Sure hit.
(Aftermath chapter 2)
All the same, Sam was the only one up for the publicity pictures for the press with Optimus Prime first thing in the morning on the deck of the carrier.
Simmons loaned him a jacket against the cold, his mother had sent it with a food/clothes parcel. It was black leather.
"It's too small for me," said Simmons, "I've just worn black clothes for years in Sector 7. You can have a white undershirt though, I got several of those when I came out of the forces."
"Thanks," said Sam. "Mine was blown to shreds by Starscream or Megatron, whichever one hit me last. I'm not wearing any of your superhero underwear though" he added with a smile.
"Oh you needn't worry," said Simmons with a supercilious smirk. "That's all mine!"
Sam's Levi's were okay, they were freshly laundered in the crew facilities by his mother.
"Sorry about your trip round Europe being ruined," he said as he collected them.
"Oh, we got a whistle-stop tour of Europe with that disgusting earth-moving Decepticon-thingy," said Judy. "Frankly I 'll be glad to be back on American soil with our food, the government said they'd replace the holiday. You go and have your photo taken and give hope to the world again, Sam."
So Sam stood on deck while Optimus said some heartening words,
and then told him about his roommate, and how Simmons had given him the shirt and jacket.
"Yes, you must go back to College, Sam," said Optimus, "back to your ordinary life, though you have found greatness. I would like to meet this roommate of yours who helped us defeat the Fallen and Megatron's Decepticons. I would like to meet Simmons also. I believe he got your weapon directed onto the Decepticon Combiner."
Sam ran back below decks to get them.
"Hold on man, the reports are coming in from around the world, the fans are asking questions and being impatient. Under the gag order there's things I can't write about but there's some things I can say, images I can give the okay on, I gotta get networking, I gotta fuel the jet!" said Leo, tapping away on his laptop.
Mikaela slipped out on the deck with Wheelie. She found Optimus but not Sam. The deck was slick with seaspray and she tripped and slid into Optimus's leg. He helped her up.
"I need to get some new sneakers," she said.
"Ratchet will give you them," said Optimus "he handles equipment from the army. Are you getting to know Ratchet? He taught you some robot work and some Decepticon I believe."
"I always get on fine with Ratchet," said Mikaela, "Of course I've always admired you, Optimus Prime, and Bumblebee and Ironhide are my friends, Bumblebee more but he's mainly Sam's friend…" The girl disappeared down the hatch.
Sam went to get Simmons.
"Oh, I have to be in something like a uniform to meet Optimus Prime," he said, putting on the flying jacket and white scarf he had pinched from the Smithsonian Institute. "We didn't see eye to eye when we first met. I must shine my shoes up. You go up and tell him I'm coming soon."
So Sam ran up on deck again, getting a bit tired of going up and down the stairs. He did not find even Optimus this time as he had decided to accompany Mikaela down to Ratchet to make sure she did not slip again.
He went to the space he had last seen the blue and red flamed decaled semi truck.
A high-pitched, loud engine sound came from above and behind him. Sam turned, and before he could get back to the below deck stairs, Starscream landed in front of him. Behind Sam there was not even a rail, only the foamy sea.
Optimus and Bumblebee came up out of a hatch but they could not get to him.
"I suppose you're very pleased with yourself, thinking you've saved
your world, well there are a lot of our hatchlings who are going to die because of what you did! That Sun harvester was our last hope!" raged Starscream, stretching out a claw towards him.
He showed a hologram from his eyes of rows and rows of hatchling maturation pods and one hatchling lying crying on the ground, its cries getting weaker because there was nothing for it. "And you don't care!"
"I-I-I'll help !" Said Sam. "I'll do something! It's not just my friends I care about, its all of you!"
"Starscream! Leave Sam alone, he did not know, it is not his problem!" commanded Optimus "My cannon is trained on your wings!" he warned.
"And mine!" cried Bumblebee.
Starscream howled and turned to face them with a hiss.
"He should pay in some measure! It cannot be borne! First he destroys the All Spark, and then the Sun Harvester!"
"Both acts were in defence of his planet and way of life! Do not you and I fight for ours?" asked Optimus, getting his sword out as well. "I am the one who destroyed the Sun Harvester! He just restored me!"
