Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Okay. Where in the pits are we?" Bumblebee grumbles to himself, narrowing his optics at the dark cave system in front of him. Him, Ironhide, Hound, and First Aid were sent on a energon gathering mission. Bee could've done it by himself, but Prowl had insisted he had the other three come along for 'security' reasons. Decepticon activity had been high for the previous week.

And everyone else already had their own missions. So unfortunately he's stuck with who he's with.

Speaking of, Ironhide closely examines the cave wall, as if trying to see if he can see through the solid rock. First Aid, holding an Energy Signature Locator in his servo, has long since stopped trying to inform Ironhide of the fact there's been no readings for a radius of fifteen miles.

To Bee's left, Hound is silent, trailing the group like a shadow. Or at least he thinks Hound is still with them. He could never tell, since the mech almost always has his cloaking activated.

He blows air through his vents before eventually walking over to First Aid, who was examining his equipment with a tired expression. "Anything?" 

"No. I'm not even sure which way we came. Maybe if we went through the tunnel on the left it would've led us somewhere.." First Aid frowns and he looks to his right, staring down the dark cavern. He taps his digits on the scanner for a moment before letting out an exasperated vent. "I suggest we keep going till we get a signal." 

Bee nods. He wishes he could just go back to base- but they needed the energon.

He whistles for Hound and Ironhide before continuing onwards through the cave system with First Aid at his side.

-----

Well, they aren't going backwards. That's good. Maybe. It's been at least a vorn since they last stopped.

Bee has been debating on sending a message to Optimus to send a rescue team to pick them up from this horrible cave, but then First Aid stops in his tracks. The signal locator starts to ping, the sound echoing through the cave.

"Energon?" Bumblebee quickly walks up to the white and red mech. He shakes his helm. "No- something else."

"Is it worth investigating?" Bee glances at the screen.

First Aid shrugs before looking up at him, blue optics glowing in the dark. "Might be."

"Let's go then." The yellow scout turns to the other two. "Hound, Ironhide. There's something up ahead that's getting picked up on the signal locator. Be ready for anything." 

Ironhide grins like he's ready for confrontation, raising his servo to his head in a gesture Bee identifies as a human salute. The latter turns around and rolls his eyes with a groan. He blames Unicron for human war television.

He can hear Hound letting out a gruff chuckle behind him. At least he's still here.

They keep walking. Bumblebee keeps his guard up, straining his audials for any odd sounds. Outside of Hide's humming, that is.

Eventually they get to large open area, visibly altered to be bigger than it was before. Judging by the tiny ladders and scaffolding scattered around and the small doors to the left, likely an abandoned human excavation site.

Excavating for what? He can't tell you.

According to another scanner of First Aid's, the power to the place is likely supplied via water and solar, which explains how the lights were all working.

Ahead of them are large bay doors- just large enough for them to walk through. Likely meant for mining equipment.

So they keep going. Bee opens the doors to find a long hallway with metal walls and ceilings, florescent lights lighting the way forward. The ceilings just tall enough for him and the others to stand semi comfortably.

The place is.. unnerving. Quiet. And it's surprisingly clean.

It was definitely recently abandoned, that was obvious. And absolutely signs of human life.

Bumblebee feels his armor plating clattering in a shiver. And looking at Ironhide and First Aid, he can tell they're also creeped out.

He lets First Aid guide them through the abandoned complex, going towards the odd energy signature. They pass a split in the hallway.

And suddenly Bee hears something hit the ground behind them, a loud CLANG echoing through the halls.

Immediately he turns around, lower arms already transforming into his laser blades reflexively. Behind him he can hear the others readying their weapons. Bee's optics dart around to survey the area in front of him. Then he looks down. 

There's a human. Tall and skinny, wearing a red t-shirt and a black bag on his back. A weird hat sits on his head, and there's a piece of machinery at his feet. That must've fell from his arms. Huh.

Bee stares down at the human.

..wait. A HUMAN?!!?

Before Bumblebee can think of a plan, the human suddenly shouts and points at him. "HOLY FUCK!" His hands fly to the sides of his head before he steps back and turns around, fleeing into the hallway to the left.

Bee remains still, reeling from the brief interaction. He glances towards the others, confused. First Aid peeks around the corner at the retreating figure.  "Uh.. Should we follow that human?"

Bee has an objection on the tip of his glossa, but then Ironhide suddenly sprints out into the hall, running after the human. 

