Oooh, the sheer amount of dialogue in relation to narrative burns me deep in this chapter. I like it, but don't expect it to stay as it is forever.
So, Blurr and Flash Bang have left Cybertron and are now drifting through space. Let's imagine some decent amount of time has passed since last chapter, for the sake of my sanity.
Chapter Three: The Buzz
"Are you okay, Blurr?" Flash Bang asked once the ship had broken through the atmosphere and emerged into the blanket of stars above. Blurr was sat in the cargo hold with his head in his servos. Flash Bang put the ship into autopilot and went to join him.
"I'm okay," he lied, and not very convincingly at that.
"You're shaking," Flash Bang pointed out. She put a servo on Blurr's shoulder which prompted him to look up at her.
"I'll be fine," he said.
"You need to relax, we're safe now," she soothed.
"But we have nowhere to go," Blurr pointed out. "And no supplies, either."
"We'll live, I'm sure," she promised. "We just need to find somewhere to land."
"And where are we going to land?" Blurr demanded. All Flash Bang could really do was sit by Blurr for a time, just trying to let him know that she was there for him. She was determined to put his memories back together and she wasn't going to let a fright from Shockwave stop her.
Just then, the radar began to beep, calling the attention of the two bots. Flash Bang went to look and saw that it was picking up on some energy signatures on a nearby planet.
"Look at this, Blurr," she called. He stood up and came to see. As he looked, his optics narrowed slightly in thought.
"I… recognise those signatures," he said quietly. Flash Bang gasped excitedly.
"You do?" she asked. "Well then, let's land there!"
"But what if they're not on our side?" Blurr pointed out. Flash Bang knew Blurr had a point, but any Cybertronian energy signature was a good signature in her optics.
"Do you remember whose side you're on?" She asked Blurr who shook his head in reply. "You're an Autobot, like me. We're the good guys."
"And Shockwave?"
"He's a Decepticon," she explained. "He works for Megatron, but he hasn't been seen on Cybertron in quite some time."
"Who do we work for?"
"Ultra Magnus," she explained. "He's the big bot who's in charge of Cybertron." Flash Bang began to steer the ship towards the energy signatures and soon a small planet came into view. It was mostly blue, but there were large patches of green and streaks of white in the stratosphere.
"An organic planet?" Flash Bang wondered. Blurr looked at the little lump of rock.
"It's beautiful," he mused absently. "Those energy signatures are coming from that landmass over there."
Flash Bang began the decent through the atmosphere, the ship glowing as it passed through. Flash Bang began pressing buttons to prepare the landing gear as they lined up over a sprawling city, the buildings of which seemed like model versions of Cybertron's. They glimmered in the early morning sunlight and the sparkle reminded Flash Bang of Blurr's spark as it surged back into full force.
"The signatures are coming from there," Blurr said as he pointed to a large and rather run-down looking building. Flash Bang landed the little ship at the front of the building gently, being quite experienced with the ship. A sudden movement from Blurr made her jump, however, and the ship dropped down unceremoniously to the ground, creating a large series of cracks in the asphalt.
"Blurr?" she called out to the mech who was staring out the window intently. She had to wave a servo over his optics before he replied.
"I know them…" Blurr murmured. Flash Bang followed his gaze to a group of rather mismatched Autobots, all of which were staring at the ship with curiosity and mild confusion.
"You do?" Flash Bang asked. "Well, let's go say hello."
The two clambered out of the ship, not noticing the damage done to the ground beneath. Flash Bang began to approach the Autobots without hesitation, but Blurr hung back, unsure of himself.
"Hello," Flash Bang called out to the group. "Sorry for dropping in on you guys. My name's Flash Bang and the bot over there is-"
"Blurr?" a yellow mech interrupted. Blurr was walking towards them slowly, but the yellow bot charged up to him like you would an old friend you hadn't seen in a while.
"You're okay?" the yellow mech asked. "We were so worried about you after you fell through the space bridge."
"Space bridge?" Blurr repeated blankly. The yellow mech looked up at him with confusion.
"Blurr, it's me, Bumblebee," the yellow mech said. Blurr looked at him blankly for a moment, but then something in his processor snapped into place.
Master Disaster had been in control of Blurr for some time when the yellow car appeared on the track one night. Obviously, Blurr had beaten him easily, but the little yellow car had been persistent and had returned for a rematch. Master Disaster had used that slagging remote to make Blurr attack the car, only for it to transform into a fellow Autobot of all things! Blurr had thought he was saved, but the mech only wanted to join the races.
