Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Animated or any of the characters and I did draw some inspiration from the TMNT episode "Same As It Never Was" and other post-apocalyptic episodes, so you'll probably spot some similarities.
Warning: Violence. It will build up as the story goes on.
Same As It Never Was
Chapter Two
The drive seemed to go by slowly, especially since Bulkhead ordered Bumblebee to follow behind him into hiding whenever he spotted more of the patrol bots on his scanners. At first Bumblebee believed that they were heading to the factory, but Bumblebee had to remind himself that during the past twenty stellar cycles the homey factory may not even be their base anymore. It may have been destroyed like the other buildings in this dreadful place; wiped away like an old stain as Sari and all of the others were.
"Hey Bulkhead?" Bumblebee quietly called over to the speeding truck while his optical units observed old arches of building after building pass by.
"If you don't want more of the things to find your frequency and come after us, then I suggest you mute your vocal amp. and be quiet," hissed the bulky truck.
Bumblebee really couldn't blame Bulkhead for his attitude, but he was still taken back by his response. He must have seen a lot over the time; Sari, Ratchet, his friends and countless number of innocents purged away like they were nothing, and of top of that, he didn't even have his own body anymore. What did it feel like to wake up from stasis rest every time expecting to see your face, your chassis, but only to remember that you'll never see it again? Bumblebee didn't have an answer, but he tried to respect his older friend's command out of empathy. So, the yellow 'bot did just that and quickly turned down his vocal generator without a single word of argument or a usually snappy comeback about Bulkhead's attitude.
When Bulkhead slowly came to a halt and transformed into his robot mode, Bumblebee quickly pulled behind the large 'bot, his body unfolding as he changed to robot mode as well. He looked at the large, but crumbled building ahead and titled his head slightly. Despite being in a broken state, the warehouse seemed slightly familiar. Bumblebee had seen it before, he was sure of it.
"This is..." Bumblebee drawled, not knowing exactly how to describe it.
Bulkhead glanced over to the smaller 'bot and finished for him, "It's the only haven in this Pit."
"Are Prime and Prowl in there?" Bumblebee asked, motioning to the warehouse curiously.
"You're half right. Let's go," Bulkhead muttered quietly and quickly darted to the building. As Bumblebee pursued after the giant's disappearing form, he couldn't help but to acknowledge that his movements seemed more stern and no longer clumsy.
After climbing over large pieces of rock and concrete lying in the walkway and passing a large slab square of concrete that Bulkhead pushed aside, Bumblebee found himself in a dark, roomy area, where a small amount of humans uneasily paced around to his surprise. Some were carrying papers and some carried weaponry, but one thing that Bumblebee noticed made the humans seem almost identical; each, regardless of gender or age, wore patched clothing and hopeless faces. Where were the bright colors and variety Bumblebee once remembered? Was even expression taken away from these people?
One thing that Bumblebee thought was strange though, was how it was possible that such a large area could be in such a seemingly small building. Unless, there was a holographic projector involved or something that cloaked the building to make it seem less conspicuous.
"Bulkhead? Where are all the people?" Bumblebee asked hesitantly.
"These are "all the people", Bumblebee. The lucky ones anyway..." Bulkhead stated laconically, but barely turned to look atacknowleged the smaller mech. "Megatron sent out those drones to force people to continue making more robots at Sumdac's tower. Expendable labor. A few humans tried to fight back, like Captain Fanzone, but I don't really need to tell you the result. You can see it wherever you look. Detroit is nothing but a battlefield now."
"This is so...horrible," said the yellow 'bot piteously.
"You'll get used to it," Bulkhead replied inexpressively.
"We have to do something Bulkhead!" Bumblebee cried in disbelief.
How could it have come to this?
"Didn't you hear me Bumblebee?! We tried so many times to go against Megatron that I lost count long ago."
"But we can't just let Megatron get away with this future! Maybe if we just--"
"Bumblebee!" Bulkhead snarled suddenly and whipped around. With a menacing looking appearing on his faceplate, the giant took a step towards Bumblebee and seethed his arms through the air diagonally; his frame beginning to rumble with a low roar. "What don't you understand?! Take a look around! Does it really look like we have the time or supplies to worry about going against Megatron right now?! Tell me Bumblebee, is it really worth fighting a battle you know you'll lose?" Bulkhead's ominous voice flooded.
