New Life - Part Two - Shopping
Okay, I know some of you have found me else where and realize there's more chapters up there. Right now I'm trying to post a chapter or so per day so that way people won't be overwhelmed by ten chapters in one sitting or what not here. And so to part two ^^
Shopping
Bumblebee shivered, slowly opening his eyes and squinting at the bright light that shown down on him. After a moment, he stood up and stretched, walking around in a circle before leaving his room, looking around the base for his comrades. A few minutes later he spotted Jazz and Ratchet in the medic’s work area, practically crawling over the mangled form of Jazz’s vehicle.
The rest of the Autobots were worried how Jazz would react to the dead vehicle, but the first lieutenant only said two things. The first was, “Well damn…” The second was, “So, what do you need my help with?”
After that, Jazz and Ratchet worked on it nearly everyday, sometimes with the help of others and making great progress and sometimes just staring at the form all day, trying to figure out what would the next step be. Today was one of the “staring at the form all day.”
“Can I pull you guys away for a while?”
Jazz looked up, his iridescent eyes lighting up. “Go ahead kid! It’ll be a while before get the part we need next.”
Behind him, Ratchet nodded, setting down his tool while the large bipedal form of his vehicle gently lowered Jazz’s vehicle to the floor before taking a few steps back and powering down, an odd blue glow leaving Ratchet’s gold eyes. The medic pulled out the hair tie and shook his head so that the red and white locks fell freely.
Bumblebee scowled slightly at the “kid” comment. Ironhide had started to use it as a nickname for Bumblebee since he looked the youngest of all of their biodriod forms and it hasn’t made the Autobot very happy. At least Ratchet and Optimus didn’t take up the name for him.
“I going to meet Sam and Mikaela and they want the rest of us along if we can. Do you know where I can find ‘Hide and Optimus?”
“Front hanger.”
Bumblebee turned and jogged down the long corridor towards the base entrance where the vehicles were parked for the most of the day. The large blue and red semi caught Bumblebee’s eyes followed by Ironhide’s Topkick and his own Camaro, the engine ticking slightly as it cooled from its recent drive.
“Optimus? ‘Hide?”
“Here!” Optimus’s red and blue hair appeared over the edge of the black truck’s hood and Bumblebee walked over, looking at the wires that ran from the circuitry on Ironhide’s right arm to a laptop computer. “What do you need, Bee?”
“I’m going to go meet Sam and Mikaela. They want everyone to come with me and get out into the public since I seem to be the only one leaving the base.”
“How are we supposed to get to them?”
“With me and Ironhide?”
“Why just you two?” Ratchet asked, coming up behind Bumblebee.
“Because a semi and a rescue Hummer will be too noticeable in a mall parking lot.”
Ironhide looked up quickly, a vague, worried expression on his face. “Mall?”
oOo
Bumblebee laughed as Mikaela practically tackled him, easily catching her and setting her back down before she could smother him. Behind him, the other four Autobots watched with wariness.
“You have a mission, Kael. And here it is.” Bumblebee gestured behind him and watched Mikaela grin, quickly walking over to the group and grabbing the wrist of Optimus and Ironhide, surprising the taller men.
“Why us?” Ironhide asked, horrified.
“Because it looks like Jazz and Ratchet has a sense of fashion!”
Everyone looked back at the two mentioned and had to agree. Ratchet came back to the base with his own wardrobe, albeit a bit limited, and Jazz had managed to find different colored shirts though Bumblebee suspected that they were his at one point in time. Optimus and Ironhide had stuck to plain jeans and plain white long sleeve t-shirt.
The teen woman dragged the two men into a store and began to search through clothes, pulling out different colors and comparing it to the men who stood there with no expression.
“C’mon Bee! You’re the only one I know of with a taste in clothes! What are their sizes anyway?”
