Chapter 3: Inside Is What Matters
Optimus held firm to his promise and over the next few years, Angel was raised by him and his team and as she grew older, she learned more about her organic-half's capabilities. Her growth rate was almost the same as a human child's, she could climb on walls, which came in handy if she was looking to win games of chase with Bumblebee and Sari. Only Prowl could scale a wall as well as Angel, thanks to his ninja training. He was harder to get away from when she played chase with him.
She could also shoot webbing from her pincers, which quickly became one of her favorite things to do, as long as she cleaned it up afterwards and didn't hit the computers with them. She also had a spider thorax and mouth and could consume both Energon and bugs. She especially liked bugs and would use her webbing to act like a chameleon's tongue to catch any insect and draw them to her mouth. Sari had joked that Angel was like Spidergirl, one of the teenager's favorite heroes. That led Angel to like being called "Spidergirl" too, because she found it awesome to have a nickname like the hero.
Along with these things, Angel's personality blossomed too. The good parts of her personality was that she was lively (something that always made her family smile), sweet, curious (Prowl was often explaining the different ninja techniques and training exercises he went through to Angel, who loved to watch him practice), adventurous, and smart. The only two bad things about her personality were that she could get a little impatient and could get very easily offended too.
But overall, the Autobots all loved her and very often, the others would stumble upon cute father-daughter moments between Optimus and Angel and would make them smile, seeing the strong bond between the father and daughter.
Along with having a strong bond with her father, Angel also loved to prank him. One morning, she decided to drop on him like how he had taught her in basic training.
Optimus came in one morning to get his daughter up for the day. "Angel, time to get up," he said as he went over to her berth, but found it empty. Wondering if she was already awake, he began searching around her room for her.
Unbeknownst to him, Angel was on the ceiling, watching him and waiting for the right moment to surprise him. She then saw him stand up after he had looked for her behind the berth.
"Woo-hoo!" she hollered out and jumped down, landing square on her father's back with a body-slam maneuver, making him fall to the floor. She began laughing at her playful prank, giddy with excitement that she had pranked her father successfully.
Chuckling at his daughter's antics, Optimus playfully scooped her up in his arms and gave her a gentle noogie, making her giggle more before he stood up and hugged her affectionately. "Come on, little one. Uncle Ratchet's waiting for you and then Daddy's going to take you on patrol today," he said.
"Yay!" Angel cheered happily. "Is Uncle Ratchet gonna teach me that super magnet attack of his?"
Optimus chuckled again. "You're a little too young for that maneuver," he said gently. "But I believe he mentioned working on stealth and using your webbing to help your stealth mode."
Angel was really excited as Ratchet had promised to show her how to be stealthy and eagerly ran ahead to the medic's room, knocking on the door, which was opened by Ratchet who smiled at his niece and nodded to Optimus, who nodded back and left them to train. Angel was a fast learner, to Ratchet's satisfaction.
Later on, after returning from patrol with her father, Angel found Bumblebee playing his video games and he had just won another battle when he saw her come in. "Hey, Angel," he said.
"Hey, Bee," she said. "Can we watch TV?"
"Sure," he said as he scooped her up and lifted her above his head in the old human game called 'airplane'. Angel giggled as he made airplane sounds for effect.
After a bit, he set her in his lap and turned the television to the regular channels, surfing through them until he found one channel playing an old Disney movie called "Mary Poppins". He didn't mind watching it with Angel as he knew he had to think about her and what she'd learn from TV. Angel was currently snuggling into him and he had an arm around her affectionately. He thought of her as his little sister, since she was the youngest of the team.
Angel was really enjoying the movie when it came to the scene of the parents and the children being together in the same room and she grew curious. "Bee, who's that lady talking to that man?" she asked.
"That's the mother," he answered.
"Mother," she repeated and then gave it some thought, comparing it to her family. She had a father, brothers, and an uncle, but no mother. "Bee, can you pause the movie?"
He did so and she turned to him. "Bee, I don't have a mother, but rather a father," she said. "Why don't I have a mother?"
The yellow bot froze at that. When Optimus had taken Angel in, he had asked his crew to never let the little one know about her mother, Blackarachnia and they had sworn never to utter a word about her. He thought quickly.
"Well, your mom left you with us, kiddo," he said. "I don't know why she did, but she did."
"But, didn't she love me? What was she like?" Angel asked.
"I really don't know, Angel," he said. "But remember, even if you don't have a mother, you've got your father, your uncle Ratchet, me and Bulkhead and we love you, kiddo."
Angel looked up to see that comforting smile Bee always gave her and she smiled back, feeling better as they continued the movie with no further mention of the incident.
