Duty and Deceit
Chapter 39
Gifts
"Shift..." She sat down next to her mentor with a deep sigh. The Prussian blue and black femme twiddled her servos, trying to think of how best to word this.
"Yes, little Byte?" Makeshift asked, absently Shifting into a mirror-image of her for a moment.
"I got... transferred off of field duty..." She muttered, pulling out a lap-desk from subspace and starting to deconstruct a datapad. For no real reason other than to occupy her servos. In a few moments, it had been taken completely apart and reassembled. "Um... Kind of maybe just a little bit permanently."
The charcoal and red Shifter groaned, rubbing a hand over his faceplate. "So the boss got wind of your excursions? Your precious half-spark didn't take the whipping for you this time?"
"He wasn't taking 'the whipping' for me. All he ever got for it was a couple warnings and a reprimand or two." The spy protested, "Decepticons don't give whippings as punishment for insubordination."
Her mentor gave a dark chuckle, but said nothing to convince her otherwise. He bumped her lightly with a sharp elbow, baring his fangs. "Come my little Byte. It's training time. If you're lucky, Lord Megatron may reconsider his judgement if you can figure out how to Shift."
"We've been trying for nearly a vorn, Makeshift."
Makeshift shoved a life-size cleaning drone towards her, catching her by surprise. Tossing the reconstructed datapad aside, the femme leapt to her pedes just in time to catch the non-sentient mech in her arms. She struggled for a moment under the heavy drone's limbs before setting it aright.
"Shift." Makeshift ordered, doing so himself. He looked at her through the dull gray visor of the maintenance bot.
The femme took in a deep vent and focused intently on the drone, memorizing every tiny, miniscule detail of the drone's make-up. She dug around in her programming and activated the Shifter programming, turning all of her attention to her own t-cog. It sputtered and flinched multiple times before her frame was thrown forward into the familiar shape of her alt-mode.
"You have to maintain the mental image of the drone throughout the transformation, Byte. All you have to do is picture yourself in that form." He shifted into a perfect replica of Ultra Magnus. "After all, you do want to get back on field don't you?"
She knew it was just her mentor. She knew her mentor only wanted to try to goad her into Shifting. She snarled and transformed back into her bi-pedal mode.
Her transformation cog hissed with the effort, but she felt her frame beginning to twist and slide into another shape... The metal screeched as it was wrenched in directions it didn't naturally bend. Agony burned through her pain receptors and the femme hissed, ceasing the transformation and falling to her knees.
Makeshift was soon crouched in front of her, looking into her gold optics with concern. Finally, he stated bluntly, disappointment clear in his tone, "You can't Shift, and you never will."
Miko leaned over the rail dejectedly, watching her guardian slap the mop over yet another new sheet of steel. He was mumbling something about the quadratic function m squared. Optimus, Bee, and Cliffjumper had gone somewhere to try to get something from Megatron. They'd been incredibly vague when she'd asked them where they were going.
Arcee, Skyquake and Terabyte were in the storage room that had been converted into a tactical base, poring over a map of the Earth, trying to calculate the location of the other five sleepers in Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, and Antarctica.
The girl reached over the rail and tapped on Bulkhead's head, capturing his attention for a grand total of two seconds. "Do you remember that time you watched Wheeljack lob his only grenade into the Decepticon heat exchanger?"
Bulkhead gave her a puzzled look, "Who?"
"Wheeljack! Jackie? Your best bud?" She laughed a little desperately, "Besides me, of course. Oh! Y-you do remember who I am, right?"
"Of course I do!" Her guardian chuckled, rousing her hopes, "You're... equivalent to the flattening of the oblate spheroid to the nth power."
Her shoulders fell as the tiny bit of hope she had managed to hold on to crumbled. She scowled at the precious sheets of formula that were responsible for all this. Ratchet was the best doctor she knew... surely he had enough of a head start to finish it himself?
"Internal energy of isolated 'e' remains constant..."
Miko's resolve hardened and she ran down the flight of stairs to stand next to Bulkhead, waiting for the right moment... As soon as the mop came down into her reach as the mech dipped it back in the paint, she snatched it away, scampering off with the mop dripping a trail to the human-sized groundbridge console Ratchet had built.
