CHAPTER-6: SIGNS
It had been a few days since that accident at the street race, and both Bumblebee and Jack had kept what happened to themselves, after all it would just land them both in trouble, and they where both fine, right?
Since the accident Bumblebee's condition had only gotten worse. The crash had caused his chassis wound to open even more and it was still leaking energon. The Camero now had to change his gaze four or five times a day to stop it leaking through his platting and giving him away. Plus the rust like stuff had gotten worse too.
Now Bumblebee felt completely awful, not just from the pain but he was becoming quite sick, although he refused to admit it even to himself. Buy now the others had started noticing that something was off, Bee just hopped that they wouldn't find out the truth.
Optimus walked calmly into the rec-room in the late afternoon, to find Ratchet sat contemplating in the large table by the energon stacks, (that resembled a kitchen Miko had once told them). Sitting down beside the medic, Optimus placed a servo reassuringly on his shoulder.
"What seems to be troubling you, old friend?" The prime questioned calmly, as Ratchet turned to face him.
"It's the energon stacks. They don't add up." The medic grumbled.
"Is Bulkhead stealing cubes in the night again?" Arcee asked as she entered the room and jumped into the conversation.
"No, no." Ratchet corrected as he shook his helm. " The energon levels are too high." He continued.
"What? How can that be?" Arcee asked looking a little confused.
"Well, unless somebody is replacing them, which I highly doubt. Someone mustn't be consuming all of their energon." Ratchet explained while the others gave puzzled looks and began to thing this over.
The next morning, after Ratchet had made sure that everyone had taken their energon, Bumblebee left the base along with Arcee and Bulkhead, to go pick up the kids and bring them back to base. It was a Saturday so the kids didn't have to go to school.
Pulling up outside Raf's house, the Camero honked his horn and waited for the brunette to come out and see him.
"Bye mum. I'll see you later." Raf called behind him as he ran out the door and hopped into Bee's passenger seat.
"Hi Bumblebee. How are you?" Raf asked pleasantly.
"I'm fine Raf. You?" The yellow mech replied, not having the heart to tell the boy how terrible he was really feeling.
"I'm ok. Just looking forward to having some fun." Raf answered as Bee drove off towards the base. On the way there, they ran into Arcee and Jack.
"Hey Bee. Fancy a race?" Arcee challenged.
"Oh, Arcee. I don't know." The Camero hesitated. The truth was Bee felt really awful and didn't want to race at all, his right side was on fire and after being forced to drink all his energon that morning made him feel really nauseous.
"Go on Bee, it'll be fun." Raf encouraged with a hopeful smile, thinking that Bee was being hesitant because of him.
"Alright then." Bee beeped trying to sound more excited than he was.
"Great. On your marks, get set, go" Arcee exclaimed before she spend off, with Bumblebee following close behind.
"Yahoo!" Raf shouted out in joy as the Camero revved up his engine and sped up to come along side Arcee. " The sooner this is over, the better." Bumblebee though to himself as he drove past the blue bike and pulled into the lead.
"Hold on Jack." Arcee warned her human charge before she sped up again to try to catch the Camero. The blue bike over took him as they turned a corner and the Autobot base came into view in the distance ahead of them.
"Come on Bee. You can do it." Raf encouraged as Bee sped into overdrive as he activated his boosters and come along side Arcee once more. But using his boosters was too much for the yellow mech, activating them caused his chassis and shoulder wounds to contract painful. Not being able to stand the pain anymore Bee deactivated his boosters and slowed down considerably, letting Arcee take the lead and then the win.
"Yes!" The blue bike exclaimed at the Victory as she entered the base and transformed.
A few moments later Bumblebee also drove into the base. He let Raf climb out before transforming himself and standing up straight and leaning one of his servos against the wall to stop his spinning processor, next to a gloating blue femme.
"You ok, Bumblebee?" Raf asked concernedly as he watch his guardian leaning against the stone wall.
Bumblebee nodded his helm in reply before pushing himself off of the wall and standing normally again. In all honesty, Bee was far from fine. His helm was reeling and he was struggling to keep control of his tanks and stop himself from purging. But again he lied to his human friend not wanting him to worry.
"Ok then." Raf said to his yellow friend, but his tone showed that he didn't really believe the Camero. And this wasn't the first time. Raf had started to worry about Bumblebee a few day's before, he knew that something had happened at the street race, but both Bee and Jack had told him it was nothing. Raf though that maybe it was something to do with the Camero's guilt for what had happened last week, but know he wasn't so sure. He could be wrong but he though that the colour of Bumblebee's yellow plating seamed a bit paler or maybe he just needed some new glasses. But he knew something was defiantly wrong with his guardian.
Later, on Saturday afternoon Bumblebee reluctantly made his way to the rec-room to meet Bulkhead for their regular sparing session. Bee was feeling even worse than before and had just finished purging into one of the waste basins in the washroom, when he had heard Bulkhead calling his name.
Sighing to himself, the Camero walked over to his large green friend who was waiting with the children and talking to them about this and that.
"Hey guys." Bee greeted as cheerily as he could manage, and the group waved back.
"Ready?" Bulkhead questioned before Bumblebee nodded and they both got into their fighting stances.
Both mechs clenched their servos into fists and raised them up to be level with their chassis's, as if they where in a boxing match. The rules of friendly sparing was that know weapons where aloud to be used, so that nobody got seriously hurt, but these matches could still get pretty ruff.
Bulkhead threw his right servo forward as Bumblebee quick stepped to the side to dodge the blow, before using his own right servo to strike the green mech in the left side of his lower chassis. Bulkhead didn't even wince before he retaliated and threw a another blow Bee's way. The Camero once again dodged and the fight carried on like this for some time.
