing him fight with Barricade, he had thought the mech was invincible. But with his friend being so seriously injured, he found that he worried after the twenty foot mech as much as he did the time Miles broke his arm trying to use a skate park without a skate board.
"I'll be fine, Sam. Ratchet is going to put me back together in the time we have here. He needs to fabricate new knee joints, and they do have some good facilities for doing that right here. I'll be uh, back on feet soon?" He cringed at the pun.
"But I'm going to have to ride my bike to school in the meantime, " sighed Sam dejected.
Bee rolled his eyes, "Oh yeah. Big sacrifice there. Thanks for thinking of me."
Mikaela put her arm around Sam's waist, "Aww, there, there. You can ride on the back of my scooter when it's fixed."
One of the soldiers indicated that it was time. The Special Forces team was being dropped off at the nearest airport, to be sent on different flights to their homes. They had been cleared for leave by the SECDEF on the condition that they would report back at any time they were summoned. Lennox, who's family was living near their home base not quite four hours away, was being driven back by Ironhide under the excuse that the grumpy black truck didn't like spending time in the hanger. Lennox was just as thankful, since being in the air again just didn't seem like an appealing idea at the moment. He was also curious to know Ironhide better on the terms that they were both soldiers.
Sam stood staring at Bumblebee, tears welling in his eyes. He knew he'd see the little mech again soon, but he couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed by the friendship the bot had showed him. To someone who always found himself at the bottom of the social food chain, finding a good friend you connected with was an end to itself. He felt Mikaela give him a gentle shove and he stumbled toward the bot and settled on wrapping his arms around Bee's neck. The bright blue optics flared and he awkwardly patted Sam on the back.
"Bye, Bee. Take care, okay?" The last of the farewell made his voice squeak and crack embarrassingly.
Mikaela leaned over from the other side and hugged Bee as well, ending the embrace with a peck on the side of his head, "We'll see you soon."
"Awww..." said Ratchet teasingly.
"Hey , no flirting with my car, " Said Sam.
The pretty girl shook her head and took him by the arm, "Ready to go?"
Sam took one last look at the remaining Autobots and bid them farewell. The sooner he left the sooner they could get to work and the sooner he could see them again.
Optimus found that waiting with nothing to do on earth was a lot harder than sitting in the ark with nothing to do. In the ark there were stations to monitor, flight plans to adjust, data to analyze, or banter to have with his colleagues. The communications and entertainment that humans constantly sent across the airwaves held little interest for him at the moment. There was plenty to learn, but his mind was preoccupied with thoughts of seeing his fellow Autobots again. Ratchet was busy, trying to bang all the dents out of the twisted mess that was left of Bumblebee's legs and start putting in the freshly fabricated knee joints. Bumblebee was shut down for the duration so what healing his body could do on it's own would be unhindered.
"Any word from Ironhide?" the big blue and red mech adjusted the fins on his head for the tenth time.
Ratchet shrugged, "Only that he said he was taking 'the scenic route' back and that he had encountered traffic."
"Ah," Ratchet went back to his work without another word, the distraction only holding his attention for a moment. When the medic was trying to fix someone, little could deter him from it.
As potential companions that left Optimus either the humans of sector seven or Swoop. Swoop was much calmer today and was no longer in the crate, instead he was intently watching Ratchet work on Bumblebee.
"Why a bird?" Optimus wandered out loud.
"Hm?" Ratchet paused in his welding. The major dents were out, and the rest could wait until Bumblebee was back in one piece. Thankfully only the major knee joints needed to be fabricated; the rest was a matter of welding things back together. Ratchet had given the plans to a group of remaining scientists to fix up while he continued to get the legs ready for reattachment. The damage had looked far worse than it was, in the end more inconvenient than life threatening.
"Why did Swoop choose a flying form instead of a robot form?"
"Laptop no have feet," Swoop replied as if he were speaking to a very dull bot. It seemed obvious to him, how could Prime not understand?
Optimus gave him a look, "No, they do not... however, a robot form does, it also has hands to manipulate the world around it."
Swoop shuffled, looking at his small clawed feet, "Me Swoop want to fly. Me see sky, here," he clanged his wing against his chest, "But not here," he smacked himself in the face awkwardly.
Ratchet leaned nonchalantly against Bee's upside down half finished legs. "I think I understand. There were pictures of the world on his hard drive when he was brought on-line. Apparently a winged form instead of a bi-pedal form seemed the best way to sight see for him. Eventually he may change his mind and drop a form, but not until he learns to scan new ones."
"Interesting," It did make sense when you thought about it. Prime wasn't sure how he would feel about not having a robot form. His bipedal robot form was how he was created, it was his original form. It had been forced to change now that he used an earth semi for an alt form, but it wasn't something that hadn't happened before.
