Distractions
"Alright, so after the explosion, the two of you were separated, and Charlie was found by Blackfire. She managed to get to the road and found Bluestreak, and they made their way to base after finding Jazz. Alex, what happened to you before I found you?" The two girls were sitting on the control panel in front of Optimus Prime, both of them wearing sweaters and sweatpants. Charlie looked fresh faced and alert, but Alex's eyes drooped and her skin had a slight green tinge. Ratchet was standing next to Optimus, fluttering around nervously until he could take her back to the med bay. She sniffed and rubbed her eyes, looking around the room. Jazz was leaning against the wall and Ironhide was standing next to Ratchet. The twins were by the door, both looking uncomfortable. It was, after all, their fault the girls were captured.
"Umm, I ran around looking for Charlie for awhile, climbed a tree, fell from the tree, and then Blitzwing found me." Gasps were heard around the room and Optimus leaned closer, afraid of what he heard. After the meeting last night and the worrying and talks about the decepticons, Alex had fallen asleep and Optimus chose to wait until the next morning to ask about her. Charlie had explained what happened to her the night before, but after Ratchet noticed Alex sleeping, he had kicked everyone out so that she could sleep. Sam and Bumblebee were out exploring and everyone else was busy elsewhere.
"Blitzwing? And you are still alive…" He trailed off. Alex nodded.
"Yeah well, he didn't want to, but he's not very smart and I managed to convince him that I was worth keeping around. Then I convinced him to go to a convenience store and he fell down a cliff, he's kind of clumsy, then I got food and stuff, but I couldn't escape because he was waiting for me right outside. So then we went back into the forest and he fell asleep, but he was holding me and I couldn't move so I fell asleep too. I woke up and he was putting me down, I think that Astrotrain guy was there, I don't know why he left though. I ran off as soon as they were gone, and it started raining and I wandered around for a long time, then I found the road and then you found me."
"You were able to convince Blitzwing not to kill you? He's one of the most dangerous and powerful decepticons."
'Um well he wasn't that bright and I'm a talker and I con Charlie all the time so I had lots of practice."
"It's true she cons me a lot and I just never learn."
"So yeah he was gullible…" Alex shuffled around bit, she was starting to get uncomfortable with all the questioning, she really didn't know why Blitzwing just left her, but he did and she was sick of explaining it. Hm…sick…
"Well you know—" Alex cut off and started coughing, Ratchet was next to her in a second, examining her, and a second later he was picking her up and taking her into the med bay. Alex sighed in relief, now she could relax for a bit before everyone started questioning her again, she wondered how long she could play the sick card and have Ratchet come to her rescue. She yawned as he tucked her in and she fell asleep.
Charlie sighed, she knew Alex was faking and was hoping she wouldn't get stuck answering questions now. She looked around at the remaining autobots.
"So what's happening hot stuffs?" Charlie winked at them all and tried to get off the table she was sitting on, she tried shimming down the side, but Sideswipe came out of nowhere and grabbed her. "You know it's really rude just to grab people. How would you like it if someone came out of nowhere and picked you up?"
"You were about to fall."
"I was? Well golly gee willikers what do you know I was!" Sideswipe looked at her uncertainly.
"Er….yeah." Charlie looked at him, he seemed nicer than his brother, he didn't seem to mind humans. Maybe he was the good twin.
"Yeah!" She punched her arms in the air, testing him. He raised his other fist and copied her questioningly.
"Yeah?" Sunstreaker hmphed from the corner. Charlie ignored him. Well, if this Sideswipe guy was supposed to be her guardian, she might as well get to know him. She glanced over at the yellow mech leaning against the wall who was purposefully not looking at them and sighed. Alex had her work cut out for her on this one.
"Let's go do something." Sideswipe held her up face level.
"Like what?"
"Like something." He put a hand to his chin and hmmed.
"Well I know lots of somethings…."
"Are you hitting on me?"
"No! I would never hit you, I'm your guardian, and it's my job to protect you."