"IRONHIDE GET BACK HERE!"

He groans. Primus, that dusty red idiot is going to be the death of him.

 He gestures for First Aid and Hound (now visible in all his green glory) to follow him. He runs after Ironhide, following his retreating form through the long and maze-like hallways of the facility.

Eventually they find themselves in a large room full of trucks and other vehicles. Finding Ironhide looking through the aisles of vehicles for the human, concern painted on his face. "Human?"

"Ironhide what the scrap are you thinking? If Optimus finds out you made a human have a heart attack or something he's going to freak out!" Bumblebee hisses through his derma, cautiously glancing at his surroundings.

Hound walks over to Ironhide and flicks him in the helm with his digits, frowning with that angry look that's akin to a disappointed father, according to Spike. "If I don't slap you silly first, that is."

Bee notices movement from the corner of his optics. He looks straight at the human from earlier, who was attempting to sneak out of the room.

"Uh. Hi. Please don't freak out." First Aid speaks up from Bee's left, offering a tentative smile.

"Guyyys, there's some freaky robots out here! Humongous ones too!" The human glances to his left and his right. Bee catalogues his accent originating from 'Boston' using his database.

After nothing seems to happen, Bee keeps looking down at the human. Who was he calling for?

There doesn't seem to be any other humans. His optics scan the room, looking at the catwalks that surround the edges and lead into smaller, human sized hallways near the ceiling-

Click.

"Doan't move." Bee hears a voice to his left. His optics dart to the direction he heard the voice.

He can just barely see a human on a catwalk close to his head and just about optic level- pointing a rifle at him. Now, usually human weapons don't scare him. But that human is close enough to do damage.

"Let's not get hasty." Bee says slowly, trying his best to seem calm and friendly. "We're not here to harm either of you."

The human with the gun huffs. "Who said there were only two of us?"

Bee stills. He looks over at Hound and Ironhide for assistance- and notices another human on the catwalk. This one was much larger, and carrying what looked to be a heavy machine gun. 

Well.
They're fragged.

Bee could try and disarm them, but that could end with the humans being injured. Optimus will be furious.

..but what he doesn't know doesn't hurt him, right? He'd be super careful.

Before he can do anything however, First Aid steps forward before kneeling in a show of submission. "We mean you no harm. Truly."

"We are.. Simply travellers. Looking for resources. Same as you, I assume. We found an odd energy signature originating from one of the rooms in this facility. That led us to your tall friend here." He speaks softly, calmly, and with a lot more patience than Bumblebee had at this moment. He notices he was leaving out the part about them being aliens. Smart.

First Aid looks down at the young man standing in front of him. "We did not mean to scare you. Our friend is- a bit unaware of his size." He gestures towards Ironhide with an apologetic frown.

"We are looking for.. resources, yes." The larger human announces gruffly, shifting his position. "We are looking for machine. You know where it could be?" His accent was a bit hard to translate. Missing certain syllables and words.

First Aid slowly nods, likely also struggling to translate the words. "Perhaps. If it outputs a large amount of energy, that could be what my scanner was picking up earlier." 

"Let's make a deal. We help you find the machine you need, and none of us have to resort to violence. We can all be unharmed and on our ways." Bumblebee speaks up calmly, trying his best to be diplomatic. He'd like to think he picked up a few things from Optimus.

"I don't trust em-" The rifle wielding human speaks up, only to be cut off by the larger human. "Deal. We work together."

"Anything you want to say, Sniper?" He looks towards the other man, his words laced with a challenge. Bee hears a quiet groan of anger from the thin man, but the heavier man seemed to have the final say. Maybe he was the leader?

Or maybe this 'Sniper' doesn't want to argue with the man wielding a huge (by human standards) machine gun. He couldn't blame him.

They must all have codenames. Military? They don't look like traditional soldiers. But humans have proven themselves to be unpredictable.

Sniper holsters his rifle, slinging it over his shoulder in one move. "Fine. But I'm keeping an eye on 'em."

Bee looks over at the man, finally getting a good look at him. What is with these humans and weird hats?

He thinks back on what he just said. Bee doesn't like the way he said that.

But alas, he'll have to play nice for now.

"Thank you for letting us explain." Bee nods to the three humans. Him and Sniper lock ey- opt- eyes-?? and he feels a shiver go up his back struts. On the outside he remains the epitome of calm, however. Never did he think a human could be so intimidating...