The next day, when the six-year-old woke up, her father was at the communications speaking to someone and signed off before seeing she was up. "Good morning, Angel," he said with a smile. "We have some visitors coming."
"Who, Daddy?" she asked.
"The Elite Guard. You met two of them when you were very little," said Optimus. "They come every now and then to check on us and today, I need you on your best behavior, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy," she promised. "Will they…like me?"
He smiled and scooped her up. "I believe they will," he said, but then thought of Sentinel and frowned a little, having a feeling the big-chinned Autobot would have something bad to say about Angel.
It wasn't long before the Elite Guard arrived and Optimus set out to meet them with Angel riding inside his alt-mode. When they arrived, the red and blue Autobot was relieved to see Jazz and the Twins were there too. He knew they wouldn't say anything bad about Angel, which would make it easier when he asked them to watch her while he spoke with Ultra Magnus.
"Greetings, Optimus Prime," said Ultra Magnus. "And greetings to you as well, Angel."
Angel was surprised. "He remembered my name?" she asked.
"Well, I did tell him about you, sweetheart," said Optimus with a chuckle as Jazz came out.
"Hey, OP," he greeted with a smile and noticed the youngling. "Congrats on being a father."
"Thank you, Jazz," he said and saw Angel looking curiously at Jazz. "Angel, can you say 'hello' to Jazz?"
"Hi," she said shyly, making both Jazz and Ultra Magnus chuckle.
"She's cute," Jazz commented. "Definitely your spitting image, OP."
That made Angel smile as she liked that she looked just like her daddy and Optimus smiled as he saw Jazz was trying to put the young one at ease. Ultra Magnus cleared his throat lightly.
"Optimus Prime, may I speak with you inside the ship?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," he said.
"Do you want me there too, Magnus, sir?" asked Jazz.
Magnus gently shook his head. "I need you and the Twins on standby in case one of the prisoners we have escapes, or Optimus' crew needs backup to stop any criminals," he said.
Jazz respectfully saluted. "Yes, sir," he said.
Optimus made a decision. "Jazz, would you be alright watching Angel while I speak with Magnus?" he asked.
"Sure, OP," the white ninja agreed. "If the little lady's cool with that."
Angel was beginning to like Jazz as he was calm and nonthreatening. She looked at her Daddy, who smiled at her. "Be good for Jazz, Angel," he said in a slightly stern voice.
"Yes, Daddy," she said and let him hand her to Jazz, who carried her into the ship as Optimus and Magnus headed inside too. Jazz then placed Angel on his shoulders.
"Hold on tight," he said to her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, hands locked under his chin so she didn't fall off and he held onto her ankles gently. She giggled as Jazz continued walking and they ran into Sentinel.
"Jazz, what are you doing?" asked Sentinel in a tone that said he was disgusted.
"Magnus and OP are in a meeting and OP asked me to watch over his daughter," said Jazz.
Sentinel had a disgusted look on his face. "Just keep an eye on that thing," he said. "Magnus called me into the meeting with him and Optimus."
With that, he walked away. Jazz narrowed his optics behind his visor as he felt Angel tug at his hand and he lifted her down from his shoulders and into his arms and saw her face. She looked scared and sad. "Hey," he said to her. "Don't listen to that grump. You're not a thing, you're a kid, an Autobot just like your daddy."
Jazz knew Magnus hadn't decided whether or not Angel could join the Autobot ranks, but he said that to make her feel better and saw her smile again. He then tickled her stomach a little and she giggled. "That's better," he said as he placed her on his shoulders again and headed for the Engine room, where the Twins were trying to get one of the thrusters to work after cleaning it out. They stepped back and cheered as it was finally working.
"Finally!" said Jetstorm in relief.
"I agree, brother," said Jetfire.
"Why don't you two take a break?" said Jazz gently.
They turned to see him. "Oh, hello, mister Jazz," said Jetstorm.
"Who be that sparkling with you?" asked Jetfire.
Jazz heard Angel giggle at the way the Twins talked and smiled. "This is Angel. She's Optimus' daughter," he said as he lifted her from his shoulders and set her down gently.
The Twins both knelt down to her height. "Hi!" they said in unison.
Angel immediately liked them. "Hi," she said.
For the next few hours, Angel hung with the Twins and Jazz, messing around with them and being careful to not go near the equipment. She was just showing them that she could climb walls when she discovered a panel with buttons. "What are these?" she asked, opening the panel and pointed to them.
"Those are the main engine buttons," said Jazz. "Careful, they'll send us into orbit really fast if they're pressed."