"You think I am deceiving him? I will get the sparkling, you raise it, but there are many of us besides the humans, who don't believe in you any more, what are we going to do for fuel?!"
" I am trying to work something out!" stated the Autobot leader emphatically.
"Harumph!" Starscream huffed through his vents, and then he was joined by another darker Seeker and they disappeared.
They reappeared again a few moments later carrying a young silver weakly wriggling and mewling robot covered in blue fluid and laid it tenderly on the deck. Then both transformed into planes and soared off, closely followed by two missiles from Wheelie.
"Careful!" Commanded Optimus Prime, passing the hatchling to Ratchet who had put his head up through a hatch, closely followed by
Ironhide, but the latter backed off as the ship was already dangerously listing towards the aft with all the Transformers up there. Sam had flattened himself against the deck in self -defence anyway and clung to Bumblebee's hand as the young Autobot stretched out quickly and reached for him, putting out his other hand to steady himself on the deck, and passed him back to Optimus.
Sam ran back to his quarters and explained things to Leo (he was to share Leo's cabin now he was out of the Medbay. Somebody had to, and it would be good practise.),
"We'll set up a charity site. People are suckers for endangered species!
It'll be a sure hit!" said Leo.
"There might be some trouble if people find out their money is not going to save Earth's endangered species" said Simmons looking in.
"Don't bother about the legality of it!" said Wheelie "I can hack the software, I learned it from Frenzy!"
"How about a fuel co-op? asked Simmons "I can help you set up a web-site, I did one myself!.
"Yes and don't we know it! " said Leo sarcastically. "you get all the big breaks!"
"How do you know about everything!?" asked Sam.
" I was coming to collect you to see Optimus Prime- and I have a listening device!" said Simmons.
"Sort it out between yourselves and don't tell me about it, I need to shower and change my clothes" said Sam, delving into his gear. The army had given him a small kitbag of essentials that he could use when coming to see the Autobots as he only had what he stood up in, and Ratchet had kept it for him in the medbay.
The meeting with Optimus Prime happened below decks in the Auto- bot's hold. After all it was a rather sober affair, and Sam found three people he had not expected there, Ratchet carrying the sparkling, Mikaela, and his Dad.
"What are you doing here Dad?" he asked.
" Looking for you!" said Ron "After that time in the desert when we nearly lost you we worry if you're out of sight for too long. Your Mom wants to know if you're coming up to eat lunch with us humans or staying down here with your robot friends?" He smiled quizzically.
"Its an alliance, Dad, I love you too. Tell Mom I'll be up in a bit but this is kinda more important."
"Will you be up this evening? We' re having dinner with the
Captain. Of the ship that is, not Captain Lennox - oh I forgot, he's a Major now."
"Probably." Said Sam nonchalantly but also determinedly, as something else was on his mind. How could he feed all those sparklings? If they were enough to populate the planet, there must be more than a billion of them!
"Come here." Ratchet said to Mikaela, "Would you look after the sparkling while Sam's in school?" It clicked and whirred at her. She started stroking and polishing it with her hand as she did with Wheelie and it purred at her, at first closing its optics in pleasure and then blinking and looking at her trustingly. Sam gently joined in, putting a container that Ratchet handed her to it's mouth.
"Aw, it's adorable," said Mikaela. "Look at it sucking away on it's little bottle, I'm gonna call it Kitten!"
"It's a sparkling formula dispenser, not a bottle," said Ratchet "and when it's finished, you have to open its valve to make sure it hasn't got any air in it's tank, like this." He demonstrated, and the sparkling belched.
"You can't call it that, it's not a transformer name!" said Sam "It might be a boy robot too!"
"You can get boy kittens," said Mikaela, putting on her bullish woman- who-gets-what-she-wants expression.
The sparkling began to whimper and stopped sucking at their raised voices.
"Oh well I suppose we could." Sam said ."Perhaps if we made it like a Japanese name Kee Tun would you like that as your name?" he addressed the sparkling. Seeing they had calmed down again it mewled purred and began sucking again at the formula.
"This one is a femme, a female robot," said Ratchet looking at it, "but it doesn't matter some of us take designations up when we find what we can do best , some are given them because of family, trine or cultural considerations like you, or some colour or physical feature."
"I'm going to get spare transport work on the icy north roads of Alaska to support your fund Sam, said Optimus Prime. "It pays best."
