Title: Mission Accomplished
Characters: Bulkhead, Miko, and Ratchet
Transformers Prime
Sort of the Squeal to "Never Leaving You"
As soon as the bell rang for the students to go home, Miko ran as fast as she could to meet Bulkhead. Seeing him, she smiled when she saw him and ran faster to his alt-form. Opening the door, she jumped in.
"BULKHEAD, GUESS WHAT?" She almost screamed!
"Hmm?" he asked, chuckling at her excitement. "What is it?"
"I passed a test!" She smiled and almost bounced out of her seat. "Yeah it was only one test, but I thought that would make you happy!"
"Atta girl!" he said. If he were in bipedal form, he would have been smiling at her. "What class was this in?" he asked.
"English," she smiled as she buckled up and waited for him to pull away from the school as she pulled out her English test that she passed with a B.
"I bet Optimus would be proud. He knows you've been struggling in school." he said.
"I don't like school, Bulkhead. I never did. That's one reason I didn't like school in Japan. They expected so much of you there," she told him.
"Well, you're done with it for now." he said as he finally began to drive away from the school and towards the base.
"I don't want to go back there. If I do, I won't be here with you or with my friends," she told him.
"Don't you want to get an education and be successful?" he asked.
"I do, but does that mean I have to go back to Japan?" she pouted in the passenger seat. "Why can't I just be like you?"
"Who'd want to spend their life breaking stuff? Don't you want to do more with your life?" he asked, mentally rolling his optics as they left the city.
"I think it would be fun breaking stuff," Miko told him. "Plus what else am I good at? Failing tests?"
"Ugh... You're really difficult at times, you know that?" he said, chuckling.
"Why do you think that?" She smiled.
He chuckled again, waving it off as he kept driving.
"Did I say something wrong?" Miko asked.
"Nah." he said. "We're almost at base. I have something I need to show you." he said.
"Really?" Miko asked as her voice perked up again. "What is it?"
"You'll see soon." he said.
"Why won't you tell me?" she pouted slightly as she watched the desert go by.
"Because it's something I can only show you. You'll know why when you see it."
"Oh," Miko said softly as she sat silently wondering what he was wanting to show her as her phone received a text message.
Opening up her phone, she read it before texting a few messages back.
"Texting again huh?" he asked.
"Yeah, it was one of my friends back in Japan. She usually only texts when she has guy issues," she explained. "All the guys like her, but she doesn't know how to act around them."
"Huh. We never ran into those kinds of issues back on Cybertron. If a mech found a femme he liked, it was game over." he said. "We take relationships more seriously than you humans seem to..." he said.
"Some people take relationships more like a game now. They think they found the person and they use them to get what they want and then leave. I don't get why they do that now," she said softly thinking back to all her friends and classmates that had been hurt in their past relationships.
"I don't get it either. Why don't they just stick with the first one?" he asked.
"That's a good question. I am not sure why they don't. Seeing in person and being around people like that, is why I am afraid of getting in a relationship. I don't want to be hurt like that," she said as her phone buzzed again.
"I'm sure they'll learn their lesson eventually." he said as he entered the base.
He came to a stop in the base and opened the door for her.
Miko grabbed her bags and jumped out as she replied to the text really quick before putting her phone back in her pocket.
Bulkhead transformed, and stretched. He walked over to Ratchet.
"Are there any scenic places that I could take Miko to?" he asked, making sure Miko wasn't within earshot. "I promised her I would take her to an amazing place on this planet."
"There are a few places," Ratchet said softly as he started to pull up data while Miko went and sat with Raf and Jack thinking that Bulkhead may be going out on a mission shortly. "Here is a list of a few places that I am aware of."
Ratchet let the list appear with images of each location beside them.
"Whoa..." he said, looking at the list of places.
He figured he would be able to visit them all at some point, but one stuck out to him the most.
"Where's that?" he asked, pointing to one in particular.
"That happens to be Yosemite National Park in California," Ratchet said pulling up a few other areas of the park to give Bulkhead a nice view of the area.
"Nice place..." he said. "Do many people go here?" he asked, wanting to make sure that he maintained a low profile.
"There are some areas that are more secluded than others," Ratchet explained pulling up a map. "These areas won't have many people if any at all."
"I think I should still wait until a little later." he said nodding. "Just to be sure I won't be seen."
"That's not a bad idea," Ratchet told him. "Which area are you wanting to visit? I will go ahead and have the ground bridge ready for you?"
"The part by the lake." he said. "Thanks Ratch', I owe you one." he said.
"Just don't push your leg," Ratchet told him as he worked on getting the exact coordinates where they would appear right in front of the lake like in the picture.
Miko sat silently as she started to reply to yet another text. She was almost getting irritated with her friend and her guy issues.
Bulkhead waved Ratchet off as he walked over to the humans' rec center, approaching the railing.
"Hey Miko." he said.
