So, here's the next chapter. We're gonna see a little more action here than we did in the last chapter, and we're also going to join up with the events of the series properly.
Enjoy!
Chapter Four: The Sting
"Bumblebee, when I put you on monitor duty, I didn't mean this monitor," Optimus Prime said as he switched off the TV.
"But there hasn't been so much as a Decepticon blip for a decacycle! Besides, if I'm playing Ninja Gladiator at least I'm getting valuable combat training," Bumblebee protested.
As the two argued, the computers that Bumblebee should have been watching began to go off, declaring a Cybertronian energy signature was close by.
"Stay on the monitor while the rest of us investigate," Optimus said. "And keep an optic on Blurr and Flash Bang, okay? The last thing we want is for two new Autobots to be getting into trouble." The Prime drove out, leaving Bumblebee alone once more.
"You didn't say which monitor," Bumblebee said to himself as he returned to his game.
Blurr was bored. And a bored speedster is a dangerous thing, even if they only have part of their memory. Flash Bang was staring intently out of the window at the rain… still… leaving Blurr to do what he wanted. But there wasn't anything to do!
Blurr stood up and began to head towards the rec room to see what Bumblebee was up to. He'd grown used to the thunder by now and wasn't surprised every time it struck. But there was something down the dimly lit corridor that made him jump.
"Bumblebot," came a voice from the shadows. Blurr froze at the sound. The voice sounded odd, broken, as if everything had been torn out of its owner and what was left was an empty shell struggling to carry on. It made Blurr shiver.
"Who's there?" he called out, fully aware the voice hadn't been calling to him. If Bumblebee was in danger, then Blurr had to help.
"Bumblebot," the voice called again. Blurr saw something move to his left. He dashed to where he saw the movement and grabbed a hold of something.
"Let Wasp go!" the thing shouted. "Wasp not here for you!"
"Wasp?" Blurr repeated as something else fell into place in his processor. "You were the one convicted of being a Decepticon spy!"
"Wasp never go back to stockade!" the green bot insisted.
"You won't be going back, Wasp," Blurr said. "I myself found the evidence showing you were innocent…" But Blurr couldn't remember if he'd told anyone and the whole memory loss thing would raise a few questions if he started telling people what he knew.
"Wasp doesn't believe you!" Wasp hissed. "Wasp spent solar cycles being chased across galaxy to get revenge on the bot that ruined Wasp's life!"
"Blurr?" Flash Bang called, running down the hall to see what was going on. "Primus! Is that Wasp?"
"Yes, Flash Bang, but he's-" Blurr didn't have time to explain, as Flash Bang's arrival had given the green bot chance to slip free of Blurr's grip. Wasp raised a stinger at Blurr, but Flash Bang got there first with a flash bang charge.
Unfortunately, she didn't think about Blurr's susceptibility to the charge.
Blurr hit the floor with his servos over his audio receptors and his optics tightly shut. Wasp had gone and the charge had gone off during a clap of thunder, masking the noise to anyone who hadn't been in the corridor.
When Blurr could see again, it was pitch black and all he could see was Flash Bang's optics.
"Blurr, I'm so sorry!" she cried as she helped him up. "Wasp is a convicted spy, you see and-"
"He's innocent, Flash Bang," Blurr told her. "I remember finding the evidence that said so."
"You've remembered something else?" Flash Bang asked, disappointed. "Am I ever going to restore one of your memories?"
"That really isn't important right now," Blurr chided her.
Another clap of thunder distracted them for a moment, tearing their optics from each other and to the window. The two heard a terrified yelp from the rec room and a crash as something heavy fell to the floor.
"What was that?" Flash Bang asked. Blurr's optics widened.
"Bumblebee!"
The two ran into the rec room, expecting to find Bumblebee fighting off Wasp. Instead, they saw Bumblebee standing over Wasp, who was laid out unconscious on the floor behind the sofa.
"Bumblebee?" Blurr asked. "What happened? Are you okay? Wasp evaded us and came to get you."
"Bumble- I mean – Wasp attacked me, but I managed to defeat him," Bumblebee told them. Something didn't seem right to the two bots, but neither one could put their digit on it.
