Annnnnnnnnd...We're back! Welcome to Chapter Two of our own version of Mother Bee; Queen Bee! There is a small challenge at the bottom of the story, so we're not gonna bore you to death sitting up here talking. So without further ado; ENJOY!
Disclaimer: The Homunculi Twins don't own the Transformers Animated. They belong to the wonderful producers and the original Creator of the Transformers series. We do not make a profit from this story. We do, however, own any and all OC's that pop up.
Note:
"Talking"
'Thought'
"Cybertronian"
"Over the Phone/Reading"
'Sparkling Speech'
Letter
::Com-Link::
Book/Magazine Titles
Flashbacks- start and end
Astrosecond ~.273 seconds
Nanoclick/Nano-klik ~1 second
Breem ~8.3 minutes
Cycle ~1.5 minutes
Deca-cycle ~10 minutes
Klik ~1.2 minutes
Groon ~1 hour
Joor ~ Hour
Megacycle ~2.6 hours
Orbital Cycle ~1 month
Orn ~13 days
Solar cycle ~1 Earth day
Stellar cycle~1 Earth year
Vorn ~83 Earth years or 1 Cybertronian year
A/N: This plot does not originally belong to us; it belongs to 'sparklespepper', who has let us adopt it. Thank you luv!
~†º.º.º†~
Chapter Two: Panic
'Where am I, what happened, and why do I feel so warm and full?' Was the first few thoughts running through Optimus' processor as he slowly exited recharge. He onlined his optics, 'blinking' them a few times as they slowly ajusted to the sudden light of a berth room that strangely looked a lot like Bulkhead's. A frown came onto his face as the Prime, wondering how he'd gotten into the gentle giant of the team's room. Offlining his optics again, he quickly rebooted his defragment codes, and watched, with a careful eye, about what had happened one solar cycle ago.
It had been around noon when Teletran-One had picked up an unknown energy surge up in the wood. With Prowl and Bulkhead on patrol, and Ratchet getting ready for the check-up of all the bots around base and Optimus at the monitors, he'd had no choice in sending off Bumblebee to scout the area, with strict orders to contact him if anything should happen. Bumblebee, being, well, Bumblebee had scoffed and replied with his usually tirade of 'I'm the fastest thing on wheels Boss bot! I'll be fine!'
It had only been under the threat of revoking his free time rights and setting him up with monitor duty and cleaning their base for a whole Stellar cycle did he finally extract that promise to call for backup.
After the yellow and black scout, Optimus had returned to monitor duty, occasionally helping Ratchet when the elder mech needed something that was to high for him to reach – normally, the medic would just use his electromagnets, but they'd been damaged a few solar cycles ago and were still in repair – or bring the red and white bot a cube of Energon every now and then.
The cycle had continued on and off, until Bulkhead returned back to base. Optimus, not wanting to leave his youngest teammate alone for longer than a few Groons, commed Bumblebee, only to realize that the dense vegetation that Bumblebee was at was preventing the comm's from linking. Of course, that had nearly put the Prime into a panic, fearing that Bumblebee might have already been hurt with no way to call for help, but Bulkhead was able to reassure the red and blue truck-former that the yellow scout was fine.
It was shortly after Prowl had returned, roughly around four Megacycles since Bumblebee had left to investigate, that they received another signal – this time much closer, and very much Decepticon.
They had all rushed out of the base, Optimus trying, in vain, to contact Bumblebee, fearing that the yellow and black scout had already been attacked by the 'Cons, racing towards the signals.
He remembered that there was a battle; a big one with Lugnut, Blitzwing, and a new, red and gray Decepticon that, oddly enough, looked like a grounder instead of a flier. At first, they had been confused on why they were here, though it soon became evident when they saw what exactly the new 'Con was holding;an AllSpark fragment. The surrounding area had been torn up in the fight to obtain the fragment; badly, and all of them had sustained injuries of some sort, though Prowl and Bulkhead had the worst.
Sometime during the fighting, Optimus, and most likely the Decepticons as well, had lost track of where the AllSpark fragment was, and had been immensely relieved to discover that Prowl had, somehow, gotten to it and slipped it into his subspace during the chaos of the fight.