"Hey," she smiled. "Is Ratchet making you go on a mission?"
"Not right now, but I will be going on one later." he said. "How is your friend's 'guy issues'?"
"Just about to drive me crazy. I don't see how she can't figure out these things by herself," she told him.
"I think you need a break from that for a while, you're getting really worked up about it." he said. "I was just about to head to the cliff, wanna come?" he offered.
"I would love to come," Miko smiled as she slipped her phone in her pocket.
He smiled, offering a hand.
"The mission wont happen until later this evening, so we have some time to hang out." he said, hoping that this would mislead her as to what the mission was.
Miko climbed onto his hand as she nodded.
"Just be careful when you go. I don't want anything to happen to you," she said sitting down.
"I'm always careful, the situation was different with the Tox-En. And besides, who needs to be careful when your a wrecker?" he said, chuckling as he walked over to the autobot elevator.
"From what you have said about Tox-En, I see how that can be different. And you do need to be careful. Wrecker or not," she told him with a slightly worried look on her face.
"You worry too much. Miko, I survived the war, and this war lasted for a long time Miko, much longer than your species has even been alive..." he said, looking down at her as the elevator lifted them to the top.
"You have been alive that long?" she asked slightly shocked.
She may not be the best in school, but she knew from her early years of schooling in Japan roughly how long humans have been here.
"You'd be surprised. Ratchet's probably been alive longer than your planet has existed at this point." he said, glad that Ratchet wasn't around to hear that. He didn't want to be wrenched again.
Miko laughed at the thought of that.
"Ratchet is really old," she managed to get out as she laughed harder. "I guess that puts a new meaning to 'older than dirt'."
Bulkhead chuckled again, smiling as they finally arrived at the top of the base.
"Here we are." he said.
Miko smiled as she looked out over the desert. She loved coming up here and looking over the city where she transferred to and seeing the world from so far up. In a way it made her think that this is what it must feel like to be as tall as the Autobots compared to what she was use to. The road looked so small and the rocks that are big when you are on the ground, look tiny.
Bulkhead sighed as he walked over near the edge, transferring Miko from his hand to his shoulder.
"It's nice to just come up here and get away from the war for a while," he said.
Miko sat on his shoulder as she smiled.
"I agree. Not only to get away from the war, but also to get away from the others and relax. It's really nice."
He nodded in agreement.
"It is." He said, groaning when his leg began to hurt. "Stupid leg. I'll be glad when this is all over with."
"Sit if you need to. I don't want you hurting," Miko told him as she looked at him.
If it was possible, she would have comforted him, but coming from someone as small as she was, it probably wouldn't do much good.
He nodded, slowly sitting down so he wouldn't jostle her, sighing with relief as the stress was taken off of his leg.
"You don't need to push yourself, Bulks," Miko told him as she looked up and into his optics.
He smiled as he turned his head to look back at her.
"Anything else happen in school other than you actually passing a test?" he asked.
"Not really," Miko told him. "I don't pay attention much anyways."
He laughed at her comment.
"I don't know why I even asked. Have you been getting any trouble from bullies?" he asked.
"Not really. I get in more trouble for not paying attention in class than having to deal with bullies," she said looking up at him. "I just don't worry about them. I deal with them a few hours a day at school and that's it."
"At least it's not constant." he said.
He sighed as he looked out over the horizon at the rocky landscape before them.
"No where close to it," she said as she followed his gaze over the landscape. "People here just don't realize that there is more than bulling others. We rarely see it in Japan."
"At least you come from a good place then. Even I didn't get that luxury on Cybertron. Not a lot of the wreckers did," he said. "You get used to it though when you go through a war."
"I am sorry Bulks," she said softly as she looked down slightly. "I didn't know you didn't come from a good place."
"I learned how to handle it. Why else do you think I'm as tough as I am?" he said laughing.
"Yeah, but wouldn't it be nice to grow up in a good place? Have you ever thought of it?"
"I think this is a nice place to live and grow up in.. You guys haven't had a war that destroyed your whole planet yet, have you?" he asked.
"I guess it's not bad. Back in Tokyo, there was everything, but at the same time, there was so much. Everyone expects so much of you. Here I can be myself, but it's so secluded. I guess that if it wasn't I wouldn't have met you. And as far as I know, no war has destroyed our planet," Miko told him.
Bulkhead smiled.
"This place may be secluded, but it definitely gives us less of a chance of being discovered by more humans," he said. "And by the way, I like it when you're you. Don't ever change who you are."
"Thank you Bulkhead. And the same with you," she smiled.
After a while, Bulkhead had taken her back inside,
"The mission is starting soon." he said, looking at her.
She nodded sadly not wanting him to leave and thinking about how she could possibly sneak out and join him.
"You better be safe."
"Wait a minute. I never said you couldn't come." he said.
She perked up and looked up at him.
"You mean I can come and I don't have to sneak out?" she asked smiling.
