Work Text:
“Do you think he’s ever gonna stop?”
Russel, Denny, and Fixit were currently sitting in the command center watching the bots. Bee had been yelling for a good five minutes this time and was still going!
”I’m not sure, the lieutenant looks quite angry this thyme- rhyme- time! Although it is understandable considering the stunt Sideswipe pulled this time.”
“Sideswipe, of all the reckless things you have and could have done WHY did you try to join a human race and expect to be able to claim the prize?!”
Sideswipe hesitantly grinned up at his superior, trying to slowly creep away but being halted with a glare. “Aw come on Bee! I was bored and there’s nothing to do around here! And it’s not like anyone saw me-”
”BUT THEY Ċ̴̛͉́́̉́̃̕͠Ọ̴͙̟̫͔̌̈́͆͊͊̽̓̓̊Ȗ̸̘̬̰͙̻̤̞̳̻̗̍̾̔̓̾͛̚̕͝L̸̨̛̩͓̹̘̖̪͔͎̑̅̆͜D̶̙̦̙̊̊̚ ̴̢̧̡̛̗͇͇̝̭͉̙͛̆͑̈́̌̽͘̕H̴̬̜̹͚̬͐̈̈́͑̽͝͠A̷̺̪̗̰̭̝̣͊̏̄̋͊̽͝V̸̳͗̀͠E̸̡̥̭͉͊͑͝!̶͔̩̦̦͚̭̻͇̓̔̆͑̎̍̈́̃͝͝. ” .:Racing without a human is like asking to be discovered and if humans find out we’re on the fragging planet again do you know how much slag we could be in?! I mean…:.
At the descent into binary, the humans were completely lost while Sideswipe paled. Strongarm, watching from the other side of the junkyard, stared at Bee like she was trying to solve a very complicated puzzle.
Finally, Strongarm worked up the courage to interject with, “Uh, lieutenant?”
.:What?!:. Bee snapped
”You, uh… how are you doing that?”
Bee’s eyes widened as he realized, before he threw his head back and beeped in the equivalent of a groan.
Strongarm and Sideswipe glanced at each other, they had no clue what to do.
“Lieutenant?” Fixit asked. Bee looked over and Fixit continued, “Only sparkless dots- lots- bots! are able to speak in binary, how are you doing it.
’Does Bee look nervous?’ Russel thought as he watched the officer squirm under their gazes.
Finally, Bumblebee sighed, .:It’s complicated and I don’t really wanna explain it. Fixit, I need you to track down an Autobot on Earth.:.
After taking a minute to decipher the binary, Fixit frowned. “Lieutenant, I am programmed with all the necessary skills to be proficient in medicine. What is the issue?”
.:The issue,:. Bee exhaled, .:Is that there are currently only three bots alive that can manually switch me back to speaking normally. Now, can you please track down Ratchet?:.
~~~~~~~~
Ratchet groaned in frustration as the tracker glitched and powered off again. This was the fifth time it had shorted out and for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why!
As he sat down at the base of a tree to try and fix it once again, a rumbling sound caught his attention. Was that… an engine? But there are no roads…
Ratchet jumped up, the tracker forgotten on the ground, as he readied for what would likely be a fight. ‘Who in their right mind would drive this far into a forest?!’
The engine cut off suddenly, the forest going completely silent.
Pedesteps.
Closer…
Cloooser….
”Freeze!”
Ratchet jumped out, knife hands to their yellow chassied… wait-
“Bumblebee?!”
Blue optics met Blue optics as Bumblebee beeped (beeped?) in surprise, throwing his hands into the air. The two bots behind him reeling back in surprise at his sudden stop.
.:Ratchet! Good to see you!:.
Ratchet’s eyes narrowed in confusion at the binary but decided to ignore it to focus on why they were here. “Why in Primus’ name are you here? Why are you even on Earth!? I thought you joined the police force on Cybertron!”
.:I did but-:. “Cybertron below me you’re CMO Ratchet! It is so-cool-to-meet-you-sir-I-can’t-believe-the-lieutenant-knows-you-on-a-first-name-basis-I—”
Ratchet chuckled to himself, ‘Younglings.’
Putting on a mask of neutrality, Ratchet said, “And who might you be?”
The young femme stopped her rambling to look up at him with an awestruck look. Bumblebee just facepalmed in the background and elbowed the other youngling when he laughed. “I’m Cadet Strongarm with the Cybertronian Police force sir. The red idiot over there is Sideswipe.” “Hey!” “I’ve heard hundreds of stories about your medical expertise from my friends in Med School right now!”
Ratchet scoffed. He didn’t believe he was any better than the other medics in the war, but he knew from experience that trying to convince people of that fact was much easier said than done.
”Thank you. Now what are you three here for? How did you even manage to locate me, I’ve been off the radar for stellar cycles!”
Bee glanced at the two younger bots before replying. .:Your backup Autobot signal is still active so I had a member of my team track that. I need you to manually reset my voice box. It…:. he hesitated, .:it malfunctioned.:.
“Again?” Ratchet questioned, walking over to open his neck panel and ignoring the adamant head chasing of the yellow bot. “Either we need to find a way to repair it permanently or you need to stop overexerting yourself!”
”What do you mean? You told us on the way here that this is normal for you!”
Bumblebee beeped in exasperation. .:Ratchet, this is something I don’t want to talk about with them, so could you please keep the commentary to a minimum?:.
Ratchet just raised an optic ridge at him as he reached his hand through the panel and flipped a switch, eliciting a squeak out of his patient as a holo-screen popped up.
”Aw come on Bee! We just wanna know what kind of mod you go to talk like that. You never talk about anything from before we came to Earth unless it has to do with Police work and training!” Sideswipe whined, getting a slap on the head from Strongarm.
Bumblebee flinched, moving to stand behind Ratchet a little more. It was such a small movement that nobody who hadn’t known him his whole life would have noticed, but Ratchet did. He knew that the youngling would be too young to have participated in the war, so it was unlikely that it would even cross their minds that this could be from an injury. Still, the topic was a sensitive one for the yellow mech, and Ratchet knew by experience that the two children wouldn’t stop hounding him until they got something.
Ratchet audibly exhaled, “It’s not a mod, it’s an old injury from the war that was impossible to fully repair through normal means, and the… ‘method’ we used to do so caused other issues.”
The cadets were silent for a moment before Strongarm hesitantly asked, “If it was impossible to fix, how’d you do it?”
Ratchet dissipated the holo-screen and shut the panel, signaling that he was finished before turning to face her.
“That is not-“
“I was killed, fell into a vat of Cybermatter, and was resurrected. Now, thank you Ratchet, but it’s time for us to go home.” Bee said as he walked away, leaving two dumbfounded bots and a surprised medic in his wake.
Well.
Ok then.