Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers.
Just the plot and OCs of this never ending story.
Hey look! Could it be? A chapter!?
No freaking way!
Yeah . . . I should be writing one of my final papers.
But, I'm not. So here you go.
Chapter 9
This is quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever done in the history of ever.
The thought had become something of a mantra in his head over the last five orns. This orn appeared to be no different as Bumblebee slowly and carefully tried to pick his way out of the sticky, hard pit of . . . well actually he wasn't quite sure what it was he fell into but he did know it smelt awful and it was starting to itch.
And burn.
Yeah.
The burning was probably a bad thing.
Most likely.
Jumping along with a good bit of stumbling finally got him out of the nasty slag but not without a limp to show for it. It would go along well with the sand burns on his doorwings, his bent winglet, his bruised antenna, and his very empty tanks.
Falling down in a huff once he was far enough away from the pit of whatever-the-slag-the-nasty-stuff-was Bee pulled his legs up in a bend as he went to trying to get the sticky stuff off. At this point he only had one rag left but he figured giving it up to stop the burning was probably a good idea.
Giving himself as good as a rub down as he could, going so far as to pick up handfuls of sand and start scrubbing with them as well he did manage to get all of the green stuff off of him. That left him able to sit there in the hot sand and look down at the gash torn up the back of his calf with a sigh.
"Frag it." He huffed, letting his whole frame fall backward with a plop to the sand. Squeezing his optics shut he tried to pretend he wasn't hungry and he wasn't hurting and he wasn't a Primus damn idiot.
So far, he wasn't having much luck.
The first orn and a half after he jumped off the ship had gone really well. He managed somehow to pick up the bots' trial and follow them for a good while, but another rust storm had picked up that night leaving him huddled cold and alone in a rock alcove to wait it out. When he tried to pick up the trail the next morning he'd been . . . less than successful.
"Stupid sand." He muttered again, throwing his arms up to rest in a cross against his forehead. "Stupid desert. Stupid lack of a plan."
Stupid him.
Stupid not remembering to pack energon.
Food.
Honestly.
He forgot to pack freaking food!
He was so gonna get scrapped for his. There were no ifs ands or buts about it.
When Ironhide and Optimus figured out what he'd done now either if he caught up with them or Preceptor and Red managed to hack into his comm he'd turned off and blocked as Jazz had showed him like they had been trying to do for orns . . . well his guardian and his leader might just kill him for this one. He was pretty sure it might happen. He couldn't help it though.
Did they really expect him to sit at home and twiddle his thumbs?
Pit no!
He was a scout! This was what they were training him for. He was gonna prove to his family that he wasn't a weak link.
Even if it freaking killed him. Which at this rate, it just might.
The notion that that actually would be kind of counterproductive to the whole proving he wasn't stupid, weak, useless, and going to get himself killed did in fact register in his cooking in the sun processor but at this point he really didn't give a damn.
He was their youngling and he had learned enough to get him this far. He wasn't dead yet and that had to count for something. He could do it. He could fight beside them. He wasn't afraid. He wasn't incapable.
He wasn't . . . a worthless runt.
He . . . had to somehow convince himself to stand back up on an aching leg and get back to tracking.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was a good plan.
Up.
He'd get up, and then he'd get moving. One step at a time. That was doable.
He could do that.
So he did. Levering himself up with a bit back groan Bee took in the sight of the torn armor at the back of his leg. He got most of the stuff out of the cut, at least to the point it wasn't burning anymore, but he was pretty sure that needed to be welded up.
There was nothing for it though.
He couldn't do that one his own.
The best bet he had was to just wrap the cloth around it and get back to tracking.
He was about half an orn behind the patrol, at least that was his best bet at the moment. He knew at least he was back on their trail. They kept altering speed and it made it hard for him to judge just how far ahead they were. But if he played his cards right he should catch up and stay out of sight while they recharged tonight. Then he could quietly sneak along right there with them and he would get to see it.
Whatever . . . it was.
The reason they were out here snooping around the desert like hounds in the first place. There had to be a pretty good reason. Likely one they didn't feel like telling him and with the datapad tucked away in his subspace—yeah, he brought that and not food, really smart on his part—he was sure this was important.
He still hadn't managed to read more then what he had the first time. The writing kept bouncing around and swaying over the screen. It wouldn't stand still long enough for him to even try and read it.
Not that that made any sense, but it was the truth.
A heavy sigh rolled through him as he shook his head.
Now wasn't the time to be thinking about the writing, or the reason of being out here. Now was the time to bind his leg and get back on his feet. So that was what he did.
It was time to catch up.
It was time to prove himself.
The notion sent his antennas flicking with excitement.
He couldn't help it.
He wanted to see it.
He was curious. It was just the way he was.
Always had been.
Pushing himself up with his doorwings tucked tightly to his back the brightly colored youngling started forward again. Carefully sliding down the rocky outcrop he had been trying to get down when he slid into that stuff. Then crouched among the gravel of what might have at one time been the old forgotten road through the ever changing sands but now was nothing more than the red particles blowing in the breeze looking for the imprints of tracks marring the surface.
