I feel like the last one was rushed. I figured though, everyone, or most, have seen Where Is Thy Sting so I didn't go into detail about it.
Starlit's View:
I was currently standing on one foot, with my hands folded in front of me, on top of one of the narrow beams up above the living room. Prowl was punishing me. It was so unfair! He shouldn't be mad at me since I stood up for him! Honestly, it should be Sentinel being punished. I had overheard him bad talking the team to the jet twins. The twins didn't seem to care or were just not listening. I wasn't going to let it get to me, since he did it all the time, but then he started talking about Prowl. He was saying things like, "That ninja reject shouldn't even be allowed to be called a ninja! I haven't seen him do anything close to what Jazz can do. He's pathetic!" and then..."He shouldn't even be allowed to train anyone, especially that glitched out fembot."
I was so angry. I had seen both Jazz and Prowl in action and even Jazz had said he thought Prowl could surpass him. And I was not glitched! I had been hacked...kind of. Again I tried to ignore it but he went on to say that he wasn't fit to be my care taker. I ripped into that egotistical aft and would have said more if Jazz hadn't come between us. It was the only time I had seen the slag head of a Prime stay silent. When Jazz had pulled me away and we got far enough away to be out of audio range, he started laughing.
"That was the funniest thing I have ever seen! Mech, I've neva seen SP so surprised!" He told me and put a hand on my shoulder. "But, I do have to report this to OP. Sadly, talkin' back to a superior like that isn't looked on in a good light, dig?"
I had told him he was talking bad about the team and my brother, but Jazz told me he did that to everyone. When I asked Jazz how he ignored it, he said he tuned out most of what he said. He admitted he downloaded some Earth music and played it in his audios when the Prime was ranting.
And now, here I was, being punished by the person I stood up for. Optimus had even chuckled at everything I had said! Apparently Prowl didn't find it all that funny.
At one point while I was up here, the twins where sitting on the beam behind me, laughing at what I had said to the Prime.
"I never seen a bot with the plating to talking back to Sentinel Prime sir! Have you brother?" Jetfire had said.
"No, have not!" Jetstorm laughed. "Nor have I seen as femme a pretty…" he had whispered to his twin, but I had heard it. I ducked my head down to hide my blush. They were, what Sari had called, hitting on me.
"Is true, but we talk later about it, brother." Jetfire had whispered back.
Both had been going back and forth for a while before Jazz had shooed them away. I was enjoying their company, even if I couldn't talk to them.
"Hey Star! You done trying to be like Prowl?" Bumblebee called from below about twenty cycles later. I sighed.
"I still have two more cycles to go…" I grumbled, hoping Prowl hadn't heard.
"Eh, who's gonna know. It's only two cycles!" He had a point. Prowl wasn't here right now. The only one currently enforcing it was Bulkhead, but he had fallen into a stasis nap a while ago. I shrugged and put my other leg down, relieving some of the tension in my right leg. It felt so good to put it down. Right as I was about to jump down, Bulkhead woke up.
"Snort….Huh!?" He woke with a start. "Bumblebee! You can't interrupt Starlit right now! She's…uh…being punished." He said standing up and walking over to Bee.
"Oh come on! She's been up there for mega cycles!" The yellow mech put his hands on his hips.
"Oh no! She still has…WOooooOOH!" The big guy called out as he tripped over one of the oil cans near the couch. The vibrations caused by his fall caused Bee to fall on his aft and me to lose my balance.
"WOH!" I cried out as I fell from the beam, landing on Bumblebee and banging my head against his.
"Oww…" we both groaned as I sat up. I didn't realize I was straddling Bee's legs until I opened my optics. "You ok?" I asked as I rubbed my forhelm. There was totally going to be a dent where we collided.
"Yeah…Ratchet's gonna have a hay day with us." Bee joked, sitting up from under me, causing me to have to shift. "Uhh…" his face turned a little darker. I was about to ask what was wrong but Prowl choose that moment to come in.
"What is going on?" He asked and looked down at Bumblebee and me. "Why are you down here already?"
