Chapter Seven
Ratchet smothered a small chortle. With. Great. Difficulty. A cybertronian being clumsy was just not heard of in Cybertron, unless they had heavily tanked with high grade. Any calibration issues would be quickly fixed on their own, for the need of precise control of their frames in the day to day hustle and bustle of Cybertron. But here on earth, Ratchet found the one clumsy cybertronian resting on top of his chassis, rubbing her helm cables. This night Lanna had been telling him an animated story about some boy that had jumped on her in kindergarten when she had managed to get her "hair" stuck in her underarm, and had solidly tugged it. Cutting off his audio and keeping a serious face as best he could, he could not hide the fact that his chassis was shaking up and down, effectively notifying Lanna of his amusement. Lanna sheepishly laughed and smiled at Ratchet, who broke and laughed out loud. Ratchet had long ago noticed her clumsiness, and had checked and rechecked her calibrations only to find that everything was perfectly fine. Watching her closely, for she had ran into objects, stumbled, and "stubbed her toes" as she had called it, he had found that she simply just got caught up in her talking or listening and ignored her calibrations. Which made it so. Slagging. Funny. Ratchet remembered when she had been walking side to side with Sam as he was going to go home, he was telling her about school and his best friend Miles, and she had walked right into a wall. How do you ignore a wall?!
Calming down Ratchet titled Lanna's head with his finger so that he could check if she had ripped any out. She hadn't, but he kept his finger on her helm, soothing the cables down. As Lanna settled down for recharge, Ratchet reviewed her progress. After the bonding, glitches had dropped down to 25% of what they once were, and she sucked up information like none other, and had showed great interest in medical practice, music, and, from what he had heard from Will Lennox, "Little girl things". Even now their room was littered by her art projects, Prime's office now held couple as well, and Lanna had shyly given Ironhide a few as well. Pictures depicting both of her families, flowers, cars, and CATS. Cats were everywhere. Lanna had even created cat ears out of some of the scrap Ratchet kept, using tape and glue to delicately hold them together. She insisted on wearing those often, and sometimes when she was left alone long enough, would meow and pounce and bat at imaginary things. She watched internet videos, and would then show her favorites to Ratchet and Optimus. One time she had tried to show Ironhide, and all she got in return was,
"Why do humans have such pesky rodents in their homes? They should be exterminated." Of course Ironhide could only think of the Witwickys dog when he had said that, but Lanna had never showed her favorites to him again. Ever. Lanna and Ironhide did not see optic to optic on most things, number one being entertainment. Lanna enjoyed her paintings, drawings, and building dabbles and combing through music, while Ironhide once took her out for shooting practice to show her his entertainment. Not necessarily a bad idea, but not the best. While Ironhide gleefully exploded targets and explained all there was to weaponry, Lanna winced at every explosion and all of the gun lingo went right over her helm. Although she would admit that sometimes it sounded like fireworks. She didn't understand what was so fun about it. Point, shoot, reload, over and over again. It was kind of the same reasoning why she could find Sam's video games fun either. What are we going to do on this level? Shoot people. The next level, shoot some more people. At the end of the game, yay! You shot everyone. But Ironhide wasn't bad, so she sat and watched and let him know that at least she was trying to understand what he was saying, and sometimes he would tell her about his own creations and sparkmate that were hiding from these bad guys called Decepticons. Lanna learned that there were a lot of femmes and now grown up younglings in hiding, including Optimus's sparkmate, Elita.
Lanna thought it was very sad that they weren't able to see each other, and Lanna had told Ironhide that, but Ironhide had said to her seriously, "At least they are safe, youngling".
It was a goal of the Autobots not to let the war effect Lanna. She was told vague and little information, and she had the feeling not to ask. Things were slow, and the Autobots laid low. They still looked for Decepticons and worked with the humans, but days were not exactly full of stress and worry anymore. If anything it was sorrow over what had been lost. Over whom they had lost. But they had a fantastic little distraction whose antics could help them forget for a while. She still slept often and sometimes she would wake in the middle of the night, with nothing to do. The first couple of times she stayed snuggled up to her Ota, but she had ventured out twice, and would go to the rec. room to watch movie until she was sleepy again and went back. She had told Ratchet and he would grumble but did not tell her to stop. Lanna now had more mobility away from Ratchet, who was not happy when she stayed away for too long, but she now could travel hanger to hanger, mostly visiting Optimus, and sometimes Ironhide. Even though they did not have much in common, Lanna still wanted Ironhide to be her friend. He could be very funny when he grumbled.
