Author's Notes: Hooray! Another update this week! I've been having trouble finding time and motivation to write, so I'm really glad things are starting to get back to normal again (for the moment). Lately I've been writing a lot of lighthearted stuff, and this chapter is no exception. I felt like writing adorableness, so that's what I did. According to my outline the next chapter should be more dramatic if I don't get any new ideas, so hopefully if you like this story you'll follow so you can catch that. Thank you for reading and/or reviewing, and I hope you enjoy this chapter of "I Owe You" :)
Chapter 6
Full Deck
Optimus Primal awoke by the early morning light and groggily made his way through the small ship they called home to get to the control room. He went up the elevator to get to where he was going. Even before the door opened, however, Optimus could hear an unusual sound coming from the control room. Chirping.
Optimus entered the room cautiously and saw that Bitten was already at her monitoring station. She had a pink wrinkly baby bird in her pouch and was petting it fondly on its little head. It cheeped at her, and she gave it a pink goo that Optimus' sensors explained was crushed up worms.
Well, that's both admirable and disgusting... Optimus Primal thought to himself. Well, at least she's found something to do besides drive Dinobot crazier than he already is.
Primal noted that Bitten didn't seem to notice him. Given how alert the femme usually was he was surprised by this oversight. She must have really enjoyed caring for that baby bird. Primal sat down at Sentinel's monitors and began to scan the skies for any sign of falling stasis pods. Just as everything had achieved a comfortable silence however, Bitten did something Primal never expected from the private femme. She began to sing.
A full deck, a full deck
Oh how I want, a full deck
Little ones, big ones
Many daughters, many sons
I am a host, I want the most
Symbiotes
In my tote
Oh my dear, you need to let
Me generate, a full deck
The tune was jaunty and completely unlike the halting monotone speech pattern Primal generally associated with the kangaroo Maximal. He didn't recognize the song, but the nursery rhyme quality it held told him it was probably an ancient song that was sung to and by sparklings.
Bitten continued to sing the simple song for several minutes as she lightly petted the baby bird inside her pouch. Optimus felt a little sorry for Bitten and her efforts. He knew most baby birds, when separated from their nest, died before reaching maturity. He didn't approach her and say that though. She was happy, and it was a strange and beautiful sight to see what happy looked like on this femme.
It had been a week since Bitten had adopted her bird Metronome, and surprisingly it didn't die. Bitten would cuddle the bird when it was awake and research it's species on Sentinel when the bird was asleep. Bitten had virtually stopped interacting with the other Maximals altogether now that she had something else to pour all of her love and attention into.
At first everyone was satisfied with how this was working out, especially Dinobot since she stopped hounding him about how to repay her debt to him. He didn't remember what she had ever owed any of them, and it seemed she was forgetting as well. Now her world revolved around the care of the bird.
There was however one problem with Bitten's good mood, that it was getting on Rattrap's last circuit, especially one particular aspect of her good cheer...
A full deck, a full deck
Oh how I want, a full deck
Little ones, big ones
Many daughters, many sons
I am a host, I want the most
Symbiotes
In my tote
Oh my dear, you need to let
Me generate, a full deck
Bitten sang that infernal song all day long when she was supposedly comforting the bird. Rattrap liked it better when Bitten was a miserable stalker, because at least then she was a quiet miserable stalker! All this singing was driving Rattrap nuts, and something needed to be done about it. Rattrap went outside to the target range and found just the mech he was looking for to help with his kangaroo problem.
"Hey, Dino-breath! You got a second?" Rattrap asked as he approached Dinobot, who was practicing his sword maneuvers on a boulder.
"Grr, what do you want, rodent?" Dinobot snarled, clearly in no mood for chitchat.
"Listen, uh, Bitten listens to you, right?" Rattrap asked, trying to sound as pleasant as possible and knowing he was probably failing.
"I have not spoken to Bitten all week," Dinobot informed Rattrap.
