Title: „Glimpses: Sparkling"
Status: Part 2 out of 4 (WIP)
Fandom: Transformers; roughly G1 with Bayverse background elements
Characters: Kup; Hot Rod; OCs (Rapid, Rush, Edge, Hedge, Crusader, Link-up, Barrage, Welder)Word Count: 3562
Disclaimer: See part 1; I won't write it again!
Rating: T
Beta: This is currently unbeta'ed. I will exchange this chapter with a beta'ed version as soon as Optimus Bob has done the magic ^-^ Normally, I would wait before posting this, but I wanted, for once in my life, to keep my self-appointed deadline. - Alright, alright – I know I am already some days too late! Jeez, don't rub it in (pout). So all mistakes are mine, but I don't think there are too many LOL
(So when you get another alert soon, don't be surprised; the third part will take about a month or two to write).
Warning/AN: I hope you will be pleasantly surprised that this is NOT the end of the fic. I got some more ideas, which will take "Sparkling" beyond pure, cute fluff – hope you will enjoy that change!
Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first part! Please R& R – don't be shy and hide out there, "shadow reading" ^v^ Constructive criticism, suggestions, comments, your interpretation, what you liked and didn't; let me know – all that is most welcome! Flames will feed my barbecue fire, what else could be their purpose?
Glimpses: Sparkling Part II
He slipped away, placing his feet carefully, intent on reducing their metallic clanking in the empty corridor.
Slinking around the next corner, he spotted the place he remembered from yesterday. He dropped quickly to his knee plates and crawled into the small tunnel, created by a bundle of cables. They thrummed with electricity, tickling his sensor net.
It wasn't the best hiding place but it should provide enough shelter to avoid being found, at least until he could come up with a better idea.
All of this would be much easier had he had access to the Nebula's mainframe and thus to a layout of the ship. But complaining about that to Kup had ended in a lecture about weak firewalls, viruses and nasty possibilities.
The old Wrecker had not meant to frighten him, he understood, he was just presenting the facts. And now he knew exactly why sparklings like him were not allowed to connect with the ship's system; period.
So, lacking that advantage, he increased the sensitivity of his audios – a neat little trick Rapid had taught him while Kup wasn't looking – and actually managed to pick up the specific noise he was searching for. The modulation of the familiar vocalizer stood out against the background hum of mechanic activity.
"... 19 petrorabbits, 20 petrorabbits, 21 petrorabbits...," counted Rush diligently, back in the med bay, while his twin seemed to argue with Welder... – Good, he had enough time left.
In all honesty, he hadn't been too comfortable around the twins, at least in the beginning. Not only had they fed him weird energon, making him sick, but they tended to grab him too roughly and often shouted at him when they got impatient...
But, after what the adult mechs only dubbed 'the accident', Kup had made it a point to teach them how to treat him, like he had back in the officers mess. And Kup had watched from the sidelines for some days, ready to step in or offer advice.
So he had relaxed and soon stopped altogether to constantly look for his guardian's reassuring presence, never seeing the Wrecker slip away during an exciting game of tag; three days ago.
Kup wouldn't have done that if it wasn't safe for him, which must have meant that he approved of the twins abilities as caretakers, when the older 'bot had his own servos full with work.
He was not a baby spark anymore, - he was okay with that. Rush and Rapid were actually pretty nice 'bots, when you knew them better. Besides, he had soon learned where Kup's quarters were, so he snuck off to him in the evenings, for energon and story time.
Today, the twins opted to play hide-and-seek after their shift, - and he really really did not want to lose again. Five times in a row wasn't bad luck anymore, it was a curse! - But where could he hide?
Pondering that, he set optics on the elevator at the other end of the corridor. With its doors open, it would still be possible to take cover behind the console on the left side, where the control panel was...
He had been told in no uncertain terms that he was not supposed to leave this level of the ship, - but he had no intention to use the elevator. It couldn't be wrong if he just slipped inside and wedged himself in that gap... right?
