YayYayyay! Cookies for all! –tosses cookies into the crowd- Thank you very much for the story alerts and reviews! It really cheers me up to see people enjoying my fics. Well, on with the show!
Oh by the way, you'll all be gettin' an art of atleast this new Transformer comin' up since I've dubbed her a project for my Specialized Art class (being the ditz I am with drawing mechanical beings I wanted to challenge myself). Hope you enjoy it when I finish it!
Chapter 4
"I told you to move! Not to engage!" Stalker snarled as he paced the crate he'd dubbed his judge seat. He limped badly but his regeneration was kicking in slowly. His burn wounds remained unchanged however.
"Exactly, you told me to move, you didn't exactly specify how to though." Diana snapped back. After their rescuer had found a secure location in an abandoned warehouse just outside of Mission City, they'd taken stock of their situation. Diana was badly bruised all over with a minor concussion and a fractured arm bone where Barricade had hit her and Stalker was no better off than before.
"You know what I meant! Don't play ignorant with me, that Decepticon could've killed you!"
Diana jumped to her feet so that she was eye to eye, "Would've killed you to if I hadn't a distracted it!"
"I was fairing well on my own!"
"Not from where I was standin'."
Stalker came up almost touching her face, "Than you should've moved so I had more room to wreak havoc on him."
"You were so losing and you know it!" Diana wasn't the least bit intimidated.
"I was not!"
"Were to!"
"This is ridiculous! I refuse to fight like I'm a six year old of your kind!" he turned his back, giving the message of 'talk to the tail'… or so it seemed to Diana.
"Hey we're not finished here! I told you I would help you any way I could and I absolutely refuse to go back on my word when I give it! So Mr. Cranky Wanky you are just gonna have ta' deal with me helping you you stubborn son ova-."
The Autobot attachment swung his head around, "Cranky Wanky What the hell Diana this isn't some video game you played at home! It's war!"
"And you think I'm not aware of that?! Psh! You say you see me as an equal yet you sure don't treat me like one!" Diana hissed.
Stalker's ears perked up at this, he opened his mouth to say something but shut it and turned away again hanging his head. He could sense Diana was still glaring at him, if she'd been able she would've bore holes through his armor with the intensity of her gaze. The uncomfortable silence seemed to drip from the air for an eternity.
"I apologize for my duplicity, Diana. I'm just… I was just worried for your safety."
"Ya think I wasn't for you?!"
Their argument was interrupted by the other sentient being in the room who'd been sitting in her humanoid alt watching them duke it out, "If I may intervene for a moment… I think the point has been made and I predict you two could go on for hours but I don't think we have that time." When she stood she was about seven feet tall, appropriate for her being a two-wheeled vehicle.
"Sorry." The two looked at each other when they answered at the same time.
"We're sorry for not giving you proper thanks for saving us." Stalker said, "My designation is Stalker, attachment scout to Shadow." Diana glanced at her friend, despite her annoyance with him she realized that even after the crash landing Stalker had never mentioned his comrade's name.
"My designation is Arcee, sniper in the ranks before Cybertron was abandoned." She gave them a bow which Diana awkwardly returned only after she saw Stalker do the same.
"When did you arrive here?" Stalker asked.
"As soon as I received the Commander's message about this being our new home, I was hoping to find him soon after I landed but then I detected that slaggin' Decepticon rushing for your locale."
Stalker sat up, "The Commander is alive?"
Arcee shrugged, "It's an old message, but he sounded content. I will be happy to have you come with me in my search, perhaps we'll even find a proper doctor for you, Stalker."
"Don't you have some emergency field medic training… uh Arcee?" Diana butted in. The pink Autobot arced what looked like a metal brow.
"Stalker was damaged when he landed… uh his partner…uh"
"I know."
She blinked, "You do?"
"An attachment Autobot is never far from his host, Diana." Arcee informed the girl.
"Oh."
Stalker nudged the human, "It's ok Diana, let us just be happy Arcee came when she did… I'm over due for repairs."
"Indeed." Arcee agreed.
