Reflect is still nervous, but far less hesitant with his Ironhide toy in his hand. he holds tightly to Wheeljacks holoform with his free hand. he looks around slowly. there's not many people and he recognizes some of the few people there as soldiers from the base, but he still doesn't like it.

"see its alright. we got here early enough for you to get comfortable alright? we need you comfortable around humans little one." Wheeljack murmurs, smiling. the sparklings holoform looks up at him with a mixture of fear and disgust. "I know you don't like it but the humans are our allies Reflect. its important." Wheeljack murmurs.

"no." he mumbles.

"yes." Wheeljack chuckles. they stop in front of the bounce house. "alright ready to get in?" he ask. the little head snaps up to look at him like he's crazy. he clutches his toy and shakes his head quickly.

"not going." he huffs. Wheeljack chuckles.

"oh come on. its fun." Wheeljack assures. the sparkling shakes his head quickly.

"you go." Reflect huffs.

"no sparkling, I'm too big to go in there." Wheeljack smiles. "you go." he chuckles.

"no way slagger!" he glares up at the inventor. "not going!" he huffs. Wheeljack grabs the sparkling gently and immediately he starts screaming. "NO!" he screams, struggling with Wheeljack.

"oh come on its not that bad." Wheeljack chuckles. Reflect ignores him, struggling hard.

"Ratchet!!!" he screams.

"don't hurt him!" Ratchet snaps, glaring and heading over.

"I'm not!" Wheeljack huffs.

"stop making him cry Jack!" Ratchet growls. Wheeljack sighs and frowns a moment before looking down at the sparkling.

"okay, fine. if I get in, will you get in with me?" Wheeljack asks. he stops screaming and struggling, going quiet. a frown crosses the little holoform boys face, before he nods.

"okay." he agrees, Wheeljack chuckles.

"okay take your shoes off." Wheeljack smiles, pulling his own off. Reflect looks confused, but pulls them off.

"not real." he frowns.

"its difficult to explain, you'll understand holoforms when you're older. but you can't just make them disappear in front of humans, it'll scare them." Wheeljack assures, getting into the bounce house. he pulls the sparkling in after him. "see now you can jump around." Wheeljack smiles, getting up. Reflect pulls himself up with the netting on the side. Wheeljack bounces and sends the sparkling to the ground.

"HEY!" he screams. he sits up and glares Wheeljack.

"whoops, sorry little one." Wheeljack laughs a little.

"not sorry!" he glares.

"Jack, what are you doing in there?" Jazz snorts, walking over.

"knocking over the sparkling apparently." Ratchet growls, walking up beside Jazz. he crosses his arms over his chest, glaring.

"it was an accident! he's okay!" Wheeljack assures. the sparkling gets himself up slowly, wobbling on his little unsteady legs. he looks over at Ratchet pouting.

"Wheeljack, you're going to hurt him." Jazz frowns. he climbs in with them. "you have to bounce with him." Jazz grins, walking over to the sparkling. he grabs the little holoforms hand. "give me your other hand kiddo." Jazz smiles. he looks at the Ironhide toy in his other hand, then up at Jazz with a dark glare.

"no. mine!" he growls. Jazz wavers a second, before grinning at the sparkling.

"boy you sure got that nasty old Ratchet the hatchet glare down." Jazz snorts.

"fragger." Ratchet glares. "and don't call me that." Ratchet adds.

"just give me your hand sparkling." Jazz smiles. Wheeljack shakes his head.

"he's not going to, he's holding that Ironhide toy. he's not going to let it go for you." Wheeljack chuckles. "he won't even let it go for a cube." Wheeljack snorts.

"well I can't help you bounce right without it, I'll give it back." Jazz assures, reaching for it. the sparkling lets out a low and dangerous growl, shooting a warning look up at Jazz. Jazz's eye brows shoot up watching him, before looking hesitantly over at Ratchet when he starts speaking.

"I wouldn't Jazz. he will bite you hard enough to make your holoform bleed, we don't need your alt leaking energon on the ground, especially with human children running around." Ratchet warns. Jazz pulls his hand back quickly.

"you know what? thats fine! thats great! this is okay! one hand works!" Jazz says quickly. "we can bounce with one hand." Jazz assures. the dirty look the sparkling gives him almost has him pausing. "aww come on sparkling." Jazz murmurs. the sparkling pulls his hand free, grabbing the netting on the side of the bounce house.

"out." he growls, heading for the opening.

