Chapter 2
Nate woke up the next day at about half past noon, feeling not at all rested due to going to sleep in his clothes, and with a terrible taste in his mouth from failing to brush his teeth last night. He forced open his eyes to see the time on his clock, groaned, and forced himself to get out of bed. He still felt half asleep, and he was chastising his past self for failing to take care of himself before bed as he undressed and got in the shower. He was halfway through his shower when his brain woke the rest of the way and he remembered why he'd gone straight to bed last night, and he groaned again, louder, and banged his head against the shower wall, thinking maybe he could make himself forget about last night. He forced himself not to think about it as he finished getting ready for his day, and by the time he was walking down the stairs he was attempting to convince himself it had been a dream of some sort. Which was an illusion that was quickly shattered when he noticed the inside garage door was still open, and a large, robotic face leaned into view to meet his gaze. Nate groaned again, turned away from the door, and began aggressively making himself breakfast, slamming things onto the counter and the stove without caring about making a mess. He'd clean it up later. He kept his back to the garage door the entire time he cooked, ignoring the noises of machinery, then walked to his table and sat down in the chair facing away from the door. As he began eating breakfast, he could feel Bumblebee's eyes on his back, still confused at his reaction. You think you're confused, Nate thought grumpily, you have no idea.
As he ate, he was unable to keep from thinking about the situation anymore, and his mind began to race. So, he thought, two options. One: Bumblebee somehow became real. Nate considered that, but given how Bumblebee did not seem to be panicked or concerned in any way, which he probably would be if suddenly he couldn't reach any of his allies, that wasn't likely. Especially considering the other strange things he'd seen, like the weird colored moon. Ok, option two: I am now in Transformers. One of the many versions of it. He felt like he was two people at once as he thought about that: one who was panicking and wanted to scream for several minutes straight at the sudden development, and one who was perfectly calm and trying to figure out which world he was in specifically. He'd never seen any of the cartoons, but Bumblebee looked like his movie appearance, from what Nate had seen of the movies. Did that mean that now he was in a world where logic and common sense practically didn't exist, physics changed on the daily, and anything mechanical exploded if you so much as sneezed at it wrong?
God, he hoped not. Then he'd definitely start screaming out loud.
As he finished his breakfast, Nate heard Bumblebee make a beeping noise from behind him, attempting to get his attention. Nate let out a long and weary sigh. Fine, he thought. He stood up, put his dishes in the sink, and then walked back over the inner garage door and peered into the garage. Bumblebee was sitting with his back to the far wall, affording Nate a couple feet of space, with his knees tucked against his chest and his hands on the floor on either side of him. He seemed much less intimidating today than he had the night before, Nate observed; he'd thought Bumblebee had seemed massive last night, and while he was certainly big, he wasn't nearly as huge as Nate had felt he was. Sitting down, he was only a bit taller than Nate, and standing, he probably wouldn't be more than fifteen feet tall. And, Nate had to admit, with those big eyes and the antennae on top of his head, Bumblebee was almost… cute. The Autobot was looking at Nate with a mix of confusion and interest, his eyes following his movements as he stepped fully into the garage. Nate sighed again, and rubbed his eyes in a mix of tiredness and exasperation. As he opened his eyes again, he saw that the screwdriver he'd dropped on the floor was no longer on the ground, but had been placed on the table in the corner next to the toolkit. He looked from the screwdriver to Bumblebee, who gave the slightest of shrugs as if to say 'Why wouldn't I put it away?' They stared at each other for what felt like a very long time.
"So," Nate finally said, breaking the silence, "you're Bumblebee, huh?" The Autobot in question nodded. Nate sighed again. He'd been doing that a lot the past couple days. He wanted to just come out and say "you're not supposed to be real", but he felt like that would be a bit off putting to start with. "So…" he tried, "Um… can I ask what it is you're doing here? In my town?" Bumblebee seemed to have a small internal debate with himself before replying. "My mission -[zzzt]- is to investigate - a strange - energy signal," the 'Bot spoke, and Nate remembered that the version of Bumblebee this seemed to be had a broken voice box and could only speak using the radio, piecing sentences together with existing soundbites from radio stations or the internet. Moving past that, he tried to process what it was Bumblebee had actually said.