But the little mech brought a few surprises along. Some little organic found and took the remote from Master Disaster, freeing Blurr. After that, a Decepticon appeared and started tearing up the race track. The little organic had turned the remote on him, saving both her and her Autobot friend. Unfortunately, the little creature dropped the remote and the Decepticon came under his own control again. Blurr owed the organic and the mech for freeing him and, even so, he was obliged to fight a Decepticon. Blurr leapt from a bridge as the yellow mech passed beneath and daringly shot out at the Decepticon. The 'con dodged and fled, whilst Blurr landed back on the track and sped to freedom.
Some time later, Blurr intercepted a communication between Megatron and an agent on Cybertron saying that the Autobot Bulkhead would be key in building a space bridge that Megatron required for his plans. As Blurr had journeyed to stop Megatron, the yellow mech from the races attacked him! And after he'd saved him, too!
Though he'd been annoyed at the yellow mech, he had explained the situation to his team and the group followed Blurr to Megatron's base in order to rescue Bulkhead. But the space bridge was nearing completion and, after being glued to two of Starscream's clones with a peculiar grey substance from a Decepticon Blurr had never seen before, he was dragged through the light and into an unknown destination in space.
"You're the yellow mech!" Blurr cried out suddenly. "The one from Master Disaster's races!"
Flash Bang was stunned. This yellow mech had jogged a memory! But Flash Bang had had every intention of restoring the first one herself. Dejected, Flash Bang stepped back from the two bots as they chatted.
"What happened to you?" an enormous green Autobot asked. "When you went through the space bridge the coordinates hadn't been set." Blurr just shook his head apologetically.
"I don't remember," he told them simply. Flash Bang stepped in again.
"Blurr lost his memory after being compacted into a cube a few solar cycles ago," she explained. She told the group of what had happened to Blurr, receiving stunned expressions in return.
"Someone tried to kill you?" Bumblebee asked, dumbfounded. Blurr nodded.
"That's what we think," he explained. "Unless I fell in a compactor?" He turned to Flash Bang as he said this, but the femme just shrugged.
"It's infinitely more interesting to think someone tried to murder you," she said. Bumblebee gave the femme a funny look.
"So, who are you?" he asked.
"I said earlier, didn't I? My name's Flash Bang," she repeated. The optics of a cycleformer stood behind Bumblebee widened.
"Do you mean to say that you are Gearshift's sparkling?" he asked, stepping towards her.
"Um, yes, I am," she replied hesitantly.
"I trained alongside him under Master Yoketron," he explained. "He was a good mech."
"Thank you," Flash Bang said quietly.
"My name is Prowl," the motorcycle said.
"Bulkhead," added the huge green one.
"I'm Ratchet," the old red and white one said.
"And my name is Optimus Prime," said the tall red and blue one. "I'm the leader of this team."
"Don't forget me!" another voice came. Flash Bang and Blurr looked down at the ground to see a small organic creature stood looking up at them. "My name's Sari," it said.
"What in Primus are you?" Flash Bang demanded. The organic frowned slightly.
"I'm a human," she said. "You know, this planet's dominant species!"
"I think I remember you, too," Blurr said. "But weren't you shorter?"
"I had an AllSpark-related growth spurt," she said, shrugging.
"Sari's been our constant companion since we came back online on this planet," Optimus Prime explained. "We were in stasis for fifty Earth stellar cycles before making ourselves known."
"Earth?" Flash Bang asked. "Is that the name of this planet?"
"Yep," Sari said. "And I've been helping the Autobots fit in since they came."
"Anyway," Optimus said. "What brings you to Earth?"
"I was attacked by Shockwave," Blurr explained.
"Shockwave?" the group said together.
"He's a Decepticon spy posing as Longarm Prime!" Bumblebee explained when Blurr's expression made it obvious he was confused.
"He is?" Blurr asked. "But he's the head of Autobot Intelligence!"
"Exactly!" Bumblebee cried. "That's why we really need to get word to Cybertron and warn them!"
"Is there a long distance communicator on your ship, Flash Bang?" Optimus asked the femme. She shook her cranial unit.
"There is, but it hasn't worked in stellar cycles," she told him.
"So much for that idea, then," Ratchet moaned.
"Let's all go inside," Optimus suggested, changing the subject. "We've all had a rather trying night and we need to set our guests up with somewhere to stay." He shot a peculiar glance at Bulkhead before leading the way inside.