The minutes dragged on. Optimus began to tap out a beat on the concrete of the floor absentmindedly. This went on for about five minutes before he heard Ratchet clear his throat, "I have never seen you this distracted. Not since you were very very young at any rate."
The huge bot grinned apologetically, "I have not been this eager to do something in four million years."
Ratchet sighed and looked at the ceiling, seeing the maps of the stars somewhere beyond it. Four million years was a very long time even for them. Somewhere out there was the rest of their brothers in arms. He could understand his friend's impatience. "I wonder if it's dark enough yet to go out?"
"Me Swoop find out!" Before either of them could grab him, the little bot was into the air and out of the hanger.
"I am beginning to wonder if fixing his wing was a good idea, Ratchet." said Prime, resting his head on his hand as Ratchet shrugged in response. He could go tearing off after the bot, but the doors here were just large enough and had just enough wires hanging down that it wasn't advisable for a mech as big as him to do so.
"Me Swoop say it dark." Swoop was back quickly. To his credit he had not tried to leave the Dam base, but had made it as close to the front and the few skylights that the underground base had. He sent an image of beautiful starry night, a few stray streaks of sunset still drawing out.
Finally. Optimus stood up and stretched the kinks out of the still healing injuries. Parts of him were stiff with fatigue but would hold up to the leisurely pace he planned for.
"Me Swoop go with you?" the little bot bird flexed his wings hopefully.
Optimus considered. While the bird seemed to get overly excited and was extremely young, he did seem to have his priorities straight and had obeyed the simple orders that Prime had given him. "Yes, so long as you promise to stay with me and not stray."
"Me Swoop promise!" The bird shot off into the hanger once more, making his way to the front.
Optimus again wondered if this was a good decision or if he had just set himself up for a fiasco.
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The pawn shop owner hadn't had Frenzy in the store for more than a few minutes before the tiny bot was out the door. He'd managed to hitch a ride all the way back to the city, desperately scanning for Decepticon activity. Scorponoc had not returned with Blackout, there was no telling where the strange insectoid Decepticon was. He was a strange one even by Decepticon standards, especially in the symbiotic relationship that he had with the helicopter. There was no telling what the vicious mech would do when it found out that it's partner was destroyed and languishing somewhere deep in the ocean.
Frenzy had taken the time to hack into the human's computer systems and do a check for information on the battle now that the world communications were up again. The humans had managed to contact their satellites much faster than Frenzy had thought to give them credit for. He had to admit that the humans were a bit fascinating in their ability to adapt- especially for such a young species. The humans had managed to integrate both their native biological systems, as well as utilizing non-biological computer systems and machines to improve their lives. In many cases they had created cyborg technology meshing the two together. Up until recently it had been very rudimentary, but it was growing by leaps and bounds each day. Frenzy speculated that if the humans continued on this path there may well be human cyborg creatures running around at some point. The thought disgusted him.
It took him almost the entire night, but he finally made it out to the city dump where he found the remains of a familiar black and white car. He hesitated to call Barricade his "partner" in the same context as Blackout and Scorponoc. With the helicopter and insectoid, the relationship was much more permanent. Frenzy, on the other hand, was only working with Barricade under the admonitions of his own symbiotic partner, Soundwave. Unlike with Barricade or Blackout, Soundwave's symbionts numbered in at least five. This was the longest he'd been away from Soundwave since he'd first crawled out as a raw protoform. One of Soundwave's other symbionts was his brother, Rumble. As much as he hated to admit it, he missed his brother and Soundwave. Decepticons weren't completely without emotional responses.
Frenzy had been sent as a spy for the larger mech, who was loyal only to Megatron, in order to keep tabs on Starscream. The cover story was that he was one of the best hackers outside of Soundwave himself, who was leading another team looking for Megatron and the Allspark. Barricade had agreed to watch Frenzy's back as a favor owed to Soundwave. Frenzy wasn't sure what sort of dirt that Soundwave had on the police car, but it had to be big in order for him to allow the tiny mech to get so close.
That respect for Soundwave's orders was what brought Frenzy to this particular junkyard now. He shook his head, looking at Barricade's sleeping shell. While the bigger mech was out of commission, it was his duty to make sure the humans didn't scrap him. He wasn't sure he cared personally if Barricade got scrapped, but Soundwave seemed to want him kept around if at all possible. Besides, even with the number of kills that Frenzy had to his name he wasn't sure that he liked the idea of being stranded on a planet full of fleshies and Autobots by himself. He wrapped himself up into his alt form and went into a low level recharge to wait for Barricade to heal himself.
