(This is chapter one of a story that I'm writing about the life and times of Smokescreen, a character who is in the show 'Transformers Prime').

Chapter 1

On-Line

He lay on his back on a hard-ish metal slab that was the Cybertronian version of a "bed". He raised one servo (hand) in front of his face and examined it carefully. It had five digits; each a slightly different length and width from each other. He flexed his hand, practicing curling it and uncurling it into a fist.

"He's a cute one," came a high voice to his left.

He turned his head, startled at the noise of someone talking.

A battle-scarred Medi-Bot stood next to him; his body shielding the glare of artificial light shining from above.

"Hey, little fellow." The Medi-Bot grinned.

Another Medi-Bot came up to stand beside his partner. The newest Medi-Bot looked down at him and ran his eyes down each plate of metal he had on. "Their all cute, Tip." The Medi-Bot responded to his partner's previous statement.

The first Medi-Bot shrugged, throwing a glance at his partner. "I know. Weren't we all cute when our metal was still soft and unscarred?"

"And shiny too," commented the second Medi-Bot half jokingly.

Both Medi-Bots stared down at him, and he stared back up at them, his big optics wide.

The first Medi-Bot bent over his bed to rest a hand next to his head. "Little one—your name?"

His name? Well of course he had a name. It was—it was… "Don't I have a name?" He thought.

The Bot smiled. "Your name—is Smokescreen."

Smokescreen gave a happy chirruping sound and grasped one of the big Bots digits with his little servo.

Both Medi-Bots grinned down at Smokescreen; who was twittering away about his new name. Of course—only Smokescreen understood what he was saying. Or at least was trying to say. All sparklings twittered and made other noises before they developed the use of real speech.

Finally he stopped twittering and stared expectantly at the two Medi-Bots, waiting for whatever came next.

The second Medi-Bot—Tip, pushed his partner out of the way and scooped Smokescreen gently into his arms. He then walked slowly over to a different part of the room—Smokescreen couldn't see where they were going from his position in the Medi-Bot's arms, but that just deepened his curiosity.

So he contented himself with staring up at the ceiling. It had a few lights built into it that were shining down on the room; it was made of a pearly white stone.

Not very interesting.

After what seemed like forever to the young sparkling (10 seconds) the Medi-Bot came to a stop. Shifting his arms he set Smokescreen down onto the stone floor. The Medi-Bot than put one hand around Smokescreen's waist and lifted him to his feet. Smokescreen swayed on his stabilizing servos (feet) trying to stay standing.

Now standing up without the Medi-Bot's help, he noticed something in front of him. It was tall, and shiny, reflecting the lights glare; reflecting everything actually.

Later on Smokescreen would learn that it was a mirror, but for now—it was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen—which wasn't saying much, considering he was only about 10 minutes old.

Staring into the reflective object, his eyes widened. Fore, in the reflective thing in front of him, he could see another sparkling. The sparkling in the thing in front of him was colored gray, blue, white and red. It had bright eyes that glowed with blue light, a small metal body with wiring visible underneath, and its head had a small crest starting from its forehead to stick up above its head.

He tried to move toward it; the sparkling in the reflecting object tried to move toward him too. He failed to walk and instead fell with a small crash to the stone floor; the other sparkling fell too.

Getting up on shaky feet, the sparklings looked quizzically at each other.

He heard a sound behind him and whirled around to see Tip and his partner trying to stifle their laughter through their servos.

For the first time in his short life, Smokescreen felt something different inside him. The word 'pride' came to his mind, as if it had been there all along. He didn't find anything amusing. He was hurt that these two Medi-Bots found him so funny.

"I'll show them," Smokescreen thought with a scowl. He toddled as steadily as he could up to Tip's leg and clenching his servo into a fist, brought it against Tip's leg with a crack! Smokescreen howled with pain, bringing his tiny fist away from Tip's leg and rubbing it gently with his other servo.

Tip looked down, surprised. "Watch it there, sonny boy. You'll bruise your metal." He frowned slightly.

Tip's partner reached down to scoop up Smokescreen—Smokescreen took a shaking step backwards. "Aw, Bolts, he's afraid you're going to hurt him." Commented Tip.

Bolts pulled back upwards and shrugged. "You know I wouldn't hurt a little guy like him."

"'Course I do, but he doesn't!" Pointed out Tip, swatting Bolts gently on his back.

"Eh, true." Shrugged Bolts again.

Smokescreen scowled harder. "I'm not scared of you! I just don't want your help!" He thought, immediately stopping rubbing his fist.

Bolts reached down, and this time picked him up into his arms. "You don't have to be scared of uncle Bolts," he said jokingly.

"You're not my uncle—whatever that is."

But the bigger Bot didn't hear his thoughts of course, and instead carried him over to the bed he'd first been on. Laying him out on its metal surface Bolts clicked a button on the side of the bed that raised metal bars around it. "There, now you won't fall out, huh Smokescreen?"

Smokescreen tried to give Bolts a burning look, but somehow ended up making a pouting face instead.

"Nice try Smokey," said Bolts with a tone that clearly said—"I've-seen-that-face-with-a-million-other-sparklings."

"Fine than," scoffed Smokescreen inwardly. He turned around to face the other wall, rather than look at Bolts.

He'd only just come on line, but he sure hoped there were friendlier Bots than these two around.