"What do you mean by 'strange energy signal'?" He asked, curious. Bumblebee seemed to think again, or maybe he was assembling another sentence, but either way it was another moment before he replied. "36 hours ago - our scanners - detected - a surge of energy - on all - spectrums," Bumblebee said. "I was sent - to investigate." Nate thought about this for a moment. An energy signal on… every spectrum? So, any device that measured any kind of energy? He was pretty sure there were a lot of different kinds of energy, so that seemed… excessive. "And the source was somewhere in my town?" He guessed. Bumblebee nodded. "And the trail ends here," he said, pointing at Nate. Nate's brow furrowed, uncomprehending. "'Here'? What, like my house?" Bumblebee shook his head and pointed at Nate again. "Here," he repeated, slowing the soundbyte down to add emphasis.
Nate stared at the bot's finger for a moment before he realized what he meant. "Me?" he asked incredulously. "I'm the energy signal?" Bumblebee nodded and lowered his hand. Nate stared at him in disbelief. "What… how… how does that work?" Bumblebee shrugged again, more obvious this time. Nate placed his head in his hands and groaned loudly. "Why. Just… just why. I didn't ask for this shit." Nate began to feel strange as his stress rose, like his body was tingling all over. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and the feeling subsided. He put it out of his mind as he lowered his hands and looked up to see Bumblebee watching him, a slight hint of sympathy in his eyes.
"Ok, look," Nate said at length, "I don't… I don't know why I'm an 'energy signal' or whatever, I dunno how that happened, but- just- look, a couple of days ago you weren't even real, ok?!" Bumblebee cocked his head to the side in confusion, one antena lowered and one raised, and if Nate weren't so frustrated at the moment he would have found it cute. "You weren't real. You or… I don't even know who else exists now. You, the Autobots, the Decepticons, Optimus Prime, whoever, a couple days ago you were all just… cartoons, and movies, and games, and now you're sitting in my goddamn garage, and…" Nate placed his head in his hands again. "I didn't ask for this," he said again, and then he turned and left the garage, and he shut the door behind him this time.
/
Bumblebee watched Nate head back into the house with even more confusion than he had last night, and he leaned back against the garage wall as he processed what the human had said. After a few moments, he sighed internally, then switched on his long range text comms. ::Bumblebee to base::, Bumblebee messaged, ::Optimus, do you read? I have an update on the mission.:: After about thirty seconds, a reply came back over the frequency. ::Bumblebee, good to hear from you,:: Optimus' message came back. ::What's your update? Have you located the source of the signal?:: Bumblebee cringed internally as he thought of the best way to phrase his reply. ::Well, yes… but I think now we have more questions than answers.::
::What do you mean?:: Optimus responded.
::Well… the energy is coming from a human. I'm currently in his garage.::
::What? How is that possible? Is there anything noticeably different about him?::
::No idea how it's possible. As for anything being different… nothing's physically different, but he just said something strange to me.::
::Said to… so you abandoned your cover?::
::I'm in an enclosed space, no one else saw. Relax, Optimus.::
::... Alright. Just be cautious. Make sure he tells no one else.::
::That doesn't seem likely, given how he reacted when he saw me in root mode for the first time. Anyway, about what he said - after I told him why I'd come, he claimed that a couple days ago, I wasn't "real". He thinks we only existed in shows or something until last night.::
::That's… certainly strange. Could it be some form of selective amnesia?::
::You'd have to ask Ratchet about that, but for what it's worth? I don't think so. I don't think we popped into existence a couple days ago either, obviously, but there's clearly some explanation here.::
::Alright. I will discuss your findings with Ratchet. In the meantime, you are to remain with the human and keep him safe.::
Bumblebee's spark fell as he read Optimus' reply. Quickly, he typed back a protest.
::Optimus, is that really necessary? I'm a scout, not a babysitter. Can't someone else take over from here?::
There was a long moment before Optimus replied.
