Sparkling Troubles

Chapter 12

Arcee stumbled out of the chair she was recently occupying and fell onto her aft, causing a loud clanking noise to echo through the entire base. Ratchet backed up from the examination berth in shock, and ran into his surgical tool table, knocking off a few important devices.

"Primus, Ratchet! Get him out of stasis!" Arcee practically screamed.

Ratchet's shaking digits fumbled with the wires connected to the small mech. Finally, he managed to disconnect the stasis ports, successfully interrupting stasis.

"What happened?! He just said he was a Decepticon!"

"Arcee, quiet!" Ratchet hissed.

Loud footfalls reached their audio receptors. Tiny shuffling noises from a nearby sparkling berth indicated that Smokescreen was also up from recharge. Ratchet sighed. He hadn't wanted anyone else up yet, until he could come up with an answer to the issue.

"I heard a commotion. Is there a problem?"

"What's wrong?"

"Hey, Doc, what's with all the screamin'?"

"Soldiers, report the situation."

"Bee?"

Unfortunately, Bumblebee chose this time to online his optics and sit up. His expression was soft and clueless. His red gaze scanned the small crowd surrounding the berth.

Suddenly, his little mouth curled into an angry expression. He emitted a low growl.

"Autobots," he hissed.

"Wh-what?" Bulkhead stuttered.

"I kill..."

"Soldier, explain your behavior!"

"I kill Autobots!" His newly-repaired little voice box screamed with all its might.

His voice no longer sounded innocent and curious. It sounded like screeching animals and the dreaded nails on a chalkboard mixed together.

"Whoa, whoa!" Wheeljack backed into the wall, following the rest of the bots' lead.

Bumblebee slid off of the medical berth, clanking to the floor. He transformed his arms into blasters and pointed them at the grumpy old medic. They slowly made their way around the room, eventually pointing their double barrels at everyone present. The bots all froze. They knew that Bumblebee's blasters were incredibly powerful, and could offline any one of them. The little weapons no longer shone a bright blue, but an intimidating red, matching the wielder's seething optics.

"Bumblebee, do not fire the weapon." Optimus' stern voice would have normally caused Bumblebee to quickly un-transform his blasters, but the sparkling's gaze only hardened.

Smokescreen ran out from behind Optimus' legs and took a few steps toward Bumblebee. The little yellow mech's helm turned to look in his direction. Smokescreen could see data running through Bumblebee's red optics.

The tiny Autobot-turned-Decepticon stuck out one of his arms and fired his blaster. The shot hit Wheeljack in the side of the helm. The Autobots all huddled around Wheeljack as the rough-and-tumble mech quickly lost consciousness.

Bumblebee used this time to quickly run (or, rather, as 'quickly' as his little legs could carry him) to the main room, where the ground bridge controls were located. He dialed in a few coordinates and pulled the switch. The blue-green swirl swallowed his little form as he ran through it.

The rest of the Autobots had just arrived in the room in time to see the vortex shut down. They had lifted Wheeljack onto the medical berth that Bumblebee had so recently been occupying and scurried out as quickly as possible, but they were still too late.

Bumblebee was gone.

Their little one... gone.

With the Decepticons.