Diana's smile hid the fact that she was absolutely terrified of riding motorcycles. There was nothing to stop you from saying 'Hi!' to the ground if you fell off the seat. But of course that wouldn't be polite to say something like that to your savior.
OOO
Judi Witwicky was oblivious to the battle of wills being played out behind her as she pulled weeds and prepared her flower beds for the colder months ahead. Mojo was barking circles around Bumblebee who found the rodent a large annoyance as he tried to keep his attention focused on his self proclaimed chore of watching the skies for his comrades. The Witwicky household wasn't exactly the most ideal spot for scanning but it would serve until Sam said he didn't need him to take him anywhere for the moment.
"Ggrrrarf! Grrr!" Mojo rounded the Camaro's bumper then stopped to sniff something next to the car's tire. Realizing what the dog was going to do Bee burned rubber, sending dust and gravel everywhere and scaring the nuisance away for now. Mojo whined and leaped for his mistress' protection.
Stupid organic. Bee thought irritably.
Upstairs Sam's phone rang causing him to lose his concentration and the equation he'd been working on completely left his thought stream, "Damn it Bee." Sam muttered as he answered, "What?"
"Is this a bad time to ask if I can go somewhere for awhile?"
Sam spun around in circles on his chair twiddling his pen between his fingers, "Go ahead Bumblebee, I'm no longer the carrier of your race's fate I don't need protection anymore. If you're bored go ahead and do your thing. I don't need to go anywhere today."
Bumblebee felt a bit denied of his friend's companionship. But the world's education system was taking up a lot of the boy's time and after all, he could wait. He had all the time in the galaxy.
"Great," Bee said, "But could you remove your mother from my immediate vicinity?" the Autobot sensed the boy's exasperation before hanging up. He watched Sam come out on the balcony to catch his mother's attention with the request of making a snack to eat. In this moment Bee took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed, the ignorance that some humans had just astounded Bumblebee sometimes.
Building up to almost top speed like he wanted to would only serve hazardous on the freeways since there was so much holiday traffic. So Bee settled for racing through the fields of wild life reservation on the way to Mission City. In the midst of driving through the air after hitting a hill the image of Megatron from his dream hit him without warning. The Autobot transformed but didn't make it in time to land on his feet.
"Ow…" the scout twisted his legs back into their proper sockets with a loud pop! Bee didn't stand, he just sat there hands on his knees looking at the ground.
Is peace really this hard to deal with? Bumblebee's optics dimmed at the thought of all his frightful moments congregating into a massive hurting lump in his spark. He leaned back staring into the depths of the infinite sky. In his lifetime he'd really not had time to really socialize at least in long increments. Nothing wrong with the company of Ratchet, Ironhide and Commander Prime but they seemed keen on different things now that this was their new home.
Suddenly Bee remembered the time when he'd first encountered humans. It had been over sixty years when their new ship the Ghost had accidentally found out that their modifications had caused them to go through a wormhole. The frightened astronauts had hidden on a planet long past its prime and in looking for them Bumblebee had fell into a pit trap created by ferocious metal crunching worms. It wasn't a complete accident, Bee had been curious about the structures that had surrounded the sink hole. Perhaps that's what Ratchet had meant, take up his interest in studying things again. The medic's keen eye was a blessing.
Bumblebee stood, vibrating slightly to rid himself of the dust that had clung to his armor. Suddenly he noticed a flaming object in the sky he'd missed before. Something large was entering Earth's atmosphere! Eagerly Bee scanned the object and rejoiced to find out that it was the cometary form of a Transformer. Usually his race only had two forms but this third one was one almost all of them had to enter atmospheric planets especially useful when you weren't one that could fly like Starscream.
Calculating the trajectory of the other Transformer, Bee high tailed it to that location as fast as he could.
The landing sight was smoldering with molten rock and crispy plant life where the Transformer had fallen. Bee climbed the boulders to the pit where the hopefully friendly other was still recovering.
To his utter dismay there was nothing except trace amounts of armor that had flaked off from the intense heat.
Not willing to give up Bumblebee glanced around and found a set of tracks leading away from the site. Opening all channels of communication the scout called out as he rushed to follow the newcomer.