The younger human turns to look at Ironhide and points an accusing finger up at him. "You scared the shit out of me, dude. Not cool." 

Ironhide shifts uncomfortably on his pedes. "Sorry."

"Running at me like the fucking Terminator times a gajillion. Yeesh." The young man visibly shivers before walking over to the bottom of a tall ladder leading up to the catwalk Sniper is standing on.

"Yo. Get down from your perch, Snipes. Probably gonna have to walk to where the machine is, and I don't think there's a shortcut up there." He gestures for the man to come down before looking back at the bots. "So you guys are like some freaky sentient robot things huh? You man made?" 

They all look at eachother with a bit of panic, each muttering something along the lines of: "well-", "uhm.", "uhh", etc.  Eventually the young man just scoffs and groans a, "Jesus, nevermind." before walking towards the exit of the room, disinterested.

He stops in his tracks for a moment, looking back at the four bots. "You four have names?" 

Bee nods and points at himself. "Bumblebee," he nods to the others respectively, "Ironhide, First Aid, and Hound."

The younger man raises an eyebrow but then shrugs. He points a thumb at his chest. "Name's Scout. That Australian guy on the ladder is Sniper, big guy over there is Heavy, and the others are probably somewhere else. Got separated a little while ago cause this building is fucking huge."

Bumblebee nods absentmindedly, just barely paying attention to his words. Definitely code names, no sane human would name their sparkling 'Heavy'.. and there's more than just these three humans? That's just great. Three's already a crowd. He's already getting an ache in his processor.

How does Optimus manage with stuff like this?

Bee pushes air through his vents a bit more forcefully than he originally intended. He turns to First Aid and gestures for him to lead the way. Thankfully he gets the message and looks back down at his signal locator. "It's not far from here, only a few minutes." He mutters before heading out of the vehicle bay. Bumblebee follows close behind, and he's vaguely aware of the three humans trailing behind them, Ironhide and Hound a good distance behind the humans.

One of them is trying harder than the other to not trample them underpede.

The humans have a hushed conversation amongst themselves, one that Bee tries to ignore to the best of his ability. While yes, he can hear them quite easily, he doesn't want to know what they say. He'll leave the snooping to Hound.

------

At last they find themselves facing the door to the room that apparently holds the machine the humans are looking for.

And, they find their other friends.

Bee turns the corner to find himself faced with a human holding a rocket launcher, on a platform similar to the ones in the vehicle bay. Exactly at eye level.

The human reacts before Bee can, letting out a war cry/terrified shout and firing the RPG. Which was unfortunately aimed at his face. Ducking back around the corner the rocket whizzes past, striking the opposite wall with a loud bang that shakes the walls and echoes through the facility. 

"Why do you all carry heavy weaponry!?" Bee whisper shouts at the three humans near his pedes. He hugs the wall, energon racing through his lines with a frenzy. Scout peeks his upper out from around the corner of the wall, waving his hands.

"Oi, watch where you're aiming that thing!" He yells at the RPG wielding maniac on the catwalk. "Scout! What in the Sam Hill was that giant thing I just saw?!" Said maniac responds in a loud and rather stern tone, reminding Bee slightly of Hound. Slightly. He tries not to take offense to being called a 'yellow thing', watching as Scout and the other two walk into the hall without any worries.

"New acquaintances. They're.. robots of some kind, four of them. No need to be alarmed." Sniper speaks up with a slight sneer. He looks up at Bumblebee with a raised brow and gestures for him to show himself. Bee looks at the other bots with a sheepish glance before unsticking himself from the wall and walking into the hall. The other three follow after him, standing besides him.

Immediately Bee scans the room. At the back is a large door, a platform leading to a smaller door in the wall to the left of the large door, and a control panel meant for humans near the ground. After a quick sweep, he realizes there are more humans than the one on the platform. That one wears a weird metal hat, a red coat, and a leather belt with holstered grenades, his RPG slung over his back. 

And then there's a man with greying hair in a white lab coat by the control panel, and next to him a man wearing a hard hat and overalls trying to rewire the panel. And a darker man with an odd hat, strapped with several individual explosives, sits slumped against the large doors, appearing to be ..asleep?

The one wearing overalls turns his head to look at the bots. For a moment Bumblebee is extremely disturbed by the sight of his face- before realizing the human was wearing goggles. 

"Hot damn. Where'd you find those mechanical marvels?" Task momentarily abandoned, the man gawks at each mech respectively before looking at Sniper. 