"Yeah, I could tell," Rattrap muttered in consternation, "Look Dinobutt, you're the only one besides Boss Monkey that overgrown marsupial listens to, and I need your help. Make her stop singin' that stupid tape deck song!"
"Or what?" Dinobot asked challengingly.
"What do you mean or what?" Rattrap asked caustically, "Aren't you sick of it too?"
"Not really," Dinobot shrugged, "She has a nice singing voice."
"Eugh! It ain't about her voice!" Rattrap shouted haplessly, "She won't shut up! She's always singin' that slaggin' song to that slaggin' bird! I wish she'd just give that stupid thing away to Airazor or somethin'. At least a falcon raisin' a baby bird makes sense. You know that thing's gonna grow up thinkin' it's a kangaroo, right?"
"That's ridiculous," Dinobot chided Rattrap, "It's just an animal."
"Yeah, and now it's imprintin' on our fancy new jukebox!" Rattrap exclaimed as he threw his arms up in the air in defeat, "Dinobot, I'm beggin' ya! Make her stop singin' that blasted song!"
Dinobot smirked at the rodent's desperation, and would have chuckled if he felt it dignified. Instead Dinobot jabbed the tip of his sword into the ground and leaned on the hilt.
"Very well, vermin," Dinobot replied sinisterly, "I'll get Bitten to stop singing Full Deck. However, you have to do something for me."
"Name it," Rattrap replied even as a bad feeling crept up his spinal struts.
"You have to prove to me that you've heard the song too many times," Dinobot replied in barely suppressed glee.
"How do I do that?" Rattrap asked nervously.
"Sing it for me," Dinobot replied; his grin revealing his many sharp teeth.
"What!? No way! Never!" Rattrap protested.
"Fine, then you talk to the femme about her singing," Dinobot replied tauntingly, "She might obey you, or she might use her sonic scream to make your head explode. Oh, what I would give to see her do that. Then again, maybe she's the sensitive type, and when you confront her she'll cry and lock herself in her room, forcing you to apologize and possibly even tempting her to sing the song even more as revenge. Who knows? We don't really know all that much about her, after all."
Rattrap groaned uncomfortably. Dinobot was right and he knew it. Bitten was stoic but also unpredictable due to her not being around all that long. For all Rattrap knew she could be a Predacon and only like Dinobot because he was also a Predacon. He didn't have a choice. He needed Dinobot's help.
"Fine," Rattrap sighed, "A full deck, a full deck. Oh how I want, a full deck. Little ones, big ones, many daughters, many sons..."
Dinobot knocked before entering Bitten's quarters, but didn't wait for a response. When he entered the room she was using a small comb to preen the slight plumage her baby bird was growing on its back. Metronome was growing at a healthy rate, and Bitten did everything in her power to care for it the way a mother bird would, even if it meant crushing worms and grooming new feathers.
"Bitten, I want to talk to you about something," Dinobot said without preamble, and Bitten gestured for him to sit next to her on her berth, "Bitten, you've been singing the same song all week, and I think you need new material."
"Full Deck is my happy song," Bitten replied matter-of-factly, "I have many other songs, but most of them are sad."
"Have you considered singing a sad song instead?" Dinobot asked.
"Not to Metronome," Bitten replied as if the very notion were silly, "He is good and pure right now. He deserves nice songs."
Dinobot sighed in exasperation. This conversation was getting him nowhere. Rattrap had asked Dinobot to get Bitten to stop singing Full Deck, but Dinobot wanted to mess with Rattrap by getting Bitten hooked on a different song. If she didn't know another decent song though...
"Perhaps you could sing a lullaby to the avian sparkling," Dinobot suggested, "I, um, I know of a Predacon folk song from my home city-state if you want me to write it down."
"That sounds lovely," Bitten replied with a small smile, "Please sing it for me."
"Sing? Oh no, I do not sing," Dinobot replied insistently.