He wormed his way backwards out of the cable tunnel and made some hesitating steps forward, wrestling with himself to make up his processor. The possibility to finally best the twins won out. – But as soon as he went inside, the elevators doors closed behind him, swishing shut, before he could turn around. A sudden lurch upwards shook his tiny frame and he clung to the console in panic.
His tank began to churn with a burst of tickling electrons. Oh no – where is this thing taking me? He would be in so much trouble for this...
Just as the first warning of overheating flashed across his screen, the doors opened again, sliding away to reveal a room full of activity.
Blossoming panic forgotten, he stood and stared, mesmerized; feeling his optics widen. He tried to take everything in, which was difficult, being so small. But at the other end of the room was a big screen, full of colorful pictures, with circles and symbols and text in Cybertronian; far too complex for him to understand.
A flock of mechs he hadn't yet met clustered there, pointing and discussing something, pulling up more photos with gestures.
Along the silvery walls were more, smaller screens, with consoles and workstations, all blinking and humming, full of buttons, each monitored by even more mechs and the occasional femme.
And right there, over a table like thingy as big as himself, light shimmered and a hologram of a city flickered into existence, and –
He was beginning to feel dizzy and overwhelmed, as his processor struggled to keep up with so much input. That so many vocalizer's talked, ordered and argued, made it even worse. – But this was so exciting after being holed up in the med bay for an orn, he just had to explore a bit.
Before the movement could register, he had already left the elevator. He stepped forward, wanting to see the hologram –
His back collided with something sturdy, unmovable, rattling his silver armor plates with a crunching clank noise, sending him tumbling to the hard floor. He sat there a moment, slightly disoriented and confused by all those warnings flashing stark red over his screen, as interrupted relays were reset and sensors recalibrated.
The loud grinding of gears cut through that haze like an alarm of its own and he glanced up at the thing that had tripped him.
Nothing but pedes filled his sight, ending in sharp, jutting angles. He was forced to crane his neck as far as it would go, the joint protesting, to get a good view of the giant of a white mech. – And when his optics finally reached the helm, he immediately wished they hadn't.
Dark blue optics looked down on him with clear disgust, as if he was nothing but a drone or something organic. The dozens of small faceplate parts had shifted, overlapped, to form a deep frown, - it looked pretty scary over the rim of a pointy ending battlemask.
Basic programming kicked in and he shrank back, trying to curl up on himself, to appear as small as possible; clicking beseechingly. Panic resurfaced full force – but Kup had said that he would be safe onboard the Nebula, and he didn't lie to him; never.
But –
"What are you doing here, sparkling? I'm quite certain that your caretakers informed you, that the bridge is off-limits for civilians," the words grated harshly against each other, frighteningly stern and clipped.
The white mech leaned closer, scowling now, looming over him and casting his tiny frame into a dark shadow. Something about that was horribly familiar. He whimpered in fear, terrified.
He wanted Kup!
BREAK
Link-up was monitoring his assigned frequency, when a terrified whimper scattered his single minded concentration. Terminating the connection, he looked up from his workstation and zeroed in on the source of the noise:
Crusader was staring down a little sparkling. The sparkling. The lone survivor of the Titania the rumor mill was going crazy over.
The protoform was obviously half scared out of its processor, cowering on the floor, trying to fuse with it in an attempt to hide. Link-up, himself fresh from the Academy, could relate. He didn't like to be the focus point of that icy gaze either. Naturally, seeing as no one else seemed to notice the unfolding drama, he decided to come to the rescue.
"Sir, with all due respect, there is surely no need to be harsh with such a young spark. I'm sure it meant no harm." While talking, Link inserted himself between his CO and the child, interrupting the unfair staring contest. He managed to produce some soothing clicks – being a communication specialist had its perks, even if it was only a flexible vocalizer.
