Chapter 11: The Sting of the Wasp
"Wasp," a voice echoed, "Wasp...we are that which oversee this universe and that which keep it in order. Our time is drawing to a close and as such we have taken drastic measures to ensure that the will of the One prevails within this reality. We are that which serve the One, we are that which makes certain that everything goes as it should. That principle is now being threatened by what has emerged within this universe. That which was ignored by the Autobot Council, that which is thought to be just a mere myth by many currently, that which shall destroy all reality if not stopped. We have taken you in to attempt to prevent the apocalypse which has made itself known.
"We know not what the fate of this universe will unravel to be as of now, but we shall remain doing our best to prevent this reality from suffering the fate which many have already befallen. To better accomplish our goals, we have enlisted you Wasp, the misunderstood Autobot turned Decepticon. We have repaired you to how you were before the first transwarp and ensure that such a dismemberment of your corpse shall not occur in the return buildup. What we need of you is to head to Earth and await the arrival of the precursor to the apocalypse and destroy him. We have come to notice his activities in this Nexus and his search is unending. When he does arrive on the human planet though, it is your job to destroy him. Annihilate the monster known as Sideways."
As the vision ended the bug-like transformer, Waspinator, flickered to life and looked about. He was still on Dinobot Island. After an entire day of searching Waspinator had finally shut down to recharge himself; never did he even begin to anticipate that which he envisioned while he was in his little stasis-nap however. He didn't know what it was or where the apparent memory had come from but he knew that he did feel the urge to hunt down yet another prey alongside the other two life-wrecking trouble-makers already on his list of who to assassinate. "No," Waspinator hissed morphing into his robot mode, "Must destroy Spider-bot and Bumble-bot! Sideways no matter!" Just then, Waspinator looked up and saw a plane pass over the island. There were planes in the city his enemies had been in when he first arrived. Curiously Waspinator flew up above the trees and looked out towards where the plane was going. There was a city.
"You think it was really ok to leave Bulkhead back there?" Ratchet asked Prime as they transformed back into their robot modes. "Of course," Prime laughed as he stretched, "he's the one that originally built the Space Bridge up there in the first place with Professor Sumdac afterall." "Yeah but you weren't the one that had to decipher the kid's handwriting," the old bot murmured. "Either way, it's good to be back home dawgs," Jazz added stretching as well, "I could use a stasis nap myself. The humans sure know how to party when things aren't in ruins, but the celebration was a bit too slow for this cool cat's tastes." "You young bot's just need to know when to take things slow," Ratchet sighed.
As Sideways came in and the old and young transformer began to get in an argument, Prime just shook his head and walked off. It didn't matter how much they bickered now, they had made sure things stayed safe, and that was something that Optimus Prime was always proud of, something that could never get him down. "I wonder how our friends here are doing," he said to himself as he walked by Blackarachnia's door and knocked on it, "Elita 1." "Blackarachnia is present," the Cybertronian mumbled back bitterly. Prime smiled. "You ready to get started on turning our friend back to normal today?" "Fine," he heard her respond, "When do I get let out of here?"
"When it's time," Prime told her and continued walking down the hall, "Now to see how Scrapper and Snarl are doing." As Prime's walk went on he looked at Bumblebee's room. It had seemed eerily empty without the youngest and most energetic member of the team there. Even in his human form Bumblebee had managed to keep that annoying perkiness to him that remained so prevalent to his character throughout all the time that Optimus Prime had known him. He also wondered how well Bumblebee would adapt to turning back into his old Cybertronian self if, no, when they found a way to get him back to normal. He definitely did seem like he enjoyed being a human, but there was no way he would remain one if they found a way to fix him. He was still an Autobot and still a necessary component to the team in their seemingly endless strive to keep all that they could safe from the Decepticons.
Finally, Optimus reached the back alley of the factory where he saw Snarl and Scrapper in stasis naps against each other. "Cute," he said to himself with a smirk. He jumped though as he saw the dinobot let out a quiet roar and get to its feet ready to charge at him. Prime barely had time to think as the four legged beast leapt on him and knocked him to the ground. Instead of continuing to attack him however, Snarl began rubbing his snout against Prime's face plate playfully. "Good morning to you to Snarl," he said with a smile and got back to his feet, "How are you?" Snarl let out a joyful yelp and leapt into the air. Optimus looked over at Scrapper still smiling and then back down at the dinobot, "I'm sure he won't mind...hey Snarl, wanna go play fetch?" Rapidly, Snarl hopped up and down over and over again. "Alright alright," Prime laughed and began heading out the garage, "race ya to the old waste disposal plant!" As he stepped into the room Sideways looked at the two as they headed off in the distance and folded his arms over his chest plate.
Bumblebee's eye flickered open. The boy yawned and looked to his side. There was Sari as usual whenever he woke up, except this time they were sprawled across her couch. Though the girl had wanted to go to bed after their failure of dancing the night before he insisted that she stay true to her promise of video games, and stay true she did. Though Sari dozed off right as she was about to beat him in a race, she still played as long as she could. Bumblebee wrapped his arm around her body and hugged her tightly trying to get comfortable and get back to sleep. Her skin definitely felt soft enough to be a pillow.
Unable to get some rest sitting up, Bumblebee eventually laid down behind Sari with his arms wrapped about her stomach and buried his face into her red hair. Practically the instant they got back to her room Sari had slipped into much more comfortable night-clothes and Bumblebee pretty much ripped off the constricting and seemingly heat-attracting uniform Mr. Sumdac's machine had made for him so it wasn't that hard for Bumblebee's body to get comfortable against hers. Pleasantly he nuzzled his face deeper into her hair and squeezed against her tummy. Moaning slightly Sari's head began to move. Bumblebee hadn't meant to disturb her but he couldn't really do anything as the girl rolled about in his arms.
