Chapter 17
A/N: I only own this story.
/comm-link/
Telepathy
'Bee/Soundwave's speech
August 26, Outside Metropolis
Knockout drove along a desolate road, listening to the radio. "As Metropolitan PD continues to crack down on illegal street racing, siting the danger to both drivers and pedestrians—" With a huff he turned off the radio and drove to a street race.
"Not from around here, European design?" they guy in the car next to him asked. Inside his vehicle, Knockout just rolled his eyes at the man's foolishness. "Sure is pretty, too pretty." Sticking out his hand, he used his ring to carve a jagged line in the paint.
Adjusting his mirror, Knockout shook with barely contained rage at the sight of the blemish on his perfect finish. "Big mistake!" he growled as the man light the flashlight, signaling they could go.
The guy who ruined the finish pulled out in the lead, smiling as the others faded to dust. Making a turn, he looked in the rear-view mirror when the loud squeal of tires sounded and the red sports car appeared, gaining rapidly.
Knockout smirked and bumped the rear end of the man's car. "No one touches the finish!"
"HEY!" the man screamed as he was jostled in his vehicle.
As they made another turn, Knockout got in the inside, making an extra hard turn, he used the rear of his car to knock the other one through the guard rail and down towards the ravine. Inside his car the man groaned, looking up to see the headlights of the other car. "You scratch my paint, I scratch yours!" Knockout smiled before speeding away.
-.-
August 27, Jasper High School
Bumblebee walked out of school, as he predicted, the first day of his senior year was going to be as boring as the rest, the only new things he would be learning would be in art and music, he already knew everything else, which is why he had over eighty colleges on his tailpipe and several Earth doctorates already in his name.
"Hey Brandon," Jackson Darby, a sophmore and the son of one of the nurses that worked under Ratchet (aka Richard Pax) at the hospital, said as he got to his car.
"Hey Jack," he replied pulling out his phone. "What's up?"
"Not much, just seeing how your summer was?"
"Crazy, yours?"
"Boring as ever, you still doing sports this year?"
"Hey, the national champions in swimming, basketball, and track can't get lazy now can they?" he replied with a smirk.
"You forgot weights," Jack added as he got his helmet for his motorcycle on. "Why is it you're prefect at everything? And where do you find the time?"
Brandon shrugged, he himself was honestly amazed where he managed to find the time to do all these extra-curriculars, after Robin recommended them to maintain a solid secret identity.
Jack's phone buzzed and he checked it. "Sorry man, gotta go, Mom's about to have a panic attack."
"Tell Mrs. Darby I said hi."
"Will do!" he said driving off.
Opening the passenger door, he tossed his bag in, before closing it and going to the driver's side.
"Nice pedal car," the local school bully, Vince, sneered.
"This pedal car as you call it can go from zero to eighty-five in one point five seconds," 'Bee replied. "Much faster than that old 1997 Mustang ya got there. Later." Getting in he rolled down his window, giving him the one finger salute before speeding off.
About a block away he came to a red light, still chuckling slightly at Vince's face. "Hey." Looking out his window he saw a girl in his class. "Brandon, right?"
"Yea."
"I'm Sierra," she smiled.
"I know, we're in the same music and art classes."
"Yea, you're really good."
"Eh, I'm not that great."
"You are way too modest," she smiled. "You're an amazing artist, and you play the guitar and piano! Not many guys can do that."
"Not many guys grew up in a war either and needed to find ways to keep themselves sane," he thought. He was about to reply when Vince drove up. "Hey, small city," he sneered.
"Go fall in a hole."
"How do you think cheer captain here would feel if we saw which muscle car was better?"
"Are you seriously challenging me to a race?"
"Well? What do you say?" he snickered. "Or is the great Brandon Pax, top member of the three-year national championship winning teams afraid to lose?"
"That's illegal."
Vince laughed at his words. "Figured, you're too much of a goody-two-shoes to man up and accept the challenge. Some champ you are, you're just a weakling who's afraid of a real challenge!" he sneered.
"Ready when you are Vinny."
Vince smirked. "Dirt road by Trucker's Ranch."
'Bee frowned, it was close to base, but luckily for him Optimus was in New York for an emergency meeting and should be back in three days.
-.-
"From here to the next mile marker," Vince said. "Ready? GO!" Speeding off, the cheater got a head start. Vince smirked as he glanced back and saw the yellow and black car speeding behind him.
Bumblebee smirked, before kicking in the energon pumps.
Glancing back again, Vince grinned, but that quickly vanished when he saw that Brandon wasn't there anymore, hearing a horn, he looked next to him and saw the car do a wheelie before shooting way ahead. "Take that," he smiled before heading home.