And after going to retrieve it from Prowl to put into a specially designed capsule Ratchet's Co-creation, Wheeljack, had made just for them, he remembered hearing the sound of a car skidding to a halt, though it was mostly muffled thanks to the sound of Blitzwing's jet mode and then...nothing.
Optimus felt his frown deepen; what had happened after hearing Blitzwing and, who he presumed, Bumblebee arrive? Was Bumblebee okay? Optimus gave a loud groan of irritation, but stopped. His groan had sounded...different. Onlining his optics, Optimus stared blankly at the ceiling of Bulkhead's berthroom – he definitelyknew whose it was now; the painting on the ceiling kind of gave it away, after all – and distractedly noticed that, for some reason, it seemed much farther away than normal. Pushing away that thought, Optimus slowly began to push himself up into an upright position, only to freeze when he heard the tall tale sign of metal clanking on metal; only it wasn't coming from him.
Now more confused than ever, the red and blue truck-former slowly turned his helm to his right...
Only to freeze in shock.
There, still blissfully in recharge, where two of his teammates; Ratchet and Prowl to be exact. However, what shocked him the most were two thins; one was that they were curled in on each other, servos gently clasped together, Ratchet softly 'snoring', as Sari called it – it was actually just a piece of semi-dislodged metal that had been there since his Sparklinghood, and was now it was to dangerous to remove thanks to it being pressed up against two of his main Energon lines, that made it seem like the red and white ambulance-former was snoring. And two; they were small. Granted, Optimus was a very tall mech; the only one who surpassed him was Bulkhead in height, and Optimus still had one more upgrade to go. No, Ratchet and Prowl were now, roughly, the size of their techno-organic friend Sari; the size of a human.
Optimus stared blankly at the sight, his processor not understanding what he was actually seeing and, as such, jumped and nearly screamed like a little femme when he felt a large, yellow hand gently pick him up.
Wide, confused sapphire blue optics gazed into tired, but semi-alert – and...was that concern? – optics of his now much, much taller scout.
"You all right Boss bot?" Bumblebee asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion as he gently held his sparkling CO, absently running a gentle servo down the Prime's head and back, before repeating the process in an attempt to sooth the obviously distressed sparkling.
Optimus continued to gap at Bumblebee, shuttering his optics numerous times, before...
"Click click whirr beep click whirr!" Optimus froze, his optics, if it was even possible, widening even more. Did...did he just...click and whirr?! Like a sparkling!? And that is when he noticed his reflection; a sparkling sized reflection. Where once his fire truck armor lay upon his protoform, now lay his original sparkling, red and blue with orange flames armor. Two, exhaust like 'wings' protruded from his back, similar to ones on an earth semi-truck, but was actually a Pax symbol. His original audio sensors where now back to the long, disk like shape that nearly all sparklings had, with the Cybertronix glyph of 'Pax' etched onto either side. Shakily, the Prime lifted his servos, staring wide optic at the tiny servos.
And Optimus lost it.
Bumblebee's optics widened as the sparkling in his servos began to click and whirr in a rapid pace, keening in utter confusion, causing the yellow scout to panic slightly, before forcing him to calm. Gently, he rocked the Prime back and forth, searching his processor for what could have caused the sparklings reaction. Only to freeze, his own optics widening as he understood.
Optimus remembered. He still fragging remembered being a mech; only his body was changed into that of a sparklings. Groaning, Bumblebee, took a quick glance towards the other three, nearly beginning to keen himself when he saw that the other three where wide awake, and looking at each other in shock and confusion, before glancing up, slowly, at Bumblebee and the still whirring and clicking Prime.
Knowing he had to act quick, the yellow and black mech quickly scooped all the sparklings up and, with a quick prayer to Primus and his sparkmate – well...his was more of an apology than anything else – Bumblebee opened up his spark chamber.
Almost instantly, the panicky keening that was emitting from all four sparklings began to quiet down, slowly, but surely, fading into quiet whimpers of distress, before stopping all together. Gently running a servo over everyone of the sparklings, Bumblebee glanced down, a small smile flickering onto his face as he caught sight of the drowsy faces, optics half closed, curling up closer to his spark.
Slowly he pulled them away from his Spark, letting it close when they were far enough away, and gently set them on the berth. Almost as soon as he had set them down, all their helms snapped up to stare at him, confusion clearly written on their faces. Bumblebee vented a sigh, shifting for a more comfortable spot on the berth, before looking at all the sparklings.
