Disclaimer: I only own my OCs. Vox belongs to a friend.
Trecke: *looking* Authoress my love, you seem to have had fun with this chapter.
Authoress: *nods* I sure did Trecke. A lot of strange and unexpected twists and turns! Hope you all enjoy. XD
Sentinel: *frowns* Authoress...no smiley faces. You know better than that.
Authoress: *pouts* Fine.
AN: And here is a where I respond to reviews I couldn't respond to personally. =)
Solarwave: Thank you so much for reviewing! I can't say whether or not Pandimala is alive. That's going to be part of the fun of this story. Who is really around and what are they hiding. That is probably going to be a question you are going to want to ask yourself as these chapters move on.
Chapter 4: On Friendly Terms
Fable's 1st P.O.V.
I smiled as I studied the human femme in front of me. This was perfect. This specimen seemed nice enough so far, for a human, and I bet she could help me learn more about this planet. If she continued to impress me like she already had, then I might even tell her that I wasn't so human. But, until then, I figured that I had best get this introduction stage finished. "It is nice to meet you as well Lizzie."
To my surprise, she stared at me for a few more seconds in silence before she spoke. "You're not from around here are you?"
Well, this was a surprise! I wonder what gave me away? The soliform program, so far, seemed accurate on human biology and anatomy. Maybe it was in the way I walked? I did notice that humans seemed to have different gaits depending on certain traits that I was starting to pick up on. So, I smirked and leaned against the bench that we ended up standing by. "Well, I have to say I'm quite surprised that you found me out so quickly. I am one of the new Autobots that arrived last solar…yesterday is the term in your words I think."
Adding onto my surprise, she stared at me in shock for a second. "Wow. I was just saying that I was pretty sure you weren't from Detroit. But, I guess I was more right than I realized."
Ah. It seemed like my processor got ahead of the facts and added up the situation wrong. Oh well. I wasn't the tactician of the team, or any other position that was like that for that matter, so it wasn't a blow to my ego. "I guess I walked into that one. This has taught me that I should be more guarded with how I speak. Thank you for that."
She smiled and let out a laugh. "No problem! It's fun to show that we humans have more to us than being small and made of flesh." She then continued to laugh.
I left the smirk on my face but I was running through an idea in my processor. She seemed to be open to the idea that I am an Autobot so she might be what I need to teach me a thing or two about being around humans. This was perfect. While fate wasn't always my best friend, I figured that I could stop dissecting it for a bit thanks to this.
"Say, I have an idea if you are interested?" I asked her.
In return, Lizzie looked back at me and seemed to quickly study me before she nodded with a smirk that probably tried to match my own. I doubted that any human could match my smirk. But, she did a decent job. Too bad Sentinel confirmed to me that humans were not dissectible like Cybertronians were. Oh well. There was more than one way to dissect something and talking seemed to work in situations that my knives were not allowed out. "I think I am. Sit down and let me know what you have on your mind Raum…is it alright if I still call you Raum?" She then sat down on the bench and motioned for me to join her.
Well, it seemed like she was going to be a fun human like I thought. Perfect! "Of course you can still call me Raum. That is my designation while I am in this form. If you see us walking around, you can try and guess which of the big bots I am." I smirked as I answered her actual question before I went to explain my plan. "One of the goals that Cybertron has given my team is to learn as much about Earth as possible. However, I realize that we can only go so far on our own. So, I was wondering if you could act as my guide if you have time? There is so much about your planet that I would like to know about."
In return to my request, she raised one of her human optic ridges at me and stayed quiet for a click. It made me wonder what was going on in that human processor of hers. Yes, Lizzie would be a very interesting subject to study if she agreed. "Why not?" Lizzie answered finally, growing a confident smile on her face as she nodded once. "It's not like this is going to happen again if I refuse. So why not? I have free days often enough from work, and I can let you know when I am off and have time to spend." She then paused and seemed to think. "Is there any way I can give you my cell number and we can text? That way I can answer your questions if I am at work." She then handed her cell phone out to me.
Texting. If I remembered from listening to my leader talk, then that was the equivalent to our private message system. I knew that Team Orion had a way to connect human cell phones to their comm links for calls, but I was pretty sure that they hadn't devised a way to our private message systems to receive texts. Maybe they hadn't thought of it?
No matter. I dived into the human network system and, once I realized how their texting worked, I took the device from her connected her phone with my comm link before typing in my soliform name and handing it back to her. "I think that should do it. You should recognize the name. I'm the good looking one." I then winked at her.
