Chapter Text
Footsteps tap on the metal ground of a cavern. Broken vials and glass litter the floor, but he is not here for that. The lights flicker dimly when he flips the switch adhered to the wall, the room stinking of chemicals and melted plastic. He walks around the long end of a battered exam table, and finds what he was searching for.
A grin stretches his face, and he steps closer to a forgotten pool of acidic nature. A latex jumpsuit lays abandoned in the center, the liquid having no effect on the fibers of the latex and metal outfit.
He took care to pluck the attire out of the pool, shaking acid off the shiny material. Once he was sure there weren’t any leftover substances on it, he set it to the side for safekeeping.
The businessman carefully reaches into the duffel bag he’s brought with him, pulling out metal scraps, an extension cord, various cables, and a glowing periwinkle cube containing an alien liquid. He sets the metal into the puddle first, the acid hungrily swallowing up the material with hisses and pops.The man took a step back to plug the extension cord into an available outlet, and let the end of it drop into the pool. The live electrical current met the melted man in a splatter, droplets eating holes into his business suit.
His lips twisted into a snarl, but he relaxed almost immediately, “This will be worth it, but you owe me, Meltdown. You owe me.”
The acid didn’t seem to care, greedily sucking up the electricity and metal. The man brought the cube forward, and slowly tipped the liquid to pour.
The pool popped, undercurrents glowing sickly green and illuminating the figure’s salt and pepper hair. He chuckled, excited for what was to come.
“Come on Bee, get a move on!”
Optimus was rushing them out of the base, the blaring of the alarms stopped abruptly as he turned them off. Bumblebee sighed, another day, another Decepticreep spotted downtown.
Bee jumped into his alternate mode, the squeal of his tires sounding out against the asphalt. Dry leaves fluttered into the air around him as he sped down the highway.
Lugnut and Blitzwing were stealing supplies again, no doubt for some nefarious plot Megatron had concocted. The only civilians at risk were construction workers at the site, but they at least had the sense to call the Autobots and sit tight.
This happened pretty often actually, it wasn't much of a surprise that at least 3 large decepticons would need a lot of materials. The autobots themselves did use a fair amount of electricity and oil just for fuel, and they were still working on setting up solar panels. Their base was always a work in progress, a constant fixer-upper after being out of use for so long. It was as homely as could be though, having acquired various couches and homemade furniture after staying on Earth for several years.
Bumblebee really enjoyed Earth, despite how many aspects of the organic planet weren’t exactly his style. He may not enjoy nature so much, or how chaotic everything is on this planet, weather cycle included, but there are plenty of other things he liked! Human entertainment is really awesome, their video games can be surprisingly challenging, and he has gotten a good taste for the underground racing scene. He would have to go racing again sometime, if he ever got away from Optimus.
There was still so much Earth had to offer, flourishing with all the life that had been robbed from Cybertron, stolen away by war. Earth felt like more of a home to him than Cybertron ever had, here where he had people who cared about him, plenty of roadways to race on, and a goal that felt at least a little achievable. He wanted to fight for it, fight for these people, what could become his family. The first step would be to complete this mission, he thought.
Bumblebee arrived at the construction site just seconds before the rest of his team, and surveyed the area. Blitzwing was acting sporadic, cackling and chasing around the construction workers. Lugnut was trying and failing to get his attention.
“Blitzwing, call off this nonsensical chase! We have an important mission for our great and glorious leader!”
“Nein! Zis is much fun!!! Zey scramble like itty bitty turbomites! Look at zem go!”
The triple changer stopped abruptly, his demeanor changing on a dime. Whatever he said next was cut off by the sound of a transformation to Bumblebee’s right. He turned to look, Optimus appearing next to him in a flurry of motion.
The order given to him was brief, “Bumblebee, distract Blitzwing and keep him away from the humans. I’ll take care of Lugnut.”
Bumblebee gave Optimus a thumbs up before rushing forward with a cheeky smile as he called out to his opponent, “Hey Blitzbrain, pick on someone your own size why don’t ya!”
He quipped his stingers and prepped them to fire, but before he could, a heavy accent rang out into the air, “And jou are my size?” Whirr.
Blitzwing cackled, his wicked strawberry grin stretched with mirth. “How funny!”
Bumblebee shook it off and grinned again. He was the one here to distract Blitzwing, not the other way around. “Come show me then, tough guy!” Whirr.
Blitzwing took the bait, jumping at him with a running leap, his visor gleaming with malice. He hadn’t even bothered to use his cannons. Bumblebee slid under the mech before he could touch the ground, turning on his heel and firing into the mech’s broad shoulders. Blitzwing roared in frustration, and tried to spin and catch the smaller bot.
Bumblebee leapt to the side, his stingers spitting electricity at the large mech again. He grinned at the frustrated scowl that appeared on Blitzwing’s face, and turned to run behind a column holding up the constructed frame. He heard stomping behind him, and dashed from columns to half built walls, adrenaline flooding his systems.
He ran out of walls to hide behind as Blitzwing kept smashing them out of his way, Hothead's faceplate firmly fixed in place. His best bet was to keep him angry, he was much easier to distract that way. Bumblebee ran out into an open area, having come up with some semblance of a new plan.
Okay, here we go again , thought Bumblebee. This would be easy peasy, he just had to activate the wheels on his peds. His wheels started up with a short skrrrt and he started going in circles around Blitzwing’s hulking form. It was going pretty well all things considered, he was able to poke him and get Hothead even more aggravated when he ducked under swinging arms and large servos that tried to snatch him up. That is, until he rammed into an arm suddenly blocking his way. Bumblebee glanced up rather sheepishly at Icy’s cold stare.