"Keep 'em coming, Bulkhead." The green portal swirled to life and she ran in front of it, waving the paint-soaked mop tauntingly. "You do wanna finish your formula don't you?"
She darted through the portal, still waving the mop. Miko didn't resist when the huge ex-Wrecker gently confiscated the mop and sat down in front of the wall to the monster truck arena. Already he was painting new scribbles on the wall, a bucket of white paint having appeared from seemingly nowhere. Subspace, Bulk had called it?
"At least look!" The girl muttered kicking the gallon bucket of paint. Her toes screamed in protest and she sat down with a huff, holding her foot and scowling. "You love monster trucks... Remember when we snuck in here after the show last week?"
"Mass times diffusion rate squared is constant." Bulkhead replied calmly, wetting his brush again.
Miko stood up again, gesturing to the whole area. "Is any of this ringing a bell?"
Her guardian gave her a thoughtful look that soon turned incredulous. "Bell curve? No, no, no... Wouldn't factor in."
"How about our Saturday morning dune-bashings? Rocking out to Slash Monkey? ... Helping me with my homework?" She asked hopefully, her tone growing increasingly desperate. When he didn't respond, she laughed weakly, "Ha ha! Trick question! You know I don't do homework... don't you?"
The mop slapped a complex symbol onto the wall. It reminded her of what her art teacher in Tokyo wanted her to draw.
"Okay." Miko said firmly, swallowing the lump in her throat and smiling. "Forget about the past. Starting now we can make new memories."
"The cube root of the exothermic Energon yield Delta 'e' violates Clank's Law of Energon Conservation." Bulkhead pointed out, glaring at the mop.
She sighed, resolve breaking. Hugging her guardian's leg, Miko ignored the tears rolling down her cheeks. "Bulkhead, I know somewhere inside, you will always remember me... and I just want you to know: I'll never forget you."
"Boo hoo." A gruff voice mocked, "I'm shedding coolant."
Miko spun around to find Breakdown and Knockout right behind them. She darted towards the exit tunnel the monster trucks used after each rally, shouting to Bulkhead, "Follow me right now or these guys are gonna..." The girl trailed off, changing tact, "Steal the formula!"
"My equations?" Bulkhead asked indignantly, picking up his mop and bucket, subspacing them both promptly. In a few moments, his heavy footfalls followed her own.
She ran into the storage area and motioned Bulkhead down. Surprisingly the big mech actually listened, crouching down to her level and transforming. "Okay, you park here and stay quiet!"
The girl pulled out her phone and dialed Ratchet. She'd put him on her emergency line instead of 911, so it was quicker than last time. Putting her phone to her ear, all that came through was static. She groaned. "Something's jamming it... Bulk, stay put. I'm gonna find signal and contact Ratchet."
She darted between a couple of monster trucks and peeked down the rows of parked vehicles. Knockout was coming up this row, kicking each.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" The medic-bot sang in his not-quite British accent.
Waiting until he'd passed, she ran out towards the far exit. She didn't think she'd have to leave, but the exit was most likely to have signal. If the jamming signal was coming from Knockout anyway.
Almost running straight into Breakdown's leg, Miko gasped and jumped under the Gear Crusher that the cobalt jeep had already crushed to a pulp. The Steelwheel, Champion, and King-Car were all pulped as well, not to mention the regular, non-famous trucks. Hopefully Fowler could come up with a good story for why a fifteen-year-old foreign exchange student just happened to be in the storage facility when all the champion trucks were destroyed, and how it was totally not her fault.
Yes! One bar! And... nevermind. She snapped her phone shut in aggravation, jumping out of under her newfound cover as it too was introduced to Breakdown's hammer. She winced as an enraged scream came from the direction she'd come.
"You painted my paint job!" Knockout howled. Her eyes went wide and she ran back in Bulkhead's direction. Maybe she could be a distraction... "Prepare for surgery!"
Picking up an iron pipe on the way, Miko arrived to find Bulkhead lying with a medical saw descending towards his head. Knockout smirked, "Heads... you must lose."