Finally, Sari's body stopped squirming as her body faced his and pressed up against it in the corner of the couch. With a smile Bumblebee kissed her lips lightly. "Bed buddy," he said quietly as the kiss ended. Suddenly Sari's lips locked back around his and her legs wrapped about his waist as her arms coiled around his neck. Bumblebee was used to his neck nearly being twisted to powder these days by Sari's hugs but the constricting of her legs he was not. He felt his face get hot like it always used to when he first started being a human as the lower parts of their bodies mashed up against each other. It felt even more pleasing than when they had first kissed with their tongues but rather scary at the newness of the interaction at the same time. "Sari..." Bumblebee mumbled breaking away from the girl's lips.
"Good morning Sumdac resident!" announced the annoying voice of the Tutor-bot from the clock on the wall, "Time to greet the day!" Sari mumbled something irritably as the scheduled wake-up call ended and her eyes opened. "...hello," Sari said blushing looking rather wide eyed at Bumblebee as she felt something prodding against her lower body. Slowly she looked down and embarrassingly unwrapped her legs from the boy before hugging him tighter around the neck now that she was awake. "And how long did I last last night?" "About forty seven minutes," Bumblebee replied smiling at her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, "So you ready to greet the day?" "I'm ready to tear your head off if you decide to mimic that annoying trash-can of a teacher," Sari muttered and nuzzled her cheek against his, "But yeah, I am. Let's get this day started!"
"Let's see here..." Sideways murmured to himself as he typed some things in on a computer console in the entrance area of the factory. As he finished typing the videos being displayed switched to different angles. Continually they flipped over and over to different scenes until finally the purple transformer stopped the process. "Well well well," he said quietly and put a hand to his chin, "About time he showed up." On the lower-most left hand screen was displayed what seemed to be a giant green wasp flying across the morning sky towards the city of Detroit. "Well," Sideways said and flipped the screens back to normal as Ratchet came into the room, "Time that those two affiliates of mine make themselves useful it seems."
"I honestly don't see what's got you so shaken up," Rattletrap said shrugging his arms as he and Sentinel Prime walked throughout the ancient catacombs of Cybertron, "I mean sure that huge planet thing is scary and all but you say that there are people on the organic planet willing to help." "That's not the thing that's had me shaken up for the past stellar cycle," Sentinel grunted as he hit his foot on a rusty old pipe, "It's the logs I came across. They were written by Ultra Magnus." "And how is that bad?" Rattletrap asked looking up at the taller Autobot. "Those logs were written after Megatron was captured," Sentinel replied looking back down at his companion, "Magnus was never reported to be back online..."
"Oh," Rattletrap said with his eyes getting a bit wide in realization of the odd situation, "Well...that's good though right? He's online now." "But how?" Sentinel asked, "I mean, I'm sure that the Council wouldn't just announce his coming back online efficiently and all, especially with how they lost control of me. But where exactly is he? And what exactly do his horrific logs mean?" "I still don't see what you find horrific about the logs." "Ultra Magnus proposed making a protoform that would take on life through interaction with an organic! He's proposing to make an abomination! A TECHNO-ORGANIC!" Sentinel practically screamed causing the brown Autobot to stop and look up at the blue one in caution.
"...and what's all that horrific about that?" Rattletrap asked shrugging his shoulder, "It's not like it's the end of the universe or anything." "Organic mixed with cybertronics!" Sentinel yelled crouching down to look the smaller Autobot in the optics, "Organics are already bad! But techno-organics!" "I don't see what you got with em honestly," Rattletrap muttered glaring at the hulking Cybertronian and crossing his arms over his chest plate, "I mean, I've even dealt with an organic before and, though they're a bit disgusting, there's nothing any worse about em than your normal average citizen here."
"Then I suggest you get your optics checked!" Sentinel ordered pointing at Rattletrap's faceplate, "Cause believe me, when you're in a jam against an organic they'll eat through your plating like it was rust particles! I once had a friend, Elita 1, who was with me and an old colleague on a planet full of organic arachnids and after that mission I never saw her again, at least....not as Elita 1..." "Touching," Rattletrap laughed and started walking again, "You can hang on to your organicphobia all you want buddy, I'm just gonna stick with good old survival of the fittest myself. Now let's try to find a way to communicate to your pals if ya wanna get out of here." Grumbling, Sentinel hobbled off after the rat.
"So...what're we gonna do today?" Bumblebee asked slinging his arms around Sari's neck from behind her chair. "I dunno," Sari replied as she munched on some waffles, "Haven't really given any thought to it." "But....aren't we suppose to have plans for what we should do everday?" "No," she laughed and patted his cheek, "I don't know what else there is to teach you." "Baseball?" he suggested causing Sari too look up at him and raise an eyebrow. "I think we should wait a little longer before we attempt that again," she said and took another bite, "especially after what happened yesterday." "We told your dad we were sorry." "Doesn't mean we should try that again this quickly."
Bumblebee just hung about her neck loosely feeling her throat pulsate with each swallow. "How about we go to the Burger Bot?" he asked. "...I'm eating breakfast," Sari murmured through her food, "Right now." "I know?" Bumblebee replied confused. "You don't go there unless you're hungry," Sari told him, "It's a fast food restaurant, I won't be hungry until lunch after I finish eating." "Then a lunch date!" Bumblebee declared choking the girl in a tight hug around the neck, "At Burger Bot!" "Ok ok!" Sari gagged, "We'll have a lunch date! Just-new lesson! Do not cut off someone's windpipe while they are in the middle of eating! Now please let go of me!"
"So, where's Bulky boy?" Scrapper asked holding his arms out to the bots hanging around in the entrance room of the factory. Jazz was too busy playing some video games to look up leaving Ratchet to answer the constructicon's question. "After the party last night the Bulkhead decided he'd stick behind when we came back," the med bot explained turning away from the monitors he had been viewing in case trouble was caused in the city. "Why didn't he come back with you guys?" "Because," Ratchet continued as he turned back to the monitors, "He said that he had work to do on his precious Space Bridge." "Space Bridge..." Scrapper muttered putting a finger to his chin, "Hey...that's the thing that he had me and Mix try to help him with. For a clutz he sure is constructive." "His spark's always in the right place," Ratchet said, "Even if his body isn't."
