Title: Too Much Fun With Music and Pranks

Genre: Humor/Romance

Rating: T for mild language, mild violence, some crude and sexual humor.

Summary: All of our favorite mechs and femmes and humans have way too much time and fun on their hands and servos when it comes to music and pulling pranks.

~Chapter Nine~

Ratchet's Hope

Song Used For Chapter:
One Last Hope-Danny DeVito (Hercules)

The fact that Ratchet had even been reeled into watching the sparklings today was one thing. He didn't mind them that much. He loved them as much as everyone else. Even though he was the Chief Medical Officer on the entire base and he did have certain duties to fulfill. He had figured that since he was watching them, all he had to do was turn on a Disney Movie and they would be so enthralled with it that he could be able to continue reorganizing his medical bay without any problems.

For a little while, it was working. They were watching Disney's Hercules.

That is until the Autobot Smokescreen came in, looking rather excited and nervous at the same time. He just came in, door wings fluttering and playing with his hands as if he was a little anxious about even speaking to Ratchet. Of course, the CMO asked him if anything were wrong with his systems. But it seemed to be a lot more than he would have thought.

Smokescreen grimaced and shook his head. "No. It's just...I kind of over heard some of the others saying that you were kind of a war hero in the beginning of the war and that you knew some techniques that could even put Ironhide on his aft. So I was just wondering if you could..." He was saying.

Ratchet turned with a glare already etched onto his face and glowered at the young Autobot. He knew exactly where this was going and he wasn't going to have it. "No, Smokescreen. I don't have time to be telling you war stories and telling you how to knock Ironhide on his aft." He then motioned to around his medical bay and then to the sparklings watching their movie. "As you can possibly see, unless you need your optics checked, I don't have time for it! I have a medical bay that needs reorganizing because Knockout finds humor in moving all of my tools around and putting them where they don't belong! Plus I have to watch the sparklings until the young Autobots get back from their missions that Optimus sent them on! So if that is all you wanted, you found your way in my medbay, you can find your way out." He stated firmly before turning back to rearranging all of his wrenches.

Smokescreen slumped in dejection. "Oh, come on, Ratchet! I just want you to train me a little! Just for a little bit?" He begged, holding his fingers up to show an inch.

"NO!"

Again Smokescreen slumped before he turned to shuffle his way out of the medbay. He paused to look at the movie that the sparklings were watching. It was at a part where a teenage Hercules had gone looking for the goat man, Phil, begging him and trying to convince him to train him to become a hero. 'Huh. Sounds a little familiar.' The young Autobot thought miserably but stopped to watch as the goat man, Phil started to sing. The sparklings enjoyed the movie so much that they even started to sing a long.

That was when a light bulb clicked on in Smokescreen's processor and a wide grin slowly began to ascend onto his face plates. He had the perfect idea that just had to work. Especially if he could convince the Sparklings to helping him out with changing Ratchet's mind.

Glancing over his shoulder plates and door wings, Smokescreen looked to see what Ratchet was doing and found that the CMO wasn't even paying attention to him or the sparklings. He was still too busy rearranging his wrenches on the wall. It would be the perfect opportunity to do it now. So the young Autobot turned back to the vid screen and quickly went through hacking the system. He found a connection with the machine and transferred as much power as he could into the systems.

There was a loud pop and crackle before the screen went black.

"AHHHH! NO!" All of the sparklings cried out as they jumped up to their peds, now looking very upset.

Smokescreen hurried forward, aware that Ratchet had jerked around to see what was going on. He just made a show out of going to try and fixing the vid screen. "It's okay, guys. I'll fix it! Hold on...uh-oh." He murmured now seeing that the vid screen was completely dead after being overloaded. He grimaced before looking at the now upset sparklings. "Uh, sorry, guys. It's dead."

"NO! We wan' to finish that song! I's my favo'ite!" The Prime's son, Omega cried, his optics filling with optical fluids just like the other sparklings.