Bumblebee rattled off the numbers and Mikaela looked up surprise. Bumblebee grinned and tapped the side of his head before starting to pull out clothing along with Mikaela. It didn’t take too long for the piles to nearly swamp the two men and they ushered them to the back where the changing rooms were.
It took a few minutes for them to come out and show them the clothing at the demands of the teens. Every once in a while one of them would go up and adjust a collar here, a shirt there, but what caught Bumblebee’s eyes was when Optimus walked out in black slacks and a button up shirt the same shade of blue as his eye, a bit brighter than the blue of his hair.
After a moment, Bumblebee walked up to him, untucking the shirt from the slacks and unbuttoning the first two buttons at the top, fixing the collar. “Perfect,” he said softly.
“Thank you,” Optimus said, his voice equally soft. Bumblebee looked up into his leader’s crystal blue eyes and felt heat suffuse his face again.
The blond mumbled something as Optimus turned back to the dressing room and Bumblebee looked up in time to see Mikaela giving him a grin. He wasn’t sure what to make of it so focused again on his two comrades.
The shopping trip wasn’t as bad as Bumblebee’s first time. Mikaela decided that the older Autobots didn’t need many different variety of clothes, just enough to work in, go out in public in, and a few dress outfits. As they made their way up to the front cashier, they eyed the few bags resting at Ratchet and Jazz’s feet.
The cashier rang through the many items and everyone’s eyes widened at the total on the display.
“I don’t think I can make that much over summer break!” Sam muttered.
Ratchet quickly walked up to the cashier and handed over a thin, silver-ish card
“Is that a platinum card?” Mikaela asked, disbelief lacing her voice.
“It’s amazing what saving the world could do to help convince the government,” Ratchet said with a grin. “They’re practically paying us for protection.”
Ironhide looked offended. “What have you been using that for?”
“The food you’ve been eating.”
“…I thought that was from Mrs. Witwicky.”
“Some of it is,” Bumblebee answered. “The rest of it is something from Ratchet or I.”
“You can cook?”
“Yea. It’s not that hard to download recipes.”
“Who made last night’s casserole?”
“I did,” Bumblebee answered with a confused tone.
“You have a weird since of taste kid!”
“You have no taste buds, ‘Hide!”
Jazz had to pull the two fighting men apart, a pair of sunglasses perched on the tip of his nose. “No fighting here, wait until we get back to the base.”
Bumblebee and Ironhide continued to glare at each other until Optimus grabbed the blond by his shoulder and gently pulled him to the store’s exit as Ratchet reached for the collar of Ironhide’s shirt to drag the taller man away.
oOo
Ironhide still hadn’t lost his dark look during lunch but Bumblebee was happily devouring his Chinese food while deftly using chopsticks like a natural. Everyone else acted normally, except they seemed to develop a habit of flinching when steel gray eyes looked to them.
“What did Bee make last night, anyway?” Sam asked Ratchet, leaning close so that Ironhide wouldn’t hear him.
“An odd pineapple chicken casserole from Hawaii, I think. It was pretty good, but I think the only thing sweet that Ironhide likes is your mom’s cookies.”
Sam smiled. “I’ll be sure to tell her that.”
He stopped when the Autobots stiffened suddenly, a distant look in their eyes. Abruptly, Ironhide fell forward slightly, barely caught by Jazz, and a growled, “You’re not going alone!” came from Bumblebee before the same thing happened to him.
“What just happened?” Mikaela asked, looking at the other three.
Optimus grimaced slightly, adjusting his hold on Bumblebee. “There was a broadcast about a strange, out of state police car. No damage done yet but these two went to check it out.”
“They haven’t figured out how to move both their vehicle forms and their bodies at the same time, though.” Ratchet sighed as Ironhide’s human form over balanced and slumped against him. “Let’s get everything cleaned up and outside. We can wait for them in the front.”
oOo
Sam and Mikaela had left before Bumblebee and Ironhide came back, saying that their houses wasn’t far from the area and the three remaining Autobots watched them walk off, holding each other’s hand.