The plant was enormous on the inside and two spare rooms were quickly set up for the two new arrivals. Sari said goodbye to the Autobots and went home with her father, who had been inside the base when Flash Bang and Blurr had landed. Flash Bang and Blurr had spent the day talking with Optimus Prime and his team, getting the lowdown on Earth and how best to behave around the humans. After Blurr tripped over a cable in Ratchet's medical bay and caused a power cut, it was decided that both he and Flash Bang should probably stay at the base for a few days.
"What a day," Flash Bang said absently. Both she and Blurr were sat in the rec room, relaxing for a while whilst the other Autobots got on with various tasks.
"You're telling me," Blurr said. "I don't remember anything quite as hectic as this. Even Master Disaster's races were more organised."
"You can't exactly organise a last minute escape, you know," Flash Bang hissed. "Mercury is going to blow a circuit when she sees the ship's gone."
"Are… are you okay, Flash Bang?" Blurr asked the femme tentatively.
"What do you think, Blurr?" she snapped, suddenly. "I've been chased away from the only home I've ever known and set off on what I thought would be an amazing adventure to restore your memory, but now some Bumble-bot is doing it for me!"
"Bumblebee didn't restore me entire memory," he pointed out. "And it is way too much for one bot to do – restoring an entire lifetime of memories."
"Are you saying I can't do it on my own?"
"I'm saying you shouldn't," Blurr argued. "I may have lost my memory, but even I know that I'd be in over my cranial unit doing such a thing alone."
"Humph," was all she said in reply.
Just then, Bumblebee and Optimus walked in.
"I need you on monitor duty tonight, Bumblebee," the Prime was saying.
"What? But that's so lame!" Bumblebee moaned in reply. "Can't someone else do it? I have to play Ninja Gladiator!"
"Everyone else is busy with worthwhile projects, Bumblebee," Optimus replied. "Now, I've got a patrol to do." The Prime transformed and drove out the building. Bumblebee stared absently at the monitors for a moment before turning to Flash Bang and Blurr.
"You guys won't tattletale on me if I play Ninja Gladiator, will you?" he asked them. The two shot a glance at each other and then shrugged. They had no idea what he was on about.
Bumblebee jumped over the concrete sofa and began setting up the games console, grabbing a controller and then dropping himself into place between Blurr and Flash Bang. Both bots shuffled sideways to give him some elbow room. Bumblebee started up the game and was away in no time, pushing buttons and controlling the character on screen.
"Video games?" Flash Bang asked curiously.
"This is Earth entertainment?" Blurr asked.
"Yep," Bumblebee said, only giving it half a thought. "And I am the best player around."
Flash Bang watched the game eagerly for a time, but soon became bored when she realised Bumblebee's expertise on the game made it impossible for him to get hit, let alone loose a match. She stood up and looked over at Blurr.
"I'm going to go check out my room," she said to him. "Are you gonna stay here?"
"No, I'll come, too," Blurr said, standing up quickly and zooming over to Flash Bang's side.
"See ya later, Zippy," Bumblebee teased. Blurr turned to face him, arms crossed.
"How many times do I have to tell you that the name's not "Zippy"?" he complained. Bumblebee just laughed and continued to play his game, mumbling something about it "lacking a certain creativity".
As the two walked along the corridor, looking into the different rooms and surprised to see one with an enormous tree growing through it, the sky outside darkened as night drew in. Thick black clouds drifted in the way of the stars as rain began to pour, heavily battering the windows in a stormy barrage. Neither Flash Bang nor Blurr had seen rain before. Well, Blurr probably had but didn't remember. Blurr took great interest in watching the puddles grow and ripple as more and more rain fell, but his curiosity turned to surprise when a bolt of lightning tore through the sky.
"What was that?" he cried. Flash Bang jumped as a tremendous boom rattled the windows.
"That is thunder and lightning," a voice said behind them. The two turned to see Prowl coming out of the room with the tree. "It's natural on this planet."
"And the liquid?" Flash Bang asked.
"Just rain," Prowl explained. "It won't hurt you if you go out in it."
"I see," Flash Bang said, continuing to look out of the window curiously. Blurr watched, too, and his processor wandered over the things he had yet to remember about both this planet and his home.
Well, there you go. Blackmoondragon1415, thank you! And I hope this chapter answers your question. Also thank you to Matron for adding the story to your alerts!
Keep reviewing! :D