Prompt 6: Challenge: choose a character, and write a pivotal moment in their early life.

The day that Grimlock asked how sparklings were made, the whole Autobot army froze.

It had been in the Rec Room, on an ordinary day. Grimlock had stormed into the room, trailed by his fellow dinobots, and walked straight up to Wheeljack.

"Me Grimlock want to know where sparkling come from."

Cue the freezing.

"Ah... What?" Wheeljack managed, vocal indicators strangely dead and dark.

"Me Grimlock... want to know... where sparkling... come from," the Dinobot repeated slowly, as if he were talking to someone a few motherboards short of a CPU.

"Well... Usually... ahem. Maybe it'd be better if we continued this discussion in the Med Bay with Ratchet?"

"Okay. Me Grimlock fine with that."

"Good," Wheeljack practically breathed, and stood up. "Come on, then."

They walked out of the Rec Room, but it was silent for a long time after their departure. Then everyone present broke out into snickers, giggles, and chortles, all of them feeling a tiny bit of pity for Wheeljack, and Ratchet, of course, until they remembered the wrench the medic always had in hand, and that Wheeljack, for all his love of Ratchet and his common presence in the Med Bay, was horrible at dodging flying wrenches. Then all the pity went to the engineer.

In the Med Bay, Ratchet was frowning, and Wheeljack was clutching his newly dented helm.

"Where sparklings come from, eh?" the medic said slowly, and Grimlock nodded enthusiastically. "Where'd this come from?"

"Well, him Swoop watching human show, and Sally get pregnant. Him Snarl see, and say that how sparklings made. Him Swoop say he know it not, but he not know how they really made. They argue, and me Grimlock say that we ask Wheeljack, because he our creator, so he know how to make sparklings," the Dinobot leader finished with a nod and a toothy grin.

Ratchet vented and ran a hand over his helm. "Primus. No, Cybertronians do not reproduce like humans. Sort of. Two people who... like each other very much will merge sparks, and if they want one and conditions are correct, a new spark will be formed next to the carrier's spark. A very small protoform is created in the carrier's gestation chamber, and once it's been completed, the newspark moves into the protoform, and the sparkling is ejected."

"See!" Swoop crowed. "It not like humans!"

"It is!" Snarl cried. "Sort of! Him Ratchet say so!"

"Please! Quiet!" Ratchet called, and the Dinobots obediently settled. Then Swoop, always one of the most intelligent of the prehistoric-looking Autobots, perked up.

"That mean you Ratchet and him Wheeljack merge sparks?"

The two Autobots shared a loaded glance. Then Wheeljack vented.

"Sort of. We have merged sparks before. We are sparkmates, after all. But neither of us have carried a newspark before."

There was a quiet moment as the Dinobots mulled that over. Then, "That mean you Wheeljack and you Ratchet not our creators?"

"No, no, we are! Just... neither of us are your carriers."

"... Huh?"

"We... Your sparks were in storage. When the war was beginning, many mechs and femmes had their newsparks extracted and put in storage, so that once the war ended, a medic or engineer, such as myself or Wheeljack, would be able to build frames and put the sparks in them. War wasn't a time for sparklings."

"However," Wheeljack jumped in when Ratchet paused, "we needed you. We were losing to the Decepticons. We needed heavy frontliners. Prime, Prowl, Jazz, and Ratchet made a decision; get a few of the stored sparks and put them into upgraded, fully adult frames. We... We're as much creators to you two as any creator is to their sparkling, but neither of us actually... carried you."

There was a long silence. Then Grimlock stood and walked out. The other Dinobots followed. Only Swoop paused, looking back at his mentors and... caretakers.

"Him Grimlock... Us Dinobots okay. We just need to think."

Ratchet nodded slowly, as did Wheeljack. "Go think, Swoop," the engineer said quietly. "I know it's kinda hard to get... I hope you understand?"

Swoop grinned. "Oh, me Swoop understand. So do them Dinobots. They just never think where we come from before."

"Oh."

Swoop grinned and ducked out of the Med Bay, following after his brothers. The bonded couple stared after them. "Well, that was interesting," Ratchet finally said, breaking the silence.

Wheeljack chuckled. "Tell me about it. Think it'll affect them any more than Swoop seems to be letting on?"

Ratchet grunted as he turned and started wiping down a berth. "Oh, no doubt about it. Just wonder how it's going to affect them. Good or bad?"

Wheeljack flashed his helm fins as he bent and picked up the wrench that had previously dented his helm and handed it back to the medic. "Time will tell. And... Ratch? You ever think about making a sparkling of our own? One that one of us actually carries?"

The medic turned and looked at his bondmate, a truly predatory grin stretched over his face. "A couple times," he murmured as he stalked forward. Wheeljack giggled as his medic pinged the Med Bay doors, locked them, and put both of their statuses for the next day as off duty, per instruction of the CMO.