Ratchet was now stomping over, fists tightly balled up and glaring suspiciously at Smokescreen, who forced a smile up at him. "What did you do?!" The CMO demanded angrily.

Smokescreen held up his hands, shaking his head and trying very hard to look innocent while looking intimidated. "I didn't do anything!" He lied frantically. "It just overloaded! There must have been a bug in the video system!" He then brightened his optics, looking at the sparklings, who were all now crying. "Hey, I have an idea, little ones! Why don't we have Ratchet sing that song and even act out the part? Maybe he can even train all of us to be heroes just like Phil was doing with Hercules!"

The sparklings all stopped crying and brightened at the very idea. They whirled around, looking hopefully up at Ratchet, who had widened his optics at Smokescreen in disbelief, anger and shock. "Yeah! Yeah! Unc'a Rat'et! Will you p'ease sing that song to us and pretend to train us!" Sizzle asked brightly. The other sparklings nodded brightly, bouncing up and down.

Ratchet sputtered as he looked wide optic'd down at the sparklings before turning a glare onto Smokescreen, who cringed and smiled weakly up at him. But there was a hint of smugness to the young bot's optics, as if he was daring the CMO to deny the sparklings. Ratchet glared even harder at him, knowing fully well that if he did reject the idea, it would upset the sparklings. And then he would have five very upset sparklings crying all day. Like he really wanted to explain to Nightbird and Starscream why Slipstream was even crying. They were so over protective of her that if she was upset, whoever upset her would be in so much trouble. Not to mention Ironhide and Chromia.

'Smokescreen! I swear when this over, I will dismantle you and reformat you into a toaster oven!'Ratchet sent the snarling transmission at Smokescreen, who flinched.

Quickly going through the internet, Ratchet found the music for the Hercules song and began playing it. He started singing in a very blank way, still glaring at Smokescreen.

"So, ya wanna be a hero, kids?
Well, whoop-de-do!
I have been around the block before
With blockheads just like you."

Ratchet maneuvered himself closer to Smokescreen so he could slap him upside the head, which made the sparklings laugh. Smokescreen laughed weakly as he rubbed where he had been slapped.

"Each and ev'ryone a disappointment
Pain for which there ain't no ointment
So much for excuses
Though kids of the leaders is
Asking me to jump into the fray
My answer is two words -
O.K."

The sparklings began cheering and bouncing up and down. Ratchet then began moving away from the sparklings and Smokescreen, grabbing a bunch of tools and equipment to start building what would be an obstacle course for them.

"You win
Oh Primus
Oy vay!"

It didn't take long for Ratchet to have quickly wielded what looked like light dumbbells, which he put right in front of all of the dancing and cheering as they ran up to the dumbbells and began lifting them up as if weight lifting. Of course, Smokescreen joined to lifting up one of the small dumbbells but Ratchet stopped him and gave him a much heavier weight.

"I'd given up hope that someone would come along
A fellow who'd ring the bell for once
Not the gong
The kinds who wins trophies
Won't settle for low fees
At least semi-pro fees
But no - I get the greenhorns."

While the sparklings were laughing as they lift their light weights with ease but Smokescreen was having such a hard time lifting the heavy weight. He groaned loudly as he managed to lift it up off the ground a fair few feet before stepping back to adjust the weight so he could lift it all the way. But unfortunately, he mistepped and stumbled right into Ratchet, knocking both of them to the ground while the sparklings began screeching with laughter.

Smokescreen cringed while Ratchet glare at him.

"I've been out on the battle field, pals, my ambition is gone
Content to spend lazy days and reorganize my medbays.
But you need an advisor
A medic, but wiser
A good merchandiser
And oohh!
There goes my nerve wires!"

Ratchet now had the sparklings running through the make shift obstacle while forcing Smokescreen to doing push ups, which we was having a very hard time.

"I'm down to one last hope
And I hope it's you
Though, kids, you're not exactly
A dream come true
I've trained enough turkeys
Who never came through
You're my one last hope
So you'll have to do."

