First time I'm trying a "conversation with the characters" dialogue. Please tell me if I should bother doing it again or if it's a complete failure.
Me: One year later we find our main char-
Jack A.K.A. Wolfheart A.K.A. Wolf A.K.A. Fluffy: *Cough*I'm right here*cough*
Me: *Glares at Wolf* You, Fluffy, need to get back inside the story.
Wolf: *Harrumphs at the nickname for his nickname* I told you not to call me that…
Arcee: *Walks fingers up Wolf's back* I think it's a cute name Wolf. You wouldn't want-
Wolf: *Shudders* Not here Arcee. There are people watching…
Arcee: *Sultry tone* So? Let them watch. Do we have that-?
Me: NOOOO! Not here! If you do that then I'll have to change the rating to M. Now, *calms down slightly and turns to readers* we've time skipped a year and six months ahead here. I'll fill in some gaps without prompt
Jack gets back to base where Optimus approves of Jack's new name.
Others agree with Bee about how Jack usually acts like a wolf. They add that Jack tends to take on the 'Lone Wolf' role when left alone.
Wolfheart learns how to drive in his new form.
Group learns a new definition for compact strength when Bulkhead trains with Wolf and finds that he is several times stronger than Bulkhead despite his smaller size.
Jack learns to use his weapons which turn out to be a sniper rifle (what's a Cybertronian SR called?) and a pair of totally bad-ass swords.
Megatron and the Decepticons drop off the grid after destroying M.E.C.H.
Airachnid plots devious things to do to Jack though she doesn't know he's know an Autobot.
Oh! Big thing here. Wolf and Arcee go from partners to a (very) affectionate couple.
Wolf becomes Optimus' second-in-command
Wolf's wolfish traits grow more prominent than they were when he was a human.
Review responses:
king of the monsters: Thanks, I'll try to post every few days.
Anyone who PMed me, I'll respond as soon as I post this.
I think that's all. Now I'll stop rambling on so you can read. Oh, quick thing. Thank Hannibal rTH
"Wolfheart, we need you back at base. How close are you to being done with the scouting mission?" Ratchet said over the comm. channel.
"Five minutes or less depending on whether or not you want me to attract attention. It'll take another two or three hours at this time of day. Traffic is gonna be hell…" I replied, groaning at the thought of the long and crawlingly slow drive ahead of me.
Ratchet sighed through the comm. and said, "Be back as soon as you can. Are you sure there's nowhere you can hide for a ground bridge back?"
"No. Not unless you want me to stop the recon mission early. I for one am starting to get a bit jumpy. Megatron just… disappeared. Where do you think he is?" I answered.
A sultry-yet-angry voice came on the comm. that would have set my cheeks aflame had I been human. "Wolf," Arcee said forcefully, "if you're not back within an hour I'll find something to do to you that I'm quite certain you wouldn't want to have happen." Ratchet came back on the line with a slight quiver in his voice that told me exactly how Arcee was acting at present.
"Wolf," he said, "for the love of the Allspark, haul aft back here. Arcee is in one of her moods again. Not even Optimus is willing to spar with her." After Arcee and I went had officially hooked up two months ago, Arcee had requested that she be allowed to step down and learn under Ratchet in the med labs. Her reasons had been simply that, were she ever captured, I would become too emotionally unstable to be fit for duty. Afterwards, many times I was sent out with Bee or Bulkhead so that I could come back and spar with her should I need to leave before a mission was finished. Her anger built up to high levels frequently that she had only been able to control by fighting Cons. With said Cons nowhere on earth and Airachnid off plotting some devious plan that would end in failure, Optimus or I had to spar with her so she could let her anger out on someone who could and would take it. I honestly kind of enjoyed it. Optimus didn't care, secretly enjoyed it, or somehow managed to hide whatever emotions he was feeling from his team.
"Should I really forsake secrecy in favor of keeping my sparkmate from killing the entire team?" I asked, finishing the last bit of the recon mission I was on just as a loud crash came through the comm. followed by a response from an unexpected person.
"Yes!" Miko yelled. "Arcee fricking FUMING right now! HURRY!" I needed no further incentive as I changed into the vehicle mode that had prompted my name.
I turned my wheels in the direction of the base and literally burned rubber. I'll need new wheels when I get back, I thought as I changed back into my robot mode to get a running start on the loose ground. I made it the fifty miles from where my recon mission had started in just over twenty minutes by maxing out my speed to 140 m.p.h. I arrived to a scene I'd hoped never end up happening.
Why did I just have to fall for a bipolar girl…? I thought to myself as I slowed down, honked to get the groups attention, and sped back up to drift around the corners, leading her to the training area as fast as I could.
She is soooo pissed right now… I mentally gulped and shot through the doors of the training area, transforming and turning around as fast as I could in the hopes I would see her coming. I got a face full of fast, hard, metal foot. I got launched backwards fifteen feet and used the momentum to roll into a combat crouch. I winced from the pain that went through my face when I moved it, but I ignored the pain and prepared for the fight to come.
Arcee seemed to realize where she was because her entire persona changed from one of undirected fury to one of focused determination. I audibly gulped this time. This was gonna hurt a lot. "Ar-Arcee, we can work this out without resorting to extremely painful sparring, can't we?" I asked, hopeful that we could tone down the level of pain that would result from this training session. Arcee neglected to respond and crouched, if possible, a closer to the ground. A muttered "Scrap" from me, and she attacked.
