AN: So. My magical brain decided that I wanted Ironhide and Barricade to do the caramelldansen dance. So naturally it has to because of Miles, somehow, and it needs to involve the new sparkling Orion. SO YEAH. LOVE IT.

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THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! (IchigoRenji, Autobot Firekat, shadow-dog18, Holen-Snape, writergurl616, and Fk306 animelover!)

Chapter 26
Primus save the Caramelldansen-ers

If Ratchet found out they would most likely end up in the Pit, but that didn't deter Miles in the slightest. He woke Sam up, helped turn off his machines and then unhook the teen from all of them, and then handed Sam a pair of clothes Fig had snuck him to help with the escape. It turned out Ratchet was being more paranoid then usual, and Epps and Will were locked up with them. Technically they were supposed to stay until Thanksgiving morning, but Miles had already woke up and had a talk with Barricade, and after waking up again he had felt relatively fine. Sam had woken up around dinner time, and the two had been allowed visitors.

Now it was about two in the morning, and the two carefully and quietly as possible crept out of the med-bay, aiming to get past the nameless male nurse that was supposed to be watching over them. Their other adult companions were sleeping peacefully, while the nurse himself appeared to be sleeping, leaned back in a chair as he sat at a desk. The two were almost to the door before a familiar voice rang out.

"Ratchet has stated you two are to stay here." Barricade drawled, the teens freezing mid step.

Miles was torn between reluctant amusement and being slightly miffed. "You fragging 'con. That's cheating!" Both teens turned around to look at the 'male' nurse, Miles glaring as Sam looked slightly baffled and disappointed. "Changing your slaggin' holoform? That's dirty."

Barricade's holoform smirked, "Decepticon here, or have you forgotten, squishy?"

"Decepticon, not the-faction-that-follows-Ratchet." Miles huffed in reply, glaring weakly at Barricade.

"Wrenchers." Sam offered, grinning.

"In my case it would be more like Mothers." Barricade said, glaring at the both of them as he did so. He blamed them entirely.

Miles smirked, "If the Mothers splits up you are so a Lancaster, you aft."

"My mom won't care if I let her baby me a bit, not even that if we don't manage any trouble." Sam shrugged. "We want to go see Orion."

"No." Was the simple reply, Barricade reclining once more in the chair he had claimed.

"But Barry," Miles started to whine. "We've been good boys, we earned it!"

Sam smirked, just leaning against the wall. He knew his best human friend wouldn't give up until there was a good reason to, and orders didn't necessarily count as a good reason. It was only ten minutes before Barricade caved, Miles cheering before he froze as Will yelled at him to shut up.

Sam snickered, "Smooth move, there. Can we go now?"

Barricade's holoform dissolved, and the two teens left the human med-bay. As they walked to the Autobot section of NEST Barricade's bipedal form joined them, leading them to the sparkling's room. He told them what they had missed, and what would be coming up.

Ratchet would be running a lot of tests on them, having already performed some on Epps and Will. The debriefing had been put on hold until Sam and Miles could join it, since if all four humans who had experienced whatever it was that had happened were there they might be able to remember something from what another might end up saying.

Halfway there they were met by Bumblebee, the Autobot scout picking Sam up almost immediately and scanning him.

"Jeez Bee," Sam huffed half-heartedly. "I'm fine."

"Ratchet said you were not to be up and about yet." Bumblebee replied, but fell into step beside Barricade anyway. His scans told him Sam was alright, if not a little fatigued.

Miles snorted, "Ratchet's a slaggin' mother hen. I'll almost feel bad for Orion the first time he gets a scraped knee or something."

"Poor sparkling won't even be allowed to move." Barricade snickered, causing Miles to grin up at him. The 'con was at least relaxing a bit around Bumblebee and a few other 'bots.

"More like whoever let Orion get a scraped knee will be slagged to the pit, brought back, slagged again by whoever else wants to, and then left there." Bumblebee grinned. "And then he will not be allowed to move."

"Primus help them." Sam laughed. "But this will be really cool. Orion will have a Aut-Cybertronian family, and a human family. Is anyone going to be playing Creator?"