"Well, they actually found me first. Scared the shit out of me." Scout explains with an awkward chuckle before glancing around. "Where's Spy?" The goggle wearing man shrugs. "No clue. He'll turn up eventually, I'm sure."

"So, what are you all waiting for?" Sniper grumbles, approaching the man.

"This door is supposed to lead to the room where the machine is. Unfortunately, the mechanism to open it is broken. And that door up there is locked with a three layer security system." He sighs, wiping a gloved hand over his forehead. 

Bumblebee watches them converse for a moment before turning to the mech to his left, giving his shoulder strut a pat. "Red Alert- see if you can do anything about the door. Maybe there's a way to force it open." 

Bee turns to Ironhide and Hound only to hear a bewildered shout come from the man in the overalls. "They can talk?!" 

"Fascinating." The man in the lab coat sets a hand on his chin, stroking it thoughtfully. "Vhere did you originate from? Iraq? China?" He asks with a slight tilt of his head. Bee did not like that look in his eyes.

He's also acutely aware everyone is staring at him. Including his own team.

Slag.

If he says the wrong thing he could jeopardize everything. A whirring sound fills the air around him as his vents start to become overstressed. 

Of course, Ironhide unfortunately speaks before him. "Space."

Bumblebee turns his entire body to look at him.

I am going to fragging kill you, you dull piece of-

"Interesting. That explains alot." The man in the overalls adjusts his goggles. To Bee's surprise, the other humans nod in some form of agreement.

"Name's Engineer." The man tips his hard hat towards the bots. "Medic." The man in the labcoat straightens his coat. Bee glances to the man on the catwalk, who nearly blew his helm off three minutes ago.

"Name's Soldier, and don't you dare forget it, maggot." The man declares loudly, voice grating slightly against Bee's audial receptors. "Okay then." He mutters under his breath, watching Red Alert walk over to the door, another specialized scanner in hand.

Ironhide for some reason decides to walk over to Soldier. They both eye eachother for a moment before the red mech speaks. "So, you like rocket launchers, huh? What's your meter record?"

"300 meters while under fire. If I could I would've saved that round and put it on my wall." Soldier grunts with a mad grin, hefting up his RPG into one hand. "Impressive for a human." Ironhide comments with a small nod. "You seem like a skilled man."

"Damn right I am. How about you, what's your deal? You a heavy hitter?" The man speaks with curiosity in his tone, shifting his position to get a better look at Ironhide. "You could say that. Out of everyone on my team I've got the largest arsenal of weapons anyone's seen. I'd trade my fingers for little blasters but unfortunately our medics don't approve." Hide crosses his arms across his chassis with a proud huff. 

Soldier's mouth quirks up. "Now you've got me interested, toaster. What's your name?" Ironhide grins, going closer to the catwalk and looking down at the human. "Ironhide. Autobot Weapons Specialist at your service." 

Bumblebee sighs through his derma and shakes his helm before approaching Red Alert, who has joined Medic and Engineer in their efforts to open the door. Scout and Heavy appear to be talking by the unconscious man, completely ignoring his disheveled state. Hound is leaning against a wall, checking his HUD. Sniper seems to have disappeared, but Bee isn't that concerned.

"Anything?" Blue optics land on blue eyes as Medic's gaze meet his. Bee quickly looks over at Engineer, who's still looking at both the bots with amazement, then to Red Alert. "We'll have to brute force it somehow. Problem is, the door is made with a material I've never encountered before- I'm not sure if it's even from Earth." The red and white mech runs a servo over his faceplate, frustrated in a not so subtle way.

"The door runs on a separate circuit than the rest o' the building, so turning off the power ain't an option either." Engineer gives an annoyed grumble, seeming to glare up at the door. Bumblebee hums for a moment, trying to think.

"I've got nothing. If Jackie was with us, he could probably figure something out." He mutters before sitting down on the metal flooring, metal grinding softly against metal. 

"We could try explosives." Hound suggests with a tilt of his helm, not looking away from his HUD. 

"Already tried tha'." Engineer crosses his arms over his chest. "Soldier's rockets didn't make a dent, Demo threw almost every one of his bombs at it, and my sentries didn't do a thing." Bee supposes that 'Demo' is the one passed out.

"Could try our explosives." Ironhide muses with an feigned thoughtfulness. "We don't have any." Turning his head to meet his optics, Bee reminds him with a blank stare. They had used up all of their bombs in a battle against a group of a cons yesterday. "Oh. Right... Dunno then." Hide shrugs before turning back to Soldier to continue their conversation.