"It was my fault! I tripped and knocked her down!" Bulkhead shoot up and started bouncing from one foot to the other, shaking the ground again. I sighed at the bots antics and stood up, giving Bee a hand.
"Thanks." The mini bot smiled as he grabbed my hand. I helped him up but was getting the death glare from Prowl.
"What?" This caused Bee to turn around and jump back in fear from Prowl's stare.
"Nothing. I guess you're free. Don't do it again, Starlit." Prowl turned away and walked back to his room.
"What's with him?" Bulkhead asked us.
"I have no idea." Bee shrugged and turned back to me. "Want to play Ninja Gladiator?!"
I had to stop playing the video game after two straight megacycles of it. In that time, I had only won maybe twice. It was starting to give me a processor ache with all of the flashing lights.
"Aw, come on! One more round!" The yellow bot pouted.
"You said that five rounds ago. I need a break. I'll play later ok?" I waved him off as I stood and went towards my room. I needed to check on my flowers. The orchid Prowl had given me wasn't doing too well and I was trying to figure out how to get it back to health.
Along the way, I suddenly got a strange pain in my abdomen that lasted only a second but was enough to make me lean against the wall. I thought maybe it was because I needed some energon. I'd had some before my outburst with Sentinel, but that was earlier this morning. I'd get some after I checked my flowers.
However while I checked the soil of my plants, it happened again, but this time there was a weird tingling sensation that shot down to my legs. I leaned against the windowsill and decided to go see Ratchet.
I was finding myself on this medical table more often than not. Ratchet was scanning me with the scanner in his finger.
"Well, it looks like your interfacing units are coming online." He said when he got to my abdominal area. I felt my face plates heat up at the doc bots words.
"My…what?" I knew a little bit about what they were but wasn't all that familiar with it.
"Oh boy. I haven't given one of these lessons in stellar cycles…" he trailed off before he explained everything. And I mean everything. Even things I did not want to know! Apparently femmes and some mechs, called carrier mechs, can carry these things called protoforms. The way these are made…I don't think I should repeat, but it involves a mechs spike and a carrier mechs or femme's interface port, which is also called a valve and a spark bond of some sort. I briefly wondered if anyone on the team was a carrier mech but shook that thought away.
"Now, with yours just coming online, your body doesn't know what its feeling. It's being registered as pain, but I can tell you that it is not pain, it's actually pleasure." He was sitting on an old metal stool in front of me at this point. "When they come fully online, you will send out a signal, notifying bots nearby that you are old enough to participate in this kind of activity. You may also have the…urge to find somebot yourself. This is completely normal. Most bots will ignore this signal and urge, however we do have to worry about the 'Cons receiving it."
"Wait…anybot can get this signal?" I was worried about one Decepticon in particular.
"Yes, but it does not reveal your location, luckily." He smiled softly. "No need to worry about that. Now, any further questions?" I shook my head. "Good, now, get out of here!" he didn't sound angry. It was a more of 'get out of here and don't worry too much.'
It wasn't until later that night, after everyone including me had gone to bed, that I felt more of the pain…err…pleasure. It was driving me up the wall! I kept rolling from side to side, hoping one positon would relieve it. It didn't work. In fact, all my moving had just made it even worst! I groaned in frustration, but it came out weird. I didn't recognize what the sound I had made was. Ratchet told me that I'd only suffer this once in my life and never have this overwhelming feeling. However every few stellar cycles I would go though heat cycle, which would be similar but not as intense...I thanked Primus for that. I decided maybe a shower would help and got up.
I stepped into the shower and sighed happily as the water hit my form. It seemed to calm me and my systems down. I choose cold water since my systems were running hot and it was working quite well. I put my forhelm against the tiles and let the water run down my back. I have no idea how long I was in there and didn't realize how relaxed I'd become, so when I heard someone else enter the racks I jumped. Apparently in my hast, I had forgotten to lock the door. Oh well, there was more than one shower in here.
"Someone there?" I heard Bee's wary voice call out. I couldn't blame him, especially after the whole Wasp incident.
"It's just me." I didn't mean to sound sad but it kinda came out that way.
