Bumblebee's View:
Starlit warned me not to worry, not to overthink or look too close into those visions, but a nagging feeling I had wouldn't let me. Those still frame images still played in my mind, the one where she screamed she never loved me haunted me. How could she see these things and just pretend nothing happened?
I didn't let on about my anxiety, but pretending that I was fine was very hard around her. I made a promise to her that I wouldn't bother her about the visions, I intended to keep it.
"Look how big you're getting!" I watched from the couch as she played with Bluestreak, the little mech giggling as she held him up over her head. "Who's my sweet little mech?" She cooed as she pressed their noses together. Blue shrieked in happiness, grabbing her cheeks and giving her a wet kiss across her nose.
"Aw, you love your Starlit." Jazz was next to me, watching his little mech play on the floor. "You guys sure you got it handled here? I can stay if ya want."
"We got it, Jazz. He's no trouble." Starlit assured, settling the sparkling in her lap. "You need to get out of here before you go stir crazy."
"Yeah, come on he's only a sparkling after all." Jazz raised an optic ridge at me. "How hard can it be?"
"Hn, you really think it's easy?" The smirk he gave told me I had missed out on a few things. With Jazz out of patrol rotation and Starlit helping out, I'd been covering for both. "Well, I suppose if ya really think ya two got it." Jazz stood up, stretching his arms. "I'll be a com link away and back in a few hours."
Jazz had been getting antsy around the base after being cooped up for almost five months. He didn't want to leave Bluestreak alone, but it was past time for him to let someone babysit so he could have a night off; or in this case a night of patrol.
"We'll be fine." Starlit promised, Bluestreak cooed happily as he got ahold of her hand. I didn't get why, almost, everyone let the little mech put their hands in his mouth.
"Alright then. Man, I can't wait to feel the road on my wheels again." Jazz transformed, ready to take off. "Slag yeah!" He revved in excitement as he sped off, gaining Blue's full attention.
"Guess it's just us…" I sighed, looking back to Starlit. Bluestreak had gone quiet, watching where Jazz had just been.
"Muaaaaa…" he looked confused, looking up to Starlit for an answer.
"It's ok, he'll be back." But Blue just pouted, unsure of what to think. "Wanna play a game?"
"He knows games?" I asked, moving to sit on the floor with them.
"Mostly stacking blocks and that color matching game Jazz has on a data pad. One day he'll be your gaming buddy." Starlit set him between us, the little mech had just learned to sit up on his own. He wobbled, looking between us and trying to decide if this was ok.
"Blaalala." He still didn't look happy but was distracted by the stacking blocks Starlit set up in front of him. He dragged one towards himself, chewing on a corner as soon as he got a hold of it.
"Gotta say…sparklings are cute and all, but they're kinda boring." Bluestreak looked up at me with his big mismatched blue optics. "I mean…no offense."
"Cause he's too small to do much? I guess I can see that." Starlit helped Blue make a small stack before he decided banging two together was more fun. "Mostly he's just noisy." Blue gave a happy chirp and began to bash blocks together to see which blocks made the best sound.
"At least it's not a human sparkling. Now those are gross…they wear these things called diapers and they just make waste in them all day. I'm so glad cybertronians don't do that."
"Yeah…the whole organic waste system is kind of gross. Who would have guessed organic bodies are far less efficient at breaking down their fuel." Starlit agreed. Cybertronians used every bit of the fuel we used, which meant little to nothing was wasted.
"Muaamuaaa." Blue handed me his drool covered block. "Gaaa!" He pointed to the tower, asking me to put it there.
"Here?" I put it on the tower, making the little mech clap.
"Hey…I wanted to ask about those visions we saw…" I was nervous that she'd shut me down, but she just tilted her head, indicating she was listening. "You said it was different than before, how so?"
"Well, usually it's like I'm in this pink light surrounded by strings of light. Each string holds a different possible future. I guess it's my job to navigate through them to find the best path. I'm still figuring it all out myself." She scratched the back of her neck nervously.
"But the visions are all scrambled like what I saw? Sorry…I'm having a hard time wrapping my processor around it." She gave me a sympathetic look, putting her hand on mine.
"Yeah…me too. I don't know why it was different, or how I pulled you along with me. You keep thinking about that one, don't you?" I felt in my spark that she had seen me replay that clip over and over.
"The one where you said you never loved me…does keep playing in my head." I admitted.
"I don't think you felt what I did when they were all playing around us. There's an emotion that goes with each one, but I promise you there wasn't any resentment. When I heard it…I felt pain but not for the reason you think. I think…I think I'm protecting you in that vision."
"Protecting…how is that protecting me?" Now I was more concerned about all this vision slag. What was she protecting me from that forced her to say that?
"I don't know…but it hurt me to say those words." She looked down, upset about something.