"Well how'd the party go at least?" Scrapper asked leaning against the monitors lazily. "For a thing that had us in it?" Ratchet asked smiling slightly, "Pretty good actually. One bad guy attacked but he didn't even get a chance to do anything. Sideway's henchman downed his vehicle and we got him arrested. Sideway's way of dealing with the party-crasher though is something that would have caused real trouble if Prime hadn't stopped him." "Lemme guess," Scrapper said rolling his optics, "he tried to slag the poor guy?" "Exactly," the red and white Autobot replied shaking his head pathetically. "Man that guy's just nuts." "Hopefully his head's screwed on tighter than I think it is," Ratchet added, "Cause nothing so far that he's shown makes me think he's any good."
"Maybe I should go try to help the Bulkhead out," Scrapper said and began walking towards the outside world. "I'd do that if I were you," Ratchet commented turning to look at Scrapper, "Especially since our purple turncoat is looking for ya." "Wha?" Scrapper murmured stopping in mid-step and looking back at Ratchet. "He told me when we came back last night that he'd need to talk to you as soon as he could," the med bot told him and walked over to him, "Is there something I should know about?" "Probably," Scrapper replied as he broke into a run through the halls of the factory.
Never stopping, Waspinator's head moved about looking for his prey. Its optics shifted and swiveled about with his bug-like form allowing him to see more intricately than he ever had been able to as just a mere Cybertronian. "Where is Bumble-bot?" he hissed bending over the side of the tower he was perched upon, "he and Bumble-bot's teammates seemed to be the only Cybertronians in the city. Once Waspinator finds Bumble-bot he'll tear his servos off and shove them down his head gasket...then Waspinator go after spider-bot...Waspinator have plans..."
"And those plans should be destroying the one known as Sideways." "WHAT?!" Waspinator exclaimed shaking his head about in confusion, "Waspinator no care about that! Waspinator destroy bug-bots! Waspinator annihilate bug-bots! Waspinator not even know what Sideways look like!" "If the one known as Sideways is interacting with Earthen life, that which threatens the universe shall know specifically every detail involved in the group that might potentially have the ability to save this reality." "Waspinator no care about reality! Waspinator want revenge!" the seemingly insane-er-more insane transformer screamed morphing into robot mode and bashing his head into the cement ground of the tower's roof beneath him, "voices leave Waspinator alone! Waspinator no do anything to deserve this!"
"Hurry up Sari!" Bumblebee exclaimed as he jolted down the sidewalk. "Just cause I said we're walking doesn't mean you have to rush!" the girl shouted back panting as she tried to keep up with him. Even if Bumblebee was no longer the speed demon he always had claimed to be he was definitely the fastest young boy she had ever raced in any form. Suddenly something dark appeared over her, like a large shadow. The second she looked up though, the shadow disappeared. She could have sworn she had seen a part of something green though. "What's the hold up?" Bumblebee called as he twirled around a stop sign energetically, "Aren't we supposed to be moving?" "I said you don't have to rush," Sari sighed shaking her head and continued on foot to the boy.
"What's the point not rushing?" Bumblebee asked smiling at her with each loop around the sign that his body made, "to scared to get passed up by this blur of an organic? Don't worry, I'd slow up a bit, but just for you Sari Sumdac." "Ha ha," she muttered and bopped him on the head as he swung about a final time, "I'm just saying that I just had breakfast. We have a while till lunch occurs so I say we just take it slow." "And miss out on all the adrenaline?" Bumblebee moaned recovering from the girl's touch, "Where's the fun in that? Maybe you're just getting too unfun in old age." Bumblebee fell to the ground with another bop to the head.
"Really?" Sari laughed lightly and helped Bumblebee to his feet leaning his body against hers as she did so, "Was I unfun this morning? Or what about the other times we've been bed buddies? Or how about-" "Point taken," Bumblebee laughed back and nuzzled his cheek against hers, "I'm still way faster than you though." "You should learn to hang back a bit and actually take things in, not be rushing about everywhere whenever you can so much." Bumblebee just rolled his eyes and started walking, much to his dismay, with Sari's hand clutched about his. At least he had this physical companionship to keep things interesting.
"That is all for today class," Arcee told her newest group of students. Though she was still unclear on what all actually happened, the female transformer had been eager to get back to teaching new Cybertronians and getting life started. It had always been a joy to her to help progress the people from their activation to their fully understood lives, it's what she was online for, at least what she believed she was. Sure Arcee had become a secret agent during the war, but that was all long in the past now apparently and as soon as she had returned to Cybertron as a functioning online individual she had gotten back to her old job as quickly as she could.
As the class filed out of the room she looked around. There was a message panel that had been left on her desk. "How cute," she said to herself as she closed the door and sat down at her desk, "Someone left a gift for me." As Arcee turned the panel over though her smile disappeared. It was from the Autobot Council. "Oh great," she muttered and activated it. "Agent Arcee," Alpha Trion began in the automated message, "We are pleased to know that your assimilation back into society is going as smoothly as it is. However, you are needed once more."
Arcee shook her head pathetically. And here she had thought she might have been able to just get back to her old normal life. "It has come to our attention that our new Magnus, a young Autobot individual, Sentinel Prime, is not fit for his job and as such we have had Ultra Magnus brought fully back online." At this Arcee's eyes widened. It seemed like it had been forever since she had laid optics on his old face. "However," Alpha Trion's mouth continued, "Due to the way we brought our old...figure-head back he's been talking about various things that aren't necessarily logical. As such we would like it if you would come and talk over these...problems with him. Be his psychiatrist of sorts."
As the message ended Arcee sunk back in her chair and closed her optics. "Great," she mumbled hitting her hand to her forehead, "The instant I think I'm out I'm pulled right back in. At least it's not going into the actual battlefield again though." With a sigh, the teacher looked at the message tablet again and rose to her feet. She might as well get to work as soon as possible, she only had about five stellar cycles before the next class session began.
