If you're Reeeeeally paying attention, you'll see I'm taking out the three girls. Why? To do a different story just about them, and their connections to Cybertronians. ANYWAY!~They'll still be mentioned in the story, but that's about it...mentioning. like, a phone call~
rant, rant, rant
Thanks so much to all my readers so far! Your reviews keep me goin', so don't forget to drop me a comment!
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
All That Jazz 2
Chapter 4
-Somewhere on Cybertron-
"How dare you, Unicron!" A dark grey and purple mech slammed his fist into the throne-like chair he sat in. He stood up. "Cybertron, and all it's moons belong to me now!" He bellowed.
A red light filled the room, and a screech pierced all the Decepticons' audio receptors.
"Don't forget!" Another dark mech exclaimed. "We belong to him!"
The light faded, and the screeching stopped.
The mech in charge pulled himself to his feet, and dignified his posture. "No matter." He walked down to steps. "Soon I, Galvatron, will have the means to destroy my so-called master." He said slowly. "Shockwave, have you located Vector sigma yet?"
A purple mech with a single, large red lens as an eye turned from his console. "Yes, lord Mega-"
Galvatron raised his head, frowning.
"Er, I mean, yes, lord Galvatron," Shockwave displayed an image on the screen.
A blue femme lay on an infirmary station, a red femme hurrying around her making repairs.
"Have we received confirmation from our infiltrators yet?" Galvatron asked.
Shockwave handed Galvatron a message pad with a communiqué from Decepticon Blackout on Earth.
An evil smile spread across Galvatron's face, revealing sharp, metal teeth. "Prepare our captured shuttle, and the prisoners." He pressed a button on Shockwave's console, the image on the screen changing to three mechs and a femme in a dark holding cell. "They will yet see their precious organic planet again."
-Cybertron holding cell, 400 meters below Shockwave's Tower-
Ratchet stared up at Buzzsaw, blue optics narrowed. He held his left upper arm with his right hand, trying to decide if it was worth the pain to tear his own arm off, and throw it at Soundwave's spy-bird.
Moonracer sat against the wall behind Ratchet, her armor plating singed, and dirtied from the firefight. She hugged her knees to her chest, and sighed. There wasn't anything productive to say, but the silence was deafening, and considering the battle, the mint-green femme wanted to be sure her audio receptors hadn't given out. "Ratchet?" She asked softly.
Ratchet turned. His audio receptors were fine.
"Will you please tell me about your imprint? The little white mech I saw Firestar with." Moonracer requested, her audio emitter barely above a whisper so as not to wake Brawn. The tan mech had suffered the most damage being a frontline bot, and Ratchet's quick fix could only keep him going for so long, seeing as the Decepticons had taken whatever they could off of the Autobot team, and their shuttle.
Ultra Magnus sat against the wall adjacent to Moonracer, and across from Brawn, arms folded, staring down at the floor. "Don't talk. The Decepticons will use anything they can against us."
Moonracer gasped, and covered her mouth.
"Don't worry about it." Ratchet muttered. The yellow mechanic turned. "What do you want to know, Moonracer?"
Moonracer started to ask, but the sound of a door slamming from somewhere, and footsteps approaching caused all four bots to turn, and look at the transparent red field used to keep them in the cell.
Brawn turned his optics to the field behind him, watching for whatever Decepticon dared show their ugly mug. A cannon silently transformed out of Brawns arm, the trigger conveniently in his hand.
"Stand down." Ultra Magnus ordered.
The cannon shifted back into the tan mech's arm, and Brawn nodded.
A plasma blaster hit the field. "Hello Auto-brats." Starscream cackled. "It's time to go home." He laughed maniacally.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Wheeljack leaned closer to the screen, scrutinizing the image of the brightly burning star Earth orbited third from.
"Your son is expanding." The scientist said thoughtfully.
Amy, flipping through her address book she installed on her commlink, missed his point entirely, and sighed distractedly. "I guess I could stop feeding Bebop energon goodies." She smiled when she found the phone number, and hurriedly contacted it.
Wheeljack turned; one blue optic squinted at the bleu femme. "I'm curious how that would stop the star's eventual cataclysmic collapse."
"Huh? Oh! The sun!" Amy laughed.
"Yes." Wheeljack nodded.
"It's fine." Amy waved a hand dismissively.