"Oh…" He seemed to be relived. "You ok?" I heard him coming towards me. I panicked a bit.
"Fine! I'm fine…." I turned my head too look towards the opening of the wash racks, where his shadow loomed. He didn't stop his movements though and soon he stood in the door way. For humans it would have been strange to walk in on someone showering; for Cybertronians however it wasn't uncommon. In fact, Prowl and I often showered together after a training session. I've even showered with the yellow mech that was in here currently. We had had a sponge war that ended when Optimus came in and got a sponge to the face.
So that being said, why did I feel weird with Bumblebee in here now? Stupid interface systems!
"Care if I join? I didn't wash earlier 'cause the old bot was in here." I think he was referring to Ratchet. All the bots, except for Sari and me, were older then him.
"Um, sure." I looked away from him to hide my heating face plates.
"You sure you're ok?" he said turning on the shower next to mine. "You're acting a little weird."
"I am not!" I glared at him.
"Ok, ok. Geez, you're starting to sound like Ratchet." I rolled my optics and started washing up. The old medic had said my emotional processor would be working over time during this time as well. That would explain my outburst with Sentinel earlier and my outburst now.
"Sorry…I didn't mean to yell." Now my voice sounded like I was about to cry! Oh come on! This was soooo not my day.
"Hey, it's fine. Sorry I called you an old mech." He teased. I giggled, which was odd for me to do. "Where did you end up? I haven't seen you since this afternoon?"
What was I gonna tell him? 'Oh I learned my interface systems just came online. No biggie, how was your day?' No way!
"I had…to take care of somethings." I even heard the lie in that! Bee was so not going to drop this.
"O…k? What were you really doing?" I noticed he had stopped washing himself and had all of his attention on me.
Right before I decided to fess up, I heard a pinging resonate inside of my head. Oh great…of all times… I thought to myself. That must have been the signal Ratchet was talking about. He said it might sound louder to me, but to everyone else it wouldn't be more than a soft, almost inaudible static sound.
"What was that?!" Bee looked around, like someone was about to attack. Apparently he was still on high alert. Fraggin' Wasp…you've made my life a living pit right now…
"What?" I lied.
"That static-y noise. You didn't hear it?" He looked over to me. I shook my head, biting the inside of my cheek. Prowl had picked up on me doing this when I lied. I wondered if Bumblebee would too. "How did you not hear it!?" Apparently not.
"Shh!" I stepped over and covered his mouth. "You want to wake the whole base?!" I quickly let go of him and looked away again. This time, there was no way he didn't see my face plating heat up.
"What is with you?! Don't you remember Jazz made it sound proof after everyone complained about his singing?" Right, I had forgotten that. He was a great singer, but no one appreciated it at four in the morning. "And…why are you blushing?" he sounded like he was going to say something else before noticing my face. "Wait…that static…it was from you?!" He stepped back away from me. Guess he wasn't as dumb as everyone said.
"I-I...well…yeah…" I felt my face plates heat up more. So much for calming down and cooling my systems.
"Well…that explains a lot." He said, fidgeting and shifting his weight from on foot to the other. "Sooo…that's what was going on?"
"Uh huh…" I was so uncomfortable talking about this with my friend. At least he knew so I didn't have to explain everything.
"Hey, don't be embarrassed by it. We all went through it." Bee shrugged and turned back to the shower head, but not before I noticed he was blushing too.
Maybe my feelings weren't so one sided.
I woke up to an angry Prowl looming over me.
"Gah!" I jumped up. "Don't do that!" I yelled at him. Big mistake on my part, but my emotional center still wasn't functioning right. And wouldn't for a week.
"What were you and Bumblebee doing in the wash racks last night?" He had a 'no nonsense' tone.
"We just washed up. That's all." I shrugged. "Why?"
"Your interface systems came online." I was surprised by his boldness. I didn't realize he was so blunt about things.
"Well…yeah. So?" I knew my face was a darkening. "How did you know?"
"I heard the static. That and Ratchet told me." So much for patient confidentiality. "You are not to be alone with Bumblebee until your systems calm down." I swear I heard Prowl's engine rev a bit when he said the yellow bots name.
