Bumblebee smiled down at the awestruck humans, even though they wouldn't see it as a smile. They were staring at him, wide-eyed, muttering to each other about his possible origin and settling on Japan. Bumblebee didn't mind. Optimus would set them straight when he got there.

"Can you talk?"

Well, no, he couldn't. But he had speakers and a satellite connection and hey, there was just the commercial he needed.

"So, y-you talk with the radio?"

Add a little clapping along with the radio applause, show them he wasn't just a mindless robot spitting out broadcasts, and oh, he hoped they wouldn't end up running away from him. The girl made an odd face at his movements, while the boy just looked perplexed.

"So, last night, what was that?"

He had to jump back and forth, skimming the channels, a clip here, a word there, ending with a revival pastor that made him laugh inside, 'rain down like visitors from heaven, hallelujah!'

The girl, her face doing more of those strange motions. "So, what are you some kind of-"

"Cut!"

...Cut? Didn't they shout that on movie sets?

Bumblebee frowned, concerned, when a man stalked over to the boy and girl, megaphone in his hand. "What the hell," he said flatly, staring up at Bumblebee. "Was that? A religious broadcast? Seriously?"

"Lay off the robot, Michael," the girl said, chidingly. "It works better than using Star Trek videos off Youtube."

Robot?

"Oh, for the love of-"

"You wanted an actor, Mike," the boy said. Not an animatronic-"

Animatronic? A ...puppet?

"-but something with personality. I think you'll have to deal with it ad-libbing the radio lines."

Radio lines? Ad-libbing? Did he mean this was scripted?

"Besides, I like this one."

Implying there was more than one of him and what was going on?

The man - Michael? - threw up his hands. "Fine," he groused. "But if I get fundies on my ass for using that preacher's voice, I'm redirecting them to you two. Someone reset Bumblebee!"

Reset? What was this? None of this was making sense, and someone was opening a panel on his foot and no, no, this was all wrong, all wrong, and he tried to contact Optimus and only got silence in return and no-

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Reboot in 3...

2...

1...

Bumblebee smiled down at the awestruck humans, even though they wouldn't see it as a smile. They were staring at him, wide-eyed, muttering to each other about his possible origin and settling on Japan. Bumblebee didn't mind. Optimus would set them straight when he got there.