Jazz had taught him well.
He found the tire marks almost instantly and with a devious little grin Bee hardened his resolve and started forward again.
He could do this.
He could.
He'd prove it.
To them, and to himself.
Optimus stood with his arms crossed looking over the open waste land of the Sea of Rust before him and his patrol.
"Been a long time since I saw this place." Jazz whispered.
"Didn't think I'd ever see it again." Ironhide snorted.
"Why is it called the Sea of Rust when there isn't any water and there isn't any rust?" Sideswipe chuckled.
His brother glared at him.
"You're an idiot."
"But you love me."
"I'm stuck with you."
"Admit it, you adore me!"
"As if."
They went off into one of their little bickering matches again while Optimus, Ironhide, Jazz, and Ratchet watched with amusement.
"Why the Pit did you bring them again?" Ratchet sighed looking over to the Prime.
Optimus just smiled.
"'Cuz they woulda got Lil' Bee in trouble while we were gone." Jazz grinned.
Both twins snapped to attention.
"Would not!" They hissed.
"Yes ya would have." Jazz returned.
"Would not!" Sides repeated. "He chooses to be in the pranks all on his own. That isn't my fault."
The officers just stared at him.
"Okay well maybe I'm an influence a tiny bit." The red warrior relented.
Optimus shook his head turning to gaze out over the vase emptiness that stretched on before them. His bright blue optics taking in the seemingly never ending world of red around them.
Their task was about like finding a specific grain of sand in all this mess. But what made it worse was, they weren't even actually sure what they were looking for out here.
Nothing about this was going to be easy.
"Finding it out there isn't going to be easy." Optimus sighed, his massive shoulders slumping slightly at the weight that rest invisibly on them.
"That's what ya got me for." Jazz all but chirped bouncing on his toes. Claws flexing with his thoughts as he too gazed out at the sands. "Turn me lose, Boss Bot. I'll find what we're looking for."
"Oh I know you can find it, Jazz. It's the part that comes after the finding that really has me worried."
"Part of me isn't sure we really want too." Ratchet took a long breath. "There is a reason that magic cube was lost if you so recall."
"That's just an old sparkling tell, Ratch." Sideswipe waved him off. "You don't really believe that nonsense about it being a doorway do you?"
"Until not many vorns ago we all thought the Guild was a sparkling tale too, Sides." Ratchet replied making the red mech along with his golden other half tense up. "They are far from sparkling tales, and Trickster has his hands in all this. There is nothing about any of this that is a game or fake."
"We'll just blow it up and be done with it. Then it won't matter." Sunstreaker shrugged, his dark optics narrow. "Then we go home because I promised Bee we'd finish the mural."
Sideswipe's smile faded at that. "He wanted to come you know."
Ironhide's optics narrowed as a growl rose up in his chest. "No."
"Bad idea, Sides." Sunny shook his head over at his brother who huffed in return.
"I didn't say it was a good idea. He was just pretty upset when you said he had to stay with Prowl and the femmes." Cutting his gaze to the Prime Sideswipe looked the towering two tone mech over as he sighed and stared out over the horizon.
"There will be other chances for him to be curious and foolish. Plenty of missions for him to scare us all to death on. This one he is having nothing to do with though. I will not allow it. Not with how little we know and how much Trickster seems to want this."
"Trickster is never getting anywhere near him." Sunstreaker's gaze narrowed to thin slits, a thick, hard sound rumbling around in his chest.
"Which is why he's still on the ship." Jazz said. "He'll be fine in a few orns. We'll go blow up one of Mega-idiots plans and he'll be all bubbly again in no time."
Ironhide sighed. "I just wish it didn't matter to him so much. He's only in his third frame! He's too little to fraggin' be in the field anyway!"
"He will always be little, Hide." Ratchet put in quietly.
Ironhide just grumbled.
"Hide," Optimus cast his friend a glance. "None of us can change the war. We cannot change that it is teach him to defend himself or he dies."
"I know all that." Ironhide growled. "I just wish it wasn't this Primus-damn way!"
"We all do." Sideswipe mumbled as they all fell into silence staring out over the empty red desert that stretched out before them. The place they would confront a past and search for the plan that even Megatron didn't seem to know what to do with. Or at least couldn't find.
It had hurt them all to look Bumblebee in the optics and tell him he could not come, but that was the way it must be. This was one mission he was to afraid to let the small yellow bot tag along on. There was no telling what they were going to find here, but whatever it was he didn't want Bumblebee anywhere near it.
No matter how mad that would make him.
If it would keep him safe, they'd do all they could.
Bumblebee was, on a very real level, aware that his plan was not going so well.
"No!" He snapped, clinging a little harder to the rock face he had shimmed up and gotten into this mess because of. "No! NO! Stop it! I'm not food damn it! And I'm not after your clutch!"
