Summary: Bumblebee's afraid of needles and Blinx tries to get to the source of his fear.
BEE'S PHOBIA.
"Uh…tell me why we're here again?" Bumblebee asked as he pulled into the parking lot of the Detroit High School.
"Because the high school is doing a blood drive and my co-worker Pammy is donating, I told you that before we left, but you probably weren't listening." Blinx said before getting out.
Bumblebee transformed into bot mode and followed her as she searched for her co-worker.
"So, what's a blood drive anyway?" He asked.
"A blood drive is an event set up by people who work in hospitals, the purpose is that people donate their blood and it's given to others that have lost their own blood in severe accidents or if they're really sick. These are usually held in local schools or in a special medical bus and is open to the public." Blinx explained.
"Are you going to be doing it?"
"No, I'm just here because Pammy needed someone to give her comfort, and out of all the other co-workers, she picked me."
"And why am I here?"
"To give her a ride home. Having a pint of blood taken out of you can make you dizzy and disoriented, I'm not letting her ride her bike home in that condition. Hey there she is."
They then approached a brown haired woman who was waiting for them at the gymnasium door.
"So, you ready for this, Pammy?" Blinx asked.
"I think so." Pammy replied, sounding nervous.
"Can I ask something? How do they obtain the blood from the person?" Bumblebee questioned.
"Oh they use this blood pressure cuff to squeeze your upper arm with, then they have this big needle that they stick in your arm to get to the blood and then they"
Pammy stopped describing when she saw the mech go white in the face with a look of fear in his optics.
"C-Can I wait out here? …Please?" He whimpered.
"No one's asking you to come in. Besides, you can't fit through the door anyway." Blinx said.
With that, the girls went into the gymnasium. Bumblebee looked through a window on the side of the building and went even paler when he saw everything that Pammy described, he recoiled from the window and slid down to the ground.
A wave of nausea over swept the yellow bot, making him feel sick to his fuel tank, he took a few deep intakes and the nausea vanished. Bumblebee then pulled his knees close to his chest and stared at the concrete, beginning to lose all connection of everything around him.
Flashback
"Bumblebee! My ball's stuck!" Bulkhead yelled.
Bumblebee rushed over to his distressed friend as the green bot's wrecking ball hand got trapped between two large chunks of asteroid rock, the yellow mech blasted the rocks to pebbles with his stingers, freeing his buddy.
"Thanks, Bumblebee." Bulkhead said.
"No prob, Bulkster."
Soon Optimus approached the with his ax in his hand.
"Are you two having a problem?" He asked.
"No, Bossbot, it's been taken care of." Bumblebee replied.
"Good, cuz we need your help over here."
The three then walked over to where Ratchet and Prowl were standing beside a wall of boulders.
"We need to clear these rocks in order to get to the location to plant the detonator in order for this asteroid to blow before it reaches the Space Bridge. Everyone aim for the structural points!" Optimus ordered.
They all did so and the wall went down in less than 1.9 seconds.
"Good work, now all that's left is to plant the detonator and evacuate the asteroid."
However, unknown to the Autobots, a dark figure was watching them from afar. It then crawled down from its perch like a gecko and burrowed into the rocky ground. Prowl suddenly heard a strange digging sound echo from behind and turned to the direction of the sound as he drew his shuriken, the others looked at him as he preformed this action.
"Prowl, what's wrong?" Optimus questioned.
"We're not alone on this asteroid." The ninja-bot said.
Everyone looked around in a concerned manner, the danger became apparent when they saw two large cracks from afar heading right in their direction.
"Everyone move, now!" Optimus yelled.
The crew ran and dodged the cracks before they reached them, Bumblebee however, went in the opposite direction of the others. As he ran, he stepped on an unstable spot and fell into a dark tunnel, screaming as he slid down the rocky tunnel to his uncertain fate.
Flashback interrupted
Bumblebee was snapped out of his trance when a sudden hard force struck him in the temple, he yelled in pain and looked over to see Blinx with Pammy leaning on her and a brick right next to him.
"What the slag was that for?" Bumblebee snapped.
"To get you to wake up from your little daydream." Blinx rudely replied.
"You could've just yelled!"
"I tried that, but your ears didn't seem to be working…or whatever it is that you hear with."
Bumblebee scowled and transformed into car mode, Blinx put Pammy's bike in the trunk and helped the lightheaded Pammy in the passenger's seat before getting in herself and they left the school grounds. After dropping Blinx and Pammy off at their homes, Bumblebee returned to the base and turned on the TV to the music video channel.
