"Why are you so red?"
"What are these called?"
"Why can't I fly?"
"Can I have more coffee? Pwease, pwease, pwease, pwease, pweeeeeeeeeeeeasse?" It was one question after another as Knock Out and Breakdown didn't know how much they could take before their heads explode.
"Laserbeak, no… Please be quiet.." Breakdown groaned. Why can't this child sit still? Better yet, shut his mouth?
"That coffee must have turbocharged his systems…" Truth be told, Knock Out now prefers Laserbeak to be as mute as Soundwave. "We just have to wait until he tires himself out."
"Which is like how long- Laserbeak, no! Don't climb on that!" Breakdown rushed to stop the kid from climbing one of the selves. Laserbeak didn't want to be held, struggling to break free. Breakdown had no choice but to set him back down on the floor for the time being. He zoomed off somewhere between a small crevice between two tables that almost met in a corner.
"You can't get me!" Playfully giggled the child.
Breakdown shook his head. "Leaving him in there isn't an option, is it?"
"I'm slowly debating it…" No, they couldn't leave him in there… "Putting him in a box is out of the question too. If Soundwave finds out- and we all know he will, he'll stuff us in a box and throw us off ship."
They paused hearing crunching sounds from the corner Laserbeak is in. Knock Out was confused. Breakdown's face lit up in sudden realization.
"What- oh slag! Don't eat those!" The bulky mech reach his hand behind the tables, gently pulling out Laserbeak. Knock Out spotted what the child held in his hands; a rust colored stick treat, half eaten.
"You had rust sticks and you didn't share?!" Knock Out glared at his partner.
Breakdown returns the glare with Laserbeak in his arms. "Look who's talking, Mr. I-don't-share-breadsticks."
"Don't use that against me. They were fragging delicious."
"And you wonder why I didn't tell you about the rust sticks; you're greedy as Hell. You even disobeyed Megatron's orders to give him one."
"It's not my fault I already licked all of them. That's how germs spread, my friend." Knock Out tried to play out the innocent act. "I was only trying to prevent our Lord from being sick."
"Yeah, sure, whatever you say. You're lucky he didn't beat the scrap out of ya." Now attention back to Laserbeak. "Laserbeak, you don't eat those. They are not for you, do you understand?" Laserbeak frown nodding, lifting the rust stick near Breakdown's face apologetically.
It took a moment to realize what he wanted him to do. "Oh. You want me to have it?" Well, this felt awkward in an adorable way. "Uh… No… You can have it. I'm fine."
"Pwease?" Damn it. Laserbeak turned on the puppy eyes look on him.
Breakdown finally gave in. "I can't say no to you, can I?" And with that, the yellow eyed warrior took a bite from the partially eaten tasty rust stick. "At least you know how to share, unlike somebody." It was strange, Laserbeak moved the treat away from Breakdown's mouth when he was going to take another bite at it.
To his surprise, Laserbeak wanted to give the remaining treat to Knock Out.
"For me?" Dumbfounded, Knock Out pointed to himself as Laserbeak nodded, waving the rust stick in his general direction.
"Pwease eat it." Knock Out gently took the treat out of Laserbeak's hand and looks at it, then back at the child.
Knowing that there was no way out of this, Knock Out ate the rest of the rust stick. "Um.. Thank you. It was very delicious." A smiled slipped as he watch the child claps his hands in delight.
Laserbeak resumed crawling around the place, occasionally being pulled down from objects he was climbing on. As predicted, the effects of the caffeinated drink started to wear off, but not in the way as expected.
When the black haired child started to calm down, another problem occurred.
"Knock Out, you may want to see this," Breakdown was holding a rather sickly looking Laserbeak. His refusal to speak and quiet whining wasn't helping either.
"Set him on the table and I'll take a look at him." Breakdown did as so.
Knock Out ran his usually examinations procedures on Laserbeak. "My guess is the kid is suffering a little stomach ache. Letting him run around with a tank full of Energon, coffee, and rust sticks was not a smart choice." Knock Out carefully picks up the child, completely unaware that his facial expression changed. "For now, little Laserbeak needs some rest."
"Uh, KO?"
"What?"
