The Quiet Man
Arcee dodged the incoming laser fire from the Vehicons. She rolled across the ground and fired back, striking down two of them. A quick glanced showed Bulkhead fighting with Shockwave, Bumble Bee and Knock Out dueling around, Optimus was shooting it out with Megatron, and Smokescreen and Starscream going at each other. None to give her a hand with the Vehicons.
"This is why I hate being outnumbered." She growled as she ducked behind a boulder, to avoid more fire coming her way.
Laser fire tore at the rock as the group of Vehicons shot rapidly, blowing chunks off the boulder. Arcee crouched down and prepared to make a move, when she spotted something that made her energon run cold. UP on a cliff a Vehicon took aim at her area with a twin rocket launcher and fired.
"Oh scrap!" Arcee gasped.
Then the rockets hit and the explosion engulfed Arcee. Unseen to others, her smaller frame was launched off the cliff and she bounced down the cliff, breaking off bits of her armor. She tumbled and bounced one last time, right off a drop off and free fell into the forest below.
After the battle Optimus looked around at everyone that was present. His eyes narrowed, noticing he was a member short.
"Where is Arcee?" He asked quietly as he looked around.
"I saw her fighting the Vehicons over by the edge. I tried to get to her, but Starscream got in my way and I couldn't shake him." Smokescreen said looking around, realizing that the blue armored scout was missing.
He moved over to the site he had seen her and found a giant smoking crater. There were pieces of blue armor and energon scattered everywhere.
"By the spark!" He gasped looking around rapidly, as the others came over.
The group looked around and Optimus Prime looked over the cliff, seeing bits of blue armor and energon down the cliff face
"This is not good." Prime said quietly and turned to the others. "Return to base and get patched up by Ratchet. I don't want any of you going looking for her without clearance from Ratchet. We don't need to lose others why searching."
Arcee slowly opened her eyes. She blinked to try and remove the fuzziness from her eyes.
"What… happened?" She asked weakly.
"You almost fell on me." A strange voice replied calmly. "Don't try to move. I had to detach a few of your biomechanics to keep you from tossing around and aggravating your injuries, my blue friend. Your head and neck can move for now. I'll see if I can do something about your eyesight."
A blurry figure appeared on the side of Arcee's head and knelt down. From what she could see, it was a human. She felt careful hands gently push and pop a small plate open beside her eyes. A hand slid in slowly.
"Tell me when it gets clearer." The human said gently.
She felt the fingers gently prod and softly move small pieces around. She waited with a held breath and soon the vision became crystal clear.
"There." She said.
The hand withdrew and the plate slid back into place smoothly
"Lift your head and I will put something behind it to see if I can give you any comfort while I see to your wounds." The voice said.
Arcee lifted her head to look at the guy and felt something slide under her head. All she saw was the back of the human. By the voice and the shape she could tell it was male.
"Not sure how comfy that will be. It's a giant sand bag. Sadly I don't have pillows for your size." The man said and chuckled a little, as he walked around and stood where she could see him.
The first thing Arcee noticed was his mechanical eye that glowed silverfish blue. He was wearing a flannel shirt, denim pants, work gloves, and a rough pair of hiking boots. He had black hair tied back and a gruff beard.
"Mind telling me what caused you to almost crush my truck and I?" He asked calmly looking at her.
"Who are you and where am I?" Arcee demanded, trying to get up, but nothing below her neck responded.
"Easy there. Didn't you hear the part about injuries? Take a look." The man said and pointed over his shoulder with a thumb.
Arcee looked and saw her body armor was busted up pretty bad and she could see that she had injuries under her armor. What really caught her eyes was the fact her helmet was sitting off to the side and the spike on it was crushed.
"That wasn't supposed to come off!" She gasped.
"Relax. I know it is part of your head. It was half off when I managed to pull you onto a trailer. Had to carefully remove it to prevent further injuries to your head." The man said quietly as he took off the gloves. "SO what's your name? Can't keep calling you Blue."
Arcee looked at him for a few moments, thinking.
"Arcee." She said with a hint of anger.
"Nice to meet you Arcee. People call me Old Max. You can call me Max." Max said calmly and set the gloves on her stomach gently. "Have to admit your pretty messed up and leaking out energon pretty badly when you landed. Managed to stop the energon leaks, but had to immobilize you in the process.
