I have a new story. It's a one-shot, well, because I already have 2 other stories with chapters and I learned that they are quite tedious, though fun to write. But, who knows? I may write a sequel if I get enough reviews (positive reviews that is.) Well, enjoy!
"You want a piece of me, Megatron?!!!"
"No! I want two!!!"
Just after the Decepticon dictator said this, pain exploded trough my body. My arms and legs burned and I fell into complete darkness. Megatron had disappeared, along with the entire urban landscape. Blackness; emptiness swallowed me up. I had no idea where I was, whether I was dead or not, or even when it was. Was I in a memory, or was I in the future. I didn't even know which direction I was facing. Upside down? Right side up? No idea, whatsoever. My equilibrium was completely off. Then, I had the sensation of falling. Then floating. Or was it floating then falling? I hit a non-existent floor or roof. What really surprised me was that I didn't feel me hitting the floor I just knew I hit something. Then, I stood up. Well, I tried to, but when I got up, the floor disappeared and I fell once more, for what seemed like an eternity. There was a small blue speck of light and it came closer and closer. I seemed to be falling into it; falling up?! That confused me so much. I landed on an invisible cushion of air that broke my fall just as I thought I was going to hit a metal patchwork. I had absolutely NO CLUE what was going on. I tried to scan the area for any Autobot signatures, or, heck, I would even be happy with Decepticon signatures. I found none. I looked around at my surroundings for once. I was in what seemed to be a military hangar.
"Optimus!" I screamed. The only time I ever call out for a teammate is when I'm desperate, which I was.
"Ironhide! Bee! Ratchet! Hello?!" No answer. I tried to transform into my Pontiac Solstice alt. mode, but I couldn't. I tried about twenty times before I gave up and walked through a door. I was confused on why it wasn't human sized, but Transformer sized. My past experiences told me that other Cybertronians should be close by, but so far, everything contradicted my theory. As I walked through the door, I saw a corridor stretching about one hundred yards both ways, and at least three doorways in each hall. I went to the right and when I was just about to enter the door stating 'Med-Bay', a whirlwind, black-hole thing opened up. I felt sick to my energon processor. I spun around and around, pressure building in my head. I felt like I was going to implode and then I fell to the ground with a loud CLANG! Right into the Med-Bay- or what I thought looked like the Med-Bay. When I looked around, what I saw filled me with relief: Optimus, Ratchet, Ironhide, Bumblebee, Sam, Mikaela, and even Captain Lennox were standing around an operating table. I wonder why they couldn't hear me. Various tools were screeching and whirring as Ratchet worked on somemech. I walked closer trying to see who the unlucky bot was. I looked between Optimus and 'Hide. There lay a silver Autobot in two pieces. Someone or something ripped them directly in half. I flinched when I saw the gruesome display. Relief left my body. Despair and panic took its place when I figured out who it was. 'NO! I WANT TWO!' Megatron's voice roared through my head, repeating those four despicable words. (Though it was a good comeback…) I backed away in shock. Then I stopped as soon as I felt something pulling me back. It was the whirlwind thingy again. I struggled against it even though I knew it was going to win. I was thrown back into the void, but this time an unimaginable pressure tugged and pulled on my armor, like the blackness was alive and wanted a piece of me. It was almost like reliving my 'death' only this time Megatron wanted twenty pieces of me instead of only two. There, in the void I was tortured. I tore at my face plating in pain.
'Primus! Make it stop! Make it stop!' I screamed in my head. I felt as if someone was shaking me. The pain left my body and I felt as though as the gravity slowly returned to the void, though pressure was applied at a quicker rate than the gravity. Whump! Sand, shells and various other seafloor materials swirled around me and settled on my silver torso as I watched, confusedly. Where am I? I thought. I knew I was in a large body of sea water, for I had done a chemical makeup of the water, which was now occupying the smaller crevices throughout my robotic form. As soon as I realized this, a screen invaded my vision blinking red and yellow stating 'WARNING! PRESSURE ALERT!' A shrill beeping soon started and I made a break for the surface. I was glad that I finally found my sense of direction. On my way up, I couldn't help but notice a few strange earth creatures. A select few were called 'Anglerfish', 'Viperfish', 'Squid', 'Jellyfish', 'Goblin Shark', and 'Swordfish'. A colorful and strange collection, if you ask me. I wonder what the Autobots will think of them. After swimming for about an hour, I started getting a bit tired. Cybertronians weren't built for swimming. Luckily, I was nearing the water's surface. I was surprised how deep I was when I was resting on the bottom. I found it was about seven earth miles deep. I soon calculated that if I left the seafloor another thirty eight seconds later, I would've been slagged. Luckily, I didn't and I burst through the water's surface safely. I felt the fresh air filling the spots previously occupied by water. I felt refreshed and at the top of my game. Only one thing troubled me: How in Pit would I ever make it back to the Autobots alive? I was exhausted from swimming, though I did lose a lot of water weight; I was still a little tired. Anyway I had to conserve my energy. I had no energon to replenish myself. I took a look around me. At