Prompt: At the Beach
Transformers © Hasbro
"Chromia!"
The blue femme groaned, helm dropping slightly. Why in the name of all that was holy did Flareup have to be so damn chipper right after recharge? By all standards it wasn't natural.
Not looking up from her cube Chromia growled a low, "What?"
Predictably, her less than welcoming tone did little to sully the young femme's zeal. Bouncing into seat opposite, the demolitions 'Bot beamed expectantly up at her.
"A bunch of the guys are going to the beach today, can I go with them? Please!" she grinned beseechingly, hands clasped together in a visual plea. Chromia languidly shifted her gaze from the cube to Flareup's blindingly bright faceplates.
"Who's going?" The young femme blinked once before unclasping her hands and pondering.
"Well let's see, there's Bumblebee and Smokescreen….ugh…" she hesitated before muttering something inaudible. Chromia frowned.
"What was that?"
"And the…the um…the twins" she smiled meekly.
Chromia didn't miss a beat, "No way" Then casually returned her attention back to the cube. Flareup gaped disbelievingly.
"But Chromiaaaa!" she whined, visibly deflating. "Why not?!"
"I think it should be obvious" she scoffed. "Those two are like a fragging virus, it's as if they infect those around them into becoming just as bad" She threw back the rest of her high-grade before adding, "Not to mention the other two going are either a total pushover, or not exactly high on the morale ladder themselves. There'll be no one to keep a tight grip on the twins' leashes" Flareup looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Well….if we brought someone who could keep an optic on them, could I go then?" she asked, tone seeping with desperate hope. "Please Chromia! I want to see the ocean so badly!"
"We crashed into the ocean when we landed here" she deadpanned.
"But I didn't know what it was then! Please, I just want to see it up close! Hound said there might even be a sunset! Please please please please please please please please pl-"
"OK FINE!" Chromia relented, knowing that when Flareup was dead set on something, her 'please' tirade could go on for a good joor at the least, and Chromia really didn't want to have to endure that. With an elate chirp the orange femme excitedly lunged at and hugged Chromia. The weapons expert huffed an annoyed sigh, gently but firmly pushing the femme back after a moment.
Flareup bounced to her feet with a wide grin.
"Awesome, I'll go ask Jazz now-"
"Woah, woah, woah" Flareup pivoted back to face the blue femme's disapproving expression. "Jazz? You're brining Jazz as supervision?"
Blue optics blinked twice.
"Umm, yes?" Chromia snorted.
"Ugh, I don't think so" She pushed herself up from her chair and made a bee-line for the rec-room's exit, Flareup scuttling after her.
"Why not?" The blue femme sighed.
"Look, I've got nothing against Jazz. Nice guy, great spy, great Autobot, a lot of fun" she listed off, optics set on the hallway ahead. Flareup frowned in confusion.
"So…what's the problem?"
"The fun part" Chromia stated, halting in her steps to stare down at the femme. "He's great for keeping control of his Special Ops agents, organising missions and all that slag. But when off duty, he becomes a key player for every misdeed in this place"
Flareup stared disappointedly up at her before sighing.
"Ok, well then how about Ratchet?"
"Tch, good look getting him to go. I guarantee you won't make it past the med-bay doors"
"Prowl?"
"Away with Prime and Elita. Some diplomatic slag" she disinterestedly stated.
"Ugh….Red Alert?" Chromia rose an optic ridge.
"Would you really do it to the poor guy?" Flareup looked despairingly up at her.
"Wheeljack?"
"Dear Primus, the two of you together in the same location. You'd better be certain there's no life in the area for when you two nuke it"
Flareup revved her engine in frustration, frowning petulantly.
"Well then who?!"
"So….this is the beach?"
"Yup" the gruff response came from next to her.
"Huh….And that blue thing is the sea?"
"Yup"
"Huh" she said again. "It's not much" Ironhide snorted.
"Pretty big though. Covers most of this planet" Chromia made a noncommittal sound, optics flicking from the fairly basic view to the beach's other occupants and frowned.
"Flareup put the…ugh, what do you call that thing?" she asked Ironhide.
"Dolphin" he informed.
"Right, put that dolphin back in the water….Now!" she barked, then added to Ironhide, "Thanks for coming, I'd hate to have to watch all these brats by myself"
"No problem. Ah wanted t'spend mah day off bein' a chaperone anyways" Ironhide dully replied. Chromia snorted in amusement before scowling.
"The frag is all this stuff?" she growled, hand sinking into the soft particles covering the beach and seeping deep into her transformation seams.
"Sand" Ironhide grimaced as he felt his own finger-joints suffering a similar fate…not to mention other areas. "Frag, this is why ah told ya it was a bad idea for us t'sit here" Chromia frowned at him.
"Show me a spot here that isn't covered with this stuff" she snapped back, standing and shaking her legs feverishly to remove the sand.
"Well if you had listened to mah suggestion that we go t'the beach further down from here, there would be" he huffed up at her.
"You never mentioned that"
"Oho, yes ah did!"