Arcee's eyes widened in shock as the man mentioned Energon and the fact he immobilized her.
"How do you know about energon and my systems?" She asked stunned.
The man just smiled a friendly smile and patted her stomach softly.
"Don't worry about that. Just know you are in good hands and will be safe here in my shop." Max said smiling. "Let's get you hooked up to some fluids and help your systems recover a bit."
"I can't take any type of fluids but processed energon." Arcee said nervously, as she watched the man move a couple of hoses over and hook them to emergency ports on each side of her neck.
She blinked in shock as she felt energon flow into her.
"Sure it ain't as good as your use to, but it's better than nothing from what I was told." Max said with a nod. "I'm gonna start with your arms and torso, so I can release them as I work my way down. You just relax and think of this as a spa trip for you. Deal?"
Arcee nodded dumbly, still shocked at what this human seemed to know.
At the Auto bots base, Jack was beside himself. He looked up at Optimus Prime who just told him about Arcee's situation.
"Optimus, we have to find her! You just said she was badly injured!" Jack nearly shouted at the towering giant.
"I know Jack. Bumble and Bulkhead were the first cleared and their already out looking for her as we speak. Smokescreen will be joining them as soon as he is cleared. We will find her." Optimus said and looked over at Ratchet. "Have you found her signal yet?"
'Nothing. It is just like she vanished off the planet during the fight. I detected a sudden spike in her vital and then they just vanished." Ratchet said confused.
"As in…?" Jack asked worried.
"No Jack. It is just like she suddenly was put somewhere we can't read her. I can say that when she vanished, she was injured, but alive." Ratchet said calmly and turned to tend to Smokescreen.
Jack turned to Prime trying to control himself.
"What does that mean?" He asked worried.
"That at the moment of us being able to scan her vitals, she was alive and knowing Arcee, she is still probably alive, but we just don't know where."
Jack nodded quietly and turned to walk to the couch to sit. Optimus watched him go and sighed, turning back to the console.
At the shop, Arcee watched as the human named Max carefully climbed up on her torso and with a careful touch, popped open her chest plate.
"A little forward aren't you?" She growled in mild embarrassment.
"I do apologize my dear, but this is the easiest way to check the system that controls your arms. On the outside it looks mostly like cosmetic damage. I just want to make sure there was no damage done internally to them." Max said with a nod and looked up. "Besides, if I was gonna do anything other than check your systems, I would have offered you a dinner and some wine first."
Arcee blinked in disbelief and watched him pick up a tool on the small table next to her. He lowered his head and she heard something click inside her chest.
"Ok, a few minutes to let this tool adapt and run a check. Spark Chamber seems in pristine condition, so no worries. Internal frame in the area looks good. NO serious damage done in here. SO we just wait." He said looking back at her "Again I am sorry for doing stuff like this. All I have are old tools. You can talk to me if you want to pass the time or threaten me with your boyfriend if you want. You wouldn't be the first."
"Where did you learn of my kind?" Arcee blurted out. "I mean you look pretty much human and you're crawling on me, manipulating my bio mechanisms in ways you shouldn't know."
Max nodded and climbed over on the table, carefully taking the tool with him.
"Fair enough question." Max said with a nod and sat on the table. "About ten years ago, I met another of your kind. She was a spunky one. I was part of a special group back then. A black project. It was my duty to learn everything I could about her systems. She was a real spitfire. Her name was Hawk Wing. She was a disguised as an F-16. For some reason she chose me to reveal herself to. She taught me about your kind and how to hunt and process energon."
"You met another Transformer? Ten years ago?" Arcee asked shocked. "Where is she?"
"She isn't with us anymore. Like I said, black project. When she started holding back information about the weaponry, the big wigs started getting pissy about it. One day there was a massive explosion in the energon processor and she shielded me from it. It ripped her apart. I immediately prepared to restore her, being I knew the most about the systems, but I was pulled off the project. Some other guy was put in charge. HE studied her body, not attempting to repair her. He took the remains and ran to the underground." Max said quietly. "I hear he is the head of some paramilitary group called MECH. I left after I heard she was taken. I took remaining pieces of her with me."
He pointed over to a hand carved ornate box that had a padlock on it. Arcee swallowed in shock. She looked at him as he scratched his chin.
"Did she say if she was an Autobot or a Decepticon?" Arcee asked quietly.