"You guys can understand what I'm saying, right?" At his question, all the sparklings 'blinked' before nodding. Bumblebee grinned.
"Good, that will make things a tad bit easier." Bumblebee said. "So, your probably wondering what happened, yeah?" Again, he received a round of nods, and even a chirp from Bulkhead, which Bumblebee assumed meant 'Yes'.
"So bare with me, as I don't really know exactly what happened. So, you all remember that Teletran-One received an unknown signature in the forest, about a joor away from here, right? Well, I spent about four megacycles searching the entire area, but couldn't find anything at all, so I decided to return back to base. I was about...seven breems or so away, when I got a distress call from Boss bot, telling me that you guys were under attack. With me so far?"
All sparklings nodded again along with a round of affirmative chirps. Bumblebee quickly and easily squashed the urge to grab them all into his arms and squeeze them to death the shear adorableness that his team was displaying. As if knowing what was on his mind, Ratchet and Prowl glared at him, while both Optimus and Bulkhead 'blushed' lightly. Shifting slightly in slight embarrassment, he continued.
"I don't know exactly how long you guys fought for, but when I arrived, Doc bot was leaning over Bulky, repairing his shoulder from...something – though its gone now – and ninjabot was handing what looked like an AllSpark fragment to Boss bot when Blitzwing appeared in jet mode and fired at you guys; or more specifically, the AllSpark fragment." Bumblebee bit his glossa between his denta, a symbol of his nervousness and own utter confusion and helplessness at the entire situation.
"There was a bright, crackling white light before both Blitzwing and I were blown away from the explosion. Next thing I know, I'm coming back online after a full systems reboot about a ten breems later, Blitzwing is tearing off into the night, the entire park you guys were at was completely and utterly unscathed – yeah, I know; pretty weird right? – and you guys are all, well, Sparklings." Bumblebee trailed off uncertainty, warily watching the four, seemingly frozen sparklings as they digested the news.
A small, uncertain chirp caught his attention, and he looked at Prowl, who seemed to be staring up at him in fright. Bumblebee, after a small, internal war with his coding, scooped up the distressed sparkling, gently running a servo up and down his back, similar to what he had done to Optimus earlier.
"Aww, it's gonna be okay Prowl. You're gonna be okay." Bumblebee cooed softly at the ninjabot, who seemed to be struggling with his emotions. "It's okay Prowl; ya can go ahead and keen; right now, while you guys have your memories, you're in the frame of a Stellar old sparkling. How you managed to retain your memories is beyond me, and right, holding it all in, is gonna be super bad for ya. I don't know that, if you guys get damaged – which you better fragging well not – if it will either carry over when you revert back, or if it heals.
"And by trying to bottle a natural reaction as a sparkling now, who knows what could happen to your processors! All of you!" Bumblebee twitched lightly at the thought of his sparkling teammates getting hurt; he hated it to the Pit and back when they got hurt as adults; now, as Sparklings? He'd rather go to the pit than see his sparklings hurt.
In his servos, Prowl hiccuped slightly, going to run a hand over his visor – which was still there, surprisingly. Quickly glancing over the other three, he once again picked up the distressed sparklings and, after once again opening his spark chamber – and sending another mental apology to his sparkmate – he gently began to rock them back and forth, playing a Cybertronian lullaby he had heard while at the Youth Centers through his knew better than to try and sing; he had a horrible voice, as stated by his 'co-creations' – a group of other younglings he'd grown up with in the Center that had 'adopted' him – and his sparkmate.
For several breems, he let his teammates keen in distress and slight confusion and utter hopelessness over the situation at hand, before finally pulling them back. Running a servo over everyone one of their back struts, he asked gently, "Better now?"
Immediately, their faces broke out in an embarrassed 'flush', rubbing at their faces to try and hid from the fact that they had just been coddled like a sparkling – which they were. Bumblebee grinned in amusement before gently standing up, sparklings still in arm, and made his way towards the door.
A timid, questioning chirp from Bulkhead caused him to look down to see confusion still on their faces. 'Blinking' Bumblebee wondered what could be so confusing, before nearly smacking himself in the head – which he didn't, thanks to the sparklings in his arms.