Lizzie let out a laugh at that and held her phone up. "I'm going to take a picture. Is that alright?"
I was pretty sure that picture meant the same thing on Earth as it did on Cybertron so I nodded and said, "Make sure you get my good side." I then posed for her and she took the picture.
Once it was taken, she typed away on her phone for a click. "There, all done." Lizzie announced once she was done typing before she put away her phone. Then, she looked up at me. "Raum, do you have any questions that you want to ask? I can try and answer them the best I can."
Well, now that she mentioned it, there was a question that I was meaning to ask… "Lizzie, are there any ways of improving the dietary food item called a 'hot dog' to make it taste less plain?"
Lizzie's eyes widened slightly in surprise at that question, an observation I wanted to note, before she let out a snort like sound before laughing a bit. Once she was calmed down, she finally explained herself. "Sorry about that Raum. When I pictured what sort of questions you might ask me, since you aren't from Earth and all, I was not expecting…expecting that." She then let out a few more giggles before she answered me. "Well, there are many different varieties that you can have of the hotdog. We humans can go our whole lives and not have tried all the variations. You can add different food items to the top of the hot dog, you can get a hot dog that has different food items cooked inside of it, and you can change the type of bun…the edible holder that you probably used to eat the hot dog just to name some of the options."
Well, I was impressed. Humans could change the design of just one of their many dietary choices in so many different ways. While there were additives that could be added to energon, it was difficult to change the base structure of it. But, humans had such a wide variety of food choices that I wanted to dissect them all and find out more about them. However, first I had to find out more about Lizzie and the information she had. "Thank you for answering that. I have been curious about that since I had one earlier this solar…day." Switching to human terms for time might prove to be difficult. However, since my leader wished for us to interact with humanity and learn whatever we could, then I would work on that until I succeeded.
"No problem Raum!" Lizzie stated with a smile before she paused and stood up, seemingly excited, and took my hands in hers. "Come on Raum, if you thought the variations on hot dogs was interesting, then there's somewhere I think you might enjoy even more."
Really? Now I was curious. This Lizzie seemed like a fun human and I was relishing the fact that I had given her a way to contact my private comm. She seemed to already understand that I liked to modify and improve whatever is around me, my favorite way of doing so being by dissecting whatever the object was. The next time I was at the hot dog seller, I would have to make sure I got as many different variations as I could.
But, to this new development. "Well, lead on my fair guide. Show me what other interesting facts I can dissect." This was a lot of fun and I was now even more glad that I had decided to go for a walk instead of messing with the bots on Team Orion. While that would have been fun, I wouldn't have been able to meet this human. Learning about organics was much more fun than I thought it was going to be!
Lizzie laughed at my response and pulled me off the bench before leading me out of the park. We went down a few blocks, chatting about different things we were passing. There was one place in particular…I was pretty sure Lizzie had called it a 'roller rink', called the Flashdance that I wanted to bring the rest of the team to one of these…days. Yes, that was the right phrase. It seemed like a very interesting thing. Sliding around a floor on pede…foot coverings that had wheels. Seemed like a very interesting thing to think about.
Finally, after about twenty clicks, we arrived at a very uniquely styled building. It was long in shape and colored blue with big windows showcasing the front. "What is this place Lizzie?" I asked her as we started to walk in. She laughed and opened the door, letting me inside. There seemed to be a style of music in the air that made me want to dance.
Lizzie led me to a counter, where there were stools that were covered in red covering and the counters were a green in color. The floors were black and white checkered and the people who were in here seemed to be eating a food concoction that was melting if sitting for too long if I was to judge on the variety of concoctions that people already had.
"Hey Frankie!" Lizzie seemed to ignore my question to call out to a guy behind the counter. In turn, the man turned to her. "Care to get me my usual?"
He nodded and set down the glass he was drying before motioning to me. "What about him?"
Lizzie turned her head to me and smiled before talking to this 'Frankie' character. "Raum? He'll need to see the dessert menu in more detail."
Smirking, I nodded in agreement with her. "Yes, I tend to like to dissect what is around me to learn more about them."
The man, Frankie, nodded at that and handed me a bifold menu. "Then take a gander at this. Left side has the flavors of ice cream and the right has our toppings." He then turned and took out a tall glass and started to drop cherries into the bottom.
While I wanted to ask what he was making for Lizzie, I realized that I needed to look at the menu I was handed. So, I took a glance down. Immediately, the eyes of my soliform widened as I saw the number of flavors of this 'ice cream' available. There were over five hundred ice cream flavors alone! Then, there were at least one hundred toppings that could be placed on the ice cream or, in the case of what Lizzie was doing, under the ice cream.
