Chapter Eight

Topside Up

I woke up early the next morning, there was a pain all over my body going straight from my toes to my head. I was actually vibrating with how much pain I felt, I cried out the burning sensation was becoming too much for me. I could see Rachet leap from his bed at the sound of my cry and he hurried over to me, his hands waving all over the place as he obviously wanted to touch me but thought better of it.

I screamed as rush of what felt like fire ran through my veins. My breathing was heavy but after a few minutes the pain was starting to subside and I stopped screaming. Rachet practically pounced on me as he tried everything he could to make me feel better. I didn't know what was happening to me and I was starting to panic, he obviously sensed this as he started gently stroking my head.

"Don't worry sparkling, it is a growth spurt."

Well that brought on a whole new meaning to growing pains. It was so uncomfortable, it felt like I was in new skin and when I looked down at myself I could see that was actually what had happened. Instead of my silvery grey inner armour now I had a thicker, more solid outer armour that was more silver than grey. The armour itself was obviously stronger than the weaker inner armour and this was probably how I was going to look from now on. I was a lot taller than I had been previously, now instead of coming up to Rachet's ankle like before I would reach his mid thigh.

I was quite pleased with how tall I was now, but I was still so much smaller than any of the other bots. I also wondered why I was silver and not colourful like the Autobots.

"Ra-" I coughed as pain shot through my throat, but I was determined. "Rach... Rachet." He crouched down next to me and blinked slowly a grin slowly sliding over his face plates.

"Yes Nova?"

"Rachet." Speaking felt very strange with this new jaw, it was like I was learning to speak again but at a much more advanced rate. I mulled the word over in my mouth and smiled. I could get used to talking again. "Hello."

Rachet chuckled. "Hello young one."

A second later Ironhide and Bumblebee came crashing through the door with their weapons raised. "We heard screaming." Ironhide explained as he scanned the room for any threat, Bumblebee was the first one to lower his weapon and came over to sit by me. I grinned up at him and decided to shock them both.

"Hello." Bumblebee gaped at me while Ironhide did a double take, and Rachet smirked in the corner.

"Did she just?" Ironhide asked, walking over to me and crouching in front of me. It was then he took note of my new armour. "So that's what the screaming was." His cannon transformed back into this arm as he waved it about.

"Yes, she was going through a growth spurt." Rachet spoke, scanning me again which made me wiggle a bit because I still felt a bit sensitive. I whined at him slightly.

"Rachet, hurts." Bumblebee's engine roared as he pushed Rachet to make him stop, Rachet snapped out of his scanning trance and gave me an apologetic glance.

"Sorry sweetspark." He muttered, going over to his table and fiddling with some of the equipment, I could tell that he felt guilty but there wasn't really a lot I could do to make him feel better without seeming older than I was supposed to be so I kept quiet. Bee had quietened to a gently hum and he sat cross legged in front of me. Ironhide on the other hand was far too restless to stay in one place so he muttered something about 'testing my cannons' before shuffling out of the room.

There was a slightly awkward silence that I decided to break by going closer to Bumblebee. He was a bright yellow and I looked so dull in comparison.

"Colour?" I asked, it was frustrating that I knew what I wanted to ask but it was hard for my jaw to formulate my sentences. Rachet looked over, obviously still feeling guilty and wanting to redeem himself.

"Your armour will change to the colour of the alt form you choose." He told me, walking over and gently patting me on the head. I smiled up at him, the question must have been obvious in my eyes because he continued. "You can choose your alt form when you reach your final growth spurt. That date is unknown at this moment but I will be able to inform you when you have stopped growing."

I groaned. "Long." I complained, lacing my fingers together. I was obviously still clumsy with my new length so they clanked together. I growled at them. Stupid fingers. I looked up when I heard a chuckle, Bumblebee was obviously finding amusement in my failures so I decided to glare at him, this didn't make him stop but encouraged him to chuckle some more.

