"Whoops! That was close..." It was Raf's. "Sorry Zucky, I just finished repairing and customizing that car Bee accidentally broke." The boy explained as he picked up his new and improved toy car.
"It's okay, I'm fine." I waved it off and took the little car in hand. "Hey, it looks even better than before!"
"Thanks!" The boy answered as he started going over the changes he did on the toy. "Wanna try it out?"
"It's been a while, but I always loved these things as a small kid... I never got even one then, because 'girls don't play with cars'. I said that last part in air quotes.
The boy looked at me with a questioning gaze, which I understood.
"My folks don't admit it out loud, but they're pretty strict." I explained. "That's...part of the reason why I ran away. They'll never understand what I am; If they don't chase me out of the house with pitchforks and torches because I'm a 'demon', they'll probably try everything in their power to try and make me 'normal' again...but like Ratchet said: This is already so deeply ingrained into my system, that if anyone tried to remove it, the process will end up killing me."
I kept looking at the toy car, as if I was having the conversation with it, instead of the boy right next to me. The same boy stared at me, but I didn't mind...at least it was not out of fear or disgust, like it usually is with humans. This is probably so, because these kids have already seen their fair share of weirdness around these aliens already.
"And I thought my mamá was strict." Raf finally said. "I'm lucky Nurse Darby was able to save me from being grounded for life."
"Well... June's a mom herself, they speak the same language, you know?" I shrugged.
"I guess so..." The boy answered.
"And sure, I would like to take this for a spin, but as long as we get somewhere more open, here in the hallway it runs the risk of getting totalled all over again." I chuckled.
"Good idea. I know of a place!" Raf ran ahead a bit. "Follow me!"
When they've reached a quiet enough area of the base, Raf knocked on what I assumed was a door and I heard a familiar thumping coming from behind it, and it opened.
"Hey Bee, I fixed it! Wanna help us test it out?" Raf spoke to the giant yellow bot who long since crouched down closer to us.
.:"Wow, that's great Raf!":. He warbled as he looked at the car in my hands, and then he noticed my shoulder: .:"Hey, Zucky's bandages are off!":. He beeped in surprise.
"Yeah, Ratch took em off, but I'm still not allowed to do crazy things with it yet, and I can't go outside either for now, according to Prime." I explained.
.:"Awwww...we could have gone cruising...":. Bumblebee whined.
"Maybe next time?" I asked.
.:"Count on it!":. He warbled.
He reaches down and cups both servos for the human and the dragon to climb on, and takes them to a strange area of the base that Zucky's never been to.
On the way, Zucky looked around whilst taking mental notes of where they passed by, while the boy chats away with his guardian. Obviously she's never been at this part of the base, in fact; she's never been on a guided tour of the place! She never went exploring herself, she's probably got lost somewhere and gets everyone worried otherwise. Also, she wasn't too sure if there were rooms that were off limits either.
Once arriving at the area, Bee places them back down and then takes a seat on the floor.
This is the first time Zucky's seen any of them do this. Sure, Ratchet and OP sat down on crates, but usually these guys (and girl) are either on their peds in bot mode, or on their wheels in vehicle mode. Bee spread his legs out in front of him as he anticipated what Raf was about to show him.
"This is our little racetrack." Raf explained. "Bee and I constructed it with scraps of junk metal we found here and there."
I looked around in wonder. It was a big track, almost occupying half of the room itself and it was intricate.
"Wow...So both of you worked on this together?" I asked before my jaw dropped.
"Yep, I designed it, and Bee helped me with the placement and the forming of the ramps." The Boy answered.
"Of course, I don't know any human who'd be able to bend those things without some tools to help them." I chuckled nervously.
.:"That's what these pistons are for.":. Bee proudly flexed.
"I'm sure they are, big fella." I nodded. "Awesome handiwork by the way...both of you."
"I used to craft a lot, myself." I added.
.:"Really? Like what?":. Bee asked.
"Anything and everything I could think of...out of just about anything I could find lying around the house. I guess, since I always had to wait for what I wanted, or just admire from afar; that at some point I decided that the only way I could get to them, was to craft them myself." I explained.
I then placed the car back down and Raf started guiding the car all throughout the room. It sped all over the track with ease and even took advantage of the ramps for aerial maneuvers. Afterwards, he handed Zucky the controller and showed her what all the buttons did.
"It's easy, just think of it like a video game." Raf encouraged her.
.:"Yeah, only the car is actually real and not just a bunch of pixels on a TV screen.":. Bee added.
Zucky shot him a 'really?' look. "No pressure, huh Bumblebee?"
He stuck two thumbs up. .:"You got this!":.
"Videogame, eh? Got it!" Zucky confidently whispered to herself.
And away the car went it took her a few tries to get the speed right, as she kept bumping into things, but when she got to the first ramp, she wanted to try something out that she used to do in a video game about a dragon on a skateboarding level.
The car zoomed up the ramp and off and twisted sickeningly through the air!
.:"Woah! Do you see that Raf?!":. Bee beeped excitingly.
"Yeah I do!" Raf's jaw almost dropped.
But the car was about to land off track! Zucky seeing this sprinted towards the track, teleported and grabbed the car before it smashed against the ground. She almost crashed into the track herself! The dragon panicked and covered herself with her wings, but never landed. Instead, she felt a sharp tug on her tail and she was hoisted aloft.