"Alright freak," Scrapper muttered angrily as he came up to Sideways in the back lot of the factory, "What do ya want?" "Whoa there building boy," the purple transformer laughed putting his hands out in front of him, "What you all worked up about? Wait, lemme guess: misplace your idiotic pet?" Suddenly Scrapper looked about. He hadn't realized it but the purple bot was right, Snarl was missing! "Alright, where is he?" "Oh didn't you know?" Sideways asked innocently pacing about in front of the fuming taller transformer, "Prime took the poor fella out to slag him, now that you guys have served your purpose and all." "And why should I believe you?!" Scrapper yelled grabbing Sideways by the throat and lifting him up. "Just follow me, I'll show ya," Sideways replied and was tossed to the ground, "That is, if you think you can handle yourself."
With a glare the constructicon morphed into his vehicle mode and rode off after the purple motorcycle through the city streets. It didn't matter to him how much people stared at the odd scene they were giving off, Scrapper just wanted to know what happened to his Snarl. The transformers went as fast as they could, well, as fast as Scrapper was able to keep up with. No stop signs or traffic signals slowed them down, they just plowed through everything in their path. "Hey, that kid looked familiar," Scrapper muttered to himself as they passed a sidewalk with a teenage red haired dark skinned girl and a slightly shorter dark skinned boy dressed in yellow.
Finally, they emerged at a broken down waste disposal plant. "Hey, I know this place!" Scrapper exclaimed hopping into his robot mode and running forth into the setting, "this used to be one me and Mix's old oil joints!" "And unless you wanna end up like how your pal is gonna be you'll keep quiet!" Sideways hissed as he wrapped his arm around the bot's mouth and pulled him beside an old cracked wall of the facility that was there. "But Snarl!" the constructicon's muffled voice yelped beneath the metal arm. "SHH!" Sideways ordered and pulled the larger bot over to view what was around the corner of the building while keeping him from leaping out into the open all together.
"...they're playing fetch..." Scrapper murmured glaring at Sideways upon seeing what the Autobot leader and the dinobot were up to, "That's in no way even a form of torture for old Snarl there." "Watch," Sideways commanded and pointed. Minutes passed and passed and nothing changed in the atmosphere of the scene. "Yeah, it's official, you're insane pal." "Go long!" Optimus's voice suddenly said as he tossed the pipe again, this time farther near the edge of the ground above where the toxic waste had been dumped out ages ago. "Took him long enough," Sideways murmured and pointed, "You know that that compound that the humans were polluting the area with here can eat through solid sheets of metal right?" "Course," Scrapper replied with a wave of his hand, "Mix found that out a rather...painful way when we first stopped by here. Avoided the stuff ever since."
Just then the constructicon looked up as Snarl's voice let out an agonizing cry with the dinobot no longer anywhere to be seen. "Snarl!" Scrapper exclaimed leaping out onto the scene and running forth towards the crater of toxic waste, knocking Prime to the ground in the process. "Ah the joys of messing with the support beams of an old structure," Sideways snickered to himself looking at the barrel his wrist cannon as he recollected on the little "construction-project" he had taken part in at the structure holding up the crater Snarl just fell into earlier that day, "putting someone's life actually in danger never hurt anyone when trying to successfully trick someone...at least not anyone I ever cared about."
"What were you doing?!" Scrapper yelled at Optimus Prime as he dragged Snarl's jittery body from the deadly liquid. "Scrapper I-" "I thought all the pain we got would be done once we had finally teamed up with you guys!" he continued cutting Prime off, "But I guess that war's the only thing that you bots know how to do!" As he finished his sentence, Scrapper morphed into his vehicle mode, picked up the dinobot in his crane, and drove off into the city crashing into anything he could in the process. "Ouch," Sideways commented, amusedly to himself, as he walked out from his hiding place, "who says words aren't more powerful than nuclear blasters?"
"What did you do?" Prime muttered glaring at Sideways. "Me?" Sideways responded placing a hand innocently on his chest-plate, "I did nothing, except warn ya. He asked where you went with the dinobot so I told him, and before I could stop him he got to you in a rather...unfortunate situation that you happened to be caught up in." "He didn't seem like he was out to betray us," Prime said, "especially not from what he said." "Oh believe me, traitors can make anyone they want think what they want by saying the right things. He's just putting on the innocent facade to make you feel guilty and buy himself more time," Sideways explained pointing out to the set of explosions now occurring throughout the city in the trail of the confused constructicon, "I know certain people that I can always fool, and it's only a matter of time before he gets back to base and helps the spider escape." As the purple transformer finished that sentence Prime morphed into his truck mode and sped off towards their factory hideout. "You never stuck around to hear though that one of those people is you Optimus Prime," Sideways said as he watched the vehicle vanish in the horizon of the city streets, "And thus my distraction is complete. Time to start the real show."
"Did you feel that?" Sari asked as they stepped forward in the line of the fast food restaurant. "All I feel is stomach grumbling," Bumblebee replied rubbing it with the hand that wasn't entangled in the girl's. "You know you could have eaten breakfast." "I thought lunch was going to come sooner than it did once you said we were gonna start heading there," he muttered, "I didn't know that it would take so much longer being a human running than being my old fast-as-lightning Autobot self." "Well we're here now," Sari told him giving him a small smile with her eyebrows bending into slants sympathetically along her eyes.
"Next," the cashier called as the people in front of the two adolescents moved out of the way with their own order. Immediately Bumblebee hopped forward dragging Sari with him. "What would you-" "A cheeseburger, a vanilla shake, and a small fry, same for her," Bumblebee said quickly and jabbed his thumb at Sari. "That'll be eleven fifty," the person told them causing Bumblebee to look down in embarrassment. "I don't have-" "Here," Sari said handing over a twenty dollar bill. "Where did you..." "It helps to be the daughter of the most successful scientist on the planet," she told Bumblebee with a smile, "And to actually think about what you'll need before leaving the house."