"Ah, slag, I didn't mean to upset you." I cupped her cheek, Bluestreak put his other hand up towards my face, trying to push us apart. "Muha." I kissed his palm, making him beam and grab the side of my helm. "You got my face…" Starlit laughed, helping me get free from his tiny, but strong, grip.
"You didn't, the vision did." Star blew a raspberry on Blue's cheek, making his squeal.
"Who knew something Prowl helped make would be so cute." I switched our attention back to Bluestreak.
"Did you think he'd be stoic like him?" Starlit teased.
"Kinda." It was pretty funny that his and Jazz's sparkling was the opposite of what everyone expected. "Could you imagine if Blue was like Prowl? He'd never laugh or be cute." Starlit smirked just from picturing it.
"Having a sense of humor isn't necessary." She impersonated Prowl's tone, picking Bluestreak up and had him stand on his little peds. "And nothing is funny, ever!" She teased, gently tickling his sides, getting a laugh out of both of us. A ping from her com interrupted our fun.
"Starlit here." Starlit cringed as Bulkhead's panicked voice rang through. I couldn't make it all out but something about the space bridge he was building the basement.
I watched her worry her lip, catching Bluestreak as he tipped forward in her grasp. "Sorry, Blue." The sparkling warbled but wasn't discouraged. He kicked his little peds, happily bouncing in my hands. "Ok, I'll come down in a sec! Just, keep the vents open and it should cool down! Hey! You're the expert! No me!" She argued with him.
"Awawawawawawa." Blue babbled, looking up to the ceiling mindlessly. I wondered what the heck he was looking at that made him so happy.
"Bee, do you think you can handle Blue on your own? Bulkhead has a bit of an emergency." Did anyone trust me?
"Slag yeah! Like I said, how hard can he be?"
"I'm serious. He's not as easy as you think! It's almost his recharge time, can you handle it?"
"I am being serious! I can do it, but isn't it s little early?"
"I know, but Jazz did say he wants us to try to get him to recharge by nine. It's already eight thirty." She came back with his cube, gaining his full attention. "I thought so, you're hungry." She let him hold the cube after she opened the corner, letting me assist him.
"That's still early." He looked up at me as I settled him in my arms to feed him. I hadn't held him since his creation date, he really had gotten big…how did I not notice?
"Not for him. He's still little, Bee." She was right, as soon as he started eating, he cycled down and his optics dimmed a bit. "I'll just be downstairs if you need me." Starlit gave me one more worried glance before taking off towards the freight elevator.
"Hnnn." Bluestreak pushed the cube away to reach for Starlit.
"It's alright, little guy. I've gotcha. Just you an' me tonight. Blue looked up at me with huge watery optics, upset Star has left too. "What's wrong? Don't you want to hang with your pal, Bee?" He whined as I turned back towards the living room, sitting up in my arms to look back over my shoulder.
"Nnnnnaaaa!" He cried, trying to crawl over my back.
"It's alright, she's not leaving forever!" Wrong thing to say, he wailed into my audial. "Ow…ok, ok." I set the cube on the arm of the couch to get a better hold on him. "Shhhh, come here." I tried to get him to settle but he kicked out, nailing the couch arm with his foot.
"WAHHHHH!!!" Oh Starlit was going to kill me for inadvertently hurting him.
"Sorry! Oh that had to hurt…" I held him close as he sobbed into my chassis. In the process, the cube fell and spilled everywhere, which meant I had nothing to give him to calm him down. "Hold on, I'll make you a new…Woh!" At least I caught him as I slipped on the spilt energon. Bluestreak cried harder, which made him even squirmy-er. "This…isn't going too well is it?"
Blue seemed to agree with another loud whine, pushing against me in an attempt to get away.
"Let's try this again on Jazz's room, eh?"
———————————-
Ok…maybe Jazz was right, maybe sparklings weren't as easy as I thought. Bluestreak was now overly tired, but unwilling to wind down. One second he was giggling at me trying to get him to settle down, the next he was crying and inconsolable. I was at a loss at what to do next, the cube didn't help at all and seemed to make him more alert than tired! Did I do the mix wrong? Frag I hoped not…
"Eeeeeeehhhhhh!" He fussed, falling back onto his aft beside me. I had him on Jazz's berth so I could lay by him, but he didn't seem to care that I was being a barrier to keep him from falling off, and kept trying to crawl over me.
"Oh no, not again." I told him as he crawled onto my chassis again. I gently held him down, making him look up to me in frustration. I wonder… his red chevron was just like Starlit's so maybe…I thought to myself as I gently stroked it with my thumb. Much like his aunt, it instantly calmed him and his optics dimmed.