Bee sits there for a moment. "Could use energon to try and weaken the metal- though I'm not exactly up to cutting a hole in my lines." He mutters, bringing a digit to his chin. First Aid tentatively clears his vents, bringing Bee's attention to him. "I've got an emergency cube. Could use a few drops." 

"Let's do it then. Only option we have." With a grunt and a grind of his joints he stands, walks over to the door, mindful of the three humans, and holds a servo out for the cube. Red Alert opens up a panel in his left arm and grabs a small cube of energon and hands it over. Faintly he can hear Engineer whispering- likely to Medic.

Bee peels off a corner of the lid before carefully splashing a few drops of energon on the door. It steams and sizzles for a moment before dying down- but nothing else happens. First Aid gives it an experimental poke before shaking his helm. The yellow scout sighs.

Then he hears the distinct whine of a blaster charging up. 

Within a second he scoops up the three humans near his pedes and shoves Red Alert to the right. Next second an energon blast flies past his head and hits the energon on the door, igniting it. It explodes with a violent BOOOM, shaking the room with the intensity. 

Bumblebee and Red Alert hit the ground, plating scratching against the floor with a grating screech. Bee quickly looks down at the humans in his servos- unharmed, but surprised. Demo somehow hasn't woken up, even during the commotion. His optics then dart to the shooter.

And of course, it was Ironhide.

He looks at the door. It was certainly charred by the blast, and a good portion of it is damaged- but not enough.

Biting back a growl he glares at Ironhide. "What were you thinking you IDIOT?! You could've injured the humans- OR ME AND RED ALERT?!"

"WHAT GAVE YOU THE IDEA SHOOTING PURE ENERGON THAT CLOSE TO OUR MEDIC WAS A GOOD IDEA?!" Bee deposits the humans on ground, Scout falling to his knees, before standing up and marching towards Ironhide. Damnit he's so mad he could just shoot the spawn of a glitch-

Ironhide raises his servos and backs up. "To be fair I didn't realize you were so close to the door, Bee. You know my depth processing unit is damaged-"

"If it wasn't for Prowl I wouldn't be stuck with you right now. Maybe I should get him to put you on the sidelines for next millenia." Bumblebee narrows his eyes and pokes a digit in his chassis, earning a wince from Ironhide. 

"He did end up damaging the door." Soldier speaks up calmly, and Bee notices he's looking at the two of them. "Some of his brain was in the right place." 

Bee looks back at Ironhide, who gives him an apologetic grin. "I'm not done with you." He hisses through clenched denta before turning away. 

"See, you get me." Ironhide turns to Soldier with a grin before looking at the others. "He gets me." Bee looks back the mech with a glare.

Now that Ironhide is no longer being threatened, Soldier looks at the locked door, leaning forward with a hand to his chin. Then he jolts upright with a grin.

He backs up, adjusts his helmet, and lines himself up with the door. He tilts his upper body forward at 45 degrees...

And charges towards the door, head down. Slams his helmet covered head into the door like an angry Thunderbuck on circuit boosters. He stumbles backwards and somehow stays standing.

And surprisingly there's a dent in the door. And no damage to his helmet. Soldier laughs in triumph before backing up to ram into it again.

Ironhide beams at Bumblebee, fully unaware of the situation going on right behind him. 

Bee frowns, looking back at soldier, then to Ironhide. "Yeah." 

They're certainly similar.

Unfortunately.

Soldier rams into the door again, the sound echoing through the room. Was he seeing things or was the dent getting bigger?..

Bumblebee shakes his helm and looks over at Hound. "Maybe we need to call for backup. Someone has to be free, right?" Earning him a half-hearted shrug. "Likely not. You know how long it takes to finish an op." 

"Well, I'm not sure what we can do then-" BANG!

Everyone looks towards Soldier, standing triumphantly by the doorway.

The door is- ..gone, knocked off it's hinges.

"Holy shit! You did it man!" Scout shouts with a grin, throwing his hands up.

"Soldier, what can you see?" Engineer rushes over to the stairs leading up to the platform.

"A lever." Soldier states, leaning almost his entire body out of the doorway. "I'm gonna pull it." 