"Hello? This is Bumblebee, can you connect?" he called out in Cybertronian. For some reason he could not detect a significant signal to give away the newcomer's position. Bee switched his vision to heat seeking and found what he was looking for. The other Transformer was still radiating large amounts of heat from the friction of the atmosphere.
"Bumblebee?" the voice that responded didn't come from what he was looking for. Almost immediately Bee detected two Autobot signatures accompanied with a human. So who was the third?
Then all of a sudden his systems were jammed by an electronic shockwave emanated by the unidentified Transformer.
"Hold on Bumblebee! We'll come to you! After this stupid slaggin' other stops that is!"
"Arcee?!"
"The one and only baby."
Bumblebee turned off all his tracking outlets and resorted to old fashioned looking. He crashed through the trees in his excitement and stumbled on not Arcee but a kind of Transformer he'd never seen before.
The Transformer's rich red armor completely sealed off its inside, it looked like its spark cavity could open at will. What struck him as odd however was that the other's body was decorated with their alphabetical symbols they'd taken from the Allspark.
The Transformer looked as surprised at Bumblebee's appearance as he was of its.
"Greetings." Was all Bumblebee could get out at first. When the other didn't respond he tried again, "What's your designation?" he extended his hand in a human greeting.
"…Sparkle." She glanced down at his hand unsure of what to do. Her name suited her appearance since despite being red she glittered gold and the characters decorating her armor glinted blue at some angles. She was rather… dazzling to Bee's optics.
"Ahem, are we interrupting something?" Arcee said in English. Bee pulled his hand away quickly glancing in Arcee's direction, "Eh.. sorry. Um…"
The pink Autobot threw up her arms in exasperation, "Jeez Bee it's been a thousand years and I don't even get a greeting." She turned her back on the yellow 'Bot, "Hmph, the nerve!"
"You've all taken on the languages of this planet?" Sparkle asked in Cybertronian.
"Whoa! What's with the funky noises?" the dark haired human yelled.
"No need to shout, Diana." Sighed the smallest Autobot.
"They're so high up I feel the need to be heard." She said in a sing song voice.
Bumblebee looked from Arcee to Sparkle then back again suddenly unsure of who to deal with first.
"Uh… when did you get here Arcee?" such wrong thing to say.
Arcee rested her head on her hand feeling a bit sassy, "Well, since Mr. Compassionate is so concerned go ahead and fill in Miss Sparkle first, we only have a critically injured Autobot over here who wants to see the Commander. Oh and I'm next in line." She added and looked up at the recent arrival that still hadn't bothered to download the Internet.
Diana approached the transformed Camaro, "Hey big n' yellow! We need a medic down here!" she kicked his leg.
"Hey watch the paint!" Bumblebee turned to talk to Sparkle again but was surprised to see that she'd slipped away while he'd been paying attention to the others.
"Bee! Sweetie, we can catch up later but for now: Optimus, maybe even Ratchet if he's around? We've been lookin' all over for you guys." Arcee was suddenly all business.
"It would be much appreciated to have the good doctor around." Stalker said from where he lay in Diana's arms.
"Alright! I'm on it, but what about Sparkle?" Bumblebee glanced in what he thought was the way she'd left.
"Glittercheeks? She can take care of herself till we get a doctor now come on!" Diana was jumping up and down now, unknowingly causing considerable discomfort to Stalker.
"Bee, give me the frequency and I'll contact them myself, go take care of our newcomer. She seems a bit… odd." The yellow Autobot nodded, gave her the codes and left.
"Wow," Diana looked at Stalker, "He seemed a bit indecisive."
"I think we just met up at an inconvenient time for him to process." Said Stalker.
"Like a stereotypical TV nerd trying to talk to the opposite sex." Diana mused. Stalker frowned obviously not agreeing with her comparison.
Sparkle hadn't gone as far as Bumblebee had initially thought. She'd stopped at the edge of a cliff overlooking the distant Mission City. He slowed down taking in her sight. From her make up it looked like she really didn't have an alt form that the human's machines replicated.
"Did you receive the Commander's message and come here?" Bumblebee asked when he stood beside her.
"Yes, I heard it."