first I saw nothing, then, I saw a tiny black speck in the distance. I sounded my distress signal. That should've alerted any nearby vehicles of any sort: Boats, aircrafts, automobiles, well, you get the idea. I zoomed in on the speck, which was now close enough for me to see that it was an aircraft carrier. I saw about five men on the deck and three others ran out of a door and I think, spoke to him. His back was facing me so I couldn't see his face. I could however, recognize his emotions. When they started screaming excitedly at him, I could see that he was surprised in a happy manner. One of the men pointed in my direction and I could make out one of the men that helped fight the Decepticons, Tech Sergeant Epps. I didn't know him very well; I only knew his name an affiliation. I saw the man who was alerted by Epps and the others turn and look around to the distant water and he soon spotted me. He waved both arms signaling they were coming to get me. I waved back. He disappeared from view with the other men into the door Epps and the others had come out of. The carrier continued to near my position. A few minutes later, two teenagers and the four men emerged. The two teens, a boy and a girl, I could not make out. They both waved both of their arms over their heads. I once again, waved back. Wait a sec; I did know who those teens were! Sam and Mikaela! It was nice to see those two safe and sound. The last time I saw those two Sam was running about with the Allspark and Mikaela was strapping Bumblebee to a Pick-up. That was when I was grabbed by Megatron, and killed. The carrier was now about thirty yards from me. The crew started to prepare a platform for me so I can make it to the deck. They soon lowered the platform and yelled for me to get on. I did so and I was surprised that it didn't creak under my over-one-ton earth weight. I may be extremely light for a Transformer, but I was quite heavy by human standards. I have to admit, it feels weird being in the presence of beings less than a tenth of your weight. As soon as I was completely on the smallish metal platform, someone yelled something and I was soon on my way up. I was in the water for a total of about an hour and a half since I had woken up. I soon would be with humans, and their first reaction when they saw me told me that they enjoyed Cybertronian company. The platform became level with the aircraft carrier's deck and I hauled my exhausted form onto it and I flopped gratefully onto my back. My scruff bar fell uncomfortably under my weight, but I didn't care. I was safe and with friendly humans.
"Jazz?" Sam peered at me.
"Thank Primus…" I muttered. "Yo! Wass crackin'?" I realized how tired I was; my voice sounded exhausted. I must've gotten water in my vocal processor. It crackled.
"Good thing Keller assigned a search team for any aliens who might've survived. I think you would be outta luck, my friend." The man said.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Captain Will Lennox. This is Fig." He pointed to another man, who was a bit tanner than himself. "This is Epps." He pointed to an even darker skinned man; he was almost as black as Ironhide. "And this is Silker." He pointed to a man with the same color skin as him. They were all wearing the formal military attire.
"Well, nice to \meet y'all. When you said 'aliens who might've survived' do you mean that none of the others survived, as in Autobots?" I flinched internally at the answer to come. Oh please say no! Say no for the love of-
"No, no, no. The remaining four Autobots are fine physically. It's emotionally that is their issue. They're still upset about your death. Bumblebee locked himself in his quarters-"
"Quarters?! You mean they have a base?!"
"Yeah. At the Hoover dam. There's plenty of room for forty 'Bots! It was Sector seven's 'good-bye and sorry for torturing you' gift." Sam laughed.
"Talk about fickle…" I shook my head in disbelief of reality. My best friends were safe and were in good condition, I met more buds, I was safe, and, well, life was being good to those I held close to my spark.
"Did you see any others that might've made it?" The question originating from Fig took me off guard. He had a Hispanic accent.
"No. Thank Primus. I was the only fallen Autobot, and the rest, if they made it…Not a good thing."
"Si. Nos sentimos muy afortunados de que el resto sobrevivió."
"English, Fig!" Will screamed, annoyed.
"Yeah…Well, we best be getting this guy back to base." Silker said. He looked quite young, maybe twenty one at oldest. He had short, brown hair and greenish-brown eyes. I saw sorrow and defiance in them, and they seemed to blaze with anger, but he showed no signs of anger. I thought that that was impossible. He threw me a glare and turned around, retreating below deck. So he did show signs of anger…
"Alright kids, Epps and Fig are gonna' take you down to your rooms. I'm gonna' talk to Jazz for a second." With a quick nod from Sam and Mikaela, and two salutes from Fig and Epps, they, too, returned below deck.
"What's Silker's problem? He's more like a 'Sulker' to me."
"Well, when Blackout destroyed are base, only about six people survived. Then, when we found a village to call the Pentagon to tell them about you guys, we were attacked by Scorponok, and two of them died. We didn't exactly know the signs then. One of the men was Silker's brother. He's still getting over it. You can't hold him against his dislike of you kind."
"Aww man. Poor guy." I flopped onto my hands and knees, using a knee to stabilize me as I stood up. I signaled to Will that I was leaving, and I walked down below the deck which, surprisingly, could easily fit a Cybertronian of my size. Careful that I didn't hit the ceiling, though I still had about three feet of clearance, I broke into a slow run.