Big green optics turned to him and the slight tremor in the protoform subsided; a twitter answered him. Taking that as a cue, Link-up bent down and helped the sparkling back on its pedes. It inched closer to him as Crusader straightened with a grumble of distaste.
"Escort it off the bridge immediately and return to your station."
"Yes, sir."
Link-up saluted smartly. – But all he did was to wait, until his CO was out of audio range and occupied with other officers; discussing the survey mission report.
Seeing the coast was clear, he kneeled down to be on optic level and smiled in a way that was, hopefully, reassuring, seeing as the child was far from being at ease around him.
"Sorry about that rude welcome, little one. So... what brings you here? You know, - just because it's off-limits doesn't mean that the bridge is actually interesting."
The sparkling shook its helm so violently in denial that Link-up feared it would end up twisting its delicate wiring: "Did not."
"Really?" Link's optic ridge rose skeptically at that. "Then how did you end up here?"
The child pointed accusingly at the elevator: "Hide 'n seek. With twins. It moved."
Link-up nodded sympathetically. Of course, to a sparkling, it would seem like a good idea to hide inside the elevator. Pity this one was connected straight to the bridge and activated through a light barrier...
He stifled a laugh, imagining the little one's panicked – and surely guilt ridden – faceplate when it realized that it was trapped and off to Primus knew where.
"I see. Then... hm... Oh, yeah, - how about we let the twins suffer a bit longer searching for you and I call Kup to get you? Sounds like a plan?" Link-up winked mischievously; harboring ulterior motives, now that he got his chance to win a bet.
The youngsters optics shone more brightly at the mention of the Wreckers designation and it trilled and clicked, clearly all for that idea.
"Good. Wait right there for a moment. – And don't touch anything."
Link-up went back to his station, making sure that Crusader was still distracted. He would have preferred to use his comm link to call Kup... But the old soldier was not one to give his frequency freely to someone outside of his trusted unit. And the mech was a senior officer with a much higher security clearance than a newbie operator. So normal means would have to suffice.
He opened a channel, reaching Construct, down in the hangar. After a short exchange, he was patched through: "Link-up to Kup."
Static flittered and crackled over the frequency.
"What is it? I'm busy down here," answered a gruff voice a moment later. Kup's words echoed heavily, indicating that he was currently working in an enclosed space, like a maintenance shaft.
Something clanked with considerable force against metal, making Link's audios ring. One beat followed after the other, accompanied by muffled cursing; Link's best guess was something along the lines of 'Primus forsaken rusty bowels'.
"We've got a little sparkling situation here on the bridge. And Crusader is not happy about it. I need you to pick it up, 'cause I can't leave my post," he explained, eager to see proof of the rumors for himself.
Silence on the other end. – Another clank erupted and steam hissed; some mechanism or other went online with a grinding whine.
"... I'm on my way. Kup out."
BREAK
Kup hadn't been kidding: Much earlier than Link-up had anticipated, the elevators doors opened to reveal the green-gray frame of the old Wrecker.
He looked slightly disheveled, covered in specs of oil and grease; cleaning his servos with a cloth. He carried a belt full of tools, slung casually over one shoulder.
"You should have comm'd the twins. I'm on shift and you knew that," he accused mildly without preamble.
Link-up wasn't listening, since he was focussed on the little silver streak darting over to Kup. It twittered so happily that – finally! – some helms turned away from their tasks, watching the unusual guest.
Little servos reached for big ones, demanding to be picked up, and the mech, known as a gruff old soldier, obliged with careful motions. Link-up could not help but notice the natural ease with which the sparkling settled in the crook of Kup's arm; held close to his spark.
That was even better than the gossip! Aloud, Link said: "Well, you'd better deal with it – it's your sparkling, after all."
Kup grumbled something under the hiss of his vents, but the little one squealed happily: "Kup's!" – And nuzzled against the thick gray chest plate.
Aw – that's just too cute! Link-up stifled a laugh and shared amused looks with the rest of the crew; Icon, the pretty pink femme, owed him some energon goodies. Maybe he could even take her on a date...
