TITLE:
First Contact
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned
by
people with a lot more money
Author’s Voice of Warning (aka Author’s Note):
English is not my first language; it’s German. This is the best I can
do.
Any mistakes you find in here, collect them and you might win a prize
FEEDBACK: Loved
Blame this on the sneaky attack bunny that caught me right in the
middle of
watching the movie DVD. It was bad enough for me to stop the movie and
actually
write this. The ficlet was born out of a
movie dicussion with my friend Sapphire
over Bumblebee's rather unstealthy behavior when it came
to 'sneaking away' from Sam that night to contact the others.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Sam Witwicky sat on the roof of the former supply building, a one
storey affair
that was three stories deep under ground. It was a warm day, but not
hot, and
he actually enjoyed being outside after spending the last three days
cooped up
and doing his homework, help Ratchet, and play around with his technopathy.
At his side was Bumblebee, never far from his charge and even closer to
the technopathic mind than even Ratchet
would ever suspect.
“So… it was your attempt to… what? Get me used to alien
cars?” the young man asked.
Bumblebee shrugged. “Yes.”
“It was a really bad one, Bee. I was freaked!”
It got him a smile. The blue optics lit up briefly and even though
Bumblebee
had no mouth like a human being, he could smile. Sam knew when he was.
“My mission, after I discovered Megatron’s presence and your
ancestor’s involvement, was to pave the way for a first contact, Sam.
We
were aware that the Decepticons would follow my every move, would
become aware
of you, so it was vitally important to have you trust me.”
“So you lured me to the scrap yard?”
Bumblebee nodded.
“You wanted me to see you.”
“And you followed and saw.”
Sam chewed on his lower lip. “Yeah. You
weren’t really all that quiet when you pulled out of the driveway.”
“I didn’t want to be. I needed you to come after me. And you
did.”
“Pretty stupid, now that I think about it.” Sam scratched through
his hair, ruffling it. “I mean, going after my car that had just been
stolen… But you were my first car and I had had you for about
twenty-four
hours and some freak was stealing it and… I think it was a
short-circuit
reaction.”
“I was rather surprised how quickly you went after me, too,” the
Camaro confessed.
“Yeah… well…” Another shrug.
“I never meant to get you into trouble with your law enforcement,”
Bumblebee apologized.
“That’s okay. It wasn’t bad trouble. Just… trouble. So
when you came back, it was another move, right?”
“Yes.”
“And chasing me on my Mom’s bike?”
“You saw that there was no driver. I wanted you to get used to
the
concept.”
“You scared me shitless, Bee.”
The yellow Autobot leaned a little closer, still apologetic. “I never
meant for you to come to harm. I couldn’t just show myself to you. It
was
too soon.”
“Barricade didn’t think so.”
Bumblebee winced a little. “I hadn’t planned on that to
happen.”
“You didn’t know he was following you?”
Bumblebee shook his head. “Not until it was too late. Sometimes I got a
blip of him on my scanners, but like us, the Decepticons can use
stealth and
cloaking devices. When he approached you… I was scared for you, Sam. I
hadn’t noticed and I hadn’t known and I hadn’t had a plan. To
confront him right away would have harmed you more instead of saving
you. It
might have gotten you killed.”
Sam snorted. “I just freaked over the most terrifying thing I’d
ever seen. I saw a monster out to kill me.”
“Barricade wouldn’t have killed you.”
Sam’s eyes showed his disbelief. “Now, maybe.
If he has a good day. But back then? I think
he was
about to filet me.”
The Camaro shook his head. “No. He needed information and you had it.
Without
you, he wouldn’t get the glasses. He needed to scare it out of
you.”
Bumblebee reached out and gently ran a finger over Sam’s back.
“You came to harm and I was supposed to protect you.”
“Hey, it were just bruises and scrapes,” the young man tried to
shrug it off. “And you beat him.”
“It was close. He’s a shock-trooper, Sam. They are tough.”
“You still defeated him.”
“I incapacitated him, thanks to the power station and a lot of
luck.”
“Sometimes luck is all it takes.”
Bumblebee chuckled. “Yes. And I was lucky you survived.”
“I’m good at running,” Sam told him with a smile.
“It takes more than speed. You trusted me when we met. Why?” Bumblebee
asked curiously.
“I don’t know. It was… I mean, you could have hurt me before.