Unwrapping herself from around the toy vehicle, she only now noticed Bee had her by the tail again, as he gave her a sheepishly apologetic look.
.:"Sorry about the tail, but we couldn't have you smashing the track either.":. The Yellow bot said.
*phew... "It's okay... I'm good. Thanks for the save Bee." She answered.
.:"You're welcome.":. He lowered her back on the ground safely.
"That was awesome!" Raf exclaimed. "Close call on the landing, though."
"I didn't want the poor thing to get smashed again." I answered sheepishly.
"That's okay, I have reinforced it since last time." The boy explained. "You're pretty fast, though!"
"Eh...it's okay-ish...there's always gonna be someone faster." I scratched the back of my head. I didn't like showing off too much. "Besides, that was all just pure adrenaline."
.:"What's that?":. Bee asked.
"It's a substance that's released in our bodies, when we feel strong emotions like excitement, fear, or anger. It causes our hearts to start beating a lot faster and gives us more energy. That's why we suddenly become faster and stronger when our self preservation instincts kick in. It makes us perform stunts we normally wouldn't be able to." Raf explained.
.:"So it's like kicking it into overdrive?":. Bee tried putting together the puzzle pieces.
"Exactly." The boy confirmed. He stopped and remembered what Zucky said earlier.
"Zucky, I was wondering; What was it like for you?" Raf asked.
"What do you mean?" I was confused, as that question just came out of nowhere.
"I mean you told us all about how you got to Jasper, the horrible experiments, your escape, and all that...But what was it like for you growing up?" The teen elaborated.
"Oh...that." My legs seem to give up on their job as I collapsed down into a cross legged seated position on the floor next to them.
"B-but you don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to." He hurriedly added.
"No...no, it's okay." I tapped the floor near me. "You might want to hunker down...this is a long one."
Rafael came closer and sat down facing her, as Bee did the same; careful not to drop his weight or step on anyone.
Zucky proceeded to tell them about what it was like growing up for her; how she never fitted in, even as her normal human self. She never shared the same interests as her female peers, only feigning sometimes out of the age old need to fit in, but gave up on that endeavor half way.
"To be honest, I always found dolls to be creepy... I mean, they're supposed to look like humans, and I'm just fine with humans, I'm not gonna run away. But it's lifeless and like that 1000 mile stare... you might as well have given the kid a lifeless husk, you know?" I explained.
Bumblebee made a shuddering sound. "Yeah, I'm with Bee on this... now that you've explained it that way, I get what you mean." Raf cringed.
"So, as an alternative, I stuck to plushies of animals instead. And I have to admit; I would often sneak into my brother's bedroom to take like a bunch of his stuff to play with instead." I chuckled. "Action Figures, those didn't creep me out for some reason...Cars, R/C or otherwise and there was even this really big robot as well, but that one was way too heavy for me as it was powered by 6 C-batteries, not to mention all the machinations on the inside of the thing that made it capable of just walking."
.:"See Raf, even she's seen bots before! Who was this guy? Does he have a name?":. Bee grew curious. .:"I bet I can take him on. Does he have a vehicle mode?":.
"No, it was just a mechanical toy, Bumblebee...It wasn't alive!" I was laughing now. "But nah, he ain't got nothing on ya. Besides you have a slicker paint job anyway."
Bumblebee flexed for emphasis. "Aw, yeah!"
Raf just laughed at Bee's silly antics. He was just trying to cheer Zucky up, and he was really good at doing that; he knew for sure.
"Hey Zucky, there's something I always wondered about: How come you can understand Bee too?" The boy asked. "I mean, besides me and the bot, nobody else seems to be able to."
I arched my eyebrow and then showed him my ears. "You see these things? I have a couple satellite dishes on my head."
.:"I didn't know organics could have satellite dishes for Audials?":. Bee was thoroughly confused.
"It's a figure of speech Bee, she's referring to how big her ears are." Raf explained.
.:"Oh...why doesn't she say so in the first place?":. Bee sheepishly answered.
She continued telling them that her ears are the key; admitting that she can sometimes hear frequencies normal humans can't and at other occasions is able to tune into radio waves as well, weird enough as it sounds...
"Sometimes that gets kinda annoying because it's a worse feeling than just having a song stuck in your head." I added. "You see, I was going to ask you the same question earlier, until I had a thought: I think most likely the reason why you're able to understand Bee with your normal ears, is just that; you Raf have a talent for understanding anything techno-related; including Cybertronian, for some reason...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Go ahead, make the Joke.
You know you want to...in fact...
I DARE YOU!
Raf just smiled and shrugged. "All I know is that I just do."
.:"And that's good enough for me buddy":. Bumblebee playfully nudged him.
I smiled. "Though in case you were wondering...yes, I do hear the whirring, buzzing and warbling, but it's what Ihear, even with the other bots as they speak; believe it or not." I scratched the back of my head sheepishly.
Earning a hearty laughter out of both of them when she proves it by translating some quotes from various bots into warbles.
An hour or two, and several failed and clever impressions later; Zucky decided it was as good a moment as any to see if she could hang out with Jack and hopefully Arcee as well. Raf in the meantime remembered he still had some homework and a project to work on, that Bee promised to help him with. So the dragon moved on, leaving the boys to their devices.