Thanks so much for the reviews and for everyone reading this story. It has been a blast to write. I hope this chapter lives up to par with the others. It's getting tougher and tougher to write! LOL. Anyway, please enjoy the sparkling mayhem.
The Playroom
With his favorite bot toy in one arm, Optimus sat happily on the floor playing with the toys. He felt safe enough having Lita in the same room with him. She'd protect him from those loud noises and the darkness.
"Chromia, Ironhide loves you. He will give you what you want. He's told Optimus often how he'd do anything for your happiness."
"Really?" the trigger happy femme questioned, her downsized mech still recharge on the couch beside her. He'd gotten to heavy to hold. He was like dead weight as he recharged.
"We'll wear him down. Even I have to get Optimus to sit on him while we convince him to get sparking with you."
"Thanks, I…"
A runaway freight train called Bee, Sunny, and Sides came bursting in and were quickly derailed by the sparkling that was on the floor and in their path. Bumblebee had abruptly stopped to avoid trampling Optimus. Only the twins weren't as quick to stop not that they saw Optimus until after they collided with Bee. Their collective momentum cause a three car pile up on the floor, narrowly missing Optimus.
"Bee!" Optimus clapped and giggled. He wanted to see that again!
"Hi, Optimus," Bumblebee sighed in relieve despite the fact he was feeling squished with the twins weight pressing down on him. "Guys…get off! But be careful."
"You three need to be careful," Elita snapped, picking up Optimus before he accidentally got crushed.
"Sorry Elita," Bumblebee grunted.
"We had to tell you!" Sunny said excitedly as he got to his feet.
"You're not going to believe what happened!" Sides added just as excitedly as his brother helped him up.
"Ratchet locked us out so we couldn't get back into the Med Bay to get incriminating pictures," Sunny laughed, he and his brother helping Bumblebee to his feet. "We tried but our override codes didn't work. Magnus even kicked us out of the command center when we tried to override the door locks from there."
"What happened? Is Wheeljack ok?" Chromia asked, noticing the crash didn't disturb Ironhide. He was still snoring heavily, lying on his back, mouth wide open.
"Jack's gonna be ok. Ratchet has to reattach his legs," Bumblebee said.
"Did you find Jazz?" Elita asked.
"You could say that!" Sunny laughed. "Jazz got turned into a sparkling!"
"You're kidding me," the femme commander gasped, setting Optimus back on the floor.
"No kidding about it," Sunny smirked, shaking his head. "You should have been there for the tender, spark warming moment between Prowl and Jazz in the hallway."
"You've got to see him, Elita!" Bee grinned. "He's so cute and tiny!"
"Bee you've been hanging out with Jazz too much," Chromia commented. "You're starting to sound just like him."
Bee just grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, we all knew Prowl had a spark stuffed up that tight aft of his. But seeing is believing!"
"As eloquent as ever, Sunny."
Everyone turned at the sound of Prowl's voice to see him in the doorway with one tiny silver, bright blue optic sparkling resting comfortable in the crook of the big mech's arm. Jazz was clutching onto a corner of the blanket while he slowly looked around the room. His little legs barely dangled from Prowl's arm.
"Primus, look at how small he is!" Elita exclaimed moving closer.
"See, I told you," Bumblebee added, starting to move closer too.
"Hang on," Prowl warned. "Don't crowd him. He's much better than before but I don't want him scared again."
"Jeez Prowl, don't be so overprotective," Chromia said, moving to Elita's side.
"I'm sorry but you weren't there," he explained, defending his actions. "You couldn't feel how terrified he was. Then Magnus only made it worse when he tried to tackle Jazz."
"Well Magnus can be a terrifying beast to any mech or femme depending on his mood," Elita snickered. "But we will respect your wishes."
"I'm hoping meeting Optimus and Ironhide will help him come out of his shell some more. You know, be more like the Jazz we're used to."
"Let's find out then," Elita smiled moving back and kneeling down beside Optimus who had gone back to playing with his toy. "Optimus, Prowl brought a new friend for you to play with."
Prowl moved across the room, gently setting Jazz, blanket and all, on the floor a few feet from Optimus. Of course Optimus watched all of Prowl's actions intently the moment he saw the silver sparkling.
(whistle?)
"That's Jazz," Elita told Optimus as he looked up at her quizzically.
He handed her his toy bot then started crawling over to the silver sparkling mech. Jazz wasn't sure about this. He dropped the blanket and quickly crawled between Prowl's legs, hiding beneath the crouched mech. Just to be safe, Jazz held onto the armor of the black and white's left foot.
"Optimus, be patient," Elita said and obediently Optimus stopped crawling and sat down.
"It's ok, Jazz," Prowl cooed, a gentle hand held before him to take. Jazz mewled, rubbing his face in the palm of Prowl's hand. He put his other hand behind, trying to encourage Jazz. "That's Optimus. Do you want to play with him?"
Jazz look up and with an emphatic head shake said no.
"Are you sure? I think you might hurt Optimus' feelings if you don't go play with him."
Optimus didn't understand why his name kept being mention or why Jazz didn't want to play with him. But one of Optimus' inherent characteristics was to never give up. So, he crawled quickly to where the toys were at, grabbed one and crawled over towards Jazz.
The silver sparkling mech moved behind Prowl's foot and watched the blue, red and silver sparkling set something down close by. He crawled of grabbed something again and came back setting it down. Jazz watched Optimus repeat this process several times until finally he stopped and spoke in sparkling talk to Jazz pointing at the pile of objects.
Elita smiled proudly down at her mech. He always had a generous spark. Always. She prayed to Primus that their offspring would inherit this trait from their father. It was one of the reasons she fell in love with him.