"She never said, but she had a symbol like yours." Max said pointing at the Autobot marking.
"I'm sorry for the loss." Arcee said quietly.
"It's the past. I miss her, but not much I can do about it.' Max said quietly.
"Which parts did you keep?" Arcee asked quietly.
Max didn't answer right away. Instead he looked at the machine and nodded.
"Well, Ms. Arcee. IT would appear your systems to your arms and upper chambers seems to be in pretty good shape. Looks like the nanites did patch up a bit of wiring." Max said with a smile and reached in, unhooking the attachments. "Just give me a few minutes and your arms and chest will have feeling again."
Max gently closed the chest plate and walked around to the top of her head. She felt some movements and a sudden charge rush through her arms and upper chest. She carefully moved her arms
"How they feeling?" Max asked stepping around. "OH I haven't reactivated your weapon systems. Not sure if you can handle the energon drain for them just yet. Want to make sure there are no more leaks."
"They feel sore, but that's expected considering I was hit by two rockets." Arcee nodded.
"Well it's getting late. I'll let you rest for the night and we'll work on your lower torso and legs tomorrow. IF things go good, a day or two and you'll be all patched up and good as new, or at least as good as I can make you." Max said with a smile.
Arcee nodded and looked at him as he walked off. She noticed he stopped at the box and gently patted it. He said something quietly and then slipped behind a curtain wall. Arcee's eyes lingered on the box and she then lay back down.
The next day, Jack rushed out of his room at the base and down to the central command.
"Any luck yet?" He asked coming into the room.
"Not yet. Everyone is out looking, but no one has picked up her signal yet." Ratchet said. "And before you say it, yes we did check at the bottom of the cliff. There was an impact crater, but no body."
Jack nodded and slumped down. Ratchet looked over at him.
"Don't give up Jack. Prime will keep looking until he either finds her or her body. He won't stop until he has conformation one way or the other."
"I know." Jack said quietly as Miko and Rafael bridged in.
At the shop, Arcee watched with interest as Max moved around her stomach area. He had popped open plates; she didn't know could be open. She watched as he carefully worked with her internal systems and carefully removed spilled energon.
"So what do you do now for a living?" Arcee asked curious.
"After leaving the project, I wandered around and found this old shop. I do demolition work for the locals. Low grade stuff." Max said as he closed the plates and taped on the old keyboard next to him. He hopped off. "Try sitting up slowly, using your arms."
Arcee slowly pushed herself up. She winced a bit and placed a hand over her stomach.
"That didn't feel good." She grumbled.
"Must be that ding in the last section of systems that work with the frame, for the rib structure. Since I reactivated this section, your nanites will take care of it." Max said with a shrug. "The scans of your legs indicate some system damage, but I don't have the tools here to fix them. Nanites will probably take three or four days to fix them. You have two choices here. Wait it out or I can try to contact your friends out there."
"How do you know I am not the only one?" Arcee asked.
"Simple. You're Scout class. The scouts don't travel alone. There is at least another scout around. Any military organization works like that. Only assassins and spies travel solo." Max said with a shrug.
"If you can get a hold of Ratchet, he can finish me up quickly." Arcee said quietly, not wanting to offend the man that has been helping her.
Max nodded and looked at the screen beside Arcee.
"That should be an easy signal to reproduce" He said calmly and turned to head to a different computer.
Arcee blinked and looked at the computer. Sure enough was the signal to transmit to the base. She blinked and looked at him.
"What else do you know?" She asked shocked.
"You talk in your sleep and apparently your boyfriend's name is Jack." Max said calmly as he typed.
"He's not my boyfriend!" Arcee growled. "He's my partner."
"Cut it how you want." Max chuckled. "You ain't the first bot to have feelings."
At the Autobots base, Jack watched the others return from searching. He could tell by their body language they had no success. Suddenly the screens of the computer lit up. A text message appeared on it. Ratchet read it and blinked in shock.
"I think we found Arcee." He said stunned
In the warship, Soundwave noticed the signal and read it. He stood and walked to the room that Megatron was sitting.
"What is it, Soundwave?" Megatron asked looking at the silent transformer.
The message was displayed on the face plate. Megatron read in and nodded.
"Send Knock Out and Airachnid to eliminate her." Megatron said coldly.
At the shop, Max looked as a reply came and nodded.