"What are you? Yoda?" The side of her mind not completely terrified for her guardian's life snickered. Her amusement didn't last very long though as the saw screamed closer to Bulk's neck as he struggled to reorient himself after hitting his helm. She ran towards the red Decepticon, roaring her best battle cry, swinging the metal pipe like a sword, "Leave him alone!"
Tripping over a piece of mangled monster truck, the momentum of her swing sent the girl spinning. She missed Knockout's leg and hit Bulkhead's instead, falling against him. Her guardian's armor began to vibrate uncontrollably and the Decepticons backed away nervously.
"Get down!" Breakdown roared, jumping on the red medic, eliciting an indignant shout from the vain mech as his paint was scratched.
A brilliant flash of red light shot out of Bulkhead's head, straight into oblivion.
Breakdown got up quickly and looked down at the blank-faced Wrecker. His tone was flat as he shrugged carelessly, "Dead battery."
"I did it again?" Miko whispered, her tone worried. Who knew how much of Bulk the data took with it.
"Megatron will peel our paint for losing that data." Knockout snarled, glaring at her with the medical saw still spinning. "So we're just gonna have to peel you."
The familiar whoosh of the ground bridge filled her ears, followed by the sound of Optimus' engine. The Decepticon straightened, chuckling under his breath, "Or... peel out of here..."
Med-Bay.
"The data has been fully expelled from his systems, but Bulkhead remains unresponsive." Ratchet updated grimly.
She sniffled, wiping her nose on the back of her hand, pulling her knees closer to her chest. "Because the energy took Bulkhead's mind with it: 'heavenward, lost to the stars'."
Miko burst into tears all over again, putting her head on her arms. She sniffed again. "It's my fault you'll never know the rest of the formula and it's my fault Bulkhead's gone forever."
"Miko, your quick thinking prevented the formula from falling into Decepticon hands." Optimus Prime corrected her gently.
Arcee leaned on one pede, her hands resting casually on her hips as she watched the comatose Wrecker. "If anyone would have backed that play, it's Bulkhead."
"It's simply too early to know the extent of his condition." The red and white medic tried to encourage, "Something as simple as a familiar sight or smell... perhaps even a sound... could trigger Bulkhead's awakening."
She jumped up as an idea struck her. Running over to her guitar, Miko hooked it up with shaky fingers and picked up the instrument. Taking a moment to make sure it was tuned properly – as properly as possible since Ratchet had got a hold of it anyway; she slammed her hand down in the first chords of a song. When nothing happened, her shoulders slumped as she played a couple more just in case, turning up the volume several notches and ignoring the winces of especially Bee, Skyquake, and TB, whose sensory relays were more sensitive.
Miko was about to give up when all of a sudden Bulkhead jerked upright, mirroring her movements and echoing the last fading chord.
"Yeah! I love that song!" He blinked and looked around, confused. Noting her eyes, red and swollen from crying, he frowned, "Miko?"
Tactical Bay - Two orns later. (26 days)
"So, Skyquake was found at these coordinates, in the Northern America..." Terabyte said, pointing to the little red dot on the holographic map. She was starting from square one with the new calculations she'd made based on the limited information they had on the sleeper project. "And Blitzwing was found here, in the European continent-area."
Arcee took a step back to look at the whole map, letting out an impatient huff. "And like you've said already, the others should be in Asia, Australia, South America, Africa, and Antarctica. That doesn't help us know where or who the other sleepers are. Continents tend to be large."
The jet, who up until now had been mostly quiet, only giving his input occasionally, rolled his ruby optics. "If you would wait for her to finish..."
She continued, mostly ignoring both of them. They'd been in here, staring at this map for over a groon, and all of them were running out of patience. "From various historical data from the records of civilizations on the continents in question in the past seven vorns, approximately five-hundred and eighty-one Earth years, I've been able to triangulate the most likely location for one of the sleepers. I'm still working on the others."
"We sat here while you stared at a wall for forty-five minutes, for you to find the 'most likely' location of one of the sleepers?!" Arcee hissed incredulously.
"Yes." Terabyte retorted, putting her hands on her hips. "I just spent forty-five minutes performing planet-sized cross-triangulations using extrapolated coordinates from nearly a million different sources. I doubt you could make heads or tails of the formulas I've been working, and creating myself as I go. Do you want to try doing the next set of calculations?"