"Ah, you're probably wonderin' why we're in Bulky's room, yeah?" a chorus of affirmative chirps was his answer. Using a servo to open the door, he explained, "Well, I didn't really have anywhere else to go. My berth is way to small to even think about putting you guys on there by yourself, as we're ninjabot's and Doc bots berths. Boss bot, while you may be...err...may have been tall, your berth wasn't wide enough for all of us, so that really only left Bulkhead's berth."
There was silence before there was another questioning chirp, this time from Ratchet. Frowning, he wondered what the medical bot would want now, he thought about it for a second.
"Ummm...frag, wish I still had the sparkling coding installed; this would be so much easier." Bumblebee muttered, mock glaring at Bulkhead when he started to snicker. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, little buddy; right now, I'm your primary caretaker until I can get a hold of either Wheeljack, Perceptor, Sunny, Sides, or even..." Bumblebee hesitated for a second, barely noticeable to all but Ratchet and Prowl. "Jazz. They might know what to do, and might be able to figure out a way to get you back to normal."
This, there was a long, series of whirs, clicks, and chirps from the four sparklings, obviously forgetting that he couldn't understand them. Feeling like he should just bash his helm into a wall in frustration, Bumblebee made a mental note to get the coding reinstalled ASAP.
"Hey! Enough!" Bumblebee said sternly, feeling the processor ache beginning to show itself from the whirs and chirps. He gently, but firmly set all the sparklings on the Transformer sized couch, turning to look at them sternly. Almost immediately, the sparklings went quiet, though Ratchet and Prowl were glaring at him.
"Listen guys; hearing ya talk all at once as adults was enough to give me a minor processor ache," Bumblebee explained, taking another one of Sari's blankets – a dark green, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the '03 to '09 series – and wrapped it around them in an effort to make sure their core temperature was at a solid one-hundred twenty-nine degrees. "Now, with ya as Sparklings, it feels like I'd be better off throwing myself in the Pit along with the Idiot Twins after a large round of Praxian Hi-grade. Oh, don't give me that look Doc bot," Bumblebee said, pointing a finger at Ratchet who was giving him a disproving stare – along with Optimus and Prowl. "You either Boss bot, ninjabot. I don't drink hi-grade anymore – yes, I have drunk it, but so has Bulky and nearly all the other recruits at Boot Camp. One time was enough, thank you very much." Bumblebee nodded his head at the end of his sentence, an affirmative chirp leaving Bulkhead's audial sensor at the slightly accusatory stares.
Rolling his optics up skywards, Bumblebee muttered, "Primus help me." when Ratchet began lecturing Bulkhead – or, at least, that's what Bumblebee thought he was doing, judging from the angry and annoyed chirps from Ratchet, and the slightly bowed helm of Bulkhead.
Venting another sigh, Bumblebee closed his optics and initiated his transforming program, smoothly shifting from his bipedal mode to his new – and shiny – alt mode. Ignoring the surprised and curious squawks from his teammates, Bumblebee focused on activating his holoform.
Shaking his helm – 'Yes, yes, I know, it's a head; shut up Sari-Voice.' – Bumblebee grimaced slightly when the nauseating feeling of his consciousness leaving his true form to hurtle into the newly constructed body. With a small groan, Bumblebee opened his door – still very, very weird – and stepped out, running a hand through his blonde hair. Holding up a hand in front of him, he slowly tested it out, sending various pings to his nanite constructed body to make sure everything was working.
Satisfied that everything was in working order, Bumblebee glanced up and grinned cheekily up at the stunned expressions of his teammates. "Ya like?" he called up, his grin widening when he heard the flurry of sparkling chatter reached his ears, though he still winced slightly. "Oi, what'd I say about processor...err...headaches and your sparklin' speech?" This time though, the chatter didn't die down.
Sighing in frustration, Bumblebee closed his eyes again and, this time preparing for the processor ache, split his consciousness into his true form. It was only when his real body started transforming that the chatter ceased all together. Groaning, a grimace of pain flashing across his face, Holo-Bee jumped into his own hand, letting his control slip back to his real body briefly as he was raised far above the ground and onto the couch.
Returning most of his conscious to his holoform, Bumblebee sent his real body to go grab more of the Energon for them to eat. Cocking an eyebrow, the blue eyed teen crossed his arms as he looked at his teammates faces, squashing the urge to start laughing at them. When he finally had all of their attention, a large grin began to threaten to split his face in two.