The hive hawk currently trying to pull his antennas out of his head didn't much care for this reasoning though. Glowing a bright hot orange, lit up like a flying ball of fire—burning like one too—she repeatedly dived at him. Sharp talons pulling at armor and protoform. Hot, acid glowing feathers burning as she flapped.
Hive hawks were actually a pretty interesting species. They came in a verity of colors. Fliers without the use of engines or thrusters. They're fascinating, almost cloth like wings were they're only source of flight.
Then there was that whole aspect that they could light themselves on fire, but at the moment that thing about them Bee had once found rather awesome was actually really annoying.
In the hawk's defense she was defending her nest full of hatchlings about twenty feet over his head that he had somehow missed when he chose this rock to climb, but really, this was just getting ridiculous.
Doorwings plastered down in an effort to protect both them and his winglets—both of which were already burnt and aching, thanks Mrs. Hawk—Bee did his best to get both the pit off the rock and not get himself killed by falling at the same time. All while an angry hawk pecked and clawed at his head.
This whole adventure thing to prove them all wrong was getting a bit annoying.
Standing just on the edge of the bottom of a towering dune Ironhide watched a flock of hive hawks dance about on the hot air currents what had to be miles above them. The birds themselves were not all that large, but that trick of turning into basically comets and striking across the sky had a habit of bringing attention to them even if they were nothing more than dots so high up in the sky.
Seeing them did something both warm and cold to his spark. Seeing life still clinging on out here in what had once been an untamable wilderness turned wasteland was good for a spark that had been born out here, but on the flip side of that all he could think now as he watched them dance through the dimming sky was that Bumblebee would want to see them.
He'd find it fascinating.
He'd never had a chance to see them before. Not outside Bluestreak's books, Sunstreaker's drawings, and Jazz's stories. They had all taught him about the wildlife that once roamed plentiful and free that now were little more than haunting ghosts clinging to life on a dying world, but they couldn't show him what had once been. Not now.
Not with the way Cybertron was now. Not with what it had become.
However, that did not diminish a sire's wish to give his youngling everything he could ever want. To give him a world and a future far better then what he realistically had to offer.
Wasn't going to stop him from trying though.
The powerful black mech sighed.
Little trouble maker was going to be the death of him one orn he would swear to it. For now though Hide was just glad he was safe at home where he belonged. Not out here with them about to brave the Sea of Rust to find Megatron's latest scheme.
Glancing toward his leader and his best friend he lifted an optic ridge at the powerful Prime.
"Let's get going. We need to find a place to camp before the sun sets."
"Yeah, Sea of Rust is not a place you want to go gallivanting around in once its dark." Jazz added with a grin. "There's stuff that likes to eat ya."
The twins leaned around the Prime's bulk to stare at the silver mech with raised optic ridges. A look to which he just grinned broadly before skipping off down the hill until he fell into his alt mode racing into the red colored wasteland.
"Guess Jazz is leading the way." Ratchet snorted in amusement as they all shifted into their own alts and headed after him.
Before they broke though the towering dunes that sealed them in on all sides now though Sideswipe spoke up over the private comm link channel between them that Jazz had wired. The one that was acting as an interference to them being tracked. It would keep them safe, but was blocking their normal comms at the same time. However, that was kind of the point. They weren't suppose to be being contacted to keep them from being tracked.
Their normal comms were supposed to be down.
"Is there really stuff that wants to eat us out here?"
"Oh yeah!" Jazz all but chirped disappearing around a dune.
"Grand." Sunstreaker grumbled as they all fell silent again racing into the gathering darkness.
Bumblebee stood with wonder looking out over the expanse of red that seemed to go on forever in front of him. It was like nothing he'd ever seen and even in the darkness he could see the power and danger that imitated from this place. He took several stills of the towering canyons before that marked the arched entry way into the endless desert of red that stretched on before him when he first worked his way in. And there were a whole lot more sitting in his internal gallery from the other things he'd see as he made his way through the sands over the last orns.
Prowl had given him many history lessons about the Sea of Rust. He knew of the legends and the so-called-monsters that called the place home, he even knew about the ancient tribes that once called areas of the Sea home, he was aware that Jazz and Ironhide had come from tribes such as those, but he didn't think it was coming to be as intimidating as it was.
It kind of made his armor crawl the slightest bit as he stood on the outcropping where he had followed the tire marks staring out into the darkness, but he wasn't about to turn back now. He had places to see and things to do.
There was no time for fear.
Or for the weird kind of calling that was happening in his spark. The glitchy thing was doing something weird again. Something it did a lot, not that Bee really minded, he found his 'Gift' as Prime called it kind of awesome. Always had. He loved being able to feel and be felt. He didn't know how he would live without it. Sometimes though his spark did do really weird things. Like right now.
Running a hand over where the quivering ball of light that was pulsing in his chest he murmured to himself.
"Chill out in there. Nothing's going on."