::Bumblebee, I understand your hesitation, I really do. But you have the most experience working closely with humans out of everyone I have available, and you're the best able to keep a low profile. I won't force you to do this if you truly don't wish to, but please consider it. At least until Ratchet has had more time to analyze the data we've gathered and we've determined whether it's necessary to bring the human in or not.::
Bumblebee mulled over Optimus' words, torn. On the one hand, Optimus was right: he was the best option for this job, and if it was only until Ratchet analyzed the data, it hopefully wouldn't be more than a week or so at worst. But on the other hand, he'd made a point of avoiding staying on one mission at a time, and especially avoiding ones involving humans. More often than not, Autobots assigned to guard or otherwise interact with humans formed some sort of bond with them, and Bumblebee wasn't ready for that again. Nor did he think he ever would be. Not after….
But if Optimus really needed him to do this….
Bumblebee gave a heavy synthetic sigh as he responded.
::Alright, Optimus. Just this once.::
::Thank you, Bumblebee. I will let you know once Ratchet has decided whether we need to bring him to us or not. Keep him safe. And keep yourself safe as well.::
::I will, Optimus.::
And with that, Bumblebee felt the comm line close, and he was left alone with his doubts and thoughts, sitting in the human's garage.
/
Just under an hour later, just as Bumblebee was about to consider forcing open the door to the house to see what the human was doing (he could tell he was still in the house because he showed up like a signal beacon on any scanner Bee had, and he'd been checking every few minutes to see him in the living room), said human reentered the garage. Bumblebee watched the human as he shut the door behind him. He was about 6 feet tall, with light skin, reddish brown hair, and black eyes - relatively average looking, as humans went. Bee made a mental note to try not to lose him in a crowd, since he'd probably blend in with just about everybody. The 'Bot was broken from his thoughts as the human spoke.
"Look… I'm sorry I stormed out like that. It's just… it's a lot to take in, you know?" The human said. Bumblebee nodded; he did understand the human's reaction, and didn't hold it against him at all. He'd seen lots of people become overwhelmed just by being near an Autobot at all - to be the focus of one's mission was probably even harder to deal with. "I know that there's not really a way to convince you that what I said is true… about you guys not being real and all…" The human looked up at Bumblebee. "But I hope you don't think I'm crazy because of it." Bumblebee thought about it a moment, then shrugged. He wasn't really sure what else he could say in response. He didn't think the human was crazy, but at the same time… it was certainly a bit of a strange thing to think.
"I just realized…" The human said suddenly, "I never told you my name." He grinned a bit. "That's a bit unfair, considering I already knew yours, huh?" He hesitated a moment, then reached out his hand. "My name is Nate. Nate Holt."
Bumblebee stared at the hand a moment, debating whether to return the gesture or not, before reluctantly extending a finger for the human - Nate - to grab. Nate did so, and shook it up and down twice before letting go. There was an awkward moment of silence as the two sort of sat there, unsure what to say next.
/
This was completely unreal, Nate thought. He was sitting in his garage with Bumblebee, of all people, with an awkward silence so thick you could cut it with a knife hanging between them. Nate only partly noticed it, though; internally, he was still attempting to make some sense, any sense, of his situation.
He'd narrowed it down to two possible explanations, neither of them being he was insane - this felt way too real for that. Option one: reality had undergone some sort of massive restructuring while he was asleep the other night, and he was the only one who remembered what the world used to be like. Unlikely. Which left option two: somehow, inexplicably…
He'd traveled to a different universe when he wasn't paying attention.
His mind flashed back to the random discomfort he'd experienced the other night randomly. Could that have been the moment he'd changed universes? He couldn't understand why it would have hurt him, but that's the only time he could think of where it would have made sense to have happened. But that also left the question: what had caused him to travel universes? Why him specifically? And what did that have to do with him showing up on every energy scanner the Autobots had?
Nate shook his head. He wasn't sure if he'd know the answers to half these questions, but hopefully, Bumblebee being here meant that somebody was working on figuring something out. Speaking of… "So," Nate said, breaking the silence, "are you just going to be my car from now on?" Bumblebee turned to look at him, and Nate got the distinct impression he was unamused.
"[zzzt] I am - your guardian - until - Ratchet - [zzzt] - gets more information," Bumblebee said, putting emphasis on the word "guardian", as if to say "I am not owned by you, human." Nate held his hands up in a placating gesture, then lowered them again. Another moment of silence passed.
