DISCLAIMER: LIKE A HUNDRED TIMES BEFORE THE SAME AS ALWAYS SO I AM NOT REPEATING MYSELF LOL
A/n: Oh Lendaras the attack happened slightly after Christmas not New Years
THE LOST CHILDREN OF CYBERTRON
Chapter 34: Learning to Work Together
It was the third week of winter vacation and with it Mikaela Banes has learned more about the simple things then anything. For starters learning how to surf and swim in the ocean as compared to a lake was something that she did not expect. The ocean is constantly moving and never ending as compared to a lake where on the other side there is land. The water can be murky or clear if no one disturbs it.
For the ocean it is murky if rainwater washes sediment down into the waves.
Mikaela wanted nothing more then to laugh it all off and enjoy the moment. As she did however she was startled to find that swimming in the ocean was more demanding then swimming in a lake.
For starters the ocean currents constantly pull at you in all directions so it made it difficult to maneuver.
As she sat on the beach she pondered this as she watched Titan play in the waves.
This was the last week she will ever see the Pakele family and already she was regretting it. In all her life she has not felt the love that they had ever and the acceptance of them into their family. She walked along the sand towards the ocean as the waves burst from the sea. It was when she looked again towards the land that she caught sight of something sleeping on the sand. Thinking that might be a body she walked towards it.
Only upon closer inspection that she found out that it was in fact a seal.
The seal looked at her with curious eyes its dark head tilted before it rose up and made its way to the ocean. After dipping its head into the waves it was gone in a second.
Mikaela stared after the seal and then looked to the sky. The sun was shinning brightly now and the sky was crystal clear blue. The bluest she has ever seen before. The skies over Tranquility did not match the skies over in Hawaii. In fact it was discolored due to pollution.
"Having fun with the monk seals?" a voice asked
Mikaela turned to find Titan sitting down on the edge of an exposed reef. The Deceptibot smiled at her showing his shark-like teeth as he walked towards the water.
"Wanna go for a swim?" he asked
"Um there is only one problem," she said and Titan looked her up and down before he realized what she is missing.
He laughed as he walked up and grabbed a pair of fins and a snorkel mask. Putting it on Mikaela joined Titan under the waves as he switched to his beast form and she held on to his dorsal fin. The beast-bot would occasionally pull Mikaela back to the surface to breathe. As she held on and he explored the reef he spotted Ripster as he approached.
The tiger shark swam with them not even bothering and Titan could tell that he recently ate so there was no need to worry. In fact Titan transformed underwater and beckoned the shark over with one hand. Ripster made his way over slowly. When he got there he beckoned for Mikaela to swim over and placed her hand on Ripster's dorsal fin.
--MEANWHILE--
"This is all your fault!"
"My fault! You're the one who is always starting slag!"
Both bound mechs struggled to release the hold that the handcuffs did to them as they glared daggers at one another. One of the things they did was punch each other out again. This time Obun decided to punish them instead of taking it out on the whole unit.
She had Starscream, Jazz and Frenzy go spend some time with the sparklings while Barricade and Bumblebee are currently cleaning the mess that Scorponok made of the waste room.
It was smelly and the stench clung to their olfactory sensors as they glared daggers at each other.
The heat from the generator room next door and the disposal system made the temperature in the room become hotter then outside. Both Autobot and Decepticon still in their holoforms were busy trying to untie themselves from the bottom of the pit. You see they started to clean the disposal unit and were nearly done when Bumblebee slipped and fell into the handle that opened the disposal unit.
The floor beneath them opened up and they found themselves looking at a thermos stand with fire leaping out at them from the main engine.
And that is how they ended up like this.
--MEANWHILE--
"Hey has anyone seen Barricade and Bumblebee?" asked Kekoa while drinking his soda
"Last time I saw them grandma made them clean the incinerator," said Sonic as he came in with a new game that he downloaded.
Alex looked lost as she gave a shrug as if to say 'oh well,' and walked out to find Mikaela and Sam since Miles was taking a nap on the couch with popcorn all over his shirt.
--BACK IN THE INCENERATOR ROOM--
"You know it is getting very hot in here," said Bumblebee
"Gee what gave you that idea?" Barricade said sarcastically.
"Sorry asshole but I have to get out of here," Bumblebee replied
"You what about me?" Barricade asked as he felt his hands begin to slip.
"You all you've been is civil back at the Hitachi's and then now you are all hostile! Stupid Decepticon!" Bumblebee said as his hands started to slip from the sweat as well.
"Sometimes I think they made these holomatter forms too real," Bumblebee growled as he renewed his grip.
Barricade slipped further down from the pipe that he was holding.