He nodded.
"I actually need you with me for this mission," he said. "I just need you to do one thing for me before you can come." he said.
"I will do anything you need me to do," she said jumping up quickly. "How may I help you?"
"Close your eyes," he told her.
"Close my eyes?" she asked confused.
"Mmm-hmm. That's all I need you to do."
"Oh... Okay," Miko said sitting back down and closing her eyes.
He then nodded to Ratchet to pull up the bridge.
Ratchet nodded as he opened the ground bridge.
"Tell me when you are ready to head back," he pinged Bulkhead.
"Will do." he pinged back as he then began to walk through the ground bridge.
Miko sat still as she heard the ground bridge sounds around her. She was so interested in knowing where they were going.
He finally emerged, smiling at what he saw in the landscape before him.
"We're here. You can open your eyes." he said.
Opening up her eyes, she looked around in awe.
"Bulkhead, it's beautiful. Where are we?" she asked.
"Yosemite National Park in California. I promised you we would visit some of the places on Earth that I thought you would like." he said.
Miko turned to him as she hugged him tightly.
"Thank you so much! I didn't think you meant we would go somewhere this soon."
"Well, you seemed stressed out, so I thought 'Why not?'." he said.
"Maybe, but you didn't need to do something like this for me," she told him as she looked up and into his electric blue optics.
"Maybe not, but I did it anyway," he said. "So, what do you think?" he asked.
"What do I think? It's beautiful, amazing, and I can't believe I am here in real life. This almost seems like a dream," she said turning back to look at the landscape.
"Well believe it, because we're right here," he replied, starting to walk over to a rock that jutted out over the water.
Miko smiled as she watched everything pass by them. It almost looked like the paintings that the Japanese made but of a different landscape. It didn't seem real, but hearing Bulkhead tell her that it was, made her believe him.
He smiled as he looked down at her, chuckling at her reaction. He sat down once he reached the rock and looked around, taking in the landscape.
Miko looked around before turning back to Bulkhead and hugged him again. "Thank you," she whispered softly.
He gently held her close in a return hug. "Your welcome."
"I didn't know places like this really existed. I thought they were only paintings," she told him as she grabbed her phone and snapped a picture of the landscape. "I have to have a picture of this."
He smiled. "Mission accomplished." he said to himself.
"This was your mission?" Miko asked him.
"This was my mission." he said with a nod. "Now that we're here, anything you want to do?" he asked.
Miko laughed softly at the thought of this being his mission. "It's such a hard and dangerous mission," she joked. "I could do nothing and still be happy, Bulks. I am happy to be somewhere beautiful!"
He nodded, smiling.
"Oh no, I was just shot... Oh, the pain!" he said, laughing.
"Bulkhead," she laughed as she looked up at him with a huge smile on her face. "You are happy you are a bot and not a human. You would have gotten pushed for that one."
He laughed again.
"Oh I would have, huh?" he teased.
Miko nodded with her grin still on her face. She couldn't remember the last time she had this much fun. It was probably the last time she hung out with Bulkhead, but before that would be back in Japan with her school friends. But this topped anything she could do with them.
"Yes, you would have."
"You would have been pushed right back." he said, poking her gently.
Miko laughed as she grabbed his hand to try to stop him, but didn't succeed. This only caused her to laugh more as she looked up at him.
"True, but I wouldn't have minded."
He chuckled.
"That's because your stubborn." he said, smirking. "You're almost as stubborn as me, if not more." he said.
Miko smiled at the thought. "That may be true, but that's what makes me me."
He smiled. "It's also what makes you so playful." he said, gently poking her again.
Miko laughed as he poked her. Calming down she smiled and leaned her head against him as she looked at the view.
"That's also true."
He worked to calm himself down as well. He smiled as he felt her rest against him, holding her close again.
"Bulkhead, I can't put into words how happy I am to see this or how beautiful it is. I have never seen anything like this before in my life," she said as she relaxed even more into him.
"There's still so much out there still... I will try to get us to as many places as I can." he said.
"Really?" she looked up at him.
"Mmm-Hmm." he said. "So, what now?" he asked.
"May I ask why you want to get us to as many places as you can?" she asked her companion.
"We have the technology, why not?" he asked.
Miko nodded.
"What do you want to do over here?"
"I'm asking you!" he said, smirking.
"Yes, but I want to know what you want to do first."
"Wanna just relax for a bit?" he asked.
"If you want to, I don't mind," she replied.
"Alright then." he said smiling and nodding.
Miko smiled and curled into Bulkhead as she glanced between him and the view in front of them.
He smiled, feeling a sense of happiness and peace as he held her close, enjoying his time with her.
Smiling MIko watched as the sun lowered slowly in the sky. She was happy to be here with Bulkhead and getting to spend time away from Jasper. She sighed softly as she took out her phone and took another picture of the scene in front of her.