Bumblebee just rubbed the back of his head bashfully as they took their meals and walked over to a booth to begin eating. "I was surprised that you remembered how to order," Sari told him as she sipped on her shake, "Not used to you actually acting like a knowledgeable human, no offense." "I guess I just tend to remember things under stress," the boy replied and took a bite out of his burger. "Being hungry is an emergency then?" "Well yeah," he laughed, "You need to eat to stay alive." Sari just shook her head with a smile on her lips again.
Just then the room darkened and everyone began to look around. "What was that?" Bumblebee asked looking at the windows as they dimmed, "fast moving clouds?" Sari shook her head. "That was way too quick to just be some cloud and way too dark a shadow." Curiously Sari looked out the window into the sky as the shadow passed by again, this time causing multiple cries from the people in the restaurant. "No way!" Bumblebee exclaimed pressing his face up against the window. Flying right above the restaurant was what could only be described as a giant green wasp-looking robot. "Wasp?!"
"Look girly," Scrapper muttered wretching the door completely off its hinges, "We don't have time to talk, you need to come with us now if you want to survive!" "Well...if you say so..." Blackarachnia scoffed remembering what Sideways had told her to do the day before and stepped out. "Now come on!" Scrapper ordered grabbing her hand with the one that he didn't have carrying Snarl over his shoulder and began running, "We gotta get outta hear before anyone here finds out where we are!" "How in Cybertron did I get myself into this mess?" Blackarachnia asked herself as they went down the metal corridors as quickly as they could.
"Oh why oh why can't Waspinator find spider-bot or bumble-bot?!" the bug hissed to itself as it circled around in the air, "Waspinator must squash bumble-bot and spider-bot! They ruin Wasp's life!" "And Wasp must make the one known as Sideways his priority." "NO!!!" Waspinator screamed angrily and slammed into a building to his left as people began evacuating a burger-shaped building below, "Voices shut up! Voices leave Waspinator alone! WASPINATOR DESTROY WHO WASPINATOR WANTS!!!" Spastically, the transformer morphed into his robot mode and began repeatedly slamming his head over and over into the building to the side. "Voices shut up!"
In a fit of rage, the large transformer fell to the ground and smashed straight into the Burger Bot. "Bumblebee!" Sari exclaimed hugging the boy tightly next to her, "Bumblebee, are you ok?" They had just barely avoided being crushed beneath the caving in of the restaurant and had toppled onto the ground outside amongst a majority of the debris. "Yeah," Bumblebee coughed and struggled back to his feet. After helping Sari up as well, he turned to the seizure-induced Waspinator and began limping towards him. "Bumblebee!" Sari yelped running up alongside him, "What do you think you're doing?!" "Relax," he told her, "I know this bot, and I still have an apology to get through his thick processor."
"Are you insane?!" Sari asked glaring at him and wrapping her arms about his body, "You'll be nothing but a big blood-stain on the pavement if you aren't right about this talking through thing!!" "As I said," Bumblebee told her struggling out of her embrace, "I got it, you gotta keep in mind that I'm the team's number one player remember. I'm the daredevil that gets the job done with skill and style." "You are a human now!" Sari called after him hesitating between backing off and supporting Bumblebee, "You're not a transformer anymore!" Bumblebee stopped. She was right, he had not been able to transform at all since his little makeover. But he was willing to bet that he could reason with Wasp, what little their was left in that shell of a body.
"Stay back Sari," Bumblebee eventually said smiling back at her and continued to limp towards the large transformer, "Can't risk you getting hurt in case I am wrong, not that it's likely that I am, but still." "Me?" she muttered with her eye twitching, "He's the one that can't do a thing on his own in combat now!" "Hiya Waspy!" Bumblebee's voice called to the green bug-like robot as it stopped twitching about insanely and looked down at him, "Hey man! How's it going?" "How does organic speck know Waspinator's identity?" the being hissed in confusion as it bent over to get a better view at the dark skinned boy. "Wasp it's me!" Bumblebee told him putting his arms out to present himself, "Remember? Bumblebee? Uh...Bumble...bot..."
"Bumble-bot?!" Waspinator screeched before clutching the boy in his claw and bringing him up to his eye-level, "Bumble-bot is transformer!" "I was a transformer," Bumblebee corrected, seemingly not at all scared by the situation, "I just got a little...surgery done on me, just like you buddy, same arachnid even did our genetic makeup!" Waspinator stared at the boy in confusion. He certainly hadn't expected this kind of a situation upon beginning his hunt. "Dude don't ya remember?" Bumblebee laughed, "Look, I can prove it! Old academy days! You got misinformingly placed under arrest, you came to earth, tried to impersonate me!" With each passing memory being resummarized the green transformer's optics expanded in surprise.
"BUMBLE-BOT!" Waspinator roared squeezing the kid. "Bumblebee!" Sari cried and started running towards the monster-like robot. "Ugh!" Bumblebee stammered trying to get free, "I'm all for embracing friends buddy but please let me finish talking before you decide to paralyze me!" "Fine," Waspinator hissed back and Sari stopped running, "What does Bumble-kid have to tell Waspinator before he annihilates him? Transformer or organic, Bumble-bot's still the same guy." "Look man," Bumblebee began, "I know you're still mad at me and all, but...I just wanted to apologize for all that you ended up having to go through. Besides you sorta did need a lesson for picking on me and Bulkhead like you did, but if I'd known what all would happen I'd have let you keep on torturing us for as long as we were in the academy."
"Waspinator already told Bumble-bot when they last met that Wasp forgives him," Waspinator hissed beginning to squeeze again, "But Waspinator never will! Waspinator exists in his mangled state all because of what Bumble-bot and spider-bot did! Waspinator no want to exist! Wasp want to exist! Wasp have no choice in how his life is! Waspinator destroy all that made him what he is! Waspinator get revenge for the unfair punishments Wasp received!" As Bumblebee began struggling again to get free in the slow squeezing of the giant metal beast, Sari leapt up and morphed into her robot mode, springing out her bladed arm daggers in the process. SHRING! Waspinator rolled about on the ground clutching his now dismembered hand as Sari yanked Bumblebee out of it before it crashed onto where the Burger Bot used to be.