Wheeljack, speechless, looked at his readouts then at Amy. "Blazer, and the rate it's going-"
"Hiii Emily!" Amy giggled gleefully.
Wheeljack let his head fall into his hand. "Nevermind."
"It's Amy." She said dejectedly. "Ye-ah, dummy. You're comin' to see me still, right?" She beamed at open air. "Well yeah I still like you guys, we were best friends growing up. So how's Canada? Still cold?" She laughed a moment later.
Wheeljack would have smiled if not for his face mask, turned, and went about studying the rest of the Earth's sun.
"Oh really? I've always wanted to stay at Circus Circus, dad always said he'd take up, but-well, anyway, so you're all the way to Vegas already?" Amy paused, listening. "Tomorrow?" She whined. "Oh, fine, sleepy head. Since you're the driver."
Wheeljack cleared the screen, and turned. "I'm going to get some Energon, care to join me?"
"Oh, you're welcome. It was nothing, I told you I'd do anything to get your guys down here." Amy giggled. "I never expected Grandma to send me a bottle of Whisky for my birthday, let alone have it be worth so much." She laughed.
"Blazer." Wheeljack said, optics dimming with bored irritation. He wondered if she was always like this.
"It's a long story, but I'll tell you when you get here." Amy beamed.
"My processors are overloading, I need to go to the infirmary." Wheeljack lied to get Amy's attention.
"Okay, see you tomorrow. Hug Violet for me, no matter how much she protests!" Amy couldn't stop grinning, she was just happy to finally get a hold of her friends. "Ja ne!" she tapped the side of her head then looked at Wheeljack.
Wheeljack drummed his right hand fingers on his right knee.
"what?" Amy shrugged.
Wheeljack shook his head, and stood. "I had no idea you could be so-bubbly." He shuddered slightly. "You remind me too much of your daughter. How many stellar cycles are you?" He asked, implying she was juvenile.
"Nineteen, and don't you forget it!" Amy stuck out her tongue, or a part of Autobot mouth that resembled a tongue, but was more like a gear. "I'm excited, okay? I haven't seen them in, like, three years!" she trotted after Wheeljack. "I'm not an airhead."
Wheeljack chuckled. "You said it, not me." He teased.
Amy humped, and folded her arms as she walked next to Wheeljack.
"So," Wheeljack said as they exited to the main street of Autobot City. "Who are these human friends of yours?" He asked, trying to clear the awkward air between them.
Amy stuck her nose in the air. "Who says they're human?" She asked, stubbornly
"You were human once before." Wheeljack said pointedly. "Or have you always led a double life?" He jeered.
Amy sulked, clasping her hands behind her. "No," She pouted slightly at the thought of the life she once had. "Being Autobot is fairly new."
Wheeljack stopped walking, and grasped Amy's shoulder to make her stop as well. "Blazer," He said. "I was only teasing. I know you were once Amy Miller-"
"I still am!" Amy snapped. "My body has changed, but my mind and my heart are still Amy Miller, and nothing anyone says can change that!" She shouted.
Wheeljack started. "I only meant..." He let the sentence fall.
Amy had become all too aware of her vulnerability as an Autobot in the past year. It was far too easy to forget yourself, and she refused to do it again. She desperately clung to her human life through the pretender form, and though many had tried to convince her to let go of the past, there was far too much of it to pack away; it wasn't just a bad experience they were talking about, it was her whole life up to now.
"I need to go." Amy sighed. "Rain check on the energon, okay?" She shrugged. "I'm just-" she paused. "I'm not in the mood." She turned, and walked away.
Wheeljack noted the blue femme was walking toward the security office, and sighed. Every Autobot in the city knew about moonbase one. He reminded himself that Amy was still human in so many ways, and casually suggesting otherwise was still far too much for her processor to handle now.
Ironhide walked out of the command tower, squinting his optics at the rising sun. His internal chronometer indicated it was nine-twenty AM. He sent a quick message to Chromia stating he would retrieve Rawhide, and return by evening then walked toward the ferry bridge. It wasn't really a bridge, but an elongated dock where an automated ferry had been built to run from Autobot City to San Diego California.
A familiar blue femme walked by on a perpendicular street, and the black mech started. "AMY!" He bellowed, running to the end of the block.
Amy stopped, and turned. Had someone called her? She saw Ironhide at the end of the block where she had just passed, and waited for him as he approached her.
