Optimus Prime was gone for at least an hour. The humans and Autobots were all getting restless. Wasp was the most impatient. Bumblebee watched Wasp nervously glance at the door where he expected Optimus Prime to return. The brothers were separated on opposite sides of the room, outside the interogation room. Sideswipe and Jolt held Bumblebee back by the shoulders, while Ironhide and Ratchet stood guard in front of Wasp. The humans all stood back in corners, not wanting to be in the middle of the room if the one they thought was Wasp attacked. Despite Bumblebee's testamony, nobody was taking any chances. Not while Optimus was gone. 'C'mon guys. This isn't fair.' Bumblebee thought. Finally Ironhide walked towards the interrogation room and invited Wasp to follow.
"Well c'mon kid. We'll get this over with, with or without Prime." Ironhide barked. Before Wasp could move, the door swung open and Optimus stepped in.
"Bumblebee I have assigned someone to question you." He said plainly to Wasp. Wasp nodded and positioned himself in the middle of the room, directly in front of Optimus. He stood at attention and waited to see who Optimus Prime had specificly chosen. Optimus waited a few seconds for a verbal responce. By this time, Bumblebee wasn't sure who he was more mad at. Wasp for stealing his identity, or Optimus for not recognizing him. 'Are you kidding me?' Bumblebee thought. 'Awkward silence! You'd think that would be a major clue! I could say a million things right there. But not Wasp. He's only had to improvise with radio talk for a couple hours, and he's hardly said anything. In his place, I could do way better than that.' After a couple seconds, Wasp finally found the right recording to use.
"Who is it?" To answer Wasp's question, Optimus sidestepped to the right, and revealed Sam Witwicky standing behind him. Bumblebee was first to react.
"Sam!" Bumblebee shouted in surprise. Everyone stared at Bumblebee. Wasp realized that was the first test. He quickly recovered and kneeled down in front of Sam. Sam stepped towards Wasp to greet the bot who either was or was posing as, his guardian. Sam noted that he sure looked like Bumblebee, and would have had him fooled. But the things Optimus told him made him skeptical. Wasp reached his hand behind Sam's back and rubbed his knuckles up and down Sam's spine. Sam gave a half smile and aknowledged the massage. 'That doesn't prove anything!' Bumblebee thought. 'Everyone knows I do that to Sam. It doesn't take a genious to figure that one out!'
"You believe me don't you?" "Right? Buddy?" Wasp asked, still rubbing Sam's back.
"He's not your guardian!" Bumblebee interupted. Sam's eyes darted straight towards Bumblebee.
"Calm yourself." Wasp insisted. But that only enraged Bumblebee even more.
"You are no one's protector! AND YOU ARE DEFINATLY NOT HIS!" Bumblebee tried to charge at Wasp, but Sideswipe and Jolt pushed him back. (Not that they wanted to. Jolt was sitting on the fence, not sure who he believed. But Sideswipe believed Bumblebee 99.9% ever since he stepped out of the interrogation room. He wanted to let Bumblebee go to Sam, and see what the human thought. But instead, he followed his orders and kept Bumblebee and Wasp apart.) "Sam, I'm right here." Bumblebee said. But Sam turned him down.
"I'm only here to speak with him." He stated, looking at Wasp. Bumblebee was sure Sam was already judging the book by its cover. But infact, Sam was doing the exact oposite. He turned Bumblebee down so he could foccus more on one bot at a time and not let his feelings cloud his judgement. Besides that, Optimus Prime asked him to interrogate only one.
"Our interrogation room is open for you to use." Optimus encouraged Sam.
"Thank you. But everything I need is in Bumblebee's room." Sam said.
"Then you are welcome to anything in his room." Optimus said.
"He already is." Bumblebee mumbled. Sam heard Bumblebee and smiled, knowing it was true. 'That's Wasp look alike, two. Bumblebee look alike, one.' Sam recorded in his mind.
"If you'll show me the way..." Sam tested Wasp. Wasp stood up to lead the way.
"We will accompany you." Optimus added. Sam saw Optimus Prime's point. They couldn't risk leaving Sam alone with Wasp.