Speaking about that, movement out of the corner of my eye caused me to look up as Frankie brought Lizzie's 'ice cream' to her. Though, I had to say that hers looked monstrous. It had three different flavors of ice cream in the glass on top of the cherries, with bits of fried meat, a brown dessert crumble, a tan syrup substance on the top of all that with a bumpy red fruit cluster on top of that.
"What is that Lizzie?" I asked her as she picked up the spoon from next to the ice cream.
She looked down at her ice cream experiment before explaining. "Well, there are cherries on the bottom, with one scoop each of English Toffee, Moon Mist, and French Vanilla ice cream, bacon bits, brownie crumble, butterscotch syrup, and raspberries on top."
Well, might as well start out with something my guide liked. "Can I get one of those as well?"
Bumblebee's 1st P.O.V.
"Bumblebee, are you alright?"
I looked at boss bot when he asked that. He and I were the only two that were in the rec room here and I had thought that he had been working at the monitor. I had wanted to think more about Fable's release form. I know that he wanted to have us sign them, that much was obvious. But, using a copy that I made of Ratchet's form, I was confused. Was it really necessary to have these many allowances to my chassis?
Of course, Ratchet thought that the form may have changed since he signed it. Odds were probably not but who knew with that lot? Outside of Sentinel, that team was really looney. But, they seemed to be good at what they were assigned to. Fable was their medic and seemed to be good from how Ratchet said Fable had taken his servo off. That would normally be painful without drugs but for Fable to be able to do it that effortlessly, then there had to be skill behind the mech. Then, Trecke had been the one to plan out their strategy when they arrived at the battle against the Decepticons the other solar. For a bot who had never fought the Decepticons like we had, Trecke had been able to read the situation and knew how to attack.
And Sentinel had been the one to pick them out. Plus, he had them train as a team, from what Ratchet told me, and that showed when they fought together. While it was obvious that Trecke wasn't the biggest fan of Fable, the two worked together almost flawlessly.
But, I wasn't sure that I was ready to sign a release for Fable yet. "Just thinking about Sentinel's team boss bot." I then glanced outside and saw that it was getting late. Hopefully, that meant that Sentinel's team was back at their base now. "Hey, boss bot?"
"Yes, Bumblebee?" Optimus responded, though it looked like he wanted to say something else.
"Can I go over and talk with Sentinel's team? I want to ask them some things. Get to know them a little." I asked Optimus. I didn't want to outright say that I was going over there to maybe sign Fable's release form, but now that I thought about it after the fact, getting to know them might be a good idea. Plus, I was the scout. This was stuff I was supposed to do.
But, boss bot was shaking his helm. "I don't think that's a good idea Bumblebee. Sentinel's team is unstable at best and, after what they did to you when they landed, I would feel uncomfortable with any of you being alone with them. I think it would be a good idea for you to wait for tomorrow when one of us can go with you."
Yeah, I figure that might be his response. I don't know how it happened, but the team's been treating me like a sparkling lately. True, I was a youngling, but I was almost an adult. But, everybot kept treating me like a sparkling. Lately, Ratchet's been the only bot on the team treating me like a member of the team.
"Sure boss bot." I answered Optimus before leaning back on the couch.
Cycles passed and soon, everybot was in recharge except me. I wasn't happy to be going against Optimus, but I wanted to talk to Sentinel's team alone so I could figure out if they were good bots. Plus, if they would, I hoped they could let me train with them. I wanted to be a better fighter and I was hoping that they could help me. Prowl avoided me and, when I brought up the idea to the others, they wouldn't. Well, Ratchet said he would once he got caught up on his reports that he had been putting off. With Sentinel's team being here, he realized that he needed to step up his game and make sure that his reports were sent in correctly. But, with the number of reports that I saw alone, it was going to take a few solars at least for him to get caught up.
So, quieter than I thought I could move, I made my way out of the base and, once I was a good distance away, I transformed before driving off toward the other Autobot base across town. It didn't take me long to get there and, once I arrived at the three-story tall building, I transformed back into my bot form before walking inside.
And stopped when I saw that Trecke, Fable, and Sentinel were already standing in front of me. "Hey little bug. What are you doing awake at this time?"
I internally flinched when Trecke addressed me like that. He still creeped me out but this was going to be worth it. "I wanted to talk to you all…alone."
"So Optimus doesn't know that you are here?" Sentinel asked me with a wary look. Seriously, what was the deal with him and boss bot? Even from what Ratchet told me, he shouldn't be this upset with Optimus over what happened on Archa 7…unless there was a lot more to the story. But, I wasn't here about that.