There were few humans in the large base, and she knew most of them by face now. Few and far between she would talk to one that wasn't Epps or Will, who did their best to treat her like they would any other little girl, but this one was their height and was stronger than she realised. Once after watching Epps do it to another officer, Lanna jumpstarted Will. A bit too hard. Will tried to cover up the pain when it happened and laughed it off, but he had told Ratchet later. Will had two bruises over his hips. Which lead to a very stern talk with Lanna. Ratchet wasn't going to sugar-coat these kinds of things, because if Lanna didn't understand she might truly hurt someone. Once he was sure she understood via the bond, Lanna immediately went to go say sorry to Will, trying not to cry as she went. She had had no idea that she had poked that hard. When she did find Will walking down the hall of one of the human hangars, he instantly pulled the oh-crap face as he saw the state that she was in. Lanna apologized and promised to never do it again. Accepting her apology, he reassured her that he was fine. Will even dragged her into a side hug, and Lanna barely touched him as she hugged back. When she came back to Ratchet, she was fighting a glitch, optics wavering and fingers glitching, but won without Ratchets help. Ratchet still kept her close all day, but he was very proud.
On one of the days Lanna choose to play outside, drawing with the chalk that Epps had given her, she drew all of her robot family, in almost real life size, give or take a couple feet. It took her a long time and she had even put herself on Ratchets shoulder, in the middle of Optimus and Ironhide. Bumblebee was not forgotten, and was placed on Ironhide's side, and then Sam and Will and Epps stood beside them. She took her time, trying to get all of the details right. It was a huge drawing, and once she had to redo Optimus's head because someone had driven over it. That person had received an positively unhappy face from Lanna, who had even mumbled what her mother had said to her many a time when she got in trouble, " I am disappointed by your actions." She even said it in her Moms voice. The bond with Ratchet was very helpful when she missed her family, he always knew the right time to send his love. Lanna loved him right back, and even though they did not say it, it was something they didn't have to say, it was there pure as day, for either of them to feel. Lanna continued to contently draw until she saw a shadow approaching. Looking up, she saw the man that was in charge of the place. He was now fairly close to her, but kept his distance.
"Hey… kid." Uh-oh, what was his name again? Lanna had not seen him, or thought about him since he had told her the news.
"Uhh.. Hello." Galloway nervously rubbed his knuckles with his fingers,
"You doing alright? You like the robots?"
"Yeah." Lanna supplied, but didn't elaborate. She knew that they didn't like being called robots, but she did not correct. Galloway nodded,
"Well thats good. Now you tell me if you need any help, okay? I want to make sure your doing alright." Well this was awkward.
"Yeah, okay. Thank you." Lanna kept the "this is kinda weird" tone out of her voice.
"Good. See you around kid." And with that Galloway briskly walked away, having calmed his small Jiminy Cricket.
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Lanna had seen Jazz. It was when she had been exploring with her kitty ears on, rolling from corner to when she found the door in the back of the hangar. She had the code for the medic doors memorized by now and easily opened it. When she saw Jazz, she hurriedly left, thinking that he was asleep. She went right up to Ota and asked him about the mech she had never seen before, was he new? Ratchet stalled his vents and silently cursed at himself. Grabbing Lanna from where he was sitting, he secured her on his knee and kept his servo wrapped around. Lanna already guessed she had done something wrong and stared up, afraid of what Ratchet might say.
"Who you saw was Jazz, our First Lieutenant, Second-in-Command. Jazz is not asleep."
Lanna stayed silent, for she felt how sad Ratchet was, she waited for him to continue, but when he did not she said quietly,
"Is he dead?" Ratchets face scowled and dipped down,
"Yes."
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Lanna would never go back to the room, but she would listen if anyone talked of Jazz. She was sad because Ratchet was sad, but she didn't want to ask. The Autobots were tight lipped about it as well, for Jazz's offlining was an awful one.
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A week later she heard the big guy and Ota talking about moving something. Rounding the corner she butt in,
"Watcha moven?" Both mechs seemed to not have cared that she had heard them, and Optimus picked her up and answered,
"One of the Allspark shards is going to come here to be under our supervision."
"I remember what that is!" Quirking an optic ridge, Ratchet said,
"Good. I would be worried if you had forgotten." Lanna snorted in the most ladylike of snorts.