-.-
Nemesis
Breakdown stood on the side of the med-bay buffing their comatose leader's vehicle armor, and his normal armor, having finished cleaning out all the small bits of scrap left in his wounds and stitching them up.
"Ah, Breakdown," Starscream said entering. "Any changes in Lord Megatron's condition?"
"Nothing major, mostly cosmetic," he replied.
"Well, I'm sure you and the good doctor have been doing everything in your power…Where is Knockout?"
"I can't believe the nerve of that scraplet!" Knockout cursed walking into the room. "He messed up my finish! My perfect finish! Do you know how long that takes to fix!?"
"You've been street racing again haven't you?" Starscream grumbled running a hand through his greasy brown hair.
"What? I'm an automobile enthusiast," he replied.
"Knockout, I do strive to run a tight ship! I strongly suggest that you seek my permission next time you want to disappear on one of your little…outings," he warned.
"No worries Commander."
"It is Lord to you!"
"Only if Megatron takes a nosedive," Knockout shrugged.
"The day our master emerges from stasis, I will gladly relinquish the title, but I believe that outcome is unlikely. Something to do with the quality of medical care around here," Starscream sneered. "So continue buffing, we do want Megatron looking his best for the funeral."
When he left, Breakdown turned and was about to continue his prior task, when his partner tapped his shoulder. "Can I borrow that? I need to fix my paint job."
-.-
August 28, Jasper High School
"Dude! Way to go!" Miko, a sophmore exchange student from Japan, cheered as he got to school.
"Yea," Rafael, a twelve-year-old freshman that 'Bee volunteered to mentor over the school year, said walking over with Jack. "You beat the pants off that blow hard bully!"
"The whole school knows about how you kicked his butt," Jack said.
Grabbing all three of them he pulled the off to the side. "Guys we need to keep this on the DL, especially from my dad. He'll kill me if he finds out! Ok?"
"Our lips are sealed!" Miko nodded.
The rest of the day passed mostly uneventfully—if having someone set fire to the kitchen just by pouring milk into cereal doesn't count as eventful—save for the few glances and high-fives tossed his way. As the final bell rang, 'Bee sighed in relief, eager to go home and get out on patrol, pit he may even just go drive into one of the abandoned buildings he knows no one goes to, get into his armor there and then go on patrol.
"Hey Brandon," Sierra smiled, leaning against the door. "I've been looking for you. The race! How great was that?! I was like; 'Yeah! Go Brandon!'"
"It's no big deal," he said rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
"I'll say," Vince sneered shoulder checking him. "If you think you can run with the big boys, the circuit, tonight, eleven pm."
-.-
"I'm a moron," 'Bee sighed as he sat on a roof overlooking the city. He'd gotten his homework done in ten minutes, giving him enough of an excuse to go out on patrol to burn off some steam. "Why did I agree to this?" Checking his internal chronometer, he sighed, it was almost ten-thirty, and it was a twenty-minute drive. "So much for changing out of my armor." Swinging into his car, he retracted his battle mask, thankful for the reflected windows that let him easily see out, but kept others from seeing in. "Just this last time, or I'm dead."
-.-
/Knockout, Starscream's looking for you again/ Breakdown said. /Where'd ya go?/
"Out for a little drive, I just roll around from town to town till…" he stopped as a car honked and sped by, "opportunity presents itself." Smiling he sped towards the city of Jasper, Nevada.
-.-
Bumblebee drove up to the racing group, feeling not only uncomfortable by being in his armor, but guilty that he wasn't doing his job and at least warning these idiots of the danger they were putting themselves in.
Pulling up next to Vince, he saw the obnoxious red-head smirk at him. Sighing, 'Bee looked ahead as Sierra walked to the middle of the track, waving flirtatiously at him, making him blush slightly. "CIRCUIT DRIVERS ARE YOU READY?! MAKE IT MEAN! BUT KEEP IT CLEAN! FIRE THEM UP IN FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE! GO!"
The cars sped off, Bumblebee and Vince tying for the lead, Knockout not far behind. "Well, well, if it isn't the Autobot called Bumblebee," Knockout mused as he watched the teen shoot ahead of the pack. "Finally, a challenge."
Driving up next to Vince, he slammed against him, getting ahead to second.
"Frag," 'Bee cursed lightly as he saw the Decepticon. "Knockout…" taking evasive action, he drove up onto the sloping side of the flood basin, seeing the Con pull out his guns. He put on his mask and drove over the edge, followed quickly by the Con.
"What the…?" Vince questioned as he saw the two cars, one having fancy guns shoot at the other.
"Slagger," 'Bee grumbled as he saw that he was still being pursued. Sighing, he turned on his comm-link.
-.-
Base
"Has anyone seen Bumblebee?" Erica asked, walking in on the rest of the team who was holding a video game competition.
"Hasn't come in yet," Wally replied.