"Super duper. So what do you do for fun? Oh I know! I've never been in a Lamborghini before lets go for a drive, I'll show you around…well I'll try, but you know where the base is so we don't have anything to worry about! Hi ho Silver away!" Charlie pumped her fist in the air, confusing Sideswipe. She then pointed dramatically to the exit; he shrugged and left with her, mumbling to himself
"But I'm red….." They left the room and Sunstreaker stared after them. He left and went the short distance to the med bay, and peered around the corner. Ratchet was away, and his charge was sleeping on a small cot. He walked in and looked down at her. She didn't look good, and he could only see her head, she had the covers around her tightly. He sniffed again and turned to leave.
"You better start taking this seriously." Sunstreaker turned and looked at Mirage.
"What's your fascination with the femme? She's my charge not yours."
"And you failed to protect her."
"So did you." They glared at each other for a minute, before Ratchet entered and stopped as he noticed the two mechs glowering at each other. He narrowed his eyes.
"Out, both of you." They reluctantly turned away and left the room. Ratchet sighed and shook his head.
"Stupid, prideful, stubborn glitchheads, disrupting my med bay."
"Wait, wait, let me get this straight, you had one of the flesh creatures, and you just set it down, walked away and forgot about it?"
"Astrotrain located me and ordered me to reconvene to this location, when I went back to get her she was gone!"
"How long were you gone before you remembered you left it there?"
"I thought she would stay put!" Blackfire watched as Blitzwing and Motormaster argued. He had to put a stop to this, his base was destroyed, both Soundwave and Starscream knew where he was stationed, he lost the advantage, and now his troops were fighting amongst themselves. He didn't need this.
"Enough!" Both Motormaster and Blitzwing stopped bickering instantly. "Both of you will cease behaving like sparklings and start acting like the decepticon warriors you are. Motormaster, have Drag Strip and Dead End search for an area for a new base. Blitzwing, you and Astrotrain patrol the area make sure no one comes near here." Blitzwing nodded and left to find Astrotrain.
"Aren't you going to punish him? He let the organic go!" Blackfire rounded on Motormaster and punched him in the face.
"I'm growing tired of your insolence Motormaster. The humans are unimportant, allowing them to live will not hurt our cause. Now take the rest of the stunticons and salvage what you can from headquarters, we must be ready when they attack next."
"And what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to pay an old friend a visit." Blackfire transformed and drove off.
"So this is what you do for fun?" Charlie nodded enthusiastically from her place on top of the slide and Sideswipe sighed. He was in his alt form in a parking lot next to a play ground where Charlie had been playing on the swings and going down her 'slide'.
"Okay, I think I need to show you how to really have fun." Charlie slid down the slide and walked over to him. She had changed into jeans and a purple sweater and put her hair in a ponytail. She crossed her arms.
"This is too fun. You're just jealous you can't go down slides, but I'll bite, what do you do to really have fun?"
"Ever pull a prank?"
"Okay now I'm interested. Open up red and lead the way." Sideswipe opened his door and drove back to the base with Charlie. When they reached the base they met up with Bumblebee and Sam.
"Hey guys, how was recon?"
"Good, what are you two up to?" Before Sideswipe could stop her Charlie started talking.
"Pulling a prank, it's my first time, Sideswipe said he'd be gentle." Sam cracked up at that remark, and Charlie started laughing with him. Sideswipe and Bumblebee looked at each other and the kids, they didn't get what was so funny. They followed them down the corridor, till they passed the med bay. The door was open and Charlie saw Alex peering blearily at them from her bed. She rushed in and Sam turned and followed her. The mechs blinked at each other and shrugged, following them.
"Alex, you're awake!" She hopped over and sat on the bed and Sam followed her. Ratchet was gone again, so they felt comfortable talking loudly. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. Sideswipe awed.
"You're so cute when you humans yawn. Come 'ere." He picked her up, blankets and all, and raised her up to his face. Alex peered at him blearily and wrapped the blankets around her. He cooed at her and began to pet her head. At that moment Sunstreaker walked in and stared at his twin, who was petting his charge.