"I should also mention that Commander Prime told us to stay with the language of our new home."
Sparkle looked at him then nodded. Digits and characters from all nationalities flashed across her pale pink optics indicating her absorption of the Internet's information.
"Where is Optimus Prime?" she asked.
Bumblebee couldn't help but feel disappointed. Here he was looking for new companionship and all they wanted was his elders. With good reason I guess.
"I'm not sure of his current location, but he's on this continent if that's what you're wondering."
"That is alright," her tone suddenly changed to a lighter one, "I'm sorry, I never got your designation."
"Bumblebee." He held out his hand again this time receiving hers as well.
"Ha! I guess I'm just a little disoriented from my journey." The other Transformer laughed shyly rubbing the back of her head, "Um, don't worry about me, your friends seem to need your help more than me right now."
As if to reinforce her point Arcee's voice rang out through the foliage making Bee jump horribly, "Bee! Get your aft in gear we've got to meet Ratchet back in Tranquility!"
Just like old times. Bee verbally sighed in exasperation. He turned to leave but stopped when he realized Sparkle had grabbed his arm.
"Sorry but… I don't have an alt mode except for cometary."
"Really?"
She nodded.
"Uhm… hmm that poses a problem. You see we need to keep under local camouflage so the humans that don't know about us don't panic and possibly turn against us." Bee said.
"Bee!" Arcee called as she popped her head out of the trees, "Come on let's get a move on!"
"Last I checked I was higher ranked than you!" Bumblebee snapped irritably.
"Key word 'was'!" this was the human Diana who answered from Arcee's hip. She appeared to be getting very upset at the delays.
"Just, give me a minute." Bee turned back to Sparkle trying to think of a solution, "Well… it doesn't necessarily have to be a wheeled vehicle. Please, come join us. We'll be heading to these coordinates." He sent them before going to join the others. Sparkle watched them leave quickly so that the small one could see Ratchet as quickly as possible. There were clicking noises as the several shafts jutting from her back rearranged themselves to accommodate for her transformation.
"Primus Bumblebee I know you're easily distracted by choice objects worth of study but that was ridiculous!" Arcee teased over a private line. It was still at least an hour's drive to Tranquility and the human Diana hadn't been to keen on riding Arcee for that long. So she ended up in Bee's backseat where she'd quickly fallen asleep. It had seemed like an eternity since she'd laid on something comfortable and warm. Stalker was in hibernation mode underneath her protective arm.
"Can it Arcee! I was just concerned for Sparkle that's all."
The motorcycle's revving sounded more like a growl as she pulled up beside the Camaro, "Aw calm down Bee I'm just teasin' is all! She is a rather unique isn't she?"
"What're you talkin' about?"
"Sparkle, you nimrod! She musta been bored out of her mind somewhere to actually start etching on her armor like a tribal human. Well I guess she was a blessing in disguise, her arrival brought us back together."
"It was a convenient coincidence is all."
Arcee made a sniffling sound like she was about to start leaking like a human did when they were upset, "You're not happy to see me?"
Bumblebee realized what he'd said was a little cold, "No! No I'm happy to see you! Stop playing the guilt trip!" he was suddenly bumped from behind, "Hey watch it! I'm still bigger than you!"
"Yeah but you got passengers." The motorcycle pulled up alongside again, this time her hologram of a leather clad feminine figure with a pink biking helmet was gone.
There was a sudden clap of thunder that made the two Autobots jump figuratively. Diana twitched in the back seat but didn't wake. Above them flying a little too low for human comfort was Sparkle, she'd taken the form of a Cybertronian jet.
"I'll see you two at the coordinates then?" Sparkle chirped.
"Don't fly so low! You could get caught!" Bee yelled.
"Yes Glittercheeks we'll be there."
" 'Glittercheeks'?"
"Something the human called you earlier." Arcee replied.
"Oh." Confused since that wasn't her designation Sparkle pulled up to the clouds where a storm was gathering.
Bee sighed in exasperation, this day hadn't turned out at all how he'd expected.
000
Hmm I'm tired… this chapter was getting long. –yawns- Time for bed.
Thank you in advance for your reviews!