"We have to turn it off!" he shouted to Bumblebee
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Bumblebee asked
"I don't know think of something!" Barricade demanded
"Um how about we move towards the switch?" Bumblebee said
"Oh like that is going to work." Barricade said
"Ah!" Bumblebee's hand slipped and he fell only to have Barricade grab him with his other hand.
"We have to work together on this brat you and I both know that," Barricade said
"And how are we going to hit the switch?" Bumblebee demanded
"I will swing you and you will try to see if you can reach it," Barricade said
"Um 'Cade we are handcuffed by both our hands and our feet!" Bumblebee replied
"I know that we are just going to do a monkey," Barricade replied back.
"A monkey? Are you insane Barricade?" Bumblebee asked
"Yes I am insane as can be brat! Now I am going to swing you and you are going to grab onto the lever and pull with all your might," said Barricade and Bee looking down at the flames below gulped but then he felt something slip and looked up at Barricade who was trying to regain his grip.
Barricade began to swing with bumblebee holding on as he used his weight to help him. Slowly he could feel Barricade begin to slip as they swung even more to gain momentum as Barricade swung wider to allow Bumblebee to reach out and slowly with each swing touch the lever. Bumblebee managed to place his feet on the opposite side of the pit and began to run with his legs under him as he raced up towards the lever. Barricade held on as Bee leaped with all his momentum and managed to grab onto the lever.
As they began to descend seeing as the floor was taking its sweet time to return the emergency shaft opened up and both men were trapped and began to fall into the pit. They slid some ways down before the cold hard ground met them.
When they both got up they could hear the grinding of something and turned to find that they are in the main engine room. Or inside the engine as they watched the turbines go up and down.
When they looked up a turbine was about to crash onto them when something grabbed them both and dragged them away just in time.
Looking they realized that it was a maintenance drone.
"Well lucky I managed to find you," said a voice and they turned to find the hologram of Nanobite staring at them.
"Yeah well thanks for the help," said Bumblebee
"Next time watch before you pull the lever you almost became compost," she said and vanished.
--LATER THAT EVENING--
It was already new years and Sam was wearing the shirt that his parents had sent him along with his other presents. He groaned at the junk that his mother thought he might need in Hawaii along with some new magazines from Uncle Charles.
Kekoa had to laugh at this as he prepped the red devils and the aerials in a hidden spot away from the many children that were coming over. He then circled the house that they were currently decorating.
The base already has several long strings of red devils and some blossoms tied in a long string of fuses around the main hanger entrance.
He had to laugh at Goliath as he unloaded another crate of illegal fireworks that he smuggled in from China. Titan was busy enjoying an ice cream flavored energon cube while Scorponok was dancing around with several sparklers attached to him. He powered up his cannon to light another one and then passed it on to a kid without opening fire.
Frenzy was helping Rodan and Radon set up the aerial grand finally that was to happen at midnight.
Already the stage and the tables were set for the events of the evening. There was food everywhere with many of the uncles and aunts swatting flies and setting glue traps to keep the rest of the bugs away. There was one incident involving a centipede (really nasty creatures in Hawaii) and someone's pet chicken but other then that the festivities were nearly ready.
As if to help Alex had set up the sparklers for the younger members of the family mainly her little cousins, nieces and nephews. As she finished setting up she had Scorponok power up his cannon and fire it into the imu pit to set it ablaze for the pig that is slowly steaming inside. (You know the pit you see at luaus where they roast the pig it is called an Imu Pit "E-Moo")
The Twins and Goliath were circling overhead with streamers coming out of their tail fins and colored smoke out of their thrusters as they drew pictures in the clouds to the delight of all the younger humans.
The teens were busy putting up decorations which included red streamers with pictures of the rat on them as they made red decorations and placed little red bags at the entrance to each home in Kalaupapa to the delight of the patients that still live there. Already there was a dragon dancing in the streets as some of the kids made it happen.
The lion dancing was unique in a way as it blessed each and every house placing coins and then eating the bags for another year.
As that happened Barricade and Bumblebee were made to set the tables and help cook some food for later that night. Both glared at each other but after what had happened in the garbage shoot they both decided it was not worth it to fight.
They tried to flip burgers together but found that with their tied hands it was impossible. It was then that both looked at each other and had gotten an idea.
Sonic was blasting a Japanese pop song and then switched to Korean as a Korean song began to play and the two without noticing began to make the grill according to the beat of the song.
The only one who noticed was Kekoa as he finished the red devil streaming around the main house. Laughing he walked over to where the boom-box was playing his music and whispered to it. The Autobot was more then happy to play another song mix to a different beat. As he played Kekoa watched as the two of them began to work in a pattern and recorded it with his camcorder.