"Why? He didn't try…"
"Starlit, please. Don't argue with me. I'm trying to protect you."
"From what?! Bumblebee isn't a bad bot Prowl! Primus if he had tried anything, don't think I would have fought back?! I'm not as weak as you think! I can take care of myself!" By the end, my engine was revving. I shoved past him and stomped out of my room. I wanted nothing to do with my brother right now.
Sari was over and playing games with the yellow mini bot while the twins cheered them on from behind the couch. It was some racing game.
"Go Sari!" Jetfire cheered.
"Go Bumblerbee!" Jetstorm cheered with his brother.
I walked over towards them and stood between the two jets. "Who's winning?" I asked as a banana peel tripped Sari up.
"Oh come on! That's cheating!" the techno-organic whined.
"Nu-uh! Bowser did it to me." Bee smirked. Oh so that's what game it was, Mario Cart.
"Who's playing winner?" I asked.
"We are!" Both twins grinned.
"But, it's two player. Well, only because there is only two working controllers" I looked at Bumblebee, who was ignoring me.
"I'll go first." The orange jet pointed to himself.
"And I'll play the next winner." Jetstorm waved. "We settled it in the rock, paper, scissors game the human femme taught us."
I was about to call the third round when I heard Prowl call for me.
"Frag…tell him you didn't see me!" I whispered to the four of them as I ran towards the door. I transformed when I was at the door and speed out of the base. I wasn't going to go far, but just enough to hide from my brother.
Prowl's view:
I walked out, expecting to see Starlit. I had just heard her voice but she wasn't here. Strange.
"Where did Starlit go?" I crossed my arms, waiting to see who would crack first.
"She was not here." Jetfire shrugged, not looking away from the screen.
"Maybe fem cycle motor went to her room?" Jetstorm said from next to his twin.
"Oh? Am I to assume that you two were talking to yourselves?" my optic ridge raised.
"Yep." They both said. I sighed and turned to the two on the couch.
"Sari?" She was a horrible liar.
"What the twins said." She said way to fast. I walked towards them a bit, which made Bumblebee tense up. He knew I was already angry with him. He didn't know why, however.
"Bumblebee?" I tried to say his name nicely but it came out as a hiss.
"I…uh…haven't seen her since last night." He cringed at his poor choice of words.
"Last night?" The other three questioned. Sari even paused the game.
"You were with young femme?" The blue twin had a wolfish grin, but I sensed a bit of jealousy in his tone. I growled at the comment and the jet shrunk back. "Right, you're her brother…"
"Good one!" His orange twin laughed.
"What were you doing with her?" Sari asked. I was curious if their stories differed.
"Nothing! We showered! End of story!" The yellow bot was blushing like crazy.
"You…showered?" Of course Sari didn't understand, since in human customs if two humans showered together in meant something completely different.
"Yeah. Don't you shower with other humans?"
"No! Eww! Gross!"
"Enough. I still want my question answered." I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"We gave you the answer." Jetfire quipped.
"She no here." His twin finished for him.
I was at the end of my patience with them and was about to snap when Jazz called.
"Prowler, you know your sister is driving about don't cha?" His smooth voice sounded through my com link.
"No, I was not aware she left the base." I glared at the bots in front of me.
"Wait, she left the base?!" Bumblebee jumped up.
"Was that not ok?" The twins asked.
"No! She's in real danger out there! Sideways…" I held my hand up to silence the yellow mech.
"Jazz, cut her off and make sure she's ok. We're on our way!" I said transforming and racing out of the base. Bumblebee, Sari and the Twins were right behind me.
"Already on it! I'll get to her before you. She's closest to our ship." Jazz said before ending the comm.
Starlit's View:
I had gone a bit farther than I thought, but I was pretty close to Elite Guard's ship; maybe a block or so away. I sighed and decided maybe I should go back.
"Hey there sweet spark!" I heard someone say from behind me. I adjusted my mirrors and saw it was Jazz in his alt. form.
"Hey, Jazz!" I transformed not long after he did.
"What're you doin' out here? You shouldn't be out here alone." He said walking towards me.
