Bumblebee awoke to a grayish semi-darkness, and a steady sense of being in motion, and no idea how much time had passed since he had last been conscious. As he gained awareness, Bumblebee realized he was inside of something, a metal box of some kind, with slats in the sides which permitted thin light to seep in, revealing a stark, empty interior. The next thing he discovered was that he was still in vehicle mode. All four wheels had been booted to prevent them from turning, and heavy chains were secured over and around him. When he attempted to transform, he discovered just how heavy and tightly secured those chains were, for they prevented him from doing so.
This surprised him somewhat. The very fact that he was being restrained in this way spoke of human captors. No self-respecting Decepticon would ever try to hold an Autobot in this particular fashion for long. Certainly they would not transport a prisoner in this way. But Bumblebee had never known a human-created chain to be strong enough to hold him, or indeed any Cybertronian. If he could have transformed, the wheel clamps would have snapped right off. But, because he couldn't, he was unable to turn his wheels, so he couldn't break loose that way.
After his brief but enthusiastic attempt at escape, Bumblebee settled down.
He tried his comm unit, but it wasn't functional. That didn't surprise him. Anyone who knew how to tie him down so he couldn't transform would also know how to disable, break or somehow block the signal of a comm unit. Restraining a Cybertronian wasn't easy, you had to know exactly how the transformation process worked, and that wasn't exactly obvious when a Cybertronian was in vehicle mode. Still, he wasn't exactly worried. The comm unit was exposed and obvious in vehicle mode, because it sat in the same place as the radio of a normal Earth vehicle. The GPS wasn't so exposed, but he couldn't access it to tell where he was, so he figured that the Autobots couldn't track him either.
Having exhausted the conventional means of signaling distress and figuring out where he was, Bumblebee adjusted his focus onto his makeshift prison. 'Shift' being the operative word, because he knew he was moving. And there was a familiarity to the motion, only he couldn't quite pin it down. Even the rattling noise that seemed to come from somewhere underneath him, as well as all around, didn't quite identify what it was.
It was only when he heard the whistle that Bumblebee realized what it was. It was a sound he'd recorded permanently into his memory when he'd been learning the rules of driving on Earth. The distinctive whistle was that of a train approaching a rail crossing.
Bumblebee then realized he was inside of a train car. The flickering light through the slates was caused by passing various sources of light and shadow, the rattling was caused by the wheels on the rails. Bumblebee had never been inside a train before, but he had been on top of one.
Now he knew for certain that humans were behind this. No Cybertronian would ever voluntarily travel this way, or transport anything by train. Not Earth trains anyway. It was simply the least practical way to travel, even if you were trying to be secretive about it.
A shudder rippled through Bumblebee when he realized the only possible party responsible for his current situation. Only one group of humans had the knowledge, ability and inclination to take Cybertronians captive, much less hold them once captured. MECH.
There were few things Bumblebee feared. Almost ever since the Autobots had first encountered them, MECH had been one of those things. Though the fear had not really manifested itself until he had seen firsthand the butchery of which they were not only capable, but willing. MECH had no recognition of Cybertronians as living, feeling creatures. They had no compunction about ripping out wires, optics or T-Cogs, nor any preference about Autobot or Decepticon victims.
Bumblebee made a nervous buzzing sound.
Whatever MECH's plan was now, Bumblebee knew he wanted no part of it. He trembled at the memory of how they had not only maimed the Decepticon Breakdown, but also the violation they had committed upon Bumblebee's own person. Even with his T-Cog restored, the psychological trauma of that event had been difficult to recover from. Megatron may have silenced his voice and left him to die, but MECH had left him alive but both useless and utterly defenseless, not to mention removing an organic part of who and what he was. Even restored and returned, his T-Cog wasn't the same as it had been before. Bumblebee sensed it really never would be again.
He was not ashamed to admit to himself that he was afraid of what MECH might do to him now. Despite what the children seemed to think when the Autobots showed terror at the sight of a scraplet, there was no shame in admitting to rational, fully justified fear of something. Just so long as you didn't allow that fear to impede your ability to function as a soldier.
In this instance, Bumblebee had already done everything he could to escape for now. The only thing left to do was wait. Wait, and try not to let his fear build. That was hard when you had nothing else to occupy your thoughts. But this was not Bumblebee's first stint as a POW, nor was it the first time he had been on his own, without any backup, without anyone knowing where he was.
"Six hours without contact," Arcee remarked, crossing her arms worriedly, "That's not good."
It was an understatement, they all knew it, but nobody remarked on it. The uncomfortable truth was that this was not the first time Bumblebee had gone missing. Unfortunately, he was a reliable, trustworthy Scout, and very good at what he did. To be out six hours without contact was not in his character. If there had been any way at all of contacting the Autobots, he'd have found it. A good Scout went to any lengths to report his findings, and Bumblebee was nothing if not a good Scout. When Bumblebee went out of contact, it was never for any minor reason. He was in trouble.
"You think the 'Cons got hold of him?" Bulkhead wondered.
"At a guess, I'd say no," Ratchet answered.
"Bumblebee has fallen into Decepticon hands before," Optimus said, "It is doubtful he would do so again without a fight."
"But there was no sign of a struggle at his last known coordinates," Arcee said, "What few tracks hadn't been destroyed by the snow storms in the area just seemed to stop in the middle of nowhere."
"Capture by the 'Cons without a trace," Bulkhead acknowledged, "Seems unlikely."
"But who does that leave?" Ratchet asked, "Who besides the Decepticons could effect such a capture?"
"We do not yet know for certain what has become of our Scout," Optimus reminded them, "Capture is likely, but far from certain. With no tracks to follow, and no GPS location, there is little we can do to find him. If Bumblebee is to be found, he must first contact us. Until then, we must be wary and alert. It is possible Bumblebee was not the only target."