He noticed that the living quarters was empty and quiet when he arrived, but shrugged it off as nothing to worry about. Unknown to him, Bulkhead peeked out from the hallway and was watching him.
"Green Machine to Docbot, the bee has landed in the hive and is vulnerable." He whispered into his COM link.
"What the slag did you say?" Ratchet said from the other end.
"Bumblebee has returned to base."
"Well say it in normal words when you tell me. I swear to Primus, you've been watching too much of that secret spy nonsense. Now remember the plan."
"Got it."
Bulkhead then stepped out into the open, it didn't take too long for Bumblebee to notice he was right behind him.
"Oh, hey, Bulkhead. What's up?"
"Nothing much. But can you help me with something?"
"Sure."
The yellow bot turned off the TV and followed his friend down the hallway to a dark room.
"It's in here." Bulkhead said.
Bumblebee gave a confused look and stepped into the pitched black room, unaware of what was really happening.
"Um, Bulkster…can you turn on the light please?"
Suddenly the light from the hallway vanished and the sound of the door shutting was heard, Bumblebee then felt hands grabbing his limbs and pushing him to the floor. He yelled and struggled to get up, but the sudden force overpowered him. He suddenly felt something bind his hands behind his back and his feet being tied up, he now couldn't move.
The light suddenly went on, making the mech shut his optics for a moment until they could adjust. When he reopened them, he found himself tied to a pole with his hands restrained behind him with stasis cuffs and chains binding around his feet to the pole. He also realized he was in the med bay and the rest of the Autobots were standing around him.
"Hey, what's going on? Is this some kind of sick joke?" The bot yelled.
"Sorry I tricked you, Bumblebee, but it was the only way to get you in the med bay." Bulkhead apologized.
"Tricked me? What for?"
No one said a word, they just wore a look of pity, that was until Ratchet spoke.
"It's that time again, kid."
Bumblebee's optics then grew wide with horror and fear when he realized what that meant. Every stellar cycle, the medic took fluid samples from the meches to test them for toxins that posed a harmful threat to their systems. Bumblebee hated needles, he hated them with every fiber cable of his being. He should have seen it coming from the moment he got bound to the pole, he always needed to be restrained when his turn came.
"I know you hate it, kid, but it has to be done." Ratchet said.
"B-But I always go last! Why am I going first?" Bumblebee asked when he noticed there were no bandages on the other's arms.
"Because whenever you go last, you hide somewhere and it'd take us a half a megacycle to find you, afterwards you put up a fight when you're bein' restrained. I decided to do you first cuz you'd least suspect it and make the trouble less difficult." The docbot explained.
He then took a Cybertronian sized syringe out of a drawer and removed the sterile packet, Bumblebee began to yell and pull on his restraints as he began to have a panic attack.
"Someone hold him still and shut him up!" Ratchet ordered.
Optimus held the little bot in place as Prowl clapped his hand over the bot's mouth, Bumblebee's panic attack grew worse as Ratchet came closer with the syringe. Suddenly the panic reached critical max and Bumblebee's blinding rage was unleashed, a sudden burst of superhuman strength broke the link of the cuffs, freeing his hands.
He then activated his stingers and shot his comrades away, knocking them out as he did so. Bumblebee then ripped the chains from his feet and escaped the med bay, transforming into car mode as he ran out the base and drove away at lightning speed.
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"Ugh…goddamn faulty chain." Blinx grunted as she tried to fix her bike chain.
And just when she couldn't get more annoyed, her cell phone rang. Blinx was in no mood to deal with whoever was calling, but answered anyway.
"Who is it and what do you want?"
She suddenly changed her attitude when she heard Ratchet on the other end.
"Blinx, it's Ratchet. Have you seen Bumblebee?"
"Not since an hour ago. Why?"
"He went berserk and attacked us and then drove off."
"What? Why?"
"Don't ask."
"Do you know where he went?"
"No."
"…Did you try calling him or tracking his energy signal?"
"We did, but he seems to have blocked out any ways of reachin' him."
"Don't worry, I'll go look for him."
With that, Blinx ended the call and tweaked the chain a little more until it was fixed, she then hopped on and went to look for her yellow friend.
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Bumblebee was hiding under a dark shaded bridge, hoping to keep out of sight from his comrades if they came looking for him, which they probably were. But he knew he wouldn't stay hidden forever, they would find him eventually and he would have to suffer even more, until then, he was safe.
Bumblebee just sat there in the rough moist dirt, head resting on his knees and his optics closed, trying to close his processor off from the world around.