His powerful spark didn't heed him though. It just went right on quivering and pulse rapidly like it was trying to call to something without his consent. Shaking his head he pulled up his walls to keep himself hidden and then transformed back to his alt. Mindful of the aching burning and cuts all over him. The gash on his leg had finally glazed itself over with repair nanites after he all but tumbled down that rock face running away from angry carrier hawks. Which was good because he threw his cloth at them as a distraction as he fled with as much dignity as a mech could when there were flying fire balls trying to peck his optics out right behind him. He had already decided that leaving that part of this adventure out when he found the others would probably be best. Not that he was going to be able to do much hiding of all the . . . hurts he'd gotten, but well, he'd figure out how to deal with that when the time came. For now he took another deep breath and worked through the transformation. Ignoring the hot flashes of pain and errors that flashed through his processor as he did. Instead he gritted his teeth, heading out after his family members that were stupid enough to think they could leave him behind.
He was shaking.
Granted, that wasn't new over the last five orns. Come to find out the Sea of Rust was a tad bit emotion when it came to temperature. The orns could melt the protoform off of a bot, but the nights could freeze the energon in their very veins.
It wasn't long into the first night out here, Bee figured out fire was going to have to be a must. One because without it he was going to freeze his stupid aft of, and two because—
An eerie screech tore through the empty darkness making Bee spin around in a flash. Bright blue optics wide and searching as he flicked his gaze back and forth. But not even his—rather limited—night vision was going to help him out here. The Sea of Rust might as well be a Sea of Ink at night.
The stars and the moons shown and lit up the world on clear nights, but there had only been one clear night since he jumped off the ship.
Swallowing hard Bee calmed himself as best he could and turned back to his task.
"Reason two." He muttered to himself. "Monsters."
Yep.
As far as he was concerned that was a pretty good reason right along the whole not freezing to death idea. However, tonight he didn't have that option.
If he hunkered down and stayed put maybe he could get a fire going, but considering he didn't have anything left to burn that was pretty much a mute point. Besides, he was close. When he flared out his doorwings he could make out the tell-tale sounds of voices not far ahead. He had—remarkably—caught up.
Another screech tore through the night and despite the fact that his armor was just about rattling against his protoform from the cold Bumblebee refused to turn around. Refused to the let the hot taste of fear flare up in his throat again.
It was just a hawk calling to its mate.
Or a lone circuit deer still somehow alive out here.
It was, not a monster.
It was not a bot.
Jazz said the monsters that ruled the sands died out long ago. Prowl did too. So there was not giant sand shark lurking beneath him or out there in the night.
There was absolutely nothing to be afraid of.
Besides, he was almost there. Maybe half a mile and he'd reach their camp.
And despite the fact that Optimus and Hide were going to kill him he was so going right to that camp.
He was cold, he was hungry, and his plan of his had kind of sucked from the beginning. He'd gotten this far and he wasn't dead yet. That had to account from something, right?
He was pretty sure it did.
So that was what counted.
"It is fraggin' cold in this fraggin' endless waste land!" Sideswipe plopped down in the red dust wrapping his arm around himself glaring angrily at the ground in front of him as if it was the cause of the sand in his joints and the tension in his shoulders. Along with the chill clinging to his insides.
He scooted closer to the fire, but the dim thing wasn't doing a whole lot of good.
"It's a desert at night. What did you expect it to be, Sides? Warm?" Ratchet snorted at him from where the yellow and red medic reclined against a boulder just a few feet from him. Ironhide chuckled from where he rested near him with Optimus leaned back against a towering rock jutting out of the sands that they had found and decided to camp next to for the night beside him. Sunstreaker was crouched on a boulder just over his twin a little hesitant to place his brilliantly gold—now rather dull and scuffed from blowing winds and sand, but he was trying really hard to ignore that fact—paint in the dirt if he didn't have to while Jazz was seated next to the red warrior his bright optics taking in the darkness around them from behind his visor.
Every now and again a screech tore through the darkness and they all tensed, but considering neither Hide or Jazz lit up their weapons those that hadn't been born in this desert figured it couldn't be anything too note worthy out there making that awful sound.
"Well I didn't think it was gonna be this damn cold!" Sides snapped back at the medic. Arms wrapping tightly around himself as he shuffled a little closer to the fire that was flickering in the middle of all of them.
What the frontliner would give for a thermal blanket right about now.
"Will you mute your complaining?" Sunstreaker rumbled, pushing himself to his full height and stretching out his strong back. Doing his best to ignore the sound of sand grinding between armor and protoform as he did. Judging by the way his optic twitched a bit he wasn't all that successful. "You're a grown mech if you're cold than adjust your inner temperature or get closer to the fire."
"Only so much that can do, glitch." Sides grumbling to himself.
"Did you just call me a glitch!?" Sunstreaker hissed back, jumping off his rock perch to land beside his other half with a thud and a snarl kicking up through his engine.
"Both of you knock it off." Ratchet warned them through narrow optics. His dark blue gaze locking them in place and affectively ending the brewing fight born of frustration and fatigue before they had the every wild thing that might be left alive out here in this Primus forsaken wasteland on their backs.