"I 'll do a sponsored walk round the Airbase," said Sam
I'll sponsor you for that, Sam," said Major Lennox. "At least I know what I'm doing it for."
"You don't mind if its an enemy?"
"A baby's a baby," said Will "its not as if it was an army of drones. By the time we've raised the money for the others there may be peace."
"I shouldn't think so, knowing that Megatron guy." said Epps, "but I suppose we all live for world peace."
"Wouldn't that put you out of a job?" said Sam.
"If it did without a pension I'd write to the President," said Epps "but I don't think I'll ever be out of technical work with friends like these." He stroked Ironhide's foot. I wouldn't mind getting some time to help raise my kids myself. I now have a son!"
"Hm," said Optimus, looking Simmons straight in the eye. "Thank you for sighting up the gun that destroyed Devastator. But you still got Bumblebee tied up with nets and ice-guns just for saving Sam's life."
"I was serving my country at the time," said Simmons. "They suspected Sam, and a similar robot had just taken out a large number of our forces and stolen vital information."
"Didn't it make a difference that Bumblebee did not try to defend himself, nor even put his shield up?" said Optimus.
"He still had a similar form," said Simmons. "Once we had found a weakness, he was released."
"Only under pressure from Sam!" said Optimus, "You could have killed him with your experiments."
"Guys! Guys!" called Sam in a conciliatory shout. "This was over two years ago. Can't we just drop it now and think of the present?"
"Very well," said Optimus . "Thank you Agent Simmons, and Leo, for your help in the last battle with The Fallen and Megatron." He shook hands with them.
"There might be a medal involved, I don't know, you'd have to ask General Morshower," said Will. "What is more likely is that you might get some undercover work for N. E.S. T. I don't know whether it will be paid though, or how much, It depends on the President."
"Whatever it takes," said Simmons, saluting.
Leo was speechless for once: Optimus Prime was the biggest of the Transformers he had met yet. Then he smiled looking at his hand and the big bot. "Cool!"
Simmons gave a grim smile and opened his mouth but was distracted by his cell vibrating at his hip. "Hello!" he answered it angrily, "Mother I thought I told you not to ring me on this number unless its an emergency, its top secret!"
"This is an emergency," said a voice at the other end. "We've been questioned by the police, there was an earthquake, and your glory hole in the meat cellar has been looted."
"Oh no, my whole operation has been compromised!" said Simmons. What did they get?"
"Strangely enough, just the Halloween icon you keep of a head on a spike! And this is the first time I've been able to make a call, but he wasn't even a real policeman!" Simmons shut the phone with a snap and another sigh.
"Decepticons! Barricade and Rumble." said Optimus Prime. "Frenzy's brother, Rumble, he causes earthquakes. He must have been sent out by Soundwave. Frenzy's head would be all they wanted."
"Sorry, Leo, you can't use my site," sighed Simmons turning to the teen.
"Never mind man," said Leo, his eyes shining, "You'll have to use mine!"
They went back into his cabin. The sparkling reached out and touched something.
"Hey, leave my scanner alone!" said Leo.
"Kee's not hurting," said Mikaela "She probably needs to copy one of those to survive."
"Aren't they born knowing how to transform?" asked Leo.
"Those who were animated by the All Spark in Mission City were born able to fire missiles and stuff, but I don't know about those from pods, they might not have anything," Sam said.
"I'll give her something," said Mikaela. "Ratchet's given me some tools, I'll give her a power drill."
"And I'll download her the info how to fight with it ,"said Wheelie. "She'll be another guardian to Warrior Goddess." He looked admiringly at Mikaela.
"Decepticons fight dirty," said Mikaela. "I'll check what she knows with Ratchet, he can do it gently. Starscream would love the way you look up to those above you, Wheelie
"Surprisingly he didn't, he barely noticed I was there, I'm better off with you, life is the Pit for small robots in the bottom Decepticon ranks," said Wheelie, snuggling up to her.
So Sam did his sponsored walk, Optimus did his extra trucking The Autobots advertised cars and hired themselves out, and the money came rolling in.
However, Simmons called Sam in one day and said "I 've done the maths I'm afraid, Sam. Simmons looked at Sam sympathetically, trying to soften the impact of his words.
"All the money on the planet wouldn't be enough."