Flashback
Bumblebee shot out of the end of the tunnel and crash landed hard. After regaining his bearings, he turned on his light and saw he was in a cave of some kind, stalactites were hanging from the ceiling and dripping with some strange whitish green slime and it smelled really awful.
"Bumblebee! Are you alright?" Optimus's voice echoed from the tunnel's end.
"I'm fine, Prime, but I'm stuck! I can't get back up through the tunnel, it's too steep!" Bumblebee shouted up the hole.
"Stay where you are, we're digging through the ground now, we should reach you in about 5 cycles!"
Bumblebee hoped it would be less than that, because a sudden echoing scuffle was soon heard. The scared bot slowly turned his head to face what was making the noise and his oil ran cold, dark figures shaped like scorpions crawled down the walls and were inching their way towards him.
"Uh…guys? Could you maybe dig a little more faster? Cuz I don't think I'm the only one down here!" Bumblebee called up the hole.
The creatures inched closer into his light, their 6 glowing red eyes raising his fear to uncharted heights.
Flashback interrupted
Bumblebee was once again snapped out of his trance when a sudden pain shot through his foot. He then came into eye contact with Blinx and saw that she left a fist sized dent in his left foot.
"Slag it! Would you stop hitting me?" He yelled.
"Hey, shouting at you doesn't help wake you up." Blinx rudely said.
Bumblebee suddenly realized that Blinx had found him and feared she'd drag him back to the base against his will.
"Wait…h-how'd you find me?"
"A giant yellow robot under a bridge ain't too hard to see, especially if you're on this side of the freeway." Blinx said as she pointed at the road behind her.
The bot pressed his back hard against the concrete wall as if he was trying to push through the wall to escape.
"Relax, Bee, I'm not gonna take you back to the plant yet. But I want to know why you attacked your own friends. What'd they ever do to you?" Blinx said.
Bumblebee said nothing until he could no longer take Blinx giving him a fixated stern look.
"It's not what they did…it's what they tried to do."
The blue haired girl's eyes grew wide at what she thought he was talking about.
"Oh my god! Did they try to"
"No! Not what you're thinking of. …Ratchet was going to stick me and I kinda went a little crazy.""…Ohhhhhh, I get it now. Do you…want to talk to me about it?"
Bumblebee just looked away from her without saying a word.
"Ok, I understand you don't want to talk, but I think I can help you. Come to the roof of the box factory in 20 minutes and we'll have a little discussion. If you don't want to, that's fine, but I'll be waiting just in case."
With that, Blinx climbed back up to the road to where her bike was parked and rode away. Bumblebee was reluctant about it at first, but after 10 minutes for thinking about it, he decided to go and accept her help. He got back on the road and transformed into car mode and drove over to the factory.
When he got there, he found a ladder made out of pipes leading to the roof waiting for him. When he reached the top, he found Blinx waiting for him, just like she said.
"There you are, I was starting to think you weren't gonna show up." The blue haired girl said.
She beckoned the bot over to where 4 covered objects were, they both sat down on opposite sides facing each other before Blinx spoke.
"Now, I've been thinking over what you said and I looked up some stuff. Now I'm not one who specializes in psychological problems, but I believe you're suffering from Aichmophobia, a fear of sharp pointed objects.
I read of the things that people with that phobia fear and I decided to try something I personally call object therapy. Under these 4 sheets are objects that trigger the fear reaction, when I lift the sheet, you tell me if you're afraid of the object under it or not."
Bumblebee nodded then Blinx lifted up the first sheet on her left, revealing a small box of sewing needles and pins.
"The first object is a box of pins and needles used for sewing. Do these scare you?"
"No." Bumblebee answered.
Blinx lifted the second sheet, revealing a pencil underneath.
"The second is a pencil. Are you scared of this?"
The bot shook his head, the third sheet was then lifted, revealing a stick.
"The third is a stick from a tree. Does this scare you?"
"No. Why would I be scared of a stick?" Bumblebee replied.
The fourth and final mysterious object was all that was left, the sheet was large so it was obviously something big.
"Are you ready for the final object?" Blinx questioned.
"I think so." Bumblebee replied.
With that, Blinx quickly pulled the sheet away, revealing much to Bumblebee's sheer horror, a giant needle syringe. Of course it was just a cardboard replica, but the bot didn't know that. An image of a large needle attached to a bulb-ended tail flashed in Bumblebee's memory core and he started to go berserk with fear.
Activating his stingers, he began shooting electrical bolts all over in a blind frenzy, trying to destroy the syringe. Blinx took shelter behind the domed structure that was the doorway that led into the factory in order to avoid getting hit.