"Are you okay?" Sari asked the boy as they landed on the ground themselves. "I...I think so..." Bumblebee panted looking wide-eyed at Waspinator as he struggled to his twisted feet, "But I don't think he's all that hurt either." "Don't worry," Sari muttered holding her blades up in front of her, "I was able to fend off the dinobots, I'm sure an overgrown insect won't be much trouble. And YOU, don't ever do anything that stupid again! New lesson to be learned, if you're a human you can die much more easily than if you're a transformer!" Furiously, Waspinator began stomping towards the two humanoids with his remaining claws pulled back and ready to rip them limb from limb. "Waspinator destroy bumble-brat and all that help him!"
Just as the scythe-like claws came down though, the green transformer toppled over. Something had blazed through the air and struck the bot in the shoulder. Bumblebee and Sari looked at each other before looking up at the building Waspinator had been slamming his head into prior to their confrontation to see a purple ninja-like transformer as he landed on the roof of the building with no sound at all. "Now that those Autobots are busy I have you all to myself," Sideways announced folding his arms over his chest-plate and looking down upon the scene, "After all, no need to make any more of a confusion for them than they already have, and I do work better at eliminating targets when I work alone."
"Waspinator have headache all over his body," the insect-like transformer growled as he got to his knees and looked up, "Purple-bot will...purple-bot...Sideways...." "Wasp's goal is to destroy the one called Sideways." "Waspinator destroy Sideways!" the green bot suddenly screamed and stood up. Waspinator himself didn't even know what had come over him! His body seemed to be acting on its own! No matter what he wanted his instinct was to stop the existence of the new intruder. "Man, I always knew he had a short attention span but this is just awkward," Bumblebee commented as he and Sari looked confused from the ground, "What's he got against that Sideways guy?" "Perhaps we shouldn't stick around to find out," Sari suggested and dragged Bumblebee away.
"So, two Decepticons on the loose in the city and Sideways is missing," Optimus grumbled as he, Jazz, and Ratchet sped through the streets with their sirens wailing keeping all the cars on the road off to the sides, "Could this day get any worse?..." "Attention all units!" Fanzone's voice yelled over the Autobots' radios, "We have three giant robots wreaking havoc through Detroit! Stop them at all costs! And if any of you Autobots are listening, help would be greatly appreciated! Also, two other bots seem to be battling about at the now-ruins of the Burger-Bot!" "For future reference Prime," Ratchet said as they rounded a corner and swerved around a building that had just recently had its wall blasted off, "in the great war I learned never to ask if it could get any worse."
"Waspinator destroy Sideways!" Waspinator roared as he grabbed the purple-bot around the neck, morphed into his bug-mode, and flew him through the tops of a few tall buildings. "So, I gotta ask," Sideways growled breaking free of his opponent's grip and flipping onto his back to steer him into a few hard objects in return, "With your apparently limited processing capabilities did they teach your my name or did your pathetic little masters simply hard-wire it into your circuits?!" "Waspinator destroy the one known as Sideways!" he roared as they smashed through a billboard and toppled onto the roof behind it. "Yep," Sideways muttered leaping back to his feet and spinning around to face his opponent, "Hard-wired."
With another unearthly roar Waspinator rose into the air again and began unleashing a volley of laser-fire on the purple transformer. After the unexpected first blast tore off his arm, Sideways stealthily dodged the others and leapt up to Waspinator. WHAM! With a cry, the green transformer morphed back into robot mode as he crashed onto the roof from a swift kick between his eyes and Sideways landed behind him. "The instant I saw you in the stratosphere of that planet I recognized your masters' manipulative coding flowing about you," Sideways informed him as he shot his own laser blast at his opponent tearing off his arm in return while his own somehow began to reattach itself through a cloudy a substance between his attached and unnattached parts, "It's sort of egotistical of them but it always lets me know who I should really be paying attention to in battle. And just for the record, inform your masters that once I'm on earth, there's no stopping my master from finding it, even if you do somehow manage to get rid of me."
"Now where are going?" Blackarachnia asked as she placed her hands on her hips and stared out at the river. "Dinobot island!" Scrapper declared as he ran over to a freighter at the docks and placed Snarl on it. "Excuse me?!" "If we'd never have left there with that little girl we'd never have gotten into this whole mess! I shoulda listened to Sideways in the first place," Scrapper told her as he signaled for her to get to the boat as well. "I don't know about you buddy!" Blackarachnia snapped, "But after spending so long there I don't ever want to go back, especially not with what's happened now! And what about Sideways?"
"I thought you'd know," Scrapper said nervously as the spidery transformer glared at him, "With how smart everyone made you out to be and everything. Ya see, we were helping the Autobots to help find you, but Sideways explained to me that once Autobots get done using people they don't leave em alone, they're loose ends that need to be tied up! Instead, once you've served your purpose Autobots slag ya! They just put on act to make you trust em!" Blackarachnia stood there speechless on the dock with police sirens getting louder by the second. "Just what is Sideways up to?" Blackarachnia asked herself quietly. "Look lady, we're getting out of here whether you're coming or not," Scrapper told her beginning to start the water vessel, "Just thought I'd try and help someone in need!"
"Put your hands in the air!" Fanzone hollered as he leapt out of his car at the front of the dock and the Optimus Prime hopped into robot mode, "You twos are under arrest for harrassing the city!" "Elita?" Optimus asked looking at his old companion, "So, you two were working together?" "What?" Blackarachnia asked confused and looked between the groups making up the scene, "What is going on? I..." She stuttered though remembering what Sideways orders and threats had been in the past and looked around to see if he was with them as Jazz and Ratchet transformed alongside their leader. "Is something wrong Blackarachnia?" Prime asked walking towards her.
After looking around once again to make sure Sideways was nowhere in sight Blackarachnia responded. "Optimus," she said nervously, "I don't know what's gone on here. I was just doing as Sideways told me and I'm pretty sure that he played all of you guys for fools." At this Prime's eyes raised as did Ratchet's. "Come on you stupid hunk of scrap, move!" Scrapper yelled banging his foot on the freighter's deck. "Buddy, those boats haven't had oil in them for weeks," Fanzone told the constructicon through his megaphone. "Scrapper, come here," Prime ordered. With no way to escape, Scrapper reluctantly did as he was told and joined Blackarachnia and him on the dock.
