The Mech of Notre Dame:Ch 2

The Mech of Notre Dame

Meanwhile down in the town below, a red and blue mech named Optimus Prime along with his white cyber-horse, Starchaser were wandering around the city. But as Optimus was looking at the map he was holding, he was convinced that it wasn't doing him any good.

Looking around at the buildings in confusion, he crumpled up the map and threw it away "Ah, Starchaser…you leave the city for a few stellar cycles and they go off and change everything."

He saw two guards passing by him, so he decided to see if they could help him "Excuse me; I'm looking to the Palace of Justice, would you-." They didn't really pay attention to him "Hmm…I guess not."

Optimus continued down the street till he started to hear music. As he turned the corner he saw an older mech playing a small trumpet like object, a yellow and black goat galloping around a small purple hat and a young femme playing a tambourine. Optimus tossed in a few credits into the hat before looking up and getting a good look at the femme playing the tambourine. As she turned around he saw that she had long dark organic-like hair, with dark metal skin and navy blue armor over top of it. She had to most beautiful aquamarine optics he ever seen.

Realizing he was probably staring, Optimus snapped out of his daze and smiled politely at her. She smiled back at him, looking him over with curiosity and interest before hitting her servo on her tambourine. Just then the sound of someone whistling came from above them, the femme gasped and started to head in one direction while her goat was picking up the hat, but as he ran the credits spilled all over. The goat made a noise to get the femme attention so she ran back and quickly tried to scoop the credits back into the hat. Then Optimus noticed that the two guards that he had tried to ask for help earlier stepped in front of her.

"Alright, gypsy. Where you get those credits?" Asked the first guard

"For your information, I earned it." The femme said truthfully

"Gypsies don't earn credits…"

The femme gasped as the second guard grabbed her arms from behind "They steal it."

"You two would know a lot about stealing." She said accusingly

The first guard tried to grab the hat, but the femme grabs it back "Troublemaker, huh?" He gets out before she lifts her pede up high enough to kick him in the face.

"Maybe some time in the stocks will cool you down." The second guard comments

The yellow and black goat gets a little mad at the guards, so he head butts the second guard in the stomach and kicks the first one in the stomach as well, giving him and the femme enough time to run away in the other direction. Optimus watches her leave and notices the guards were getting back up and starting to go after them. He quickly grabs Starchaser's reins and pulls him out in front so that the two guards ran into him. As the first guard falls down, Optimus gives his cyber-horse an order "Starchaser, sit."

Starchaser does as he was told and ends up sitting on top to the guard. Optimus then pretends to be sorry for what he did "Oh, I'm so sorry…naughty horse, naughty," He scolds at Starchaser before turning back to the guard "He's just impossible, I can't take him anywhere."

"Get this thing off of me!" The guard under Starchaser cried out to the second guard

"I'll teach you a lesson peasant." The second guard pulls out a dagger

Optimus pulls out his axe from the subspace of his back "You were saying, lieutenant?"

The guard soon realizes who he is "Oh, Optimus Prime!" The guard drops his dagger and salutes to him "At your service, sir."

Optimus brings his axe down close to the first guard's face "I know you probably have a lot on your processer right now, but the Palace of Justice…?"

Starchaser got off the guard and then both of the soldiers proceed to lead Optimus to his destination. Along the way, Optimus spots some credits on the ground so he picked them up, noticing that sitting not too far away from him appeared to be a beggar, smoking a pipe and wearing a purple cloak with a hat on the ground nearby. As he passes, Optimus places the credits into the hat. After he left, the hood of the cloak was pulled off by the person wearing it, relieving it to be the dark-haired gypsy from before along with her goat.

"You think he knew it was us, Bumblebee?" The femme asked the goat

Bumblebee simply made a noise that could have been translated to "I'm not sure, Jena."

Jena placed Bumblebee back on the ground, since he had been the head of her whole disguise, gathered up her things and then went off to look for her friend that had ran off earlier.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Optimus wasn't entirely sure what to think about the Palace of Justice, it didn't really look like a palace; it looked more like a prison or a torture chamber. Torture chamber came to mind for when he was opening the door, he heard the sound of a whip cracking. That's when he saw Megatron talking to a mech holding a whip.

Megatron then turned to him "Ah, so this is the gallant Optimus Prime, home from the wars."

Optimus stood to attention "Reporting for duty as ordered, sir."

"Your service record precedes you, Optimus." Megatron says as he circles him "I expect nothing but the best from a war hero of your caliber."

Optimus nods "And you shall have it, sir. I can guarantee it."