"Good, because I want everyone to see this." Sam grinned, accidentily hinting that he had a plan. Wasp lead the way to Bumblebee's room. Sam walked by his side, Optimus followed close behind, humans behind him, and the rest of the Autobots trailed behind, keeping Bumblebee in line. Along the way, Robert Epps ran up to Sam.
"Sam." He called. "You sure you know what you're doing?" Sam walked a little slower so they could get behind Wasp.
"Yeah. Of course. I know Bumblebee."
"But you didn't hear Wasp talking. He was in tears, man. I'm figuring we have two options. One, Wasp is a really good liar. Two, Wasp has gone crazy and has convinced himself he's Bumblebee."
"So who's side are you on? That Wasp?" Sam asked, looking at the Bumblebee look alike. "Or that Bumblebee? he asked, looking at the Wasp look alike. "Or that Wasp? Or that Bumblebee?" Sam repeated, this time looking at the oposite meches. Epps was so confused.
"I don't even know anymore. I just hope you know." Epps said.
Wasp casually opened the door to Bumblebee's quarters. He'd already been in there before, and felt like he was prepared for anything. When everyone was inside, all eyes and optics were on Sam. Sam turned around and grabbed a large empty cardboard box in the corner of Bumblebee's room. Sam hitched a ride on Optimus Prime's hand. Optimus lifted Sam up to the shelf on the wall where all of Bumblebee's trinkets were stored, just like Sam asked. Sam gathered all of the trinkets on the shelf into the box. Then he asked Optimus to let him down with the box on the floor. Bumblebee intently watched Sam handle the box. He carefully set it down on the floor in front of Wasp. Wasp smiled. The smile made Bumblbee uneasy. Bumblebee assumed that Sam and Wasp both had something planned. Bumblebee just hoped whatever Wasp was planning wouldn't counteract Sam's plan to catch him. Like everyone else, Bumblebee waited paitently to see what would happen. Sam pulled the first item out of the box. It was the sack of coins. Sam was about to say something, when he changed his mind.
"Both of you transform into your human holoforms." He said. Wasp imediatly transformed and apeared as Bumblebee's blonde and blue eyed human form, with sort of a dull bruise mark on his forehead where his Autobot insignia would be. He wore a yellow/gold colored jacket, black jeans, and black tennis shoes streaked with yellow. The real Bumblebee hesitated. He wondered what would happen if he tried to transform into something Wasp's body was not familiar with. He transformed anyway. When Bumblebee opened his eyes, he apeared human. Unfortunatly he still didn't look like himself. His holographic hair was shorter, and brown instread of blonde. He wore a forest green tank top and dark grey jeans with grey and green tennis shoes. He also wore a digital watch on his wrist. Bumblebee looked at his face in his reflection on the digital watch's screan. Both of his eyes were swollen and turned to a dark purple around the edge. He looked hideous with those two big black eyes. Bumblebee thought about the relation between Wasp's optic color and the eye condition and color he had now. 'If punctured enough,' Bumblebee thought. 'optics turn purple and pink. Just like a human getting a black eye. Who knew?' The two brothers stood in their human holoforms infront of Sam. Sam gave the sack of coins to Wasp.
"Tell me what this is." Sam said to Wasp. Bumblebee was bursting with joy and laughing on the inside. He saw what Sam was doing. Each item in the box ment something to them and symbolized something only they would know about. Wasp was busted.
This is your grandfather's collection of railroad pennies. Wasp answered in sign language. Bumblebee's jaw dropped. Not only did Wasp know sign language like he did, but Wasp was right.
"How do you make a railroad penny?" Sam asked.
Set the penny on the railroad tracks, and run it over with a train.
"So why did my grandfather flatten all of these pennies and make them totally useless?"
He told you railroad pennies were lucky. Bumblebee couldn't believe it. Wasp was absolutly right again. Bumblebee was just amazed that Wasp would go to the trouble to look that up about Sam's grandfather. Then it came to Bumblebee. Maybe Wasp didn't research Sam's entire history. Just the parts about the items in Bumblebee's room. 'Uh oh.' Bumblebee thought. Sam set the sack of pennies aside. Next, he picked the Pirates of the Carribean light up skull. 'He's never gonna get this one.' Bumblebee assured himself. Sam flipped the switch on the back of the skull and made the inside of the hollow skull toy glow green. He showed Wasp the Pirates of the Carribean Curse of the Black Pearl logo on the bottom of the skull.
