Chased

Chapter 7

I'm sorry if this chapter is bad... My anxiety has been around a lot and this probably isn't the best quality chapter I've written... So please for give me and I hope you enjoy anyways...

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Everything happened so fast that it became a blur in front of Starscream's optics, but all he knew was that Bumblebee and Barricade had a lot of explaining to do.

The first thing that started this chain reaction was after Optimus left to go patrol around the city before dusk fell. Starscream was drying off Toxin from his time playing in the lake, the little sparkling chirping and giggling every time the seeker would wipe off the water over his winglets or any sensitive plating. Bumblebee had gone silent for a while, calming down from his previous moment of anxiety and gently resting against one of the nearby trees. Dorothy and the other had been gone for an hour now and Starscream was of course worried about her and the others. He made a few quick glances over to the scout to make sure he was okay, concerned about the scratch marks through yellow paint he had made on his upper arms.

A few minutes had passed before Bumblebee stood up from his spot and looked off towards the city, in a stupor of some sort of shock. Toxin stopped giggling, the sparkling demeanor completely changing as he started to whimper. The seeker became very confused, wondering what the sparkling was feeling that he wasn't. The little cassette's view was trained on Bee, his servos outstretched and making grabbing motions at the scout and started to make little chirps in his direction. "Beebee..." he whimpered, little winglets drooping down.

Starscream picked himself and Toxin up, cradling the sparkling in his arms close to his cockpit as he took a cautious step towards the mechling. "Bumblebee... are you alright?" he asked, very concerned now. He made his way over to the scout, trying not to get his thruster clogged up in mud and grim from the bottom of the lake as he walked out to Bee. The seeker put a firm servo on Bee's shoulder and lightly shook him to try and snap him out of whatever trance he had entered. "What's wrong? What happened?"

There was a moment of silence between everyone standing there in the lake, the only sound was small whimpers from Toxin and the wind blowing past their frames. The seeker was so confused on what was going on with Bumblebee and what Toxin was sensing that he didn't. The scout's EM field was completely retracted and close to his frame, but something else seemed wrong. It was like the time seemed to freeze around them and that's when Starscream noticed that Bee's frame was shaking and his stare was of fear and pain. He stood there for a good five minutes before time seemed to unfreeze for them all and everything came crashing down.

Bumblebee's legs buckled and he fell forward onto his knees, one servo clutching at his chestplates and the other struggling to hold his upper weight up. A low whine escaped from sounded like his broken voice box, the one that was partially ripped from his throat, and he crumpled more into the lake. There was a trace of searing pain behind his optics and he finally lost his balance on that one servo, falling and starting to curl up into the fetal position to stop the pain from getting worse. The scout wanted to call for help, but his vocoder didn't want to work with him and he didn't trust his voice anyways.

Panic seeped into Starscream's processor as he watched his all occur in frozen shock. Toxin was struggling to get out of the seeker's arms, calling Bumblebee by his given nickname and starting to cry. It took a few moments for him to snap out of it, but as soon as he did, he placed Toxin down on the shoreline and started to gather up Bee. He slipped his arms under the scout's and hoisted him up against his chassis, checking his spark rate and other things manually. The seeker took note that his optics were dim and started to pull the mechling inside the boat shack.