TransWarped

Chapter 11: A Slow Boiling Plot

"Hellooooo!! Cybertron to Earth to Jack! Hey, wake up!" A loud voice from above called out. The voice was accompanied by a few light taps on Jack's shoulder. The tapping and yelling continued for a few more seconds before it really had an effect on the teen.

Jack Darby regained consciousness on the bright blue couch in the guest apartment of Sumdac Tower. It was a disorienting process further exacerbated by the bright yellow presence looming over him. Eventually, Jack had enough brain power to sit up and wipe the drool off his face.

Then his attention was immediately drawn to the Autobot standing in front of him.

"Wh- Bumblebee?! What are you doing here?" Jack croaked as he looked around. "How'd you get in?"

The living room they were in was spacious, an open floor plan with minimum furniture, but the ceiling was only a foot or so taller than Bumblebee. One wrong move and Bee's horns could easily catch on one of the many bulbous ceiling lights. To his credit, Bumblebee made his way around every object with practiced care. He made it look easy.

The Cybertronian began to meander around and explained, "I took the elevator, duh. You disappeared for hours and Sumdac said he dropped you off here. Have you seriously been asleep this entire time?"

"I ate a lot, okay?" Jack groaned and combed his fingers through his hair.

Jack's lunch with Isaac Sumdac had been delicious and only slightly awkward. The cafeteria in the building was just like the rest of the building, futuristic yet also modeled after the 1970s. Most importantly, the food was delicious and readily available. Without his mom's warnings and with Professor Sumdac's insistence that he eat to his heart's content, Jack went in. Hard. The teen hadn't eaten that much food in a very long time.

After Jack had eaten until his stomach nearly burst, the Professor invited Jack to wait for the Autobots in the guest suite levels of the Tower. It was better than sitting on his sad little bench on the roof of the Tower, and Jack readily took the offer. He was only inside the guest suite apartment for a few minutes before succumbing to a food coma and collapsing on the incredibly plush and gaudy couch.

Bumblebee stood in front of the window. The lights of the city painted the yellow bot in an array of colors. With a chuckle, he glanced over his shoulder with a wide grin. "Sari used to recharge after she ate a lot too. It used to freak Ratchet out. Anyway, you ready to go?"

"Mmn, yeah," Jack sighed as he forced himself off of the incredibly plush couch.

As he stood, he grabbed the grey duffel bag laying next to the couch. Sumdac had been generous enough to give Jack a duffel bag filled with hoodies, socks, and other basic necessities. The teen wrangled a grey hoodie and light green beanie out of the bag and quickly put them on. Everything in the duffel bag, including the bag, had a Sumdac Systems cog on it.

He then reached for the remote but paused as he heard three children's voices backed by non-copyrighted Christmas music. Bright colors burst across the TV screen as smiling kids cheered with wide grins.

"I want Sound Wave!" One brunette declared.

"I want Sound Wave too!" A blonde shouted with their fists high above their head.

Then a gaggle of children followed, each of them jumping around and dancing with a blue toy in their hands. "We love Sound Wave!"

Jack furrowed his eyebrows as the commercial continued. 'Sound Wave' was plastered on top of the screen. The logical part of Jack's brain knew that this wasn't the deadly Decepticon that doggedly pursued him and his friends at every opportunity, and it also pointed out that the spelling was different. The intuitive part of his brain, however, didn't really care about either point.