"Yes…you know my last captain of the guards was…a bit of a disappointment." As he finished that statement, there was a sound a large whip cracking followed by a loud yell of pain. "Well no matter. I'm sure you'll 'whip' my men to shape."

Optimus still a little nervous about what he just heard, stammered his response "Uh…yes…it's a gre-…tremendous honor, sir."

Megatron leads Optimus outside "You've come to Paris in her darkest hour, captain. It will take a firm servo to save the weak minded from be so easily mislead."

Optimus cocks an optical ridge "Mislead, sir?"

"Look, captain." Megatron gestures with a wave of his servo to the town below "Gypsies…the gypsies live outside the moral order, their heathen ways inflame the people's lowest instincts. They must be stopped."

Optimus looks at him with a puzzled look "I was summoned from the wars…to capture fortune tellers and palm readers?"

"The really war, Optimus is what you see before you. For 25,000 stellar cycles I've been…'taking care' of the gypsies. One by one." Megatron demonstrates his point by smashing three ants with his fingers "And yet for all my success…they have thrived." He lifts up a loose stone panel, relieving many more ants underneath it. "I believe that they have a safe haven within walls of this very city…a nest if you will. They call it the Court of Miracles."

"And what are we going to do about it, sir?" When Optimus asked that, Megatron places the stone panel back on top of the ant colony, thereby killing them all "You make your point quite vividly, sir."

Megatron smiles and places a servo on his shoulder "You know I like you, captain. Shall we?" Just then a large cheer from below could be heard causing Megatron to groan "Oh, duty calls." He turns to Optimus "Have you ever attended a peasant festival, captain?"

Optimus shakes his head "Not recently, sir."

"Then this should be quite an education for you then."

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Near the ledges of the Notre Dame cathedral, Bulkhead, wearing a large cloak, was climbing down one of the statues before he looked down at the festival below him as the crowd started to sing. Bulkhead turned his head back and looked up to see his friend, cheering him to have a good time. Bulkhead smiled at them before grabbing onto the one of the large ropes and sliding down it, but when he tired to look from the pole he had landed on, the rope came untied and he ended up landing in the middle of the opening where everyone else was standing. He pulled back his hood a bit to see-

The feast of…

Starscream slid out from under the coat of one of the mechs, shouting "Fools!" He laughed as the crowd cheered while showering him with confetti. Then he started to sing…

Once a year, we throw a party here in town

Once a year, we turn all Paris upside down

Every man is a king and every king a clown

A mech dressed as a king came out before he flipped over and suddenly turned into a jester.

Once again it's Topsy Turvy Day

Starscream seemed to notice Bulkhead in the crowd so with a miscelfious look in his optics, he followed after him. Bulkhead tried to hide from him by putting some balloons in front of his face, but Starscream simply cut them away with his sharp servos.

It's a day when the devil in us gets released

Bulkhead ran into one of the tents nearby only for the curtain to be pulled back to reveal him to a group of children before a puppet of Megatron came out and lightly hit him on the head. Then the puppeteer turned out to be Starscream, so Bulkhead once again ran to get away.

It's a day we mock the prig and chant their priest

Everything is topsy turvy at the feast of fools

Crowd: Topsy Turvy!

Everything is upsy daisy

Crowd: Topsy Turvy

Bulkhead watched in surprise when he saw a group of dogs walking some mechs on leashes with bones in their mouths and even in more surprise when he saw a mech with a costume that had two behinds of a horse carrying arrows pointing left and right.

Everybody acting crazy

Dross is gold and weeds are a bouquet

Bulkhead watched as people were wearing all kinds of different costumes and masks before running into another tent only to be carried out by a group of femmes dancing with Starscream at the end.

That's the way of Topsy Turvy Day

When they danced into a different tent, Bulkhead stumbled out and fell into another tent, he tried to grab a part of it for balance, but it just ripped off, revealing Jena inside.

"Hey!" She cried out before asking "Are you alright?"

Bulkhead pulled off the fallen curtain that was on top of him and then apologized while trying to hide who his was "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…I'm so sorry."

Jena came up to him "You're not hurt are you?" Jena gently reached out to pull the hood off "Here let's see."

"No, don't!" Bulkhead's protest came too late as she pulled his hood off to see his face

"There," she said, not hearing Bumblebee made a noise when he saw Bulkhead's face "See no harm done." Bulkhead didn't say anything he was so mesmerized by how beautiful the femme before him was. He allowed her to help him stand back up and walk towards the exit "Just try to be a little more careful next time, okay?"

"I…I will." He stammered

"By the way, great costume." Jena compliments, flashing him a smile before closing her tent up again. Bulkhead smiles with a dreamy look on his face before turning his attention back to what was going around him.