/Hello! Anyone there?!/
"Speak of the devil, where are you?!" Emerald said putting on her ring, showing her green and blue suit.
/I'm being chased by Knockout!/
"'Bee don't engage!" Arcee warned.
"Just how did you get in this mess in the first place?" Bulkhead asked. "Were you street racing?"
/…/
"Bumblebee Sparkfire Prime! Do not tell me you were street racing!" Erica scolded.
/Technically I was going undercover as one of them in a street racing gang so I could put a stop to it/ he replied, which wasn't a total lie, he was planning on coming in his alter-ego another night to scare the living scrap out of them.
Bulkhead and Arcee sighed got in their vehicle armors. "Emerald, M'gann, Wally, Superboy, come with," Arcee said.
-.-
Desert Outside Jasper
Pressing a button, 'Bee spilt a bunch of lubricant onto the road behind him, as he continued evading the shots fired at him. The moment the Con hit the substance he started spinning and sliding around, allowing 'Bee to get far enough ahead to drive down under a bridge to hide.
Knockout drove over the bridge and turned off his engines, listening for the sound of another turning on. No sound came, shrugging he, turned his own car back on, and drove off, searching for the evasive Autobot.
Once the Con left, 'Bee sighed in relief; however, that was short lived as Vince drove up and got out of his car. "PAX!"
Up ahead, Knockout stopped as he saw the light in his rear-view mirrors, spinning around he drove towards the bridge.
Bumblebee got out of his car and the bully froze, gawking at him. "Y-you're not Pax, y-y-you're Bumblebee! The superhero! I'm a big fan! I'm so sorry for looking like I was about to beat you up, because, honestly, your car looks just like this one guy's from my school, not that he's a bigger fan than I am, because I'm a much, much bigger fan, I have to say I'm actually your biggest fan! Not that I stalk your movements all the time, I just like watching your fights on the news and YouTube…"
Realizing he was rambling, 'Bee raised a hand to shut him up. "Look kid, I don't have time for this! You need to get out of here right now! Before something bad happens!"
"I can help! I'm a good guy too!"
"What I need you to do is to leave!"
Knockout reached down and plucked the teen from off the ground. He was tossed up in the air, before finding himself strapped inside the sleek interior of a fancy car with a terrifying red-eyed red-head grinning at him. "Hold still," the man smiled before Vince's world went dark.
"Before something like that happens," 'Bee growled as he watched KO drive off.
"Breakdown, you'll never guess what I'm packing: Bumblebee's human companion," Knockout grinned. "And when the Autobot attempts to rescue him…"
/He has a Breakdown/ his partner chuckled.
Summoning his car up, he saw Arcee, Bulkhead, and Emerald and M'gann approaching. Arcee transformed, so did Bulkhead, not before letting Superboy and Kid Flash get out of the car though.
Emerald walked up and smacked him upside the head. "YOU ARE IDIOT!" she scolded. "Why on Earth did you think this was a good idea?!"
"We can discuss IQs later, right now we need to catch Knockout, he kidnapped Vince."
"What would he want with your school's bully?" Wally asked.
"He probably thought he was my human friend. Doesn't matter he's in trouble!"
"Oh well," Erica said. "Tough break for him."
"Emerald!"
"What? He's an aft!" Bulkhead agreed.
"I'm not arguing there" 'Bee said pinching the bridge of his nose just above where his mask stopped, "but he's also innocent."
"Let's go!" Arcee said.
-.-
Base
"You think 'Bee's ok?" Artemis asked. "They should've called by now."
"Don't worry," Aqualad reassured. "They'll be fine."
Hearing footsteps, the small group froze as Optimus walked into the room. "Optimus, you're back…early…" Robin smiled.
"Yes…the issue was resolved before any drastic measures needed to be taken," he replied looking around. "Do you know where the others have gone?"
"Nope! We don't know!" Artemis smiled stiffly, she may've been trained to lie, but there was no way this would work.
"Artemis is correct, we do not know," Aqualad said with a shy smile.
"Why would we know?" Robin added, his voice oddly high.
Optimus raised an eyebrow and frowned at the peculiar answer.
-.-
Jasper
Knockout sped past the team as they searched for him, the group flew/sped after making him frown. "He brought company…"
"Be on your guard, could be a trap," Arcee warned.
"He has a hostage, so no lethal shots," Kid Flash reminded.
Turning a corner Bulkhead let Superboy out of the vehicle before he and Bumblebee transformed, walking into the storage yard. Arcee climbed up a water tower, as Emerald and Miss Martian flew up above.