"Not even for Metronome?" Bitten asked dejectedly as she stared at Dinobot and patted the bird's little head as if to console it, "I'm sure he will love your song, Dinobot. Please sing it for him."
Dinobot growled and tried not to squirm. This was not how Predacons dealt with each other. Predacons threatened, bragged, bribed, fought, and cursed. Predacons did not pout and Predacons did not plead. Bitten's behavior was so undignified, yet she did it in such a rigid and dignified way. Dinobot didn't know how to combat such a femme, since she didn't seem afraid of him nor willing to yield.
"I...suppose I could sing it," Dinobot relented after a few tense moments, "I warned you though, I don't sing. My voice is terrible."
"I don't mind," Bitten replied as she took Metronome off the nightstand and placed him back in her pouch to listen to Dinobot's lullaby. Dinobot snorted in disgust at himself before he began.
You came down slashing with your platinum claws
You sliced through the foe, you gnawed with your jaws
Protect the people of Helex
Protect the people of Helex
Protect us our sparklings, our femmes and our mechs
Protect the people of Helex
You sniffed at the air and located your prey
You found the intruder and you won the day
Protect the people of Helex
Protect the people of Helex
Protect us our sparklings, our femmes and our mechs
Protect the people of Helex
Dinobot stopped his song and looked back at Bitten and her blasted bird. At first neither Maximal said anything, but then finally...
"You were right," Bitten replied with an amused smile, "You are a bad singer."
Dinobot growled angrily.
"However, I liked your song," Bitten added, and Dinobot marginally relaxed, "It tells of a rich and proud history for your people. I suppose that's why I like songs like Full Deck and My Spark Go Down. They are songs of Polyhex. I was raised in Altihex, but Polyhex is my first home. It will always have a special place in my spark, and I can tell you feel the same way about Helex. Many things have changed about Helex since my day, obviously, but it was a rather savage place even when I was a sparkling. It was where Honey Venom was sparked."
"This Honey Venom sounds like a memory that won't stop haunting you," Dinobot surmised as he crossed his arms over his chassis.
"Please understand, that while time has flown by for the rest of the universe, to me it is all still fresh," Bitten explained ruefully, "To me Honey Venom has not been gone that long. Besides, I feel it was my duty to die with her, and I failed."
"Survival is your greatest duty," Dinobot countered, "You are not a failure if you live to seize another day. I must admit I have never held a friend as close to me as you obviously held this Honey Venom femme, but I do understand standing by your comrades. You already told me your story however, and I do not feel you acted dishonorably. You live another day, and you owe it to yourself and to your fallen comrades to use your life in a way that honors the memories of all you have cherished."
Bitten's face became more determined then, and Dinobot knew he had reached her. If it was one language Bitten understood it was the language of debt. Perhaps now she would stop isolating herself and try to forge bonds with the other Maximals. Dinobot realized the irony of that thought, considering he himself also had trouble relating to his teammates. Still, he knew she needed this, and perhaps they could forge ahead together and support one another in understanding this strange new world they found themselves in.
A few more weeks passed, and what started as one baby bird soon became more than the Maximals could count. Metronome had grown to his adult size, and as it turned out he was a raven. Bitten started taking the the bird outside to train it to fly with a tiny camera around its foot and then fly back to base. On one of these trips Metronom's camera caught sight of an injured cheetah, and Bitten traveled to where it was and brought it back to tend to its wounds. Naturally Cheetor was the only one enthusiastic about this idea.
Since the cheetah was a predator and Metronome was prey Bitten asked the others if she could have a storage closet for the cheetah. Optimus Primal agreed on the condition that this was the only thing she brought home. It wasn't.
When the cheetah was nursed back to health Tigatron noted what a good job Bitten did, and he suggested they go on a scouting mission together to rescue more animals. Bitten liked the idea and readily agreed.
