Human Interactions

Angels in the Making

By Paperkat

07/29/07

Disclaimer: The Transformers movie and all related material belong to Hasbro, Dreamworks and Paramount, concept originally created and licensed through Takara Co. LTD.

The Disclaimer's Disclaimer: I stole the above disclaimer from Straya. Please for give me

Extra Disclaimer: I am a military dependant but not a military brat. I tried to research the military stuff, but don't get after me if I totally flubbed it up.

It had been almost four months since the Allspark and Megatron had been destroyed. Since then there had been fleeting glimpses of the remaining Decepticons. Not enough to find them, but enough to know they were still near. For practical and safety reasons, Optimus had decided that the Ark would come to Earth. It was something of a joint operation between the US military and the Autobots. Both Optimus and the Defense Secretary Keller thought it would be wise to bring the modest, by Autobot standards, massive by human standards, starship in parts instead of landing it whole in the desert.

Partially because it would make it easier to conceal where its final destination would be and partially because, quite honestly they didn't have anything else to do. So, far the bulk of the transporting had been left to Optimus and Ironhide. Optimus had the expertise to properly dismantle the Ark so that it could be reassembled and Ironhide was hoping that they might met some resistance.

Ratchet had been a flurry of activity, the like of which Bumblebee had never seen before. Configuring and reconfiguring equipment, positioning and repositioning senors, the med bay had been moved no less than four times and Bumblebee had been drafted to help him. Sam called it 'nesting', Bee thought it was pure insanity and when the opportunity came to accompany Optimus to bring back the outer hull, he jumped at the chance. And as guilty as he felt about leaving Sam behind, Bumblebee was glad for the time away from Ratchet and to his surprise the time with Optimus had been more than just pleasant.

Bumblebee had been treated to a side of his leader that he had only seen in brief glimpses over the ages. He reasoned that Optimus must have been one slagpit of a trickster as a youngling. More than a few times, the much older mech had set him up while they had been struggling to force the Ark's hull into form. Hours of work would be undone when he would follow his leader's instructions to the letter only to see the portion of the hull he was working on pop back out to full deployment. It wasn't until the fifth time that Bumblebee finally caught on to what was happening, and called Optimus on it. The perfectly emotionless visage of his leader cracked a smile, 'And here I thought you were the smart one of the group' he had told him.

The resulting scuffle afterwards lasted quite awhile. Optimus was stronger and more tactically minded, but Bumblebee was faster and more agile. And with neither of them using anything close to full force, it was only the need to actually accomplish what they were out there for that stopped them. Yes he had enjoyed the very rare one-on-one time with Optimus, but after four days away, Bumblebee was ready to go home.

The mission should have taken three days tops, one day out, one day there and one day back. But besides the impromptu wrestling match and Optimus abusing his authority, they had been plagued with problems. Bumblebee could not fathom how two separate transfigure units could malfunctioned at the same time, but as a result he and Optimus had to interface directly with the hull to get it to retract into a transportable mode. And it hadn't been easy.

He now had a new respect for the human art form of origami. It seemed like every time he had thought they had the right piece folded to link up to the next piece, nope, wrong answer, thank you for playing. He would never again tease Sam when he was trying to re-pack his book bag.

But now home was in his visual range and Bumblebee had to concentrate not to speed ahead of his laden leader. Ratchet had constructed a trailer for Optimus that would be durable and strong enough to haul portions of the Ark, and it seemed that the weight of the Ark's hull was maxing out Optimus' pulling capabilities. Or at least it seemed that way to Bee, cause they were going so slow.

When they finally pulled up to the ever evolving complex, Bumblebee didn't even wait until he had fully stopped before transforming to his feet. As soon as they had gotten to within range of his senors and scanners, Bumblebee had realized that both Sam and Mikaela were here. He was a little surprised, but happy none the less, and could hardly wait to see them again. He knew that it had only been four days, hardly any time at all to someone several more times older than human history itself, but even in the short amount of time since knowing the two teens Bumblebee had seen changes in them. It only heightened his awareness of how little time he had with his closest friends.