"Wait up!" I screamed at Sam, Mikaela, Epps, and Fig when they came into view after I turned a corner. "Hey!"
"Yo. Wassup? You see Silker?"
"Uhh…Yeah. He went to his quarters and locked the door. By the looks of it…or the sounds of it…he was pretty ticked about something." Epps said. He had a light accent, amazingly similar to mine. Mine was a bit heavier, but the same nonetheless. I did an acoustic diagnostic, so there's your proof.
"Can you tell me where his quarters are?"
"Yeah. Turn around and go straight into the other corridor. Turn at the second left and take the third right. His room is the fifteenth on the right. It says 2F2L3R15R. That number should tell you exactly where it is if you're in the Command Center on the deck."
"Thanks." And before any of them could ask anymore questions I had transformed and was driving, remembering the number 2F2L3R15R…2F2L3R15R…2F2L3R15R… I was already on the second floor and I had taken the second left…third right… door one, door two…three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen-
"Fifteen." I mumbled to myself. I transformed and knocked softly. The unmistakable sound of metal clanging on metal was quite different than what a humans' knock would sound like.
"What do you want, robot?" Came the answer.
"I want to talk to you. Is that coo' with you?" No reply. I just heard moving around. Click. The door was unlocked and Silker's bloodshot eyes peered out.
"Whoa. Dude, what happened to you?" I stared in disbelief at what I saw; a young military man crying his eyes out. And by the looks of it, I wouldn't be surprised if that was literal.
"Nothin'. I'm just upset."
"About your brother right?" I guessed. He looked at me in disbelief.
"What?" I asked.
"How'd you know about that?" He asked, his voice was filled with fury.
"Lennox told me. He saw you give that dirty look and he told me the whole story. Even the part about you posing as him in the military; black rimmed glasses and all. He even somehow knew about vocal lessons so you could even sound like him. I don't know whether I should be impressed or creeped out." This, amazingly, got a small laugh out of him.
"Well, that would all be true." He said. A sliver of happiness lingered in his voice.
"We're all not bad you know." I glanced at him from the corner of my optic. I raised my visor. "Autobots try to save your kind, while Decepticons on the other hand, like Scorponok," Silker shuddered when I said the scorpion mech's name, "try to destroy your kind. Don't think you're the only one who had lost someone to this war of ours. Even our own kind have been slain for freedom's sake. Take Optimus Prime for instance. He lost his mate to Megatron's hands."
"Mate? You mean you have bondings like we do? But your robots! How could you know human feelings?"
"We're almost exactly like humans. Except without the squishy stuff. Instead, we're all metal. To us, it seems strange that you have bondings like we do." Silker was staring at me in an awe-apologetic way. It was by far the strangest look I have ever gotten from anyone, or mech for that matter. I smiled at him and he smiled back, the same look in his eyes, only they shone like a newly-online sparkling's.
"Well, we don't have bondings like you do exactly." I confessed. "We have Spark Resonance. Only one other mech in the universe can resonate with yours, if there is even one in existence. It's a very rare ritual. You on the other hand, just have to enjoy the person and get along with them, and you get a choice. Anyway, it has to be a male-female relationship. For us I can be a femme-femme, male-femme, or male-male. And it could even be an Autobot-Decepticon resonance. Terminating one's Sparkmate is one of the most despicable things you could do. That's what happened to Optimus. Megatron killed his Sparkmate, Elita One."
"Whoa. A very interesting alien lesson." He rubbed one of his eyes with his index and middle finger. "I stand corrected. You do have human feelings. And very acute ones at that." He yawned. "It's getting late." He looked at his watch. "Holy crap! One thirty two A.M!" Just then I realized how tired I really was.
"You're right. It is late. Time flies when you're havin' fun." I shrugged.
"Jazz, thanks. You made me realize how irrational I was being. And I'm sorry for glaring at you earlier." He smiled.
"You're welcome. Oh. And by the way. How long is it gonna take for us to get back?"
"About four days. Is that okay?"
"Yeah. As long as no one informs the Autobots about me. I want to see their faces when they find out. It's gonna be great."
"I never thought about you actually reuniting with the Autobots. I guess it would be pretty funny to see their faces. Could I come along? I've never met them personally before."
"Sure thing. I'm bringing Lennox, Sam Mikaela, You, and if I can, Fig and Epps. I'm sure Sam and Mikaela wouldn't mind sharing a seat. I only have room for five unless someone is willing to ride in the trunk."
"I'm sure Epps or Fig…Fig, definitely would be happy to oblige." He smiled deviously.
"Fig's the guy with the Hispanic accent right?"
"Yeah…And he gets the most annoying 'Español Impulses' so I think everyone would be better of without hearing Spanish for twenty minutes."
"Or you could ride back there. I think we all would be better off without the complaining." I teased. He looked at me in a playful annoyed way. I laughed. He laughed. I think this trip was going to be a little more enjoyable than I thought.
