Don't own Transformers.

Movie Night

or

(Jazz is the only explanation you need)

Someone in the amassed group of people piped up, "Alphabetical! That means we can watch 'Atlantis' soon, right?"

"Chronological would make more sense." Prowl stated with a frown, arms crossed as he surveyed the state of the crowded recreation room. Several noises of disagreement came from the group before him. Whines and protests became muddled under the chatter of the Autobots all geared up for their movie marathon.

If one traced things back, it could be said to have started several days before when Carly made a kid's movie reference that none of the bots understood. So she'd shown a few people. Then others became curious. Then arguments over the different movies began. It ended with Optimus walking into the rec room and, on observing a fight over whether or not 'Finding Nemo' was better than 'The Fox and the Hound', had asked who Dori was.

Which pretty much declared children's movie night to educate those who were from a different planet and had not yet gotten caught up in the crew's latest obsession. The current disagreement, however, was in what order to play them.

The Prime finally made a sound akin to clearing his throat, a habit most of the Autobots had picked up, and waited as everyone fell quiet. "Teletran-1 is going to pick our names at random and that bot gets to choose a movie. Everyone will get a chance to choose but we're not playing the same thing twice." Murmurs started up but everyone seemed to think that was a good plan.

"I have a list of possibilities suggested by Carly and Spike is you need options." Added Prowl, holding up a datapad.

"What if we don't want to choose and think this is stupid?" A grumbled inquiry came from Gears who was scrunched into the corner of the couch. Several dirty looks were thrown his way. The minibot had one of the best seats and was still complaining. Most of the bots had brought blankets and pillows to lounge on by the floor in front of the screen, while a few dragged over chairs to perch on.

Black and white doorwings twitched as the Praxian gave a clipped reply, "Then you are welcome to relieve Red Alert of monitor duty and fill in for him for the duration of our marathon."

He'd said 'our' not because he truly wanted to be there, but because Optimus, Jazz, and Bluestreak had spent a good portion of an hour wearing him down until he promised to come. Not to mention Carly had gotten that firey look in her eyes when he'd tried to get out of it. Wisely, Gears noted the veiled threat, much to some people's disappointment. It had already been agreed upon that certain people (ahem, who may have been in trouble) were going to take turns leaving to watch the monitors so that Red Alert could join in.

With no other issues, everyone settled down. They squished up against each other and jostled for a better view around one of the largest screens in the Ark. Spike and Chip Chase slipped in just in time to join Bumblebee and Carly on the couch. Somehow the Bug had gotten one of the good seats and he lifted Chip's wheelchair so the boy could have a place too. With so little room, the three ended up sitting in Bee's and Smokescreen's laps. Finally everyone quieted as Teletran selected the first name. A monotone voice hummed from the speakers.

'Skyfire'

Moans of disappointment abounded as all the hopefuls realized they had to wait and the shuttle-formers became flustered. He hadn't realized until two minutes ago that they all had to pick one and he didn't know which movie he wanted to watch.

Getting up from his seat behind all the shorter people, Sky asked, "Can I see the list please?"

A good portion of the others all tried to make movies suggestions until Ironhide bellowed at them to shut up. Skyfire handed the list back to Prowl and sat down again, "Erm, 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'?" Whoops and claps responded even though it was more of a tv special than a movie. Everyone quickly became enamored with the children stories. They went through several.

'Treasure Planet' got the younger and more adventurous bots all riled up and pretend sword fighting just outside the semi-circle of lounging bots. Until Sideswipe accidentally knocked over Air Raid and Prime put a stop to the acting. When they got to 'E.T.' there came many jokes on how none of the aliens they'd encountered looked like that but Carly hushed them and pointed out that that wasn't the point of the movie. Several people started to doze when they got to the Disney version of 'Robin Hood' until laughter at the escape and robbery grew too loud. Sometime near midnight in the middle of 'The Black Cauldron' Spike fell asleep, much to several people's amusement. Unfortunately, no one besides the humans had watched 'Bambi' until that night and one one had warned the bots.

No one shall ever speak of crying during the watching of that movie. There was no crying. Autobot warriors don't cry. No one hid their face, looked out from behind their fingers or cringed. It did not happen and there is no proof.

Suffice to say, Bluestreak was the only one who would ever openly admit that he'd gotten very upset. Thankfully, right after that came the Muppets which cheered them all a great deal. Although several people gave Wheeljack wary looks when he got excited by Beaker and the Mad Scientist Dr. Honeydew.

Eventually, at nearly three a.m., Trailbreaker picked 'the Aristocats' which set off a number of rude jokes poking at Mirage. They were pointedly ignored and the movie seemed quite entertaining. All was good.

Until they got to the part where the kittens and Duchess met the trumpet playing 'Scat cat'. As the black and gray feline spoke and it eventually turned to song, everyone collectively turned to stare at Jazz. The Porsche's visor was nearly white with shock and he remained frozen staring at the screen.

"Uhmm...Jazz? Why does that talking feline sound like you?" Fireflight looked at the SIC in confusion. Which was to be expected really, because the animated cat sounded exactly like Jazz. It was completely eerie how identical the vocal tones were. Jazz made no reply and the bots just listened in perplexed silence. Ratchet made a hand gesture at Carly but she shook her head 'no'. The woman had no idea why they had the same voice. It had been years since she'd watched this and any niggling thoughts that Jazz sounded familiar when they first met had stayed in the back of her mind. She was just as surprised and bewildered as they were.

When the song really got going, Jazz started to wiggle. Then hum. A grin spread across his face. Blaster smiled and snapped his fingers in time until several of the others joined in.

"I dunno man. I really don't know." Jazz laughed finally, "But that tune sure is catchy."

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The next day at noon, when several not-morning people were just getting up from recharge, the Ark's intercom system buzzed to life. Instead of an announcement or sirens for a Decepticon attack, swing music started to play.

"Jaaaazzzzzzz!" Shouts, some aggravated and some amused, echoed around the base as the trumpets disrupted their day. Whoops joined in the dancing and clapping. It became incredibly obvious who was a good singer and who wasn't. That didn't stop most of the Autobots from joining in.

'Everybody wants to be a cat,

because a cat's the only cat

who knows where it's at;

while playin' jazz you always has a Welcome mat,

'cause everybody digs a swingin' cat. '

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Ben 'Scatman' Crothers plays Scat cat in the Aristocats and Jazz in the G1 transformers. I never noticed they sound exactly the same until the internet pointed out that it was the same voice actor. Thus, this had to be done.

I salute you Scatman. You make Jazz awesome.