"So..." Nate eventually said again, deciding he should at least try to learn more about… well, anything about this new world, really. "What's the story? With the Autobots and Decepticons, I mean. At home - uh, the world where you're not real-" (Bumblebee gave him a strange look at that, but did not interject) "- There's a lot of different versions of what happens. So, like, I just want to know what did and did not happen… you know, in reality." Bumblebee stared at him for a moment before simply saying, "Look it up."
"Oh, come on, don't be like that," Nate said, looking disappointed. "I swear I remember you're supposed to be more friendly." The yellow Autobot just stared at him again, his expression unreadable. "Would it help if I asked you specific questions?" Nate tried. "So you don't have to explain everything to me? Look, I just feel like… well, it would be weird if I just pretended you weren't here, you know? I just want to know more about what's going on, and asking you instead of looking it up is a way for us to, you know, break the ice a bit. Which we should probably do if you're going to be living in my garage for the next few days or so."
Bumblebee just continued to stare at him for a bit, but then he made a noise sort of like a sigh, and leaned back against the wall. Nate took that as his cue to ask away, so he thought about what he wanted his first question to be. "Ok, so… you and the other Autobots, and the Decepticons, you're all… aliens, right?"
"-[zzzt] Biotechnological beings from the planet Cybertron, -" Bumblebee confirmed, the audio sounding like he was pulling it from an old news broadcast. Nate nodded in response, thinking. So that much he'd already known, at least, though he didn't know much past that very basic background information. "Why are you and the Decepticons fighting?" Nate asked next. That changed from continuity to continuity, as far as he knew, so it could be anything from full-scale war to somebody insulted someone on the other side. Bumblebee was quiet a moment, and Nate assumed he was searching for another news broadcast to pull his answer from. As Nate waited for him to do so, he pondered Bumblebee's behaviour. As far as he knew, in most continuities the Autobot was supposed to be bright and cheerful, the most outgoing of the group, with or without his voice. So far, however, from what Nate had seen, Bumblebee had been closed off and subdued, and even sounded angry at Nate when he'd said Bumblebee was acting as his car. Maybe it was because they'd just met, but it was still a bit unexpected. Was there something he was missing, or was this Bumblebee just different?
"- Cybetronian civil war was instigated by Megatron, as he attempted to seize power," Bumblebee's radio spoke, drawing Nate out of his thoughts as he looked over at the Autobot to listen. The voice coming from the radio was unbroken, indicating this was from some informational video about Cybertronian history. "After centuries of war, Cybertron was rendered uninhabitable, and the Cybertronians were forced to flee. Both the Autobots and Decepticons began searching the galaxy for a terraformer that had been hidden as a failsafe on another planet millions of years ago, to be used in the event of Cybertron's destruction, but whose location had been lost when the Cybertronian archives were destroyed. All that was known was that the terraformer was hidden on a planet that possessed biological life.
"Eventually, the Autobots and Decepticons sent forward scouts to Earth." Here, the broadcast seemed to get a bit more staticky for some reason. "The Autobot scout, Bumblebee, was able to destroy the Decepticon scouts and signal to the Autobots that Earth was secure. The Autobots arrived and were able to work with humanity to prepare for the Decepticons, whose arrival was delayed by the failure of the scouts to report in. The Decepticons made it to Earth in 1992, and the battle was brought to Earth." The static faded again as Bumblebee continued. "In 2011, the Cybertronian terraformer was discovered, and after one final battle, Megatron was killed, and the terraformer's activation was successfully prevented, saving humanity from being destroyed. The Decepticons fled, and the Autobots used the terraformer to colonize Earth's moon."
The audio stopped with a small burst of static, leaving Nate to process the info he'd just been given. "So… Megatron is dead? Your war with the Decepticons is over?" Bumblebee gave a small nod. Nate thought a bit more. Well, on the one hand, that meant he wasn't in the middle of a war now, which was good. On the other hand, the information he'd been given didn't match any of his limited knowledge of the Transformers franchise, so either he'd missed something, or this world wasn't a direct parallel to any of the continuities from back home. He sighed. It wasn't like he knew much about Transformers in the first place, but now it seemed like he had even less to go off of.
He shook his head. It didn't matter, he told himself. It just meant he didn't need to stress about trying to remember something important about what was going on. He shifted focus, trying to process the info itself rather than just the fact it didn't match anything. "Terraform the moon…" he said out loud, thinking back to how the moon had looked weird yesterday. "Is that why the moon looks metallic now?" He looked at Bumblebee, who gave another small nod, but said nothing.