"Looks like this Ratchet is gonna do a 'land bridge' about ten miles from here and come in quietly. Not a bad idea, considering the locals here don't know of your kind at all." Max said with a chuckle and turned back to Arcee.
Arcee nodded and looked at her legs.
"I hate being unable to move" She growled in frustration.
"Hold on." Max said and walked into the back of the shop.
After a few minutes, he comes out with a large gutted forklift. He guided it to sit by the table.
"Carefully move into the seat." Max said. "Once you're in and belted in, I'll hook this up to your mind and you can make it roll around."
Arcee looked at it slightly confused, but did as she was told. Max climbed around and large shipping belts were used to create a harness and her feet were carefully strapped to the forks of the lift. Max climbed up and carefully hooked a wire into her head.
"There you go. Just give the order to walk and this will roll around for you. It ain't much, but it's the best I have for now you can roll outside and enjoy the sun if you want. No one comes within a mile of my place." Max said chuckling. "Afraid they might blow up or something."
Suddenly a light began to flash and Max's head snapped around to look at the screen.
"A large energy spike and it isn't ten miles away. More like a hundred yards." He said with an edge to his voice.
Arcee looked over and blinked. Her eyes narrowed.
"We have home wreckers coming then." She growled "You need to reactivate my weapons."
"Until you are fully patched, that could do more damage to you." Max said looking around. "But I will be damned if I am gonna leave you with out a way to defend yourself."
Arcee watched as he moved to the back of the shop and motioned for her to follow. She did and watched as he pulled a box out. It was a long one and he flipped it open. Arcee noticed that the mechanical eye was glowing brighter now. He reached in and flipped some switches. He pulled out what looked like a large sawed off shotgun and handed it to her.
"Treat her good. It was a gift from Hawk Wing. She taught me how to make it. It has its own energon store and holds a lot more shots than its red neck cousin can. Careful though, it has a bit of a kick." Max said.
Arcee nodded and did a quick check over and tested the sights. Max moved over and pulled out a small box he stuck in his shirt pocket and a sleek rifle.
"Cargo door will open with the push of the blue button. More than enough room for you. I'll go out the front. Two points of defense. IF it ain't your friends, shoot to kill." Max said calmly
"How will you know?" Arcee asked looking at him.
"Real simple. They shoot at me and I shoot back. This is my property and I will be damned if someone is going to mess it up." Max said firmly and Arcee nodded.
Max reached over and pulled out a rough metal hat and placed it over Arcee's head. It looked like a metallic straw hat and Max smirked at the sight, but shook it off as he got serious again.
"Confirm targets and shoot to kill. Whatever you do, stay to the path or I will have to start over repairing you. Understand?" Max asked as he snapped a bolt back on the rifle and Arcee heard it hum to life.
"Understaood." She replied and turned to roll to the large door.
Max jogged to the front door and opened it a crack. HE glanced out and saw several large robot forms approaching the large shop. He stepped out quietly and slipped along the wall. He stopped at the edge of the railing of the porch.
"Mind telling me what you are doing here?" He called out to the strange robots.
Knock Out and Airachnid both spun around at the sound, so did the four Vehicons. Airachnid smiled at the sight of the humn standing holding a rifle.
"Looks like we have a local mountain man to deal with. No problem." Knock Out chuckled.
None of them heard the cargo door slide open without a whisper. Arcee poked her head out and saw the decepticons looking at Max, who seemed awfully calm.
"Either answer my question or I will be required to use force to remove you from my property." Max said calmly and spit on the ground
"Like you have the ability to make us leave, human." Airachnid scoffed.
Unseen to them, the spit touched two wires and completed a circuit. Knock Out walked forward laughing and lowered his face to be level with Max.
"Aside from a nasty habit of spitting, what else are you going to do? Shoot us with a pea shooter?" He chuckled.
"You better get out of my face, rust bucket." Max growled.
"Or what?" Airachnid asked trying not to laugh.
"External defense system pods fifteen though twenty-three, priority one activation." Max said with a smile.
Suddenly the ground under Knock Out's feet exploded upwards in gysers of blue plasma fire, throwing Knock Out acroos the ground, screaming in pain. Max dove off the porch and rolled through the grass. He rolled up to his knee and the rifle swung into firing position in one smooth motion. The blue bolt that shot out, went right through the eye of a stunned Vehicon. A few seconds later, its head exploded as a larger shot came from the side. Arcee pumped the shot gun and took aim again.
