A Small Situation

~>6<~

Optimus's pov

Megatron pushes me off of him, transforms and flies away. I watch him for a moment. What is he doing? None of the other Decepticons are retreating... is it possible he heard what Ratchet had to say? I immediately transform and start searching for Bumblebee. If he's here and Megatron knows... this is not good at all.

Megatron's pov

As I fly over the canyon I can see the battle down below. As usual the auto boys are taking out my Decepticons quite easily. I should remember to tell shockwave to upgrade them all... as I watch my pathetic drones get ripped to shreds I spot a tiny little bot hiding behind a rock. And he's yellow.

I fly down to where he is and transform right behind him. He hears me and turns around, fear written all over his tiny faceplate. I recognize him suddenly. I've seen this tiny bot before... then I remember. Optimus and Elita had a sparkling before the war. Before I was a Decepticon war lord. I thought his pathetic son had been killed with his mother... apparently not.

I smile evilly and grab the young bot, dragging him away from the battle. I can feel him trying to get loose from my grip but that will never happen. He starts to whimper and I just roll my optics, trying to ignore it. I transform, placing him inside my cabin and call for a retreat. We've left with more than what we came for...

Optimus pov

As I'm driving through the battle searching for Bee, all the Decepticons just suddenly stop fighting and start to fly away. I quickly transform in attempt at figuring out what's happening. I look up and spot Megatron flying away. I can feel him through the spark bond... Megatron has Bee.

"No!" I yell angrily, chasing after them to no avail since I can't fly. I stop, my spark breaking. "No..." I whisper.
I hear pede steps coming from behind me and slowly turn around to find Arcee, Bulkhead and Smokescreen giving me very concerned expressions. I just put a blank face on and place my digits to my audio receptor.

"Ratchet, we need a bridge." I say. Moments later the green and purple vortex appears and we all walk through. Once we arrive at base and Ratchet sees that we don't have Bee, he looks extremely worried.

"Optimus-" Ratchet starts, but I just walk away. I'm done pretending. He can tell the others if he wishes to. I've failed my son and my team and they deserve to know.

Ratchet's pov

"Okay, he has some serious explaining to do." Bulkhead says. I can tell that him and smokescreen probably already know but I should probably not say...

"I think he's just a bit frustrated that we lost Bee-" but once again I'm cut off.

"No. This is different than just losing a comrade. I mean, for Primus sake Bee called him sire and I highly doubt that that was an accident." Smokescreen says, clearly frustrated that him and Bullhead are being left in the dark. I sigh and look at Arcee. She just shrugs her shoulders and walks off. I look back at the other two.

"Fine..." I grumble. "Optimus is Bumblebee's sire. It was too dangerous, for Bee's and the teams sake to have anyone but a few select bots know. And up until now, everything was going perfectly. I doubt that Megatron hasn't figured it out yet." They both just stare at me before Smokescreen cries out,

"Yes! I knew it!" He pumps his fist in the air and both Bulkhead and I glare at him. I sigh heavily.

"We need to find him before Megatron does anything."

Megatron's pov

I have some of my many drones toss the bug into a cell. In the past few moments I've learned that his voice has returned. How very interesting... I walk over to the control room, thinking about all the different ways I can get what I want from this situation. Not only do I have the Autobot scout but he's also Optimus Prime's son... how convenient. A few minutes go by and I decide to try asking him a few questions. I mean, a sparkling doesn't know any better not to answer me, so surely I'll get what I want.

I walk over to his cell and when I open the door I see something surprising. He's bigger. I'd say probably about 8 vorns old now.

"What in unicron's name..." I trail off. He struggles for a moment but then successfully transforms his arms to blasters. He smiles and then looks at me. This will be entertaining. He shoots at me and I easily dodge.

"I really would not advise that bug..." I growl, "now come with me, I just want to ask you a quick question." I attempt at sounding nice and I hate it. He looks at me suspiciously but doesn't move. So, he's always been this stubborn.

"I probably won't know the answer." He states and I raise an optic ridge. He's probably just messing with me.

"You don't know what the question is yet." I counter and he just keeps staring. I begin to grow impatient. He huffs and steps forward slightly.

"Fine. What's the question?" He grumbles.

"I just want to know where you... live?" I ask, trying to avoid the words Autobot and base, hoping maybe he won't realize that that's what he's giving away. He stands there and thinks for a moment.

"Um... I dunno." He says and I just stand there. That's it? He didn't even try to think about it. And I know that if he doesn't know the exact place on this planet that he can probably at least visually describe it. I growl.

"Answer the question you piece of scrap." I snap and he frowns.

"It takes one to know one." He snaps back. Huh, well I definitely did not expect that. I narrow my optics at him.

"If you want to live I advise you don't talk to me like that." I growl. He looks more frightened this time and I stand a little bit taller to seem even more threatening than I already am. He backs away slightly to where he was before. All of a sudden he transforms and speeds in between my legs and down the hallway. I growl and go to the control room and turn on all the speakers.

"Decepticons, we have a loose prisoner in the base. Don't let him get away." I announce and pretty soon I've got at least two vehicons walking down each hall searching for that little scrap and one searching each room. And this is why I hate small bots. As I walk the hallways I hear a noise come from above me. I look up and above me is a ventilation system. Of course, he's still small enough to fit through the vents... I look at the two vehicons standing next to me.

"You two, look in those vents." I order. The both nod their helms and one gets on the other's shoulder plates and opens the vents. The one on top pokes his helm up in the vent and then reaches his arm through it. I hear a few tiny gun blasts and suddenly the vehicon on top is falling off the other's shoulder plates, the tiny bot stuck between his servos. He shoots the vehicon in the face and the con loses his grip on the small bot as he falls dead to the floor. I growl and look at the small bot trying to climb back up into the vents. I notice that it seems like he's having some trouble moving, likely due to the rate he's growing at... all of a sudden his grip on the vent loosens and he falls to the floor, unconscious. Well, that went very well...