Yay! First one-shot in this book!

Ok, so for those of you who don't know, Arya_Skye is working on a book called Little Optimus. This one-shot is based off of that, and happens somewhere in between chapters 2 and 3. At the time of me writing this, I have not read beyond chapter three, so if any of this doesn't match up with the actual story, that's why.

This is the short comic-style thing I first came up with after reading Miko wonder if Lil' Opie would go after Megatron.

If Megatron were nicer:

~~~

Lil' Optimus: Megatron, I can't let you keep being mean!

Megatron: O_o *starts to walk away*

Lil' Optimus: *grabs onto Megatron's ped* I'm not gonna let you get away!

Megatron: ಠ_ಠ RATCHET!!!

~~~

What comes after this line is what I got out of that. Enjoy!

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A Big Adventure (in the optics of a small bot)

~~~

Optimus watched the others as he sat on a berth. Becoming a sparkling was certainly...different. His mind kept going back and forth between his normal self and his sparkling self, and whenever his mind was in it's mature state, it would affect his sparkling state, causing premature development, which was damaging his processor.

He had overheard Ratchet telling the others what he was doing to himself, and he was now trying to concentrate on things that sparklings would normally do. At the moment, he was staring at a datapad with basic Cybertronian code sentences, trying to force his processor to focus on one section at a time.

As he scanned over the symbols, he lost his focus as he reverted to his sparkling mindset. He quickly slid off of the berth, toddled over to Arcee, who was running a ground bridge diagnostic, and gently tapped her pin. "Arcee, can you help me?" When he didn't get a response, he climbed the ladder nearby to get higher so she would see him.

When he got to the top, he saw the light coming from the computer screens, and as he got closer, all the buttons. He pushed a button, and there was a sound. He was startled at first, but then he pushed another button. Another sound. He giggled and started pressing as many buttons as he could. Now there were sounds and more lights popping up!

Arcee was getting error messages for the ground bridge, and then all of a sudden the diagnostic cancelled and the ground bridge opened. She looked towards the desk computers, and saw Optimus with his servo on a keyboard staring at the portal. "Optimus! What are you doing?" She picked him up and set him back on the ground, and he looked up at her with lubricant in his optics. Why did Arcee get mad? There were lights and buttons and sounds! How could he resist?

Arcee saw his face and felt a little sorry for him. She picked up the datapad and gave it to Optimus, and then picked him up and rocked him a little. As he rocked, she stroked his cheek and wiped his optics. "There, there. You'll be fine. I'm sure what you were doing seemed fun, but it was messing with the bridge diagnostic that Ratchet needs me to run. The ground bridge is fritzing, so I'm trying to figure out what's wrong."

Optimus looked over at the bridge portal, which was just closing. "That's a ground...thingy? It doesn't look broken. It looked fun! What's in there?" Arcee smiled slightly. Little Optimus was kind of cute, although she wasn't going to admit that to anyone. She carried him over to a berth and sat down with him on her lap. On the datapad, she tapped a few things and a globular map appeared.

"There's nothing inside the ground bridge, but when you go through, you can get to anywhere on earth. See?" She pointed to several locations, and pictures popped up of each place. As little Optimus looked at the pictures, she wondered what Ratchet's progress was on a solution that would get Optimus back to normal.

Just then, Bumblebee walked into the room. Arcee set Optimus on the berth next to her and stood up. "Hey Bee, do you mind watching Optimus? I need to get this diagnostic done for Ratchet." Bee looked over at Optimus, who was pretending the datapad was a spaceship. ::I don't mind. You go ahead and do what you need to do, don't worry about us.:: Arcee nodded. "Thanks Bee."

Bumblebee picked up Optimus and went to a back room where they would be out of the way for a while. As soon as he was let down, Optimus started running around with the datapad, pretending it was a ship and making it "shoot" at imaginary enemies. Bee chuckled to himself a bit, and then picked up a piece of scrap metal and started playing with it like a toy spaceship, making it chase after Optimus.

They played spaceship for a while, and then Optimus got bored and stopped. "Bumblebee, what did you turn into? That thing with the round things that goes really fast! Can I do that too?" Bee had to stop and think before he understood what he was asking. ::You mean earlier? It's called a car.:: He transformed and drove around Optimus a couple times.

Optimus oohed and aahed and clapped his servos. "I wanna try!" He squinted his optics and crouched, trying to transform. After a few tries, he finally figured it out and transformed into a little semi-truck. He squealed and sped around the room, and Bumblebee transformed and made tunnels for him by getting on his servos and pin joints and letting him drive through.

All of a sudden, Ratchet commed Bumblebee. "We've detected a faint yet steady energon signal. I need you and Bulkhead to go check it out." Bumblebee stood up and started to leave, and little Optimus transformed and ran to him. "Where are you going? I thought we were having fun."

Bumblebee kneeled down to his level. ::I'm sorry Optimus, but Bulkhead and I have a mission. We'll be back soon, though.:: He put his servo on Optimus' shoulder, and then got up and gave him some energon shards to snack on. ::Make sure to stay out of trouble, ok?:: Optimus nodded, for his mouth was full at the moment.

He watched as Bumblebee left the room, and then quietly followed him. He wanted to see where they were going. As he peeked around the corner, Bulkhead was just walking through the ground bridge, and he decided he would go with them.

He quickly ran across the room and into the ground bridge before anyone had a chance to see him. While he walked through the bridge, he looked around at all the colors. But he couldn't lose sight of Bulkhead, because he still wanted to see what they were doing. But when he got out, he stopped dead in his tracks. There were other bots? But why were they shooting at his friends?

He decided that the purple bots were mean, and that it was his job to help Bumblebee and Bulkhead. He hurried behind a clump of rock and watched to see what the bad bots were doing. Over to one side was a slender silver bot with red and grey parts and wings, who was making his way towards them from behind, so after a bit of concentrating, he transformed his servos into guns and ran in front of them.

"Stop! You're not going to hurt my friends. My team. I won't let you!" He put on his (cutest) most serious face, and Starscream, after looking at the other two Autobots, started laughing at him. "Well, well. If it isn't Optimus Prime himself. How...gratifying. To see the Autobot leader at my feet, and nothing more than a sparkling who thinks himself capable of taking down a seasoned warrior such as myself."

Optimus didn't understand half of what Starscream said, but he knew his team needed protecting, and he was the only one there who was able to. He aimed his weapons at the 'Con. "I said, I won't let you hurt my friends! I'm serioustis!" When Starscream tried to continue on, he grabbed onto his ped and held on tight.

At that very moment, Bumblebee heard gunfire behind him and turned to protect Bulkhead's rear in case it was an ambush. Starscream was there, but he was being held back by none other than Optimus himself! ::Scrap! Bulkhead, cover me. Optimus is out here! And tell Ratchet we need a bridge!::

Starscream was busy trying to detach Optimus from his ped when Bumblebee ran up. "Thank the Allspark! This nuisance sparkling won't let go of me!" Under his mouth cover, Bee smirked. ::You never know, Starscream. That might mean he likes you.:: The Decepticon scowled and tried to shake the sparkling off. But once Optimus saw that Bee was ok, he let go on his own and Bumblebee picked him up.

Bulkhead had managed to secure some energon, and Ratchet had opened the ground bridge. As they went through the bridge, Optimus yawned and fell asleep in Bee's arms. He protected the other Autobots, and that was a good enough adventure for him.

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There! Now I can go read chapters 4 and 5 of Little Optimus!

:D