"Uh-huh. Can I see it when it gets here?" With a small frown, Optimus said,
"Yes, but with supervision, and no touching." Lanna smiled,
"Sweet." Optimus looked at his lango list to understand that one. Meanwhile Lanna felt anticipation. She had been wondering about the Allspark from time to time. Ratchet had further explained what it did. Femme bots would receive a spark from the Allspark after they had done something with a mech, and Ratchet wouldn't explain what, but they didn't have to even go to the Allspark to get their baby. Well, the Allspark would have to be within the Well of Sparks in order for that to happen, so that's why there wasn't any babies after Bumblebee. That was one of the reasons she was confused about why the "Baby maker" made her into a cybertronian. Trust her when she said that she had already tried to make her toy cat made out of scrap metal come alive. She had held out her servos and "used the force" but nothing had come of it besides a questioning look from Optimus. Lanna tapped her fingers against Optimus's servo as she thought.
"When?"
"Two hours."
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Later Lanna had trekked her way to Optimus, who was enjoying his energon in an empty rec. room. Full with her kitty ears and kitty tail, and drawn on kitty whiskers, Lanna put her hands on her hips like she had seen him to frequently. Dead serious she said,
"Optimus." Keeping his face just a serious as hers, but dieing on the inside he responded,
"Yes, Lanna?"
"I am a cat." That was it, nothing else for Optimus to gleam on what was going on in her processor just "I am a cat." Finding it more fun to play along, he said,
"I see that."
"Good." Any with nothing more, she pounced on his pedes. Wrestling and bating them on the very one sided battle. His years as Prime had not prepared him for this, but all of those youtube videos had. Deciding to record this for later, he bent down and tapped his fingers on the floor. Which Lanna pounced on. Maneuvering to sit down with his back against the wall, Optimus "attacked" with his fingers and gently pushed her to her back. Fake biting didn't get her anywhere, her mouth was too small and her denta not made for biting. She meowed and hissed grabbing his fingers and not letting go. Lightly wiggling his fingers to escape, he found none, Lanna kept on and gnawed at the tips of his fingers. Lifting his servo off the ground, and highly amused when she still did not let go, he drew her onto his lap and shook her off. Falling lightly, she scrambled/crawled around and under his legs. Hiding under the gap between the back of his knee and the floor she poked her head out, making sure he was still playing. What she didn't expect was for him to grab one of her pedes and drag her out. She let out a startled "Meow!" and wiggled out of his grip. She then leapt on his torso and climbed up his chassis to his helm, uninterrupted by huge servos, where she proudly clung on for dear life. Finally one of her ears gave up the fight for life and fell off, bouncing and tinkling to the floor.
"Aaawww man." She whined, That took forever to get on right! She was suddenly aware of her perch shaking up and down and it wasn't long until Optimus was full out laughing. Happy and proud that she had made him laugh, Lanna climbed down to his leg and pushed her helm underneath his giant servo. Once again going off what he had been shown, he moved his fingers down Lanna's helm cables and she hummed in response. Chuckling dying down, he spoke,
"You make a good cat Lanna."
Lanna didn't answer, but her face spoke for her, you bet I do.
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Still in kitty get-up although missing an ear, Lanna waited for the plane on the tarmac with all of the present Autobots, Bee being with Sam. She had the best view though with Optimus. The plane was already landing, which Lanna found very fun to watch, and once they had pulled in and shut of the engine, and lowered the back, Ironhide was strolling in. The sound of chain securities being pushed out of the way hardly made it to their audio receptors and soon Ironhide was carefully caring a see through box with a single shard held inside. Lanna didn't feel anything special when it got near, which she was on a small scale slightly disappointing, she had hoped to get that kitty toy up and meowing. As the shard was moved into a special room by Optimus's office, everyone went along to ensure its placement. The code on the door was one that was different and much more difficult than that of the rest. There was heavy security on that room, anyone that even came near the room was scanned first for Decepticon origins. As it was settled down and locked in, everyone dispersed, Lanna went back to the rec. room to watch Ghostbusters, which she found terrifying, funny and thrilling all at the same time.
Halfway through the movie all three mechs joined her on the mech sized couches, and Lanna snuggled into Ratchets side. The movie was very much a culture shock for them, and Lanna ended up laughing more at them than the movie, and had to explain to the best of her ability, which sometimes lead to more confusion. Lanna was resolved to have them watch "The Mask" by the end of it.
