Little Gladiator

Chapter 14: Say Who!?

Me: *owns nothing*

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::Iacon Grand Central is still closed for repairs after it was the scene of an attempted murder.::

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::Witnesses said that a black mech approached another mech and his sparkling and activated a bomb.::

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::Recovered security footage from the event showed Megatron, champion gladiator of Kaon, shielding a sparkling with his body just before the explosion.::

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::Did you see that adorable sparkling he had Sola?::

::I did, Luna! It's so precious!::

::You'd think his reproductive protocols would be offline, wouldn't you?::

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::I have the leader of Rescue Squad Sigma-17 here with me. Heatwave, do you think someone tried to kill Megatron?::

::From my experience and the damage to the station, I'd say yes.::

::Why?::

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::Why?::

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::Why?::

Click Click Click

::Why would someone try to kill Megatron in public? Why does Megatron have a sparkling? Who is responsible for this?::

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Megatron turned off the small holoscreen across the room. Two orns later and the only thing on the air was the scene at the shuttle station. Even Sola and Luna were talking about it! Or at least they were talking about Bumblebee.

What was it with bots thinking he was actually related to the scraplet? And why the reproductive protocols comment?!

Speaking of, Bumblebee had needed some surgery to fix that internal leak. He was recharging in a berth next to him - they refused to be separated except for their surgeries - while Megatron sat up, awake and bored.

The hospital room was very clean. The gilded lilies Scythe sent - the nurse snickered when she brought them in - how did Scythe even afford them? - did nothing to mask the scent of sterilizing solution. The walls were a blue shade of off-white, the berths were crisply made, and the neutral still-life art on the wall was perfectly balanced in the middle. Scythe's lilies - because they certainly weren't Megatron's, despite the name that was clearly written on the tag - were the only splash of color in the room. Actually, Bumblebee was bright too, in more ways than one.

Ratchet entered the room with two cubes of energon. "Fortified mid and low grade. One for each."

"Ratchet, I don't need-"

Ratchet interrupted him. "Yip, yip, yip. I'm the medic here; I know what you need better than you. And you need fortified energon because the slag you drink in Kaon isn't doing you any favors. Plus, you just recovered from surgery."

Megatron rolled his optics and politely snatched the cube out of Ratchet's servo.

"Hmph. Rude."

"Thank you for the cube, Ratchet," Megatron said sarcastically. "You are very kind."

"I have a wrench and I'm not afraid to use it," he growled back.

"I'm not the one with loose screws. OW!" Megatron rubbed the spot where Ratchet hit him with his wrench. "I thought you took oaths of not hurting others."

"You'll be fine. I didn't make any dents. Besides, you could've gotten Pharma. Now he's the shifty one. Arrogant aft."

"Exactly why we need to abolish the caste system. Arrogant afts who think they're better just because they have comfy jobs."

"Don't I know it." Ratchet shifted his weight to his left leg. "By the way, there's a cultural investigator here to see you."

Megatron crossed his arms and said, "I am not available for questioning. And neither is Bumblebee, for that matter."

"I'm sure you know Orion by now. He's his friend."

Megatron lifted an optic ridge at this. "Orion's investigator friend? Well... I suppose I can talk to him."

Ratchet smirked and opened the door for a white mech with blue and red stripes. The mech had a visor over his optics and seemed to flow into the room.

"Name's Jazz," the mech said. "Cultural investigator, Orion's friend, here ta talk about what da little one's got ta do wit' all dis. Mind givin' us some privacy, Ratch?" Apparently, he had an accent too. Polyhexian, if he was right.

"Don't call me 'Ratch'," he grumbled before leaving.

Jazz sat on a visitor's chair, clapped his servos together, and said, "Well, I know yer da world famous Megatron. Who's da li'l guy den?"

"His name is Bumblebee," Megatron said with a hint of pride.

"Cute name fer a sparkling from da pits."

"He's named after cyberbees," Megatron said as he took a sip from his cube.

"Nasty li'l stingers, dey are. Anyways, Orion gave meh da datapad you gave 'im. I read said 'pad over break. Now we just need ta figure out why Sentinel's after his son's spark."

Megatron spit out the energon he had just drank, accidentally spraying it at Jazz.

"WHAT?!"