"Thank Primus…" I sighed as Blue finally passed out on my chassis, his little head settling on my right shoulder. "See, easy…" I laid back with a sigh. It only took an hour longer than I thought it would, maybe I could count it as a win? Starlit and Jazz might not be too happy he wasn't asleep before ten, but it didn't seem like that big of a deal to me.
Being extra careful, I slowly sat up to set him next to me, tucking him under the thermal blanket. I didn't want to risk moving him to his own crib, which meant I was stuck laying by him so he didn't roll off.
"Ah slag…guess I'm stuck." I stared up at the night sky, listening to the soft snores the mechling made.
Starlit had me pinned against the tree, ignoring my weak protests, instead pushing her knee between my legs as she kissed my neck, biting hard enough to cause a trickle of energon.
"Ow, ok…too hard." At least she stopped. "Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, here?" Jazz was out and Bluestreak was getting a check up from Ratchet; which was really an excuse for the old medic to play with the little mech.
"You're the one who snuck in while I was meditating and started it." Sounded like me but I didn't remember what I did.
"You're not worried Jazz is gonna come back soon?" She let my arms go, allowing me to rest my hands on her waist.
"He won't be back for another hour." The way her optics darkened when I moved my hands lower had me denying all commands to open my panels. Frag she was so hot…how did I get so lucky? "Unless you think it's not enough time." She bit her lower lip while looking over my chassis.
"Plenty." She let me spin her into my position, however I didn't let her turn to face me. "You look good from behind…" I said, holding her hips against mine and grinding my closed panel into her aft. Both our fans kicked on, the strange excitement of possibly being caught, again, was actually kind of thrilling; apparently Star thought so too.
"Your aft isn't too bad to look at either." She teased as she braced against the tree, aft out and panel open. When she opened I didn't have a clue, but this image was going to be burned into my core memory. She reached between her legs, using her fingers to spread her valve open, all while looking over her shoulder.
I felt like my processor was going to glitch, this was the stuff straight from my dreams…and just like what normally happens in them, my spike pressurized without warning. Before I had time to really think about it, I was already deep inside her dripping valve.
Starlit was moaning and moving like the pleasure bots I'd seen…but something wasn't right. It almost felt like when Star pulled me into that weird future seeing thing she could do, but this time it felt like someone else was there.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!?" The shock made me overload; That voice shouldn't be possible! I felt the familiar hand grab me and pulled me off of Starlit, quickly covering myself as I came face to face with none other than Prowl. Only, he had a strange blueish outline around him that seemed to make him glow. I'd seen him angry, but this…he wanted to rip my spark out, among other things.
"I-I…Pro…I…" I couldn't find my voice. He had me by my shoulders, his grip denting my plating and grinning my joints inwards.
"Prowl? What's goin' on?" Jazz appeared behind him, looking between me, Starlit and Prowl. "Come on you two…"
"This…is…unbelievable!" Prowl lost it, and despite the efforts of Jazz and Starlit trying to pry Prowl off, he grabbed my depressurizing spike and with a hard yank…
"GAH!" I jumped awake, servos flying to my closed panel. Oh thank Primus…it had been a dream. But why had it felt so real…I looked around, realizing I had fallen asleep on Jazz's berth with Blue.
"You good, mech?" I spun to my right to see Jazz just inches from me. He covered my mouth before I screamed in surprise. "Easy, it's me."
"S-sorry! Uh…wait when did you get back? I thought Starlit would be back first."
"Na, she and Bulkhead are still working on that ground bridge thing. I see ya got tasked with him, how'd it go?" Jazz tucked Blue in again, the thermo blanket had been kicked off his little body.
"Totally handled it." He raised an eyebrow at me. "I-it went fine! I swear!"
"Sparklings are easy, eh?" He teased, gently slapping my shoulder. "Anyway sorry I'm back a bit late, humans just have a lot of things to look at! There's this drive through art area in the park that was amazing."
"Pretty sure that's a walk through sculpture park."
"Really? Oh well, there weren't any one out anyway." Jazz flashed a smile. "What got you so scared then?"
"Huh? Oh…nightmare." I felt my face warm up, hoping it wasn't noticeable. He raised an optic ridge, crossing his arms in front of his chassis. "I'm fine!"
Before Jazz could reply, a loud boom from underneath us shook the building. Dust and loose debris fell from above us as a horrible, metallic screech came from below. Jazz had already grabbed Bluestreak, who was wailing from being awoken, when the building shook again.
"Move it!" Jazz shoved me through the doorway as a beam came down, crashing right where we had been.
"What the slag is going on?" I yelled as the commotion seemed to calm down. The only sound was a strange whirring noise that I couldn't pinpoint where it was originating from.