"oh come on, you haven't even tried yet." Wheeljack murmurs.

"out!" he insists.

"hows it going?" Optimus asks, walking over to Ratchet.

"Wheeljack knocked him face first into the ground and he almost bit Jazz when he tried to take his toy, now he's trying to escape." Ratchet frowns. "can't say that I blame him." Ratchet snorts.

"almost bit Jazz?" Optimus ask.

"he tried to take that little Ironhide toy from the sparkling, he's lucky I was watching, he probably would've lost his all fingers if I hadn't warned him." Ratchet frowns. Optimus nods a little.

"come on Reflect." Jazz chuckles, bouncing a little near him. it immediately sends the sparkling to the ground face first, nearly scorpioning the child.

"NO!" he screams.

"knock it off! don't you dare hurt him!" Ratchet snaps, watching his sparkling sit up.

"it was an accident. I didn't mean to hurt him!" Jazz says, walking over to the fallen child. Reflect screams at him, smacking his hands away.

"alright thats enough. you two get out of there and stop being stupid." Ratchet snaps. he walks over and reaches for the sparkling. "come here little one." Ratchet murmurs. the sparkling throws his arms out, reaching for the medic. he's immediately pulled from the bounce house, toy and all, and held to the medics chest. "you idiots." Ratchet glares, before looking the sparklings face over gently.

"I think he's busted his lip." Optimus frowns, leaning over to take a look. the sparkling glares at Optimus.

"I know." Ratchet mutters, frowning. "hopefully it won't ruin his holoform or make his protoform bleed." Ratchet frowns, gently using his thumb to wipe at the sparklings lip.

"he's okay Ratchet." Wheeljack frowns. Ratchet shoots him a nasty look. "I'll shut up now." Wheeljack mumbles. Ratchet nods and puts the sparkling down.

"go see if you can't make friends or something." Ratchet says. the sparkling huffs at him but wonders off stumbling on his unstable legs, leaving his toy with Ratchet. the medic doesn't really mind, or notice, too busy glaring Jazz and Wheeljack down. "you idiots were supposed to have fun with him, making sure he had fun. so tell me why he's bleeding and neither of you are." Ratchet frowns.

"thats a trick question the answer is we should run." Wheeljack says, turning quickly. he runs off before Jazz can even process what he's said. Jazz is quickly following after him with Ratchet chasing them both. Optimus sighs and shakes his head, chasing after them.

"Ratchet please remember this is a public area and you cannot kill them here!" Optimus cries desperately.

the sparkling, with no one watching him, makes his way to where he's sure he heard the others say Ironhide was parked. there's so many other people, now he has to be more careful where he's going. his legs are starting to get even more shaky than before. he decides maybe stopping to sit for a minute would be better. he plops down right where he's standing, he's just about ready for a nap. how long do they have to be at this stupid event? he was so tired, he'd started getting super tired very easily after being lost in the desert. he's not sure why but he's exhausted all the time.

"I'm so ready to go home."

he mumbles to himself. he's too sleepy for this.

"hey kid! watch out!"

he doesn't have a second to figure out whats happening before a soccer ball comes flying at his face and knocks him backwards. he groans laying on his back a moment.

"this day just gets better and better."

he moans lowly, before sitting up slowly. there's a man running over to him he's never seen before, but he's up and running off as fast as his little legs can take him before the man can get to him. he winces a little and runs straight for the cars. he slams straight into one of the cars and grips onto the bumper, reaching up to hold his eye. he pulls it back and frowns, smearing blood onto the bumpers of random cars had not been what he'd intended to do, but he couldn't stop it now.

"if only I knew where Ironhide was, hell at this point, I'd take Barricade."

he frowns and drops to his stomach to army crawl through the parking lot. he could crawl under some cars like this, looking around he finally spots Ironhide, parked in the shade but with other vehicles. he sighs and gets up, using other vehicles to walk over to Ironhide. he winces and rubs at his face a little, before he keeps going. it seems to take forever to get there, but once he does, he's immediately relieved to see the truck is the next car over.

the moment he grabs the trucks front bumper, smearing the fake blood covering his energon all over it, the truck jumps a little. Ironhide must've been napping. its silent a moment, like the trucks trying to make the child go away, trying to make him think the truck didn't just move. the sparkling doesn't go anywhere, smacking the bumper and smearing more energon on it.

"Ironhide." the sparkling says, quietly. there's an immediate shift, the driver side door opens and the mechs holoform pops out.