"Are you ill?" Ironhide asked.
"No." Amy said, her face placid. She was too pre-occupied with everything to be any kind of emotional. She thought of Jazz, and Bebop, Moonracer, Ratchet, Ironhide, Optimus, Goldbug, Tourniquet, Bumblebee, Estelle, Emily, Violet, and others along with certain news she had received. She had never stopped to think about her life, but because of Wheeljacks words, You were once Amy Miller, she had suddenly started to question herself, and if she was really who she thought she was, or was it just a program concocted by a computer chip?
"You are on the verge of Energon depletion." Ironhide said matter-of-factly.
Amy nodded absently. "Thanks for noticing." She muttered, and turned.
"Where are you going?" Ironhide asked.
Amy shrugged, walking slowly. "Dunno."
Ironhide took a step, and grasped Amy's arm. "Your-er-sparkling should be priority."
Amy turned green optics on the large black mech. "Spark-ling." She murmured then blinked as if the word had brought her back to her senses. "Bebop." She sighed guiltily. "I left Bumblebee with Bebop, Rawhide, and Tourniquet!" She gasped. "We gotta go, he needs re-enforcements!" She exclaimed.
Ironhide was puzzled by the blue femme's abrupt change in mood, but was also pleased she was not brooding any longer. "They are fledglings." Ironhide said matter-of-factly as he ran along side Amy toward the ferry bridge.
"Do you know what happens to adults when children outnumber them?" Amy exclaimed. "I've seen cataclysms occur over misplaced ketchup bottles!"
Ironhide was loathe to believe her. "That is not possible! Bumblebee is a general in the Autobot army," he said. "Nothing will happen."
"HA!" Amy laughed. "Famous last words, Ironhide! That's all I have to say. Famous last words." She nodded as they approached the dock.
Firestar stood at the dock awkwardly, she had not been out of Autobot City since she had arrived from Hoover Dam. She considered sight seeing in San Diego before heading for Tranquility, but all she wanted to do now was break it to Tourniquet gently that he may never see Ratchet again, though she couldn't see the little white mech becoming too upset over it.
It did brighten her day a little to see Amy and Ironhide running toward her like their heels were on fire, arguing about the strike capabilities of unarmed capabilities.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
It would be four hours, fifty-eight minutes give or take before the three bots would arrive in Tranquility. The clock on the kitchen wall of the Miller House read one-twenty three.
Tourniquet walked up to Bumblebee, a large green praying mantis on his should. The mantis's right eye was all blue, but it's right all black save for a small blue dot in the center indicating a certain degree of blindness. The blonde pretender puzzled over where the insect had come from, but pushed the thought aside as the white-haired boy set his large encyclopedia on Bumblebee's lap. He opened it to a random page, and pointed at the pages.
"How to make Bumblebee stew." Tourniquet announced.
The blonde started, mildly disturbed.
The insect bumblebee perched on Bebop's nose hid behind his ear. Bebop stood on the bottom step of the basement stairs, leaning on the banister.
Tourniquet snapped an eyepatch over his left eye, and held a whisk under Bumblebee's chin. "Tell me where ye hid the energon goodies, or we'll stew and eat ye instead!" He growled in what he assumed to be a pirate-esque voice.
The blonde, wearing an apron over his clothes wailed in a purposefully high-pitched, feminine voice. "Help, help, the pirates want all my goodies!" He gasped melodramatically.
Rawhide jumped down from a box marked "fragile", and held up two wooden spoons, one shorter than the other. "I'll save you, miss!"
A giant brown grasshopper chirped excitedly, getting ready to pounce.
"HAHA! She is my prisoner!" Tourniquet laughed.
"Do you ever-" Bumblebee started then coughed to clear his throat of the high-pitched voice to speak normally. "Do you ever make Amy be the damsel in distress?"
Tourniquet rolled his eyes. "Bebop's mother-spark is a damsel. It's stupid to have a boy be in trouble. Boy's are smarter than that."
"You mean girl's are stupid?!" Rawhide shrieked indignantly.
"Yeah." Tourniquet said matter-of-factly, staring down the tan-haired girl.
"You're stupid!" Rawhide lunged at the boy, sending the grasshopper flying into the mantis, both insects rolling on the ground toward the stairs.
Bebop watched the two small pretenders. "They're fighting again."
