Chapter Text
[EXPLOSION]
[STATIC]
"—what was that—?"
[STATIC]
"Where is he going—?!"
"DON-0N'T—[STATIC]—FÛCK-KI-1Ng T0UCH M3-ME-E—[STATIC]—1-I'LL rIP YOuR D4MN H3ÆD ØfF—[STATIC]—LE@V3 ME-E ÆL0nĘ—[STATIC]—!!"
"Where's Bee?" Raf asked, running up to Smokescreen, Bulkhead and Arcee as they came in through the groundbridge.
"Ask Smokescreen," Arcee said calmly, but concern slipped into her voice. "He and Bee partnered up for that mission."
Loud footsteps echoed across the hangar and Optimus came over. "Smokescreen, report. What happened and where is Bee?"
"I—I dunno," Smokescreen shrugged casually, but failed to hide his worry. "One second he was there, all normal, then something must've went wrong with the Cons' groundbridging and spacebridging stuff because there was a real bright flash then Bee was gone, or turned into this blur of black and yellow? Never got a good look, and when I went to grab the blurs—or Bee's, I guess? Maybe?—arm, a really staticy voice screamed 'stay away' and 'I'll rip your head off' and then the blur was gone. The voice sounded really pained and was full of static and kinda sounded like they were choking on some liquid or something in their throat."
"I think I know what may have happened," Ratchet said, typing on the main computer console. "I think the machinery that projects the bridge portals on the Cons' ship malfunctioned, and Bumblebee was the only one within the blast radius."
"Well then what'd the blast do?" Miko asked.
"I believe it de-aged him to when he was a bit younger, specifically a teen," Ratchet said without looking away from the screen of his computer console.
"So, Bee is like a kid now?" Jack asked. "Don't we need to find him then?"
"Yeah! Let's go get him!" Smokescreen agreed, already moving towards the groundbridge.
"No, that won't work. Just walking around 'til you find him?" Ratchet snapped. "Besides, Bee was our best scout. If my calculations are correct, he'd be right around when he was a Calvalry Scout. And he looked different, so you might not even recognize him."
"Well what's he look like?" Miko asked. Despite the current issue, she seemed excited to see Bee's old—or current?—look.
Ratchet just sighed in exasperasion and pulled up a series of old files. He started to click through them.
[SPEC OPS] → [JAZZ'S DIRECT COMMAND] → [SCOUTS] → [BUMBLEBEE]
Bee's old file showed up, enlarging on the screen when Ratchet clicked into the tab.
Miko squinted at the letters as the file started to automatically translate into English.
Suddenly the screen flashed to red and read:
[ERROR. FILE LOCKED. ONLY JAZZ [HEAD OF SPEC OPS] AND [DESIGNATION:] BUMBLEBEE CAN VIEW THIS FILE. BASIC INFORMATION ON [DESIGNATION:] BUMBLEBEE MAY BE VIEWED HERE.]
Ratchet huffed in frustration. "Ugh, we need Bee here if we want to even see his file," he complained.
"What about the link?" Jack asked.
"Yeah! Try it!" Miko agreed, hopping up and down. Despite the situation the Japanese girl was excited as ever.
Ratchet sighed and clicked the link. A new tab popped up on the screen, changing it from red to white. Miko looked up at the black letters as they quickly shifted from Cybertronian to English as the computer console's embedded translator got to work.
[BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT SCOUT DESIGNATION: BUMBLEBEE]
[OCCUPATION: SCOUT. COMMANDER: JAZZ. AGE: JUVENILE.]
Rachet scrolled down to a heading named STATS.
[STATS.
LETHALITY: HIGH.
KILL COUNT: UNKNOWN.
MISSION COUNT: UNKNOWN.
DURABILITY: HIGH.
NOTES:
>DO NOT ENGAGE IN COMBAT.
>USE CAUTION. WATCH OUT FOR CANINE TEETH, DAGGERS, & SHARPENED VERTEBRAE.
>ADD MORE HERE_ ]
"Hmm," Ratchet hummed under his breath.
"What is it?" Raf asked.