First they brought back a wild dog, then a duckling, then a baby bear, then a monkey, and before long there were animals crawling flying and running all over the Axelon.
Optimus Primal was getting tired of this new hobby of Bitten's. Every time he entered the control room there was a new animal lying there or looking up at him. He started entering the room in his robot mode because his gorilla mode upset certain animals. He tried to get to computer one morning only to find an eagle sitting in his chair! Enough was enough.
"Bitten!" Optimus Primal bellowed, and soon the white kangaroo was hopping into the room; holding Metronome on her handless wrist like a pirate holding a parrot, "Bitten, you have got to find someplace else for these animals to go. They're taking over the ship!"
"I apologize," Bitten replied automatically.
"Don't apologize, fix this!" Optimus ordered curtly.
"How?" Bitten asked, "I am looking after the animals by myself. I don't have time to find a new facility."
"Hm...maybe we can build you an animal sanctuary outside the ship," Optimus pondered, "It would have to be out of visual range of the Axelon so that the Predacons won't attack it. Would outdoor pens be enough?"
"Yes, though I would request an enclosed space for the birds and a separate place for predators and prey," Bitten suggested, "Maybe someday I'll even dig a lake for fish. They can serve as food for the predators as well as add some color to the barren landscape."
Optimus Primal chuckled goodnaturedly then, and Bitten wondered if she had missed some sort of joke being played on her. Metronome flew away, and both Maximals looked at it as it fled through the elevator door. That bird was getting too smart for his own good.
"Ah, all this talk of landscaping and building reminds me of the old days growing up at the foundling home," Optimus Primal reminisced, and Bitten's optics went wide in surprise.
"You were a foundling?" Bitten asked him, "So was I."
"Really? Small universe," Optimus Primal replied with a smile, "Yeah, I grew up off-world from Cybertron on a planet called Kloryll. I lived at a nice big foundling home called the Red Honey Byte Memorial Home. Strange name I know, but it had a rich history. It was built before beast-frames became standard, and was the first foundling home to specifically cater to beast-frames. I never got adopted, but the caretakers there were good to us."
"It sounds much better than where I grew up," Bitten commented, a hint of bitterness in her tone, "Where I lived the caretakers were cruel, and if you weren't in a gang you didn't survive. Were there gangs in your foundling home, sir?"
"Yeah," Optimus nodded.
"Were you in one?" Bitten asked curiously.
"Sort of," Optimus shrugged, "It wasn't really a gang. Just me and Rattrap."
"Rattrap?" Bitten asked incredulously, "You and Rattrap knew each other as sparklings?"
"Yeah, we did," Optimus replied wistfully, "Neither one of us was very popular. Rattrap was known for getting in trouble and swindling the other orphans. The caretakers didn't know what to do with him and the other sparklings begrudgingly put up with him. I was strong, but I was often made fun of for having hobbies that others would consider...I guess weak is a good word for it. Either way we looked out for each other and made the best of things. Rattrap was actually the one that saved up the money we needed to move to Iacon and go to school to learn how to be off-world scientists. I know he's a pain in the aft sometimes, but I don't know where I'd be without him."
"I see," Bitten replied noncommittally, but then asked, "What kind of hobbies?"
"Oh, well...gardening, actually," Optimus replied with a surprisingly sheepish expression, "I loved landscaping and gardening as a sparkling. I've always loved exploring new plant life and discovering the majesty of every new planet I visit. Back in the day science was encouraged, but only if it meant building something. Mechs didn't appreciate the value of just observing things back then. Even though we're trapped in this war with the Predacons, I'm still glad I get a chance to do what I've always wanted to do; explore new worlds."
Bitten smiled up at him with a new appreciation she didn't have for the gorilla-former before. Optimus Primal was a tough leader, but she could also tell he had a kind spark. She was glad she stayed with the Maximals, and she looked forward to the animal enclosure for her new contribution to this world. She wasn't much a fighter, but she knew she would be a great veterinarian.