"go back to the- sparkling?" Ironhide ask. the child squirts up at him.

"Ironhide." he whines. he scoops up the boy gently and takes him into his alt forms cab. he puts the boy in the passenger seat.

"what happened to your face?" Ironhide frowns. the sparkling scrunches his nose and winces. he's still squinting with his right eye. he looks into the backseat and gets up. "where are you going?" Ironhide asks.

"nap." he mumbles, curling up in the backseat. Ironhide tints the back window so the sparkling can take a nap peacefully.

"are you alright? what happened to your face?" Ironhide ask. the sparkling, of course, isn't sure how to tell Ironhide he was hit in the face, so he just shrugs and curls up sleepily. Ironhide frowns, looking around quickly to make sure no one can see him, before shutting his holoform off and appearing in the backseat with it to hold the sparkling gently. he'd be in serious trouble with Optimus if anyone saw him shut his holoform off. the sparkling immediately snuggles up to his holoform, seemingly not being too tired to care. "should I get Ratchet and Wheeljack for you?" Ironhide ask.

"no." Reflect mumbles, yawning. Ironhide frowns a little, but before he can com Ratchet, a mass come comes out from the medic.

"DOES ANYONE HAVE OPTICS ON MY FRAGGING SPARKLING!?"

Ironhide winces, but is grateful he didn't have his com open so the sparkling didn't hear it. there's an immediate answer of panicked no's and unsure bots trying not to say no directly.

"stop fragging panicking. the sparklings napping in my backseat. I was just about to message you. looks like he's been hit in the face or something. his eye's bleeding pretty good on his holoform, so I doubt his protoform looks much better. he seems okay other than that, but there's probably a trail that leads right too me."

"we'll be right there!" comes Wheeljacks panicked voice. Ironhide grumbles.

"well be quiet about it! don't fragging wake him! I swear to Primus, do not wake this fragging sparkling!"

he's snippy. he doesn't want them to wake the peacefully resting sparkling, he hasn't been resting too well. sometimes when Ironhide couldn't recharge he'd go hang out in the rec room, recently he'd been doing more often as the sparkling had been joining him almost every night.

Ironhide looks down and brushes some of the hair off the boys face to get a better look at his injury. the sparkling shifts a little cuddling closer to the holoform, but doesn't wake.

when Ratchet and Wheeljack get there, Ironhide pops open the back door so they can get to the sparkling. the sparkling is curled up, snuggled against the holoform and using Ironhides right arm as a pillow. the man is frowning, looking bored.

"why are you back here with him?" Wheeljack asks. Ironhide growls at the inventor.

"I was afraid if I let his head lay flat while he was still bleeding like that he'd choke or something." Ironhide mutters, gently trying to remove his arm from the sparklings head. Reflect whines and squirms a little. Wheeljack shushes the little boy up gently and cradles him so Ratchet can check his face.

"lets get him back to the medbay." Ratchet frowns.

"alright." Wheeljack murmurs, shifting the sparkling out of the sun so he doesn't wake.

"go get him settled, I'll go talk to Prime, let him know we're leaving." Ratchet murmurs. he turns to Ironhide, whose holoform is climbing out of the backseat to at least look real. "you better come with Ironhide. we're going to have to work on him and he's going to want someone other than one of us to hold him when we're done." Ratchet frowns. Ironhide nods.

"yeah alright." Ironhide agrees. "I'm not missing anything here. Primus, I was looking for a reason to leave, but I didn't want him to get hurt." Ironhide frowns.

"shit happens. just meet us at the base." Ratchet says.

"alright." Ironhide agrees, his holoform climbing into the front seat. "fuck this stupid event." Ironhide mutters, backing out of his spot. "want a lift over Jack?" Ironhide ask. he can see that the inventor is parked a little further out, but carrying the sparkling over there in the sun would bother him as it could wake the sparkling.

"nah, I'll walk its cool, squirts asleep." Wheeljack assures, shading the little sparkling.

"alright." Ironhide mutters, before driving off. he doesn't leave the parking lot though, he waits for the other two, he and Ratchet putting Wheeljack in the middle since he had the sparkling.

the drive back to the base seems to take longer than it should, mostly because about half way there the sparkling wakes up and is just periodically whining and holding his face. when they finally do get to the base, all three transform and rush off to the medbay.

"Jack get his holoform shut off, I want to see the damage to his real body. holoforms tend to exaggerate injuries." Ratchet mutters, heading off quickly to get some tools. "Ironhide go grab him a cube, he's going to need one." Ratchet adds.