"What human allies do you guys have?" Nate asked suddenly, shifting topics a bit. The Autobots typically worked with humans, right? And the fact that they were allowed to colonize the moon certainly implied positive relations with Earth. "Like, who did you work with?" Bumblebee was silent for a moment. "- The Planetary Defense Garrison, or PDG, works closely with the Autobots to monitor for Decepticon threats -" Bee quoted.
"Who's the PDG?" Nate asked, curious. A bit of static burst from Bumblebee's radio as he searched for a response. "The PDG is comprised of volunteer soldiers from several different international militaries - [zzzt] - report directly to Optimus Prime, and through him the United Nations." Nate processed that. That certainly seemed like the most diplomatic way of providing aid to the Autobots; no one country was given the appearance of having favoritism, and it ensured it didn't put too much strain on any one country's military to provide aid.
"Alright, who else have you worked with?" Nate asked. Seeing Bumblebee's blank stare, Nate elaborated. "You know, like, independent humans," he tried. "People like… like me, I guess. Who just happen across you guys and decide to help out. You guys have anyone like that?" Nate wanted to know if he'd recognize any of the names. He'd already established he wasn't in one specific "canon", but maybe he could at least get a better idea of what these Autobots and their allies were like.
Bumblebee surprised him by tensing up, and simply and suddenly saying, "That's enough questions." Nate looked at him in surprise. "Really? But I-" he was cut off by Bumblebee repeating the same soundbyte again, pitched to have a bit more emphasis: "That's enough questions." Nate stared at him incredulously, trying to figure out why he was refusing to answer the question. Had he said something wrong? Did he hit a sore topic for the Autobots, or Bumblebee in particular? He decided to leave it alone for now, and maybe bring it up later, if he could find a way to either approach it more carefully, or get Bee to be a bit less closed off. "Alright," he said gently, raising his hands again. "Alright, I won't ask any more questions for a while." Bumblebee relaxed somewhat, but his gaze on Nate remained impassive, not getting any softer or harder.
"Why don't…" Nate began, "why don't I tell you a bit about me? Since, you know, you answered some of my questions, I should probably help bridge the information gap between us." He looked at Bumblebee to gauge his reaction. The Autobot seemed to debate his answer with himself for a few moments, and Nate was only partly surprised at this point when Bee eventually shook his head. Apparently, his strange reluctance to open up went both ways. "Ok," Nate replied, trying not to sound too disappointed. "Well… I guess I should just… go about my day, huh?" Bumblebee gave no response, so Nate took that as his cue to leave. He turned back towards the inner door, but stopped before he passed through it and turned back to Bumblebee.
"Let me know if you change your mind," he said to the Autobot, "or if you need anything. Ok?" Bumblebee gave him that unreadable stare once again, before giving him a small nod in reply. Deciding that was the best he was going to get, Nate headed back through the inner door, shutting it behind him.
/
Inside the garage, Bumblebee dragged his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs, lowering his head to sit on top of them. A small part of him felt bad for being so rude and standoffish to Nate, but the rest of him was too scared to do anything else. Memories, unbidden, floated past him in the forefront of his mind, and he quickly pushed them away before he could focus on any of them. This is just for a few days, and then I won't have to see him again, Bumblebee told himself. I won't get attached again. I can't.
Bumblebee sat like that for a long time, repeating the words over and over in his mind, trying to keep his unwanted memories at bay.
/
Decepticon Warship Wing of Unicron, somewhere in the Sol system asteroid belt.
When Megatron had first fallen, Starscream had wasted very little time in declaring himself the new leader of the Decepticon cause, something which the only other two potential candidates for the role - that is, Shockwave and Soundwave - were too busy doing damage control to bother with.
It was an act Starscream now regretted immensely.