"What is this?" Sam asked.
Its just a toy. Its Pirates of the Carribean merchandise, and that's why you like it. Bumblebee chucked. 'Is that all you got?' He thought. He knew the real answer to the question, and he knew Wasp's answer wouldn't be enough to save him.
"That's right." Sam comfirmed.
"WHAT?" Bumblebee demanded. The room fell silent. The Autobots were confused. Most humans in the room didn't know sign language anyway. So they were already lost. Bumblebee looked at Sam. His face was determined. It said something along the lines of "Shut up! You're gonna ruin it." Bumblebee stepped back and stared down at the floor, remembering he wasn't suposed to interfere with Wasp's interrogation. Sam held up the next trinket. It was the pair of roller blades.
"What is so important about these roller blades?" This time, Wasp started to falter. He honnestly didn't know the answer, and couldn't make one up. He did a quick search on Sam's history and found out he had awards for roller hockey.
You wore those in roller hockey. Bumblebee was totally embarrased to have Wasp for his brother. 'Wasp, you idiot! He wears those now! He played roller hockey when he was eight!' Despite Wasp's inaccurate answer, Sam allowed it. Bumblebee looked at Sam despiratly. 'What in Pit are you doing?' Sam held up the last item in the box. It was the blue piece of scrap metal.
"What's this?" Sam asked again. Wasp didn't know the answer, and he couldn't make one up.
Its just a piece of scrap metal. Wasp signed. 'Wrong!' Bumblebee thought proudly. Sam shook his head.
"Both of you transform." Bumblebee and Wasp were back in their robot forms.
"Sam? Have you chosen?" Optimus asked. Sam didn't answer Optimus directly.
"One more question." Sam told Wasp. "Why did you and I keep this junk? What's the point?" Wasp was speachless. Bumblebee couldn't stand it anymore. He pushed himself infront of Wasp and shoved his brother to the side.
"For the love of Primus! These are our trophies and our gifts!" Bumblebee shouted. The Autobots were just about to run to Wasp's rescue, when Sam held up a hand to stop them. Everyone froze where they were, and Sam listened to Bumblebee. "I scanned those roller blades so I could skate in my human holoform. Skating's got to be the best thing I've done in a holoform, thanks to Sam. I snuck out of the base to give that Pirates of the Carribean toy to Sam on his nineteenth birthday. Yeah, this guy's obsessed with the Pirates of the Carribean series, but the real gift was us just seeing each other. As for the railroad pennies, I truly believe those things are lucky. Sam had a bunch in his pocket the day he met the Autobots. And you won't believe this, but I figured out why my voice was working for a moment just after the battle of Mission City. No, the Allspark had nothing to do with it. Somehow, I got a lucky railroad penny lodged into my vocal processors! And that tiny piece of scrap metal is the best trophy of all. I'm not gonna go into details, but that piece of scrap metal is the last piece of Trent DeMarco's truck in existence!" Bumblebee laughed. He looked at Sam and the rest of his audience. The friendly glow in their eyes and optics was back. They all knew him.
"Bumblebee?" Sam asked causiously. Bumblebee kneeled down in front of his charge. Sam stroked his hand over Bumblebee's head. "Just for the record..." Sam said, leaning closer til they were optic to eye. "I knew it was you when you said he wasn't my protector."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Cuz you're the only 'bot tough enough to watch over someone like me." Sam laughed, giving Bumblebee a crazy look. Bumblebee nearly strangled Sam in a giant hug. Sam hugged back the best he could.
"Well next time, say something as soon as you know! The suspence was killing me!" Bumblebee said. Suddenly a nameless voice rang out of the croud.
"He's getting away!" The Autobots turned just in time to see Wasp dash out the door.
"He's getting away with my body!" Bumblebee realized angrily, and began the chase after Wasp.
Wasp's quotes belong to their rightful owners:
Finding Nemo -Directed by Andrew Stanton
The Land Before Time VII -Directed by Charles Grosvenor
Toy Story -Directed by John Lasseter
Aladdin -Directed by Ron Clements