Nodding, Angel gently closed the panel and suddenly an alarm rang out. "The engine!" Jetstorm cried out as he quickly checked on it but couldn't find the problem. "It's overloading!"
Angel looked and saw what was wrong. "There's something blue in there!" She called out. "Like a crystal!"
Jazz immediately knew what it was. "Angel, can you pull it out?" he asked.
Using her webbing as a bungee cord, Angel lowered herself quickly and spat out some more webbing to act like a chameleon tongue and grabbed the shard, pulling it back up to her hand. When she did that, the engine calmed down immediately and Angel jumped into Jazz's arms, giving him the shard. "I wonder how this got in here," he said.
The Twins examined the damage. "Looks like Miss Angel pulled it out in time," said Jetfire. "It be easy to fix."
"What happened?!" asked Sentinel as he came rushing in. He saw Angel in Jazz's arms and his optics narrowed. "I knew it! She caused the engine to malfunction!"
"Whoa, hold up, Sentinel!" said Jazz sternly. "Angel didn't cause the engine to malfunction. It was this fragment."
Sentinel didn't care about that. "She probably put it there, and used her pincers to shove it in there!" He said. "I knew she was dangerous!"
"Angel be not dangerous!" Jetstorm spoke up.
"She be saving us from the engine exploding!" said Jetfire.
"Shut up, you two!" Sentinel said and saw Optimus and Magnus come in at that moment. "Magnus, sir, that thing damaged our engine!"
"No, she didn't," said Jazz firmly. "And she's not a thing."
Optimus was upset. "Sentinel, why would Angel damage the engines?" he asked. "She knows how important they are."
"Yes, Optimus, and no doubt you told her how important they are," said Sentinel sarcastically. "Apparently, she's learned to damage things."
"That's not true!" said Optimus, who would have punched Sentinel, but he didn't want Angel thinking it was okay to punch someone when they were being obnoxious. "Angel has learned a lot and will learn a lot more as I teach her."
"She'll never learn right!" Sentinel said angrily. "And I'll personally make sure she never becomes an Autobot, Optimus. Because the Autobot forces don't need a freak like her!"
Angel flinched at that and squirmed out of Jazz's arms, quickly scurrying away. "Angel!" he called out worriedly.
"Angel!" Optimus cried out in worry, seeing his daughter use her speed to get away faster. He turned and glared at Sentinel. "If I can't find her, I will personally pound you in front of the prisoners."
He then took off to find Angel. "Did you see that?" Sentinel asked. "He threatened an officer of higher rank!"
"You and him have the same rank, Sentinel Prime," Jazz said, some anger seeping into his voice. "And I don't blame him after what you said about Angel."
Magnus turned to Sentinel. "That was uncalled for, Sentinel," he said. Although his tone was neutral, the rebuking words struck the blue Prime hard. "Let's hope that he finds the young one safe and sound."
Night had fallen and Angel was in the park, sitting near the fountain and looking at her reflection in the water, Sentinel's harsh words still in her mind. She was very upset by what he had called her. Why did he call her a freak? She wasn't a freak, was she?
Optimus had sped all around Detroit searching for his daughter and finally spotted her at the park. Relieved, he walked up to her. "Angel?" he called gently to her.
She turned to him and he saw her tear-stained cheeks and she lifted her arms up to him and he picked her up, holding her. "Daddy, why am I not like the others?" she asked, her voice full of sadness. "Why does Sentinel hate me?"
"Oh, sweetheart," he cooed. "Sentinel was just being obnoxious."
"But he sounds so mean," she protested.
"I'm afraid he is," said Optimus. "But don't you believe a word he said about you."
"But, what if I am a freak?" she asked.
"Angel, you are not a freak at all," he said, his voice full of conviction.
"But, I don't look like the others," she said sadly.
Optimus tilted her chin up to look at him. "What you look like on the outside isn't what really matters, sweetheart," he said gently. "Everyone is unique, but one thing remains the same."
Angel looked curious. "What's that?" she asked.
"What's the one sound you love to hear, especially when you wake up from a nightmare?" he asked her.
She looked at him. "Your spark?" she asked.
He nodded. "That's what really counts," he said. "No matter what you look like on the outside, your spark will always be the same as everyone else's."
Angel looked up at him. "Really, Daddy?" she asked.
He nodded. "And someday, Magnus will grant you the chance to join the Autobot ranks," he said as he gently tweaked her nose affectionately. "But to me, you'll always be an Autobot."
Angel smiled and hugged her father, holding onto him as he walked back to the base, feeling better now and happy to have a loving Daddy.
I just love father-daughter moments like that.
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GoldGuardian2418