It was funny how he had never developed such close ties with others of his kind, but Bumblebee easily attributed that to the actualities of his creation and the war that made getting close with anyone a hazardous proposition. Jazz had been his closest comrade, mostly because even though he was his superior officer, the mouthy and laid back mech had refused at act the part.

It must have been because Bumblebee was in such a rush that he never realized Ironhide would be standing right in front of him when he entered the complex. That is until he found himself looking down the barrel of a cocked and loaded cannon. Bumblebee's processor struggled to come up with a possible scenario that would led Ironhide to view him as a threat suitable for deactivation. But nothing came up and no defence came to mind before the weapons officer fired.

Bumblebee didn't even have time to off-line his optics before the explosion, therefore, indelibly imprinted into his memory was the sight of an enormous puff of smoke, the expulsion of tiny bits of paper, highly reflective squares of plastic and impossibly long strips of brightly colored paper. At the exact moment of the explosion was a comically anti-climactic 'pop' and the coursed cheer of seven human voices.

"Happy Birthday!"

How could he have forgotten! As diligent as he had been in cataloguing every move Sam and Mikaela made, analyzing every word they said, looking for the inconsistencies in their stories, he had never seen this coming. How could they have pulled this off without him knowing? They simply couldn't have found the time...

"You!" Bumblebee accused his leader in surprised realization. Optimus just stood there, arms crossed in a relaxed stance grinning all the while.

"The point of a surprise party," Mikaela started informing him from somewhere at his feet. He finally looked away from Optimus' bemused dark blue optics to find her under Sam's arm. "Is for everyone to know except the guest of honor."

"And it works even better when we know that you knew what we were up to!" Sam told him brightly, before dropping a whisper to his girlfriend's ear, "We did know, right?" Mikaela rolled her eyes but nodded, making Sam smile all the more for getting the confusing sentence correct. Bumblebee suspected that he had practiced it a few times, most likely in his bedroom mirror.

He stood there too stunned to move even when Glen Whitmann yelled quite loudly for an organic to 'Get this party started!'. The cavernous space was instantly filled with music and moving colored lights that Bumblebee assumed were under the hacker's control where he stood behind large black boxes with wires and connections running everywhere.

"They made me do it," Ironhide grumbled, looking forlornly at his obviously altered cannon.

"Oh would you stop complaining. It was the only thing the children asked of you," Ratchet scolded as he began to assist Optimus in removing the streamers from Bumblebee's head and shoulders, and just about everywhere else the strips had found an angle to hang on to. Bumblebee was sure it was going to take months for him to get all the confetti and glitter out.

"I will have you back up and destroying everything in sight in no time," Ratchet continued.

"Yeah, and what am I going to do if we're attacked?" Ironhide demanded as he shook his arm to get rid of the left over glitter.

"Well, if the shock does not put them off-line," Optimus told his weapons officer solemnly, "the laughter should."

Ironhide stomped away to a table and stools that Bumblebee had just realized had been set up across the room. On the table was a box and a pile of small glowing cubes.

"Is that what I think it is?" Bumblebee had to ask, because he simply could not trust his optics.

"Yes, Energon Cubes," Optimus confirmed. "Ratchet worked very hard to get the cube generator working in time."

Ratchet made a gruff noise that was something between a 'humph' and a growl. "Mikaela must have been created for interrogation function."

Suddenly the music was muted, much to Glen's displeasure if his shout was anything to go by. The gathered humans; Sam, Mikaela, Captain Lennox, his wife Sarah, their daughter Megan in her father's arms, Sargent Epps, Maggie and Glen looked up at him expectantly and the only thing Bumblebee thought to do was sit on the floor to get closer to them.

"Alright everyone, for safety reasons, and because someone couldn't wait to dip into the cake..." Sam said, glaring in Glen's direction.

"What! My blood sugar was crashing!"

"Meaning that he hadn't had any Fruity Pebbles in about an hour," Maggie supplied. By the look of confusion on everyone's face accept Glen's, Bumblebee could see that he wasn't the only one not getting the reference.