Ahead of the group on the ground, a pair of headlights turned on, just as shots burst out of the wall next to them. Breakdown charged out, punching down towards where they were standing a moment ago. Bumblebee flipped back as Breakdown tried to hit him, getting in a lucky punch, the scout was tossed back. Bulkhead ran up from behind and hit him, and, as usual, the two began to duke it out. Bumblebee fired a few shots distracting the Con as Superboy jumped up and punched him in the faceplate, knocking him back.
"Where's the two-wheeler?" Knockout grumbled just as Arcee landed on the hood of his car, punching the hood. "WATCH THE PAINT!"
Breakdown lifted Bumblebee by his arm, smirking 'Bee shot him, forcing the Con to drop him in shock. The young scout gave two swift uppercuts, before doing a backflip, kicking his face in the process, knocking right into Bulkhead's and Superboy's waiting fists of fury.
Knockout sped out of the area, trying to shake Arcee off of him. Seeing her debacle, KF, Emerald, and M'gann chased after.
Bumblebee was proving to be a difficult adversary in Breakdown's opinion, mostly in the fact that he was so slagging quick. He'd swing one way, the teen would be on the opposite side of him in the blink of an eye!
/Uh, Breakdown, in case you're looking for me, things got messy, so I hit the road. One scrape is enough for today/ Knockout commed.
Bulkhead and Superboy ripped out two lamp-posts from their spots. Bulkhead swung first, hitting the distracted Con, making him fly towards the clone at alarming speeds. Superboy just smiled and swung his own, sending flying into a warehouse.
Arcee and the others got on KO's tail, smirking he floored it, speeding far ahead of the group. "Eat my dust," he smirked, knowing they wouldn't try anything too brash with a hostage in the car. A loud horn sounded next to him, and Optimus appeared from around a rock bend. Slamming into the car, he sent the Decpeticon spiraling into a ditch.
/Knockout has a hostage/ Arcee warned.
"Understood," Optimus said transforming. Walking over, he picked up the car by it's rear-end and ripped the passenger door off, pulling out the hostage.
Knockout transformed, getting out of the Prime's grip, looking at his arm he shook with rage. "Do you know how hard that is to replace?!" Looking up he saw the Lantern and Martian flying over, as well as the others coming up behind them. Growling he flipped into a transformation and drove off as fast as he could.
Optimus looked at the escaping Con before turning back to the team. "I can explain," 'Bee said.
"We must get this boy to safety immediately, explanations can come later," he said. "From all of you."
Wally, apparently unfazed by the ominous tone, raced over and started dragging the red door. "SOUVENIR!"
-.-
Vince groaned as he woke up, looking around, he barely kept himself from having a fangasm at the sight of Bumblebee sitting next to him! Not just that; he was in his car! He was in an Autobot's car!
"You ok?"
"A slight headache, what happened?" he asked trying to play it cool.
"Some criminals. I was waiting for back up when you showed up and revealed my location, thank you very much."
"Sorry," he said noticing the irritation in his hero's voice.
"What the pit were you doing out there anyways?!"
"I…uh…I was…"
"You were street racing, weren't you?"
"Yea," he sighed.
"Look kid, that's dangerous, you could've been killed!" 'Bee snapped stopping his car next to Vince's. "I'm letting you off with a warning this time, but if I hear of any of you doing something like this again, I'm turning ya in. Got it?"
"Yes sir!" he said nodding fiercely.
Bumblebee nodded, glad he finally got the whole mess fixed. "Tell that to your friends too."
Putting petal to the metal, he drove back to base, leaving Vince who just grabbed his phone to call his friends.
"GUYS! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHO I JUST MET!"
-.-
Nemesis
"KNOCKOUT!" Starscream shouted. "WAS I NOT CLEAR BEFORE?! YOU HAVE DEFIED MY ORDERS YET AGAIN!"
"My apologizes Commander Starscream, but I've learned my lesson," he said. "And payed the price…"
"IT IS LORD!" he screamed. "And you've paid, when I say you've paid." Opening his head, he flexed his clawed fingers. "Don't worry, your punishment is merely…cosmetic."
"No…not the finish! ANYTHING BUT THE FINISH!" he pleaded as the seeker ruined his paint-job. "NOOO!"
-.-
Auotbot Base
'Bee stared at the ground after finishing giving his explanation of what happened, luckily he was last, so no one heard the conversation, but it didn't change the fact that his father was giving him that look.
"Bumblebee, I am disappointed in you," Optimus said. "You acted brashly and without any regards for the rules you've been given for while we are on Earth. What I am most disappointed in is the fact that you acted without considering any of the less…illegal options."
"I'm sorry."
"You're grounded for three days. No seeing friends or the team, no patrols, no missions. You are to go straight to and from school and home during this time period, am I clear?"
"Yes sir."
A/N: to be honest, I feel like I could've done better with this chapter, but after going through and rewriting Lord knows how many times I just gave up and decided to stick with what I got.