"We ought to put him somewhere," Blurr said as he moved forwards. "Flash Bang, will you contact Prime and tell him to come back?"
"Sure," Flash Bang said as she activated her comlink.
"Help me with this, will you, Bumblebee?" Blurr asked as he began to pick up Wasp. Bumblebee took his support servos and helped Blurr carry him to Ratchet's med bay.
"He's coming back online," Ratchet said as the group of Autobots watched the green mech wake up.
"Wasp put up fight, but Bumblebot way tougher," a familiar voice said. The green mech looked up to see a yellow one stood before him, and suddenly everything became horribly clear.
"That's not me! Wasp took my body, I'm really Bumblebee!" he cried to the group.
"Same crazy Wasp, but he's way uglier than I remember," Bulkhead declared.
"Poor Wasp," the Bumblebee before him said. "He's clearly a danger to himself and all those around him."
Ratchet reluctantly took out a pair of stasis cuffs, but the green mech panicked and shot at them, destroying them completely. He continued to blast and eventually shot at the lights above, plunging the base into darkness once more. He took his chance and fled, and just in time to avoid Sentinel Prime and Jazz's arrival.
The Autobots transformed and chased after him, Blurr hesitating a moment. Flash Bang looked back at him as the others drove out.
"What's wrong, Blurr?" she asked him.
"I don't remember how to transform," he admitted. Flash Bang went back to robot mode.
"Let's go on support servo, then," she offered.
Outside, a heated argument was going on between Optimus and another bot. A tall blue and orange mech with an oversized chin was shouting about a "sit rep", after which a white one next to him explained he meant a "situation report". The argument turned to Wasp's innocence, but Blurr wasn't listening to the conversation, he was more interested in the newcomers.
"Sentinel Prime?" Blurr wondered.
"Uhg, another memory not jogged by me?" Flash Bang moaned.
"I've already told you to not get so caught up in the whole thing, Flash Bang," he reminded her. "But, yes, another memory."
"What this time?" Flash Bang asked, still annoyed. Blurr was silent for a moment, as if reluctant to tell her.
"Every stellar cycle I spent as an Autobot Intelligence agent until I got to Earth the first time," Blurr said after a while.
"What?" Flash Bang cried out incredulously. "That's most of your life!"
"Well I'm sorry," Blurr spat. "It's not my fault that you're so slagging stubborn that you refuse to acknowledge the fact that you can't do anything for me on your own!"Flash Bang was about to shout something back at him, but they were distracted by all the Autobots suddenly leaving, save for Bumblebee.
"I'm going back inside," Blurr said, more than a hint of anger in his voice. Flash Bang watched him go and followed him in after a moment, but went straight to her own room.
Wasp had instantly taken a liking to Bumblebee's video game system, though he wasn't very good at this Ninja Gladiator game that had been in it when he'd started it up. He lost every single match, but was almost as persistent as the real Bumblebee, and continued on playing anyway. Blurr was sat in his room, cross legged on the berth and thinking about everything that had happened that day.
She saved my life once, he thought, and I saved her from Shockwave. But then she saved us both by stealing her femme creator's ship. I really do appreciate all that she's done for me in just two solar cycles, but she's so slagging stubborn about the whole memory thing!
Blurr eventually came to the conclusion that he had overreacted earlier when he had snapped at Flash Bang. It wasn't right; she was young and eager to help him. She'd longed for an adventure and now that she'd found one, bots she didn't even know were doing it for her! Blurr decided to apologise.
He stepped out of his room and into the corridor, looking up and down to see if anyone was there. His optics fell on the glow from the TV in the rec room, which brought Bumblebee's presence to his attention. Even so, he continued to Flash Bang's room.
Knocking on the door, he called out, "Flash Bang?" The femme didn't reply, so Blurr tried again. "Are you awake?"
"Yes," she moaned. "What do you want?"
"I just wanted to come in," Blurr said. "I want to apologise." He heard the femme get up from her berth and come over to the door, which slid open, revealing her slim red form.
"Apologise?" she asked suspiciously. Blurr nodded.
"I'm sorry for snapping at you," he said. "You're only trying to help me and I've been brushing you off." Flash Bang didn't say anything for a moment.