There were a few more unhappy grumbles, but eventually both twins fell into silence the wear of the last several orns events making even them more than a little tried. They needed rest, they all did for that matter. Though Ratchet knew better than to think both twins would recharge at the same time in a strange land when they were on high alert to any threat that might come their way. Which was why none of the officers were surprised when Sunstreaker volunteered for watch and vanished into the shadows before Optimus could even agree with him.
Once his twin was gone Sideswipe sat still for a moment longer leaned back against the rocks. His audio horns twitching every now and again as it was clear he was both listening and feeling where it was Sunstreaker went and what he was seeing. It lasted long enough that Ratchet was sure he was going to have to force the mech to recharge as if he was still a youngling but eventually Sideswipe settled down completely. Apparently, content with whatever it was Sunstreaker saw and where he was so. Leaning back completely, stretching his long legs out toward the fire the powerful frontliner closed his optics content to rest for a while.
Jazz yawned not far from him, giving his armor a good shake before he too leaned back and took a few klicks to get some rest. Optimus cast both Ratchet and Ironhide a glance, but Ironhide was already snoring quietly while Ratchet simply leaned his head back and closed his optics. The Prime was more than sure that Sunstreaker would watch over them well through the night so he too leaned back and closed his optics trying to keep his processor alert to the mission at hand and not let it drift back to wondering what Bumblebee was up too, and hoping he'd made the right decision by not letting him come.
Sunstreaker stood a little ways off perched atop another large boulder staring off in every direction with a simple twist and flicker of optics every nano or two. His dark blue optics gazing through the darkness in search of anything and everything that was foolish enough to try and be a danger to his family.
He was still a little on edge about leaving Bumblebee behind. Partly because he didn't like letting the little mech out of his sight anymore then Ironhide and the other did, but he knew it was for the best . . . . Something in his spark was saying that they needed to keep Bee as far away from whatever it was they were heading toward as possible.
Maybe it was fear of Trickster and everything he held. Sunstreaker wasn't sure, but it was something important all the same.
It still hurt him when he remembered the glance he'd thrown over his shoulder that one last time over his shoulder and see Bee standing there in the huge arched door of the battle ship besides his carrier waving slightly as they left him behind.
He didn't want to do it.
He didn't want the little yellow trouble maker out of his sight for longer than a breem. He got into more chaos than the golden mech's slaggin' twin did. And he was Sideswipe! How in the name of Primus had the little youngling grown into such a danger magnet?
It wasn't fair.
Sunstreaker swore Primus was just trying to drive him to glitch.
A sudden movement among the shadows had Sunstreaker's battle programs running before he'd even spun to trace the movement as his long glittering dueling swords slid from his wrist in a quiet but eerie sound. He leapt from his picked post, landing in the sand in a crouch. A low growl rose up in his throat as his optics narrowed into the inky darkness.
He was no fool.
He knew the legends of what lurked in the vastness of the Sea of Rust protected over all the millennia by the fact that there just was so much emptiness and not enough interest in this place. Giants could hide among these canyons and dunes and the world would never know now that the Tribes had long since died out.
There was suppose to be nothing out here, but monsters that haunted sparkling tales and history data pads were at one time real.
Once Sunstreaker was sure that they were nothing other than stories, but with the way Jazz and Ironhide had talked now he wasn't so sure. Maybe there were beast among the shadows that might even give him a run for his credits.
The golden warrior smirked.
Well, only one way to find out.
Crouching low the golden mech pinned his optics on the slight flickering in the darkness around him. The slightest gleam of metal caught in the slight moonlight that came to life with a sway of clouds. With that and nothing else in his processor he sprang.
In a flash of movement he crashed into a smaller, lighter, form bringing it down to the sand in a crash. Using mostly his weight instead of his blade he slammed it down when there was a moment of struggle and fight.
However, the familiar startled yelp that met his audios shocked him still from shifting his blade as he blinked down through the darkness to find a guilty little faceplate smiling up at him with big baby blue optics wide in shock and slight fear at the sword tip pressed into the cables of his throat.
"Half Pint?" Sunstreaker gasped in shock, growl tapering off in something of a startled click as his whole frame seized up in shock while his optic blew wide. Processor not quite believing what as laying pinned under his foot.
Bumblebee let out an audible gulp before he pulled his best sparkling grin, letting it sparkle up at the dumbstruck expression staring back at him.
"Hey there, Sunny." He gave something a nervous giggle. "Fancy seeing you here."
For a moment the pair just blinked at each other after that. The frontliner unable to processor what he was looking at and the mechling unable to move until all the shock flowed right out of Sunstreaker. Turning into a narrow glare as a growl rose up in his spark.
The little glitch! He followed them!
With a snarl that roused his brother from his recharge a few yards away Sunstreaker retracted his blades, bent down, snatched a hold of Bumblebee's chest armor, hauled him up into the air not even caring that when he held him faceplate to faceplate the little mech's feet dangled several feet off the ground, and hissed through clenched teeth at him.
