Smugglers 3: The Beginning Is The End
Chapter 13: The Final Showdown
When he had informed Bumblebee of the news that Bulkhead had been kidnapped Optimus wasn't exactly sure what he thought would happen. Oh he had imagined the mother of all temper tantrums, a couple of new dents maybe even an explosion or two; anything except Bumblebee merely nodding his head and asking if they knew what direction Skywarp had gone.
"No," Optimus replied eyeing him warily.
"Oh, well," Bumblebee said, "that just means we'll have to track them the old-fashioned way." He walked over to a console and pressed a button. Almost immediately five blips appeared on the screen, blinking. "That's Bulkhead," Bumblebee pointed to one of the blips that was surrounded by four little triangles.
"If that's Bulkhead then who are those?" Optimus asked, indicating the other four blips on the screen.
"Those are, uh, us."
"Why do they look so different?" Optimus was determined not to let Bumblebee wriggle away from the answer so easily.
"Well that might have something to do with the tracking beacons that I planted on each of you," Bumblebee said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.
"You did what?" the three former Elite Guard members looked furious, each of them now trying to locate the tracking devices.
"You'll never find them," Bumblebee looked very proud of himself. "I hid them well."
"So what now?" Optimus asked, deciding that they could discuss the tracking devices later. "Do we even have a plan?"
"I always have a plan," Bumblebee sounded insulted.
"Well let's hear it," Prowl said, crossing his arms.
"I'm working on it," came the reply.
Bulkhead was not a very happy mech. First he had been kidnapped by Skywarp then he had been brought to a strange ship which had taken off not long afterwards and to top matters off he had been stuck in this cargo bay for hours. He had long ago given up on trying to get out of the stasis cuffs, deciding to leave those for Bumblebee. He perked up when he heard the sound of footsteps that were drawing closer. He knew it wasn't Bumblebee but at least he could ask the Decepticons what they were going to do to him…not that he really wanted to know. Soon the owner of the footsteps rounded the corner but it wasn't who Bulkhead was expecting. "Wasp?" he gasped.
"Surprised?" the green minibot asked then chuckled. "Big green bot surprised; not suspect Wasp. Wasp have upper servo."
"You're insane," Bulkhead said evenly as he eyed the minibot.
"Wasp go crazy in jail; plan revenge on big green bot. Revenge fixing to be had."
Bee, I really hope that you hurry up and get me out of here, Bulkhead thought silently.
"Okay, they have almost an hour's head start but it won't take us long to catch up," Bumblebee said. "But before we do that we're going to need some better weapons," with that he turned and left the control room.
Optimus, Prowl, and Ratchet exchanged confused glances before hurrying to follow the yellow minibot. They walked behind him then frowned when he stopped in front of the mysterious door that had been declared off-limits the first time they ever came on board. Excitement filled their frames as Bumblebee entered the code to unlock the door and it slid open.
"Come on in," Bumblebee invited as he stepped inside the room.
Needing no further encouragement the three taller bots entered the room as well only to stop once they were inside and stare in amazement at the sight they were presented with. The room was, quite literally, filled with…trophies of a sort. The majority of the items were weapons of all shapes and sizes while the rest were helms, upgrades, pieces of armor…you name it, it was in there.
Just looking at the stuff made Ratchet flash back to the time had and a young femme bot, Arcee, had been held captive on a ship owned by a bounty hunter named Lockdown; he had lost his EMP that day…suddenly his optics narrowed as he caught sight of an innocent looking device sitting on one of the shelves. He grabbed it then turned to Bumblebee and demanded, "How did you get my EMP?"
Bumblebee's mouth opened and closed several times before he finally just shook his head and said, "I don't remember but I'm pretty sure I got it from an acquaintance of mine."
"His name wouldn't happen to be Lockdown would it?"
"It might be."
Prowl decided to ignore Ratchet and Bumblebee at the moment and instead see if there was anything he could use. He scoured the top shelves and was about to give up when he saw it; a black and gold helm, more decorative than anything else. The beauty however was not what had caught Prowl's attention but his knowledge of its previous wearer; Yoketron had been the one who had taught Prowl the ancient art of ninjitsu. "Where did you get this?" he demanded, holding it in front of Bumblebee.