"Cake vandalism aside," Sam said loudly to drown out Glen's protests, "We, that being Mikaela, decided that presents should be first so that everyone can move forward with eating, drinking, dancing and energizing. Who's up first?"

Captain Lennox handed his daughter to Sarah, straightened his dress uniform, removed something from his pocket and then took a place next to his Sargent, who was already standing to attention in a very serious way. The two of them approached him with measured steps, their heads held high and their bodies held ridged. Once they stood directly in front of them, Captain Lennox open the small box covered in some kind of fabric to reveal its contents.

"It is with great honor to present to you, Autobot Bumblebee, the Silver Star by order of the President. It is awarded to you for gallantry in action while serving the U.S. Armed Forces and distinguishing yourself by displaying extraordinary heroism in action against an enemy of the United States."

Mikaela must have realized the problem he had with actually taking such an important, but tiny, gift, because she came forward quickly to accept the metal in his stead. The two officers snapped into a salute that Bumblebee realized he had to return, by direction of Sarah Lennox behind her husband's back. He felt just a little silly sitting there on the floor, saluting the two very serious looking humans, but once relieved of their duty the two officers reverted to smiles and sincere words of congratulations.

Maggie was next. She gave him a small computer device, which Mikaela accepted for him, loaded with every legally downloadable song, sound bite or recording she could find. Bumblebee noticed that she took much pleasure in emphasizing the 'legal' part in Glen's direction. To which her sometimes coworker, just rolled his eyes, shook his head and handed Mikaela his gift.

"From me to you Big Yellow, to decorate your room, if you ever get one."

"It would have been done by now, if I had not been commanded to work on non-essential items first," Ratchet called in his defense. The humans laughed, and Bumblebee was sure that wasn't the first time they had heard that complaint.

While everyone was distracted with teasing Ratchet, Glen leaned in close to whisper, "And later on, I think we need to do some textin' up, because your security is anything but."

Alarmed, Bumblebee scanned the contents of the computer Glen had given and was shocked to see that it contained hundreds of precisely selected and carefully edited still pictures from his own security surveillance of Sam and Mikaela's homes. Some were serious, most were not, capturing candid moments between friends suitable for framing.

Mikaela quieted everyone down while she went to the table set up for the humans back against the wall and under Ratchet's workbench. She set down the Silver Star and the two computers and picked up a plain white envelope. When she got to Sam's side she grabbed hold of his shoulders and bodily moved him to stand directly in front of Bumblebee. Once there, she handed Sam the envelope and told him to open it for the guest of honor.

"But I thought we were getting him seat covers," Sam asked in confusion, opening the present as directed anyway.

"And exactly where would they go once he transformed?" Mikaela asked her boyfriend.

"Good point," Sam said, obviously not having thought of it before. "But what is this?" Sam asked as he pulled out a thick fold of paper and unfolded it.

"Well, male bonding is very important to a young man, and even though Bumblebee is only," she consulted her watch, "twenty minuets old, there's no time like the present. Besides, it's a right of passage."

"But this... these are..." Sam stuttered flipping through the papers rapidly. For the first time Bumblebee wished that Sam had been born with a window in his head so that he could see what he was looking at.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense," Maggie said excitedly, "what is it?"

Seeing that Sam was still not able to articulate a full sentence, Mikaela spoke for him, "It's a paid in full road trip to the National Car Exposition in Miami."

"Florida!" Sam exclaim in case no one knew where Miami was.

Bumblebee was surprised, but confused. Mikaela already knew that he had been all over the United States in search of the Witwicky progenies, far more than a simple trip from California to Florida would be.

"Man, I would have killed for that at seventeen!" Sergeant Epps exclaimed enviously. "I might fight ya for it now." Sam tucked the papers to his chest protectively.

"Just imagine, no parents, no curfews, no responsibilities, just you and your car and the open road," Captain Lennox said, a dreamy far off look to his face.

Optimus must have sensed his confusion, and Bumblebee was grateful that he didn't have to ask the reason behind the present that obviously had taken quite a lot of effort on Mikaela's part to put together.