"Stop." I growled, standing up and pouncing on him. Unfortunately there was a major height difference between us, he easily caught me as I jumped through the air and held me under my armpits to keep me in the air. I kicked my feet out and huffed, this was slightly humiliating. My ears flatted against my head and I think I may have actually hissed at him. He stopped chuckling and stared at me softly, a look that made me feel warm and safe but at the same time slightly uncomfortable.

I shook my head and perked up when I tried to escape from his grasp. It was quite entertaining for Rachet and Bumblebee, but for me it was getting frustrating. I somehow managed to get out of his grasp and crawled my way up his arm, I wasn't as small as I once was so it was actually a little awkward. I probably came up to his hip probably about the equivalent of a small child so it was hard for me to pull myself up.

Before I could get too far up Bumblebee gently grabbed me again and put me back on the bed. I huffed again before crossing my arms across my plated chest, it was weird how much further out my chest was but I guess I was going through robot puberty. I looked up at the two Autobots who were smiling at me and a shot of guilt went through my chest. I wasn't a sparkling. But they thought I was, and this strengthened my resolve. They needed me to be who they thought I was, so I would act my part.

And I would do it well.

We all looked towards the door as it opened. Optimus Prime came through the door followed by a bunch of tiny soldiers, they looked so much smaller than they had previously. I grinned as they came closer. "Hello." I waved. Everyone gaped at me, I was starting to enjoy doing this to people.

"She can talk?" Will spoke, trying to get a better look at me, Optimus helped them out by picking the soldiers up and placing them on the table opposite me. "Hi sweetheart." He waved back to me, smiling.

"Yup." I grinned at him, my cheek plates were actually straining a bit, the newness of the plates were hard to get used to but I was slowly becoming accustom to it.

"You alright?" One of the other soldiers asked. "We heard screaming earlier but 'Hide and 'Bee never came back to tell us what was going on." He shot Bee a look.

"Good." I nodded. "Fine." I tried to explain but my metallic tongue didn't like certain syllables. I know I wanted to talk but I wanted to speak more than one word at a time, maybe I should have waited a bit, I mused as the soldiers started talking to Rachet. Optimus had walked over to me and petted the top of my head like Rachet usually did. I looked up at him, craning my neck a bit.

"Are you sure you are alright, young one?" He asked, his deep voice calmed me even though I didn't realise I was tense.

I nodded and smiled at him. "Yes."

Nothing of importance happened for the next few days. I hung around Rachet who seemed unwilling to let me out of his sight for more than an hour at a time and it was becoming boring. There was nothing for me to do, except practice speaking which Rachet seemed happy to help me with.

"Rachet?" I called as I walked into the med bay. I heard some scraping coming from the other side and wandered over to investigate. There were two Autobots that I hadn't met before squabbling about something. I blinked rapidly as my processors tried to identify them but when I couldn't I became shy. Where was Rachet when you needed him?

"You were the one who scratched my paint, if you didn't want to be blasted into next Tuesday you should have thought better of it." The yellow one growled to the red one.

"Don't be silly Sunny, I didn't do it on purpose." The red one growled. I raised an optic at the yellow one's name, Sunny? Not the most masculine name for a mech. I tried to back away and not eavesdrop on their conversation but I had discovered that in my new armour and at my new height I could hit a lot of things that I didn't' have to worry about before. I smacked into some of Rachet's tools and winced as they all fell down and clattered on the floor loudly. I let out a breath of air, I really needed to learn the art of being stealthy.

The two mechs had obviously stopped talking and one of them got up. I hid behind one of the desks and tried my best to keep out of sight. I didn't know these mechs, I didn't know if they would be friendly towards me or get annoyed that I had heard them, so I didn't want to take that risk.

My hiding was in vain. I was discovered alarmingly quickly and that's another thing I decided to add to my list of things to learn, new hiding places.

"Hello." I offered, as the yellow bot crouched down in front of me and pulled the sheet away from my body. His eyes widened hugely and he quickly looked to his friend who got the hint and hurried over. They both looked at me like I was an alien, which was rich coming from them. I stayed completely still and decided to wait for them to come out of their trance.

The yellow one opened his mouth to speak.