"Right." I answered him nervously. Honestly, even though Fable and Trecke seemed to be the psychotic ones out of Sentinel's team, Sentinel scared me more than they did. Not because he was psychotic, but because he seemed so off-putting and cold. Seriously. How could anybot want to be near him for long periods of time. They were all looking at me with weird looks so I figured it would be best to get the first order of business out of the way. "Well, one thing I wanted to do was look at that form that Fable's been having everybot else look at."
That got a reaction out of Fable and Trecke. On the tactician's side, he shook his helm and looked annoyed at Fable. On the medic's reaction, his faceplate lit up with a smirk and he dug out one of those datapads with the form on it. He didn't waste a spark-beat in moving next to me and handing me the data-pad. "That sounds perfect! I haven't been able to convince anybot on your team about the usefulness of signing this but I assure you that it will be exactly what you need." Fable spoke as I started to read.
This was a lot longer than Ratchet's was, and it had only been ten or so solars since that happened. Was I really supposed to read this all in one sitting? From the anxious look on Fable's faceplate, I was guessing that answer was a yes. So, I dove in. It wasn't like I had any other plans for the night. Once I got about halfway through the form, which didn't seem like anything too serious so far, I decided to ask my other question. Well, I wanted to but somebot else spoke first.
"So, what else brought you here?" Sentinel asked me with a studying look. He was the only one who hadn't really reacted to my decision to read Fable's release. With how he was looking at me now, I could see that he looked tense and worried about something. What the frag could he be worried about from me? "You could have gotten Fable alone at any click you wanted to look over the form. It's not hard to get him alone at all. Yet, you waited until later in Earth's night cycle to come here, against the wishes of your Prime, and when everybot in your base is most likely in recharge. You are here for more than just getting Fable's form signed. What is it?"
While Fable looked only a little less enthusiastic about my being here, I noticed that Trecke went from not really caring to being wary. I guess it was something that the two of them, since they had been together on their team the longest, had picked up. From how Ratchet was talking, Fable hadn't been on their team nearly as long and wouldn't have the same kind of automatic reaction.
But, since I was about to ask them anyways, I figured that now was the best time. "You're right. I came here tonight to ask you all something. When we were fighting the Decepticons, I noticed that you three fought a lot better than our team did. I talked to Ratchet and he said that you all train a lot. Well, I asked the members of our team to train and everybot but Ratchet pretty much told me no. Ratchet won't be able to train until he gets caught up on paperwork, and there is a lot of that. So, I wouldn't be able to get training for a while. So, I was wondering if I could train with you all,"
"No." I jumped when Sentinel interrupted me bluntly like that, a cold look in his optics. "My team and I have worked tirelessly to train the way we have and bringing a bot who is not a member of our team into that atmosphere would be disrespectful to my team and I will not do that to them. Finish looking over Fable's form, sign it if you wish, and then leave. This conversation didn't happen." He then turned with Trecke to walk away.
No! I couldn't have them turn me away too! What did I say to get him so upset? I went over what I said in my helm, as well as his response, before I realized what it was that I did. I asked to train with his team. I was putting myself at their level and trying to get the benefits being on his team would give without being on his team. That wasn't right. They worked hard to train, and I shouldn't have asked my question like that. Ratchet was right. Words were important…and that was especially true with Sentinel's team.
"Wait! I'm sorry!" I called after Sentinel, who stopped at my yell. He turned back, and I could see that he was about to say something, so I had to get my apology out as quickly as I could. "I shouldn't have asked if I could train with you. I'm not a part of your team and I shouldn't have even asked like that. I guess what I really want to know is if you all would train me? Please?"
Sentinel's 1st P.O.V.
My optics widened in shock as I stared at the yellow and black scout of Optimus'. Trecke and I had been listening to Fable talk about his interactions with a human hospital volunteer named Lizzie Val and how he wanted us to meet her when the base's scanners sent me a private message saying that Bumblebee's signature was a mile from the base. From the little contact that our two teams had of each other, I was surprised that the young scout, though it was hard to even call him that, was coming to our base alone at this time of night. So, I had gone with Trecke and Fable to meet the young mech at the front doors.
While I had been surprised that the yellow bot wanted to sign Fable's release, I could tell that he was here for more than that and that he was stalling. His chassis was very tense and, after learning from…Pandimala…how to read a bot with a flying alt mode, reading other bots came a lot easier than it used to. I could tell that Bumblebee was nervous about something besides my team. So, I called him out on it. I had never met the young mech before my trips to Earth and I wanted to see why he was so nervous.