“I’ll be glad once more of us are here,” Jazz murmured, catching Optimus’s attention. “I love the kids, but there’s just no one around that can understand us.
“More will come soon,” Ratchet said, giving his friend a smile. “It just might be a while. It’s only been a few months since we arrived here.”
They fell into a silence but looked up when the familiar sounds of Ironhide’s and Bumblebee’s engine came close, followed closely by another. It was a police car, but it wasn’t Barricade. The decorations were mainly white and red and Jazz’s eyes widened at the sight.
“Prowl?” The dark skinned man walked up to the police car and lightly touched the metal of the hood and his eyes lit up with delight. He began to speak rapidly in their native language and became more animated with each sentence.
Ratchet shook his head, looking slightly amused. “I’m not going to be able to pry Jazz away… Help me with the shopping bags and ‘Hide, please?”
Optimus nodded and steady Bumblebee before helping the medic transfer part of the day’s shopping to the truck, but stopped when faintly glowing eyes opened and Ironhide’s human form stood up unsteadily. The man staggered to the driver’s door, opened it, got in, and promptly went unconscious again.
“At least he could have fully transferred over to get back in…” Bumblebee muttered in a rough voice. The blond stood and stretched as he tended to do when he transferred back from his vehicle form and helped put the rest of the bags into the back seat of the Camaro. He looked over at the still talking Prowl and Jazz and frowned. “Optimus, sir? Who was in Prowl’s squad?”
“Wheeljack, Arcee… and Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, I think.”
Bumblebee winced as they got into the yellow car. “Should we warn Ratchet?”
“From his expression, I think he already knows.”
The blond sighed as he’s eyes began to glow a faint blue. “Well, at least he can prepare for it.” The voice was issued mainly from the speakers of the car but was echoed eerily by the figure in the driver seat. Bumblebee’s hands reached up and held the steering wheel lightly and he gave Optimus a grin. “Prowl said that they others landed in different parts of the country.
“Let get back to the base and have more rooms ready.”
“Yes sir.”
Shopping
Bumblebee shivered, slowly opening his eyes and squinting at the bright light that shown down on him. After a moment, he stood up and stretched, walking around in a circle before leaving his room, looking around the base for his comrades. A few minutes later he spotted Jazz and Ratchet in the medic’s work area, practically crawling over the mangled form of Jazz’s vehicle.
The rest of the Autobots were worried how Jazz would react to the dead vehicle, but the first lieutenant only said two things. The first was, “Well damn…” The second was, “So, what do you need my help with?”
After that, Jazz and Ratchet worked on it nearly everyday, sometimes with the help of others and making great progress and sometimes just staring at the form all day, trying to figure out what would the next step be. Today was one of the “staring at the form all day.”
“Can I pull you guys away for a while?”
Jazz looked up, his iridescent eyes lighting up. “Go ahead kid! It’ll be a while before get the part we need next.”
Behind him, Ratchet nodded, setting down his tool while the large bipedal form of his vehicle gently lowered Jazz’s vehicle to the floor before taking a few steps back and powering down, an odd blue glow leaving Ratchet’s gold eyes. The medic pulled out the hair tie and shook his head so that the red and white locks fell freely.
Bumblebee scowled slightly at the “kid” comment. Ironhide had started to use it as a nickname for Bumblebee since he looked the youngest of all of their biodriod forms and it hasn’t made the Autobot very happy. At least Ratchet and Optimus didn’t take up the name for him.
“I going to meet Sam and Mikaela and they want the rest of us along if we can. Do you know where I can find ‘Hide and Optimus?”
“Front hanger.”
Bumblebee turned and jogged down the long corridor towards the base entrance where the vehicles were parked for the most of the day. The large blue and red semi caught Bumblebee’s eyes followed by Ironhide’s Topkick and his own Camaro, the engine ticking slightly as it cooled from its recent drive.