"It's… okay," she replied. "I stress everyone out, so I'm used to people yelling at me." She smiled up at Blurr, who smiled back.
"Didn't you two leave to find Bumble- I mean, Wasp?" someone said behind Blurr. They both looked around to see Bumblebee looking at them warily.
"We really oughtn't to be going anywhere on our own until we're more familiar with this city," Flash Bang told him.
"Fair enough," Bumblebee replied, still cautious. "What's the deal with Wasp at the cycle, anyway?" The two bots frowned slightly.
"You should know better than we do," Blurr said, not bothering to hide the suspicion in his voice.
"I've got monitors to watch," Bumblebee replied, suddenly changing the subject without even a hint of subtlety. Blurr turned to Flash Bang as the yellow mech left and returned to the rec room.
"Something is very wrong here," the blue mech murmured.
"You're telling me," Flash Bang said. "What's he up to now?"
The two bots quietly approached the rec room, peering round the corner to get a look at Bumblebee. He wasn't sat at the sofa playing his video games like they had expected, instead he was sat at one of the monitors with his back to the two. At first, Blurr and Flash Bang assumed he was doing what Prime had told him to do earlier, but then Blurr zoomed in on the screen with his binocular-like optics.
"He's going through his own files," Blurr whispered to Flash Bang.
"Why would he do that?" Flash Bang asked. A bleeping tone from the TV dragged her attention from Bumblebee. The screen was flashing up with "Game Over, You Lose", which struck Flash Bang as odd. Hadn't Bumblebee declared earlier that he was "the best player around"?
"We ought to alert Prime that something's up," Flash Bang suggested. "The Wasp that escaped must have been telling the truth when he said that their bodies had been switched."
"That would explain why Bumblebee's going through his own files, but what if he's just got a bug?" Blurr pondered.
"Are you sure about anything?" Flash Bang groaned.
"To be honest, no," Blurr replied. Flash Bang was about to reply with a rather snarky comment when something Bumblebee said caught her attention.
"Wasp could get used to being Bumblebot," he said in that fractured voice Blurr had heard before.
"It is Wasp!" Blurr exclaimed. "We have to do something."
"I'll alert Prime," Flash Bang told Blurr. "You try and grab him."
Blurr crouched down in the cover of the shadows. Most of the lights had been fixed, but a handy few had been left, giving Blurr plenty darkness to take cover in.
"Prime, this is Flash Bang, come in," Flash Bang said over her comlink.
"I'm having a little trouble right now," the Prime replied. Flash Bang heard a loud bang as Optimus tackled something heavy.
"It's important," Flash Bang replied. "It's about Bumblebee-" She was cut off by someone shouting at Optimus, prompting him to shut off his comlink.
"Slag it," Flash Bang moaned. She looked back into the rec room to see what was happening with Blurr. He was still in the cover of the shadows, with Wasp still eagerly reading the monitor. Blurr was nearly on him and was preparing to leap, but then he tripped on a cable and went tumbling forwards.
"What's this?" Wasp cried as he spun round. "Trying to sneak up on Wasp, were you?"
Wasp leapt from his seat and took off down a corridor on the other side of the rec room. Blurr got on all fours, a little dazed, before scanning for where the impostor had gone.
"Come and get Wasp, speedy bot," the mech taunted. Blurr growled and stood, speeding straight at Wasp without thinking. He was quickly enveloped in the dark of the corridor, and didn't realise the trap until he was in it. Wasp stood at the end of the corridor, only dimly visible to Blurr, but he continued forward. At the last second, Wasp dodged, and Blurr went flying into the tiny storeroom behind him.
"Wasp got you now, speedy bot," Wasp said as he closed the door behind Blurr. "And now for your little femme friend."
"Touch her and you die, Wasp!" Blurr shouted, battering on the door. He heard Wasp walk away from the door and before long there was silence. After a moment or two, he heard a terrified yelp and a "get off me!" The next thing he knew, the door opened again for a split second as Flash Bang was shoved inside.
"Blurr, are you okay?" Flash Bang asked him worriedly. The storeroom was tiny, barely big enough for the two of them. Flash Bang felt her faceplates heat up as she felt her chassis pressed against Blurr's.
"I'm okay," he said. "Did he hurt you?"