"Now what was this about Sideways?" Optimus asked Blackarachnia as he folded his arms over his chest-plate. "First off is Sideways with you?" Blackarachnia asked. "No." "Good," she sighed and looked at him, "I need to be honest. When I said I had no choice it wasn't because I didn't want to help, it was because Sideways wasn't giving me a choice." Optimus stared at Blackarachnia oddly as the two other Autobots walked up beside him. "When I came back to my old lair after you left with that little brat of yours Sideways was there to greet me. I don't know where he came from, and I don't know who he works for, but he is not who he says he is. He has been manipulating me, and probably everyone in your group, ever since his arrival." "So that dawg musta been the one to use the Space Bridge originally," Jazz deducted. "And I don't know about you folks," Fanzone said getting back into his police car, "But if you got this all worked out here there's still two other bots reported to have to be taken care of still!"
"Come on come on!" Sentinel Prime murmured. "Hold your servos high and mighty," Rattletrap hissed as his hands worked rapidly away at a computer console in the Space Bridge Citadel, "This takes time even for a professional hacker like me! And the link between here and Earth don't seem to be connecting for some reason anyhow! Are you sure you don't wanna just go somewhere like Planet Chaar or some-" "No!" Sentinel roared, "It has to be earth! That's where the guy that caused all this mess went to and that's where the only help I can get is!" "If you insist," Rattletrap grumbled continuing to work away the computer, "But if we get caught again because of this do not expect me to get you back out."
"Freeze!" an orange Autobot ordered as he hopped up and transformed into robot mode with a group of Autobot Council law enforcers at his side, "Sentinel Prime you are under arrest!" "Cliffjumper stop!" Sentinel stammered desperately and looked around, "Look! You don't understand what's going on! The Council, they're corrupt and we're trying to get help!" "I wouldn't be making false accusations, ESPECIALLY against the Council if I were in your position Sentinel," Cliffjumper said as he and the authorities continued walking towards them. "I wouldn't try reasoning with em," Rattletrap told the larger Autobot, "Got a way to hold em off while I try and get this done?" "You're talking to an Elite Guard member," Sentinel reminded the brown Autobot and got out his lance.
"I honestly thought you'd be blown to hell by now," the two humans heard Sideways say as another set of explosions erupted from the roofs around them, "Either you're naturally unnaturally durable or they really decided to put some effort into working on this assassin." "Sari look!" Bumblebee said as the Autobots drove up alongside them with Blackarachnia hanging onto the top of Optimus. "As if this day couldn't get any stranger," Sari mumbled as Optimus's door swung open. "Get in!" he ordered, "Everyone else transform and stop our two mischief makers!" As Optimus started to drive towards Sumdac tower the his other teammates all transformed into their robot modes and leapt up to the rooftops with the police flowing in to manage the ground level.
"Optimus!" Bumblebee exclaimed looking around, "...nice interior." "What happened?" Optimus asked them. "Big green bug transformer!" Sari replied. "Great," Optimus muttered, "I was hoping he hadn't returned even if Blackarachnia did." "Bumblebee had the genius idea to try and talk it over with the insane bot. We just barely managed to survive." The boy simply tried to hide away nervously deeper into the corner of his seat. "Well don't worry," Optimus told them, "once I drop you two off at your dad's I'll head back there to try and help get Waspinator under control. Then we'll hopefully be a step closer to getting Bumblebee here back to being an Autobot."
Instantly the two humans looked at each nervously. "You didn't tell him did you?..." Sari asked. "Well, he's not exactly the greatest guy to break news to," Bumblebee sighed. "What?" Optimus asked with an obviously disapproving tone. "Well Optimus, it's just that..." "Bumblebee has decided he's not going to be turned back into a transformer," Sari finished sternly. After a few minutes of driving in silence the truck talked again. "Why?" Optimus asked. "Because I don't want to be a transformer when compared to being a human," Bumblebee told him crossing his arms over his chest with a slightly angered look on his face, "I...I want to be a human. I want to be with Sari as what I am now."
Sari blushed lightly and looked out her side window trying to hide her reaction. "Bumblebee, you're going to be a transformer," Optimus responded causing both of them to jump at in surprise at the answer. "Why?!" they both exclaimed. "Bumblebee, you're a Cybertronian!" Optimus said sternly and opened the door as he swerved by the tower toppling the boy and girl out into the parking lot, "And you're part of our team! You're going to be a transformer, being what your are isn't some luxury, it's a responsibility." With that the fire truck drove off into the horizon with the sun beginning to set. Sari grabbed Bumblebee's hand and squeezed it lightly.
"And....there!" Bulkhead exclaimed as he typed in a few sequences of keys into the computer. "We would have been done sooner if you'd have just let me recalibrate the tacion transmitter," Professor Sumdac mumbled rolling his eyes. Ever since Bulkhead had stayed over the night before the two had working on getting the Space Bridge back up and running. "Yeah yeah, whatever you say," Bulkhead sighed shaking his head, "It's obvious that the problem was in the calibrator though...wait a sec, we're picking up something!"
As a portal began to form and expand with a silhouette forming inside of it similar to how Sideways had made his appearance. This silhouette however was much bigger and bulkier rather than sleek and slim like the purple transformer's had been. As the portal finally expanded to its limits the silhouette became colored and fell to the roof. With a thud Sentinel Prime landed on the ground before the two technicians. Frantically the Autobot looked around and then back up at the portal. With one quick slice of his lance he'd cut through the Space Bridge's structure destroying all the work that Bulkhead and Issac Sumdac had done that day. "Oh come on!" Bulkhead exclaimed slapping his forehead as Professor Sumdac gave a similar reaction.