Well, I'm at a loss. Sam filled me in on the past month's happenings. He killed Megatron. An eleventh grader. Killed the worst dictator in the history of Cybertron. I nearly keeled over when Sam told me. Bumblebee got his voice back, and it was about time. And his legs were repaired which was a relief. The Decepticons were destroyed for the most part. Though there were a few surviving that were either MIA'd or were in hiding. Scorponok's status was still unsure. I really wanted that disgrace to Minicons dead. Actually, Scorponok was a bit bigger than I am. He's considered a Minicon, but I'm considered a full-fledged mech. That fact always confused me. The rest of the Autobots did not come into life threatening injuries so I heard. I had no worries. The next three days after I was rescued were the most aggravating. I had to live with the fact that, I was indeed, legally considered 'DEAD' and I wasn't. Every time I met someone new, I had to explain the same story. Me and Silker became closer friends and he even put down his book to give me a tour of the ship. He loved reading, so, Silker putting a book down was way out of the ordinary. I was flattered, which doesn't happen often, when Will told me later how rare it was for Silker to stop reading by his own free will. On my tour, we stopped at the computer room. An informal name, I know, but that was what it was called. What are you gonna do? I downloaded the pictures I took and printed them for the team back home. I also made multiple copies of the photo set. About ten sets and three hundred pictures in all. I used up three packets of the photo paper. Silker, whom I found his first name to be John, even said that the pictures that I took might be 'National Geographic' worthy. Not sure what that means, but he had a tone that said it was an honor. He put one set into an envelope and wrote 'SEACREATURE PICTURES: AUTOBOTS'. John then put the envelope in his quarters so we wouldn't lose them. I have no idea what he did with the other copies. I think he might've given them all to the rest of the crew. I was watching the sun fall over the horizon. It was about three quarters below the horizon when the intercom blared, "Approaching North America's west coast. Arrival set to twenty one hundred hours." Then it fizzed out. Three hours…Three more hours until I'm on land again. Four at most until I can see them… I thought. Silker walked up to me.
"Excited?" He looked up to me and smiled.
"Yeah. I can't believe I'm actually going to see them again. This is going to be great.
I hope you don't mind driving at around two hundred miles per hour." I looked at him behind my visor. He was staring at me like a beaten pet.
"Are you joking?" His voice quavered.
"Nope. My alt. mode can speed up to maybe four to six hundred. I'm the fastest mech, well, according to Bumblebee. And Bee is about seventy percent of the time correct."
"Whoa. That's…impressive…?" He scratched his head in confusion.
"Since we're not of this world, some things may confuse you. Don't worry. Lots of people that we meet are confused at first. Even Sam and Mikaela." The thought of Sam's reaction to Ironhide at first triggered a laughing fit.
"What's so funny?!" He screamed. The only reason for the screaming was to get me to hear him. I stopped laughing, though the thought still caused impulsive chuckles.
"Just, when I was first introduce to Sam and Mikaela, Ironhide pulled his signature 'hello' which is pulling his cannons out and pointing them at the new guy saying, 'You feelin' lucky punk?' and activating them. He really does love those cannons… Sam looked like he was gonna faint!" I started laughing again. He laughed too.
"What's so funny?" Sam, as if on cue, walked over to us. We both laughed harder.
"You! When you met Ironhide! Your face was priceless!" I laughed. Sam scowled. Mikaela laughed.
"Ironhide scared the crap outta me!!! I didn't know him! I thought he was really going to shoot me!"
"Sheesh. It was a joke. It was a hilarious one too!" I said, defeated. Sam mumbled something. I didn't really care what he said. I kinda already knew what he said.
"So, how are you and Bee gettin' along? You still buddies?"
Sam looked up at me. "Yeah. I haven't been able to see him much though. He only comes out of his room for energon. Other than that he stays in there by himself. I think he's crying in there. He has black streaks down his face. I never get a good look because, like I said, he only comes out for energon."
"Well, the sooner I get there, the better. Sounds like Bee is on the verge of…yeah…"
"On the verge of what?"
"Nothin'. It was a mean joke. Drop it." Sam shrugged and walked back below deck.
"What were you going to say?" John asked.
"I was going to say 'suicide'. We can do that." That got a wide-eyed look off of Silker. "Of course I was kidding. Bee wouldn't ever do that, no matter how much he would want to. Just, I want to drop the topic. Let's talk about happy things, shall we?" The speaker came to life. "One hour until arrival. Prepare belongings for transport." Wow. Two hours past already.
"Well, I better start packing. I'll be back in half an hour. Forty five minutes at most. See ya." He turned and waved.
"See ya!" I called after him. Well, it's just me now. How to entertain myself… Hmmmm… Then I remembered how awesome of a stereo system I had. I can't believe I went three days without music… I was surprised I hadn't died…again. I was still getting over the fact that I had cheated death. What was I thinking taking him on alone? I would have kicked major aft if I had, say, Ironhide with me. Well, I won't EVER make that mistake again. I was given a rare trial-and-error experience. Well, that and the fact that Megatron was dead. "Arrival in thirty minutes." The speaker blared. Was I thinking that much? Dang. How about that music, huh? I switched on 'Click, Click, Boom' by Saliva.