Bumblebee tried to untie himself, but much to his dismay, the knot for the rope was at his waist in front. "Oh, slag." He muttered. "Hey!" He looked at the squabbling pair. "Untie me right now!" He demanded. "Stop fighting! Tourniquet, Rawhide!"
Bumblebee's demands fell on deaf ears as the pair continued to roll around, and smack at each other.
Whisper fluttered down to where the two large insects were composing themselves.
"You should stop them. You're big bugs." Bebop said, squatting down to look at the three insects on the ground.
The mantis and grasshopper exchanged a glance then nodded.
The mantis fluttered over to Tourniquet while the grasshopper pounced on Rawhide, and with unbelievable strength rivaling that of an adult, pushed each child down onto their backs kicking and screaming.
A green robot in place of the mantis, the scythe-like arms now tools on its own arms stood on Tourniquet's chest, frowning. "That will be quite enough of that, thank you." He said.
A brown bot with features of the grasshopper, and cannons on its arms aimed at Rawhide smirked. "Keep yer head down, and yer mouth closed, kids. Party's over."
Rawhide let her head fall back.
Bumblebee found himself freed from the chair, and stood up, rubbing his wrists.
A small femme bot appearing to have black exoskeletal armor over an almost luminescent blue endoskeleton, and large indigo colored wings like a morpho Adonis butterfly fluttered to Bumblebee's front holding a small, but sharp blade which retracted into her arm.
"You have impeccable timing." Bumblebee said. "Thank you."
The femme nodded. "Always a pleasure to assist a fellow Autobot."
"Mamma home!" Bebop chanted, running up the stairs.
Bumblebee continued to rub his wrists. "I refuse to endure five hours of pirate play ever again."
The butterfly femme shrugged then transformed to her Morpho Adonis form, and perched on Bumblebee's ear as he walked up to the main floor.
"Hel-lo!" Amy called to the quiet house. "Rawhide, Tourniquet, some bots want to see you!" She walked into the kitchen.
A man wearing faded black jeans, a faded black leather jacket, black t-shirt, and black western style hat walked with a slight limp to the couch, and sat down.
The woman had long red hair in a braid, wore a maroon pants suit, and stood admiring the collection of photographs on the entry way table.
A little dark-haired boy climbed the stairs, and looked at the two with wide, terrified green eyes.
The man leaned forward on the couch, a tight scowl plastered to his face.
The woman turned, and smiled. She crouched down, looking at the boy. "Hi Bebop, remember me? I'm Firestar."
"Fiyowstah." Bebop said with some difficulty.
Firestar looked with some concern at the pretender boy. "No, my name is Firestar." She tried to emphasize the syllables.
"That's what he said." Amy said distractedly as she walked into the room. She stood at the bottom of the stairs leading to the upper floor. "Bumblebee!" She called.
Firestar walked to the stairs next to Amy, and looked up to the landing. "Maybe he's recharging."
"It's after three." Amy grumbled indignantly.
Bebop reached out with a tiny hand, and tugged the leg of Amy's boot-cut jeans. "Momma." He whispered.
Amy and Firestar crouched down, and even the man on the couch leaned forward to hear what the small boy had to say.
"What is it, baby?" Amy asked.
Bebop scrunched up his face in thought then spoke. "Bubbobee is in da basemen." The boy said.
Amy was about to say something when the sound of shouting and slapping came from downstairs hall.
"Stop it, both of you!" Bumblebee exclaimed as he appeared in the lower stairwell, carrying Tourniquet under his left arm, Rawhide under his right.
"Oh, really, Bumble." Amy sighed exasperatedly. She lifted Bebop from the stairs, and held him as the blonde passed. "Can you really not handle three toddlers?"
"These beings are not children!" Bumblebee snapped, a wild look in his pretender blue eyes. "They are hellbots sent from the pit to offline me!" He carried the two squabbling children to the living room, and dropped them onto the couch, taking no notice of the man in black.
"See?" Amy smiled smugly, folding her arms. "I told ya. Kids are dangerous in numbers."
The man in black stood. "I fail to see the danger."
"You weren't here!" Bumblebee shouted then turned on his heel, and made for the kitchen.
Amy blinked.
Firestar raised an eyebrow puzzled.
The man in black looked at Rawhide. "Have you misbehaved?"