"Why won't you die?!" Sideways roared in an unearthly dark echoing voice as he shot another blast from his wrist cannon at the insect only for it to fly to the left. "So this is the other cool cat that's causing trouble eh?" Jazz asked as he landed behind Sideways with his nunchucks out, "What luck." "Stay out of this you pathetic excuse for a ninja," Sideway's darkened voice uttered as he twirled around and kicked the intruder off the roof. "Waspinator destroy Sideways!" The green transformer repeated from his earlier claims and morphed into robot mode behind his opponent. With another kick Sideways had knocked Waspinator through the roof of another nearby building and to the ground below into the ruins of the Burger-Bot.
"Time to finish this," Sideways muttered with his voice switching back to normal as he leapt down next to his downed opponent and pointed a wrist cannon right at Waspinator's face-plate. "WHA!" Sideways yelped as he was knocked into one of the buildings around the premise from a blast of Ratchet's EMP Generator. "I think you've made your point clear enough," Ratchet murmured glaring at the transformer, "We have him in custody." "He needs to be finished!" Sideways yelled angrily as he yanked himself out of the crumbling structure and began walking towards the bug. "I'd stay where you were if I were you man," Jazz told him as he stood in front of Waspinator with Ratchet soon followed also by Scrapper.
"Scrapper," Sideways muttered eying his ace curiously, "Why aren't you trying to get you and your pet out of here?" "When I say I want to live a simple carefree life I mean it pal," the constructicon replied scowling at the turncoat, "And I ain't gonna be any puppet, especially not one of yours to take a fall for you!" "And Blackarachnia?" "Present," the warped Elita 1 said as she walked out from behind them, "You told me to do what the constructicon told me to do and whatever you're trying to do would have failed anyhow even if I acted on my own."
"So..." Sideways sighed taking another step towards them, "My little distraction failed. I thought my fight with the wasp would have gone much MUCH quicker than it did, so I only made it so that you would buy me some time. However, that doesn't change anything." All the Autobots and Scrapper took a step forward with their weapons drawn and in fighting stances to confront the one who had caused so much confusion in their team. "You're all going to die anyways," Sideways laughed with his voice switching to the dark echoing one, "You can join the bug in the afterlife!" The wrist cannon began to glow bright and the group braced themselves.
WHAM! The laser fired into the night sky as Prime brought his ax down straight into Sideway's face toppling the traitor head over heals into a drug store. Dizzily, the purple transformer sat back up and shook his head about. "You know," Sideways hissed getting back to his feet and revealing his now wrecked and sparking face with wires hanging out of it from the wound, "I really hate you Optimus Prime, no matter where I go. That was almost as bad as the blast I received from the Requiem Blaster." The crowd looked on in awe as the wires and insides of Sideway's face began morphing back into place and repairing themselves in what seemed to be some dark cloudy substance. As the cloud vanished they could see that his face was repaired, now as good as new! "However, no matter how bad of a beating I receive from you Prime, I always end up recovering pretty quickly."
"So that's how he survived Snarl's assault!" Scrapper exclaimed. "What on Cybertron is this guy?" Jazz asked. "Something you could never even begin to become," Sideways growled in his dark voice as his eyes glowed brightly, "Now then, while it would pleasing to finish you all off, right here, and right now, and have it all over and done with, this isn't the time nor the place to do so. I have things I have to do and wasting even more unnecessary time on this uncontrollable lot is not in my schedule. I had planned to just get Waspinator out of the way so I could keep my position in your little group but since that can no longer happen I'll be off."
"No you won't," Optimus told him and began running at him, "You're going to pay for what you've done Sideways!" "Please," the purple transformer laughed, "You actually think you can defeat me?" "I can try!" With ease, Sideways leapt over Prime's ax as he swung it sideways. The next swipe though slashed right through Sideway's left leg which healed immediately after the blade left it. WHACK! Prime toppled to the ground as Sideway's fist connected with the side of his head. Persistantly, Optimus got back to his feet and swung his ax again knocking Sideways into the air only to be brought back down with a tug from Optimus's grappling hooks. He didn't have another chance to strike though as Sideway's feet came down first slamming directly into Prime's forehead and knocking him into the side of a building.
Before he could get up again, Optimus was pinned to the wall as the blade of his ax was thrown into the wall as well with the handle over where his throat was. "As I said," Sideways muttered and shot the roof of the building causing it to crumble down on Prime, "I'll be off." As Sideways morphed into his motorcycle mode and sped away Blackarachnia rushed over to begin digging Prime out from the wreckage with the others following close behind her. "Prime!" Ratchet exclaimed grabbing his hand as his body tumbled out, "What should we do?!" "I don't know," he moaned.
"Sari are you sure about this?" Bumblebee asked hesitantly as the girl continued to stuff things into a backpack, "I mean what about the others? They need us don't they?" "They can help themselves," Sari told him as she grabbed a hairbrush and shoved it in too. "But what about your dad?" "He said that he can trust me." Bumblebee tapped his foot and began pacing about in a panic. "But Sari-" "Bumblebee," she said stopping to grab his arm and pull him close to her, "Do you want to be with me?" "Yes of course I do but I can't if I'm suppose to turn back into a transformer." "Then don't become one," Sari told him with tears beginning to form a bit in her eyes. "I don't have a choice though," Bumblebee replied with a small frown on his face as she wrapped her arms about his neck. "I'm giving you one then." "And what would that choice be?" he asked. "We run away."
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And so ends the latest chapter of The Worth of Life. Sentinel Prime has finally come to earth, but what does Sideways have planned and just what exactly will happen to Sari and Bumblebee? Find out on the next exciting episode of The Worth of Life, a Transformers Animated story.
And sorry everyone, this is late again I know, but this time I have an excuse =D I went to help out at the Montessori school my mm teaches at and all the little kids there had me constantly drawing Transformers =D
And speaking of drawings, here's the drawing to the person that won the last contest of this fanfic, a drawing of a big Sari with Optimus Prime!
warahi(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Sari-Hugging-Optimus-127465655
And speaking of contests, here's a new one in which the winner will have my draw a drawing of their choice (again) on deviant art ^_^:
Who are the "masters" of Waspinator?