Bumblebee shrugged slightly, "I imagine it will be like how it was with me. A group effort, though Ironhide and I imagine Prowl will be the most mother hen-ish, as you call it." He laughed when the two teens did a double take at Ironhide. "Ironhide has some of the strongest Guardian protocals around, one reason he's also known as Optimus' bodyguard. Prowl has actually helped raise a sparkling that he adopted from Praxun, a city on Cybertron. Both he and the sparkling, Bluestreak, are Praxian, so they both lost their homes at the same time."

"The gunner?" Barricade asked, getting a nod from Bumblebee. He smirked, "He shot Starscream in the aft. I like him."

"Awesome shot, great personality, but he can talk anyone's ear off. I pray to Primus that he and Blurr never somehow make a sparkling together, no one would be able to understand that thing." Bumblebee joked. He grinned when the teens laughed and Barricade snorted.

"So what are they like? Optimus, Ratch, Hide, and whoever else raised you?" Miles asked, still on the ground and walking. He was doing well enough to keep up with the two Cybertronians, trailing slightly behind as he didn't want to make the effort to jog and keep up with them.

"It was mainly Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide. There were other mechs, certainly, but they were the main three." Bumblebee explained. "Both Optimus and Ironhide tended to let me get away with whatever I wanted. Ratchet was the one who had to crack down and punish me if I got out of hand, since Ironhide and Optimus tended to crack if I pulled out the big guns, so to speak." A grin. "I became even worse once Jazz started to stay on with us and taught me how to prank, sneak around without being noticed, and so on. When I first got hurt it would be Ironhide who fussed the most, Ratchet who fussed the longest, and Optimus who got me away when I got cranky at them, or who distracted me with energon goodies. Ironhide tended to give me whatever I wanted, while Optimus would hold back a bit, but would be more lenient with letting me stay up late and run around."

"So those three have been together for awhile?" Sam asked, leaning back in Bumblebee's hand. He spoke louder than normal so Miles could hear him, too.

"Yes. Ratchet and Ironhide are older, born around the same time if I'm not mistaken, give or take a few years." Bumblebee smiled. "Speaking of Ironhide, I believe he is with the sparkling now. We take shifts, generally, when the sparkling is supposed to be asleep." A pause before he glanced to Barricade with amusement. "Everyone was a bit surprised about how well our little 'con acted with the sparkling, he almost rivals Ironhide. In fact, the two have even teamed together to yell at Skids and Mudflap for saying slag around Orion. Who would have guessed Barricade was a softie for children?"

Barricade growled, "You should not tell them lies, insect."

"Well that explains why he went for Miles." Sam grinned.

"Hey!" Came Miles indignant reply, though it was ignored as Bumblebee laughed and Sam snickered. Barricade just smirked. The three kept walking, Sam comfortable in Bumblebee's hand and the Autobot content with letting Miles walked unless he appeared to get tired or asked to be helped. They got to Orion's room, a big plaque on the door stating his name in Cybertronian glyphs and in English.

Bumblebee went right inside, Barricade and Miles following. Ironhide looked at them over the top of a data pad he was reading, glaring at them and putting a finger up to his mouth to gesture quiet. On his lap lay Orion, recharging peacefully. Bumblebee grinned.

"Thought Ratchet said he wanted Orion to start sleeping on his own berth?" Bumblebee asked.

Ironhide glared, "He was so lonely. Practically called for me."

"Projecting much?" Bumblebee snorted, setting Sam down. Miles was already next to the black GMC topkick, and attempting to climb his legs to get closer to Orion. "I believe you two will be the first humans he actually interacts with. So far we've kept him at bay. We wanted all four of his saviors to be here, but of course you two just couldn't wait."

"Us, wait? Think you got us mixed up with someone else there, Bee." Sam replied, grinning up at his guardian before high tailing it over and climbing up Ironhide's leg as well. The Weapons Specialist just grunted a bit, putting the data pad down to watch.

Miles stopped near to the sparkling, but far enough away he wouldn't wake it up, and just made himself comfortable. Sam did the same. The three mechs watched in amusement as the two teens made little comments back and forth to each other over how the sparkling looked, and how it would need a paint job. Right now it was just the basic metallic grey.