When Arcee failed to offer any reply aside from looking away with a huff, the spy smirked, "Didn't think so."
She reached out and manipulated the hologram, zooming it in on South America first. "From what I've found - this one was by far the easiest; located most probably in the Sun Temple ruins on Machu Picchu, Peru." She made a green dot on the map over the mountain in question, glancing at Skyquake to see if he would guess the mech she was guessing would be the sleeper there, "This one also gives us a pretty good set of guesses as to who it may be."
Skyquake's optics went dim as he did a quick search on the internet. "A meteor fell in the area about seven vorns ago, the humans in the area dragged the golden humanoid mech back to their sun temple where he was worshipped. Sunstorm, probably. Pompous fool always did think he was Primus' gift to the universe."
"Precisely. He was rumored to wake for the course of approximately two lunar cycles - one quartex - every eighty-three years - every vorn." Terabyte said triumphantly, looking over at Arcee to see her reaction.
The other two-wheeler had a look of disgusted dread on her face. She crossed her arms. "If it is Sunstorm, we have to make sure he stays sleeping. That mech's crazy. Makes Blitzwing look perfectly sane."
"Not to mention the effects the radiation emitted by his Shockwave-twisted spark would have on the human population should he be loosed." The midnight femme pointed out. "Even Cybertronians are not spared its effects long-term."
Skyquake snorted, "Before you both get your tanks in a twist, why don't we figure out who the others are. Sunstorm may be a dangerous, unpredictable, death-radiating fighter, but the Seeker is a coward when alone; he will not be difficult to… remove should he awake. We have no such guarantee with the other sleepers as of yet."
She was about to snap something about how she was working as fast as she could and if she had some help, things would go much faster, when Skyquake continued, raising a servo to silence her. "Since you've found a formula that works for calculating the coordinates, if you could send that formula to me, I can assist by simply - or not-so-simply - plugging in the... er, things."
She smiled at her friend from behind her mask, watching him fumble for a bit as he no-doubt tried to recall the correct terminology. Nevertheless, she data-bursted the formula to him, along with a brief set of instructions, just in case. The jet was competent enough in the mathematics, but his skill-set was that of a warrior, not a communications and intel hacker. It would probably take the mech considerably longer to reach an accurate conclusion, but at the same time, any help was appreciated.
A data request ping registered in her mind, causing her optic ridge to rise in curious surprise. Terabyte glanced at the pink and blue two-wheeler for confirmation before sending the same data-burst to her as well.
"Thank you." Terabyte said with a nod, acknowledging their willingness to help. Ratchet was most likely too occupied with the synth-En formula Bulkhead had spent the last three rotations transcribing.
Her mind reverting back to her days as second-in-command of the CI (comms. and intel.) division, Terabyte's tone was commanding, "Skyquake, I'm assigning you to the sleeper in the Australian region. Keep an open mind to your solutions, the continent is very small and the sleeper may be on a nearby island or perhaps even underwater. Arcee, you can take care of Asia. I will attempt to locate the Antarctica sleeper, as that continent will likely prove the greatest challenge. Whichever of us finishes first can work on Africa. I want a report from both of you as soon as you find something."
A team-wide comm. came in and Terabyte stiffened, replying instantly in clipped tones. She didn't even notice that her response was both inappropriate and in Cybertronian, her visit back in Decepticon ranks having brought back old habits, /Yes, my lord?/
She could almost see the Prime's chagrined expression, /Terabyte... Please, do not address me in such a manner. I do not wish to be any mech's lord./
/My apologies, Prime./
/TB, what'd we say about using English?/ Cliffjumper reminded her gently. Again, Terabyte sent her apologies, in English letters this time.
Arcee shifted her weight to one pede, spinning the wheels in her calves. /You called in for something, Optimus?/
/Bulkhead and Miko requested back up at the children's schoolhouse. He did not give a reason, but specifically requested Terabyte's presence. Arcee, take Cliffjumper, Bumblebee, and Terabyte and investigate the situation. Optimus out./
Right at that moment, Cliffjumper burst into the tactical bay with a squeal of metal on stone. "So, you ready for school, kids?"