I had been angered when he suggested he train with my team. We put in cycles of hard training with each other each solar and that work showed. Now, that little yellow bug wanted to just jump right into that like he had earned that right? While I felt slightly bad that the little scout wanted to train and most of his own team, besides the medic, hadn't wanted to train with him, I would not be bringing my team down just because Optimus and Elita couldn't be bothered to train theirs. I had bluntly told the young bot that, after he was done with Fable, that he was to leave and that our conversation never happened. Figured he would make up some excuse to give his team. I had expected him to give up and leave, probably not even sign Fable's form after this refusal.
Now, however, I was facing a completely different situation. The young bot had realized his mistake and immediately had me stop so he could apologize and correct it. Now, I was stuck in a strange predicament. That was what the young mech was supposed to ask but this decision was not mine alone to make. Trecke, Fable, and I were a team. Training Bumblebee was a decision that we were all going to have to agree on. And since I knew how loyal Trecke and Fable were, I had to remain neutral in expression and word until I got their honest answers. Trecke and Fable would follow whatever I said, even if they were of a different opinion.
So, I looked to Trecke as he answered Bumblebee first. "Honestly my young bug love, I have no issue if our leader decides to let us help train you. If he does, then I will use all of my skills to help you train to be the best scout that you can be. However, my love, you need to know that, since I am a tactician, I do not know everything about being a scout and thus cannot teach you everything that you will need to know. Are you alright with that?"
I doubted that the young scout would object and I was proven correct when Bumblebee nodded his helm. "Yeah. That's no problem. I would just be glad to get whatever training you can give me." Of course, I barely held back a smirk at Bumblebee flinching at Trecke calling him love. Trecke hadn't done a lot of that yet around Optimus' team, and to our team. But, Bumblebee was going to have to get used to that if he really wanted to let us help him train, and if Fable agreed.
Speaking of my medic… "Fable, what about you?" I asked Fable, who seemed to be staring at Bumblebee with a studying look.
Fable didn't answer for a couple of clicks before he finally spoke. "Firstly, I won't agree if the young mech doesn't finish reading the form in front of him and signs it. As a medic, I want my subjects fulling willing to be worked on in the manner that I need to work on them." That was interesting. Fable didn't say that he would automatically agree in training Bumblebee if he signed the form but he wouldn't even consider it if Bumblebee didn't. What was he playing at? I knew how important this form was to Fable and knew why he wanted it signed. But, he wasn't so…dodgy with answering questions like the one that the yellow scout was proposing.
But, Bumblebee didn't complain and dived into the form again. "When it says that you will be removing more than just limbs, what does that mean?"
Well, it looked like the bug was reading the form. That was good. Fable's smirk twitched upwards slightly before saying, "Well, sometimes personal mods get damaged or essential parts of our chassis, t-cogs for example and your stingers for another example, that I may need to remove temporarily to have better access to the damaged areas. I may even remove these kinds of parts during regular exams to practice. You cannot complain during these if I do that…if you sign of course."
Bumblebee nodded and continued to read. After another click, he looked at Fable while motioning to the form. "Why would you need to switch my parts with that of another bot?" Well, I had to say that Bumblebee was asking appropriate questions for the form.
Fable's smirk went extremely wide for a click as he answered that one. "Besides that it is fun? Well, say we were in battle and our warrior lost a servo. It has a high chance of being too damaged to repair on the battlefield but moving the servo of, let's say, our tactician to our warrior's missing servo, we would be able to last in the battle longer and that could turn the tides." He seemed to be enjoying Bumblebee's questions and I was sure that was a good sign for the yellow scout.
That answer also seemed to make Bumblebee less nervous and he scrolled to the end. Once he was there, however, he paused and looked back to Fable. I had a feeling that this was going to be the last question. "Fable, why isn't there an expiration date on the form?" Well, not the last question that I thought he would ask but I was interested in how Bumblebee would react to the answer.
While I was expecting it, Bumblebee jumped when Fable let out a laugh before he motioned to the bug. "I'd bet the last bit of my sanity that you read the old medic's copy of the form before this." Bumblebee nodded at that, having backed a step back from Fable…not that I could blame the young mech. Until you got to know Fable, the mech was a bit intimidating. His insane processor flow didn't help detract from that intimidation at all. "The answer to that is simple." Fable continued. "If you were to be in a battle and get critically injured, and our form happened to expire the solar before, I would not be able to work on you because I will not work on any bot that has not signed a legal copy of my form."