"From now until the day before the children have to return to school you are here by placed on leave," Optimus told him. "I do not expect to see you, hear from you or otherwise know what you are up to until your return. Is that understood?"

It took a moment for it to sink in. A leave of absence was something that had never crossed his processor. He had always been on duty from the moment he was activated. The concept was complete alien.

"We are going on a road trip!" Sam screamed to the delight of the other party guests. The teen grabbed his girlfriend around the waist and spun her around in a circle, laughing and bouncing all the while.

At that point, Glen reactivated the music and the party was in full swing again, at least for the humans. Bumblebee stood to get out of the way when the humans began to dance around the floor.

"We have a present as well," Optimus informed him, as he led the still stunned and confused mini-bot to the Cybertronian sized table. Ironhide and Ratchet stood when he approached and Bumblebee was now the one looking up. They said not a word as Optimus handed him the box he had noticed earlier.

It was still small, only a quarter the size of his hand, but easily large enough for him to manipulate open. Inside was a single delicate circuit card. The only time he had seen one was after it had been extracted from a fallen comrade.

"It's been too long a time coming," Ironhide said with one of his rare smiles.

"But this is..." Bumblebee couldn't bring himself to name it aloud for fear it would evaporate in his hand. A Final Closure down load circuit, only Full-Term activated Cybertronians had them.

"I will install it before you leave on your trip, unless you need to make some additions before I do," Ratchet said kindly, referring to the designations listed on the card's surface. The place for Creator was filled, but the areas for Bonded and Second, were blank.

Bumblebee felt his systems fluttering on the brink of complete shut down, his spark was burning so intensely he thought it might burst from his chest.

"Come take a walk with me," Optimus said warmly, giving a slight tug to get Bumblebee moving towards the door. "You look like you need to decompress."

"Bee?"

Bumblebee heard Mikaela's voice as if it were far away, but the concern in her eyes was very close. He said he was fine, but the lowering of her eyebrows told him that she didn't believe him. She looked over his shoulder, to Optimus Bumblebee quested, and whatever she had seen there must have reassured her.

"Just remember we need you to cut the cake," she told him with a comforting smile as she returned to her task.

The two Autobots walk outside to the cooling desert air. Night had fallen rapidly revealing a moonless sky, but to his optics starlight was more than enough to see clearly. The two of them walked far enough that the noise of the party no longer competed with sounds of the desert. The expanse was devoid of structure or even real landscape save the mountains, but it felt more alive than Bumble had ever felt Cybertron to be.

"When you were built our need for a sentry was dire," Optimus began, his optics looking out over the same sand. "By that time in the war, most of the sentinels had been destroyed and we had been separated from the main core of the forces."

Bumblebee had heard this story before, or at least part of it from Ironhide. While in recovery from nearly fatal wounds, the large weapons officer had told him of a period of time where it had been only he, Optimus and Ratchet. How they had been in hiding, surrounded by Decepticons, waiting for their chance to escape. The story had ended with, 'Then we had you. Those creeps never knew what hit 'em'. Later, when Bumblebee had a chance to get to know Ironhide without neural blocks in place, he attributed Ironhide's chattiness to having his offensive and defensive diagnostics off-lined to keep him calm while he healed.

"My original design and function had been that of a Creator before I was reconfigured," Bumblebee was shocked at Optimus' revelation. He knew that almost everyone had been reconfigured after the war had started, with Ironhide being a double exception, a soldier that hadn't joined the Decepticon cause and therefor didn't need to be reconfigured. But Optimus didn't give him time to process that information before he revealed more.

"For some reason the Matrix saw fit to leave me stranded with the one mech old enough to remember that. Ratchet had refused my order to fashion a pre-loaded sentinel, sighting his previous so called failure, so the task was left to me."

Bumblebee knew little of Ratchet's foray in being a Creator, except that it was something that you did not discuss with the medic. But again, Optimus gave him no time to contemplate, only listen.