"Holdup a min, we don't know what it'll do-" Engineer protests as he quickens his pace up the stairs. Judging by the click Bee picks up on his audial processor, Soldier has already pulled the lever. Suddenly the large bay doors start to make sound, slowly opening with a groan. Stuttering before stopping, only halfway open. The gap is large enough for them all to get through, thankfully.

"Good work, Soldier." Heavy calls out to him, walking through the gap between the door, carrying Demo over his shoulder. 

"This has got to be the oddest team of humans I've ever met." Hound mutters from beside Bumblebee as he walks up to him. Bee nods in agreement. "Let's go."

The bots wait for the humans to enter the room before following behind them- Hound just barely getting through the gap. Why he doesn't have a removable shoulder cannon is beyond Bee. 

In front of them is a series of stacked platforms, and on top of them, illuminated by a spotlight, is a diamond shaped machine hovering above a magnetic platform. Every other second it sparks with red light. First Aid's scanner beeps incessantly. "Woah. These readings are insane. It's almost like-"

"An Artifact of The Thirteen." Hound muses quietly. They watch as the humans cautiously approach the artifact. 

"So how exactly do we get this thing back to base?" Scout asks, looking the artifact up and down. It was about nine feet tall, and four feet wide. Cables with embedded lights trail over the object like vines, pulsing with power. Engineer gets on one knee to look at the base, examining the magnetic platform. 

"We carry it to the truck, of course. If my bearings are right, those doors should lead us to where we parked it." He gestures towards a pair of garage doors on the side of the room. 

"You're telling me we could've just broke through those doors instead of walking through this entire place?" Scout scoffs with his arms crossed. "Yes." 

The younger man groans and lets his arms hang by his sides. 

"Der automat, could you assist in lifting vis?" Medic glances up at Bumblebee from where he's standing by the artifact, and the latter stills. "Uh- yeah. Why not." He stutters awkwardly, mentally slapping himself in the faceplate. Something hot runs through his lines.

Carefully he approaches the platform, not certain if the artifact will interact with his EM field. So far, there seems to be no reaction to his proximity. Good.

What's not good, is the fact that the stair like parts of the platform are too short for his pedes, built for human feet. So he has to resort to awkwardly kneeling against it, eye level with the humans.

This is weird.

Incredibly weird.

As he goes to carefully grasp the object, he notices Medic almost.. admiring his frame? Which admittedly makes Bee feel a bit self conscious. He wobbles slightly, and they make eye contact.

And immediately Bee is compelled to look away, focusing back on the object. Why does his spark feel so- heavy? What is wrong with him??

He lifts the artifact out of the magnetic field keeping it afloat and pulls it from it's grasp, holding it in his servos gently. He takes a data-click and stores it in his files to look at later. 

"What a sight." Sniper comments from behind him and he jumps, nearly dropping the artifact. How in the pits did he sneak up behind him?-

"It is quite incredible. I've seen few things like it." Bumblebee shakes his head and makes a comment slowly, holding it out for Engineer and Heavy to carry. Medic reaches for it as well, and they make eye contact once more. The three humans carefully maneuver it, and Medic holds his optics in his gaze for much longer than necessary. Bee's fans kick in, his frame feeling hotter than it should.

As soon as they have a good hold on the object he leans away and slides off the platform and on to his pedes. Watching as they make their way down and head towards the garage doors, the rest of them following close behind. Soldier carrying Demo's still unconscious body.

"I suppose this is where we part ways." Sniper comments, glancing back at the bots who were standing awkwardly by the platform. "Goodbye, lads."

As they start opening the garage doors Bumblebee looks at the other three. "Well that was.." 

"Weird-" "Interesting." "Cool." "..."

"Let's never speak of this again." Bumblebee mutters, turning to head out of the room through the large bay doors. "So that means I won't be demoted?" Ironhide grins and Bumblebee fixes him with a glare. "Not yet."

The former deflates slightly and trails behind him with a dejected look.

Suddenly the room shakes. An explosion from outside rocks the building, nearly powerful enough to make them lose their footing. Bee turns to look at the garage doors, and hears a distinct, high pitched cackle.

"Slag. It's Starscream!" In an instant he's running, the others not far behind. Ducking through the garage doors he looks at the chaos in front of him. Fire everywhere, smoke curling into the air. Trying to snatch the artifact from the humans, Starscream and his trine shoot at them relentlessly. Soldier reaches for his RPG- only to realize he's out of rockets. Heavy, Engineer, and Medic hide behind an overturned Humvee, artifact in their hands.