Arcee rolled her optics, glancing at Skyquake. "We're stopping by Ratchet first. So that our 'Con friend here isn't left unsupervised. An army jet would be a little out of place in the school parking lot."
"Why would they need back-up at school?" Terabyte asked, frowning. "And why myself in particular?"
"We don't question orders, femme. We obey." The other femme replied, already on her way down the hall. Cliffjumper just shrugged and gestured for them to follow.
The red-haired woman sat on the curb, off to the edge of a group of adults and kids. She was dressed in a simple pair of blue jeans, a black v-necked t-shirt, and a white blazer. Her emerald eyes were just a little too bright as she examined the asphalt beneath her feet.
"Miko, if there aren't any 'Cons, the humans are all safe, and MECH isn't on the move, what did you call us all here for?" Arcee - using her blond haired, brown-eyed holoform - demanded, glaring at a random student that had come a little too close.
Terabyte smiled sadly at the little pebble that had captured her attention. Today was a very special day in the Protihexian culture. A day that both factions had many, many decavorns ago discarded, yet the neutral states had preserved from the Golden Age of Cybertron. It was comparable to the human 'birthday'.
She turned twenty-seven vorns this day. Her sire and carrier had always been middle-class in Protihex, so her sparking days were celebrated tri-vornly. As beings who lived for millennia, it didn't hurt anything to extend the gap between celebrations. They would have a huge feast to which all of her friends, family, and schoolmates or coworkers would come and celebrate her life.
The average Protihexian youngling typically did not gain their adult frame until they were twenty-four vorns of age. Thanks to Ultra Magnus and his Wreckers, Terabyte had been upgraded just a few quartex before her fifteenth sparking day. But this sparking day would have been one of the grandest celebrations she would have ever gotten. Her first sparking day as a full-grown.
Her last celebrated sparking day was when she turned twelve vorns. She didn't mind though. There wasn't a whole lot worth celebrating in a war.
Terabyte shook her head, whipping the curly red ponytail of her holoform back and forth, refocusing on the conversation the bots were having with the human children. Bulkhead, Cliffjumper, Bumblebee, and Arcee all stood in their holoforms, watching the three children explain something.
"-irthdays are like a party to celebrate the day you were born." Jack explained, waving around two small boxes wrapped in navy and pink striped paper with glittery bows on top.
"And today I just turned sixteen!" Miko concluded proudly. "Which means we're gonna celebrate."
Raf smiled, also holding two tidily wrapped gifts. His were smaller than Jack's, wrapped in a simple yellow paper, tied with pink ribbons. "Since it's traditional for the person being celebrated to choose the party exactly how they wanted it... Miko wanted to spend the day with friends since family is - um..."
"Unavailable." The pink-haired girl cut him off quickly, her grin fading for a moment. "Anyway, I was talking to Skyquake a little earlier, and today is also someone else's - what would you call it? Creation day? Coming-into-existence day?"
Terabyte stood up and joined the little group, her expression neutral. "I believe the correct term is 'Sparking Day', Miko."
"Okay, so it's also someone else's sparking day." Miko finished excitedly, watching the group expectantly. The overall reaction suggested that the Bots were simply humoring the girl now. "Can I get three cheers for... Terabyte!"
The group stared at the girl with varying expressions of inquiry.
"Miko, we haven't celebrated sparking days since the Golden Age of Cybertron." Bulkhead said slowly, his holoform - a six and a half foot man with dark skin and significant muscle mass - looked over at Terabyte accusingly. "I don't even remember my sparking day."
The ex-Con spy glanced through the group, receiving various accusing and curious looks. She ignored them and looked over at Miko, "How did you deduce the date of my sparking day? I do not recall mentioning it."
"You didn't, silly." Miko laughed. "That's why it's a surprise party. Skyquake told me. Now, let's try this again. Can I get three cheers for Terabyte, our two-thousand two-hundred and forty-one year old newest family member!"
Jack, Raf, Cliffjumper, and Bumblebee started up a cheer this time, following Miko's lead. Terabyte's holoform's faceplates heated in embarrassment. No doubt the humans thought that less than two and a half millenia was a huge sum of years. By Cybertronian standards though...
"Wait, you're only twenty-seven vorns?" Bumblebee warbled incredulously, his young holoform stepping back to reevaluate her. "That's almost five vorns younger than me! That's crazy!"