“Optimus? ‘Hide?”
“Here!” Optimus’s red and blue hair appeared over the edge of the black truck’s hood and Bumblebee walked over, looking at the wires that ran from the circuitry on Ironhide’s right arm to a laptop computer. “What do you need, Bee?”
“I’m going to go meet Sam and Mikaela. They want everyone to come with me and get out into the public since I seem to be the only one leaving the base.”
“How are we supposed to get to them?”
“With me and Ironhide?”
“Why just you two?” Ratchet asked, coming up behind Bumblebee.
“Because a semi and a rescue Hummer will be too noticeable in a mall parking lot.”
Ironhide looked up quickly, a vague, worried expression on his face. “Mall?”
oOo
Bumblebee laughed as Mikaela practically tackled him, easily catching her and setting her back down before she could smother him. Behind him, the other four Autobots watched with wariness.
“You have a mission, Kael. And here it is.” Bumblebee gestured behind him and watched Mikaela grin, quickly walking over to the group and grabbing the wrist of Optimus and Ironhide, surprising the taller men.
“Why us?” Ironhide asked, horrified.
“Because it looks like Jazz and Ratchet has a sense of fashion!”
Everyone looked back at the two mentioned and had to agree. Ratchet came back to the base with his own wardrobe, albeit a bit limited, and Jazz had managed to find different colored shirts though Bumblebee suspected that they were his at one point in time. Optimus and Ironhide had stuck to plain jeans and plain white long sleeve t-shirt.
The teen woman dragged the two men into a store and began to search through clothes, pulling out different colors and comparing it to the men who stood there with no expression.
“C’mon Bee! You’re the only one I know of with a taste in clothes! What are their sizes anyway?”
Bumblebee rattled off the numbers and Mikaela looked up surprise. Bumblebee grinned and tapped the side of his head before starting to pull out clothing along with Mikaela. It didn’t take too long for the piles to nearly swamp the two men and they ushered them to the back where the changing rooms were.
It took a few minutes for them to come out and show them the clothing at the demands of the teens. Every once in a while one of them would go up and adjust a collar here, a shirt there, but what caught Bumblebee’s eyes was when Optimus walked out in black slacks and a button up shirt the same shade of blue as his eye, a bit brighter than the blue of his hair.
After a moment, Bumblebee walked up to him, untucking the shirt from the slacks and unbuttoning the first two buttons at the top, fixing the collar. “Perfect,” he said softly.
“Thank you,” Optimus said, his voice equally soft. Bumblebee looked up into his leader’s crystal blue eyes and felt heat suffuse his face again.
The blond mumbled something as Optimus turned back to the dressing room and Bumblebee looked up in time to see Mikaela giving him a grin. He wasn’t sure what to make of it so focused again on his two comrades.
The shopping trip wasn’t as bad as Bumblebee’s first time. Mikaela decided that the older Autobots didn’t need many different variety of clothes, just enough to work in, go out in public in, and a few dress outfits. As they made their way up to the front cashier, they eyed the few bags resting at Ratchet and Jazz’s feet.
The cashier rang through the many items and everyone’s eyes widened at the total on the display.
“I don’t think I can make that much over summer break!” Sam muttered.
Ratchet quickly walked up to the cashier and handed over a thin, silver-ish card
“Is that a platinum card?” Mikaela asked, disbelief lacing her voice.
“It’s amazing what saving the world could do to help convince the government,” Ratchet said with a grin. “They’re practically paying us for protection.”
Ironhide looked offended. “What have you been using that for?”
“The food you’ve been eating.”
“…I thought that was from Mrs. Witwicky.”
“Some of it is,” Bumblebee answered. “The rest of it is something from Ratchet or I.”
“You can cook?”
“Yea. It’s not that hard to download recipes.”
“Who made last night’s casserole?”
“I did,” Bumblebee answered with a confused tone.