"sure thing doc." Ironhide mutters, heading out of the medbay.

"alright, hold on Reflect." Wheeljack murmurs. instead of an actual holoform that existed as a separate thing and could physically stand with his bipedal form, they'd covered the sparklings protoform with the holoprojector and projected his holoform onto his actual body. Wheeljack frowns.

"how bad does it look Jack?" Ratchet asks, walking over.

"its not bad, just looks like something busted his optic, couple of dents, but he'll be alright." Wheeljack says. Ratchet nods crouching to do his own inspection. the sparkling squints at him with his bad optic before reaching up to his face. the medic is quick to grab the little servo.

"don't touch that." Ratchet murmurs. "don't worry, we'll get you fixed up. I replace a lot of optics," Ratchet turns to glare at Wheeljack in annoyance. he turns back to the sparkling. "so don't worry, it'll be quick." Ratchet assures.

"not gonna make him sit awake for it are you?" Ironhide asks, coming back in with a sparkling cube. immediately the sparkling reaches for him with a whine. "not yet squirt. let them fix your optic first then I'll hold you." Ironhide assures, patting his head gently.

"I'm not putting him out to swap out his optic, I can't. I need him awake. he's gotta be able to tell me if he can see and if he can't I'll have to make adjustments, can't keep waking him up and knocking him out. not only would it take too much time, it'd be bad for him." Ratchet explains. "unfortunately that means he has to be awake for all of it and he's not going to like it." Ratchet frowns.

"best way to do this?" Wheeljack asks, hesitantly. Ratchet frowns.

"gotta keep his head still no matter how much he squirms." Ratchet says.

"I don't think squirming will be an issue Ratchet, he seems pretty out of it, but I'd be more worried about him biting." Ironhide frowns.

"go a head and step outside Ironhide. we'll handle this and call you back in when he's done." Ratchet assures. Ironhide frowns, but does as Ratchet said. he frowns when the sparkling screams, he can hear him fighting with Ratchet and Wheeljack. "I haven't even touched it yet!" Ratchet snaps.

"what the hell are you two doing?" Ironhide frowns poking his head back in.

"trying to strap his head and arms down so he doesn't interfere with this." Wheeljack mutters.

"I don't want to end up hurting him or making him blind and there's no way he'll sit still, he never does." Ratchet mutters.

"ow! he bit me!" Wheeljack pouts.

"I'd bite you too." Ironhide mutters.

"fuck off Ironhide." Wheeljack glares.

"please stop sparkling. we're trying to help." Ratchet frowns. Ironhide shakes his head and steps back out, leaning against the wall. the screaming doesn't stop, but Ironhide knows he's not being hurt, just dramatic.

the Weapons Specialist isn't patient, he's never been one for patience. he's pacing back and forth for nearly an hour, the sparkling screaming the whole time, before Ratchet finally lets him come in. when he walks in, they're unstrapping the sparkling. he hasn't stopped screaming the whole time.

"why is he screaming?" Ironhide frowns walking over. "come here little one." he murmurs, scooping up the sparkling gently.

"he's just angry." Ratchet assures. Ironhide shifts the sparkling.

"and probably sleepy." Wheeljack adds. Ironhide shifts the sparkling gently, rubbing his cheek gently.

"its alright squirt." Ironhide soothes. the sparkling glares at him, but stops when Ironhide offers him a cube. he gets quiet and snatches the cube. Ironhide snorts at him and holds it up for him. "see, don't glare at me." Ironhide murmurs. "you guys got him all fixed up pretty quickly." Ironhide snorts, looking at them. both the medic and the inventor glare daggers at him.

"don't." Ratchet mutters.

"just don't." Wheeljack agrees. Ironhide snorts and looks back down at the sparkling. the little sparkling sniffles and cuddles to the black mech.

"didn't mean anything by it. damn." Ironhide chuckles, smiling down at the sparkling. he looks back up at the two other mechs. "but he's okay then right? any idea what happened to him? had to be something pretty bad to make his head bleed like that right?" Ironhide ask.

"not really. Jack and managed to get the memory out of his banks and looked at it. some human child kicked a soccer ball straight into his face. pretty hard too. you could almost hear his optic crack on impact." Ratchet frowns, reaching over to rub the sparklings cheek. Reflect shoots him a nasty glare, snuggling closer to Ironhide with a low growl. "don't growl at me." Ratchet frowns.