"Bumblebee!?" Sunstreaker yelled, effectively waking every mech from their short recharge in a flinch reaction. "What in pit are you doing here!?"
The others barely had a chance to fully clear their processors of recharge—let alone did Bee have a chance to come up with some kind of passable answer—before Sunstreaker spun around in a hiss fit flinging the little mech across the campsite in a flipping mess of limbs right into Ironhide's lap.
"Take him! Before I slaggin' dismantle him!" Sunny snarled as he stalked back into their camp, grabbing at his audio fins to keep himself from doing something stupid.
Like actually dismantling the stupid little mechling.
Bumblebee let out a startled huff when he found himself flung forward and then yelped a little in pain when he crashed into the unyielding metal of his guardian's armor. For a nano or two after that all were shocked silent while the mechs blinked in confusion at the little yellow mechling that sat up right kind of nervously in Ironhide's lap. He glanced around at his loving caretakers not all that sure what to do with himself as he now found himself in the very place he'd been trying to get for the last fire orns. However, he was mostly hoping he hadn't been right about this being the time Ironhide and Optimus actually turned him to scrap for doing something foolish.
Sunstreaker really looked liked he wanted to as he paced around the sand hissing, cursing, and pulling at his audios while Sideswipe scrambled to his feet staring in shocked at the little mech his brother had somehow pulled from the shadows.
The question in his processor was in every other mechs too, as they all sat there staring at him for a moment longer.
How in the pit did he get here?
The answer wasn't all that hard to come up with though. Not when they each managed to get their processor around what they were looking at.
Bumblebee.
Bumblebee out here in the middle of the desert when he was suppose to be on the ship.
They told him to STAY ON THE SHIP!
The sneaky little glitch followed them!
Bee gave a nervous laugh when he watched Ironhide's dark vivid blue optics flash dangerously down at him. Tucking himself tightly together at his place on the massive mech's thighs, lowering his gaze as he did so.
"Hey . . . Hide. Whatcha doing?"
Suddenly, he was being hauled upward in a yank and a twist, but not by Ironhide. Though the massive mech was scrambling to his feet his cannons whirling as he started yelling at his charge plenty of things he knew if the little mech ever dared utter he'd get his vocal processor torn out by Ratchet—or maybe Chromia—for saying. That wasn't really the youngling's concern for the moment though.
No.
He was more interested in the fact that he was hanging several dozen feet of the ground by his scruff bar and was optic to optic with the most powerful of his caretakers that was currently looking like he was on the verge of strangling him.
Yeah . . . maybe this really wasn't one of Bee's best thought out plans.
"What in the name of Primus are you doing here!?" Optimus all but bellowed out at him making Bee's wings drop and his antennas fold down as he lowered his optics to the flame painted armor of the Prime's chest.
He'd screwed up this time.
He wasn't stupid enough to try and make it seem like he hadn't.
He was just going to hang there quietly and hope they loved him enough to not kill him for disobeying a direct order . . . again.
When he received no answer Optimus' hand tightened around his little youngling's scruff bar while he tried to rein in his anger. Anger fueled out of fear for the fact that Bumblebee was here, here in the middle of the fraggin' Sea of Rust! And then the fact that he really was pissed that the mechling disobeyed him again!
"Answer me, Bumblebee!"
"I wanted to help." Bee murmured quietly, then suddenly found himself dropped to the ground with a heavy thump. Since he didn't have enough warning to try and catch himself so he ended up on his aft in the red dirt looking up more than a little timidly at the mech he knew would never even dream of hurting him, but at the moment really looked like he wanted to weld him to a wall and leave him there for a few vorns.
"You wanted to help!?" Optimus really was growling at him now his hands curled into fist at his sides, shaking from the emotions rolling through huge mech making Bee study the sand before him trying to ignore the hot flares of pain arching through him from the drop.
Yeah . . . he really screwed up this time.
"Bumblebee! Why do you never fraggin' listen to anything anybot tells you!?"
Bee flinched.
Prime just said fraggin'. He so should have recorded his will chip before he left.
"I swear to Primus one of these fraggin' orns I'm gonna—"
The beeping of a comm link—a comm link that was supposed to be disabled until those in this patrol fired it up again—in all their audios cut the commander off his tirade and made him realize that he was currently yelling down at his most dear possession who was sitting in the sand his doorwings pinned painfully to his back and his antennas held down pitifully as his big baby blue optics refused to even dare to look up at him.
With a shaky breath Optimus reined in his temper realizing what he was doing. Turning away from the youngling he shook his head back and forth ignoring the fuming mechs around him as he touched the side of his audio.
"What is it?" He snapped.
After a delayed reaction Prowl spoke up in an annoyed drawl. "Let me guess, he's already there isn't he?"
"You were supposed to be watching him, you pit damned glitch!" Ironhide snarled into the comm making Bee flinch even more as he quickly looked up.
"It wasn't his fault. I snuck off when he and the others were busy!"