Rawhide picked herself up, and stood on the couch, still a good three feet shorter than the man. "No! I played pirates then stupidhead said girl's are stupid!"
"I did not!" Tourniquet exclaimed, sitting cross-legged on the couch, the praying mantis on his right shoulder.
"He said it, Ironhide, he did!" Rawhide tugged the man's shirt.
Ironhide lifted Rawhide to the ground. "You will discuss this with Chromia."
Rawhide jutted her lower lip out so far it could have been a cash drawer, and folded her arms stubbornly.
Ironhide tilted his head down, frowning, arms folded.
Amy leaned closer to Firestar and whispered. "It's times like these, you can really see the family resemblance."
The read-head nodded.
Tourniquet noticed Firestar for the first time that day, and quickly scampered over to hug her legs. Firestar struggled to keep her balance, but ultimately succeeded.
The praying mantis reached out to brush lint off of Firestar's leg, but it's arm got stuck, and it tried to wriggle it free in a panic.
Firestar felt the slight tug, and looked down to see a large, green insect with larger scythe-like arms, twitching its arm at her leg. All in all, Firestar didn't expect what she did next, and would be thoroughly embarrassed about it later.
"AAAAA!" Firestar shrieked like a child, and jumped around. "Get it off, get it off!"
"Hold still, he's stuck!" Tourniquet shouted.
The mantis hoped the jarring would set him loose, but so far he had been jarred seven times, and hung limp, and dizzy from the pretender woman's leg.
"Calm down, it's just a little-HOLY COW, THAT THING IS HUGE!" Amy gasped, jumping up onto the coffee table. "What is that?!" She shouted.
Bumblebee walked out from the kitchen, frowning slightly. "Hold still!" He snapped at Firestar.
Firestar stopped hopping, sticking her leg out, and leaning away from it as the blonde yanked the Praying Mantis loose in one quick tug.
"Be more careful, Static." He muttered.
The praying mantis flew up to Tourniquet's shoulder, and sat there examining its previously stuck scythe.
Amy gawked. "It has a name?" She gulped.
"Like Whisper!" Bebop giggled.
Amy started. "Whisper...your imaginary friend?"
Bebop stomped his right foot. "He's not imaginawy!"
"Right, he lives in that dollhouse." Amy said, stepping down off of the coffee table.
"Watch it!" A small, but loud voice roared.
Amy looked down to see her foot, but could feel something pushing up on it.
"Don't step on Hopper!" Rawhide gasped. She quickly retrieved something from beneath Amy's foot, and held it against her chest.
At first glance it looked like a little action figure of some kind, but then it blinked, and Amy relaxed slightly.
"Is that...a...?" Amy gestured to the doll thing with one finger. "Cybertronian?"
"Darn tootin', an' don't you be forgettin' it!" Hopper waved one cannon at the woman on the coffee table. "And don't step on me, either!"
Amy stared, mouth slightly agape at the brown robot in Tourniquet's hands. It really did look like a doll because of its size, and she wondered if the praying mantis was the same. She looked over at the white-haired toddler, and saw a green mech with scythe's on its arms, not as its arms, staring back at her with one blue eye, and one black eye with a blue pupil.
A tiny yellow bot flew up abruptly to Amy's nose, and kissed it.
Amy raised her eyebrows, and closed her mouth. "Whisper?" She asked.
The little bot nodded, and zipped back over to Bebop.
Amy forced a smile. "Excuse me." She turned, walked calmly out to the patio, and closed the door. She didn't dislike bugs, she used to catch them when she was little, and she was always willing to meet new people-or bots, but after the events of the day she had already had, it was far too much information for her brain to process, and as she screamed out at the top of her lungs, she had to wonder if maybe she was just dreaming the whole thing?
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Moonracer stared absently at the screen, her mind anywhere but the task at hand.
"Pay attention to your work, Autobot!" Starscream hit the back of the mint green femme's head.
Brawn jumped up, and moved toward Starscream. "If you lay one more diode on her, I'll-!" He warned.
"You'll what?" Starscream cackled.
"Brawn, stop!" Ultra Magnus grabbed Brawn, hooking his arms around the mech's shoulders. "He's not worth it."
"He's worth every dent I could inflict!" Brawn bellowed.
Galvatron paid mild attention to the squabbling before he shot Starscream in the foot. "Sit down." He growled.