"Ooh," Miko said. She was still staring at the screen, specifically the words kill count and lethality.
Ratchet began typing again and the file of Bee's basic information and stats vanished, replaced by another different tab.
This tab was an article, which's heading read "JAZZ'S SCOUTS" and had several tabs below.
Ratchet selected the ALLIEGENCES tab and a large chart popped up. The top read " DESIGNATION | ROLE | COMM LINK ". There were eleven rows. Ratchet tapped on the chart to zoom in and scrolled down and Miko quickly fished her phone out of her pocket and snapped a bunch of photos of the screen as Ratchet quickly moved down to the row with Bee's information.
" Bumblebee | Scout | B127-0704 " it read.
"So, we're gonna call his COMM link?" Arcee asked.
"We're going to try," Ratchet said. The medic turned to Optimus. "You do the talking. Bee never met any of us until after Tyger Pax, but chances are he would at least listen to you."
"Alright, old friend," Optimus agreed. Everyone went quiet and Optimus clicked on the COMM link address and selected 'call'.
There was a long moment of silence, before the COMM line opened.
"Bumblebee, this is Optimus Prime," Optimus said.
"I r3port—[STATIC]—to J@zz and JáZz—alønê," A voice replied. It was staticy and slightly choked, like some liquid was seeping from a throat wound. "Yoü—[STATIC]—c@n g0 fuçk—youRseLf, Dec3ptïcûnt."
Miko's mouth dropped open. Oh yeah. This Bee would be fun, if this COMM call worked anyway.
"I am not a Decepticon," Optimus said. "I am Optimus Prime. Bumblebee, you are currently on an organic planet known as Earth. Are you wounded?"
"Nø-o," Bee snarled over the COMM. "I-1'm fïnê—" Bee's voice choked, breaking off into static.
"Bumblebee, please ping us your coordinates," Optimus said calmly. "What is the status of your injuries?"
"Ùm—m, I gøt ïntô æ cœup13 ôF fiGhts ëárliēR," Bee hissed. "Bùt mä1nly mY tHrô@t's àl1—[STATIC]—füCk3d ūp. RësT øf mê ís fĪn3."
A small beep sounded from the computer console, and notification popped up, reading " B127-0704 sent: 41.4017° N, 124.0417° W. "
"Keep him talking," Ratchet whispered, voice too low for Bee to hear over the COMM link. He quietly booted up the groundbridge, entering the coordinates Bee had sent. "Ask what he remembers."
"What memories are clear for you?" Optimus asked. "What's the last thing you remember before being on Earth?"
"Úh—[STATIC]—h, I Rem3mBēr—b3inG ïnTerig@têd by—[STATIC]—M3g@trøN @t Tyg3r P@X—tHen eVeryThïnG ís fùzZy—[STATIC]—mY tHrøãT hüRts." Bee's voice sounded forced by the last word, and now there were more breaks of static and barely audible choking noises.
"Okay, we are sending help now," Optimus said. "Are you able to move?"
"Ye—[STATIC]—e—ès, jüsT my-y thRøáT—[STATIC]—" Bee choked out. "—[STATIC]—"
"Bumblebee?" Optimus asked.
"ThRØ@t—b133dïnG—[STATIC]—h@rd tø bRëáth3 @nd tålK—1'm øk@y—[STATIC]—hûh-?—[STATIC]—ØH FŪCK—!!"
Bee's COMM cut out.
"Go. Go through the bridge and find him!" Ratchet snapped after a minute. "Right now. Before the blood-energon from his throat wound suffocates him!"
Smokescreen immediately transformed and took off, speeding through the groundbridge.
Arcee transformed, but before she or anyone else could go through the groundbridge it flickered and sputtered out, the keyboard sparked, and the console screens all went black.
"What happened?!" Bulkhead turned to Ratchet. "Bring back the bridge!"
"I can't!" Ratchet snapped. "The entire system's down!"
"So Bee and Smokey are on their own?" Miko's voice lacked its usual excitement.
"Yes," Optimus said. "For the time being we won't be able to contact Bumblebee and Smokescreen."