"My existence as a creator was very short lived," Optimus continued, and Bumblebee was sure his leader sounded embarrassed. "Though I had created and brought online a few dozen Pre-loads, I never felt I was ready to create a Full-term, so I never did, but I should have known from the instant you were brought online that you were much more than I had intended you to be."

Optimus paused long enough to turn and face Bumblebee, his deep blue optics locked on the Final Closure down load circuit still in the smaller mech's hand.

"Ratchet put my designation down as your Creator, but in truth Bumblebee, you are a true child of the Matrix and the Cube."

If this little talk was meant to calm his nerves, Bumblebee thought Optimus was failing miserably. The very first mechs brought online were believe to be children of the Matrix, the driving destiny of all living things, and the Allspark, the source of life itself. The only thing equivalent in human terms were angels.

"We should have known when we were reunited with Jazz and he mistook you for a wayward soldier we had picked up in his absence, but we were blinded by what we thought we knew."

Bumblebee had not realized himself the significance of Jazz's mistake until he had met his first Pre-load other than himself, Roller. The little bot excelled at its job but that was because its pre-loaded programming was all it knew, its only purpose and reason for existence. Over time, Bumblebee met more Pre-loads and came to realize that they were not much more than highly functioning, trained pets. But the realization of what he was meant to be, was tempered by the fact that no Cybertonian he had ever met, with the exception of Wheeljack, had ever guessed what he was. And that was only because the inventor had noticed that he did not have a Final Closure down load circuit when he had to repair him once.

"I know that I can never give back the experience of being Full-term that I stole from you," Optimus continued and Bumblebee wanted to deny that he was upset by not growing and learning as other Cybertronians had, but found that he couldn't. "But maybe in a small way this little right of passage of Sam's can also be your own."

Optimus placed both of his massive hands on Bumblebee's shoulders and the Autobot scout thought he could actually see the strength of Optimus' spark shine in his optics.

"Go, have a good time, forget about the war, the Decepticons, and old rusting mechs that have nothing better to do than reminisce about the past. Live in the present, dream about the future and remember all that is precious to you."

Bumblebee watched Optimus walk back to the in-process compound, leaving him there to deal with more than he had ever hoped he'd have. In his hand was the one thing that physically separated him from his comrades.

Bumblebee struggled to recall the very first moments of his existence, those precious seconds just after he had been brought online. He remembered Optimus looking down at him, asking him if he was functioning, and he had responded in the affirmative after his internal diagnostics came back clear. Then Optimus had asked if he was ready to get to work, and that was where the difference truly came in.

Not in the card in his hand or the fact that he would never have to learn on his own all the simple things like walking, talking, and transforming, but in the fact that he had been given a choice. Pre-loads had no choice. They were built with a single purpose and they performed it without question. But he was given a choice, and he clearly remembered weighting his options and examining the facts and in the end deciding that he would indeed like to get to work.

Bumblebee then realized that everything thing inside of him, in some way, was a reflection of Optimus his Creator, but nothing more than that. He had been given, pre-loaded, with everything Optimus thought was essential to his function, but he had never been told what to think, what to do or how to apply it, he had come up with that all on his own, as any Full-term would have to.

Now the circuit in Bumblebee's hand meant little more to him than Sam's driver's license meant to his human. Important and precious as any other milestone in life would be, but it didn't make him any more Cybertronian than he already was.

Every step back to home lightened an unknown burden from his shoulders, and Bumblebee was ready for whatever might happen next. Bumblebee reentered the party and saw the humans gathered around Ironhide's feet. He didn't need centuries upon centuries to realize who he was or wanted to be.

"Who wants to play 'Pin the Tailgate to the Pickup Truck'?" Sam asked and was immediately covered in glitter, confetti and streamers.

Bumblebee was a Guardian, and a slagging good scout when he wanted to be, and by the look of things it was going to be a long 80 years if Sam didn't get on the ball soon and figure out what he was meant to be other than a pain in the weapons officer's aft.

"I think I might keep this just a little bit longer," Ironhide said with a devious grin before he took aim.