"What, never seen a holoform before?" he asked cockily, before quickly dodging the small, human sized wrench that was thrown at him. "Da slag Doc bot!" he cried out, staring at the furious looking medical bot while at the same time grabbing two cubes of Energon.
Angry click and whirring was all Bumblebee heard coming from the sparklings mouth as Ratchet began to rant about something or another, his little arms waving up and down as he 'spoke'. Bumblebee just stared in confusion at the red and white medical bot, before turning his attention to the other three sparklings, only to blink in shock when he saw the angered expressions on both Prowl's and Optimus' faceplates, and Bulkhead's dawning horror.
"Umm...something I miss?" he asked hesitantly when Ratchet finally began to cool down. Of course, that just set the bot off again, only this time, Optimus and Prowl joined in.
By now, Bumblebee was thoroughly confused, and already he could feel his processor beginning to ache. There was a gentle poke into his side, causing the blonde holoform to look down at Bulkhead, who stared up at him mournfully. Absently, Bumblebee picked up the cubes of Energon and began to make his way back to the rec room.
"What's up Bulky?" Holo-Bee asked curiously, tilting his head to stare at the adult sized bot. Even in holoform, Bumblebee was still short; his holo reaching about five foot, which meant that every single one of the 'bots here on base were taller than him. Mentally, the yellow robot pouted; Primus was to cruel sometimes.
Bulkhead tilted his small green head to the side, his wide, cyan blue optics staring intensely at his little buddy, before laying a servo out flat, and mimicking writing on his palm. Holo-Bee blinked for a few seconds, before letting out a loud 'Oh!' in surprise and understanding when he got what Bulkhead wanted.
"You want me to grab something to write on?" Even as he said this, his bipedal form changed course from the Rec Room to the monitors, where Bumblebee knew that spare datapads were kept. Bulkhead beamed at Holo-Bee, who, in turn, gave the green Autobot a hug around his waist.
"Your a genius, ya know that, right Bulky?"
~†º.º.º†~
Ratchet was pissed. No, he was beyond pissed. He was absolutely furious. Why? Because the slagging idiot of a youngling was doing the one thing that was absolutely forbidden; splitting your processor when in holoform and making both the nanite body and the true body function at the same time. The risks of such an action were dastardly. Irreparable processor damage, spark damage, multiple personality disorders could form, fried circuits, and death could happen.
Oh the idiot.
It didn't help at all that Ratchet wasn't able to communicate with the yellow youngling thanks to the little problem as being stuck in his fragging Primus forsaken sparkling body. Did not help at all.
Oh when he got back to normal, he was going to give Bumblebee a thorough check up. (In the background, both Holo-Bee and Bipedal-Bee shivered in fear; whatever had pissed Ratchet off, he knew that he was going to get it later). Mentally, Ratchet cackled in glee at the mental image of Bumblebee strapped down as he dug through his processor to find any virus' that the Split might have caused. And it'd be all the little fraggers fault.
Ratchet was brought back to reality when a large, yellow servo placed a blank datapad in front of him. He shuttered his optics briefly in confusion, before turning to stare at his new victim – 'Patient' – blankly.
'He wants you to write down what you were saying Doc-bot'Bulkhead explained, his normally gruff voice much softer, more immature sounding with a tiny squeaking noise hidden underneath. Ratchet gave a small grumble when he realized that all their voices sounded different than before; much more like a child's voice. Which they all were. For the moment.
Ratchet looked up at Bumblebee, gave him one last glare, before walking over to the blank datapad. 'Slagging younglings,' he muttered grumpily, ignoring the snickering from Prowl and Optimus. Shooting them a glare, though not as heated as Bumblebee's, he quickly pulled up the typing feature on the datapad and placed his servos over it...
Only to freeze as his processor drew a blank. Shuttering his optics a few times in his shock, he once again went to go and type his rant to the yellow and black bot, only to draw another blank.
Noticing his hesitation, Optimus asked,'Something the matter Ratchet?'
Slowly, the medical bot, veteran of the Great War, lifted his optics to meet his Prime's. 'I-I can't remember.'
