Little Gladiator

Chapter 18: Happy Sparkorn!

The next orn, Bumblebee sat up in his berth and stretched. Flicking his doorwings to finish it off, he looked around the room. Megatron had ready left. That was odd, he always waited for Bee to get up (or for Bee to wake him up).

Bumblebee got up and made his berth before heading out the door. Thankfully, Ravage was waiting for him, as he did every orn now.

"Come, bitlet. The others are waiting for you in the rec room," the feline said.

"I'm not a bitlet, Kitty!" Bee proclaimed.

"And I am not a Kitty. Yet here we are."

"Agree to disagree?" Bee asked, holding out his servo. Ravage smiled and nuzzled it.

The pair walked along in companionable silence afterwards until they reached their destination. When they entered the rec room they found the lights cut off.

"Why aren't the lights on Ravage? Ravage?" Bee asked, groping the air for the feline that was supposed to be next to him. "Ravage? Ravage!" The lights flicked on suddenly, blinding him. He rubbed his optics to clear the spots dancing in his vision. When he opened his optics, he gasped at what he saw.

"SURPRISE! HAPPY SPARKORN, BUMBLEBEE!

Every single bot was standing in the room, his friends at the helm of them. They surrounded a table of small gifts. A banner on the wall read "Happy 33rd Sparkorn!"

Bee was giggling gleefully while his doorwings trembled with excitement. He ran up to Megatron, who picked him up and tossed him once in the air. Bee screamed in delight. He managed to say, "For me?! You've never done one before."

Megatron rubbed his doorwings gently and said, "Well, this orn's a big deal. You turn 33 vorns this orn. Sola and Luna did a popularity poll and my speeches and I were number one. You're 33 vorns old now. More and more Cybertronians are supporting our cause. It's your sparkorn-"

Bee's laugh cut him off. "Okay! Okay! You have other reasons," he said, flashing a wink at his caretaker. Megatron winked back.

"Well come on, everybody!" Dagger exclaimed. "We've got a party to celebrate! The sparkling has arrived and I want to see the look on his face when he sees what we got him." The crowd cheered and Bee raised a fist, resulting in louder cheers.

First came presents:

From Dagger, he got a knife to use during training. Megatron eyed the blade suspiciously until the black and silver mech assured him that it wasn't sharp enough to cause major damage. Major damage? What kind of assurance was that?

From Shockwave, he received a cube made up of rotating cubes. "The goal," he said, "is to get each side to be the same color." Bee fiddled with the puzzle for a while before thanking him and moving on to the next present.

From Soundwave, he got a datachip with 'The Intergalactic Species Compendium' downloaded onto it. Bee squealed in delight at all the colorful pictures and words to read and learn. If Shockwave still had emotions, he would be jealous.

From Hook, he got a pass for a free weapons upgrade when he was old enough.

You do realize it's always free?" Megatron asked while Bee unwrapped the canister of rust sticks the maintenance workers got him.

"He doesn't need to know that," Hook replied.

From the other gladiators, he got fifteen credits to spend as he wished, within reason.

From the twins, he got an artpad and a set of colorful charcoal pens. Bumblebee hugged them both and promised to draw of picture of some of the sights he saw in Iacon for them.