Transformers: Sparky

Chapter 4

Optimus Prime POV:

The drive had been silent for a few days now, Optimus had many questions to ask Sparky, but no time seemed appropriate. He was all too aware of what this little one had suffered, he had lost enough dear ones to understand the turmoil that she was going through.

However this did not halt those many enquiries rattling around inside, the bot was completely bewildered by his young charge, things that both worried and delighted him. Of course he was concerned for this Sparkling's health, no one so small should have to go through so much. And yet he had felt the first hope in many aeons, if this young one had come into existence, perhaps Cybertron was still alive?

Or perhaps that was the sad optimist he had once been shining through? Whatever the case it was not fair of him to put those sort of expectations on a youngling such as Sparky. So he kept those thoughts to himself, it was unlikely that she had any idea of what brought her to earth.

In fact Sparky was completely unaware of what she was; he had heard the story told by the older human, the one he believed was named Dan. The idea that she was found and then raised by humans was quite baffling to him.

Not only had this protoform survived, she had come to believe she was an actual human being. Eating, drinking and growing as one; not only that, Sparky had somehow imitated what a human looked like right down to their lifecycle.

How was something like that possible? To his knowledge it was not.

But when he had scanned the Sparkling after escaping the earth military, he had assumed she would have some signs of malnutrition, maybe even a clue as to how she had come to this planet. Though it quickly became apparent that there were no such traces, upon receiving the diagnostics he had been shocked to discover that Sparky was actually only twelve earth cycles old and perfectly healthy.

That meant that a protoform had replicated a carbon life form perfectly. This was beyond the capabilities of a T-cog, a component that a Sparkling had not even formed yet, one that she still did not have even now. Sparky was too young.

When she changed form, it was not a transformation, there was nothing she could even draw from to make an alternate mode. The parts were not present. And yet she looked exactly like a human child.

For a time he thought there was a possibility that she somehow had acquired a built-in hologram device, but he soon realised it would not have worked. Even with a hologram, a highly advanced one; there would still be disturbances to disrupt the projection. And anyway that did not explain how this youngling was eating human food and surviving on that.

Although as soon as she had imprinted on him, her ability to imitate a carbon life forms refuelling system had stopped functioning. Sparky was no longer relying upon that for survival, she was now drawing her energy supply from him. The normal way a Sparkling would, which on one hand was great, she had properly bonded to him. The bad news was that Optimus did not exactly have any Energon to feed himself with, the only reason he was still functioning was because he was pulling power from the Matrix of leadership.

Thankfully he would not starve and neither would Sparky; however, he did not have the energy to use his weaponry and he was limited to truck-mode. Neither of those things were especially useful when they were trying to escape the humans and their military. Optimus was against harming those on this planet. This was their world, he had no right to destroy what belonged to them.

Be that as it may, he wasn't just protecting himself, he was also responsible for a Sparkling. As much as he hated the idea of having to hurt humans, his first priority was to Sparky. Whether he liked it or not, he had once again been in the wrong place at the wrong time and he had gotten imprinted on again. That meant he was this little one's guardian.