Optimus, Prowl, and Bulkhead 'blinked' in confusion at the red and white sparklings words. 'What do you mean?' Prowl asked, his confusion clear in his voice. Ratchet let out a frustrated growl, slamming his small, human sized fist into the datapad.
'I meanthat I can't remember how to spell the fragging words!' He growled out, his anger rising.
Optics widening, the three other bots glanced at each other, before moving over to where Ratchet stood glaring at the datapad, as if it was the reason for his troubles.
'You mean you can't...' Optimus began, only to be cut off by Ratchet.
'I knowhow to spell the words, but my processor is drawing a blank! It's there, in the back, but I can't grasp it. To me, the letters on here just look like...like gibberish!' Ratchet's mini-rant trailed off, until he was all but wailing in disbelief and sadness. His optics began to flicker in distress at the thought of not being able to communicate with the yellow idiot, to stop him from ruining his processor and his life.
Almost immediately, a yellow and black servo gently picked him up and cradled him against his chasis, right over his hidden spark chamber. Ratchet began to click and keen in frustration and sadness at the situation, struggling to ignore the warmth of the minibots warm spark as it thrummed rhythmically beneath his audio sensors. Tried to ignore how...good it felt to be next to the yellow bot's soothing spark. How a gentle servo ran from the top of his helm down his back strut in an attempt to calm the semi-hysterical keens coming from the red and white ambulance-former.
Ratchet didn't notice – or seem to care – that his optics began to dim as the sound of Bumblebee's spark lulled him into a light recharge.
Bumblebee grinned widely, his eyes sparkling with amusement, but also concern when the little sparkling that was roughly six feet tall finally fell into recharge after going into a full blown panic attack. Bumblebee glanced at the other three sparklings, who were looking at each other, then Ratchet and him uneasily.
"What happened?" he asked, making sure to keep his audial sensor low so as not to wake the recharging sparkling. Once more, the three sparklings glanced at each other, before Prowl gestured towards Ratchet, then the datapad, then back at Ratchet. Tilting his head, he asked, "Is something wrong with the datapad?" Prowl shook his head, then pointed to Ratchet again, then back at the datapad, but this time, made writing motions with his servo and shook his head.
Bumblebee stared blankly at the black and gold sparkling, 'blinking' slightly before hesitantly saying, "Ratchet can't write on the datapad?"
Prowl nodded his head vigorously, chirping as he did so. A frown tugged on the edges of his faceplates at the revelation.
"But...why?"
Prowl's face scrunched up, before looking helplessly at Optimus, who shrugged and looked at Bulkhead. The green mechling released a sigh like vent before lumbering over to the datapad – which was only a few steps away – and exiting out of the typing section and going into the drawing section that was usually reserved for downloading pictures of a new area or thing they'd discovered on Earth.
Bumblebee patiently waited for the green mechling to be done, absently shifting Ratchet into a more comfortable spot above his spark. When he was done, Bulkhead stood back and beckoned the yellow and black mech to take a look.
Bending down slightly – he had dispersed his holoform shortly after retrieving the datapad – Bumblebee examined the pictures drawn on it. In one corner, was a red wrench like object, a rectangle with a square inside of it, then squiggles underneath it and a question mark.
Muttering under his breath, he continued to scrutinize the pictures. "Red wrench...which means Ratchet...a square inside a rectangle...TV? No? Umm...oh! Is it the datapad? Okay, so 'Ratchet' 'datapad', a question mark and...squiggles that kind of look like Cybertronix and what looks like a figure reading a book..." Sudden realization smashed into his processor, much like a wave crashing into the beach during a Tsunami.
"He can't read or write Cybertronix...can he?" Bulkhead, while looking a little proud of himself for figuring out a way to communicate with Bumblebee, nodded his helm sadly. Bumblebee winced slightly and looked down at Ratchet, continuing to stroke his helm in comfort.
"Primus," Bumblebee muttered, his optics downcast. "that must have hit him hard, especially just after finding out that he was a sparkling again. Poor mech." Bulkhead gave a sad chirp, while Optimus walked closer to Bumblebee and Ratchet. Shooting Bumblebee a look that clearly asked to be picked up, Optimus scooted his way over to the recharging Ratchet and began to stroke his helm as well, letting out a few beeps and chirps. Mentally awning in the back of his processor, the yellow and black car-former snapped a couple of holopics at the cute sight and a peaceful silence fell upon the group, Bulkhead and Prowl going over to the datapad to doodle.