In the meantime both cell phones just finished the set up for the lights on the stage for when the main event took place. After testing it out Scrappy leaped down to the horror of some of the people below only to be picked up by Kyouji as he did a back flip and caught the cell phone. Scrappy squealed happily as he was held again by the same human.
"Scrappy how many times do I have to tell you about doing that?" he said and the cell phone laughed as he was held up again only to snuggle into Kyouji's face.
"Alright you mushy mech," he said stroking Scrappy's back and the cell phone could only squeal, "NEW YEAR, NEW YEAR," he said
"That's right you are not even a year old yet," he said laughing as he took Scrappy to where some of the others were eating.
As the evening festivities took place and the music began to play with Kekoa, Kyouji and some of the boys from in the main town began to play some local songs.
As they played the music Barricade remembered a time where he and Bumblebee were not fighting each other. It was back on the Hitachi farm as they were forced to make a truce at what had happened.
Both mechs then realized why they had been fighting and took it to themselves as they slowly started to dance to the music a bit. They were slowly begun watched by Stitch who kept a look out.
During the festivities family and friends of the Pakele's came around as they ate what was cooked Kekoa played a love song that his parents used when his step father was still alive. Afterwards a few others began to sing as well filling the music with a festive air.
As the night wore on the children from the human side of the family. Mikaela wore the dress that she bought when she and Kekoa went to O'ahu to do some shopping. Artemis gave some of the younger members of the family rides. When it grew late the parents with young children left for the evening leaving the adults and the Cybertronian kids to have fun with the aerials.
When the new year event finished everyone began to clean up the mess and head for home. Exhausted the two of them headed towards their quarters for some well deserved sleep.
--THE NEXT DAY--
It was well into the next day that everyone was winding down from the New Year's day even and was finishing up cleaning. Barricade and Bumblebee had not gotten into a single argument the whole night and started to work together for once the do the chores that Obun has set out for them. That included cleaning the bathrooms and washracks.
As they worked together they were being watched. Starscream and Jazz stood there with arms crossed. Frenzy was busy with Nanobite in the communications room while everyone else was cleaning up the littered streets of Kalaupapa.
As the leper patients disburse to their homes that left everyone else who lived in the nearby base to finish the mess. When the mess was finally cleaned and everything packed and put away for next year. (Goliath hiding away the last of the fireworks for 4th of July) they quickly returned to normal routines.
In the meantime Barricade and Bumblebee slowly started to work out a routine with them still tied to each other.
--THREE DAYS LATER--
"What are you doing?" asked Bumblebee
"Trying to break us out of this mess," he said holding up his handcuffs.
"I've tried that already but it is not going to work," replied Barricade
"Then how are we going to get out of this?" asked Barricade
"Well the old hag told us that we have to work together so I guess we have to learn to work together to get through this and finally get released," said Bumblebee.
Barricade looked into the blue eyes of his Autobot counterpart. That same Autobot that pounded his face in nearly a year ago in Tranquility when he was looking for his leader Megatron. Now though he was starting to see Bumblebee in a new light. The new light allowed the Decepticon to see the Autobot in a light that was never thought possible. As he watched Bumblebee then moved and he moved with him.
In the nearly three weeks since they had been handcuffed by Obun for their fighting and now they two of them started to figure out just what the old woman wanted.
It started out rather simple really.
After the New Year's Eve events they started to do things that many people started to notice but them. Things like eating together at the same time in sync as they ate breakfast one morning. Then they did routines that needed to be worked in sync and they did it nearly flawlessly.
It was another four days later that Obun finally decided to release them.
She approached them as they and the other adults were busy cleaning the front yard. She walked towards the two and pointed at them.
"You two! Report to the training room now!" she barked and confused Bumblebee and Barricade followed.
--IN THE TRAINING ROOM--
Kekoa, Stitch, Sonic and Kyouji were busy working on some dance routines when Barricade and Bumblebee entered the training room. The music stopped when they closed the door and the two of them could only wave sheepishly.
"What brings you guys in here?" asked Kyouji
"Obun told us to come in here," said Bumblebee
"Oh, oh," said Stitch as the doors opened again and Obun walked in her head held high.
The others moved away as Obun walked in and sat with her legs crossed as she stared at them. Her gaze never left them as they too sat down with their legs crossed while Kekoa, Kyouji, Sonic and Stitch left the training area.
The two stared at her and gulped feeling the tension build.
It was then that Obun spoke, "Do you know why you are here?" she asked calmly
"Um what did we do now?" asked Bumblebee
"You have now started to realize your potential by beginning to work harmoniously together. As oblivious as you two are to what is happening around you both of you are now relieved of these," she said and twisted her hands in a way that the cuffs fell off without her touching them.