She looked away, kicking at a leaf. A huge pair of sunglasses materialized on her holoform's face as she sought to hide her face. "I upgraded three frames early."
Even Bulkhead's demeanor towards her changed dramatically at that statement. The whole group broke out in an uproar of protests and angry remarks about the Decepticons. Terabyte simply withstood the outrage until the group calmed before correcting their assumptions.
"Alpha Trion upgraded me at my request. I was not forced into an adult frame, I chose to upgrade."
"But... why?" Cliffjumper asked quietly, his anger melting into sorrow. Undoubtedly, he too had thought her much older. After all, they all thought she was considerably older than Bumblebee. But honestly, what effect did a number really have on her age? Mentally she had matured, making upgrading three frames early logical.
"Like I said. The Autobots took everything from me." Terabyte's un-humanly vivid emerald eyes caught his own blue ones, that gaze speaking more than her words ever could. Finally, she shrugged one shoulder lightly, turning to Miko with a smile. "Being over a thousand years ago, that is neither here nor there. What do you want to do to celebrate your birthday?"
"Our birthdays." The pink and black haired Asian girl reminded her firmly. "First, we have to get the cake and balloons. Then we're gonna go back to base and party there, that way the others don't miss out! C'mon! Can I ride with you?"
"-so it's traditional to give the person presents and stuff to show that you're, like, glad they were born." Miko continued, taking a big breath. Terabyte smiled inwardly at the girl gripping her handles tightly. She hadn't stopped talking for the whole trip. "Which is why I made this list of stuff I wanted. I woulda asked you for one too, but that'd mess up the surprise. But Skyquake helped me out, so we got a list anyway. I hope you like what I got'cha!"
The motorcycle started slightly, swerving to the left a little bit, making the other driver honk his horn, flailing his arms in anger. The humans hardly even knew her - what they did know of her wasn't all that flattering either - and yet they would get gifts for her? After all that she'd done?
Her engine revved lightly as she felt a rush of inadequacy. She had not prepared a gift for the girl. She would have to fix that. Already several ideas came to mind.
Cliffjumper sent her a questioning ping from where he drove just in front of her. /TB, watch the speed limit. You're practically touching my bumper, you're riding so close./
/Sorry./ Terabyte slowed a little bit, back down to the mere sixty-five miles per hour that was law.
They were only about five minutes away from the base now. But that ought to be long enough for her to put together what she had planned. Then she'd just need to get a few things from Ratchet and it would be ready.
"So, what'd ya get me, Terabyte?"
"It is traditional for the recipient to be unaware of the gift, is it not?" She replied suspiciously, checking the internet for confirmation of that fact.
"Well, yeah, but you could tell me." Miko giggled, "I swear I won't tell the 'recipient'!"
Terabyte laughed, shaking the human in her seat. "You are the recipient, Miko."
"Awww..." The girl slumped down in mock disappointment. Within a few moments, she perked back up again, her head tilting in curiosity, "Twenty-seven gorns right?"
"Vorns. With a 'v'." The spy corrected instantly.
She nodded. "Vorns. That's what I said." Terabyte smiled internally. "That's like twenty-seven years for a human, you know, in comparison, right?"
"Well... Not really. It's more like eighteen, when humans are officially considered adults." The motorcycle's tone went sober. "Except I became an adult three frames early, which was about eleven vorns before I was supposed to."
"So it would be like if Raf was all of a sudden put in Fowler's body?"
/Pretty much./ Arcee cut in, still fuming, on the team frequency - recently modified to include the kids' bluetooth earbuds. /Which is why if Alpha Trion weren't dead, I'd tear his bearded helm off./
Terabyte sighed, trying to ignore the angry revving coming from the other motorcycle, who'd pulled up next to her. /Then I am glad that he is deceased, because he did not do it of his own volition. Besides, it was twelve vorns ago now. What do you care anyway?/
Miko glanced over at Arcee, "She's got a point. You haven't exactly been best chums."
/We've all been in this war too long... Trust doesn't come as easily as it ought to./
They sat in awkward silence for a couple klicks, until they got to the base. Miko leapt off her back and Terabyte flung herself back into her base mode, adding a defensive flare to her armor. By the girl's explanation, she got the feeling that this celebration would draw far more attention to herself than she liked.
