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Disclaimer: I don’t own anything you recognise.
Miko POV
“Hey Miko!” my older jerk host brother Dave waves as I walk down the driveway to the house.
“Hey Dave I wave back, looking to the car he’s working on (Dave buys junk cars, fixes them up and sells them for fun) “Nice bug” I grin looking at the white 63VW bug with the racing stripe and the 53 on the front.
“It’s a fucking demon” he hits the front with a wrench, walking to the side door “Its possessed or something I swear to god!”
The door files open and hits him into the ground hard, “Why does it keep doing that!” he jumps up, glaring at the car.
I stare at the bug, Is that car alive?
It makes a sound that sorta sounds like a giggle. Yep its alive. “Why don’t you go inside and put some ice on your ego” I order, pushing him to the front door.
Once he’s gone I turn to the bug, “So you got a name?”
He lets out a surprised beep and backs up, opening up the back boot, I walk closer and see the words, Herbie the lovebug. Engraved above the engine.
“Not a talker are you Herbie?” I shrug, looks like I’m doing this the hard way, “Right, one honk for yes, two for no. Got it?”
He honks once.
“Good” I grin, “Now are you a Decepticon?” I ask, getting the hard question out of the way.
Two confused sounding beeps.
“Autobot?” I try only for two more confused beeps to sound, “You have no idea what either of those are do you?”
One beep.
“Okay, then” I take out my phone and call Bulkhead, “Hey Bulk you doing anything?”
“Not really” he replies, “Wanna go dune smashing?”
“Actually, I could use your help” I look to the bug, “Dave brought a classic VW bug home and its alive, names Herbie. But he can’t talk and has no idea about the bots and cons, so any ideas?”
“Seriously? Huh, okay Bee is closer. He and Raf will be at your place in a few.”
“Sweet, thanks Bulk” I end the call the turn back to Herbie, “Okay so you’re not the first living car I’ve met, a few friends of mine Bumblebee and Raf are coming over to meet you. Bee is the car and Raf is his human friend.”
Herbie makes a happy sound.
“What is wrong with that dam horn!” the front door slams open and Dave walks out looking pissed.
I shrug, “Who the hell know. Hey Dave if the bug is such a pain in the ass I know a guy who will give you a 100 bucks for it as is,” if I drive off with Herbie Dave will look for him out of pride, easy thing to do is use some of the large allowance my parents send and buy him, but saying its for someone else of course, I’m too young to drive and the time I can drive I’ll be back home.
He looks to the car again, “$150.”
“Done” I agree after looking at my phone like I’m texting someone about wanting the car, “I’ll go see my friend tonight and give you the cash when I get home.”
“Whatever, just get that dam thing out of here” he glares once more at the car before going back inside.
Just as the door closes Bee comes around the corner and pulls up next to me. “Hey!” Raf smiles rolling the window down, “Bulkhead said you found a new friend. This him?”
“Yep” I nod, popping the p, “This is Herbie, Herb this is Raf and Bee.
Bee beeps at him and Herbie honks his horn back happily.
“So what’s he saying? I ask Raf as Herbie happily and loudly honks his horn.
“Nothing” Raf tells me, with a confused look “He’s just honking the horn.”
Bee beeps and Raf looks to me, “We’re going to take Herbie back to base and have Ratchet check him over.”
“Sounds good” I nod, jumping into Herbie’s passenger seat, “Herb follow Bee and Raf.”
He honks once and speeds off after Bee, going at crazy speeds and pretty much racing Bee to base.
“That was fun!” I grin jumping out of the bug once we get to base, “You are fast Herbie!”
“This Herbie?” Bulk asks walking over.
“Yep” I nod, “Herbie, Bulkhead, Bulkhead, Herbie” Herbie backs away looking surprised.
“You okay new guy?” Bulk asks him, concerned.
“I think you surprised him” Jack decides.
“You’d think he’d never seen a giant robot before” I snort.
Herbie honks once.
“You haven’t?” I say with disbelief, “But you are a giant robot.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know it” Ratchet speaks, looking thoughtful, “Come over here I need to give you a exam.”
Herbie makes a upset sound but goes over to Ratchet.
“Hmm” Ratchet looks at the screen showing his scans of the bug.
“Do you know what is wrong with him old friend?” Prime asks walking in.
“I do” he nods, “I believe Herbie is a uneducated young one, likely a evacuation ship from Cybertron went down on Earth and a Protoform was ejected and took the first form he saw.”
“What’s a protoform?” Jack asks.
“A baby Cybertronian” Arcee clarifies, “If he had just come into existence and was stuck on Earth with no one around to teach him, then he wouldn’t know how to talk, transform or anything.”
“Poor guy” Jack frowns patting Herbie’s door, “I wonder how long he’s been here.”
“Since 1968 at least” Raf calls, sitting with his laptop looking at something, “I’ve been doing some research and a VW bug has been recorded as a race car going back that far, with some people claiming its alive.”
“So young” Bulk comments, “Looks like we’ve got a kid to take care of.”
“Young?” I raise an eyebrow, “He’s over 50 years old. That’s not that young at all.”
“We count age different to humans” Bulk tells me, “Think of it like every 10 of your years is a year older for us. So Herbie is a 5 year old to us.”
“Oh” that makes sense, they are robots.
“How old are you Bee?” Raf asks his friend.
Bee beeps back and Raf smiles, “120, so your 12 like me.”
I smile, that explains so much about Bee.
Prime smiles at Herbie, “You are starting a late young one, but we’ll help you lern if you are willing to try.”
Herbie honks his horn and happily drives around in circles.
“Good” Prime nods, “Ratchet could you active a transformation in Herbie. Once he’s felt it he should be able to do it himself.”
Herbie makes a happy sound and Ratchet nod, pressing a few buttons.
Herbie transforms, turning into a white bot with his racing stripes over his arms, chest and half his face and his number on his arms and chest. Herbie grins looking at his arms and trying to take a step, only to trip.
“Careful” Bulk tells him, catching him before he falls, “Gotta learn to walk before you can……..walk.”
Herbie frowns but nods.
“Hey you’ll be good at this in no time” I encourage.
He smiles, I think Herbie is going to fit in well here.
ONE-SHOT.
I re-watched the Herbie movies and I thought Herbie seemed a lot like a little kid a lot of the time, throwing tantrums, being silly and just acting young so when I thought of crossing Herbie over I thought it might be fun to make him a kid for real.