Little Gladiator

Chapter 32: That's No Hologram

Note: This chapter is brought to you by the comments of 1Praya and fight_or_write. If anyone else would still like to leave comments or even read this, You are also awesome. Enjoy the last chunk of chapters. 

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Four orns later, Bumblebee was allowed to leave the hospital on the condition that their medic would send Ratchet reports on how he was doing. Bee snuggled into Megatron's chassis as Scythe checked him out of the hospital. When they left the hospital, they found Orion and Jazz waiting outside.

Orion spoke first. "How is he?"

"Still the same little bug he was before, but there are psychological symptoms we have to look for," Megatron answered.

"Well, da perpetrator shoulda known better than ta mess wit' da Champion Gladiator's sparklin'," Jazz said.

"Me'ie wi' mik 'im payer!" Bee chirped up. They smiled and tried to hide their concern at the slight slur.

"That reminds me," Scythe spoke up. "We promised Sola and Luna an appearance for their help. When should we contact them?"

"No need. We can always push back this orn's episode to next time. It was supposed to be a filler anyway." They turned to see two subcompacts heading in their direction. One was cream, silver, and pale blue; the other was cream, gold, and pale yellow. They transformed to reveal none other than Luna and Sola themselves.

"We were on our way to the studio and couldn't help but notice that your sparkling is finally better," Sola said. "Who's a cute little bitlet?"

Bumblebee, too cheerful at being outside to care about being called a bitlet, giggled and reached for the fun-looking femme.

"Hmph. Traitor," Megatron snorted. He couldn't hold his betrayed look any longer when Bee turned his huge, cerulean optics on him.

"Well, cutesy is finally better and we are totally available for an impromptu show this orn. Are y'all available?" Luna asked while giving Bee a quick tickle.

"Certainly. Just let us call home and we'll follow you to wherever you want us to go," Scythe said. The femme cohosts perked up even more.

"Awesome!"

x x x x x

A mech's voice sounded from offstage, "Ladies and gentlemechs here in studio and across the world! What time is it?"

"Sola and Luna!" The crowd said as one before dissolving into cheer. The two femmes appeared from different sides of the stage and sat down on the couches in the spotlight, waving to their adoring fans. Sola started to speak as the applause died down.

"Welcome everyone here and at home to another show!" More cheering. "Last time, we said we were just going to talk about the news. Yeah, yeah, we know. Boring."

Luna continued, "Luckily, we were able to secure a last klik surprise for you. Remember the AllSpark Day Hanging?" The crowd murmured and nodded amongst themselves. "Well, how would you like to meet the victim?" The crowd cheered in approval. "How about his revolutionary caretaker?" More cheering. "And his talk-of-the-town love interest." The din could've rivaled the noise from a gladiatorial match.

"Well then," Sola said. "First to welcome on stage is the miner nobody who got his name in the Kaonian rings and is now working for lower caste rights. The undefeated champion gladiator of Kaon and acting-sire to a little sparkling, I give you Megatron!"

Megatron walked into the spotlight with confidence, but no one noticed how much stiffer his gait was now. He sat down in one of the chairs opposite the femmes and looked over the crowd, a natural aura seeming to radiate power to those watching.

Luna moved to speak. "Speaking of sparklings, he happens to have a very cute one with a murderer after him for unknown reasons. Recently checked out of ICH, and still as happy as ever, Bumblebee!"

The audience 'awwed' and cooed as the litter yellow sparkling skipped on stage. They gasped collectively when he staggered and fell, but Bee just shook his helm and kept on skipping to Megatron. The large mech lifted him into his lap and checked him over. Bee just snuggled into him and sighed.

"And last but not least, the lucky femme who has claim over this gladiator's spark, and quite the looker I might add," Luna grinned at the reaction she got. Everyone swooned; the femmes for Megatron and the mechs for whoever the femme could be. Megatron himself just raised an optic ridge at her. Luna giggled before continuing, "Let me introduce you to Scythe!"

Scythe walked into the spotlight with the same outward confidence that Megatron projected, but she moved more naturally. Taking a seat next to Megatron, she eagerly picked up the sparkling reaching for her and let him snuggle into her as well.

Sola clasped her servos together and blurted out, "So, let's start with the beginning. How did you come across Bee? What do you think your relationship is with him? Megatron, what is your relationship with this hot femme here?! We need deets!"

Megatron and Scythe looked at each other before launching into a condensed version of their backstory. Occasionally, Scythe and Luna interrupted with 'commercial breaks' - this was all recorded for later - and dramatic gasps and comments. It was rather long, but they managed to keep it short enough to fit within half a joor. By the time they were done, everyone was speechless.

Sola spoke first, "I guess now we really know why you guys want a better life. I didn't know we could be such pricks."

"And Sentinel Prime?!" Luna exclaimed. "We make fun of him on a daily basis, but this takes the oil-cake!"

"I like rust sticks!" Bumblebee blurted out. "Hook gives me one every vorn when I'm a good bot for his checkups and I got a can of them for my sparkorn megacycles ago. I already finished them, but I did share!"

Glad for an excuse to switch the conversation to something less dramatic, Luna perked up and cooed, "Ah! You're so cute! What's your opinion on all this?"

Bee scrunched up his face in thought, much to the adoration of the audience, and said, "The red demon killed my carrier, Meggy ("Bumblebee!" he whispered. "Not now!") took me in, someone tried to blow us up, I won my first gladiyatorya match, the tingly in my spark twy ta keeyell meh fwends-," they cringed at the slur, "I played a prank on Meggy with the twins, bad mechs twied to kill Kaon, my sire helped me charge the gun to spray them with paint, Meggy went on a date with Scythe, the red demon pushed me into the well, nice white and blue femme saved me, I had to be in stasis, and now I'm here!"

"Wait, Sentinel pushed you in the well?" Megatron asked.

"Uhh, who that?"

"It's, 'who IS that', darling," Scythe corrected him.

Luna fished a datapad out of her subspace. "Here. We'll pull up a picture." She typed something into it and a hologram of Sentinel Prime started walking towards them.

"That's him! That's him! He killed my carrier! He tried to kill me! He tried to kill my family!" Bumblebee cried. He leaped back into Megatron's arms to hide. "Meggy! Help!"

"It's just a hologram. See? Nothing to worry about," Megatron tried to comfort him.

"Megatron of Kaon, by my authority as Prime and leader of Cybertron, you are hereby under arrest!" the 'hologram' said.

"That's no hologram," Sola said worryingly as almost the whole Elite Guard followed their Prime on stage.