"That's because generally the parents would decide, or the sparkling would be given the parents colors. However the colors happened to be lime green and red for the mech and pink and purple for the femme. We're currently fighting over the colors, but we do intend to include at least one of his original creator's coloring." Bumblebee explained. "We cleaned off the paint that he had on before."

"Before?" Sam asked, trying to think back. He and Miles had been lying on the floor instead of looking at the sparkling, just happy he was alive, and dead tired from the energy drain. This brought up another question to his mind. "How did he get his body anyway?"

The three mechs started to talk in Cybertronian, and Sam huffed in annoyance. Miles grinned at him, but the grin faltered for a moment. He leaned in close to Sam, whispering in his friends ear.

"Think about understanding them, like how we did before we all went to that place."

Sam hesitated just a bit, before listening to his friend. He concentrated, and after a moment he began to understand them again, though he would miss a few words, and it was hard to keep it up. If he tried hard enough he could get the gist of what they were saying. He shared a look with Miles, and both of them grinned. No way were they going to say anything, in fact they would get Will and Epps alone and tell them about it. They figured the older males would be more then willing to keep quiet if it meant being able to understand the Cybertronians when they went on a 'human need not hear' tangent.

Miles decided to do what they usually would: complain about being left out of the conversation. No need to make them suspicious, or more likely worry that the teens were still tired. "Guys, humans here! No speak Cybertronian!" Which wasn't a lie, not technically. They couldn't speak it, but they could understand it.

Ironhide and Barricade looked pointedly at Bumblebee, causing the scout to vent softly. "While you guys were out your bodies started to produce an alarming amount of Allspark energy, which seemed to leave you and go elsewhere. I presume this was Orion's spark, strengthening it and stabilizing it even as his creator femme's spark was dying. He was not yet ready for separation, which would have been iffy if he had been moved to a body as he was. It would be like a premature baby on your world. Some survive, some die. Some survive but have defects and just aren't right. However you somehow also managed to get him a body made together in a short amount of time, parts from his femme creator and his mech creator helping out. We honestly have no idea, and I think Primus must have been smiling down on us and teasing us at the same time because there was a light so bright even we couldn't really see much until our optics adjusted, and by then it was basically too late." A pause, almost hesitant, before asking, "What was it like?"

Sam opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by Miles.

"Craaazy!" Miles exclaimed, shooting a quick glance to Sam with a small grin, before returning his attention to the mechs. "I guess Primus, the Allspark, or whatever was going for a peaceful setting that we had all been in and felt safe, right? Because I swear it looked exactly like the human rec-room. Except it was almost eerily quiet, and it was only us four. I remember looking outside the window and it was just white mist. Personally, I thought I was dreaming or something." He paused, and Sam nodded, trying not to grin. Miles was completely bullshitting them, and they didn't even know. "And we all just kind of stared at each other, and then the tv turned on. This face appeared, but we couldn't really make it out. The screen kept going fuzzy, and it seemed like whoever it was was in a dark room. So then we noticed these spark looking things floating around."

Sam decided to step in. "Which apparently were sparks, because the mech/femme/whoever on tv suddenly ordered one of them to get us refreshments and bring us entertainment when they got back because the mech/femme/whoever had a 'fragging long list' of meetings and the humans had to be put on hold for just a minute."

"So we sit there, and it was either me or Epps who cracked first and started talking-" Miles continued, Sam cutting in with an 'it was you', before letting Miles continue once more. "And, anyway, so we hear someone come in through the door and it's Megatron in a maid's outfit holding a tray with energon goods. We all just stare, Sam looking absolutely terrified, when the mech/femme/whoever comes back and practically yells at Megatron something along the lines of: No, Megsy, you do not give the humans energon, even if they can drink it. Go bake them some cookies!" A pause as he lets that sink in. "So Megatron practically storms out, slams the door, and then nothing. We all look to Will, even Epps, because he's the Captain, and should like know immediately what to do or something, and he just looks dumbfounded and slightly scared himself. Me? I'm amused because I still think it's a dream, so I chirp something about the dark side having cookies after all, and that I should have convinced Barry to go with Starry because I bet they would have been damn good."

