A Captured Beast Within a Human Skin
By Uniasus
Chapter 13 – Hide and Seek
The hospital Bee found himself pulling up to was small, a simple local building that was not built with a large capacity in mind. It seemed as if something in addition to the power surge had happened; there was police tape blocking a service ally and looked to be people on the roof looking at something. Bumblebee paid them no mind.
He hacked into the video feeds of the hospital and the records simultaneously, focusing his attention on the records and leaving a background program running to run a facial recognition on the security camera footages for Sam's face structure. Spidey paced anxiously back and forth on the passenger seat, and then jumped on top of the dashboard for the extra room. The clacking of metal on plastic reminded Bumblebee of a clock ticking down to something he'd rather avoid.
Sam's name didn't show up on the registry, but it was rather odd that the wing that lost power had been mostly empty. A half full ICU was on the bottom floor, and three floors above, the top one, was a single occupied room belonging to someone whose initials were H.C.H. No full name in a single slot for first, last or middle. And his reason for being in the hospital wasn't noted, and Bee couldn't find any medical record on file. Just the initials on the room.
His background program beeped, signaling it had found a possible match. Bee pulled up the program and found a group of people walking in the front door. There were people dressed in Swiss military uniforms, two people wearing lab coats, and in the center of the group was an unconscious person on a gurney. Who happened to be Sam.
Bee switched camera views and followed the procession through the hospital. Sam was steered down hallways and on to elevators, until he was placed in the room he had noticed earlier. The one registered to H.C.H. He watched as Sam was tied down to the bed, anger burning in his spark. At least they had set Sam's arm.
But it was what happened after Sam woke up that really caught his interest; the room exploded in light. The camera overloaded and pulling up other records Bee compared the time of the light burst to the power outage and found a match. Which was incredible, the implication. That Sam was the result.
That he really was the All Spark.
And that he hadn't noticed in the entire past six years.
Spidey gave a whining trill, nudging at a spot on the inside of the windshield, but Bee ignored him in favor of doing some more digging; hacking into Switzerland's defense network and searching for any files associated with the words H.C.H. There wasn't much there, just the basics, but that was more than he knew to begin with.
The Swiss had been monitoring Sam, or at least had an interest in him, since Mission City. They kept referring him to as a Human-Cybertron Hybrid, and were interested in how the energy of the All Spark affected humans. There was video file that Bee opened, and when he did he found himself looking at Sam sitting on a desk in a concrete room talking to none other than Spidey. There was a note attached that read 'acquire' and the next chronological file mentioned that an agent had captured the hybrid and brought him to a base located not far from the hospital. As for what went on in the base, how Sam broke his arm, there was no word. Bee was tempted to drive to the base and blast it into oblivion. No one messed with his friend, no one. Frag the idea that Prime wouldn't allow the action, Prime wasn't here right now, and he had no obligation to make a report right away. It could wait.
Bee started his engine, and to his surprise Spidey dug his feet into the dashboard in protest before again bumping his head against the windshield and tapping it with a leg too. Curious, he turned his sensor in that direction and his sensor systems brought to his attention something they noticed awhile ago but he had failed to acknowledge: there were four electronic signatures coming from the hospital that felt that same slimy way Spidey had when he first meet the mech. They were coming from the blocked off alleyway.
The scout made his way toward it, just as his background video monitoring application brought another potential file to his attention. It was of Sam, staring down seven soldiers, six of which were leveling guns at his chest. Bee's spark sputtered, not wanting to watch and yet needing to, when the feed cut out to show a field of static. He prayed to Primus that it was an attack by Sam, that the human had managed to get free. That he had used All Spark powers to his advantage.
Creeping under the police line, Bee noticed one side of the empty alley was pockmarked with holes in the bricks, some deep enough to catch a glimpse of the room beyond. There were shattered bricks covering the floor of the alley. And crouched behind the dumpster were four mechs.
They were hospital equipment: a heart rate monitor, a TV, a radio, and a video camera. The latter three were short and huddled around the first, whose screen bore the words 'SEARCHING...SEARCHING...'. Upon seeing Bee they all shrunk down, trying to hide.
Spidey decided to do a little dance and then scratched at the passenger window. Bee opened the door and let the little mech out. The mechs cringed away at first, but then shuffled forward a bit. The spider bot crawled up the TV and settled on top of it.
"What are you searching for?" Bumblebee asked.
The smaller ones looked towards the heart rate monitor, who then slowly turned to face Bee to answer.
'CREATOR'
"And who's that?" Bee rolled forward half a wheel revolution.
A cable snaked out from the video camera mech to connect with the TV and a very familiar face showed up on the screen. Sam.
Sam.
Sam was their creator. He could create. Which was incredible, impossible. Which was...the best news he had heard in vorns. Because it meant the mechs in front of him, chirping and beeping at each other in happy conversation he couldn't follow, were sparklings. Spidey too, and Lilith most likely. True, honest to Primus sparklings. A miracle.
A miracle in a human skin, which was now missing and being hunted by Starscream. That he had no way to find.
"I'm looking for Sam too," he whined in sadness.
Which of course made for perfect timing when he received a comm message from someone he had thought to be dead for the past seven years.
::I have Sam safe with me here, in Japan. I'm sure you miss him. We'll keep him safe until you arrive::
Bumblebee didn't know which to be happiest about, that he now knew were Sam was or that Beachbreak was actually alive. Despite Prime telling him his friend had died on a mission seven years ago.
The soft sound of clanging brought his attention back to the sparklings, who still looked so vulnerable. They couldn't stay here, and since they both were looking for Sam, they might as well go together. Spidey would like the company of his siblings. Bumblebee clicked open his doors. "Come on, I know where he is. Let's go get him."
A/N: So sorry for the short chapter. I even expanded it a little bit. :/ I would have complied it with the next one, but I figured what happens next with Sam would be best in its own chapter. Poor guy, he's going to get beat up a bit. Right, so 'a bit' may be putting it lightly...
For those who didn't know, the books stated that Beachbreak was really good friends with Bumblebee. Maybe I should have amped the angst a little...oh well, I can do that in the rewrite. If you guys have any other changes to suggest (in this chapter or others) I''d love to hear them.