His vocalizer almost an octave higher, “I don’t suppose we could work this out some other way?”
“Nice try, bug.”
Bumblebee was flying now, strong servos having picked him up and thrown him in the direction of a nearby building. Wind whipped past him, and really, he was surprised that had worked at all. His read on Blitzwing was a work in progress, the mech just too unpredictable for him to understand.
He didn’t have too much time to think after that, his back slamming into a brick building with a heavy clank. A dust cloud puffed into the air, the brick having cracked at the impacts, and Bee’s systems gave a sickening lurch. His audials rang and vision swam, the bot slumping into the crumbled wall.
Colors swirled in his vision, and he gazed at the clouds. Puffy white clouds, speeding past him, going as fast as he wanted to go. Somebody was snapping their digits in front of his optics now, and Bumblebee tugged his gaze up to Ratchet, the medic crouching in front of him. He was trying to say something, but Bumblebee couldn’t focus too much on whatever it was, his head terribly hard to keep upright all of a sudden. Ratchet was pulling his weight onto his shoulder before his consciousness had the chance to lull, and Bumblebee’s peripheral swung around to the remaining fight. A gold blur got flung from Lugnut right as the towering mech made a grab for something, gathering long objects into his arms.
Blitzwing was already in the air with his own set of cargo, a meager amount compared to what they’d originally planned to nab.
Bulkhead’s wrecking ball arced and just barely missed Lugnut as the decepticon rose into the sky, the two successfully making their getaway. They usually get away , Bumblebee thought, the Autobots more set on minimizing the property damage as well as the casualties. The team didn’t exactly have an area in their base to keep prisoners anyway, not anything big enough for two big decepticons. Bumblebee wasn’t even sure they had a functioning pair of stasis cuffs.
Bumblebee shook the static out of his audials just in time to catch Optimus making his way over to the minibot. Bee stood upright, lifting his weight off of Ratchet, who muttered a frustrated hey!
“I did pretty good, didn’t I Bossbot?” He grinned again.
Ratchet butted in, “You did a good job of pissing him off! Be careful, kid, or he’ll do worse than knock you into a building!”
Bumblebee rolled his optics, but Optimus chided him, “Ratchet’s right, Bumblebee. Don’t mess with Blitzwing too much. We don’t know what he might do, he’s already unstable normally.”
Despite how much of a contradiction those two words were, Bumblebee and careful, unstable and normally, Bumblebee agreed with him, “Alright Bossbot, I’ll try to be careful, but no promises.”
Ratchet grumbled, “The day you’re careful is the day Optimus actually relaxes.”
Both bots spluttered in reply, “Hey!”
Before they had a chance to defend themselves, Prowl and Bulkhead ambled over. Smiling, Bulkhead chuckled at the exchange, and Bumblebee pouted at the lack of support from his friend. He lightly punched the green mech in the arm.
Prowl piped up, “No casualties or injuries, we managed to get everyone out in time. Just shaken from Blitzwing’s chasing.”
The Prime smiled and congratulated his team on a job well done, and some groans from a certain yellow mech sounded as he told them they would be coming back tomorrow to repair the damage left behind on site. They were back on the road in just a few minutes, pulling up to the small out-of-use factory that served as their base of operations.
A lanky redhead greeted them, the girl already pulling out her key and trying to spot any lingering damage. Bumblebee’s plating groaned as he shifted back to his root mode, Sari already at his feet when he was standing fully. The girl impatiently tapped her foot as she waited for him to offer his servo, and once she’d stepped on, he lifted her up to optic level.
The teen glared at him halfheartedly. She held up the small metal key, which began to glow, and was shortly slotting itself into a small opening in his helm. She asked, “What’d you do this time?”
He chuckled, “Oh you should’ve seen it, I was messing with Blitzwing, ducking behind some buildings and stuff in a fun game of hide and seek. After I ran outta places to hide I started running circles around him.”
He continued, “It was going pretty well until he figured out he could just stick his arm out, and then he flung me into a building when he caught me. Nothing too bad.”
His entire frame glowed, and he felt the licks of flame race through his back as the damage was repaired. Upon checking his HUD, he found his energy levels had sunk, as they usually did when using the key. Sari scoffed at him, “Nothing too bad? He could've squashed you if he wanted, you know that Bee.”
He replied, “He didn’t though! He was riled up enough that he wasn’t thinking things through, like usual. It was nothing to worry about!”
Sari glared at him for only a minute longer before patting his arm. He obliged and let her down, and she scuffed her shoe on the concrete before speaking up again. She seemed pretty conflicted, and he let her have a minute to think while he inspected as much of his frame as he could. His plating felt brand new, paint shimmery like it had a new layer of wax. Perfect , he thought.
Her voice piped up from below him, “Yeah, I guess it would be pretty cool to see you making a fool outta that big lug anyway.”
Bee laughed again, “That’s the spirit!”
They started walking into the building, but before they crossed the doorway, she stopped and put a hand on his leg, looking up at him. “Just.. be careful, okay?”
He stopped to take in the slight frown on her face, her eyebrows drawn into a serious expression. He still felt bad about her dad’s disappearance; they hadn’t been able to uncover anything, the case long since going cold. Bumblebee knew she didn’t want to lose anyone else.
He smiled, “Yeah, I will be, don’t worry Sari.”
She kept eye contact with him for what felt like a long time before looking away, her shoulders easing slightly. “Okay you dork, let’s go play a round. Bet I can beat you this time.”
“I will make you eat those words!”