Author's Note: This is just a breather chapter with some stupid Insecticon fluff. I couldn't help myself... Polls are still open for my next fanfic's subject. Hope you enjoy this next chapter of The Savage Earth :)
Chapter 13
Kickball
Kickback was lost, yet somehow still bored. Bombshell was helping Megatron with yet another stupid get-rid-of-Autobots scheme, and Shrapnel had been recharging for the better part of an orn! With nothing else to do Kickback started flying to see where in the world he could wind up. He wound up lost…
He didn't recognize the land mass he had flown to. He thought it kind of looked like a human foot, but otherwise he had no idea where he was. It was dark, but would be light in about an earth hour, so Kickback found a nice body of water to settle near and soaked for a while. He found himself at a river with lots of wooden boats and colorful buildings on either side. It was like Demon Swamp, only without the trees.
As he relaxed in the water and gnawed on a boat Kickback listened to the sounds of the city. It was weird that the place was so quiet when it looked like a lot of humans lived there. Then, out of the corner of his audios, he heard a bouncing noise.
KABONK! KABONK! KABONK!
It sounded like something impacting a wall, but Kickback couldn't figure out what it was. He had never heard such a strange sound before!
The dawn was just starting to peek out over the pink and purple clouds when the Insecticon flew over to the source of the noise. There, in an alleyway, was a human youngling bouncing a bright blue sphere against a wall over and over again by kicking it repeatedly. The ball was as big as a cantaloupe, but it didn't look like it weighed much of anything!
The small boy was unaware of his new audience as he continued to kick the ball against the brick wall ahead of him. His face would go from looking concentrated to happy to angry all within the span of a few minutes! Kickback just stood there in the mouth of the alley and watched with fascination as the beautiful blue sphere impacted the building again and again. Finally, curiosity got the better of him.
"Why are you doing that?" Kickback asked; his voice cutting through the quiet.
The boy gasped and dropped his ball! He backed against the wall as his eyes went wide with shock and horror! Kickback saw the ball bounce a few times and then finally roll languidly toward his feet. He grabbed the ball and examined it while the boy kept his gaze fixed on the monster in front of him.
Finally, after staring at the ball for a minute, Kickback turned back to the youngling human and shouted "Answer my question!"
"W-w-what question?" The boy stammered nervously.
"What is this thing for?" Kickback asked again as he held up the ball for the boy's inspection.
"That's just my ball," the boy answered uncertainly, "I was using it to practice soccer with. I was cut from my school's team, and I thought they might let me back on if I got better. I don't have a soccer ball to practice with though, so I use that bouncy ball. It's hard to practice without a real ball, or a net, or other people to play with though. Maybe I should give up."
"If you give up, can I have the ball?" Kickback asked insensitively.
"Sure…" The boy replied quietly as he stared at the ground.
Kickback almost left with the ball in that moment, but something made him stop. He stared down at the little human's miserable expression, and something clicked inside his processor…
"Why don't you practice with your friends?" Kickback asked as if that should be the most obvious answer in the world.
"I don't have any friend," the boy replied, "Nobody likes me."
"Why? Did you kill someone important?" Kickback asked.
"What? No!" The boy replied; appalled, "I'm just a loser is all. I'm short and broke and I have trouble saying the right thing to people sometimes."
"Losers can have friends," Kickback shrugged indifferently, "My friend Shrapnel is a pain in the afterburners with a weird speech pattern. My friend Bombshell once tried to dissect a rock because he didn't know they don't have internal organs. I used to spit out my food and call it photosynthesis! Oh, and we all have to flap our wings and eat organic food even though nobody else on Cybertron does that. My point is, the three of us are losers by most mech's standards, but we're good enough for each other. So you should go out there and find other human losers that you find tolerable and that will tolerate you too, okay?"
"Gee, thanks Mr. Robot," the boy replied gratefully as he wiped his nose with his shirt, "I guess when you put it that way, maybe I could try to make friends with some of the kids at school. Just not Alfonzo Rizzatto! He's a real jerk!"
The boy laughed and Kickback started bouncing the ball against the wall just like the boy did. After a few minutes he looked down to see the boy still hadn't left yet.
"Say, kid...You want to kick the ball back and forth to see who has the better aim?" Kickback asked,
"Sure!" The boy replied excitedly, "By the way, my name is Pepito. What's yours?"
"Kickback."
The pair spent the better part of the sunny Saturday morning playing kickball with one another. They both completely lost track of time until Kickback got an unwelcome comm transmission.
/Kickback! This is Shrapnel Shrapnel! Where are you?/
/Uh.../ Kickback still didn't know where he was.
/Don't answer that. Just return to base immediately immediately! The Autobots have been snooping around around!/
Kickback then turned to Pepito and said "I'm sorry, kid. I've got to go. Shrapnel is breathing down my transistors to return home. Something about our enemies trying to break in again."
"Oh, okay…" Pepito was disappointed to see his new friend go, but then he asked hopefully "Hey Kickback, will I ever see you again?"
"No," Kickback replied simply, "Frankly I'm surprised I found this place the first time!"
With those unceremonious parting words Kickback took to the skies once again and hoped he wasn't too late to fight off the Autobots. Actually, he just hoped he wasn't too late for dinner. As he was leaving he realized something...He forgot the ball!