Bumblebee rolled his optics, "Lost us at Megatron, though him in a maid's outfit is a funny mental image."

"Think we should have Sunny paint it and send it to Prowl?" Sam asked, grinning. Bumblebee was about to reply, when Orion suddenly gave a loud cry and continued to do so, startling both the teens and the Cybertronians. Sam ended up slipping off his perch and landing on the ground.

Miles stared at the crying sparkling with wide eyes, "What's wrong with him?"

"You guys came and I forgot to get his late night energon." Ironhide grumbled, sounding slightly upset.

"Sam and I will go get Ratchet to mix him the right type." Bumblebee picked his charge up, quickly holding him before he could protest.

"I don't want to go see the Hatchet, I've been disobeying orders!" Sam whined, trying to escape even though he knew it was futile.

Miles laughed at his friend, which seemed to draw Orion's attention because his cries quieted as he stared at Miles with wide optics.

"Hey lil' guy." Miles cooed, reaching out and touching the sparkling gently. He was surprised when he was pulled into an awkward kind of hug by the now giggling sparkling, and then squeezed. "Oh wow, s-" A pause as he tried to escape. "So you guys are strong even while you're little, huh?"

Barricade smirked, "Orion's just good like that." Ironhide grunted his agreement, reaching down and gently getting Miles out of Orion's grasp. Only for the sparkling to start crying loudly again. Ironhide's servo froze in midair, holding Miles up by his shirt and letting the teen dangle there. He had barely started to move his hand back down when Miles glared at him.

"Don't you dare give me back to him or I will be having a talk to Sarah about what actually happened to her garden."

"I'm not surprised that you two snuck out, though I am surprised Epps isn't with you." Ratchet said softly, though just a few seconds earlier he had screamed at a wide eyed Sam.

Sam shrugged, "Guess Epps is gettin' older." He eyed Ratchet wearily as the doc-bot turned and started getting together Orion's energon, mumbling something about it having to be a bit different so it would be easier on his systems, though if they had nothing else he could take adult energon, apparently thinking Sam cared or wanted to know. "So, doc, what's our prognosis?"

"Severe energy depletion, normally caused by starvation and working your body past the point it can normally handle with little sleep. You and Miles slept a long time, so we had to give you nutrients and water through other means, but you two are back in working form. Epps and Will came off pretty good, both sleeping just a little long than normal, though they do seem to still be tiring out a bit quicker than they usually would. You and Miles might do the same." Ratchet explained.

"The Allspark energy is gone, I take it?" Sam asked, getting comfortable in Bumblebee's hand. His tone was just slightly hopeful.

"No," Ratchet sighed. "You guys have all leveled out and appear to be even with each other."

"Oh." Sam sounded disappointed. He was happy they had saved Orion, sure, but what would this mean for them? Would it end up doing anything to them?

Bumblebee held his charge close, "None of it seems to be having an effect on any of you. You will be alright, Sam."

Sam looked up at the familiar faceplates of his Guardian. It wasn't much to be reassured by, but there wasn't much to go off of to do said reassuring. He put on a smile, at least the 'bot was trying. "Yeah."

It was relatively silent after that, Ratchet and Bumblebee occasionally talking in Cybertronian. Sam didn't even attempt to listen this time, just sat back and watched Ratchet work. Just as Ratchet finished both he and Bumblebee received a comm link from the frequency that everyone could access, even the humans. Sam found out in the form of his phone going off with a text message.

Come to the control room. You'll want to see this.

Sam figured it was from Blaster, the mech rarely left his station there. Said he'd do his job and Red Alert's, whoever Red Alert was. He looked up at Bee expectantly, and the scout nodded, the two turning to look at Ratchet. The med-bot vented heavily, grumbling something under his breath, but nodded as well. So the three set off for the control room, meeting Optimus on the way there.

When they got there Blaster just gestured them over, and typed away quickly, pulling up a certain camera feed on one of the bigger screens so they could all see it. It was to Orion's room, and everyone froze in slight shock at what they saw.

"Blast, could you turn up the volume?" Sam asked, body trembling as he tried not to laugh. Blaster did so. "Oh Primus, they are! They're caramelldansen!" He burst out into laughter, having to lean against Bumblebee to stay upright.