"Silence!" barked Crusader, glaring from his files. Everyone sobered up instantly and turned away; Link included.
Only Kup, taking the good natured humor just as in stride as the glare, was completely unimpressed. Carrying the sparkling, he muttered: "Come on, lad. Let's get you back to those twins. – I'll have a nice little chat with them about this."
BREAK"Where is the little glitch now?" growled Rush, clenching his servos in frustration.
Welder deactivated the projection he was working on; yellow visor retracting into his helm. He smiled slightly: "Hide-and-seek, again?"
Rapid huffed, getting up from the floor, where he had peeked under a desk; the sparklings favorite hiding spot these days. "No, you overworked, dump-it-on-younglings-doc-bot. It's time for his energon."
Welder raised an optic ridge, suddenly stern: "I hope it's not –"
"Nope. Fixed, just like Kup has shown us. We don't make the same mistake twice."
"If we can help it," added Rush, as an afterthought. To prove their point, he pulled a cube form subspace, sniffing in disgust a the coppery stench. "We don't want to have the old-timer on our case again. Not after the bridge disaster. It sucks – he's a rust bucket for sure, but a Wrecker, so he knows all the tricks."
"And our hiding places," Rapid grimaced sourly. His audios were practically still ringing from the last lecture, not to mention the overall panic as the sparkling was nowhere to be found.
Welder was quite certain that he didn't imagine the fondness in the twins vocalizer's, contrasting with their exasperated words. Smile broadening, he said: "Then you should already know where to look. It's no secret that Kup is practically the young ones guardian. It has become quite attached right on sight – well, no surprise there, after what happened on the Titania."
The twins shared a look full of curiosity: "About that... We've never before heard of such a thing as a memory wipe, outside of re-programming, that is. – Why did that happen to silverhead?"
Welder hummed thoughtfully, arranging his tools on a tray out of habit, before he settled for an explanation: "It is part of the basic programming of a sparkling, a fail-safe, so to speak. Before it became custom to install that subroutine, we lost many of the young ones when the Quintessons struck. The forced separation, the dissolution of the creator-sparkling bond, would result in a violent backlash, either crashing vital systems or crippling the children psychically. Nowadays, the memory cache is wiped and the long term data locked with high-security coding. It allows for the sparkling to form a substitute bond or to function completely without one, like what happened with your 'silverhead'."
"So... He has just forgotten his creators and latched onto Kup?" Rapid, having lost his own creators not long ago in an attack on one of the colonies, sounded seriously disturbed by that thought.
Welder shook his green helm, not letting his sympathy being obvious: "No. They will return when he has his first upgrade. The process is complicated, - I was just explaining in laymen's terms. He will be fine, in the end."
Rush shrugged, unperturbed: "Kup's down in the shuttle bay. Let's catch ourselves a sparkling."
Rapid's faceplate brightened, having just realized something: "Hey Rush – we can scold Kup for forgetting feeding time!"
"Awesome!"
BREAK
Kup was lying stretched out under one of the shuttles, dismantling its shield generator.
He checked another circuit board; patiently, wire for wire – there. The area around one tiny processor chip was black...
A low whistle announced the arrival of the sparkling. – Completely unnecessary, seeing as his sensor net had picked up the approaching energy signature breems ago. Not to mention the telling clicks the young one never seemed to be able to suppress, especially when it was excited.
Normally, Kup would have scolded it for sneaking away – again – from its caretakers. But they would soon reach Cybertron... – Kup decided to cut the scraplet some slack.
"Help?" inquired a high pitched voice cheerfully, originating from besides Kup's pedes.
"Sure, young one. Just keep out of the way of the other mechs, alright?"
"Promise!"
"Good. Take that energon cube I prepared for you and then you can fetch me the soldering iron, the blue and red one."
BREAK
The space port of Iacon, a gigantic dome-like structure, connected to dozens of shipyards and docking bays, was buzzing with activity.