"I don't know, Jazz. Optimus is racking up the cuteness points right now," Sunny joked.
"I must say it's nice to notice some of their mature uniqueness is also present in them as sparklings," Prowl smiled.
"Yes, Optimus has always been cute," Elita couldn't help but say making every chuckled.
"I meant his generosity," Prowl smiled up at her.
"Shh…look!" Bee whispered, pointing.
During some of the chatter between the matures, Jazz had cautiously crawled out from hiding and over to the pile of toys Optimus left. Not really knowing what to do with them, he grabbed one and crawled over to where Optimus was sitting and set it down. Then he crawled back and grabbed another toy and returned that one to Optimus too.
Well, Optimus was going to have none of that. He grabbed a toy and took it right back. And then another. Meanwhile Jazz was doing the same thing. Soon after that the giggle, the screeching, the high pitched whistles, and the warbling started as they chased each other.
Prowl and Elita moved away as it was apparent the two sparklings were having a rip roaring time. So much so that Jazz giggled hysterically even after Optimus pancaked him on the floor. Jazz may be tiny but he was just as tough. And absolutely adorable when he tried to tackle Optimus back only to get dragged around the room.
Meanwhile, all the noise finally dragged Ironhide out of recharge. He sat up to find he was alone on the couch and immediately noticed the silver sparkling playing with Optimus. Hide quickly climbed down onto the floor and headed over to check out the new guy.
"No, let them sort it out themselves," Elita whispered to Prowl when he made a move towards Jazz.
The black and white mech was a bit worried because Jazz was so small. The top of his head barely reached Optimus' shoulder as the two sat side by side. Getting flattened by Optimus was one thing but Prowl was concerned about poor tiny Jazz getting demolished between the two larger sparklings.
Hide steadily crawled over and ingratiated himself upon the other two in his own brute manner with a heavy thud and grunt.
"Hide, no!" Optimus yelled, pushing the black sparkling off his leg.
But Ironhide could be one stubborn mech. This was one of those instances. He crawled around Optimus to get a better look at the silver mech. Jazz, who was already hiding behind Optimus' bulk, was not liking this and too a direct path away from Ironhide.
Of course, Optimus didn't appreciate Jazz climbing up and almost sitting on his head! But before Optimus could reach up, Jazz nimbly dropped down avoiding grabbing hands from the two other sparklings. He learned quickly that he was faster than Ironhide and could easily stay out of his reach.
However, Optimus didn't like them crawling in circles around him and took matters into his own hands. He crawled, blocking Ironhide's path. Hide simply adjusted his course. But then quickly found himself face first on the floor with Optimus weight bearing down on him.
"I've seen that move on Megabum a few times," Sunny chuckled.
"I've seen Bumblebee do that move on you too, Sunny," Sides smirked.
"Optimus, play nice," Elita said down to her mech.
Optimus ignored her, punching Ironhide in the back of his head. Hide bucked him off and retaliated by throwing a head butt, hitting Optimus squarely in the chest. The growling started after that and the fight was on faster than any of the mature mechs and femmes could believe!
"No…let them be for a moment," Prowl suggested, having seen sparklings fight before. "The twins used to fight like this every other day. It's mostly growling. They'll stop shortly after the initial burst of energy."
Jazz sat wide optic in total shock. He didn't know what to do. Then his optics got even wider when the Optimus-Hide wrecking ball suddenly made a sharp turn, coming straight towards him.
It all happened so fast that Prowl reacted after Jazz had already burst into tears from getting steam rolled over by the two brawling sparklings. But that was only the beginning of the crying. An audio receptor shattering howl came from Optimus when Ironhide bit down hard on the tip of one of his antenna.
"Can we intervene now?" Elita questioned, worried for Optimus.
"Hide, drop him!" Chromia shouted, cutting Prowl off before he could even answer Elita's question. The femme wasn't going to tolerate her sparkmate acting like a wild animal. "NOW!"
Ironhide obediently opened his mouth, releasing his grip on Optimus. Then he sat still waiting for Chromia to pick him up. He knew he was in trouble as she stomped over. He glanced worriedly at Optimus who lay face down wailing into the floor.
"Wow, were we that bad?" Sunny asked Prowl as Elita gently lifted Optimus off the floor.
"You never bit each other but the fists did fly quite often," Prowl answered.
"So, no different from what they do now when they fight," Bumblebee smirked.
Sunny punched his friend in the arm.
"Please, that's probably what gave them the idea," Sides scolded his brother.
"What?" Prowl snapped. "You were fighting in front of them."
"Just a little brawl. No dents," Sunny said. "And definitely no biting."
"Prowl, go easy on them," Elita said, rocking Optimus gently his crying continuing. "Optimus and Ironhide always got into good fights as mature mechs. Chromia and I were expecting it. I just wasn't prepared for biting."
"Sorry, Elita," Chromia apologize. "I would have stepped in sooner if I knew he was going to do that."
"Don't worry. Looks like some teeth marks. I'll have Ratchet check him out."
"Hide, that wasn't nice! Tell Optimus you're sorry," Chromia ordered, holding him near Optimus.
Optimus looked at Hide through teary optics and didn't hesitate. He flung a fist at Ironhide's nose. Now Hide was crying.
"Optimus!" Elita half laughed, half chided. "You little fragger!"
"Mechs will be mechs," Chromia smiled, rocking Hide. "See that's what you get for biting someone."
Just then Magnus came rushing in and not to observe sparkling play time or to be a referee during a sparkling brawl.
"Get the sparklings in the med bay with Ratchet," he quickly ordered. "We've got incoming. BIG incoming!"
Up next: I'm not going to tell ya! Wahahaha! I'll just let your imaginations run wild! :P