The Song Of The First Star: Volume 1

Chapter 2: Scrapheap

Chapter 2

 - Scrapheap -

 They entered the base with squeaking tires and stopped right at the end of the tunnel, next to the Ground Bridge. Bulkhead and 'Bee quickly opened their doors to let them out.

 "Miss us, doc bot?" Miko asked and smiled happy, getting an frustrated groan from said mech.

 "Shouldn't they be in school?" Ratchet asked, looking at Bulkhead, who reverted back to his bipedal form behind them. 

 "On Friday they let us out earlier." Tamara explained, her hands on her hips and a big grin on her face. 

"We have the whole weekend off to spend with you!" Ale jumped and gave a big excited grin.

 "We weren't expecting to carpool." Ioana said as she approached Arcee. The femme stood beside Optimus, right in front of the open Ground Bridge. 

 "Yeah, what gives, Arcee?" Jack asked confused.

 "Tag team, Jack. It's my turn for exploration duty." Arcee placed her left servo on her hip armor, which covered her hip-joints. With her right one, she gestured to the Bridge.

 "Oh, too bad. It's a beautiful day for a ride." Ioana leaned on her right leg, crossing her arms. She gave a small smirk to the femme, and tried to bait her friend.

"Would hate for you to feel guilty for leaving us indoors." Jack added, catching up on Ioana's game.

 "Arctic exploration duty." Arcee rephrased, smiling knowingly.

"Indoors where it's warm." Jack rephrased too, pointing with both hands towards the platforms.

 Ioana raised one brown eyebrow in confusion.

"The arctic? I've always wanted to see snow." Raf came up beside her, his voice full of curiosity, unknowingly addressing the same question Ioana had in her mind. 

 "I would invite you to join, Rafael, but the conditions are much too extreme, even for we Autobots." Optimus spoke up, sounding truly sorry that they couldn't take the small teen.

"I... understand" Raf smiled resigned. 

 With that, Optimus and Arcee turned to the Bridge, ready to go, but Optimus stopped again. 

 "But, I will bring you back a snowball." the mech said, and you could hear the smile in his voice.

 Ioana's other eyebrow rose, but this time in realization. 

 "That would be awesome!" Raf smiled happy. 

 That's when Ioana spoke up. 

"How about I bring him that snowball?" she asked looking up at Optimus.

 "I always preferred the cold climate to the warm one so I should be okay. Also, I wouldn't stay much. Just to collect enough snow to fill this." she held up an empty plastic dossier, and her purple hoodie, which God-knows-why she took it.

 Optimus looked at her then at the open Ground Bridge with a calculating expression. 

 "Very well. But only for a few minutes. That should be sufficient, I presume?" he once again turned to her. 

 "Yes, thank you." Ioana smiled, and turned to Raf who looked at her with wide eyes.

"You would do that for me?" the boy asked, awe in his eyes. 

"I would do it for all of you, dear." Ioana gave Raf a motherly smile which made the boy smile in return.

 Ale, who stood till then silent, behind the two, approached and ruffled the genius' gravity-defying hair.