"Don't know, but I got a feeling it's that bridge thing they were messin' with." My spark felt like it had stopped for a moment, the feeling making my knees buckle under me. Jazz used his free arm to catch me around my chassis, pushing my back against a wall to help guide me to the floor.
"…Bee! You good mech?" Jazz was knelt in front of me, Bluestreak's optics nearly white with fear as I came to. "Did you and Starlit merge recently?" Jazz made me focus on him, his free hand firmly holding my chin as he looked me over.
"Y-yeah…like a week ago…" I didn't feel like I was on the same plane as him, as if part of me was really far away but my body was still here. Jazz's face went stern, but it didn't register why until the the elevator shaft opened and smoke came billowing out.
"What in the slag is going on!?" I heard Optimus yell. He apparently was the one to pry open the elevator along with Ironhide. "Ratchet! Report!" All that was on the other end of the com was static.
"No…" I whispered as it dawned on me. "No!" I scrambled to my peds, Jazz trying to grab me but I escaped his grasp.
"Where's Starlit?! Bulkhead!?" Ironhide grabbed me around the waist to keep me from jumping into the burning pit. "Let go! Let me go!" I watched as Prime put out the flames near the entrance before jumping in himself to douse more flames. Only then did Ironhide let me go to find out what had happened.
The heat from the blast had chard the sides of the concrete tunnel that led to the basement. Thankfully nothing had melted and the elevator still worked, although it wasn't very stable. We'd have to use the cabling to climb back up, but that was the least of my worries.
Towards the end of the tunnel was a eerie purple and blue glow that seemed to breath in time with a whirring sound. Optimus and Ironhide took the lead, putting out small fires as we went.
"P-Prime!" Ratchet's weak cry sounded from that way. The three of us took off towards him, ignoring the smaller flames. "Wait! Stop where you are! That thing will pull ya in! Shut it down!" Ratchet was pinned under what looked like a support to a space bridge. "T-the switch is over there!" The medic pointed to a switch near where we were, right at the edge of the tunnel.
Just on the other side though was the portal that was slowly pulling things into it. This space portal wasn't contained anymore and was about to go critical. It took both me and Ironhide to get the switch to pull down, the heat wave nearly soldering it to the wall. The whirring noise slowed down as the portal swirled into itself, powering down for good. Before it shut down completely, I watched it consume a concrete block, the way it took the block made it look like it disintegrated into dust before teleporting away.
"What happened down here?" Optimus was helping Ratchet get free, the medics left leg completely crushed by the support beam. "Where's Bulkhead and Starlit?"
"You ain't gonna like what I'm about te tell yeh." The injured medic was helped over to the wall to sit against as he repaired his good leg.
"When Bulkhead had called earlier it was cause the damn thing kept blowing through coolant like no tomorrow. Starlit fixed the leak, but then…I don't how to really explain it but the bridge turned itself on. That portal you saw…it wasn't us that turned it on."
"What do you mean you didn't turn it on?" Optimus cut the power cord,making sure there weren't anymore surprises.
"Something, or someone, was on the other side! That blast wasn't from us! At first we thought we had done it, but then…Starlit…oh no…" he tried to stand up only for Optimus to stop him.
"Where are they?" I didn't mean for it to sound harsh, but inside I felt as if my insides were on fire.
"When the blast came through, the portal expanded before imploding…Bulkhead and Starlit were near it and…I'm sorry, I tried to get to them. They must have teleported to wherever this portal originated." It went unsaid but there was a high chance they went offline.
"No…they're alive. I know it." Something in my spark told me she wasn't gone, just not here on Earth.
"Kid, even if they are, we got no way to know." Ratchet's face only held dispare. "Without Bulkhead we can't rebuild this thing."
"Now I wouldn't say that. Don't you guys have that humanoid that knows how to fix stuff?" Ironhide gave me an idea.
"Sari! She could tell us what happened!" I gasped, realizing we had an answer and a solution to this disaster.
Sari's View:
"Ugh…shut up phone!" I groaned, pulling my pillow over my head to drown it out. It was like, two am! Who the slag would call me…I looked up at the glowing screen to see it was Bumblebee. Weird, why is he calling so late?
"Hello…"
"STARLIT'SBEENSUCKEDINTOAPORTALWITJBULKHEADWENEEDYOURHELPTOFIXIT!GETOVERHERE!!" Bumblebee was talking to fast for me to understand.
"Woh, slow down! Wha…"
"JUST GET OVER HERE!" He sounded frantic, which wasn't unusual, but the panic in his voice was new.
"Can't this wait till morning?" I yawned, but he yelled no and went on a rant about something I couldn't understand. "Ok, ok! I'll be over, jeez…" I hung up, ear still ringing from his voice.
"What's got him so worked up?" I muttered as I changed out of my pjs and dialed dad. "Dad? You still up? Ugh, well I guess it's a good thing…