All those Saturdays when kids go out and play,
I was up in my room and let the stereo blaze
I tapped my foot to the rhythm. I was now truly refreshed. I dubbed this song 'The Song For New Beginnings'. This was the first song I had listened to since I had revived. I got lost in the tune, let it take me over. I looked into the words, and the figurative meaning of each of them. The song soon ended, and I switched on 'What I've Done' by Linkin Park. I got lost in that song too.
For what I've done,
I start again,
And whatever pain may come,
Today this ends,
I'm forgiving what I've done. A tap on my foot jerked me out of stasis. I didn't even realize I had gone into stasis. "Jazz! Wake up! We're here!" John yelled at me.
"Alright, alright I'm up." I stretched my arms and got up in a sitting position. Carts and small, dark green vehicles drove on and off of the carrier. Various people in military uniforms stared at me. I transformed to try to avoid further attention, though I do love attention. "Get in." I said, opening my passenger door. He got in, bag and all, and I shut the door. "Buzzards. They all already know about you guys. Yet they still drool over your kind, like you're the best thing since sliced bread. I'm surprised Cybertronians are still on the front page of every major magazine and newspaper over a month after you even got here. Publicity can really wear a topic down to nothingness quite quickly." He rolled his eyes.
"Agreed." John flung his bag into my back seat. "Well, where are the rest of the guys?"
"I think they already got off. We should hurry if we want to catch them. I said we would be down there five minutes ago. They're probably getting confused."
"Alrighty then." I revved my engine. "Off we go!" I sped down the ramp to the dock. It didn't take long for us to find the others. They were all sitting on some crates looking very bored. Sam was half asleep from the boredom, and Epps was looking very irritated. Fig was saying something in Spanish I couldn't make out.
"ENGLISH FIG! WE DON'T SPEAK FREAKIN' SPANISH!!!" Epps screamed. By the looks of things, I'd say Fig had been at the Spanish for a good while now. Fig pouted at Epps' reaction. Then he went to something about Epps ruining his heritage and started going back to random flicks and flecks of Spanish here and there. Epps just mocked him and Fig pouted once more. "Yo dudes! Autobot base anyone?" I screamed through the radio. They all looked up. Sam was wide awake now. He had already leapt off the crate he had made his bed out of, and was climbing onto one of my backseats. "Come on you guys! I wanna see the Autobots!" He screamed out the open window. Mikaela sat up, iPod in her ears. When she saw Sam, she hopped up and joined him in the back. Lennox, Fig and Epps got up and somehow found a way to squeeze all five of them in comfortably. This was going to be at most a half hour trip, though it was normally about two hours; across California and through half of Nevada. This was going to be fun.
"Are we there yet? I'm getting claustrophobic!" Sam complained. "And nauseous." He added. I was driving at one hundred eighty two miles per hour while navigating a winding road straight through the desert. We were only half way there when the complaints started coming. "Shut up. Talking only makes nausea worse. Fifteen minutes at least." I said, and I knew I sounded annoyed. I wasn't surprised that at least one human was getting sick. At the speeds I was going and the course I was on, it was normal, though annoying. Sam groaned.
"Try a recharge cycle. I'll wake you up when we get there." About three minutes later I could hear snoring. It was the only sound anyone could hear. No one spoke. I turned on some music. The quiet was unbearable.
I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind,
I left my body lying somewhere in the sands of time,
I watched the world from to the dark side of the moon,
I feel there's nothing I can do. Yea.
"Kryptonite! I haven't heard this in such a long time! My brother used to play it for me all the time on his guitar when I was little!" John said. "It was my favorite. He even taught me how to play it."
"That's cool."
"You probably don't have musical instruments do you?" He looked at my radio.
"Ironically, no. Though I really love music." I had slowed to about one twenty. I was making too good of time. Anyway, I thought we would like to enjoy the scenery. John had nodded at my statement and closed his eyes listening to Kryptonite. About two minutes later, I had to replay it for John. He knew we were getting close to the dam, so he now had his eyes open. I turned left and there it was. I could of swore that I saw Optimus walking around in plain site, which he was, considering the government had practically given the dam to them, and no one, govs or not, couldn't bother them. Or so says John. I have no reason not to believe him, so I believe him. Optimus had gone back into the dam through a door. It was like a giant garage. A small speck fluttered through the door behind Optimus and he had settled it on one of his fingers and he put it on his shoulder. It seemed to be another Transformer, a Minicon actually. A very small Minicon. It was a dragon Transformer, it looked like. It jumped off and transformed into a little blue, green, black and white-silver mech. It looked like a male and he was as tall as Optimus' leg. He transformed into a motorcycle and sped off. So a triformer…And a Minicon triformer at that…Never saw one of those before. "Only a few minutes left Jazz." John nudged my door with his elbow. "I know! I'm getting excited."
"Good. How are we gonna do this?"
"I'll let all of you out, and you take all visitors' precautions. Wait for somemech to let you in, and you give them all a fake reason of business. Just to get them even more unsuspecting of me. Then, I'll reveal myself at the right time."