Bumblebee said nothing but touched the helm instead, running a digit over the front of it, a sad look on his faceplate. "I don't remember," he said at last.
The minibot abruptly turned away from Prowl and stalked out of the room. The three remaining bots looked at each other, shrugged, then hurriedly followed him.
It wasn't long before they caught up to the Decepticons, although they remained undetected thanks to Bumblebee's cloaking device. The engines had been turned off earlier so they silently drew next to the other ship, being extremely careful not to bump it.
"Alright," Bumblebee said as he prepared to extend the landing dock. "Bulkhead should be in one of the cargo bays. Whoever finds him first let the others know then come back to the ship. I don't really have time to rescue two bots so please try not to get caught." The loading dock opened and they walked down the ramp. "Oh, no," Bumblebee moaned, stopping dead in his tracks.
"What's wrong?" Optimus asked worriedly.
"Bulkhead's gonna kill me when he learns about this plan!" Bumblebee said, causing the others to groan even as they continued, stopping only when they reached the other ship. Bumblebee did his thing and soon they were onboard. They split up, each one checking a different room.
Bumblebee opened the door to what he presumed was a cargo bay and peeked inside. In the middle of the room was Bulkhead. He was in energon cuffs but he was still online. "Bulkhead!" Bumblebee squealed happily then slapped a servo over his mouth. "Sorry," he whispered sheepishly as all four bots turned and scowled at him.
"There you are, Bulkhead," Optimus said as he, Prowl, and Ratchet came to stand inside the door, none of them the least bit surprised that it had been Bumblebee who had found their missing comrade.
"We need to get out now," Bulkhead said urgently, his optics darting around the room nervously as if expecting the very shadows to come to life.
Not liking the look on Bulkhead's faceplate Optimus nodded his agreement and said, "Let's go. Bumblebee, you can let him out of the cuffs later. I don't want to stay on this ship any longer than I have to."
"I'm coming, I'm coming," Bumblebee grumbled just as the cuffs fell off. "You're free, Bulky," he cried excitedly.
"Can we go now?" Optimus asked rather impatiently. He didn't like being on this ship; forget about the Decepticons he just had this feeling that something bad was about to happen.
"Yeah," Bulkhead said as he stood and placed Bumblebee on his shoulder strut.
They walked back down the hallway and were almost to the loading docks when Skywarp appeared in front of them along with Slipstream and Blitzwing, both of whom had their weapons pointed at the Autobots.
"Slag," Optimus cursed as they came to a stop.
"At least the day can't get any worse," Prowl commented.
"Don't say that!" Bumblebee cried. "You'll jinx us!"
As if on cue they could hear footsteps drawing closer and closer to where they stood.
"See," Bumblebee said triumphantly. "I told you so."
Suddenly the footsteps stopped. The five friends turned and standing in the doorway was a minibot, his helm and faceplate shaped almost exactly like a triangle and his armor was a rather…interesting shade of green. Bulkhead gulped audibly while Bumblebee started whimpering and hid his faceplate in the crook between Bulkhead's neck joint and shoulder strut.
"Big green bot try to escape but Wasp too smart for that," the previously unknown bot announced.
"This is Wasp?" Optimus raised an optic ridge. He hadn't exactly been expecting Wasp to be so…so like Bumblebee.
"Tall bot have problem with Wasp?" Wasp asked, turning his servos into stingers.
"No," Optimus said quickly, holding his servos up in a placating manner.
"Big green bot stupid," Wasp said abruptly. "Friends pay price; not big green bot. Yellow bot die for stupidity."
Confused, Optimus exchanged glances with Ratchet and Prowl who just shrugged their shoulder struts while comprehension suddenly dawned on Bulkhead's faceplate. "You're the one who did that to Bee," he said.
"Wasp destroy yellow bot. Yellow bot weak and stupid."