“You have a weird since of taste kid!”
“You have no taste buds, ‘Hide!”
Jazz had to pull the two fighting men apart, a pair of sunglasses perched on the tip of his nose. “No fighting here, wait until we get back to the base.”
Bumblebee and Ironhide continued to glare at each other until Optimus grabbed the blond by his shoulder and gently pulled him to the store’s exit as Ratchet reached for the collar of Ironhide’s shirt to drag the taller man away.
oOo
Ironhide still hadn’t lost his dark look during lunch but Bumblebee was happily devouring his Chinese food while deftly using chopsticks like a natural. Everyone else acted normally, except they seemed to develop a habit of flinching when steel gray eyes looked to them.
“What did Bee make last night, anyway?” Sam asked Ratchet, leaning close so that Ironhide wouldn’t hear him.
“An odd pineapple chicken casserole from Hawaii, I think. It was pretty good, but I think the only thing sweet that Ironhide likes is your mom’s cookies.”
Sam smiled. “I’ll be sure to tell her that.”
He stopped when the Autobots stiffened suddenly, a distant look in their eyes. Abruptly, Ironhide fell forward slightly, barely caught by Jazz, and a growled, “You’re not going alone!” came from Bumblebee before the same thing happened to him.
“What just happened?” Mikaela asked, looking at the other three.
Optimus grimaced slightly, adjusting his hold on Bumblebee. “There was a broadcast about a strange, out of state police car. No damage done yet but these two went to check it out.”
“They haven’t figured out how to move both their vehicle forms and their bodies at the same time, though.” Ratchet sighed as Ironhide’s human form over balanced and slumped against him. “Let’s get everything cleaned up and outside. We can wait for them in the front.”
oOo
Sam and Mikaela had left before Bumblebee and Ironhide came back, saying that their houses wasn’t far from the area and the three remaining Autobots watched them walk off, holding each other’s hand.
“I’ll be glad once more of us are here,” Jazz murmured, catching Optimus’s attention. “I love the kids, but there’s just no one around that can understand us.
“More will come soon,” Ratchet said, giving his friend a smile. “It just might be a while. It’s only been a few months since we arrived here.”
They fell into a silence but looked up when the familiar sounds of Ironhide’s and Bumblebee’s engine came close, followed closely by another. It was a police car, but it wasn’t Barricade. The decorations were mainly white and red and Jazz’s eyes widened at the sight.
“Prowl?” The dark skinned man walked up to the police car and lightly touched the metal of the hood and his eyes lit up with delight. He began to speak rapidly in their native language and became more animated with each sentence.
Ratchet shook his head, looking slightly amused. “I’m not going to be able to pry Jazz away… Help me with the shopping bags and ‘Hide, please?”
Optimus nodded and steady Bumblebee before helping the medic transfer part of the day’s shopping to the truck, but stopped when faintly glowing eyes opened and Ironhide’s human form stood up unsteadily. The man staggered to the driver’s door, opened it, got in, and promptly went unconscious again.
“At least he could have fully transferred over to get back in…” Bumblebee muttered in a rough voice. The blond stood and stretched as he tended to do when he transferred back from his vehicle form and helped put the rest of the bags into the back seat of the Camaro. He looked over at the still talking Prowl and Jazz and frowned. “Optimus, sir? Who was in Prowl’s squad?”
“Wheeljack, Arcee… and Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, I think.”
Bumblebee winced as they got into the yellow car. “Should we warn Ratchet?”
“From his expression, I think he already knows.”
The blond sighed as he’s eyes began to glow a faint blue. “Well, at least he can prepare for it.” The voice was issued mainly from the speakers of the car but was echoed eerily by the figure in the driver seat. Bumblebee’s hands reached up and held the steering wheel lightly and he gave Optimus a grin. “Prowl said that they others landed in different parts of the country.
“Let get back to the base and have more rooms ready.”
“Yes sir.”