Greets, and two drabbles!
Hello... followed a buncha folks into this community, as I'm already in love with Animated. I came up with a few drabbles... hope you all enjoy(fair warning, I didn't pester anyone to beta them... so I can't make any real guarantees).

Title: "Sacrifices"
Pairings: None.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 447
Characters: Sumdac
Summary: Optimus Prime risked his life for humanity, but not everyone can match his courage.


He died. Of that, there could be no question. From everything he saw and heard, their medic proclaimed as much. Only by a miracle, perhaps some form of divine intervention, did he somehow come back.

As he felt the cold metal of the frame he rested on, he wondered if the Cybertronians worshipped a god of any sort. Did that god save Optimus Prime? Perhaps that helped Prime to make his choice. Rather than give up on a world that, truly, he owed nothing to, he sacrificed his own life to save them. Maybe their god reached out and gave him a second chance.

Long ago, he’d stopped believing in anything except the power of science and cold, hard fact. The facts never gave false hope, or steered one down the wrong path. Every decision in his adult life came from reason, not blind faith.

And then, these Autobots showed up just in time to save the most important thing in the world to him. It made no sense. Of all the times for the newcomers to arrive, they came just when the city, and he himself, needed them most. That defied cold hard facts, no matter how many times he looked at it. And now, one Cybertronian defied death. If they did worship a god, that god favored Optimus Prime.

And how might that god look at him, he wondered. He’d lied to himself all those years, worked on an assumption every bit as irrational as the faith of others. It had no mind, no soul, no independent thought. Just a drone. And who would mind if he made profit off a happy accident?

He could do nothing now. He came up with scores of reasons, from them considering his salvage operation an act of war, to the chance that his daughter might lose her newfound friendship. He considered everything, but in the end, it was his own selfishness that kept him from telling the truth.

He looked at the source of his good fortune, the happy accident that forged his robotics empire so many years ago, his attention turning to the purple symbol on one of the many fragments that lined the room. The red jet boasted the same insignia, The Autobots called them Decepticons, their sworn enemies. At least, he assured himself, this one could do no further harm.

That excuse didn’t fit into the framework either. The Autobots deserved to know the truth, and he’d willingly kept it from them.

Prime risked his life, yet he couldn’t bring himself to risk his reputation.

He turned off the television as the news report ended. “I don’t even know where to begin thanking them…”

Title: "Advertising 101"
Pairings: None.
Rating: G
Word Count: 313
Characters: Sari, Bumblebee, Bulkhead
Summary: Sari introduces the Autobots to celebrity, and confuses them about Earth culture even more.


“Hey Sari, who’s that?”

The girl diverted her attention from the jumbo sized Icee in her hands and looked up at the billboard. She shrugged. “That’s Lacey Deveraux.”

“What’s a Lacey Deveraux?” Bumblebee asked as he craned his head to the side.

“Oh, she’s a popular singer. Dad won’t let me listen to her albums. Not that I’d want to.”

“Is she that bad?”

“Imagine Starscream singing.”

The robot winced. “Ouch. There goes my recharge, tonight.”

Bulkhead stared at the billboard. “She doesn’t look well. She has such dark circles around her eyes.”

“That’s make-up, Bulkhead. People wear it to change their appearance.”

“Like the Legion of Doom 2050?”

“Sort of, except she doesn’t wrestle.”

“So, she’s sort of like us. She changes her appearance.”

“Why?” Bumblebee asked.

“I dunno. Maybe she’s not that good looking.”

“Do all singers like to have their pictures taken with toothpaste?”

“She’s selling it, silly.”

“So, she works in a store as well as sings?”

“No no no,” Sari said, and stopped. “See, people like her music. So people pay her to have her picture taken with their toothpaste, because they think if people like her music, they’ll buy her toothpaste.”

“But what does she know about toothpaste?” Bumblebee asked.

“Nothing,” Sari said. “Just people look up to her, because she’s a singer.”

Both robots shuttered their optics as they considered that.

“That makes even less sense than the whole driveway-parkway thing,” Bumblebee finally said.

“Do you look up to people like that?”

“I used to.”

“But would you buy her toothpaste?” Bulkhead asked.

“I might have, before.“ She smiled. “But I found other people to look up to.”

Bulkhead chuckled and extended one hand to the ground and lifted Sari up to sit on his shoulder. The two continued down the street, and Sari snickered to herself.

“Now, we just work on figuring out an endorsement deal for you guys, and we’ll be all set.”

“As long as I don’t have to sing,” Bumblebee said with a smirk, “It’s all good.”