"You heard the man. Get off the grass." She growled at a group of stunned Decepticons.
"Kill them!" Airachnid snarled and lunged towards Max as the three Vehicons turned to Arcee and raised their weapons.
Max ran to the side firing at Airachnid. She dodge the shots as she chased after him. In moments she caught him and knocked the rifle from his grip.
"Any last words, pest?" She growled as she began to squeeze.
"Offensive protocol three sixty-five dash Omega! Engage!" Max gasped as she squeezed.
Suddenly his silver eye flashed and black four legged instect like creatures began to pour out of his pocket along Airachnid's hand. She didn't have a chance to react, due to shock of sensing a small energon burst. Her hand suddenly felt like it was on fire as the small creatures began to devour her hand. She quickly dropped Max and began to thrash her hand around, trying to knock the creatures off. She backed up to where Knock out and the two remaining Vehicons were having a shoot out with Arcee, who was hiding behind the wasll of the shop and shooting back. Airachnid stumbled into the and they all fell to the ground. Max grinned.
"Pods fourty-two througheighty! Detonate at forty-five degrees horthwest by west!" Max ordered and his eye flashed silver again.
A few seconds later, the ground under the tangle pile of Decepticons exolode, launching them in a high arc back into the woods. Arcee and Max took shooting spots and kept firing at them, as they heard loud engines approaching. The Decepticons looked up and quickly retreated into the woods, shortly followed by the sound of a land bridge opening and closing. Max whistled loudly and Arcee watched as a small black mass of insect like robots crawled up his leg and wrapped around his arm. Max then spun around and had his rifle aimed at the approaching cars. The large green humvee skidded to a stop.
"Max wait! These are my team!" Arcee called out and Max held his shot. "Max, can you make the grounds safe?"
Max remained quietly as he saw other vehicles pull up beside the humvee. He waited for a second as Arcee's words went through his head and he finally relaxed. The rifle lowered.
"External defense deactivate." He said and his eye flashed again. "There, its safe."
Arcee rolled out and stopped beside Max. The doors of the humvee opened and Meko and Jack jumped out. Max watched as the humvee transformed into Bulkhead. Ratchet and Prime where there as well. Max looked at them and at Arcee. She nodded. Meko stopped and looked at Arcee.
"Hillbilly robots? That's awesome!" She blurted out and used her phone to get a picture. "Where's the moonshine?"
"In the back and you don't get to touch it." Max said as he looked at the group. "Which ever of you is Rachet, all you have left is her leg systems."
He turned and walked back into the shop.
"Is it just me or is he pretty calm for what he just saw?" Bulkhead asked looking around
Arcee turned and rolled back through the cargo door, with Rachet behind her.
"Max? You alright?" She asked.
She spotted him at a table with his shirt off She saw bloody marks where Airachnid's claws slip as she dropped him. He was whipping blood off and checking them.
"Damn it. Looks like I will have to do stitches." He sighed and looked at Arcee. "I thought you would have headed out to get your legs fixed."
"I had to return this." Arcee said and set the gun down. "You look pretty bad. You need help."
"In more ways than you know." Maxx sighed and wiped off more blood.
Ratchet stopped in his tracks as his sensor picked up something. He looked at Max shocked.
"I can't believe it!" He whispered stunned, as the others came in.
"What?" Prime asked.
"He has energon in his system!" Ratchet said stunned
Max nodded and looked at Meko.
"Young lady, behind you is a first aid kit. Would you hand it here?" Max asked quietly.
Meko looked behind her and found a silver box with a red cross on it. She picked it up and handed it to him.
"Those look bad. Maybe my mom should look at them." Jack suggested.
"He's right Max. Those look bad and you are bleeiding a lot." Arcee said. "Come to our base and June can patch you up. She'll probably keep you around to make sure you are alright."
"I'm not leaving her unprotected." Max said quietly.
"Who? If it is a friend of yours and they know of us,…" Optimus Prime said gently.
"She's dead." Max said quietly.
"Who?" Ratchet asked getting irritated, seeing two medical problems.
"An Autobot he met ten years ago. Hawk Wing." Arcee said gently. "She taught him about our kind and that is why he was able to do most of the repairs on me."
"Hawk Wing?" Optimus and Ratchet both said stunned.