"Stop, Bumblebee, stop! It's not real! It's just cardboard!" She screamed.
The bot stopped shooting and looked at the now mangled replica, he dropped onto his rear as Blinx emerged from her hiding spot and approached him with an angry look.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Bumblebee? You could've electrocuted me! Was it even necessary to use your weapons on a syringe made out of cardboard?"
Blinx suddenly noticed that Bumblebee was frozen stiff, only shaking slightly, and had a glassy gaze of fear in his optics.
Flashback
Bumblebee jumped up and down in a panicked manner, trying to reach the hole he came out of, but it was too high up. A claw suddenly rammed itself into the wall, dangerously close to the small bot. completely scared shitless, Bumblebee sprinted away, screaming like a cat being murdered.
He suddenly realized he had weapons and activated them, he stopped running and turned around to shoot, only to have a grayish white gunk shot by the creatures cover them completely. Bumblebee desperately tried to shake the gunk off, but to no avail.
The creatures fired their gunk again with great force, plastering Bumblebee's limbs to the wall rendering him unable to move. The larger of the creatures came into the bot's light, revealing its true horrifying appearance. It was a scorpion like alien monster that was purple, had 6 red eyes, large claws, had two large bulbs on its back, and its tail was transparent with a bulb on the end harboring a large razor sharp hollow needle.
The alien sniffed the bot all over, then let out an unbearable howl. Bumblebee screamed for his comrades to help him, he was soon silenced by the monster shooting gunk over his mouth. Before the yellow mech could blink, the alien pulled back its tail and rammed its needle dead center into it's victim's abdomen, causing a horrible firey pain to pulse through Bumblebee.
The monster then began to suck the energon from the bot's body and transfer it into its bulbs, Bumblebee could only helplessly watch as his energon was traveling through the transparent tail, being drained of his life. His systems began to shut down and his vision began to grow dark, Bumblebee feared this was the end for him as he started to slip into unconsciousness.
The last thing he saw before blacking out was an explosion and a light shining from above. Bumblebee came back online several hours later, seeing the faces of his comrades staring down at him.
"Bumblebee, thank Primus you're online!" Bulkhead cried out.
"W-What happened?" Bumblebee managed to say.
"We blasted through the ground and saved yer chassis before you went offline permanently, kid. Those things nearly drained half yer energon, yer fortunate you managed to survive." Ratchet said.
Bumblebee looked down at the spot where he got stabbed and saw it was wrapped in bandages, he then gazed up and saw he was hooked up to a spark monitor and there was a cube of energon hanging beside, him flowing into his arm through a tube.
"What about the monsters? What happened to them?" He asked.
"Probably all wiped out. We hightailed it off the asteroid and detonated the bomb, I highly doubt any of em survived." Ratchet explained.
"Will I be ok?"
"You'll be fine, kid, there wasn't any damage done to yer systems."
"Bumblebee, I'm relieving you of your duties until you recover, you need to rest after what happened." Optimus said.
Bumblebee's answer was a nod and the others left the med bay to return to their duties. The bot lay motionless in the empty room, the only sound being the beeping of the monitor, he gazed at the ceiling with a traumatized look in his optics. The worst may have ended, but it would all be a permanent scar inflicted in his memory.
Flashback end
Bumblebee suddenly felt a cold wet substance come into contact with his face, snapping him out of his trance of fear. When he cleared the substance from his optics, he saw Blinx holding a dripping bucket and that she had splashed water over him with it. He scowled at her, showing he was pissed.
"Hey, at least I didn't hit you this time." Blinx rudely said. "Ok, I did some rethinking while you were in your freaky state and realized I made a mistake. Turns out you actually have Trypanophobia, a fear of medical needles. When you only reacted to the cardboard and not the other objects, I realized I got the terms mixed up. Aichmophobia is usually inappropriately used to describe Trypanophobia and"
"What was the whole point of this if you just figured that out? Are you mentally damaged?" Bumblebee yelled at her.
"Hey, I tried to help you and you opened fire on something that was recognizably fake! I don't know what your fuckin' problem is, but there's no reason to yell at me!"
The bot snarled and turned his head away from her.
"Fine, if you're gonna be an asshole about it, then I see no point in talking to you. I'm gonna call Prime so the others can pick you up."
Blinx then took out her cell phone and flipped it open to dial the number.
"Blinx, wait." Bumblebee said at the last minute.
The noah paused and looked over at him, seeing him look hesitant and uncomfortable.
"I don't like to talk about it because I wanted to forget it, but I think I should tell you."