The sparklings were having too much fun as they ran through the obstacle course, while Smokescreen was rather dejected with just doing simple work out techniques. Ratchet took one look at him before sighing, knowing that he was maybe being a little too hard on the kid just by the look on his face. He shook his head before moving over to Smokescreen and touched his door wing, making him look at him. He just shook his head and sent a series of training simulations to the young Autobot, who perked up brightly.

"Rookies have faced the odds
And ended up a mockery
Don't believe the stories
That you read on all the crockery."

"To be a true hero, kids, is a dying art
Like painting a masterpiece, it's a work of spark."

Ratchet stood back watching as the sparklings were continuiously running through the obstacle course he had made for them, watching as they bounced on a small trampoline that he had pulled out for them. They were all laughing and jumping up and down, enjoying their selves. It couldn't be helped that the sight made Ratchet's spark gently spike before he looked over at Smokescreen, who was going through the training simulations that he had sent to him and looking very pleased.

"It takes more than sinew
Comes down to what's in you
You have to continue to grow
Now that's more like it!"

"I'm down to one last shot
And my last high note
Before that blasted Pits
Gets my boat
My dreams are on you, kids
Go make 'em come true
Climb that uphill slope
Keep pushing that envelope
You're my one last hope
And, kids, it's up to you."

Everyone was laughing by the end of the song. Even Ratchet as all of them; himself, the sparklings and Smokescreen all went over to plop down together by the wall. They had had too much fun doing all of that.

"That was more fun than I thought." Ratchet chuckled as he sat against the wall before looking softly down at the sparkling twins; Omega and Beta as they crawled up into his lap and settled down as if they were ready for a nap. He chuckled again when he looked over to see that Slipstream, Sizzle and Triggerload were curling up into Smokescreen's lap, settling for their own nap. "Now I see why the others are always interested in singing and dancing like that."

Smokescreen nodded in agreement as he looked over at Ratchet. "Yeah. And these little guys make it so worth it." He added.

Just then the door of the medical bay slid open and in walked all of the parents of the sparklings. They all took one look at Ratchet and Smokescreen, who immediately held up their fingers across their mouths to telling them to be quiet because the sparklings had fallen into recharge. It was such a cute little sight to be honest and it earned a quieted "Awwwww" from Elita One, Chromia and Nightbird as they moved a little closer.

"Excellent job, Ratchet. I didn't know you were really good with sparklings." Ironhide said quietly as he walked over with his mate. "I half expected to see them all locked up in cages and you fighting back curses."

Ratchet snorted before shaking his head and motioning to Smokescreen. "It wasn't that bad. I had Smokescreen helping me." He told him as he let Optimus and Elita take their twins carefully from his lap. He stood up slowly and quietly once they stepped back.

"Thank you, Ratchet. If it would be all right, can I ask you to watch them again tomorrow?" Optimus asked softly as he held his little daughter close to his chassis.

Ratchet smiled but nodded. "Yes. That would be fine." He told the Prime.

All three couples waved at Ratchet and Smokescreen as they started to leave. But it was Starscream who paused, frowning as he looked into the medical bay. "Hey, Ratchet. What's with the obstacle course?" Ironhide was the one to ask after he, too, noticed the disruption in the middle of the bay.

Ratchet snorted as he sent the obstacle course a glance before looking back at Ironhide with amusement. "Oh, you know. I just thought it would be a good idea for the sparklings to have a little jungle gym of some sort. It would keep them occupied and maybe pretend to train to be heroes of the future. You know, all of that stuff." He stated chuckling.

Nodding, the couples turned and left. Smokescreen was standing up and now making his way towards the door, somewhat satisfied.

"I'll see you tomorrow for watching the sparklings and while we're doing that, I can run through a few training simulations with you." Ratchet called over his shoulder as he began cleaning up the obstacle course he had made.

Smokescreen brightened as he looked back at the CMO before sending him a proud salute. He really couldn't wait to get started.