"Whoa," they said
"You two will have to pass the greatest test the Deceptibots have to offer. That is a test to see if you are willing to work together as a team. You have to eat, sleep and work in harmony which you both are learning how to do nicely. What I am about to teach you the same was taught to both Starscream and Jazz since Frenzy does not have a partner he has learned differently. It is your test to see if you truly are Deceptibots.
The reason I am telling you this is because you both are learning the hard lesson that we all had to learn at some point. This test was passed down from generation to generation as a ways of passage for us. Before I became a Pakele I am a Kudasaki a Japanese samurai sworn by duty and honor. In all my years I have been alive I have never seen this many dedicated warriors since the day I was a child back in Japan.
Now it is time that you two finally learn to take the test. This test will destroy you for who you are now and rebuild you for who you will be. It will see if you are truly worthy to learn the ancient ways of our people," Obun said and she said something in Japanese and Kekoa entered the room again and bowed respectfully to Obun.
"Prepare them for the test in one week's time they will take the test of fire and be cleansed of all that they have done. Prepare them immediately," she said and Kekoa bowed before showing them out.
--SOMETIME LATER--
"Where in the pit did she learn to do that?" asked Bumblebee while he and Barricade were happily back in their robotic forms.
After nearly a couple of weeks in human forms both felt at home being robots once more.
"It is called earthbending and you can only learn that after you are initiated into our family," Kekoa said
Kyouji with Sonic and Stitch stood to the side as Kekoa dressed in a pair of very loose camo pants and a tight muscle shirt approached the two robots.
"Alright guys I need you in your holoforms," he said and both transformers did so.
"Alright this dance has been passed down from generation to generation of our family and we call it the 'Dragon Dance' (IF any of you seen Avatar the Last Airbender season 3 episode 13 you would know what I am talking about) this dance is a test of unity within our ranks. But first we have to teach you how to sync together to the point where you will know each other's thoughts without even looking at each other. It is a tough test and you will have to know the parts flawlessly within a week's time. The reason why many of us in our clan never pass is because the stress becomes too much."
"Did you pass the test?" asked Bumblebee
"Yeah I took it with Kyouji. Skeeter and Scrappy have yet to take the test and they will take it the same day as you two." Kekoa explained.
"Ok so how do we start," asked Barricade
"You will warm up like this," and Kekoa showed them how to warm up.
Afterwards he and Kyouji went on to explain the significance of the dragon dance to Bumblebee and Barricade and as he was explaining Starscream and Jazz entered the room. Both of them smirked when they saw that Bumblebee and Barricade were learning about the dance as well. When Kyouji was done he and Kekoa proceeded to do the dance with Sonic playing the old tune from his trip to Japan nearly ten years ago.
All five of the adult Cybertronians were surprised by the equal coordination that both boys displayed. It was then that the door opened and Sam and Miles walked in along with Mikaela.
"What's going on here guys?" asked Sam
"We were just showing these guys an old traditional dance that was passed down through our family," said Kekoa as he stood up.
"Cool," said Miles
"Can we try?" asked Sam
"Sure it is difficult though since you have to be in perfect sync with each other," replied Kyouji as he and Kekoa showed them how it was done again.
When they were done Sam and Miles stood up as the first to try and learn the technique. It was slow at first but after about fifteen minutes of slipping, falling or hitting each other they both got the hang of it and managed to do it almost perfectly. It was about thirty minutes later that they managed to get it right.
"Cool this is like that episode in Avatar where both Zuko and Aang had to do that dance like this," said Miles
Actually they got the idea from us when we performed it at the Chinese New Years festival last year," said Stitch as he finished something and walked up to them.
"Alright guys you nearly got it right but it is up to grandma to let you do it in one week's time," he said.
Sam and Miles looked down disappointed.
"So let me get this straight, this 'Dragon Dance' is what you guys do to initiate others into your family?" Mikaela asked
"Yeah it is when two people think as one, move as one and become as one. It can include more then one up to five at the most, and two other people represent the dragons that will pass judgment." Explained Kekoa as he walked back up to the group.
"So if you do as you said, think as one, move as one become as one then how does that make it special?" asked Miles
"Well when you become as one you form a bond which we call the 'spirit bond' meaning you become spirit brothers or sisters like how the native Americans pass on blood brothers. In our tradition you become spirit brothers," said Kekoa
"Like Sunny and Sides?" asked Bumblebee
"No Bee they are brothers already I think they mean brothers in a spirit sense not in traditional sense," replied Jazz.
"So when do we begin,"
TBC