You never did. And you defeated Barricade. You protected me and
Mikaela. I
thought it was okay to trust you, even if you brought me to meet a lot
more of
you big guys. I think if I could have, I would have been even more
terrified
after seeing Optimus and then Ironhide with his guns…”
Bumblebee’s amusement was clear. “He likes to show off his
canons.”
“I know”
Somewhere in the distance was a cloud that was fast coming closer. Sam
heard a
soft click from Bumblebee and knew he was scanning the far away spec.
He could
almost feel it, could slide along the optical nerces
and read the same transmission.
He could see Jazz, as clear as if he was just a few feet away,
racing across
the desert, testing his wheels. He was chased by a black and white
police
cruiser, lights flashing blue and red. If he reached into the distance
he might
just feel them, feel their connection, the exhilaration he was sure was
bouncing back and forth. He could feel Barricade’s barriers break,
could
feel Jazz’s response and he…
… gasped a little, twitters of excitement racing through his body, up
and
down his spine. Bumblebee’s touch was like a gentle caress of water on
his skin and he quickly pulled his mind back, tightly into the confines
of his
own skull. Sam clenched his teeth and fought the temptation to uplink,
to
share, to be with the most fascinating and alluring life forms he had
ever
touched.
“Sam?”
“Gimme a sec…. ah,
hell…” he breathed. “Shit, that was… intense.”
“You slipped?”
“Yeah.”
Sam rubbed over his eyes and looked at the dust cloud again. Jazz had
veered
away from the base, but not far away, and had transformed. It was a
battle
stance and Barricade reacted to it, both mechanoids soon locked in a
friendly
match.
Sam shivered.
Bumblebee was still there, offering, and he finally gave in and let his
mind
slip to touch the most familiar of them all.
Anchoring, Ratchet called it. He felt the soothing pulses of the other
mind, of
the spark, and he let it cool him down.
“They’re intense,” Sam muttered.
“Spark bonds always are.”
“Have you… I mean, ever…?”
“No, Sam. They are as rare as they are universally accepted among our
kind. Spark bonds were called a glitch in the early days. Two sparks
that
resonated with the other presence, were almost called faults. As if the Allspark had no
separated them,
left a connection. I think it’s beautiful, like many of us do
now.
With the war, we scattered. When the Allspark
was
lost, Optimus sent his men out into ever corner of the universe. We
came here.
It’s close to a miracle for Jazz to have found Barricade again.”
“Yeah. They feel incredible, Bee."
Blue optics regarded him, a soft light in their depths. Bumblebee
didn’t
say anything, just watched over his charge, and Sam ducked his head a
little. Sometimes
he felt like a voyeur. He had approached Jazz, apologized for the prior
touches. He didn’t want to breach anyone’s privacy, didn’t
want to be rude, but his mind was eager to touch and he wasn’t always
in
complete control.
Jazz had just told him he didn’t mind as long as Sam didn’t attempt
to get deeper. Sam had been horrified, then
had sworn
never to do so against their will. He would never violate their trust.
“So do you,” Bumblebee only said.
Sam blushed and evaded the blue optics.
“Bumblebee? What would you have done if I
hadn’t followed you that night? What if I had just called the
police?” he tried to change the topic.
The yellow mech regarded him curiously.
“But
you did follow.”
“What if I hadn’t? You didn’t know me at all.”
“I knew your ancestors. I researched them.”
“It’s not like knowing a person. So, what if I
had stayed at home?”
“I would have tried a different plan. But you did follow me,
Sam.
My plan could have used some more detailed planning, true, but it
worked. In
the end, you were there.”
“Still am.” Sam smiled.
And he would stay. This was where he really belonged, where he felt at
home. His
parents had come to accept that their son’s friends were all robotic
life
forms, were aliens, and Sam was grateful for that. He didn’t know how
he
would have reacted had they forbidden contact. His twenty-first
birthday was
over a year away and he was technically still not a full grown-up. And
he still
lived at home and his father paid the rent for the student apartment in
He’d have a job here when he graduated. He knew that. Secretary of Defense John Keller had already agreed upon
Prime’s
proposal to employ Sam. He’d be permanently assigned to the Autobots.
Sam liked that. It’s what he worked for.
Bumblebee held out his hand, palm up and Sam slid onto it. His guardian
lowered
him to the ground and they walked back to the base.
°° °° °°
°°
°°
Somewhere in the distance Jazz and Barricade
played
their games, transforming and mock-fighting, going back into their
alternate
modes and racing ahead of each other – unaware of Sam’s slip-up.