Sniper pops up from behind a boulder, holding a jar of yellow liquid. "Take that ya bloody wankers!" He tosses it towards the seekers, and it smashes on Starscream, covering him in the liquid.

"AGH!- HOW DARE YOU, YOU INSIGNIFICANT FU-"

Bumblebee glances over at First Aid, only to see him making a look that screamed absolute horror and disgust. Intake open in a silent scream. 

Bee turns his optics back to the battle, only slightly confused. 

As brave as the humans are- they're out of weaponry, and out of luck. Skywarp stalks towards the Humvee, wings twitching. Optics full of mad glee- and Bee feels sudden worry for Medi- the humans. Skywarp can be a sick mech if he's in a mood. One that he seems to be in right now.

"Hound, you provide evac! Ironhide and First Aid, help them hold off Starscream and Thundercracker!" He barks off orders, already transforming into his altmode.

"And I'll take on Skywarp."

With a loud rev of his engines, he charges into the fray, wheels squealing on the ground. Using a boulder as a ramp, he launches off of it, going straight for the purple and black seeker. His body twists and turns as he transforms mid-air, delivering a hard punch to Skywarp's helm.

The seeker gets thrown on his aft, caught by surprise. He shakes off the shock and suddenly disappears with a poof, reappearing behind Bee. The scout reacts quickly, moving to the side and grabbing him by the wings. With some difficulty he tosses the seeker to the ground. Revving his engines at the downed mech harshly.

Bee turns to look at Heavy, Medic, and Engineer. Heavy looks impressed, and the latter two.. look maniacal, almost like Wheeljack when he's on the cusp of discovering a new way to make something explode.

Safe to say, he's used to associating that look with DANGER!!!, with the three exclamation marks. But as he locks eyes with Medic, he doesn't feel that. Not at all. He tilts his head to the side while he processes his confusion.

And fails to notice the seeker running up behind him. Skywarp knocks him to the ground, pinning him to the dirt. Dust gets between his plates. He groans as pain flares up, several warnings showing up on his HUD about the various damages made to his frame.

"Caught you slacking, didn't I little bug?" Skywarp sneers, red optics wide with excitement.

In the corner of Bee's optics he sees Medic looking out from the top of the Humvee, eyes wide. He also sees Hound pulling up next to them. Quickly the three humans hop in, putting the artifact in the back.

"This was only a distraction." Bee hisses through his denta before kicking Skywarp in his lower thrusters. One of them activates from the force, and Bee gets a brief glimpse of Skywarp's panicked face before he zooms away with a yell.

Bumblebee sits up and assesses the damage. Doorwings are crooked, he's scratched all to the pits, most of his plating is dented, back struts have minor damage, servos are.. sore, but functional. Processor; slightly damaged.

Unless it was already like that before.

Bee looks over to the rest of the battle. Sniper chucks yet another jar of yellow liquid at Starscream while he gets jumped by First Aid- the latter screaming in horror as the liquid gets on his frame as well. 

Why he was scared of this liquid, Bee did not know. Probably for a good reason.

Ironhide and Thundercracker seem to be having something akin to a friendly spar, both sides throwing half-hearted throws at eachother.

Soldier sits behind a boulder with Scout and a now conscious Demo who seems extremely disoriented and very angry about it. 

After First Aid nearly rips off one of Starscream's lower wings while the latter was distracted, Starscream throws the small medic off of him before yelling to the other seekers. "MY TRINE, RETREAT!" Quickly using his thrusters to get up into the air and transforming into a jet. Bee notices Thundercracker giving Ironhide a subtle fist bump before following after his leader. And Skywarp?..

He's.. somewhere.

Bumblebee transforms and drives over to Soldier, Demo, and Scout, opening his doors to let them in. Scout whistles appreciatively at his altmode while he climbs into the front passenger seat. "Damn Bee, I didn't know you bots could transform- or turn into fancy cars. Never seen nothing like this." 

"It's tacky." Soldier grumbles as he slides into the backseat. 

"Wuaht in 'he hell is goan oan?-" Demo mumbles sluggishly while standing awkwardly next to Bee before getting dragged inside by Soldier, the doors sliding back into place right after.

Using his HUD he locates Hound and sends a message to the other two to follow him. After a few minutes they arrive in a small area of the forest that's covered enough that they could stand without being spotted from above.