She knew that Miko meant well by it, but she didn't understand how Cybertronians worked. All the respect she'd worked so hard to build with the Autobots - or at least what little was left from her manipulated betrayal - would now be lost. As if the Prime would want a 'rookie' on his team.
Leaning against the wall, Terabyte sat quietly in her usual spot on the steps. The others were in the midst of the party; rocking out with Miko, playing video games with Jack, or racing toy cars with Raf. Even Ratchet and the Prime had joined in when Cliffjumper had announced hydrogen-infused Energon.
She smiled, taking a quick sip of her imitation sweet-En. The femme had joined in when they sang happy birthday right before the cake, but between the 'refreshment-time' and the 'present-time', she really wasn't so sure that the Autobots would welcome her participation.
Skyquake put down the modified game controller - he had strangely refused to simply put together a holoform - and walked over to where she was seated. The metal stairs groaned in protest as he sat down beside her.
"Hey Terabyte."
Glancing up at him, she took another sip from her cube. "Hey."
"Why the long face?"
"What long face? My mask is up: how do you know I'm not grinning like a sparkling?" She asked, smirking nonetheless.
Across the room, Cliffjumper and Miko gave the grand finale to their off-tune – again thanks to Ratchet's meddling with the girl's guitar - song, which included screaming and twitching as they landed in perfect mirror splits. Terabyte winced slightly as the sound system let out an agonized screech, making her sensitive audial array reboot.
The jet cocked an optic ridge at her, giving his level best look of totally unconvinced. "I've known you for twelve vorns, Tera. You can't fool me."
"No fair." She muttered, smiling and bumping him with her elbow. "You told Miko how old I am."
"So?"
"So, my chances of ever being trusted again are already blown, and now so are my chances of being respected."
He laughed, making her scowl at him indignantly. "It's not funny!"
"You think they'll respect you less for your age?" The green flier huffed. "If they've even got half a processor they'll respect you more for that. How many other twenty-seven-vorners do you know who've reached Lieutenant Commander of a whole division?"
Cliffjumper grinned down at her, startling them both by his sudden presence. "You should listen to him, Short Stuff. Jetbrain's got a good point for once. Besides, cheer up, it's present-time!"
With that, the red mech dragged her to her feet, pulling her behind him as he made his way to the center of the room, placing her by Miko in the 'seat of honor'. The 'seat of honor' consisted of a puffy leather office chair for Miko, and Cybertronian-sized replica - the chair Optimus used in his office.
"But this is the Prime's chair." She objected, attempting to rise, only for Skyquake to casually rest his hand on her shoulder enough to keep her stuck in the chair. He winked at her, a tiny smirk twisting his face. She stuck her glossa out at him behind her mask, "Evil mech, you."
"Happy sparking-day Lieutenant Terabyte." Optimus told her with a regal nod of his helm. The tiniest start of smile touched his lip-plates.
She bowed her helm in acknowledgement, hearing her cooling fans kick in from her embarrassment. It would probably be best at this point to just sit quietly in the comfy chair.
For about a klick, each mech brought forward their gifts, setting them in a small pile in front of her and Miko, and then once everyone was seated again, Miko looked up at her expectantly. "Oldest gets to open first."
Terabyte nodded slowly, examining her small pile of gifts. She was surprised to find that each one had gotten her a gift... They must have been planning this for a while. Honestly, the femme wasn't sure what to make of it. Normally no one bothered for her. She certainly hadn't expected the Autobots to; especially since she was a defector.
For each other, sure, but for her?
At her hesitation, Cliffjumper nodded his encouragement, "You can open whichever one you want."
Finally, Terabyte picked up the tiny one on the top, wrapped in a simple hunter green paper, topped with a frilly white ribbon. Grinning like a sparkling behind her mask, the femme shook it gently to see if she could guess its contents. Since she hadn't even made a list, it was more difficult.
"It's from Ratchet." She said quietly.
Slitting the paper with a flick of her claw, the dark-colored femme carefully opened the little metal box and peeked inside. Shocked by what she saw, the two-wheeler glanced up at the medic with an expression of awed disbelief.