"I know…but, Prowl was being over barring an'….I couldn't take it anymore! It's…it's suffocating!" I sighed, finally letting it out.
"Hey, hey. It's al'ight. I know he seems a bit over barrin' but he's just trying to protect ya." Jazz said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"I know…but…ugh!" I put my hands on my face as he pulled me into a hug. "He said I can't be near Bumblebee…." I mumbled into his chassis. He laughed.
"Now why on Cybertron would he do that?" He let me go so he could see my optics.
"Um…well…" I trusted Jazz. He was like a second older brother to me. "My…um…systems…came online…" It took him only a nano click to get it.
"Oh. I see. Bee try something?" His tone held a darkness to it, one I had never heard before.
"No! We were just in the wash racks at the same time. He would never do that…" I trailed off.
"I didn't think he would either. Bee's a good mech." Jazz smiled, the darkness gone. "I think Prowl just…doesn't like him too much."
"You can say that again…" I laughed.
"How touching…" a deep voice said from behind me. Jazz looked up as I turned. He was in the shadows but his silhouette…I gasped and stepped back.
"Y-you…"
"Long time no see my sparkling." The mech in the shadows stepped into the evening light; his gold plating reflecting the last traces of the sun. "How have you been?"
"Jazz…" My voice came out barely above whisper.
"I know…Sideways right?" Jazz said the first part so only I could hear it. "What the pit are you doing here?" He took a step to stand in front of me and took his nunchucks out.
"Taking back my spark." I felt someone grab me from behind, pull me back aways as their other arm snaked around my neck. The Sideways in front of us disappeared. It was a holoform and the real one now had me!
"Jazz!" I called out as Sideways put his sword, which was like mine, to my throat. I struggled but he put his weight on me, making my legs useless. I had yet to learn how to escape from someone's hold.
"I'd stay back if I were you." The Decepticon sneered.
"What kinda Sire are you?! No bot I know threatens their sparks!" Jazz revved.
"I'm not like most." His arm tightened around my throat, making it hard to take in intakes. I knew Cybertronians couldn't be strangled like humans, but it still hurt. "Now, put your weapons down or…" he inched the sword closer to my vital energon line. I looked at Jazz, silently begging him to do what this mad bot said. I'd seen what he could do if things didn't go his way.
"'Ight, just calm down." Jazz's voice softened but still had an edge to it as he set his weapons down.
"Back up!" Sideways barked and Jazz took a few steps back. "Good…" I heard a click and looked to the arm holding me and saw a small device pop out of his upper arm. Something shot out, hitting my neck, and I felt a shock go through my system.
"Starlit!" I heard Jazz call out. Before I blacked out, I saw Jazz running towards us but a shot rang out.
Primus…don't let him go offline too!
Prowl's View:
We arrived to a horrible scene. Jazz's weapons were the first things I saw strewn across the pavement; nearby were drops of energon, each one bigger than the last.
"Grrr…" I heard a groan nearby and ran towards it. I saw it was Jazz, knelt down, leaning against a wall and leaking energon out of the upper part his left leg.
"Jazz!" I knelt by him. "Are you alright?!" I helped him push down on the energon line.
"Sideways…" he ground out.
"Where is being the femme?!" Jetstorm landed next to me, Jetfire right behind him. Bumblebee was standing back a bit, his stingers activated and ready.
"He…" Jazz was in pain. It seemed he put up quite a fight but ended up with a near fatal shot. Lucky for him, the major energon line in his leg wasn't severed but had been grazed. "I tried to go after him…he's fast."
"It's alright. We need to get you to Ratchet."
"Or Ratchet here. I already called." Bumblebee said coming up to us. "There's no sign of anyone else. He must have ran off."
"Come on, let me get a better look at you injury." I tried to get the black and white ninja to lift his hand.
"No! We got bigger problems!" Jazz grabbed my arm to stop me. "Sideways has her! He's got Starlit!"
I feel like this story is getting the most attention. Thank you plot bunnies for hitting me but I want to write more for the others too! Oh well. Enjoy! I love hearing your comments!