"You keep your damn mouth shut!" Ironhide snapped his gaze around and glared down at him. "I'll get to you in a klick!"
"He is good at what he has been trained to do." Was Prowl's only reply the anger in his own tone very clear to Bumblebee's audios through the apparently finally hacked comm link.
He sighed, wringing his hands in his lap.
He had just wanted to help, damn it all! He just wanted to prove that he wasn't useless!
"Prowl, I'll call you back." Optimus sighed when he looked down and found the little yellow and black mech pulling at his fingers a nervous fidgeting that was only seeming to get worse.
"Well now that I'm finally sure he's not dead or captured I guess I can wait."
With that last little reminder of how much he probably worried his whole family back on the ship ringing in his audios Bee heard the comm shut off. He was once again left in the middle of a circle of mechs that loved him more than they loved life itself, but now were debating whether or not they wanted to pull his doorwings off for his damn stupidity.
The silence that stretched on for klicks had the little mech pulling so desperately at his hands it faintly had Ratchet worried he was going to hurt himself.
With an angry snort the medic walked forward, hauling him to his feet with more force than needed, but since he would never hit Bee with any type of tool it was the only thing he had at the moment to curve his anger. However, when he saw the little mech cringe in pain when he was righted to his feet everything else flew right out the window and Ratchet quickly had him by the shoulders spinning him around to face him and scanning him much to Bee's protest. What the CMO found made him snarl all over again as he in turn yanked Bee up by his scruff bar and hauled him over to a large rock.
Bee protested weakly when he was forced to sit and then Ratchet crouched down in front of him pulling up his right foot and proceeded to ignore him as he pulled back a section of his armor to find the severally kinked lines and the gash that had energon leaking down his foot. And at the moment wasn't even counting let along trying to do anything about all the other slag that showed up with the scan.
Burnt doorwings.
Bent winglets.
Bruised antennas.
Ratchet hissed at the sight of it all but more so at the nasty looking tear in the back of his leg. "What the frag did you do, jump off a cliff?"
All the anger melted out of every other mech around him and soon Bee was once again surrounded though he was no longer getting growled at by anybot, but Ratchet. However, that was actually pretty normal.
"Slag, Half Pint." Sideswipe flinched at the sight of the tore wires and tubes in the young mech's leg and at the notion that they had been tossing him around while that was wrong with him.
Damn, he felt like a glitch.
That was nothing compared to how his twin, Ironhide, and Optimus felt though.
"Bee," The massive black mech sighed painfully at the sight of his youngling's energon coming to sit down next to him and lean against him, which Bee didn't protest too.
"I just slipped . . . really it's no big deal."
He decided getting chased down a rock face by a flock of angry hawks was probably for the best.
"Mute it." Ratchet snapped at him and Bee complied. Only glancing up when Optimus rested a palm atop his head with an apologetic pulse from his spark. Bee knew it was for dropping him, but the youngling also knew that he deserved the anger his family threw at him. He had disobeyed them . . . again, and managed to hurt his stupid aft when he was trying to track them in this weird place.
He sighed to himself.
He really should have thought this through better.
Like bringing food.
That would have been pretty smart.
"When did you do this?" Ratchet grumbled at him once he'd patched the severed lines and cleaned up the wound, pulling out a welding torch and going about sealing it together before putting the young mechs thin plating back on.
"Less than a few breem ago or so. I, uh, had a little trouble getting down a rock."
"Well if you hadn't of been stumbling around in the desert trying to follow us it wouldn't have happened now would it?" Ratchet seethed pushing himself upright to glare down at the little mech.
Bee looked down to the sand again.
For a moment the mechs around just stared at him before Jazz let out a breath.
"Why are ya here, Lil' Bee?"
"Because I can help . . . I wanna help."
"You were told to stay at home." Jazz pointed out with a narrow gaze that Bee could feel from behind the visor.
To that he really had no response so he simply sat there studying the sand as he whispered a pitiful. "Sorry."
"No you're not." Sunstreaker said, his arms crossed and his optics narrowed as he stood at his brother's side. "You wouldn't have come if you were sorry."
"I can help!" Bee snapped his attention up to the golden mech. "Why can't you fraggin' let me prove it too you!?"
"You don't have to prove it to us!" Sunstreaker snarled back, fear that was still swelling inside of him making him angry. Fear that he had been out here and they hadn't know it. Fear that he had been alone. Fear that Sunstreaker could have accidently killed the little mech a moment ago had one movement been different. "We know, damn it all to pit! We know! We taught you remember!? But we didn't teach you so you'd go running around doing stupid slag to get yourself killed! Damn it, Half Pint, why can't you just fraggin' listen!"
