Smugglers 3: The Beginning Is The End
Chapter 2: Flashbacks: Meeting Wasp
A/N: All chapters that have the word 'Flashbacks' in the title is a flashback to before The Accident and all of them will eventually lead up to that event.
"That's the last piece," Bulkhead said happily, setting down the tools he had been using with a sigh of relief. Repairing space bridges was a lot harder than it looked, especially when it was just him as the other members of his team had contracted a minor virus. The sound of rocks falling caught his attention and he froze, optics daring around nervously. He was the only bot on this planet, right? He heard more sounds and decided to go check it out.
As quietly as he could possibly be, Bulkhead walked over to a wall of solid rock and peered around it. What he saw made his optics go wide and he was forced to stifle a gasp of shock. In the middle of the circle completely surrounded by rocks were two mechs arguing with each other. But what had shocked Bulkhead so badly was the identity of one of the bots; it was Sparkplug, a notorious scientist who had been condemned to death for unlawful experimentation on unwilling bots. However he had escaped on the way to prison and had never been seen since then. Bulkhead didn't know the other bot who was also green but clearly a minibot.
"We agreed on the price already," the minibot argued.
Sparkplug shook his head. "What you want is extremely difficult to obtain so I merely want a little extra for the inconvenience."
"All I want is a little cosmic rust," the green bot protested. "It's not like I'm asking for anything extremely dangerous."
Bulkhead nearly fainted from shock but somehow managed to stay upright. Cosmic rust? What did the minibot want with it?
"Why do you want cosmic rust anyways?" Sparkplug asked, unknowingly voicing Bulkhead's thoughts.
"Not that it's any of your business but I was hired to kill someone and I decided to use cosmic rust to fulfill the contract," the green minibot explained.
Bulkhead's optics were so wide by this time it was a miracle they hadn't fallen off by now. The green bot must be an assassin; Bumblebee had told him all about assassins and had warned him to head as fast as he could in the opposite direction should he ever come across one. Bulkhead had just been about to do so when he accidentally kicked a pebble with his pede and he winced as it bounced off a couple of other rocks before coming to a stop.
"What was that?" the green bot demanded.
"Probably just the rocks settling," Sparkplug replied. "They do that all the time. Shall we get back to business now?"
The minibot nodded when suddenly, without any warning, he leapt forward and dug his stingers into Sparkplug's spark chamber. Horrified, Bulkhead watched as Sparkplug's red armor slowly turned to gray and the lifeless bot fell to the rocky ground.
"Hah!" the minibot said triumphantly. "You should have known better than to try and cheat me. No bot cheats Wasp and lives to tell about it," he boasted.
Bulkhead watched as Wasp went through the fallen bot's subspace compartments, pulling out a small vial, holding it aloft. Only when the minibot began to turn around did Bulkhead duck behind the rock wall. He waited breathlessly until he heard the sound of a ship taking off. He waited a few more minutes until he was absolutely sure that Wasp was gone then cautiously moved away from the wall before breaking into a run, not stopping until he had reached his ship and was safely inside. He powered the engines at full blast; not caring that he had left all of his tools behind on the planet. He had far more important things to worry about; such as, telling his story to the authorities. Suddenly Bulkhead felt sick and wished that Bumblebee was there with him.
Wasp was happy; very happy. He now had the cosmic rust needed to take care of his latest job and, best of all, he had finally gotten rid of that annoying Sparkplug and there hadn't any witnesses! He scowled at the console which was telling him there was a ship not far behind. It was moving awfully fast too. Wasp frowned then hissed when he remembered the sound of a rock hitting rock. There had been someone else on that planet; more than likely they were now heading to tell the Elite Guard about Wasp. Not gonna happen. Wasp turned his ship around, charging his weapons as he did so.
Bulkhead knew he was slagged the second he saw Wasp's ship facing him. He gulped nervously and tried to think. What would Bumblebee do? He silently asked himself. Well for starters Bumblebee probably would've attacked Wasp on the planet, not fled. But even if he had been forced to retreat to The Smuggler he would have powered up all his weapons and blasted Wasp away. There was a slight problem with that however; there were no functioning weapons aboard the ship that Bulkhead was currently on. They had been disabled due to an attempt to conserve energy. So he breathed a quick prayer to Primus and thought, Bee, if you're out there I could really use your help right about now.
Bumblebee whistled a merry tune as he leaned back in the captain's chair, content to let the autopilot function do its job. He was very happy; he just fulfilled a contract and now he was on his way to pick up supplies and, hopefully, see Bulkhead. he tried to tell himself that the reason he was so happy was because, with the job over, he now had some free time and not the prospect of seeing Bulkhead. What was there to get so excited about? Bulkhead was a big, clumsy, stupid mech whose optics lit up the second he saw Bumblebee and was one of the few bots that Bumblebee genuinely liked. No. He didn't like Bulkhead…he tolerated him but he certainly didn't like him. He didn't like any bot. Well, Jazz was a possible exception.
A beep interrupted his musings and he sighed heavily, reluctantly sitting up to see what was going on. Oh it was just a space bridge repair ship being piloted by Bulkhead that was fixing to be attacked by another ship. He lay back only to jump up seconds later and start flipping switches and punching buttons. His optics narrowed and a feral look crossed his faceplate when he realized the other ship was about to fire. No one, and he meant no one, tried to hurt Bulkhead and lived to tell about it. On the other servo he didn't want to traumatize the big green mech by blowing an entire ship away in front of his optics. Besides, he was bored. A wicked grin crossed his faceplate as he gave the engines full power and raised the shields. This was gonna be fun.
Bulkhead watched as the other ship came closer and closer. He shut his optics tightly and winced, waiting for the familiar sound of weapons firing. None came; instead he heard engines start up then a tremendous crash. Cautiously he un-shuttered one optic then quickly opened the other and stared in disbelief at the sight in front of him.
Wasp's ship was still there but now one entire side of it had almost completely collapsed in on itself while, not the least bit harmed, The Smuggler floated next to it. Bulkhead grinned, feeling relief coursing through his energon lines, replacing the terror that had been there mere moments before.
One of the consoles beeped and seconds later Bumblebee's faceplate filled the screen. "Are you all right, Bulkhead?" he asked, trying to sound indifferent but Bulkhead could hear a faint note of worry.
"I'm fine," the big green mech assured his friend. "Just a little shook up and really glad to see you.'
Bumblebee returned his grin full-force. "Me too," he said. "Now let's get this glitch-head delivered to the Elite Guard."
Bulkhead agreed and after attaching Wasp's ship to his own they set off towards the nearest occupied planet.
A/N/N: I was originally going to do the original TF:A story minus Bumblebee about Wasp being the traitor and I actually started the chapter like that but the next thing I know Sparkplug popped up and I was like 'what am I writing? This was not what I wanted to do' but you have to go where your muse takes you. So if you don't it then take it up with my muse. If you can find it that is, I'm pretty sure it's still at my aunt's house.
A/N/N/N: 10 reviews of this chapter and thanks for all of the reviews so far. I wasn't expecting that many but you're welcome to give that many! The next chapter will be in present time.