Fable was very touchy about his form being signed, since it was the only thing that had prevented him from losing his license when his tactics were first discovered, and it was a very serious point of his work. He will not work on a bot if they don't have the form signed. We were once training with Team Athenia on the open field grounds when their medic, Red Alert, and their second in command, Brawn, had been injured. It was about two solars before we left. However, Fable would not go near them and work on them because the only ones who had signed his form on Team Athenia were Rodimus Prime and Hot Shot. After medics from Iacon got them fixed up, the rest of the team signed his form.
"Guess that makes sense." Bumblebee responded to that before he looked at the form one more time. Then, he signed the form before handing it back to Fable. Since the signing of the form had to include Bumblebee's private comm line, Fable probably sent a copy of the form, with Bumblebee's signature on it, to the young scout.
The hall then stayed quiet as Fable stared at Bumblebee. It seemed to make the young bot nervous before my medic finally spoke. "Well, from all that, I know that I would enjoy helping you train. Of course, like Trecke, I am not a scout and so I can't help with everything."
Bumblebee seemed surprised and stared at Fable with an open mouth for a second before he spoke again. "Thanks!"
However, Fable held up a servo. "Hold on. While Trecke and I said we would be willing to train you. However, if our leader says that he is not willing, then we won't be either."
The yellow bug looked nervous at that as he glanced at me. However, I wasn't paying attention to him much. I was now in a predicament. Originally, I had been wanting to refuse him. He was one of Optimus' teammates, and it should fall to my fellow Prime to train his bots to be prepared for what facing the enemy will bring them, and how to overcome them. However, both Trecke's and Fable's response to Bumblebee's request threw that thought to the side.
Now, I was looking at it in a different light. Yes, this mech was desperate to learn. Desperation could be a problem when bots wanted to get their way and I thought that would be the case when Bumblebee had answered Trecke. However, when Bumblebee was going through Fable's form, he was asking legitimate questions and seemed to accept Fable's reasoning behind his answer.
Yes, the mech was young and it was painfully obvious that he was inexperienced. However, from this interaction, the young bot was willing to listen to my team, who weren't all put together in the helm, and me, who had obviously showed my dislike of Optimus, Elita, and most of their team. Like Fable, I did respect Ratchet and I still didn't understand why such an accomplished medic would have joined Optimus' and Elita's team.
Studying the young mech in front of me, I realized that he was risking a lot to meet with me and my team and to ask this of us. I could see now that Optimus' team was close to each other socially, which wasn't a bad thing, and most seemed to agree that we should be avoided. I didn't mind, since it kept Optimus and Elita away from me more. However, if we accepted to train Bumblebee, then he would be opening himself up to many criticisms from his team. This was just as much a risk to Bumblebee than it would be to us. So, while I was probably going to agree with my teammates to train Bumblebee, I had my own conditions to ensure the security of my team. "Bumblebee, when I first heard you ask for us to train you, I was ready to refuse you. However, you seem to be willing to listen to the requests of my team and I respect that. So, I will allow my team and me to train you."
"Thank you so mu," Bumblebee started.
However, I wasn't quite done yet. "However," He stopped talking at that and looked nervous. "I have my own condition as well. While I agree that my team will help you train to become a better scout for your team, I reserve the right to stop training you at any time for any reason. Is that acceptable? Tell me now or there will be no training."
To my continued surprise, the yellow scout nodded. "Yeah. That sounds fair."
Well, this wasn't how I expected my night cycle. "Very well then. Our team has a busy schedule tomorrow and won't be able to get any training time with you in. However, the solar after that we have time to train you at sixteen hundred. Don't be late."
Megatron's 1st P.O.V.
This was…interesting.
It wasn't the word I wanted to use, but there weren't many others that could describe the information that I was learning from the files that my spies on Cybertron were able to send me so far on Sentinel Prime's team. They weren't the average team, and they hadn't seen much combat from what their files said. From what these files said up to there, they shouldn't have caused me the sort of problems that they did during that last battle. They had just gained their newest member a servo-full of solars ago and that did not leave much time for the two other members of the team to get to know the third member as well as they seemed to know him on the battlefield.
However, the rest of the report explained that and it caused me to almost feel impressed by Sentinel Prime. Ever since he had gained his first member around six hundred stellar cycles ago, he had his team train at least twice a solar for a decent amount of cycles each solar. From the training logs that my spies had sent me copies of, Sentinel Prime's team trained under some of the most intense situations that the Autobot training facilities could offer them. The Prime's team pushed themselves to be stronger and more efficient than every other team that the Autobots boasted.