"Because you mechs never listen!" Bee narrowed his gaze making them all pause for a moment s his voice raised to a level it never did, bouncing around the darkness. "It's always 'you're too small for this' or 'you're too young for that' or 'you can do it when you're older' or 'maybe in a few vorns'! I'm so slagging tired of being told I'm too small for everything! I'm not an idiot! I know I'm probably not gonna get any bigger! I know that! I don't need to be reminded of it every fraggin' orn. You taught me how to fight! You taught me how to not end up a smear on the wall! And I'm not stupid! I can take care of myself if you'd just give me the chance to prove it too you. I'm a solider! You made me a solider! And I'm not afraid . . . ." He took a deep breath letting his optics fall back to the sand. "I'm not afraid. So why can't you all stop being so afraid . . . I'm not gonna go anywhere. I'm no gonna get myself killed okay. I seriously feel sorry for the glitch that tries to kill me because then he's got to deal with all you."
For a moment longer they all just stared at him before they each took a deep breath.
He was right.
And they hated it with everything inside them.
Ironhide wrapped an arm tightly around his youngling pulling him into his side until Bee rested his head on the warm pulse that beat beneath his chest armor.
"Why did you have to go and grow up?" The massive mech sighed sadly into Bee's audio making the yellow and black mechling smile to himself as he nuzzled in closer to the mech that had always been there whenever he looked back.
"Had to happen sooner or later, Hide."
"I would have preferred later."
Bee smiled even wider.
"I'm with Hide." Sides sounded pretty pathetic as he dropped down beside Bumblebee to rest his head on his shoulder latching on in a tight hug that only the red twin would ever give him in public making Bee giggle that sound that they missed from when he was far smaller. "Go back to being a sparkling. Please."
"You were so much easier to take care of." Jazz nodded with a sideways grin.
"Please, I was a nascence." Bee laughed.
"You sill are a nascence." Ratchet snorted at him with a smile of his own.
Bee grinned sheepishly up at him.
"But we love ya!" Sides sang tightening his hug on his for all intensive purposes little brother.
"It's just, you were more manageable when we could just pick you up and carry you wherever we wanted." Optimus said. "And when you couldn't open a door on your own."
"Or sneak off the ship." Sunstreaker scowled trying to hide his own grin, but Bee didn't need to see it to know it was pulsing in the warriors spark. He knew him that well.
"If I remember correctly I did that back then too." Bumblebee pointed out cheekily for which he found himself getting noogied for by a laughing red frontliner.
"Little glitch," Sideswipe laughed. "Don't even bring up that orn. You scared us half to death! Coming back with them! I thought Ratchet and Ironhide were going to murder some mechs."
"We were." The WS and the CMO grumbled together their optics narrowing at the memory of that little stunt the mechling had pulled.
Bumblebee just laughed that light bubbly little sound of his that made every spark around him turn into a pile of goo. "See, you really should be use to this by now. I've been sneaking off, around, and to for vorns now. I'm just made for it."
"Yeah, well, ya really gotta stop." Jazz scolded him lightly.
"You're the one teaching me to be better at it." Bee pointed out.
Jazz paused as if the fact just accrued to him. "Well . . . damn."
"Wow . . . ." Sideswipe laughed. "Jazz, sometimes you are slow."
"Mute it." The silver mech snapped before he crossed his arms over his chest and glared into the darkness tapping his foot.
For another few klicks the bunch of them just stood there quietly in the gathering shadows until Sideswipe released Bee from his hug and glanced to Prime.
"So what now?" He questioned.
Optimus looked over his little yellow and black trouble maker who smiled innocently up at him with those big beautiful optics of his.
"If you so much as take a step out of line I will haul your foolish aft back to the ship myself. Mission be damned. Do you understand?"
Bee almost chirped with delight as he flung himself forward and into a crushing hug against his leader who chuckled at the young mech's enthusiasm that would never change no matter if he was four feet tall or ten. He was always going to be Bumblebee. All bubbly little troublesome curious mess that he was.
And there wasn't a fraggin' thing Optimus would wish to change.
Not even his knack for getting into every possible danger that could happen to him, even if he was sure it was going to make his spark stop one orn, it was just the way Bee was.
And he loved him for all that he was.
His little Bumblebee.
The son he'd always wished for.
"Yes, Optimus."
"Good." The Prime sighed. "We'll see if this time you actually do as I tell you."
Bee snickered.
Optimus' grip tightened for a moment longer before letting Bee go to let the little mech step back and smile at him. For a moment he gazed back down at him until Bee flicked an antenna and shifted a little bit.
"Hey, uh, Optimus?"
"Yes?" The Prime lifted an optic ridge down at him.
"I'm hungry."
A nano or two passed in which there was silence before Jazz groaned out behind them making Bee and Optimus both look back just in time to see the silver mech slap himself in the forehead.
"You didn't bring any energon with you did ya?"
Bumblebee gave a nervous little laugh.
Sideswipe fell back into the sand with an exasperated groan of his own.
Bee and his brilliant plans.
Well, they're all out sand now. Time for everything bad to start happening! *grins*
Hope you guys liked it, and thank you for being patient with me. The end of the semester on top of other things has me pulled in eight different directions at once. But its almost done. Thank all that is powerful in this universe, another one almost over.
Can't wait to see what you all have to say.
See you next time! ^-^
-Jaycee