Smokescreen knew something was wrong the second the groundbridge sputtered out behind him. Some tech thing must've broke, because now the groundbridge was gone and no one else was here.
"Hey, you guys there?" He tried his COMM.
No response.
Smokescreen was going to give his COMM a second try, but before he could, something bright blue gleaming in his peripheral vision caught his eye.
It was blood-energon. Small droplets of the stuff were scattered around the forest floor.
Smokescreen blinked, quickly realizing he should scan his surroundings.
He was in a forest of some sort, with really tall trees with reddish bark and dark green fir. What were those called? Redwoods? Yeah, those are redwoods—Come on, Smokescreen, focus—And there was green moss covering the forest floor. High above, the full moon glowed in the sky as it slowly rose. A ring of light seemed to hang around it. Smokescreen remembered someone calling it a lunar halo once. Was that what a rainbow around Earth's moon was called? Probably. He wouldn't know.
"Wait a minute," Smokescreen realized out loud. "If we COMMed Bee, then his COMMs and our COMMs should still be on. Smokescreen quickly opened his COMM line and tried to call the Autobot base.
"Uh, guys? You there?" Smokescreen asked.
No reply.
"Okay, guess whatever broke the groundbridge stuff also brought down the COMM network," Smokescreen guessed. Well, he might as well try to call Bee. What was his COMM link again? B172-6047? No, that wasn't it. B271-7400? No. B721-0406? Nope. B127-0704? No— wait. Yep, that sounded right.
"Uh, Bumblebee?" Smokescreen COMMed the line. "Do ya read?"
"FūcK øfF—[STATIC]—LèæVe më-e al0nE," The voice Smokescreen recognized as Bee's came through.
"Hey, it's okay," Smokescreen said. "I'm an Autobot. It's alright."
"I-I d0n't—[STATIC]—bêlïeVe yø-yœü," Bumblebee hissed back.
"I am an Autobot," Smokescreen confirmed. "My name's Smokescreen. I was an Elite Guard trainee, from the last generation during the war. You can trust me, promise."
"…L@st gêneRätión b3f0re th3 w@r? Yœu'Re fr0m GēnEr@tioN D@unTlësS tøØ?" Bee asked over the COMM.
Generation Dauntless? Oh yeah, Smokescreen remembered that. Generation or "Gen" Dauntless was the nickname for the last generation out of the Well of Allsparks before the Allspark itself stopped producing new Cybertronians and was ejected into space to keep it out of the Decepticons' reach.
Smokescreen had never actually met another bot from Gen Dauntless. He'd heard that all the others went into Spec Ops and served under Jazz's command, but he never actually met one. And Smokescreen always assumed Bee was older than him, he had to be older than Smokescreen. Bee was more responsible and experienced and skilled than Smokescreen was.
But nope. Bee was the same age as Smokescreen.
"Yeah, yeah I'm from Gen Dauntless," Smokescreen replied.
"O-0h, I—[STATIC]—dïdN't tHinK th3re wèRe—[STATIC]—@ny møRe ôf ùS," Bumblebee said. "—[STATIC]—HølD ön—"
Smokescreen could hear crashing in the distance, a struggle, then a scream being cut off.
"Uh, Bee? You okay?" Smokescreen asked. Come on, pick up.
"Yæh—[STATIC]—I-1'm ok@y-äY," Bumblebee said back. "JûsT—[STATIC]—@ Déc3Ptîcøn—[STATIC]—"
"Bee?" Smokescreen asked. "Bee?! You okay?!"
Static crackled over the COMM line before suddenly Bee's voice came back in.
"My-Y—[STATIC]—tHrø@t—[STATIC]—" Bumblebee's voice had become something Smokescreen could only identify as a hiss. "—b133dïnG—[STATIC]—"
"Okay, that's it. Where are you? I'm coming to help." Smokescreen had been trying to get Bee to trust him, but now something was definently wrong.
Bee didn't respond, but he pinged him a set of coordinates. Smokescreen quickly transformed and carefully drived as fast as he could through the redwoods.