Bumblebee took a single step back as soon as Bulkhead began his bellowing. He still wasn't used to seeing Bulkhead with Lugnut's face and it only made it worse that currently Bulkhead's emotions were being channeled through Lugnut's optic and vocal chords. It was just plain awkward, if not slightly terrifying.
"Is it necessary to be using such a loud, distracting voice, you behemoth? I can't concentrate on my work! Are you sure that you didn't receive Lugnut's...astute... spark as well as his massive body?" A suspiciously familiar, high-pitched voice called from behind Bumblebee.
Quickly Bumblebee turned to look for the owner of the voice, but felt his entire chassis freeze in anxiety after seeing who stood merely feet away. Despite that his entire chest plate was carved in with scratches, the cockpit covering for his spark chamber was shattered, his servo covers were a faded, almost rusted, color, and that his wings were replaced by long, flat blades of a rotor, Bumblebee could never mistake when he was in Starscream's annoying presence.
"You know Starscream, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're trying to insult me," Bulkhead commented slowly as his optic narrowed to a glare at the seeker.
"Wherever would you get an idea like that?" Starscream asked with dry tinted sarcasm. "Well, well, well," Starscream began after he turned his attention to the yellow 'bot, "what do we have here?" Bringing a digit to the chin area of his face place, Starscream scanned Bumblebee up and down a few times with his crimson optics.
Ignoring the antagonizing stares he felt the Decepticon shoot at him and the disgust rising in his system, Bumblebee faced Bulkhead and gave him a questioning glance. "Bulkhead. Why is he here?"
"Don't you know? Oh that's right! You've been gone for nearly twenty solar cycles, haven't you?" Starscream asked with a sly sense of innocence in his tone. "Since that worthless pile of scrap metal got his grubbing clench on the AllSpark, I've had to find some assistance in these little ranks. I'm nothing more than a humble scientist now," Starscream chuckled deeply as he swayed his arms out; trying to emphasize the humble even with contradictory frown on his face.
"Why do I find that hard to believe?" Bumblebee asked with crossed servos.
"Despite the wonderful catching up we've had, I have more important matters to attend to--"
"Starscream." Bumblebee recognized the unperturbed voice of Prowl call out to the seeker and turned to find its source silently curious. Had Prowl drastically changed over the twenty stellar cycles? Did he even have the same chassis as before? "I thought I might find you here. Take these disks to Lockdown. He may be a shoddy medic to turn to, but can decode fairly well."
Bumblebee saw that, fortunately, Prowl wasn't greatly different to a point where you couldn't recognize him, but he still looked somewhat different. His right shoulder blade was missing; almost if it was cut cleanly off just above his chest plate. His black and gold paint was at such a sallow point, it almost appeared silver and the two pieces above his visor were fractured and broken. But the thing that Bumblebee took into notice mostly was Prowl's right arm or what was supposed to be his arm. Connected at the joint of the higher arm area was a distinctly blue colored laser, which stood out like a sore digit.
He didn't know whether to say anything or not to the ninja-bot until he saw that Prowl had figured out that the shorter 'bot was watching him; an icy glare turned into a vexatious frown as Prowl stared at Bumblebee in recognition. So, the yellow 'bot lifted up a hand to wave slightly and gave a solemn, "Hey Prowl. How have you been?" Though he didn't really expect a "Hi" or any greeting in return, Bumblebee certainly didn't expect to be tackled at upon sight. Prowl had done just that without warning and pinned Bumblebee down while aiming his laser at his spark chamber.
"How dare you show yourself now?!" Prowl hissed infuriatingly as his left servo made its way to Bumblebee's throat and gripped as tightly as possible. Bumblebee was almost certain that if Prowl squeezed just a bit harder, he would cause one of his energon tubes to burst.
"Oooh... Reunions are just so joyous," Starscream stated with a snicker.
A/N: I'll be updating this either weekly or bi-weekly, depending on how busy I am at the moment. But seriously, editing these chapters want to make me cry and then rip my eyes out because of the many, many errors I've seen while looking over the chapters I already wrote (if you can consider horrible writing such). It makes my soul bleed to see how bad I was when I first started this; I would like to think I've improved somewhat.
Also, please don't hesitate to give me any pointers or inform me of any mistake.