"Sounds good." John turned around. "You guys hear that?" They all nodded. "Okay. Let's go." I broke for the gate to the dam. We were cleared and we went in. I went straight for the door Optimus had disappeared through. I let everyone out according to plan. They all knocked on the door. The door opened and Optimus and Ironhide came out. A tingling of anticipation ran up my back. It took every inkling of strength I had not to transform right then.
"Hello. What are you doing here?" Optimus asked.
"Just…thought we should stop by, and see how you guys are settling in." Sam said. "How's Bee?"
"He's still in his room. Maybe you could-" He stopped. He caught sight of me.
"What's wrong Optimus?" Lennox looked to him. Optimus shook his head, breaking his stare. "N-Nothing." He wasn't fooling anyone. I could detect sadness in his voice.
"Just still getting over Mission City. Jazz was a very good friend and his loss won't be taken lightly."
That was my cue. I bit the bullet and transformed. The six I had escorted here smiled and looked up at Optimus. "J-Jazz? B-But y-your dead…How did you survive?"
"Not exactly sure. But here I am." I smiled at him. He smiled back.
"It's good to see you, Jazz. You don't know how relieved everyone will be when they see you functioning. Especially Bumblebee." Ironhide said.
"How you doin' Hide? Where is he anyway?"
"Better than you've been, I'm sure." He nudged my shoulder in a friendly punch.
"In his room. Do you want to see him?" Optimus shook his head unapprovingly at Ironhide's reply. Ironhide just shrugged.
"Yes I do. The sooner he sees me alive, the better." I half laughed.
"You have a point there."
"Can you tell me where to go?" I asked. "I'll take you!" Sam piped up. He had been leaning on my foot. He got up and leaned on my leg. I moved my leg minimally and he toppled over. I laughed.
"Do you want me to take you to Bee? Or would you rather play 'Labyrinth' in the Hoover dam?" He put up an interesting point.
"Let's go."
Sam led me through corridor after corridor, hallway of doors after hallway of doors, until Sam knocked on a door with 'KEEP OUT' written in black and yellow. This must be Bee's room. I thought. "What?" Bee said through the door. "It's me Bee. Someone wants to see you." Sam said, nudging my knee. That's how short I am; short enough for a sixteen year old to easily touch my knee. Bee groaned from inside the room. "Now, Bee. You've been in there for over a week straight. Get your sorry aft outta there before I get Ratchet to tear this door down." I heard Bee get up and unlock the door. It swung open. "Yo B.B. Wass crackin'?"
"Jazz!? I thought you were dead!" The much-larger-than-me yellow mech embraced my in a very tight greeting hug. Only then did I realize what the recent 'upgrade' Bumblebee got did to him. He now could easily pick me up, than from way back when, he could only lift up my arm. He let me go. Finally. "Did Prowl see you yet?"
"Prowl?! Prowl's here!?" Hearing my old friend's name was great. I hadn't heard from him in forever.
"Yeah. He got here with the twins, Bluestreak and Hound about a day after you died. Optimus told them what happened in Mission City. The twins got into a fight abut nothing when they heard, Prowl and Blue have pretty much isolated themselves from the team. No one took your death lightly. Hound, not sure. I don't think he showed much reaction at first but he went straight to his quarters after he heard- Hey! Hound look!" I turned around and saw the green mech walking our way. Hound's optics widened. "Jazz!" He ran over and we hit knuckles. "How you doin' Hound-dog?" Yes, a corny nickname, I know but it's still cool. "Good now that you're back! Optimus said you were dead. What's that about?"
"I was dead." He stared at me agape. "I was. Prime wasn't lying. Lennox and his crew brought me back here on their patrol for any surviving, but thought dead, Cybertronians. Sam and Mikaela were there, too."
"That must've been fun." He rolled his optics.
"Actually it was. I was able to acquaint myself with the humans that helped with the 'Cons. Where are the rest of the guys anyway?"
"Ratchet's in the Med-Bay still probably upset about you, and Blue and Prowl are around here somewhere, other than that, I can't help you with. Sorry."
Bee picked me up and put me under his arm potato-sack style. "Bee, what are you doing IN PRIMUS' NAME!?!?"
"Taking you to Ratchet. Now shut up and cooperate." I crossed my arms and Bee made his way to the new Med-Bay running. There were two set of slidy doors separating us and the main Bay. Bee ran into the first set out of sheer excitement, though it joggled my head. I held it in pain.
"Sorry about that. I forgot the doors." Bee apologized. He went through the other set successfully. Sure enough, Ratchet was sitting on a chair inside. He had his elbows on his knees and his hands on his head, fingers interlaced.
"RATCHET!!!! IT'S JAZZ!!! HE'S OKAY!!!" Bumblebee screamed, much to the medic's dislike. Ratchet, in shock to the sound change, looked up to Bee.
"Bumblebee, how many times do I have to tell you? Jazz is-" He stopped when he caught sight of me. "Jazz?" He choked. "But how?"