The new set of coordinents led Smokescreen to a mossy clearing. On the ground next to one of the tall fir trees a vehicon laid dead. Smokescreen quickly looked away, realizing the vehicon had looked like its innards had been removed disembowelment-style.
Looking up, Smokescreen realized there were droplets of bright blue liquid clunging to the red bark of the tree. There were also small, hardly noticable scratches in the reddish wood.
"Bee? You here?" Smokescreen called out.
"Up-p—[STATIC]—p hèR3," Bee's voice replied.
Smokescreen realized two things. One, based on where the voice was coming from, Bee was high in the tree's branches. Two, Bee was actually making the static noises, like the static was coming from his throat and vocalizer; it wasn't just from interference of the radio waves.
"I'm coming up, okay?" Smokescreen said, avoiding looking at the dead vehicon. If Bee did that, then what could he do to someone less armored like Smokescreen when he was spooked.
"O-0k@y," Bee hissed softly.
Smokescreen started to climb. As he did, he noticed the droplets of blood-energon stuck to the redwood's bark were getting bigger and slightly more frequent. What did Ratchet say to do when someone was bleeding? Keep them talking? Yeah, he'll try that.
"So, Bee," Smokescreen said. "You see the moon? Pretty, ain't it?"
"Ye-3s, I-1—[STATIC]—gûésS ït ís," Bumblebee said back. "Do-0 yøü h@v3 a b1âsTer?"
"Yeah." Smokescreen caught a gleam of yellow above him through the green needles of the tree, the light from the full moon causing the metal to reflect and catch Smokescreen's attention.
Smokescreen pulled himself up onto the tree branch, trying to not look down at the ground far below them. Bee shifted slightly to the side, letting Smokescreen settle and balance himself on the branch. Smokescreen finally got a good look at Bee.
This Bumblebee was leaner and had an overall thinner build than the Bumblebee Smokescreen was used to. This Bee was mostly black with yellow racing stripes across his door-wings and chest. His eyes were still a cyan blue color, but were more expressive in a way and had white pupils. He had a mouth too, strangely making Bee look more normal than Smokescreen knew his older version looked like. His lips were slightly parted, and Smokescreen noticed Bee had sharp white canine teeth.
Bee shifted, and Smokescreen realized what that note about sharpened vertebrae in Bee's basic info file was about.
Each vertebrae that made up Bee's spine was carefully sharpened into averagely sharp points, each one jutting out from Bee's back to make his silhouette look more dangerous. The sharpness of each vertebrae varied, like some were dulled by use more or each one was sharpened slightly differently.
That was very cool, in Smokescreen's expert-in-coolness opinion if he did say so himself.
"B1@sTër?" Bee asked. He was holding his throat, drawing all Smokescreen's attention to the wound. Blood-energon seeped from between his fingers and based on Bee's irregular breaths he was struggling to breathe around the bleeding in his windpipe.
"Um, sure?" Smokescreen handed Bee the blaster he often carried just in case he ever got captured and his t-cog was disabled to stop him from transforming out his built-in weapons. He'd learned his lesson after a mission went wrong. Never again.
Bee took the blaster and fired it down at the forest floor far below, the end of the barrel growing burning hot as the plasma fired. Then, Bee quickly pressed the hot barrel against him throat wound.
"Dude, what the fuck?" Smokescreen said in surprise.
"Wh@t? I cãutErizëd ít," Bee hissed, pulling the blaster away from the wound. Now the living metal was cooling back to a dark gray, still covered in blood-energon but no longer bleeding.
"Oh, oh okay," Smokescreen said. "I guess that works… Does your throat feel a bit better?"
"KïnD@," Bee said, swallowing repeatedly. "Thêr3's nøt b1o0d cHôkïnG mè @nYmør3."
Bee suddenly tensed, eyes locked on something below them.
Smokescreen followed his gaze and saw what the scout was looking at. There was a small patrol of vehicons walking below them, blasters out and scanning the area.
Bee silently engaged a battle mask, the black metal sliding forward to protect him face. His hands moved to the rims of his tires, which fit in as part of his ankles, and a black disk slipped out of the center of each rim. The black disks were spiked and had openings to easily be held. Smokescreen realized they were ninja stars.