"What are you doing Sides?"
"Sunny!"
"Why are you petting my charge?"
"I'm being nice."
"How would you like it if I petted your human?" Sunstreaker picked Charlie up and started petting her.
"Ouch you jerk that hurts! Are you trying to take my skin off? Quick Bee you gotta save me!" Bumblebee stopped laughing at the scene before him and snapped to attention, he pulled Charlie out of Sunstreaker's hands and placed her on his shoulder next to Sam.
"Once again the day is saved thanks to the powerpuff girls!" Charlie stared at Bumblebee.
"What was that?"
"Bee likes to talk through the radio."
"Oh okay I can deal with that. Play me some funky music white boy." Bumblebee started playing music from his speakers. He set Sam and Charlie down and they began dancing violently, Bumblebee started grooving and he turned up the music. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe stared, the latter still petting Alex subconsciously. It was then Ratchet walked in, staring askance as Sam, Charlie, and Bumblebee were dancing. But he zeroed in on Sideswipe petting Alex and exploded like a bomb.
"What the slag are you doing?" The music stopped and everyone froze in place, looking at Ratchet in horror. Bumblebee suddenly blared like a siren and he, Sam, and Charlie rushed out of the room. Sideswipe held onto Alex more securely before running after them. Ratchet turned to Sunstreaker.
"What, I didn't do anything! What are you-----" But Ratchet had thrown a wrench at him and he yelped and followed his twin.
"Get back here you're going to get all the humans sick!" Ratchet ran out of the med bay and started chasing after them.
Charlie, Sam, Bumblebee and Sideswipe with Alex in tow were running through the halls of the base, Bumblebee still had music blasting out of his speakers. Sam looked over at Charlie.
"How are you running this fast with a broken leg?"
"Practice." Bumblebee reached down and placed Sam and Charlie on his shoulders again, by then Sunstreaker had caught up with them.
"Good going Sides you got Hatchet mad and now he's chasing us."
"Just like old times huh?" Just then Ratchet rounded the corner and spotted them.
"Put the organics down! You're going to get them hurt!" Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker started running faster, trying to get away from Ratchet, a door opened and out stepped Bluestreak.
"Hey guys what's going on?"
"Running from the Hatchet." Sideswipe huffed as he ran past Bluestreak.
"Oh okay." Bluestreak started running with them. They passed Hound and ran into a large room the humans had never been in before. They shut the door and barred it and Ratchet started banging on it. The twins laughed and Sam and Charlie looked around curiously.
"What is this room?"
"Hmmm? Oh, it's just our rec room."
"Cool, hey Bumblebee, crank da tunes." He turned the music back on and they started dancing again, Charlie coaxing Bluestreak to join them. She started doing the robot, convinced it was the only dance the autobots could do because they couldn't shake their hips.
"This is how robots dance." Charlie started teaching Bluestreak the robot. "Pop and lock Blue, pop and lock."
I'm bringing sexy back
And all you boys don't know how to act.
I think it's special what's behind your back
So turn around and I'll pick up the slack
"This song was made for me!" Sunstreaker started tapping his foot rocking out to his theme song.
"No it's not! It's totally about me!"
"There goes the battle of the egos again."
"What do you mean Charlie?"
"Nothing, just keep on dancing Blue." Sideswipe was smiling in mirth, holding Alex while she and Sunstreaker argued about who the song was about.
"I'm sexier!"
"No I am! I got hips yo!" Alex stood up on Sideswipe's hands and struck a pose. Sunstreaker hmphed.
"And just what difference does that make?" Alex smirked.
"Everything." He blinked. She seemed very convinced. "Besides, this song was made by humans, for humans, and about humans. So there." She sat back down and pulled her blankets back around her and leaned against Sideswipe's chest. She looked tired suddenly and she blinked as she noticed the wall in the far corner move.
"Did you see that?"
"See what?"
"The wall."
"Yes, yes I do see the wall. Girly your friend is weird." Sideswipe said to Charlie.