"You may want to put him down. He looks like he's about to purge his-"
There was a low retching noise and the next thing he knew, Knock Out's shirt and jacket was stained in a light blue substance. Breakdown cringed, seeing Knock Out biting down his lower lip, trying everything in his power to not yell.
'Try' being the keyword.
In the hallways was Starscream, strutting down that halls in his usually way that looked way too composed. The ex-Seeker was wound up over a couple of things, one being that the TIC, Soundwave, is probably off in his quarters somewhere slacking off with Megatron's permission. And for what reason, that he was tired?
Starscream was tired too, but you don't see him relaxing like a lazy Vehicon! Then again, the lazy ones don't last long.. but that's besides the point.
Adding insult to injury, he was commanded the duty of watching the drone's child. Whom, in fact, Starscream doesn't want to lay sights on for the rest of the day or ever after today's accident.
And the world wasn't done tormenting Starscream when a voice called for his name. It was Breakdown, and Laserbeak is in his arms.
Swell..
"What do you want, Breakdown?"
"Can you, um… Watch Laserbeak for a while? There was an.. accident with Knock Out and it's best for Laserbeak to not be around him right now."
"Forget it."
"Starscream, I am begging you here. We had to deal with this kid's energy rush for the last couple of hours. Just a short break is all we are asking."
"I said forget it."
Okay, Breakdown tried to be Mr. Nice Guy, but apparently that's not working. "I hear ya. I'll just go see if Lord Megatron will be willing to watch Laserbeak after learning your incompetence to do such a task."
Starscream growled, "What do you want me to do?"
"Now that wasn't too hard, was it? Just give the kid a bath, that's all and bring him back. He's been crawling into everything," He rolled his eyes at the dust covered child.
"That's not too much work for you, is it?" As if Starscream was going to dignify that with a response.
Breakdown handed off Laserbeak to Starscream (who Laserbeak dislikes with all his Spark). Laserbeak didn't struggle much after Breakdown assured that nothing was going to happen to him.
"Breaky…" Laserbeak reached out for him.
"Behave for Starscream, 'kay?" Breakdown said to Laserbeak before he headed back to the lab.
Hard to believe that this child used to be the one who would record Starscream's every movements, every traitorous action that was brought to Megatron's eyes. A child that caused his downfall…
Yeah, this isn't going to end badly or anything.
"Reduce to babysitting a drone. How did I manage to sink this low?" Starscream assumed that Laserbeak didn't understand what he was saying; not like Starscream would care either way.
Not giving a care, Starscream dropped Laserbeak on the sink counter. Not from a high height, but high enough for it to land on his bum painfully.
He whines and shot a glare at the one who dropped him. "Ow! Meanie!"
"Stop being a baby. That didn't hurt." Starscream optic's rolled as he ran the water.
"I swear, this isn't Megatron's great ideas. Not like he has much of them anyways. Who knows what's going on in that processor of his, clearly not much, and he wonders why most of his oh-so perfect plans fail." He scoffed, turning off the water, not paying mind to Laserbeak's unblinking stare.
"Just as flawed as Soundwave. If the mech is too exhausted to watch his own pitiful drone, then why bother having him on board? Hmph, when I'm leader, he'll be the first one to be demoted."
Laserbeak tilted his head, observing the water filled up the sink. 'What is a bath?' he wondered. The former Seeker takes off the child's clothes and tried to put him in the water.
He was struggling, clinging on Starscream's arm. "Let go of me!" Finally, he was pried off into the cold water.
After getting used to the temperature, Laserbeak found it really amusing. Splashing the water, some got on Starscream, and laughed when he noticed how mad he was. He didn't care as he continues splashing it everywhere.
"Laserbeak, I command you to- gah! Stop that!" Another wave of water was splashed on him. "Fine! If you're not going to listen to my orders than you give yourself a bath!" He declared, storming out of the bathroom.
Personally, Laserbeak was glad that Starscream isn't around him anymore.
Though, that also meant he was completely alone...
"And then Knock Out refused to give any of those breadsticks to anyone, even Lord Megatron." Steve and a small mix of Vehicons and Vehicon-humans were treading down the hall. The Techno-Organics were sitting on their robotic comrades shoulders, finding it easier to travel like so.
"And he's still alive?"