He crossed his arms, looking away to hide his pleased smirk. "It's not genuine Protihexian, but it's as close as I could manage. Try some and tell me what you think of it."
She just took turns staring at the medic and his gift for a couple of klicks until she decided to just try one like he'd asked before the audience died of boredom. Pulling out one of the silver drops wrapped in the familiar crinkly package, Terabyte unwrapped the candy reverently.
It had been eight vorns since Skyquake had found some of these for her and she hadn't had anything even close to a Protihexian silver drop since then. Lowering her mask just long enough to pop it into her mouth, the femme closed her optics to savor the moment.
"Thank-you so much Ratchet." She said, her optics twinkling with delight. Few noticed the sadness that lingered behind her happy gaze, the memories flooding through her in full force. "They're amazing."
Miko, not quite understanding the importance of the gift, grinned, "Candy? Awesome. My turn!"
The pink-haired girl snatched up the largest of the presents, wrapped in black paper that was patched in multiple places with duct tape. Miko took a moment to examine the patchwork wrapping before ripping into it with gusto, "No tag, but I'm betting it's from Bulk."
The ex-Wrecker chuckled, shrugging his shoulders lightly. "I tried."
When the gift was revealed, Miko squealed with pleasure, pulling out the brand new electric guitar, since apparently her old one had not survived Ratchet's 'enhancing' very well. The instrument was a deep red, edged with black. The strings, frets, and attachments were silver, giving the guitar a very modern look.
In just a few minutes Miko had it hooked up and played a couple chords at high volume, grinning from ear to ear the whole time. "Sweet! Thanks Bulk!"
The rest of the present opening went much faster once Terabyte had gotten the pattern down. Miko had gotten the guitar from Bulkhead; a headset from Raf; an mp3 player from Jack; a photo album full of pictures of Cybertron from Optimus; a denim jumper with an Autobot symbol stitched on, and a light blue t-shirt from Arcee; a new set of paints from Ratchet; a legitimate Decepticon-make laser pistol from Cliffjumper - which Ratchet had completely disabled so she wouldn't hurt or get hurt; and the latest game of Metroid from Bumblebee.
She now had the small box of ten silver drops - pure silver was rare and expensive on Earth, so Ratchet had gotten as much as he could; a new polishing kit from Cliffjumper; a display case and a designated wall of their shared quarters from Arcee; a datapad from Prime, one of the few remaining copies of A History of Cybertron, written in the pre-War era; a custom-made set of three gold wheels that perfectly matched her joints from Bumblebee and Bulkhead; a book of unsolvable equations from Raf, printed in the largest paper size made on Earth; and a collection of classical human music from Jack and less-classical from Miko.
Miko was currently opening her last gift from Terabyte herself. It was in a very small package, wrapped simply in navy paper. She watched as the girl pulled out the little device, as closely resembling a human flashdrive as the two-wheeler could manage. It was approximately the size of a small pocket knife.
Opening the cap, Miko frowned minutely, "What is it?"
"A waterproof, pressure-resistant miniature storage device. Unfortunately as small as it is, it can only hold about ten terabytes of data-"
"Ten?!" Raf squealed, nearly dropping his laptop in excitement, running over to gape at the flashdrive. "That is a ten-terabyte drive? How is that even possible?"
Miko grinned, "Sweet! What's it plug into?"
Here Terabyte smirked, a little surprised, but very pleased with the humans' reactions. Jack didn't look like he even believed her. All three humans' eyes widened at her next words, "Anything you like. It configures to fit any slot known to man or Cybertronian. Simply press it into the desired port and it will automatically adjust to fit."
"Awesome!" Miko pumped her fist in the air, "This'll hold my whole entire music collection, my library, my video games, my- everything!"
"Also, the other side is a pocket knife." The spy added with a shrug, "Just as a bonus."
Jack and Raf shared a look, speaking in unison, "Okay, this is definitely on my wishlist."
AN. My judgement of the typical Cybertronian "growing-up" process comes from enmused's bio:
u/4849961/enmused
Check it out for further detail. Thank you all for reading and reviewing! I hope you enjoyed! Also... that flashdrive/pocket knife? Totally on my wishlist...