Bumblebee turned to Smokescreen.
"T@kê th3m øüt?" He whispered.
"No," Smokescreen whispered back, outstretching a hand to lay on Bee's shoulder. His fingertips brushed the tips of Bee's sharpened vertebrae and reminded him hey, this bot is dangerous. "Once they see the body they'll want to bring it back to the Nemesis to figure out what killed it. We should be fine."
"Øk@y," Bumblebee whispered, disengaging the battle mask. It slid away just as silently as it engaged. He also returned his ninja stars to their place hidden in his tire rims.
"So, what's up?" Smokescreen asked, attempting at small talk.
"Ùh, tHë skY?" Bee said with a shrug. "Th@t's ùsü@lly wHât I s@y."
"Ha, nice." Smokescreen looked back at Bee. This Bumblebee was different, but honestly? He could see how the scout in front of him earned their generation the name Dauntless. Bee didn't hesitate and wasn't at all intimidated by the vehicon patrol below that was now carrying the body of their fallen comrade away.
"Did any others of our Gen scout with you?" Smokescreen asked. "If it's not overstepping."
"Ūh, yê@h," Bee replied. "Äll øf ùs wērē ìn Sp3c Øps ūndër J@zZ's cøMm@nD. Théré wêrë ēlEvèN øf ùs ïn tøt@l. Më, Aír@z0r, ArtëmïS, B@yøÑèt, Ch33tør, FïrSt Aìd, Mír@Gë, TrïCkshøT, SìdēswïPê, SùNstRê@kèr, @nd Sw@ñ."
"…That's cool. Knowing everyone," Smokescreen said. He opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut off by a soft static-filled yawn from a certain yellow scout.
"Heh, tired?" Smokescreen teased. "I can keep watch, if you want to pass out."
"FüCk īt," Bee answered, leaning to the side to rest against the tree's trunk. "1f I f@ll øût yóū'll õw3 më fīfTèén gHøst dõll@Rs ïn th3 @fTèrlīFe."
Smokescreen laughed under his breath and kept quiet as he waited for Bee to fall asleep. Bee's breathing became deep and slow and his body slowly relaxed.
Smokescreen started to reflect on the day's events, to process it.
First he and Bumblebee had been sent to mess up and destroy a Decepticon groundbridge. Something went wrong, and it exploded. The blast turned Bee into a younger teen version of himself, which promptly screamed 'fuck off' and vanished into the night. Then Smokescreen regrouped with Arcee and Bulkhead, trying to act normal, and went home to base hoping Bee had just called for a bridge after leaving the situation and calming down. Bee wasn't there, and next thing Smokescreen knew they were all looking at Bee's old files and then calling him. Then Smokescreen went through the groundbridge and something went wrong again because the groundbridge went off and the COMM wasn't working.
Now, Bee was asleep in a redwood tree, Smokescreen was in that same tree, and if he let Bee fall out he'd owe Bee money.
A notification popped up in Smokescreen's HUD.
>Incoming COMM from Autobot Base: Omega_One. [ACCEPT] / [DECLINE] ?
Smokescreen quickly selected ACCEPT and opened his COMM line.
"Hey, you guys there?" Smokescreen asked, keeping his voice low to not wake Bee. The scout was probably really tired, after all that happened today.
"Yes, We're here," Arcee's voice responded. "Have you found Bee yet?"
"Yeah, I found him," Smokescreen said.
"Where is he? Can you put him on the line?" Miko's voice came in a rush, like she was trying to be heard before someone pushed her away from the COMM.
"Nah, he's asleep. We're in a redwood tree. He threatened that I'd owe him fifteen ghost dollars in the afterlife if I let him fall out," Smokescreen grinned.
"Ping us your coordinates then!" Bulkhead said, his voice slightly farther away from his end of the call than Arcee's had been. He probably was standing behind her.
"Alright, alright. I'm doing it," Smokescreen complained, but he was still smiling. "Jeez, man."
Smokescreen glanced up at the full moon again.
He might've made a new friend with a friend he already knew today, somehow.