After several rounds, Bulkhead started to get a bit confused as he looked at his opponent. Normal Bulkhead and Bumblebee would carry on sparing for most of the afternoon, usually having around thirty of forty rounds. But now here stood Bumblebee, after only seven or eight rounds, looking completely fatigued. Not only that but normally bulkhead would hardly ever be able to land a hit on the Camero, but today he had landed plenty. Normal when they spared Bee attacks where very agile and nimble, meaning he could quickly move out of the way of the larger mech, but now his blows where clumsy and weak.
Sighing as he studied Camero, Bulkhead decided it was probably time for them to stop, before Bumblebee collapsed. Besides it was almost time for them to take the kids home again.
"That's enough Bee. We gotta take the kids home before it gets too dark." Bulkhead stated as he watched his friend visibly relax.
"Your right, we don't want them to get in trouble again." Bee beeped to his green friend trying to hide the amount of pain he was in. Bulkhead had landed a lot more hits on him that usual and most of them had been on his chassis, aggravating the already agonizing wound there.
The two mechs walked towards the base entrance and met up with Arcee and the kids. Transforming the three drove out of towards town to take them home.
On Monday the weather was terrible, with heavy rain and thunderstorms. The Autobot's stood in the rec-room while Ratchet explained about an energon signal he had picked up in one of Nevada's many canyons. Admittedly the signal was weak and would most likely be of little interest to the Decepticons.
Optimus and Arcee had decided to go and retrieve it, while Bumblebee and Bulkhead went to collect the children. With both parties ready for their chosen assignments, Arcee and Optimus drove through the ground bridge while Bulkhead and Bumblebee left through the main door.
Driving out into the storm, Bumblebee shivered as the cold rain hit his body. The Camero had been feeling cold all day and had turned his heating system on to max, but without much affect. Bumblebee knew that he was getting sicker, but still didn't understand why. He had been cleaning out the wound more and more often but it was still looking worse each day.
Sighing to himself, he sped up to catch up to his green friend, not realizing while he had been thinking he had also been falling behind. The extra effort in the speed boost caused the pain from his wounds to flare up again and he couldn't help but let out a small groan of pain.
"You ok, Bumblebee?" Bulkhead asked concernedly after hearing his friends discomfort.
"I'm fine. Just drove over a rock, that's all." Bumblebee beeped, trying to reassure his friend and cursing himself for his own mistake.
"Ok." Bulkhead replied, not believing his friend as all. "I never saw any rock!" The green mech thought to himself .
A few minutes later the two allies pulled up outside the school, where they found the kids waiting for them, all huddled under Miko's umbrella.
"Hi, Bee." Raf greeted cheerily as he hopped into the passenger seat like always. Next to them Miko was climbing into Bulkhead while Jack continued to look around, obviously waiting for Arcee.
"Hey Raf. Arcee and Optimus are out on a mission, so Jack's gonna have to come with us today." The Camero beeped to the human boy, so that Raf could call Jack over and explain.
"Hey Jack. Arcee's not coming, so Bee's gonna give you a lift." Raf called over, before Jack come over an climbed into Bee's back seat.
On the drive back to base both Raf and Jack had noticed how hot it was inside the Camero and where beginning to sweat.
"Hey, Bee. Mind if I turn down the heat?" Jack asked reaching forward towards the controls.
"I would prefer it if you didn't. It's freezing." Bumblebee replied.
"Bee say's he's cold." Raf translated when Jack pulled a puzzled look. Sighing Jack sat back in his seat and stayed quite until they arrived back at base.
Bulkhead had arrived back first and Arcee and Optimus had just walked trough the ground bridge, drenched in rain, moments before Bumblebee drove into the rec-room. Pulling up Raf and Jack jumped out, both soaking wet, while Bumblebee transformed looking perfectly dry.
"What the hell happened to you? Did Bee kick you out and make you walk half way here?" Bulkhead asked with a puzzled expression.
"Yeah! It looks like Bumblebee rode here in you guys." Miko joked and giggled at the scowls she got in return.
"No. Bumblebee had the heat on full. I thought he was suppose to be a Chevy, not a mobile sauna." Jack exclaimed angrily as he wiped sweat off his brow.
"I have to admit it kinda was driving in an oven." Raf agreed giving a sympathetic look to his guardian.
Frowning, Arcee stepped forward and shook one of her rain splattered servos towards the Camero, causing several of the water droplets to land on Bee's chassis. The rain drops instantly sizzled and evaporated as soon as they made contact with the yellow mech's body.
"Bumblebee, your overheating!" Arcee shouted as she watched the water disappear with wide optics.
"What!" Ratchet exclaimed as he jumped up from his place in the med-bay and ran towards the younglin, his doctor side taking over.
"Don't worry Ratchet. I'm fine, honestly. Maybe I just have a small glitch in my heating system, that's all." Bumblebee tried to convince the approaching medic, as he help his servos out in front of him protectively and backed away as far as he could until his doorwings hit the stone wall.
Ratchet reached out a servo of his own towards the yellow mech, intent on placing it on his faceplate, and was just inches away when a loud alarm rang out, distracting them all momentarily. Racing to the screen, Arcee checked it's content before turning back to the others.
"Decepticons!" Arcee stated with a stern look and turned to her leader waiting for orders.
"Autobots." Optimus began. "Roll out".
Ta-da!
Sorry for leaving it on a little bit of a cliff hanger, but I couldn't resist the temptation.
Tune in next time to fine out what's going to happen to 'Team Prime' and our favourite little Autobot - Bumblebee.
Please review and thanks to anyone who has already reviewed.
PS: I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS.
Thanks for reading. XD.