It was true. Ironhide and Barricade were doing the closest version to the dance that a being made of metal could, though the look on their faces at the moment would be enough to make even the Hatchet back down. Miles was down with Orion, helping the sparkling do his own version as he wiggled on his aft and shook around, only being able to be labeled as cute as a button. He had a blissful look on his faceplates, and Miles looked entirely too happy and pleased with himself, though after awhile it become obvious he was purposefully not looking at Ironhide and Barricade.

"Orion was crying and Miles suggested one of them play some music. Somehow they got on to that song and Miles started to do the dance, Orion seeming beyond pleased with it, and well... let's just say Miles is apparently extremely convincing, and both Ironhide and Barricade are absolute suckers when it comes to making a sparkling happy." Blaster said by way of explanation.

Ratchet snorted, obviously amused. "Of course it was Miles." Both Bumblebee and Optimus were currently laughing, even as Bee helped his charge remain upright.

"Sam, I believe I might want to exchange you for Miles." Bumblebee joked. "Doubt our lil' 'con will be a problem after this, and Prowl won't be hard to fight off."

Optimus laughed, "Sorry, Bumblebee. Prime comes first."

"Oh slag no, I get same species rights! He's all mine, mechs." Sam grinned.

Somewhere along the path back to Orion's room, Prowl had joined up with them. As they reached the door the Caramelldansen music could be heard drifting out, as well as Miles singing along to it. Pretty badly, but four out of the five weren't going to complain because they knew what he had managed. Poor Prowl was, once again, out of the loop.

So when he strode towards the door and opened it without making a sound, he was named Prowl for a reaon, no one bothered to think anything until they watched as he froze. He was apparently unnoticed because the sound of music continued. Optimus, Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Sam, who was in Bumblebee's hand, peered around Prowl.

Miles was now sitting on the floor, slightly behind Orion as he helped the sparkling remain sitting upright even as he wiggled and jerked around. He was singing loudly, obviously not caring about how he sounded, with a huge shit eating grin on his face. Ironhide and Barricade were still doing the dance, but if it was possible their faces looked even more murderous. Orion obviously didn't care about the look on their face's, though, as he squeeked and warbled in his own sparkling speek happily, doorwings occasionally fluttering with excitement.

And then Prowl hit the floor, his glitch having acted up at the site of Ironhide and Barricade doing such a thing. The music abruptly stopped as both adult Cybertronians looked at their unexpected visitors with completely blank faceplants. Orion looked shocked, and about ready to burst into his wailing again.

"Do not worry, I have told Blaster to only send the copies to the Autobot half of NEST. Very few organics will get this." Optimus said, battle mask down to hide the smirk on his features.

Miles looked down right horrified, and slowly looked up at Barricade and Ironhide just as Orion started to wail. "Five second head start?" The teen squeaked.

Ironhide activated his cannon, growling. "No." The teen quickly scrambled up and started to run around the large room as Ironhide actually chased after him.

Ratchet was trying to bring Prowl back, Optimus was attempting to calm the irate Weapons Specialist down, Sam was laughing his ass off, Bumblebee was standing and trying not to do the same, Ironhide was still chasing Miles, and Barricade was watching with a pleased look when they all froze and looked down at Orion. The sparkling was giggling and laughing happily, clapping his little servos together as he watched the chase between Organic and Cybertronian.

"Oh, look. He seems to like this activity even better than the last one." Ironhide smirked, a wicked gleam in his optics. Miles looked at Orion with a betrayed expression, before running for the door. Ironhide followed.

Barricade took the sparkling energon from Ratchet and picked Orion up, beginning to feed him. He stalked out of the room to follow the two, looking entirely too pleased over the situation.

"Miles is so getting slagged one of these days." Sam said, everyone nodding in agreement. The teen grinned. "But hey, Prowl's technically out of the race for guardianship, and I doubt Barricade wants him at all. Leaves just you and Bee to duke it out, big guy."

Bumblebee grinned, "I think I'll step aside. Wouldn't want to make the leader of the Autobots look like a fool when I won."

Everyone laughed, Optimus patting the young scout on the back. Then they left the room, returning to the control room to watch the chase through the cameras.