Blinx closed her phone and sat down in front of him, ears open.
"The reason I'm scared of needles…" Bumblebee began. "…is because I had a near offlining experience with something close to one. It was stellar cycles before we came to earth, we got an assignment to blow up a gigantic asteroid before it collided with a Space Bridge.
We thought it was uncolonized, but we were wrong. Before we found out, these huge cracks in the ground came right for us, we ran and I fell into a tunnel that took me into a cave inside the asteroid. The others were trying to dig me out, but then I was attacked by these monstrous aliens.
They were ugly and gross, they looked like spiders with tails, they had 6 red eyes and claws that could crush solid steel into dust, they had bulbs on their backs and the ends of their tails had a bulb with a big needle sticking out of it. I ran away then I tried to fight, but then I was glued to the wall by the goop they shot from their mouths.
Then the biggest of them all pulled his tail back and stabbed right into my gut and started to suck out my energon, I didn't know what they'd use it for. I was in so much pain and I felt like I was gonna go offline, then I passed out before I saw what happened next.
When I woke up, I was back on the ship and was in the med bay with the others surrounding me. I was told the asteroid was destroyed and those things were all killed in the process. After everything that happened, I never wanted to see another needle again."
After Bumblebee finished his story, Blinx began to feel pity for what her friend had gone through.
"Shit, it must have been hell to have that happen to you. But at least you weren't tail raped or that would've been a worse hell."
"That's not funny, Blinx, it was like a living nightmare that could physically hurt you, I almost died!"
"I'm not trying to be funny, I'm saying you were lucky you got away with only a puncture wound."
"Lucky doesn't make the nightmares go away, and what you did just made it worse. I'm not saying I didn't want you to help, I just can't do this."
"Look I understand you were traumatized, but you can't keep running away from it. Sooner or later you're gonna have to suck it up and face your fears, and I think you know I'm right."
The words Blinx said really penetrated Bumblebee's processor, he did need to face his fear, and it'd have to be sooner or never.
"Alright, I'll do it and I won't put up a fight. But can you do me a favor?"
"What's that?"
"Can you come with me and give me comfort like you did with Pammy at the blood drive?"
"Sure I can."
With that, they left the roof and made their way to the base. When they arrived, the other were waiting for them, they all had bandages on their arms meaning they had their fluid samples taken after Bumblebee ran off.
"Well it's about time you got back, kid." Ratchet gruffly said.
"Me and Blinx kinda had a little talk, I didn't realize how long it took." Bumblebee said.
"Alright, kid, let's get this over with."
The medic then took out a pair of stasis cuffs and walked over to the bot, but Bumblebee stopped him before they were put on.
"You don't need to use those, Ratchet, I'm not gonna fight this time. I'm doing this and facing my fear. But can Blinx come with me to help me feel at ease?"
"I don't care as long as you let me do my job." Ratchet replied.
They all went to the med bay, Bumblebee hopped onto the edge of the berth as Blinx hoisted herself up next to him.
"Are you sure you're ready?" She asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be." He replied nervously.
Ratchet reached into the drawer and took out a syringe and removed the sterile packaging. Bumblebee felt his anxiety kick in and gestured Blinx to hold his hand, the techno organic did so despite his hand being larger than hers.
Ratchet then walked over to him with the syringe prepped and ready, Bumblebee trembled and began to sweat coolant as the needle came closer. Suddenly his systems shut down, his hand slipped from Blinx's hold and he toppled off the berth.
"Very funny, kid, now be serious." Ratchet said.
Blinx looked at Bumblebee and became concerned when she noticed he wasn't moving.
"Uh, Ratchet…I don't think he's foolin' around."
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Bumblebee's optics came back online, blurred by a sudden aching in his head. When it cleared, he saw a slightly familiar ceiling and Blinx staring down at him. He found himself laying on the cement couch and she was sitting on the head of it.
"Ugh…Where am I? What happened?" He groggily said.
"You fainted after the needle came within 12 inches of you." Blinx explained.
"How long was I out?"
"About a good 2 and a half hours. After the sample was taken, we had to haul your metal butt over to the couch."
"Wait, the sample was taken?"
"Yeah, right after you passed out. By the way, the results came back saying everyone's clean."
Bumblebee looked down at his arm and saw that there was a bandage wrapped around it, a smile of accomplishment suddenly formed on his face.
"I did it, I faced my fear and beat it."
"Um, I don't think fainting counts with that, but I'm proud of you anyway."
Bumblebee just smiled and turned the TV on to the G4 channel, Blinx shrugged and watched with him.