Starscream muttered in Cybertronian, and walked back to engineering control.
The Autobot shuttle had been nearly destroyed by the Decepticons when it had been deployed from moonbase one on a simple Energon retrieval mission to Autobot City on Earth. It had been fairly easy to capture the shuttle, and kill most of the crew.
The four they had kept online were for appearances only, and Galvatron had every intention of killing the so-called hostages after they had landed in Autobot City.
Brawn kept a close optic on Starscream, glaring at every twitch the Decepticon lieutenant made toward Moonracer.
Ratchet glanced at Brawn then looked back at his console. A red download bar was nearly full, indicating his sub-space connection had almost made contact.
Contact destination: Earth
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Mikaela's face, speckled by chicken pox, itched like crazy despite the pink calamine lotion spread over her skin. She knew the cream couldn't possibly be good for her complexion, but neither were the chicken pox. She flipped idly through a Delia's magazine, big red headphones covered her ears. Mikaela bobbed her head to The Shins, bored out of her mind.
"Kay, honey, do you-" Mikaela's mom entered the room, and paused. She walked over to her daughter, and pulled the headphones from her daughter's head.
"AA!" Mikaela started, turning on her side, and holding the magazine up. "Geez, mom, you scared me!" She chuckled slightly.
"Sorry, hon," Her mom laughed. "Do you know a girl named Amy?"
Mikaela sat up, trying to fix her hair. "Amy?" She beamed, and walked to the mirror wearing a bright orange robe over a pink tank top, blue plaid cotton shorts, and slippers shaped like Lightning McQueen.
"That's what she said." She shook her head. "Anyway, I told her you were sick, it's probably better because she had a little baby with her."
Mikaela crawled across her bed, and looked out the small window. "Amy!" She beamed, and jumped off the bed, leaving pink lotion marks where he legs had touched the comforter.
"Kay!" Her mother exclaimed, exasperatedly. "Lotion everywhere." She sighed, clearing off the bed to change the sheets.
Mikaela dashed through the living room, and opened the door. "Amy!" She exclaimed.
Amy turned from buckling the pretender boy into the seat. "What the-?" She started. "You're all pink!" She snorted back a laugh.
Mikaela trotted down the front stairs, and out the gate. "Its just lotion, hi!" She hugged Amy.
Amy sniffed. "You feel like having company?" She asked, hiccupping on a sob.
Mikaela gasped, and released Amy. She grabbed her shoulders. "What happened? Why are you crying?"
Amy shook her head.
"Mommy sad." Bebop said, sitting on the front seat.
Mikaela looked at the boy. "Hi there cutie." She smiled.
Amy sniffed hard, and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry." She muttered. "A lot's happened this week. I am up to my aft in bad news, and I really need someone to talk who isn't going to look at me like I'm crazy."
Mikaela nodded. "It's what I'm here for."
Amy took Bebop inside with her, and relayed everything from the night Jazz told her he was leaving, to Sea World, to the little sense of doubt she had gotten when Wheeljack referred to her human like in the past tense.
Mikaela frowned slightly, holding a glass of strawberry lemonade in her hands. "Well, it was before, wasn't it? You were human, now you're an Autobot, aren't you?" She shrugged slightly.
Amy sighed, setting her glass empty of lemonade on a hello kitty coaster atop the small white desk to her right. "I guess, but it felt weird to talk about my life that way. Sure, it would be different if it were just an event, but it was eighteen years of my life." She explained, shaking her head slightly.
Bebop made an explosion sound as a Barbie impacted a stuffed bear.
Mikaela chuckled. "Reminds me of Trigger. How is the little weirdo, anyway?" she asked.
Amy shrugged. "It hangs out with Blaster and the minibots."
"Blaster?" Mikaela raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, he's the communications officer; sits up in his tower like some hermit." Amy chuckled slightly. "He's cool though, keeps up with current events, and almost always keeps MTV or VH1 on the screens."
Mikaela nodded thoughtfully. "That's cool, I'll have to meet him."
Amy crossed her legs, and leaned back on her hands. "Jazz was always getting new music downloads from him."
Mikaela reached out, and grasped Amy's right knee. She smiled slightly, not sure what to say. Would it be okay? Was there anything she could do if she offered?
"I'm okay." Amy sighed, sitting up.
"Mama, look!" Bebop made the Barbie fly up in the air then crashed down into a Dori pillow.