"Ah she's probably just delusional from her cold." Charlie looked over to the door and heard Ratchet pounding on it, she could let him in and he could take care of Alex and her fever, but she was having a fun party, oh well, Charlie shrugged. Alex kept staring at the wall.
"It moved."
"Walls don't move Alex."
"It did I saw it!" Alex continued to examine the wall, it hadn't moved yet, but she was ready if it did. After five minutes of staring and not blinking Alex was starting to think that maybe it was the fever.
"Hello."
"AH!" Alex jumped and looked to her right, there was Mirage.
"You were the wall!"
"I was by the wall."
"And you moved! I knew it I was right! In your face Charlie walls do too move it wasn't the fever it was Mirage! Mirage tell Charlie it was you."
"It was me?" Mirage seemed slightly confused; this was the most he had spoken to Alex aside from when they were in the med bay together.
"How ya doing Mirage? Wanna learn the hokey pokey? No, no Blue left foot in then out, then you shake it all about, not before." He blinked and took a step backward, the other femme was weird. Alex was looking at him curiously and he turned back to her. He noticed Sideswipe was slightly tense, and he smirked.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Your ability to turn invisible. It's interesting." He nodded in agreement. Sunstreaker had enough and stalked over to them, grabbing Alex from Sideswipe and holding her in one hand.
"Get your own charge." He mumbled and Alex yelled as her hair got caught in between his fingers. Mirage started forward and Sunstreaker held her away from him.
"You're hurting her!"
"I am not!" She had her head tilted back to relieve the pressure.
"Umm, could you move your fingers, my hair is caught, it hurts." He blinked and loosened his grip and she righted herself, making sure her hair was out of the way. She stared at his face and shrunk a little. She hadn't forgotten what he said, though she knew he wouldn't hurt her if Optimus told him not to, that didn't mean she liked him. "Can you put me down now?" Mirage smirked at Sunstreaker.
"Why you're my charge, that means we're supposed to be friends."
"Put me down I still don't like you."
"Why not?"
'You threatened to step on me!"
"You insulted my paint job!"
"Yellow isn't a good color this season. Now put me down!" Mirage kept on smirking at Sunstreaker and held his hand out for Alex, who climbed on it. Mirage was at least better than Sunstreaker, she thought, even if he kept on giving her that creepy look.
"Eh Macarena!" Sunstreaker, Alex and Mirage looked over at Charlie who was teaching Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Bluestreak the Macarena.
"Hey that's my dance! You can't teach them my dance you're doing it wrong! Put me down I have to show her what's what." Mirage lowered his hand and Alex scrambled over to Charlie. "What do you think you're doing? You know the Macarena is mine, you have the robot." With that, Alex began to Macarena and Charlie copied her. It was at that moment Ratchet broke the door down, Optimus and Ironhide standing next to him, curious.
"You will stop, now." He looked half crazy and everybody took a step back. Alex wasn't nervous, he wouldn't do anything, he put far too much effort into keeping her healthy to do anything to her, it would be a waste of time. She instead walked over to Optimus and hugged his leg.
"Will you dance with me?" He looked at her bemused and picked her up. With Alex in Optimus's care, Ratchet targeted the twins and Bumblebee, and screams were heard as he charged at them threateningly. Mirage had conveniently disappeared, and Charlie and Sam took refuge behind Ironhide's feet. Alex paid them no mind and continued to talk to Optimus.
"Come on, it'll be fun, hold your hands like this." Alex was giggling, trying to get Optimus to dance with her, and he was looking down at her not entirely sure what to do.
"I don't believe I can dance with you Alex it won't exactly work."
"Why not?" Alex tried giving Optimus her best puppy dog eyes.
"We are not the same size, it would be dangerous, and even I'm afraid of Ratchet at the moment." Alex looked at Ratchet who was chasing the twins and Bumblebee with a saw, where did he get that?
"Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?" She stuck her bottom lip out and her eyes started to water, this had to work. "Pwease Optimus?" He cringed and gave. These human femmes were very persuasive. He held out his hand over her and she held onto his fingers and twirled in his palm. He smiled at her glee and they continued dancing. Meanwhile, Ratchet had caught the twins, and Charlie and Sam had left, deciding to watch movies in the human quarters. Ironhide had left a while ago, and Bumblebee was sneaking away from Ratchet. Optimus dropped Alex off at the human quarters after the music stopped.
"I love Indiana Jones." Charlie sighed dreamily as she, Alex, and Sam walked back to their quarters.
"Yeah, Raiders of the Lost Ark is the best." Sam nodded. They moved to the wall when they heard thundering footsteps behind them and turned to greet the autobot. It was Ratchet.
"Girls, I need you back in the med bay, Alex, you need to take another dose of cold medicine, and Charlie, I'm going to check your leg." They sighed and waved at Sam, who walked into their rooms, and followed Ratchet back to the med bay. He gave Alex her medicine and watched as she swallowed every drop. He checked her temperature and found it was still a little high.
"You will spend another night here where I can keep an eye on you; I don't want you having a relapse." Alex sighed and grabbed her spare set of pajamas she took to keeping in there. She changed into her black tank top and striped shorts and crawled under the covers. Charlie looked at her strangely.
"You just---" Alex nodded and shrugged.
"He's a robot doctor." Charlie just looked at her oddly. "I wasn't raised in a super modest household like you." Charlie just shrugged and looked up at Ratchet. He pointed at the other cot and she sat down and lifted her broken leg.
"I still can not heal you properly, I am afraid that will take a while longer for me to repair." He frowned as he inspected her cast. It had started to tear in one corner and had a cut through it.
"I need to replace your cast; it got quite the beating from your kidnapping." Charlie turned an odd shade of yellow when he prodded it and a small whizzing saw appeared from his fingers. She yelped as soon as it touched her cast. Ratchet stopped and looked at her in alarm.
"It hurts when you move it, can't I keep it on, it's nice and tight and doesn't hurt." Ratchet frowned.
"It shouldn't." But he was having trouble maneuvering his bulky fingers and he kept accidentally jabbing her cast. And his saw was making Charlie cringe. He huffed in frustration.
"This isn't working, if only I was smaller, then I'm sure I wouldn't have a problem, but it looks like we will have to wait until my light treatment is fixed." A crash was heard in the corner and the girls jumped to see Wheeljack remove himself from a pile of Ratchet's tools.
"I've got it!" He raced out of the room and Ratchet stared with his mouth open. Charlie and Alex looked at each other.
"Damn, I didn't even notice him."
"Me neither."
"Does he usually exclaim loudly and run out of rooms Ratch?"
"Yes, and it usually means more work for me."
"That means something is going to explode."
"Oh. Ratchet can I leave? Sam and I were watching a movie and you don't need to watch me tonight."
"You might as well, I have to leave the cast on, just be careful."
"Righty-o I'll make sure I don't get kidnapped again."
"Is it kidnapping if you got into the car willingly?"
"Eh who knows? Good night you two."
"Good night Charlie." Alex sighed and watched Ratchet work until she closed her eyes and brought the sheets up over her eyes. She might as well just move in here, for how much time she spent there.
"How's the relocation coming along?"
"Still searching for a good place boss." Blackfire was sitting on a medical table in one of the only sections of his base that remained undamaged, speaking to Astrotrain and Blitzwing.
"Of course you are." Blackfire muttered under his breath. "Keep scanning the area." Astrotrain looked over at Blackfire, who was concentrating on repairing his arm.
"So Starscream slagged you up pretty good, huh?"
"He's worse off, I'd like to see a seeker fly with no wings."
"Why did you go and find him anyway?"
"To propose an alliance in order to defeat Soundwave, but the bastard wasn't interested, meaning he's got something up his sleeve." The triple changers stared at Blackfire, unsure what he just meant. Blackfire sighed, he had gotten so used to using human slang, he forgot that the other decepticons would have no idea what he meant.
"He has something else planned, keep your optics open. I won't let that son of a glitch win again."