"I think the reason why our Lord didn't scrap him was solely because he bought everyone food."
"In my opinion, Knock Out deserves a good punch in the face and more."
"Don't you think you may be overreacting a bit, Dave?"
"Overreacting my aft! You weren't strapped down to his lab table! That's traumatizing!"
"Hey, does anyone hear something over the sound of Dave being a glitch?"
All was snickering, besides Dave who crossed his arms.
"No, I'm serious. Listen…" John quiets everyone down as they began to hear a faint sneezing noise emanating from behind the bathroom door. Curious and yet none wanted to investigate until the sound persisted them otherwise.
The door opened, eyes and optics alike wandering around until they fell on a child.
Sitting down on the countertop, towel covering his body as it was the only source of warmth he could shield himself from the breezy air. That didn't do Laserbeak much good. Before the Vehicons came in, he was soaked wet. Combine that with a cold air font, the outcome was a small cold.
"Achoo!" He sneezed, sniffling, hugging himself tighter in the towel.
"Isn't that Laserbeak?" Steve hopped down from John's shoulders and approached the child. The other Techno-Organic, Greg, did the same. The only one who didn't have a safe landing was Dave, slipping off Thompson's shoulders and fell on the ground.
"Ow! How can commander Starscream walk with a coat like this?! " By the sound of it, Dave must have slipped on his trench coat.
"Does someone need to see Knock Out?"
"Not funny."
Laserbeak slipped a smile and even chuckled at Dave's anguish, sneezing again. "Laserbeak thinks otherwise. And I agree with him." Steve smiled and then frowned. "What is he doing in here?"
"Haven't you heard? Because Soundwave was too tired to watch Laserbeak, Megatron ordered Knock Out, Breakdown, and Starscream to watch him." John stated.
"Yeah, I was in the bridge when that happened." Thompson added.
"That still doesn't answer why he's in here. What should do we do with him? I don't feel right leaving a sparkling like this..." Steve eyes blink, caught off guard by the little hands that was reaching for him, begging for help.
So, after some consideration, the group choose to look after Laserbeak for time being. Steve, Dave, and Greg were having a hard time trying dress the child ("That's not how you put on a shirt.") When that was taken care of, everyone was stumped on what to do next.
They are Vehicon's; soldiers programmed to fight and to die for the Decepticon cause. Watching over a sparkling is a whole different ballgame as humans would put it.
"Ignorant brat…" Starscream was in his own quarters, finally dried.
"I don't care how weary Soundwave is. He can watch over his own drone just fine!" And then a moment of realization dawned him.
"Aah! How can I forget?! Soundwave will have me offlined if anything bad happen to Laserbeak!" The thought of Soundwave coming after Starscream's Spark motivated him enough to scurry out of the room to retrieve the child.
Starscream hurried to the bathroom, the last place he left Laserbeak, only to find the place sparkling-less.
"Starscream?" The ex-Seeker lets out a startled shriek, jumping around to find it was only Knock Out, without a jacket, and beside him was Breakdown.
"Calm down, it's only us."
"Where's Laserbeak?"
"Uh…." Starscream averted direct eye contact, twiddling his fingers sheepishly.
Knock Out tensed up before adding another question. "For Primus sake.. You didn't lose him, did you?"
The silence confirmed so.
"HOW DO YOU LOSE A SPARKLING THAT CAN BARELY WALK!?" He facepalmed. "Ugh, we are so fragged!"
"Technically, Starscream is fragged. He did lose sight of the sparkling." Breakdown mentioned and strange enough it did put Knock Out's mind at slight ease.
"What? You can't put all the blame on me! So what if I left the brat by himself for a while…" Slag, he didn't mean to say that part out loud.
"You did what now? Why did I even trust you to do a simple task of giving him a bath?"
Knock Out shook his head disapprovingly. "My thoughts exactly. It was a foolish move on your part."
"Woah, you can not be talking. I had to keep Laserbeak out of your sights because you went all berserk 'cause you got purged on."
"Don't remind me…" The vain mech shuddered before getting series. "Alright. Let me think for a minute… Assuming that Soundwave is still recharging, that give us some time to locate the kid. Now, he couldn't have gone that far. Worst case scenario: Megatron got a hold of him."
