Decepticon at Spark

Chromia poured some fresh energon into a cube, frowning to herself. Firespark had never cared to know about his protoforming before. He had been acting weird lately. She absentmindedly stirred the energon while she thought about her adopted son. She hadn't really meant to lie to him, but she didn't think he was ready to know the truth yet, and Ironhide needed to be there when he was told, as well. She nodded to herself. Now was not the time. Picking up the cube of energon, she walked out of the kitchen and made her way through the house to the back door. She opened the door and stepped outside.

"Firespark, honey, I brought you some…" She stopped mid-sentence. The young mech was nowhere to be seen. "Firespark?" No answer. "Firespark!" She raced inside.

The gray mech raced down the street, thoroughly enjoying the wind against his face and the sense of freedom it gave him. He wasn't going back, but he wasn't about to race into the Decepticons' ranks. He needed to do a little research… and where better to do that than the city library?

Firespark stood outside the large library building, bent double and panting. The city was a lot farther from his house than he had remembered. Once his intakes had slowed, he stepped into the cool building. The quiet pressed against his audio sensors, and he immediately slowed his pace, trying to be as quiet as possible. He walked to a corner of the main room, picking up a datapad and sitting in a plush chair. He selected 'non-fiction' on the main screen and then narrowed his search, looking for anything that could give him information about the Decepticons, but not make him look suspicious. He didn't find much. There were almost no pictures, and the ones he found didn't contain his father. Most of the books on the Decepticons were in the restricted section, and Firespark couldn't get access to them. He frowned and stood up, placing the datapad on the chair he had been sitting in. Wasn't it his right to be able to recognize the Decepticons? If he ran into a Decepticon in an alley, he probably wouldn't be able to tell it from any other 'bot.

Firespark stepped out once more onto the city streets. His absence had probably been noticed by now. He needed somewhere to hide, or some way to disguise himself. He stared down at his blue-gray servos. Maybe an alt. mode would help… But there was nothing or no one around to scan. He forced himself to keep moving down the street. He also had no credits to even get a room to stay in, and he didn't know how to get any. Living on the run was harder than he thought it would be.

Firespark ducked into an empty building. He needed to speak with his father. He climbed to the second floor – it looked like this had been an apartment building, once – and walked into a random room, closing the door behind him. He cleared a space on the floor of rubble and lay down there, trying to make himself comfortable.

It was considerably easier for him to slip into his subconscious this time. He sat down on the white floor and took a deep breath.

"Dad?" For a second there was no response. Firespark took another nervous breath, and then the large blue mech appeared in front of him.

"What is it, Firespark?" There was a tone of concern in the strange voice.

"I… I need help. I ran away from home and I don't wanna go back, but I don't have anywhere to stay and I don't have any credits or anything." He looked up at his father's face.

The mech stared down at Firespark, staying silent for a long time. Finally he spoke. "The safest place for you would be at your adopted parents' home." Firespark opened his mouth to protest, but his father held up a servo, silencing him. "However, I do not believe it is the place you were meant for. You may look like an Autobot, but it seems you are a Decepticon at spark. I originally placed you with the Autobots to protect you, but you are old enough now to be able to protect yourself… enough."

"Well, then, what's the plan?" Firespark's spark was whirring out of control with excitement.

"I cannot go within the city limits without being detected. Do you know the old station, on the edge of the city?"

Firespark nodded. He had gone there once, on a field trip.

"Go there. Then, follow the transport tracks south until you come to the first bridge. I will be waiting in the ditch below."

The small grey mech smiled. "I'll be there as soon as possible!" And he left his subconscious. He flew down the stairs and out of the building, running once more through the city streets. He attracted the attention of a couple of Cybertronians, but they didn't seem too interested in him. Rounding a corner, he saw the station up ahead. He wasn't far now. He'd be with his real father, where he really belonged. He stepped his pace up once more. He didn't want to get caught this close to freedom.

The old transportation tracks were rusting and cyber-fauna had grown over them completely in some places, but Firespark knew well enough where they led. And besides, the ditch wasn't very far from the city itself. He had to fight the urge to dance down the tracks.

His joy was short-lived, however. He caught the faint sound of revving engines and turned to look behind him. In the distance, he could see a rapidly approaching powder blue car. He gasped and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him, praying that the ditch was closer than he remembered, but the way things had been going, it most likely wouldn't be. He could hear Chromia catching up with him, and wished he had an alt. mode already. Preferably something that could fly.

"FIRESPARK, YOU GET YOUR AFT OVER HERE!" The 'bot in question frowned and pushed himself to run faster, but he was already going as fast as he could. "FIRESPARK!" Tears welled up in his optics. She was right behind him and he couldn't see the bridge… his little expedition was over. He heard the sound of Chromia transforming and was slammed into the turf when she tackled him. "You are in BIG trouble, mister! You'll be lucky to ever set foot outside of the house ever again!"

He struggled to squirm out from under her and shouted in a last ditch effort. "DAD! HELP!"

Chromia froze, obviously not expecting this. "Firespark, what are you…"

"DAD!" He heard something heavy slam into the ground nearby.

"You! Don't you come near my son!" Firespark couldn't see what was happening (his head had been shoved into the ground), but he knew his father's voice when he heard it.

"Your son? We both know that's not true. I've come to take him back."

Chromia launched herself at the mech, teeth bared and fists raised. "Over my offline body!"

"I hope it doesn't come to that." He sidestepped and knocked her aside. "You are the closest thing my son has to a mother."

"I AM HIS MOTHER!" She dove at him, and the two fell to the ground. Firespark watched from the side as they wrestled. He wanted his father to win the fight, but he didn't want Chromia to get hurt. And now the two were up and throwing punches… Rather, Chromia was punching and his father was dodging. The large mech (Chromia had to be two-thirds his height, but she made up for the size difference with spirit) finally threw a punch of his own, and hit the femme in the side of the head. She swayed and stepped back, but recovered fast. The mech pressed a button on his shoulder and his chest compartment opened up.

"Frenzy; eject." Firespark's optics nearly popped out of his head as he watched a little 'bot come flying from the compartment. "Operation: scramble circuits."

"Right away, boss!" Firespark watched the 'bot closely, but he didn't move. Chromia, however, clapped her servos to her audio sensors and fell over, twitching. The small mech didn't hear anything (he must've been too far away), but his vision was getting a little fuzzy. That was weird. His father walked over. Firespark had to fight the urge to pull away. He was really scary up close and in real life, especially now that Firespark knew he was a Decepticon. But he was his dad.

"For future reference, my name is Soundwave." Soundwave held out a massive servo to his son. With a sudden jolt of excitement, Firespark took his father's servo, and was swung up onto his back. He almost fell off, just because he hadn't been expecting that, but managed to cling on at the last moment. "Frenzy, move out. Firespark, we need to get you an alt. mode and teach you to fly." He must've sensed his son's shock, because he continued. "As a Decepticon, that is one of your skills." The three of them took off toward the distant Decepticon base.

Chromia came to with a splitting headache. Scrambled circuits were never fun. She looked at the sky and sighed. The sun had already set, and that… thing… was long gone, with her son. She gritted her teeth and tried to hold back her frustrated tears. She got shakily to her feet and began the walk back to the house. Ironhide was probably wondering where his family was.

Author's Note: Hurr. My sense of humor is ridiculous. Blame it on my dad. Last ditch effort… when he was trying to get to the ditch… get it? *shot* Anyway. Yayy for lame title drops in a story! And yay for massive long chapters that take me weeks to write… the next one won't take as long, I promise. REVIEW PLOX.