Wrong thing to say, Optimus thought, wincing internally as a murderous look began to grow on Bulkhead's faceplate while a growl emitted from his throat. Slowly, deliberately Bulkhead lifted Bumblebee from his shoulder strut and placed him in Optimus's waiting arms then launched himself at Wasp, a roar of rage escaping his mouth.
"Vell vhat now?" Blitzwing asked.
"Now we kill them all," Slipstream said then began shooting at the Autobots, Blitzwing and Skywarp following her example.
"Stay behind me, Bumblebee," Optimus ordered as he shoved the yellow minibot behind him.
"But Bulkhead," Bumblebee protested.
Optimus risked a glance and saw that Bulkhead was currently beating Wasp's chassis with his massive servos. "I think he'll be fine for now," Optimus said, his battle mask effectively covering the lower half of his faceplate as he pulled out his axe. Prowl and Ratchet did the same, battle masks coming out as well as their weapons including Ratchet's recently restored EMP.
Bumblebee paid no further attention to the Decepticons or even his friends. Instead he sat huddled in a corner, hugging his knees and muttering, "It was an accident," over and over again as flashes of memory played in his processor.
No one was exactly sure how long the fight lasted as it seemed to take forever to those who were fighting. More than likely it only took a few minutes but that was more than long enough for Wasp to overpower Bulkhead despite the larger bot's size and fury. Wasp was just about to kill Bulkhead when he happened to catch sight of Bumblebee. "What?" he shrieked. "Yellow bot survive? No bot survive Wasp!" Infuriated he fired at Bumblebee who glanced up just in time to see two green streams of electricity coming straight at him. His optics widened and he tensed, waiting to be hit. What happened next would be burned in Optimus's memory for all eternity.
Bulkhead saw Wasp fire at Bumblebee as well. He rose from the floor and jumped in front of Bumblebee shouting, "No!" horrified, the Autobots watched as Bulkhead's armor absorbed the blast hen the big green body hit the floor with a thud.
The silence that reigned momentarily was broken by Bumblebee who let out a loud wail and rushed to his fallen friend's side, Ratchet joining him. The medic did something then looked up shaking his head even as the last ounce of color drained from Bulkhead's body. "He didn't make it," the red-and-white bot said sadly.
Upon hearing that Bumblebee's optics flashed red and he stood, bringing his weapons online even as he marched towards Wasp, looking for all the world like an Angel of Death. Had it been any other bot Optimus would have been tempted to feel sorry for them but today he felt rather glad at the knowledge that Wasp was going to get exactly what he deserved.
Wasp swallowed nervously when he saw the enraged minibot approaching him. "Slag," he cursed, not even having time to duck as Bumblebee's energon sword cut his head off.
After ensuring that Bumblebee had taken care of Wasp Optimus, Prowl, and Ratchet turned to the Decepticons who suddenly looked worried.
"Slipstream," Skywarp said carefully. "Any brilliant ideas?"
"If you have one please tell us now," Blitzwing begged.
"I don't have any ideas," she admitted.
Minutes later all that remained of the Decepticons were three off-lined bodies. That taken care of they turned to see that Bumblebee was still hacking away at Wasp's body, or rather what was left of it.
"Bumblebee," Optimus said gently, laying a servo on the smaller bot's shoulder strut.
Bumblebee stopped mid-swing and turned to look at Optimus, revealing his energon-streaked faceplate despite the fact that Transformers couldn't cry. "He's gone," Bumblebee said in a whisper. "What do I do now?"
Although it felt strange having Bumblebee of all bots ask him that question Optimus answered to the best of his abilities. "Get on the ship," he said softly. "Prowl and Ratchet will take care of…Bulkhead. We'll have a service for him in a few days. Perhaps you should write a eulogy. I think he'd like that."
"Okay," Bumblebee said, then walked up the loading dock and disappeared into the bowels of The Smuggler.
A/N: Yes I am aware that many of you would like to kill me; however, the story is not yet complete. Kindly wait until then please.
A/N/N: Wasp had his stingers modified; instead of just paralyzing a bot now they can and will kill.
A/N/N/N: 20 reviews, will settle for 15.