He'd quickly come to realize that being leader of the Decepticons was not nearly as desirable a position as he'd thought it would be. Perhaps that was more in part to the fact that he'd assumed leadership after the Decepticons had essentially lost the war with the Autobots than it was due to the position itself, but the why of it didn't truly matter. Between the low morale, the constant complaints, the demands from everyone for different courses of action anywhere from retaliation to retreating all the way back to Cybertron's remains, Starscream had rapidly discovered the being leader of the Decepticons was a tedious, demanding, and almost dangerous position, as if he displeased too many people, his life would likely be forfeit. Starscream was exhausted, mentally and physically, from the constant balancing act and morale hits he'd had to deal with. He now wanted nothing more than to flee, to abandon the Autobots and Decepticons both and find some backwater planet with easily manipulated locals where he could spend the rest of his life, but he knew that the moment he showed any signs of wanting to run away, all the other Decepticons would be out for his blood, and nowhere would be safe. So he was stuck, terrified to leave but terrified to make any big decisions as well, not knowing whether any decision he made would make things worse or not.
Currently, Starscream was hiding in his personal quarters, nursing a container of high-grade Energon (one of the few they had left) and staring blankly out the window at the asteroids floating by the ship as he sat dejectedly in his berth. After Megatron's flagship, the Nemesis, had been destroyed at the final battle on Earth, Starscream's own ship had become the new flagship for the Decepticon fleet, and therefore the next biggest target for the Autobots. So Starscream, like the great leader he was, had immediately hidden his ship in the Sol system's asteroid belt, where the abundance of space debris kept the Autobot scanners from detecting them. Lucky for Starscream, in the wake of such a massive defeat, his cowardice had been seen as a tactical retreat, and so far no one had complained that the Wing was in hiding.
Starscream let out a synthetic sigh and took another swig of high-grade, wondering how long it would take for the Energon to wipe out the pounding helmache he'd had for the past several hours. It had been a long, exhausting day; it had started with Knockout violently knocking on his door to wake him up, complaining that not only were they low on anesthetic, they were low on polish, and Primus knew which one of those was more important to Knockout. And it had only gotten worse from there. Soundwave reporting the Autobots were getting bolder in their movements, some of the crew getting into a fight over some Energon despite the fact that the ship still had plenty to go around, and then-
Starscream heard the ping signifying a request to open a commline, and he winced when he saw who it was from: Shockwave. For the past few hours, Shockwave had been attempting to reach him about some new discovery he'd made, and Starscream had been attempting to ignore him, hoping he would give up after the first few tries. But he hadn't, and now Starscream had no excuses to avoid him anymore. With another sigh, he opened a commline to Shockwave.
"Starscream," Shockwave's voice sounded over the comm line as soon as it was open. "You have been ignoring my communications requests." It was a statement, not a question. "I've been busy, Shockwave," Starscream replied tiredly, setting down the container of high-grade. "You're not the only lieutenant who reports to me, I'm sure you're aware."
"Be that as it may," Shockwave replied, his voice neutral as always, "I mentioned via text comm I have made an important discovery, and it would be… illogical of you to ignore the potential this discovery has before you have even heard what it is." Shockwave and his logic, Starscream thought grumpily. "Fine, fine, what is this discovery you have to report?" he said to Shockwave, resisting the urge to pick the high-grade back up and take a nice, long swig.
"Approximately forty-eight hours ago," Shockwave began, "My scanners detected an anomalous energy surge on Earth, located near the city of New York. Since that time, an unknown energy signal has remained in the same area. The type of energy is unknown, but it registers on multiple types of scanners, including infrared, ultraviolet, and gamma. It is likely the Autobots have also detected the energy and have sent a scout to investigate it."
Starscream pondered this information. Well, that was certainly interesting, but he wasn't sure what to do with this info. "And what would you have me do about this?" Starscream inquired.
"It would be prudent to send a scout of our own to investigate the signal, preferably one capable of avoiding detection from any Autobot scouts that may be in the area as well," Shockwave responded. Starscream considered this. Surely it wouldn't hurt to send someone to investigate, even if they came back with nothing of use to report. "Very well," he decided. "I will dispatch a scout immediately to investigate this… energy signal. I will inform you should they return anything." And with that, before Shockwave could respond, Starscream severed the comm link, and leaned back against the wall behind his berth. He drummed his fingers on the berth below him as he pondered his next course of action. Then, decision made, he sent a request to open another comm line with someone else.
"Soundwave," Starscream said as soon as the request was accepted, "I have a new job for you."