Freighters launched off to the colonies or returned, carrying energon and precious alloys from the moon bases and far beyond; using the space bridges, created in the Golden Age.
While the Nebula's crew was cleared for a short leave, the ships systems would be overhauled and their captain, Crusader, was off to Command to get new orders.
As for Kup, he was back on active duty, - and called in for a hearing, in reaction to him disobeying orders, as he had boarded the Titania.
Kup led the twins, the sparkling in tow, away from the whole ruckus of dock workers, shouts and heavy machinery, into the shadows of a massive durasteel column.
"You two were informed by Welder, right?"
Rapid and Rush both nodded, looking unusually pensive and drawn: "Yeah, we know. We'll watch silverhead, don't worry."
"Good luck with that court martial," added Rush wryly.
Kup jabbed a warning digit at him: "Don't get your hopes up. I'll get my servos on you, now that your training period is over. I won't get myself dishonorably discharged before I can torture you bozos with some drills."
Ignoring their show of faked groans and moans, Kup bent down to optic level with the sparkling: "Be good now, little one. I'll see you after I'm done."
It chirped unhappily but stayed put besides Rush, so Kup patted its tiny helm gently before he left without another backwards glance.
"Good luck!"
"See ya soon, Kup!"
BREAK
Kup vanished easily into the crowd, weaving between frames and alt form vehicles, loaded with tanks and containers, driving like Primus forsaken punks.
He followed the well known path to the eastern exit.
Mere breems later he approached their established meeting place; the others, having landed with the second transport, were already waiting in the shadows of a statue.
Hedge, Barrage and Edge saluted smartly in greeting, the only part of protocol they always adhered to; outside of official occasions, that is.
"Hello Kup. I trust you received my full report and found it satisfactory?" asked Hedge in his typical, stiff way. His additional armor plates grated on each other as he relaxed his rigid salute stance to something vaguely resembling 'at ease.'
Kup clapped his SIC on the shoulder and nodded to the younger 'bots: "Yes. Well done, as always."
"Thank –"
"Hey, that's fine and all. But we have only three groons to go till we need to face-off with both our Prime and the Lord High Protector," interrupted Edge, shifting and twitching on his pedes in agitation. "We're slagged."
Barrage snorted, while Hedge vented a long suffering sigh: "Technically, only Kup is called in to 'face-off' with them. Furthermore, I fully trust our commanders ability to present our case in the most suitable manner, so that we will avoid undue punishment."
Kup chuckled: "Thanks for your vote of confidence. – And Edge: Don't worry. All we received, or rather I, was a missive for me to attend a hearing in the Hall of Primes. Command didn't even use the official channel. We should be fine – otherwise, the whole unit would have had to appear before the assembled Court, with Crusader present as the prosecutor."
"So the Titania affair could be for cover only? Special mission assignment again?" asked Barrage, weapon systems flaring up for an astrosecond in anticipation.
Hedge nodded: "A highly probable possibility."
"So I'm the ignorant drone of the bunch, or what?" mumbled Edge, faceplate darkening with energon, regretting his embarrassing outburst.
"No use to get all worked up before we know what exactly is going on. I'll comm you when the hearing is closed. – Why don't you all head over to the Oil's Delight and have a drink?"
Edge eyed his CO dubiously: "My, being old as rust, you're really laid back, aren't ya?"
That earned him a light smack from Kup. – And one of Hedge's famous speeches about respecting your elders.
Slagged, indeed.
tbc...
AN: R&R, please ^-^ Next is the scary meeting with both Megatron and Optimus Prime... If you haven't read it above, it will take me approx. two months to write the next part. So... too fluffy? Not cute enough? Want more story than "aw, cute" moments? OCs annoying? Crusader scary, much? Bored to tears already? Let me know, don't be shy! ^-^
Background-Music for this one was: "Sicher sein" (lit. "Being safe") by Laith Al-Deen; listen to it, it's a great song!