It was interrupted, for Bumblebee at least, when a red, flashing 'WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS – 9%. IMPENDING STASIS: ONE BREEM' flashed across his screens. Venting an exasperated sounding sigh, garnering three of four sparklings attentions, Bumblebee gently placed Ratchet and Optimus back onto the couch. "Will you wake him up? It's time to refuel."
Optimus, looking disgruntled at the thought of waking the old – though now young – medic up, but excited at the prospect of food, warily began to shake the medic, making a few chirps and clicks in the process. Prowl and Bulkhead immediately abandoned their drawings for the prospect of Energon and all but ran towards the yellow and black mech.
Said mech smiled at the four sparklings, one of which was 'blinking' sleepily while glaring at Optimus in annoyance, and grabbed the cube of pink Energon on the ground next to him. Transforming on of his servos into a small knife, he cut a hole into the cube and offered it to the closest sparkling to him; which happened to be Ratchet.
Said sparkling went rigid, staring at Bumblebee with an utterly mortified and embarrassed expression, prompting Bumblebee to frown. When he tried to get the sparkling to eat again, he immediately caught onto the problem that, not only Ratchet, but all the sparklings were having. Venting another sigh, he looked at each of the sparklings.
"Listen, I know that this is probably embarrassing and uncomfortable, but you all know as well as I do that, until I can get something that the Energon won't melt threw so you guys can feed yourselves, I'm gonna have to do it." The four sparklings glanced at each other in discomfort, shifting nervously as they did so. Biting back a groan of frustration, knowing he'd be doing the exact same thing, Bumblebee, pushing the cube closer, said, "I won't tell anyone, nor will I tease any of you when you get back to normal. And no holopics either," he added when he saw the narrowed optics of Prowl.
The four sparklings began to click and chirp in sparkling speech, before coming to a decision. Each one stuck out a tiny servo and waited patiently for Bumblebee to shake each one. Amusement trickled through his and his sparkmate's bond, letting Bumblebee know that he knew what had just happened, and that he was probably watching the entire scene through the bond.
Sending a mental 'shut it' to his bondmate, Bumblebee once again brought the cube forward and watched as, with a final glare in his direction, Ratchet began to suckle the Energon, his optics dimming with pleasure the sweet, honey like substance brought. Once the red and white medic had his share, Bumblebee, after wiping the edge of the cube off to prevent the sparklings' acids from mixing, gave it to Bulkhead, who took it without fuss. He repeated this process with both Optimus and Prowl, having to open his own cube of Energon when the warning signs became to much for his systems to handle and they began to shut down.
The nagging from his sparkmate wasn't a reason either. Nope. Not at all.
When all the sparklings had had their fill, and his cube was finished, bringing the levels back up to a comfortable eighty-nine percent, Bumblebee gently placed them all down onto the couch and warped the TMNT blanket around them once more before turning on the TV, putting it on an episode of Spongebob and, after a quick eenie meenie miny mo, handed the human sized remote to Optimus.
"I'm going to go look up sparkling care on the database; see if there's anything that I can make here on Earth for you guys and try to get a hold of the guys. After this is over, Optimus can pick something – just push the up button; this has all the shows that you guys like to watch on here, so you don't have to try and figure out the words – then Prowl, Ratchet, and Bulkhead. Sorry, Bulky, but I went by eenie meenie miny mo, and you came out last. Stay here. Don't move, and I'll be right back."
After gaining affirmative nods and chirps, Bumblebee left the sparklings in the rec room to go and find something that he could maybe make here on Earth to keep them occupied.
'Primus, why do I feel like something bad is going to happen?'
~†º.º.º†~
So...how was it? Still worth continuing? We hope so! Thanks so much to those that reviewed/Favorited/followed this story! We REALLY appreciate it!
Now, we have a small challenge for you; whoever can tell us who Bumblebee's sparkmate is, you will get a chapter of this story or one of our following stories dedicated to you! Think you can do it? We're planning on revealing the Mech who captured our 'Bee's heart in a few chapters; if you've read the notes/promo chapters of sparkleskeeper, it'll be roughly after the sparklings are captured by You-Know-Who. No, not Voldemort you nerds.
Ciao!
The Twins