From what I saw, they could probably cause my plans to go astray if I wasn't careful with them. After I had gone over the reports of the team as a whole, I looked at the personal records that I was able to dig up of each member of the Prime's team, including the Prime himself. However, my contacts said that it would take a few more solars for them to retrieve the name of the Prime's team due to scans that the intelligence agencies on Cybertron had on each of their soldiers. So, that would have to remain a mystery. However, I didn't need that detail yet, and I could try and get that from the team themselves during our next confrontation.
For now, however, I picked up the file of the team's newest member and battle medic; Fable. While the mech's files always showed a tendency toward insanity ever since the mech's emergence from the Well, I noticed that the mech seemed to show this insanity more openly after the first solars of his entrance into Autobot boot camp. The mech had, however, been able to pass the Autobot medical exam and had been classified as a battle medic.
It seemed like the mech, during his training, had developed a liking for dissection and dismemberment of his patients. From the files that my spies had retrieved, this liking was highly frowned upon by the other Autobots but, due to a provision that the insane mech had added that he would not work on a bot unless they signed some sort of waver, he had never gotten into serious trouble. It was probably the only reason that the clearly insane mech still had his medical license for the Autobots.
Next, I looked at the file of the tactician. Unlike his clearly insane counterpart, this 'Trecke' seemed to not be as insane as he would like others to believe. From the files that I had access to, it seemed like, up until his first solars of boot camp, the Autobot tactician showed great intellect and promise to his future career. Many had high hopes for him to be placed on a team of high-standing.
However, like his teammate Fable, something within his first stellars of boot camp caused the mech to lose his helm and he started to proclaim his 'undying love' to almost anybot that he met. The files didn't make note as to why this change happened, it caused the young mech to slide under the Autobot radar and he was barely acknowledged in his own field.
That was until the leader of this unusual team discovered him.
I picked up the file of the Prime in question and opened it. For the first part of it, the file showed that the now Prime was the average bot on the way to make his own team. Average marks in classes that he took and just enough fighting capabilities to be given the title of Prime. Seemed like a rather lackluster beginning to the Prime that I saw on the battlefield but I assumed that the file I had might shed some light on this strange change that Sentinel Prime must have undergone to be the formidable foe he was this solar.
And that was what happened as I continued to read. Not long after the Autobot was made a Prime, something that was not on any file must have changed and the Prime started to take many courses and seemed to excel in them. From the few classes that I could see at a glance of the Prime's long list of classes, those ranged from a History of Cybertron's Mythology class to Strategy Analysis class to Inter-Galaxy Astrology class. I was sure that there was an even wider range of classes that the Prime took but those were the ones that jumped out at me from the file.
Another thing that I found strange was that, during that time, Sentinel Prime was on a temporary team with two other Primes; Elita-One Prime and Optimus Prime, the two Primes currently a part of the same team on Earth here: Team Orion. Why hadn't those two Primes gone through this same transformation? This new information told me that the mech must have been influenced by some sort of force that the other two Primes were not affected by.
However, the information that the three Primes once were on a temporary team together caused confusion as well. From the brief interactions that I had seen between the three Primes did not convey any sort of trust or respect from Sentinel Prime to the other two Primes. To be on a team, even a temporary one, usually meant that a respectful amount of trust and respect be present…like I saw with Sentinel and his own team. Something must have happened between the time that all three became Primes and this solar that caused a rift between Sentinel Prime and the other two.
So, I continued to read the report I had been given on the Prime until I stopped at a section of the Prime's file that came fifty stellar cycles after the Prime's turnaround from average Autobot to exceptional Autobot. According to the report, the temporary team of three Primes had been on a supply run to supply the planet of Vehicon with necessary supplies that the planet had asked for. Something had caused the three Primes, after their trip was done, to go off course and visited a planet that was made off-limits by the Autobot Council; Archa 7. The report didn't say what happened on the planet but did say that the Council punished the three Primes, upon their return, with a fine of two thousand credits and planetary time out for five hundred stellars. It was at this point that Sentinel Prime seemed to break ties with the other two Primes.
I needed more information on this event. This seemed to be a point where the three Primes had a large amount of tension between the three of them and I could use that to my advantage on the battlefield here on Earth.
"Shockwave," I started, causing the intelligence mech to look at me.
"Yes Lord Megatron?" Shockwave responded to me.