Author's notes:

It would seem that I have inadvertently confused some of my audience. (I have an audience ::grin::) This story was originally my way of giving screen time to the personal interactions of the characters and to give my opinion on little things I've noticed about Transformers over the years. I didn't start with a plot in mind, but apparently the story has picked one up along the way.

The Pre-loaded and Full-term is my way of explaining Transformers like; Roller (the little buggy bot of Optimus' from G1), Optimus' trailer that could function on its own but only at Optimus' order, some of the cassettes (Ravage, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw) and the actual Guardians that were on Cybertron in G1. I began to wonder, in a world where everything that was living had to first be intentionally built, why have living creatures that didn't seem to have the same independent thinking as the rest of the Cybertonians? So, I came up with the conclusion that it was intentional. So in my mind (a very colorful and scary place without a map) Pre-loaded and Full-terms were born. I came up with this idea waaaaaay back in G1 and just applied it to the movie. And since the Transformers universe changes with every generation/season I just decided to put my own spin on it.

Full-terms are created and have very minimal programming already present at activation (the equivalent of instincts in humans), otherwise they learn for themselves over time, they 'grow-up'.

Pre-loads are Transformers built with a single purpose, whether it is guarding something, or obeying their master. They hit the ground running with everything they need to complete their designed task. There faster to construct and no time is lost in raising them up.

I felt that the issue of Pre-loads and Full-terms needed to be brought up before the surprise plot was sprung on everyone out of the blue. It was meant to be a heads up before it's brought up again later in the story.

I came up with Bumblebee being initially created as a Pre-load because of his apparent youth, despite his obvious skill, his seemingly instantaneous desire to become Sam's Guardian, and his lack of a mouth. Yep, you read right, no mouth. Everyone else got one, why not him? At first I blew it off thinking that the animators were trying to make a visual point that Bumblebee (at least in the beginning of the movie) could not speak. Then I bought the trade paperback prequel, and even there, before his lost of voice, he was drawn without a mouth. Now if Bumblebee was created with the intention of him being a Pre-load, why build him a mouth with which to speak, if Pre-loads are basically mute? (If you look at the examples I listed earlier none of them speak out loud) I know it's a stretch but I thought it would make for a neat back-story.

When the Optimus in my story compares Bumblebee to the first Transformers (the angels as Bumblebee names them), he's being more philosophical than literal. Basically Optimus feels that the Matrix must have been guiding his actions when he was constructing Bumblebee, because obviously the little bot became more than he had intended him to be. Optimus doesn't feel that he deserves the credit for how well Bumblebee turned out mainly because he feels guilty. But I think maybe, just maybe it had more to do with Optimus' unconscious desire to return to the way things were, to a time before the war, that drove him to create Bumblebee the way he did. Again, just my spin on the idea, not cannon fact.

From this point forward the story is going to become more and more a function of my imagination than cannon fact. Basically I'll be using the 2007 Movie as the universe I'm creating in while at the same time bringing back ideas and characters from G1. Since I'll be using my memories from G1 (twenty years old memories mind you) I won't get everything right, but like I said, this is a new mutated conversion of the 2007 Movie and G1.

I also want to take this time to thank the reviewers. You have been very helpful and encouraging and made this little bit of entertainment even more fun to make. Let's face it, I'm a review junkie. I'm tickled pink that the humor that I worked at getting in there has come through. It always seemed to be a very intimate part of any of the Transformers' universes. The friendships between the characters were also very strong in my mind from every season. And the spelling (Jason M. Lee ::grin::) is completely my fault. I'd love to blame it on my Beta, but I don't have one so I'll take the hit. I'm going back and editing the chapters for corrections. I'm not entirely sure where this is all going, but I'm glad you guys have enjoyed the ride so far.

And you are correct KaindeAmedha419, Megatron always finds a way back. And Jazz…. Honestly, I'm terrified to write him. He was one of my all time favorites and I'm not sure I could do him justice even if I found a way to bring him back believably. But where there is hope there is life, or so I've been told.

Well, that's all folks, going to go back to writing the next part. Let's see, we've heard from Optimus, Ironhide, Sam, Ratchet, and Bumblebee. I wonder who could be next….