Crowd: Topsy Turvy

Beat the drums and blow the trumpets

Crowd: Topsy Turvy

Starscream and the crowd: Join the bums and thieves and strumpets

Streaming in from Chartres to Calais

Just then Megatron's carriage approached with Optimus giving the orders to the guards to go to their directed posts.

Scurvy knaves are extra curry

On the sixth of January

Starscream and the crowd: All because it's Topsy Turvy Day

Come one, come all

Megatron stepped out of his carriage and sat down in his seat only to have Starscream suddenly popped up by his side

Hurry, hurry here's your chance

See the mystery and romance

Starscream nudges him before leaving, but Megatron just rolls his optics and brushes off the bit of confetti that had landed on his arm.

Come one, come all

See the finest femme in France

Starscream grabs Bulkhead's arm and pulls him closer to the stage. Starscream then jumps onto the stage.

Make an entrance to entrance

Dance la Jena!

"Dance!" At that point Starscream dropped a smoke bomb at his pedes and then disappears only to have Jena suddenly appear in the swirl of smoke, carrying her tambourine while wearing a dark blue dress with a sliver tiara on her head and matching bracelets on her wrists and ankles. Bulkhead and everyone else look in shock of how Jena just appeared on stage in such a beautiful dress, even Megatron was looking at her in shock. Jena puts down her tambourine and then starts dance seductively on stage before pulling out a sliver silk scarf that seem to come out from behind her, earning some wolf whistles from the crowd.

"Look at that disgusting display." Megatron says with much annoyance in his voice

"Yes, sir." Optimus wasn't really paying attention for he too was bewitched by the femme dancing of the stage

Jena shoots Megatron a coy smile before jumping off the stage and coming towards his seat. Megatron nearly jumps as the femme sits on the armrest of his chair before placing her scarf around his neck. She pulls his face closer while lightly stroking face, for a spilt moment, Megatron thought she was going to try and kiss him. But just as her lips were a mere inch away from his…Jena shoves herself off of him playfully before going back onto the stage. Irritated at himself for falling into such a trap, Megatron scowls at her before ripping her scarf off his neck.

Upon returning to the stage, Jena flairs her dress up a bit as the music she dances to starts to pick up the tempo. She twirls around backwards before doing a cartwheel and then lands into the splits. As she puts her head back up, Jena shoots a flirty wink at Bulkhead, who duck his head under his cloak to hide his embarrassment. Jena then grabs one of the guard's spears and then jabs it into the center of the stage. She swings herself around it, lifting up one leg as she starts to slow down, then finally with a flip of her long dark hair; she smiles at the crowd as she comes to a stop, the music coming to an end. Everyone cheers while throwing some credits at her, even Optimus throws some in, while Bulkhead smiles and claps in approval.

"Now femmes and gentle-mechs, it's time for the piece de resistance." Starscream announced

Bulkhead listened as Starscream started to sing something about crowning the king of fools. Apparently, people would come onto the stage and whoever made the ugliest face would win. He noticed that Jena reached out for him, so he took her servo and let her pull him onto the stage before making him stand in line with the others on the stage. Jena then started to remove people's masks or costumes and when she did they would try to make the scariest face possible. But no one obviously made a scary enough face, for the crowd would boo before Bumblebee would come and head butt them off the stage. Finally, it was Bulkhead's turn, but when Jena came to pull of his costume, she gasped as she realized she couldn't. Some of the crowd gasped and screamed as well in realization.

"That's not a costume, it's his body!"

"It's horrible!"

"It's the bell ringer from Notre Dame!" Megatron got off his seat at the sound of that statement.

With everyone looking at him in horror, Bulkhead tried to bury his face into his servos to hide his shame.

"Femmes and gentle-mechs don't panic." Starscream reassured "We asked for the ugliest mech in Paris and here he is!" Starscream pulled out a king like crown and placed in on the green mech's head "Bulkhead, the bell ringer of Notre Dame!"

Everyone cheered and lead Bulkhead to a chair where, with some difficultly, they managed to pick the chair up. As they were walking, Bulkhead saw Megatron so he sheepishly smiled and waved at him, but Megatron just simply looked at him with a very angry expression. Once Bulkhead got onto a different stage, Starscream placed a large cape on his shoulders and gave him a small staff while singing…

And we pick a king who puts the top in

Topsy Turvy

Tospsy Turvy

Mad and crazy, upsy daisy, Topsy Turvy Day!

Bulkhead smiled as everyone cheered and shouted his name while throwing confetti and flowers at him. He felt it was the happiest day of his function, little did Bulkhead know that it was about to come to an end…