"'Far from certain'?" Arcee practically yelped, before regaining her normally respectful tone, "What else would make him cut off contact besides being caught?"
"Granted, it is the most likely cause for his sudden silence, and we must act under the assumption that someone has captured Bumblebee. But there are other possibilities which we would be unwise to rule out or ignore," Optimus replied calmly.
He was right, of course.
In the hunt for intel, Bumblebee could have become reckless. If a Space Bridge was activated and he went through or was somehow forced through, he would have seemingly disappeared without a trace, and be beyond communication. But he should also have been beyond range for receiving his life signal as well. And there should have been energy traces from the Space Bridge.
Potentially the Decepticons had developed a new technology which masked GPS and blocked comm units. That was likely, and Bumblebee could just as easily wind up on the other side of a Ground Bridge as a Space Bridge and find himself in a shielded location unexpectedly. And they all knew that Bumblebee was good at getting into places unnoticed. It would not be the first time he'd piggybacked on a Decepticon Bridge without their noticing. Nor would it be the first time he took action without appropriate caution and then found himself in over his head. To a certain degree, a good Scout had to be reckless, willing to do things no saner or more cautious Autobot would dare. A Scout had to be willing to do just about anything to acquire intel, and then to relay what he had learned.
Though the thought of MECH had crossed all their minds, they didn't want to voice that possibility, especially not when that human organization had done such terrible things, most recently to Bumblebee. They didn't want to even consider the possibility that Bumblebee had broken contact because he had been (or was currently being) dismantled piece by piece. It was too barbaric for even Megatron to consider, and they didn't want to think of the Scout suffering at MECH's hands. Again.
Though nobody said it, they all felt grateful that school was out. None of them wanted to be the one to tell Raf that his best friend was missing, possibly being tortured... or worse. Hopefully, the next time they heard from Raf, all of this would be over and done with, and Bumblebee would be back among them, safe and sound. The only thing worse than not knowing where Bumblebee was or what was happening to him would be having to admit to the human boy that they couldn't save the Scout.
Raf had debated all morning and most of the afternoon about whether or not to contact Bumblebee. He didn't want to bother the Scout, especially not if the Autobots were busy with something. But if Bee was just patrolling or something, he might welcome someone to talk to, or listen to anyway. Bee had mentioned the loneliness of patrolling on at least one occasion when Raf had mentioned not wanting to bug him by calling him and talking to him all the time.
Bumblebee had a way of not only inviting Raf to talk to and spend time with him, but making it feel like he wasn't just being generous. Bee acted like he genuinely enjoyed Raf's company. It had taken awhile, but Raf eventually believed him when Bee said that he liked hanging out with him, even if it was just sitting nearby while Raf did homework (though Raf often spent more time explaining it to Bee than actually doing the homework. The Scout made no secret of his interest in learning about Earth; though Raf had initially harbored suspicion that he was just being nice about listening to the boy ramble on about science, history, math and all the other courses he was taking).
Even so, Christmas was a time to be with family. Raf wondered what Bumblebee might think of him if it appeared he didn't want to do that. Miko already made fun of him for his aversion to Christmas. One thing he didn't want was to hear about it from Bee too.
On the other hand, unless he'd been doing solo research (unlikely), Bumblebee knew absolutely nothing about Christmas or any of the December holidays. Unlike everyone else Raf knew, Bumblebee would be perfectly safe to talk to, because he wouldn't know the difference unless Raf told him.
That felt kind of deceitful, and that definitely wasn't in keeping with the holiday spirit, but Raf felt like explaining it would sound an awful lot like just complaining. He knew Bumblebee would listen patiently regardless, but Raf didn't like to be the type of person who complained all the time.
When he finally got up the nerve to actually call Bee, he was surprised that the Scout didn't answer immediately. He was more surprised when the Scout didn't answer at all. He knew there were countless reasons Bee might be too busy, but there had never been a time when the Scout had failed to respond in fairly short order when Raf called him.
He had no reason to suspect anything was wrong, but deep inside he felt troubled. He knew Bee would never ignore him, not for any reason. The only reason he wasn't answering was because he couldn't. And Raf knew, without anyone needing to tell him, that something was terribly wrong.
A/N: I don't typically do this, but I have no other means of responding to this person's review and I think it's important to address (If you have an account and a question, I recommend you log in before posting a question in a review. I'm more likely to answer in a message than an A/N as I feel these break up the flow of the story). They wondered if I came from a large family. Mine is large-ish and multigeneration (grandparents, parents and kids all under the same roof). A few of the things Raf thinks about/refers to over the course of this story are based on personal experience (or at least how certain things felt/looked to me when I was twelve), but mostly I was following a line in the series itself. More than once in the series, Raf referred to being forgotten in his own family. Usually in a large family, it's not the youngest who gets left out as described, but actually the middle child who gets forgotten in the shuffle of the big kids being able to do things on their own and the little ones needing help (or at least it feels that way, speaking as a middle child whose older siblings were five years and more older than me and whose younger sibling was less than two years younger and also mentally/physically handicapped).
In an ideal family situation, which mine probably approached (at least when I was little), there's time for everybody and everybody is looking out for everybody else. But that's not what was described in the Transformers: Prime series by Raf. I do get that it's a bit of an overdone plot device that a child in a large family gets forgotten, but it can happen and -in this case- I was following what the series itself gave me to work with, not just making something up for the sake of plot convenience (I'm guilty of it sometimes, but not in this instance).
Remember that someone's perspective may or may not be accurate to reality. And that goes for us "real" people, as well as fictional characters ;)
Thank you for reading, and I hope that cleared up the question regarding Raf and his family.