Amy chuckled. "That's great, baby."
"He's so big." Mikaela cooed. "I can't believe how long it's been."
Amy shook her head. "Don't let his size fool you, Autobot fledglings grow at a rate five times faster than human children."
"Wow, really?" Mikaela looked at Bebop.
"It just means that in two years, he'll look like he's about ten instead of two." Amy explained.
"ohh." Mikaela nodded. "So, will he still act two?"
Amy shook her head. "No, he'll be the Autobot equivalent of a ten year old human child." She looked at Bebop, smiled, and sighed.
Bebop looked at Amy. "Hi mommy." He put down the Barbie, picked up the teddy bear, and crawled over to the bed. He stood up shakily, and tried to pull himself up onto Mikaela's lap.
Mikaela reached down, and lifted the boy under his arms. "Oh, you're a heavy boy." She grunted as she lifted him up.
Bebop leaned back against Mikaela, holding the bear.
"Do you even know me?" Mikaela asked.
"Yeah." Bebop giggled. "Kayla."
"Mikaela." She corrected.
"Me-Kayla." Bebop said.
Mikaela and Amy laughed.
"He's so cuuute!" Mikaela cooed again, hugging the little pretender boy. "I don't care if you're a robot, you're so cute!"
"What about the others?" Amy asked absently though she knew Mikaela didn't know either. "Prowl said they could account for Jazz and Cliffjumper's voices on the transmission, but almost half of the Autobots in Autobot City were on that base.
"Bumblebee?" Mikaela gasped.
"No, he's at my house mediating Ironhide vs, the Insectibots."
"Insects?" Mikaela's eyes grew wide. "What insects?" She looked around nervously, trying to rub away the goosebumps on her arms.
"They're from Cybertron, I'm not sure how they got to Earth, and they're not sure either because the only one awake for the journey got into a fight with an intruder, and is now blind in one eye, and half of his memories are scrambled." Amy explained nonchalantly.
"What, is he their leader?" Mikaela joked.
Amy chuckled. "No, he's a praying mantis."
Mikaela stopped laughing. "O-oh."
Amy nodded distractedly. Her head tingled, and she shook it to free the interference she was receiving from her alt mode.
Mikaela's phone rang. "Hang on, hello? Ah!" she pulled her head away from the rhythmic beeping. "Wrong number?" She started to hang up.
"No!" Amy gasped. "That's not a wrong number!" She held out her hands. "It's Morse Code."
Mikaela started. "Really?"
"We need to record it." Amy gently took the phone, and the two girls and Bebop headed out to the blue Exige. Amy connected Mikaela's phone to what looked like an ordinary car cell phone charger.
"What is that going to do?" Mikaela asked.
Amy pushed the FM button on the radio. "Now it's recording the morse code. I should take this to Blaster." She sighed. "But I just got home, I don't want to go back to the city."
Bebop sat in the back seat, looking at the two girls in front, not overly concerned with what they were talking about, but curiously watching nonetheless.
"Well good luck with that." Mikaela sighed, absently scratching her shoulder.
"Don't scratch, you'll ruin your skin forever." Amy said, looking up at signal abruptly stopped, and the two girls looked at the phone.
Mikaela looked at Amy. "Call me and tell me what it was saying, okay?"
Amy nodded. "Okay."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Bumblebee sat outside Tranquility high school, dozing from boredom, his internal chronometer reading quarter past three. The blonde pretender glanced in the rearview mirror at his reflection, and sighed at the blonde hair and blue eyes. Maybe it was time for an upgrade, He thought, tugging a lock of blonde hair distractedly.
After ten more minutes, Bumblebee started to get antsy. Firstly, he had left Ironhide alone with two small children, a medic, and four insectibots. Knowing Ironhide, Bumblebee thought...
"Drop and give me fifty, bots!" Ironhide bellowed to the two children, and insectibots.
Firestar sat off to the side with a first-aid kid, a worried expression on her face.
And secondly, Amy had taken Bebop, and left the house without a word, which worried Bumblebee in another way.
The Camaro started, and honked at the brunette boy running up to the car.
"Okay, dude, calm down!" Sam slid into the open passenger side door, and barely had time to throw his stuff on the back seat before the car peeled out of the parking lot.
"Mr. Witwicky there are speed laws in place for a reason!" The history teacher yelled after the bright yellow sports car.