"Shouldn't that be a good thing?" Breakdown didn't get it.
"Megatron has zero tolerance for sparklings. Especially when one is crying and honestly I don't blame him. Back on topic, if we split up, we can cover more ground and find him faster." They can only pray that Laserbeak is somewhere onboard ship, unharmed.
An hour has passed by and still no sight of Laserbeak. Starscream might as well start recording his last words before Soundwave tears out his voice box.
"This is the most adorable thing I've ever set my optics on!"
"Peek-a-boo!"
Starscream quirked a brow. 'What the heck are they doing?' In the middle of the hallway, Vehicons were huddled around something, cooing or laughing at what was in the middle.
"Steve!" A high pitched voice cheered.
"He said my name!"
Thank the Allspark, Laserbeak is okay. All Starscream has to do now is to relive the Vehicon's of the child and everything will be solved.
Starscream stepped forward, about to do as such, though someone else beat him to the punch.
On the opposite of Vehicon, that Starscream couldn't see past at first until he moved, revealed Megatron and Soundwave who was curious about the drones' commotion.
Slag…
"Ah. There you are, Starscream." The seeker was spotted by Megatron.
Already being seen, he had no other option but to approach to the two nervously. "Oh, uh… Lord Megatron.. And Soundwave. Did you have a pleasant recharge?"
"He's fine. But what would I like to know is why is our soldiers squandering with a child when I assigned the task to you, Knock Out and Breakdown?" By his face alone, Megatron wasn't pleased at all. The same went for Soundwave who was handed Laserbeak by order as the group dispersed before Megatron had a chance to question them.
To show how much Laserbeak missed Soundwave, he smiled and gave him a tight hug. Soundwave made pulled a strange face, not entirely because of the hug, though from the child's squeaky sneeze.
"Er… Our precious Laserbeak here wanted to… play with the Vehicons. And I couldn't say no the little sweet sparkling. I just came back to check on him." That's the story and Starscream is going to stick to it. Though Megatron grew tired of Starscream's threadbare excuses, there was no proof that he was lying.
"Nah!" Out of the blue, Laserbeak cried out with illegible words. Before Soundwave could react to this, the child's hand was placed on the side of his visor, fingers turning into something like little wires that hooked onto the visor as it played a recording from Laserbeak's point of view.
I swear, this isn't Megatron's great ideas. Not like he has much of them anyways. Who knows what's going on in that processor of his, clearly not much, and he wonders why most of his oh-so perfect plans fail.
Starscream forgot that Laserbeak's prime directive is to record anything and everything that would be considered traitorous or suspicious.
Just as flawed as Soundwave. If the mech is too exhausted to watch his own pitiful drone, then why bother having him on board? Hmph, when I'm leader, he'll be the first one to be demoted.
His grave dug deeper as the video continued.
Fine! If you're not going to listen to my orders than you give yourself a bath!
The video ended with Starscream stomping out of the bathroom.
Megatron's fist and teeth clenched together. Soundwave was equally, if not more enraged than his glorious leader.
"M-my Liege. I-I… I can explain…"
"Oh really, Starscream? Frankly, I am in no mood to hear any of your pitiful excuses. Neither am I in the mood to deal with you personally," The corner of his mouth raised in a evil smirk. "Soundwave, would you like to do the honors?"
Soundwave stepped forward, visor blinking coordinates. "If you wish, my Lord." spoke a recording.
Laserbeak waved. "Bye bye." The child's giggled echo through Starscream's ears before falling into a bridge that opened up beneath him.
That was showing mercy.
Laserbeak clapped. "Sire funny!"
Megatron gave the flustered Soundwave a questioning look when the child called him 'sire'. "Sire?"
Am I making Laserbeak too cute? Because I want to hug him and never let him go. Kids are adorable until they hit that age when they become a total pain in the aft.. I know this because I have a sibling… May get another one in the near future, I don't know.
When the Vehicons aren't on duty, they talk about their high ups behind their backs. Especially Knock Out.
Okay, guess I can give everyone a hint about the next chapter.
Hint Hint. The fair's in town!
This is really strange timing considering our state fair is here...
Ah, so, please leave in your reviews. Give me any suggestions or idea or your comments about the story.