Giant robots were so cool, especially since her dad let her hang out with them. And he'd said maybe to her spending the night with them!
Sari was going to bribe him into definitely letting her go ... If she could find her Dad.
He'd missed breakfast a couple days in a row, and it was a rule that she had to go find him if he missed too many meals in a row.
"Hey, Elita, have you seen my dad? He wasn't at breakfast." Sari asked.
The leader of the autobots looked up from where she was looking over programming readouts. "I haven't seen him since the day before yesterday. He wandered off in the middle of a conversation, I think he was mumbling about equations."
"Thanks, maybe Bulkhead knows." Sari found Bulkhead apologizing for breaking a chair. The big guy was great with equations, but a lot of things were really breakable compared to him. They were making a new console that was sturdy enough for him to use, but that would take another few days until it was ready.
"Haven't seen him since the day before yesterday." Bulkhead admitted.
No one else had seen him either, which meant... the secret lab!
Well, not really secret, but definitely private- no one was allowed in the lab other than her dad, not even investors.
So Sari grabbed a cup of tea and went to get him. (Finding out her key could get past his security was a bonus even if she didn't get very far into the lab.)
Elita stretched as she left for the day. While she could go for several more cycles, most humans seemed to have set hours, and leaving the base for too long had recently had her coming back to a standoff between Bumblebee, Ratchet and Prowl. (Chromia had just been watching them without doing anything to stop them.)
"Wait up!" Sari ran up to her, Sparkplug in tow. "I'm going with you!"
Sari was growing on her, the way she just fearlessly trusted them to pick her up without hurting her and how much she resembled cybertronian younglings in general. Sari was also very helpful in explaining how humans worked.
She was just a little messy, but there wasn't a risk of organic contamination- which Elita had been concerned about.
"So, what is this slumber party you were talking about? Chromia said she heard about it on TV and was excited to try it."
"It's something you do with your friends, you get together at a house, invite your friends and play games, tell stories and enjoy each other's company. I haven't had any friends to spend the night, so it's going to be so much fun!" Sari bounced excitedly in Elita's passenger seat.
"I'm looking forward to it." Elita was a little bemused by Sari's admission.
Still, Bumblebee and Chromia were excited for tonight. Chromia started playing with Sparkplug with a grin.
"Why do you like that little dog?" Elita asked as Sari and Bumblebee set up a game.
"Reminds me of the turbo hounds back home." Chromia smiled, gently petting Sparkplug. "Just smaller!"
Prowl only showed up briefly, which Elita sort of expected. She hadn't expected Ratchet to stick around, though.
"Scary stories next!" Sari declared. "I'll go first!"
Chromia was enjoying this slumber party. And Sari's joke on Bumblebee was great!
"I'm not sure you should be using your key on just any system. At least, not without Ratchet or I there to see what happens." Elita was concerned.
"Lighten up, Elita! Isn't half of science messing around until something happens?" Chromia sat up from where she had been laying on the ground.
"Yeah, but controlled experiments have less of a chance of-"
The conveyor belt suddenly came alive, and they all scattered as bolts were fired and flamethrowers were activated.
Chromia grabbed Sparkplug to keep him out of trouble as they all scattered.
"I'm not doing this!" Sari yelled as Elita scooped her up.
"This party is out of control-whoa!" Prowl was grabbed by Elita as she tried to get Sari out- only for them to run back in.
"There's lasers in the hallway!" Elita reported. "We need to shut everything off!"
"The main panel is over there!" Ratchet called out.
Bulkhead yelled, he was in danger of being crushed, so Chromia tried to use her four wheel drive to get him out- she ended up trapped by a giant magnet in vehicle mode, Sparkplug in her cab.
Ratchet was saved by Sari, but he'd already taken a beating and instead scooped her up in order to keep her from getting crushed. Elita had set Sari down in order to use her fire extinguishing foam on the Fire.
Prowl had a plan to trick the motion sensors, which would have been useful to know that was why they were being attacked before half of them were incapacitated.
"Ah!" Elita was grabbed by the robotic arms and slammed into a wall during her attempt to get to the console, and Prowl was just as quickly incapacitated.
Which left Bumblebee. To stand still and then run fast ... and Bumblebee had only ever been capable of one of those two things.
"We're doomed." Was Bulkhead's assessment.
"Pretty much." Chromia agreed.
"Knock it off you two!" Elita ordered.
Prowl guided Bumblebee and miraculously Bumblebee actually got them free.
Too bad Bulkhead smashed the culprit on accident.
"So, what next for the slumber party?" Chromia asked, gently checking over Sparkplug.
"I'm pretty sure Sari should be asleep by now." Prowl frowned.
"I'm going to patch myself up." Ratchet grimaced.
Sari used her key on him in response.
"Let's get everything straightened up so no one-"
"Aah!" Bulkhead went rolling by, having tripped over some debris.
"-Does that." Elita sighed.
"Hey, Chromia, can I do your nails?" Sari asked.
"What does that mean?"
"Humans have fingernails- see?- and sometimes we put this stuff called nail polish, or varnish, on them. It's like temporary paint, and comes off after a bit, but it makes them look good. It's usually girls that do it, but one of dad's researchers let his kids do his nails." Sari explained. "You can even do designs!"
"Sure, it sounds fun." Chromia agreed. Sparkplug went into sleep mode.
Elita and Ratchet did a quick fix for the security system while Bulkhead and Prowl moved some of the heavier debris to a corner.
"You know, I'm no expert, but shouldn't Sari be doing these things with other organic younglings?" Ratchet asked Elita.
"From what I've observed, humans are a very social species, with intricate rituals of social bonding." Elita glanced to where Chromia and Sari were painting Bumblebee's servoes while Sari explained the different polishes. "Sari's latching onto us means that she hasn't had the correct social bonding until now- it's concerning, but apparently Professor Sumdac had received threats to his person and to Sari awhile back, and he isolated her for her own safety." Elita sighed. "And until we figure out why the Allspark gave her that key, we'll have to keep an optic on her."
"We might want to teach her how to take care of herself, then." Ratchet went to help Bulkhead and Prowl while Elita watched the trio with the nail polish.
Miles away in Sumdac tower Megatron fumed over the loss of the drone that been providing him a connection to the Autobot base. He had onlined in pieces, parts of his circuitry exposed to some crude antiquated system.
He could almost feel the irony of him being in this position after all the autobots he had seen condemned to similar fates, but he focused more on planning his next move. He needed a body, or a sturdier proxy.
He'd observe this Professor Sumdac carefully, and see how best to manipulate this unfavorable situation.
I'm rewriting the series by episode, but I'm rearranging a few- for example, Lockdown won't show up until Season two so Flamewar will have an episode. (Flamewar is actually a redeco of Arcee- more on that later.)