Without thinking about it, Bumblebee drove back to the Miller house in a hurry, not sure what to expect.
"Hey, 'Bee! You just passed my house, man!" Sam exclaimed, but his protests fell on deaf audio receptors as the yellow sports car took a dangerous turn onto another block, and screeched to a halt in a dilapidated neighborhood with one standing yellow house.
Sam peered at the house, and nodded appreciatively. "Not bad."
The blonde leapt from the door, slamming the driver's side door behind him. Sam got out of the car at a lazier pace, staring at the outside of the house.
Bumblebee burst into the house, and slid to a stop on the linoleum entryway.
Ironhide snored soundly in a recliner, his hat tipped over his face. Rawhide and Tourniquet sat by the television watching Voltron, and eating popcorn with the insectibots. Sound sounds of dishes came from the kitchen, and the blonde walked to the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen, and could only sigh with relief.
Firestar busied herself cleaning up breakfast dishes, and various other misplaced items as the diswasher ran. The sink was full of hot, soapy water; a few cups could be seen sticking up above the foam.
"Oh," Firestar jumped slightly upon seeing the blonde in the doorway. "The dishwasher is full, so I figured I should wash the rest of the dishes by hand." She smiled slightly. "Is that alright?"
Bumblebee nodded silently, and walked around to the wet bar. He sat down, and let his head drop onto the black marble surface.
"Primus..." Firestar murmured. "Having a bad day, Bumblebee?" She asked.
"No, I'm exhausted." Bumblebee muttered.
"In that case, recharge yourself; doctor's orders." The red-haired pretender woman smiled.
The blonde looked up, nodded, and slid off of the barstool.
Amy burst in the door carrying a clear square disk. "Bumblebee!" She exclaimed.
Bumblebee paused in the kitchen doorway, his head spinning slightly. "Huhm?" He muttered. He could feel his systems starting to freeze from lack of recharging, and it was becoming difficult to keep his pretender eyes open.
"I was at Mikaela's, and her phone started beeping!" Amy exclaimed, holding up the disk. "At first she thought it was just a wrong number, but I recognized it as morse code 'cause my dad taught me, but I could never really understand it, so I recorded it in my alt mode, and brought it here for-!" She paused, and looked closer at the blonde.
His blue eyes were flickering like a light being turned on and off rapidly. They focused, and grew brighter for a moment.
"What?" Bumblebee narrowed his optics to focus them. "What about morse code?" His tilted forward dizzily.
Amy placed a hand on the blonde's chest.
"Hey, 'Bee, are you okay?" Sam turned from Wii Fit, and stared at he blonde.
"You lost." Rawhide whined.
Sam glanced "Oh, okay, you play." He slid across the hardwood floor without his shoes on, and stopped by the blonde. "Earth to 'Bee, you feelin' okay, buddy?"
Amy waved a hand in front of Bumblebee's face. "You look strange."
"Hey, kid," Ironhide walked up behind Bumblebee, and tapped his back. "Maybe you should-"
Bumblebee's systems shut down simultaneously, and he fell forward onto Amy.
"Agh!" Amy tried to hold the blonde pretender up. "Heavy." She grunted, and fell to the floor, and unconscious blonde pretender form on top of her.
"Geez!" Sam gasped. "Bumblebee?!"
"-Lie down." Ironhide finished, grimacing.
Rawhide giggled. "He fell down!"
Tourniquet looked up from his encyclopedia. The praying mantis flew over to the blonde pretender form, and tapped the back of its neck with one scythe. "The unit Bumblebee is no longer connected to this body."
The man in black looked thoughtful. "I wasn't aware Bumblebee had exhausted himself."
"Poor guy." Sam sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
Firestar walked into the living room with a pleased smile on her face. "Your kitchen is-by primus, Bumblebee!" she exclaimed.
"Negative." The praying mantis said. "The unit Bumblebee is no longer connected to this form."
Firestar started. "He said he was exhausted, but I had no idea he meant exhausted."
"Hell-lo!" Amy called out from the floor. "As much as I'm concerned about Bumblebee too, this pretender form is heavy! Can someone please get him off?"
Ironhide picked up the blonde pretender form by the back of the worn, yellow, leather, racing jacket. "Are you damaged?" He asked.
Amy groaned, letting her head fall back against the hardwood floor.