"Not sure. I'm not much into the details."
"But your spark was gone. Nothing. There was no way to save your spark." Ratchet was looking at me like a worried parent.
"Ratchet, there's not always an explanation to things. Sometime's things happen with no reason to cause them. This was a perfect example." I smiled at him
"Slag, Jazz. That's deep." Ratchet said. "But what I want to know, and I'm doing this out of sheer joy of your survival, is: HOW IN THE SLAGGIN' FRAGGIN PIT ARE YOU ALIVE!?!? IT'S UNHEARD OF! ITS-" And then, Ratchet started his ranting. It soon became too much for my audio receptors.
"Ratch-man!" No answer, only ranting.
"Ratch!!" Ranting.
"RATCHET!!!!" Ranting. That was as loud as my vocal processor allowed without blowing out. I had no choice.
I'm Mr. Fixit!
It feels good!
Fixin' all the girls in the neighborhood,
I'm Mr. Fixit!
It feels good!
Fixin' all the girls in the neighborhood,
C'mon!
Now you don't wanna hurt a man,
I agree.
If he knew what we were doin'
He'd be hurtin' me- My killer stereo system blared the medic's dubbed 'theme song'. When I play music, it can easily get a lot louder than my voice can. Ratchet had punched me in the energon processor, which had stopped the music abruptly. "Never, ever, play that slag in my med-bay." He said, menacingly. He was pointing a finger at me.
"It ain't slag! It's the 'Amazing Crowns'! Respect da classics dude!" I crossed my arms in a 'gangsta' fashion. He merely ignored me.
"Yup!" He said, completely changing moods.
"'Yup' what?" His sudden change in mood scared me beyond all comprehension.
"You are definitely Jazz."
"You just now figured that out." I looked at him in amazement that he didn't trust me, his most frequent customer.
"You could've been a 'Con in disguise…" He said, embarrassed of his first explanation of my return.
"Yeah right. Like a 'Con coulda' pulled of posing as me; as complex, and as good looking. Yeah-no. No way, no how a 'Con could do it. THINK, MEDIC, THINK!!!!" I shook him by his shoulders playfully.
"JAZZ! JAZZ! STOP IT! I'M GETTING DIZZY!!!" Ratchet screamed. I stopped and he held his head, which was rolling on its joint. Ratchet was moaning.
"I'm gonna kill you…" He groaned. Sam giggled.
"Too soon. I just got back around three to four days ago. I really don't want to go back to the 'Void of Nothingness' again." I laughed. Ratchet made a sad attempt at laughter, but instead, it came out a choke. Just then, John, Epps, Lennox, Mikaela, Lennox, and Sideswipe (I think) came into the Med-Bay. Optimus trailed behind.
"Sideswipe. I think you and Jazz have met already." He motioned at me. I was right. Sideswipe looked at me in surprise. I guess he hadn't recognized me in silver.
"Jazz?! But I heard you were at the bottom of the ocean!"
"Well, I was. But as you can see, I'm here now." I nearly fell over laughing when I saw Sideswipe's expression. His optics were as wide, if not wider, as they could get. His mouth was hanging open, and he had a scared look in his eyes. It's the same look that I imagined if he saw Sunstreaker being disassembled. I felt pity for him.
"Wass wrong wit you?" I asked. He slowly raised a finger at me.
"Y-Y-You w-w-were d-d-dead?" Sides stuttered. He seemed to have lost his vocal processor's full volume because when he spoke I could barely hear him.
"Yeah. I was."
"And you came back? Without Ratchet or any medic's help?"
"Yes and yes." I was nearly hysterical with what Sides did next. He fell backwards. He was in stasis long before he even hit the floor. Just then, Sunstreaker came into the Med-Bay. He stopped when he saw me.
"Who's the silver guy?" Sunny looked down when his foot caught on Sideswipe's shoulder.
"Whet the frag happened to Sides?!" He looked up to me. "What did you do to him?" His voice was intense. Though I hadn't done anything to Sides, his question burned holes in my silver armor.
"Nothin' Sunny. I just got here and he came in, started talkin to me and he passed out."
"Who are you? No one calls me 'Sunny' without my say so." Sunny peered angrily at me.
"To you, I'm the 'deceased' Jazz. But, yeah, I'm Jazz." I smiled at him. He was looking down at Sides, who was stirring. Sunstreaker knelt beside him and sat him up.
"You okay, bro?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Do you know who that is?" Sides pointed to me.
"He told me he was Jazz. As in the 'Ripped in half by Megatron and dumped into the ocean', Jazz?" He asked me.
"The one and only, Sunny." He looked at happily at me. We were very good friends, and Sideswipe too; we actually pulled a lot of pranks on the older Autobots a while back. We were 'partners in crime' as Sunny referred to us as.
"Remember what happened with Optimus and the funny string?" Sunny looked at me. I broke into laughter.
"Yeah! I do actually. It got into his optics and he went blind temporarily. That was by far one of the best pranks we pulled. It lasted about a week didn't it?" He laughed too.