"Oho, no you didn't! You're obviously losing your memory banks" Ironhide snorted.
"Yeah, ah'm the one losin' their memory banks. Who, precisely, was it that couldn't find their own arm canon last cycle?" he derisively pointed out. Chromia crossly dumped herself back onto the sand next to him.
"That was one time and I was fragging tired! You were the one who lost Blurr when he was one vorn old!"
"Yer never gonna let that go are ya? That was mega-cycles ago and we found 'im alright!"
"Tch'yeah! After you had to almost literally turn all of Michigan upside down"
"Ah was worried!"
"Well so was I!"
They both sat glowering at one another for several moments before slowly turning back to face the ebbing tide in front of them. Ironhide quirked a small grin.
"Remember how we found 'im?" Chromia breathed a chuckle.
"Yeah" She let a small nostalgic smile tilt her lips, "Little guy had gotten into one of the racing tracks. Must've gotten confused on how to get back out and just kept running the laps over and over again"
Ironhide chortled, "By th'time we found 'im the little fella was practically offline to the world he was so tuckered out. Don't think ah ever saw him that still before…or ever will for that matter"
"Yeah" Chromia murmured, optics trained on the far dimming light. She contemplated it for a moment before nodding once towards it and asking. "That the sunset?"
Ironhide looked up from his cannon to see where she was indicating.
"Yup"
"Huh…." Chromia let her optics trail over the scene: splattered shades of red and orange with streaks of light jutting out from over the sea and cutting through the sky. After watching the horizon for a moment she looked up and saw the orange overhead gradually recede towards the horizon and a steady, tranquil blue slowly pour over the sky, a coagulation of purples and fuchsias mingling into wisps of cloud.
"What'cha think?" She heard Ironhide ask.
Her head fell to the side, expression tired.
"I think that's our cue to head back" she plainly replied, standing upright and dusting her legs off. "Let's round 'em up" Ironhide gave a happy grunt.
"Good. Ah'm not sure ah can stand this sand for much longer" He stood, cringing at the feel of tiny particles rattling around under his armour. "Primus know's mah joint's are crotchety enough as is" He awkwardly arched his back, wincing at the rigid pull and stinging sensation of energon lines.
He momentarily toyed with the idea of requesting a massage once they got back to base….then recalled the last rubdown he'd gotten from Chromia. The pickup shuddered. It would be putting it mildly to say that her massages were more like being tortured for information by particularly sadistic Decepticons.
"Ugh….Ironhide?" Chromia's voice cut into his thoughts.
"Hmm?"
"Where are they?"
The red mech froze mid-stretch, optics onlining with a snap and quickly turning to look over the breadth of sand around them. He cursed.
"Oh…..Frag"
Chromia scanned the area, blinking when her optics settled on something small and wriggling up ahead. She stalked straight over to see two stout yellow legs jutting out of the sand and frantically kicking.
Gripping and easily hauling the weight, she pulled a gagging and irate Bumblebee out.
"Bumblebee?" Ironhide appeared by her side, frowning. "What happened?" The mini-con glared with impressive intensity.
"What…happened?!" he coughed out, tiny fists clenched and optics fierce. "Those….fraggers got hopped up on high-grade and buried me! That's what slagging happened!"
"THEY WHAT?!" It was wholly natural for Bumblebee to wince at such furious exclamations from the cantankerous and trigger-happy couple, but didn't lesson his own indignation any little bit.
"Which way did they go?!" Ironhide snarled, fists clenched. Oh he was going to personally make sure those spawns from the Pit didn't see the outside of the base…no, the outside of their quarters for quite some time.
Bumblebee's glare was deadpan. "I don't know. I was too busy FILLING EVERY INCH OF MY INTAKES WITH SAND!"
The couple flinched.
"How did we not see them with the high-grade?" Chromia growled aloud, dropping Bumblebee back to the ground with a thud. "Or burying you?"
The yellow mech continued to glare up at them, scrambling to his feet.
"I called out for help! Several times!" he snapped, stomping past them. "You were both just too busy fighting with each other to hear me!" And with that the little 'Bot transformed and angrily sped off, grumbling threats and insults all the while.
Chromia and Ironhide stared after him for a moment before turning back to face each other. They sighed.
"I'll take the East"
"Ah'll take th'West. Meet back at base in four joors. If we haven't found 'em by then we'll wait 'til we see their pictures on the news"
"Think they're gonna run into Decepticons?" Ironhide snorted.
"Ah was thinking more along the lines of a high-speed chase or vandalism charges"
Author's Note: Mmm'yup, not much appreciation for nature when your joints ache like rigid ceiling beams on fire =S
I'm not really sure what I was trying to go for with the whole Blurr thing….Was it too weird? Well to be honest, I have no justification for it other than the image of the two attempting to chase after him in their advanced years XD Makes me smile!
Poor Bumblebee X'DD I just love seeing him all pissed off and defying his established 'cutie pie' image ;D Do it Bee! BECOME A MAN!