Waiting on a nano, I dove into the request. "I need you to contact our spies on Cybertron. There is an incident here in Sentinel's files that happened between him, Optimus Prime, and Elita-One Prime on Archa 7. Have them gather as much information as they can without raising suspicion. Something tells me that having that information will help us with our mission here on Earth."
"Yes my Lord." Shockwave answered before he continued. "My Lord, I received a report a few clicks ago from Team Chaar saying that they have detected two Autobot ships making their way toward Planet Chaar. What should I relay as your orders to them?"
What to do? While a part of me wanted to have Team Chaar keep the two ships of Autobots heading toward Planet Chaar, I knew that our forces on Chaar needed to keep gathering supplies and strength so we could go into phase two of our plan cleanly. So, while it would make phase one of our plan, here on Earth, more difficult, I needed to make sure that phase two went off. So, I knew how I had to answer. "Tell team Chaar to draw those two Autobot ships, however they can, to come here to Earth. I can't have the Autobots messing with my plans for Planet Chaar." As I said that I realized that, depending on which Autobot teams they were, they may make the phase here on Earth move by even easier. "have Team Chaar report to me when they discover what two Autobot teams we will be dealing with. Depending on which teams they are, they could even help my plans on Earth move forward even more."
"Yes my Lord." Shockwave acknowledged me before he left the room to use the communication's equipment in his own quarters. Those would allow Shockwave to contact our spies on Cybertron with more security than he would here in the communication's room.
Once Shockwave was gone, the only other bot in this room walked into the light and gave me a studying look. "Do you truly believe that the arrival of two more Autobot teams will help your plans move forward?"
I nodded my helm once to my second in command. "Yes. More than likely, the two teams that the Council has sent to Chaar have battle experience and I believe that experience will help me start to break the bonds that the Council have soldered into their processors."
Starscream nodded at that. "I see. That makes sense." Then, he hesitated and glanced toward the door to the rec room, where a few of my soldiers were now, before he returned his attention to me. "Off subject, you do remember what you promised to Biltzwing's creators…right? Last I knew, they were on Chaar with the forces that were gathering there and if they hear that a team from there are going to be coming to Earth…"
He left that to hang and I knew where he wanted me to go with that. "Then they will use whatever resources they can to come here and get a personal report about that promise. Yes, I have been keeping my audios open for any information that I can to help. But, I haven't heard anything since we found that mech stranded on Junkion two hundred stellars ago."
That was another of my projects that I wanted answers for. However, the facets of information available to me on that subject were almost non-existent…an almost impossible mission. However, Blitzwing's creators had done so much toward my war effort, as had Blitzwing himself, that I knew that I could do no less and continued to look for the information.
"They will want to hear that from you themselves." Starscream pushed the subject.
But, with how Blitzwing's creators were…he pushed it for a reason. "I know." I leaned forward, my elbow-joints on my knee-joints and my digits intertwined with each other before resting my helm against said servos. "I know."
Sentinel: *surprised* Well, I was not expecting that turn of events.
Authoress: Of course you weren't. That's the fun I get to have.
Fable: *smirks* I wish you were a child of Primus. I would love to see what makes you work.
Trecke: *shakes helm* Fable that isn't something you should be saying to our lovely Authoress.
AN2: And here is the next chapter! I hope you all enjoyed the little twists and turns. While Fable seems out of character, remember that he knows he can't physically dissect Lizzie so he has to improve his game for interacting with humans. His tearing apart tendencies are not gone. Plus, I gave him a treat for his good behavior. He got Bumblebee to sign the form!
Speaking of the yellow bug, it seems like he has taken a large stretch in his journey to find answers. He is going to be receiving training from Sentinel's team. I wonder how that is going to turn out? We will find that out eventually, but next chapter is going to be having Sentinel's team (of which we will find out more about) meeting this human that seems to have Fable so excited about his discovery of Earth people. I wonder how that is going to turn out?
Before I end this, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that bit with Megatron there at the end. I wonder what he is planning? Why is he interested in Sentinel's team so much? How will Team Chaar's imminent arrival with the two Autobot teams in pursuit change the flow of what is going on? What will they bring in? (though I will say I don't plan on them actually showing up for a while yet) Plus, there is that bit Starscream mentioned. That promise that Megatron made to Blitzwing's creators won't play a big part in the story...*sarcasm is fun*.
Well, that's all of that for now. As like last time, here are the titles of the next chapters.
Chapter 5: Meeting the Apocalypse
Chapter 6: Fraility of Life
Chapter 7:...?
Well, that's all for now. Please drop a review, even to say hi! Until next time...*tries to continue working on German language studying*