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Lanna blinked her optics as she was yet again, awake in the middle of the night. Vents sighing, she moved from her comfortable position in the curve of Ratchets neck and shoulder. Being sure not to wake him, she climbed down the ladder of the berth and started making her way to the rec. room to watch a movie or something. Escaping the Medical hangar, Lanna stopped. Her processor said rec. room but her spark was calling the opposite direction. The feeling was familiar. Lanna stood there as she tried to place it. The Land of Fuzzy Feel Goods! The more she recognized the feeling, the more she felt the presence that had accompanied her through the dream state she had been in. In full trust, but a little fuddled, Lanna changed her direction. What steps seemed to be drawing her closer to the hangar also drew her closer to that feeling and presence. Letting her spark lead her pedes, Lanna was brought to the room with the Allspark shard. Well crap. This door was locked and Lanna didn't know the code this one. She felt apologetic that she couldn't continue but before her next thought, she brought her servo to the keypad her height and typed in the code. Outloud she said,
"Woah. Cool!" And she knew what she was doing now, she was going to get her robot kitty! Amusement filtered through the presence but Lanna didn't question it as she jogged to the stand that had the shard. Which was in a box. That had no door. Climbing up as far as she could on the stand, she reached up and tapped the substance of the box. Nothing happened and Lanna was at lose at what to do. Help please. She thought, and yet pleased amusement filtered through. Encouraged, she reached up again and this time the substance melted away and he servo went through. She could not reach from where she was though. Re-positioning, she pulled herself to her elbow on one side while the other reached for the shard, her legs dangling below. One last push of her arm and she grabbed it, and swiftly fell on her aft. She wasn't too hurt though and got up and rubbed her aft a bit before racing off to where her kitty lay. Slowing to a jog as she entered the Medical Bay, the presence pointed her away from her kitty. Speaking out loud she almost whined,
"Waiiit. No kitty?" The presence was firm when she felt a negative. Awww. No kitty. The presence patiently gave her a feeling not using words, just a feeling, Kitty much later.
"Okaaay. Then what?" She was guided to the backroom where Jazz lay. Lanna's sleepiness feel into her as she climbed the berth. Not even asking why, she laid down over Jazz's spark her hand with the shard resting directly on top. She drifted into recharge and the pulsing began.
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Throughout the rest of the night Jazz regained his color, and his spark. He had just left the presence which he called Primus, having said yes when asked if he wished to return. Funny thing was, no one tells you what to do when you come back online. He still felt calm, the effects of being with the creator of creators. Systems checking systems, he found himself not to be in perfect health. Surprise surprise. Energon was old and stale, cables not fully connecting, and wielding that had not been able to do self repair stung. But he was glad to be alive. Who else would bring the fun to the party?He could not recall most of the time spent with Primus, besides knowing he had been his optics his optics he was startled to see a youngling over his spark. Zooming in on the what was in her hand gave him the general idea though of what had transpired.. He was quick to notice that although cute, the youngling did not look normal. Checking his chronometer, he surmised that everyone would be deep into their sleep cycle. Instead of trying to online anyone, he settled down to wait. So far he had guessed that his onlining was not planned, and there will be pit to pay in the morning.
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Ratchet check again before he got up and moved. Where in the slag was Lanna? He sent a questioning ping through the bond only to find that she had received it, but not noticed it, meaning she was in recharge. But if not here than where? Rec. room he concluded and briskly walked towards it. When no Lanna was to be found, Ratchet found a seed of nervousness bloom. Zeroing in on the bond, Ratchet played the game of hot and cold, which lead him back to the Med. bay. Did she not make it back to their room before she fell into recharge? Did she go through a glitch and burn out? Frustration and worry compounded in Ratchet as the astrosecond passed by. He found himself in front of Jazz's room when he felt the dread kick in. What was Lanna doing in there with a offlined frame? Steeling himself, Ratchet entered the room.
His engines spluttered as he saw Jazz's visor online, his helm lifted off the berth but otherwise unmoving because he had a little one on him, and looking at him. Smiling jovially, Jazz spoke in his famous accent,
"Guess who's back bab'e?"
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(Ha! Sorry I suck, but I can't write anymore tonight, its too late. By the way I hate Michael Bay. This is my opinion but he seriously messed this new movie, ( Not that his past ones have been a walk in the park either) I had a hard time sleeping the night of the 27th because I was going over what was wrong. Udgh. Just plain garbage. I couldn't even appreciate the cinematography because it was so overused. Bleh. I bite my thumb at you sir.
Thanks again readers! I'm glad to know you like it, and please tell me if you don't, I'm all for improvement. )