"Man, its good to have my partner in crime back." Like I said. 'Partners in crime'.
"Hey!" Sides looked up to Sunny in irritation.
"You're my bro. You go without sayin'." Sideswipe mumbled in irritation. Luckily I was the only one to hear it. Sunstreaker would've blown his top if he had heard.
"Did you see Prowl or Bluestreak yet? They were both probably the two 'Bots who took your death the hardest. You should try to find 'em." Sideswipe turned his attention to me. They both stood up.
"I will." I just then realized that it was just me, Sunny, and Sides in the Med-Bay. "You wanna come along? I'm gonna drive there, we could race."
"Nah. We gotta set up our next prank. We're aimin' it at Ironhide. False meeting. We're gonna tell him to meet everyone in the South hall at two A.M. Only he'll never actually meet anyone. C'mon Sides. Let's get this done." Sunny shook his brother's shoulder.
"Only, what if another Autobot walks down that hallway, and just happen to see Ironhide. The prank could become an unintentional meeting at two A.M. And you would have to go." I crossed my arms in success.
"It'll be worth seeing' Ironhide all irritated that we got him. And couldn't do frag to us in Optimus' presence."
"And afterward? When Optimus isn't there to save your afts?"
"We'll be long gone! Like we'll be in: THREE! TWO!-" Then they bolted through the doors, which amazingly they ran into but didn't crash through. They must have been upgraded to go through solid objects… Impressive. "OOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" They said in unison as they drove down the hall. They're gonna die… I transformed and drove down the hall. As I was driving I remembered the pictures I took. I looked over them. For some odd reason, they looked duller to me. Just then, I ran into a wall. Luckily I was only going around five miles per hour; I slowed down so that if something like this happened I wouldn't kill myself. It still hurt though. I transformed rubbing my chest giving that it was the point of impact. My chest was dented and some silver was chipped off. The missing paint was now on the wall. I laughed. I turned my head and I stopped laughing. Bluestreak and Prowl were walking down the hall I was now looking down. Prowl was mumbling something that I couldn't make out. I listened in.
"C'mon Blue. We really have to make some contact. We've been pretty much avoiding everyone except each other. We have to move on at some point." Then Blue stopped. Prowl stopped as well in confusion.
"You mean forget him!?" His abrupt change in tone nearly busted my audios. Prowl's much softer tone hushed the echoes flowing through the halls.
"No, nothing like that," Prowl calmed the sniffling blue mech beside him. ,"We need to be able to get our regular duties done so we can be the Autobots. Not this 'Autobots and two othermechs' business. Can we do that? Please?" Blue was hanging his head. The blue warrior nodded sadly. Poor guys, I thought. I walked up to them. A soon as the time was right, I swung my arms around each mech. "Yo dudes! What's shakin'?" Both of them turned and stared at me.
"J-Jazz? But you're-you're dead. Right?" Blue looked like a cowboy saw a 'headless four legged chicken', so Ironhide puts it. "DID I MISS SOMETHING?!" Bluestreak went periodically crazy. He poked my head, torso and energon processor sharply, confirming that I was, indeed there and alive. I still have dents to this day too, to prove it. When the truth soaked in, he went awkwardly silent.
"Blue?" Still silent.
"Blue? Yoo-hoo!" I snapped my fingers in front of Bluestreak's emotionless face. Blue shook his head breaking a stare.
"W-What?" He said still shaking his head. I laughed.
"So, this is awkward. Talking to a friend who was supposed to be dead. So. How is it that you're alive?"
"No clue." Blue's expression suddenly changed to a defeated look.
"I think it was when Ratchet put me back together. It allowed my body to react, I think, and I guess my self-repair systems weren't completely off-line and I got fixed. That's only a guess, of course. All I did was wake up and swim to the surface." I tried. Blue perked up. Prowl spoke up.
"But what doesn't seem to check in, is the fact that the only reason you were dumped in the ocean, along with all of the other fallen Cybertronians was to crush all evidence that the United State had had contact with aliens. How did you get past the pressure?"
"About two minutes after I woke up, I got a maximum pressure warning and if I had stayed down where I was at the time, I would've been crushed. But giving that our metal bodies are a lot stronger than what the humans think of the regular stuff, I guess we had a bit of a longer time to resist."
"Well, aren't we the smart one!" Prowl teased. I sneered at him. He sneered back.
"Have you met the new guy? What's his name Prowl?" Prowl looked to Bluestreak.
"Skyweaver. And his charge is the girl, Rinjii. Is that who you're talking about?"
"Yup!"
"Glad to be of service Blue." Well, that was unexpected. A new, new Autobot.
"No I haven't met Skyweaver. Or Rinjii for that matter. In fact I've never even heard of either of them."
"Well, Weaver's a triformer and he is a Minicon. He's an interesting character, if you ask me."
"Have we met him before?"
"I don't think so."
Hmmm…. A Minicon triformer. The double package. And Rinjii . How did they hook up? Ah, well. I'll have to meet them sooner or later. In the mean time, I'll just enjoy being back.