"Who in the bloody hell were those three, then?" Sniper's voice is the first thing he hears after he lets out the three humans from his alt mode, Ironhide doing the same. "Decepticons- our sworn enemies." Ironhide grunts, sitting down on the grass.

"Hm, like the BLUs." Soldier comments with a thoughtful look. "So, can all of your kind.. transform?" Engineer asks while giving the artifact a once over. First Aid nods in reply, looking down at his frame with tight derma. "Most of us 'bots turn into ground vehicles." Ironhide comments casually, looking down at the humans.

"Fascinating. Why, if I vas able to, I'd take you back to base to study.." Medic muses for a moment. After a few seconds, as if realizing he said that aloud, he mutters with a blink. "Ov course, only with your consent." He then grins up at Bee who goes ramrod straight.

"Ehe.. anyvays." Medic chuckles lightly before looking at his team. "I suppose ve vill have to contact Ms Pauling for pickup, now that our vehicle is smashed." 

"I'd assist with transport." Bee speaks up before immediately going silent as the humans look up at him. Why did I say that.

"If I could. We've got our own mission to fulfil." He clarifies quickly with an apologetic smile. 

Medic narrows his eyes for a moment before nodding. "Ov course."

"Now we split ways, then." Hound grunts, pulling Ironhide off of the ground. "It was certainly an.. experience meeting you humans."

He then stares down at the group of humans with a hard look. "And if you ever mention anything about us to anyone- we'll make sure you'll never speak again."

Scout visibly gulps at that. 

"No problem. We will keep mouth shut." Heavy says with the full confidence of a man who knows what he's talking about. 

"That's settled then. Good luck." Hound gives them a nod before transforming, bouncing slightly as his suspension adjusts to the sinking of the grass. Ironhide does the same.

Bee looks back at Medic. At the labcoat, his glasses, that odd grin. The glint in his eyes and the grey in his hair. And Bee gives him a nod and a small smile of his own.

Medic then gives him an intimidatingly toothy grin, sunlight catching on his fangs.

Are humans supposed to have fangs?

The yellow scout then quickly waves goodbye to the other humans before folding over into his altmode and driving off with Hound, Ironhide, and First Aid in tow.

In his rearview he can see Demo giving them a confused wave goodbye.

And Medic watching him leave, hands behind his back.

His A/C clicks as it kicks in.

                     Four Cycles Later

Bumblebee paces the length of his habsuite once, then again, then a third time before gritting his denta and finally sending a ping over a secure line.

Don't pick up, don't pick up-

"Eyy Bee! How's it going little guy?" Mirage greets him with his usual starter of mockery of his height.

"Sorry to bother you so late into the cycle- I was just wondering.."

Scrap, what am I doing.

"Uh. You like humans, right?" What a great way to start a conversation.

"..Yeaahh? Doesn't everyone?" Mirage asks slowly, clearly confused. 

"No I mean-" Bumblebee digs his pedes into the floor for a moment before sitting down on his berth, letting out a frustrated groan.

His optics dart to his surroundings as if looking for a microphone before he lowers his tone down to a whisper.

"Romantically?"

"Oh."

The line goes quiet and Bumblebee starts mentally digging his grave.

"Oh, yea. Uh. Didn't think you knew about that." Mirage chuckles nervously. "What about it?"

Bee's definitely going to regret this later.

"..how does that feel like, exactly? Like- the attraction? How'd you know?" Bee asks tentatively, tapping a digit on the frame of his berth.

"Oooh, you have a crush, huh?" Mirage drags out his words in a teasing manner.

"NO!-"

"..maybe."

"I-I'm ending the call now, bye." Bumblebee grumbles, frame heating up significantly.

"WAITWAITWAIT- Sorry, alright? That was mean of me." Mirage scrambles to keep him on the line.

Bumblebee humors him.

"You know how you were into Hotrod for awhile? It's like that. But for our little friends. Not much different of a feeling." He explains awkwardly, and Bee can imagine him waving his servos around.

Bee stills. "Oh."

"Ohh.. I'm."

"I'm so fragged." He puts his helm in his servos, accepting his defeat. He liked a human.

No bot would ever let this down if they found out.

"Unicron be damned.."

He thinks back on the human who had looked at him with such fascination.

Chapter Text

I hate this. but. I must admit it is hilariously absurd. So I hope someone will like this horrible thing

(p.s bee/medic was not planned. it just happened because i decided to embrace the crack.)

(someone in my brain was definitely snorting a line of crack, ill tell you that much.)