"No," Flash Bang said. "Just shot at me."
"I don't like this…" Blurr moaned quietly.
"Well I don't like having a crazy-bot on the loose in an Autobot base, either," Flash Bang replied.
"No, Flash," Blurr said. "I mean I don't like being stuck like this. Enclosed spaces remind me of…" Blurr didn't finish, and not because he didn't want to upset Flash Bang with the news that another memory had surfaced.
"Blurr, what is it?" she asked him as he stared into space blankly.
"Let me out!" he yelled suddenly. "I don't want to be crushed! I need to get out! I can't die here, I won't die here! Let me out, let me out, let me out!"
"Crushed?" Flash Bang asked, dumbfounded. "Blurr, you're not getting crushed, you're in a storeroom!"
"He wants me dead; he's going to kill me!" Blurr continued.
"Who, Blurr? Who wants you dead?" she asked.
"I… don't know," Blurr replied. "But I can't stay in here! The compactor! Those walls, those thick metal walls nearly killed me once, they won't finish me now!" Blurr's engine started revving loudly as he tried to push his way out, servos flat against the door as his wheeled support servos went wild.
"Blurr, stop!" Flash Bang shouted. "You're not going anywhere shoving against the door like that!"
"I don't want to die!" he persisted, not listening to a word the femme was saying.
"Oh, that is it!" Flash Bang moaned. "I really don't want to do this in such an enclosed space, but if I have to…"
Flash Bang threw down a charge and, for the first time, felt the effects of her own weapon as Blurr finally shut up… and fell to the floor in agony.
"All right, you caught Wasp, but Wasp was good bot once, until Bumblebot ruined Wasp's life!" Wasp yelled as he was revealed.
Blurr was still freaking out about the small space, but Flash Bang was happy that he hadn't started up again with the fearful rants and panicked escape attempts. As soon as she'd heard the Autobots return, however, she had taken to calling out, not that anyone had heard. After a while, she heard a number of zaps and the sound of a number of bots running outside.
"They've gone again," Flash Bang sighed, dropping her cranial unit against the door.
"Need to get out…" Blurr moaned. He was curled up in a ball on the floor, trying to make his body smaller than it already was to give himself the illusion of there being more room.
"Why are you so scared?" she asked him, going for the soft approach rather than her usual demanding shrieks.
Blurr looked up at her, and she gasped at the genuine fear in his optics.
"I remember being crushed."
"Blurr? Flash Bang?" they heard the Autobots call out just then. Flash Bang turned back to the door and began pounding on it.
"We're in here! Help!" she yelled. The door was unlocked and opened, spilling light into the dark space and allowing Blurr to shoot out in the blur he was famed for.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Blurr huffed as he dropped to his knees out in the light. The Autobots looked down at the frenzied speedster.
"How long were you two in there?" Prowl asked.
"Almost all night," Flash Bang said. "Blurr's been freaking out because it reminded him of when he was crushed."
Ratchet helped the speedster to his support servos. "Let's get him to his room," the old medic suggested. "He's spooked and needs to calm down."
Flash Bang followed Ratchet into Blurr's room and helped him set the bot down. Ratchet took out one of his many tools and began to scan Blurr's processor.
"His processor is working overtime," Ratchet declared. "The sudden amount of memories he's been gaining is doing a number on him."
"What can you do for him?" Flash Bang asked worriedly.
"Nothing," Ratchet replied. "He just needs to take it easy for a few solar cycles."
"But-" Flash Bang began to protest.
"Who's the medic here?" Ratchet snapped. Flash Bang shrank back and didn't say any more. Ratchet grumbled something incoherent and left.
"Flash?" Blurr called weakly.
"What is it, Blurr?" she asked him, putting a servo to his faceplate.
"Thank you," he replied.
"What for?" Flash Bang asked curiously.
"For saving me from the incinerator," Blurr answered.
"That was two solar cycles ago, Blurr," she replied softly.
"I know," Blurr said. "But I never did say thank you."
Flash Bang smiled and bid goodnight to the speedster, closing the door and heading to her own room to rest.
I like this chapter, it adds a little more emotion to the whole thing :P I hope you all enjoyed it! And Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it!