The level of, for lack of a better word, dedication she put into the assault would have put any number of Decepticons to shame. A blocked as many punches I could, but for every punch or kick I blocked, three punches or two kicks would make it through. "Scrap!" I hissed as a pair of kicks connected with my chassis, leaving an solid scratch on the image of the wolf.
Now it's on… I muttered. If there was one thing I loved anywhere near as much as I loved Arcee, it was the paint job I had coerced my form to have, despite that the truck I'd scanned had been straight black.
I took my effort level in the sparring match up to where hers was, though I still didn't let any of my punches actually connect with anywhere on her body besides her arms, legs, and hips.
Arcee's optics widened ever so slightly. I assumed it was because I'd become ten times better in the fight. Only later would I find out it was something else that had changed that I couldn't feel through my anger about the scratch on my paint job.
It only took me a minute to counter her assault despite that I'd spent half an hour trying to counter her attacks at the beginning of the fight. She managed to land another scratching blow on my chest that was perpendicular to the first. Despite that I had multiple scratches from blocking her blows with my arms; I didn't really care about those too much. They were pretty easy to fix. My chest was another matter. I was quite proud of the extreme detail in it that I'd come up with.
I paused, trying my best to calm my anger. Optimus, Bulkhead, and Bee stepped forward, fully aware of how much I loved the image, while Ratchet pulled the three humans back to just outside the doorway, prepared to close and lock the doors for the safety of the humans should the need arise. For once, Miko didn't argue with not being allowed to see the action.
I knew this was gonna be bad. The anger had won out and oh was I pissed. The three male bots surrounded Arcee in a protective triangle, even though they knew this was one thing that did a damn good job of setting me off. Should the cons come back…? No one wanted to think about what I would do to the cons in the event that my chest plate was scratched. Red clouded the edges of my optics. The bots took a step back from the intimidating change in color.
Optimus muttered to Arcee, "Get out of here. If he hurts us, it'll take him a long time to forgive himself even if we forgive him when he calms down. He could never forgive himself if he hurt you outside of during a sparring session."
Arcee made to protest, but Optimus silenced her with a glance. She silently nodded and left the room. In some part of my mind, I was relieved that she wasn't going to be a target of my loss of control. In the part of my mind controlling my actions right now, I didn't care who I hit as long as I could take my anger out. "Arcee, take Ratchet's place at the door. Ratchet…" Optimus hesitated to voice what they all new were going to be the end of this.
"Prepare the med bay for emergency care." Ratchet's optics widened. In all his time working next to Optimus, he'd probably never heard the Prime admit something like that.
Ratchet hurried off to do as he was told while Bee, Bulkhead, and Optimus formed a triangle around me and started walking in a circle that kept one person behind me no matter which way I turned. I growled and gave up trying to keep all three in my sights. "Screw this…" I muttered.
I charged the bot presently in front of me, Bulkhead, and punched as hard as I could at his chest. I was stopped as he managed to get his hammer up in a position that would block my punch and cause the punch to hurt me. "Autobots," Optimus said quickly, "Don't bother pulling punches against him. His normal self would want us to stop him no matter what. Knocking him out is the least harmful way, for both our physical health and his conscience, to end this. Now, punch at least two bots at a time from different angles. Don't let him block and/or counter both." Bulkhead and Bee nodded, grim acceptance clear in how they were acting.
I growled in a slight attempt at intimidation, only to feel Bumblebee hit my right shoulder from the front and Bulkhead hit my left shoulder from behind. I spun about, momentarily disoriented. This was a chance none of the bots missed. Bee hit my thigh, Optimus my back, and Bulkhead the front of my torso. Bulkhead realized his mistake and immediately regretted his target. There was another scratch on the front of my chest.
"Scrap!" He exclaimed as I punched him hard enough to send the massive Autobot twenty feet through the air and another fifteen on the ground. The humans shuddered in fear at the sight of how strong I really was. Bee I backhanded into the wall twenty yards away. Optimus finally gave in to the inevitable way to end this conflict. He switched his arm into his canon and shot several rounds at me. Every shot hit. It. Hurt. Like. Hell.
The immense level of pain rolling across my body finally knocked me out, solidly forcing me into stasis mode. Optimus prioritized Bee and Bulkhead over me since my punches had been forceful enough to break their armor, thoroughly preventing them from self repairing. Given that I'd only been shot, I woke up a minute later and was already able to start self-repairing my armor. I was still aching from the loss of control but as it was, I could press through the pain.
I rolled over so that I could be facing the ceiling but found Arcee was standing over me. She said to me, "You do realize that you disabled Bulkhead and Bee with a single punch each don't you?"
"Err… ah… No. No, I didn't realize how pissed off I could get from the paint job being scratched. I knew it might end up being bad, but I didn't even realize how bad it could end up being." I replied, my head hanging down, disgusted and angry with myself for losing control so violently. I said some words directed at myself that could have made a sailor… soil his pants. Arcee blinked and froze for a moment before sitting down and propping me upright against her. I blinked. I had no idea how to respond so I followed the old saying "actions speak louder than words" and so turned around to hug her.
I'd kind of expected her to be comforted but when she flinched and froze up, I started mentally punching at the area where my anger was stored. I let go of her and got up, walking towards the area with the tunnel to the desert outside. I transformed and drove past everyone who was in there and was in the passage way in before anyone could stop me. I drove for the next three or four hours, turning my comm. off so no one would disturb me. I was slowed down on the way back to the base, wrapped up tightly within my own thoughts. I didn't notice the missile until it was too late.
Me: Cliffhanger here. I hate them but it seemed the perfect time after that long, long fight scene. Or at least long for what I usually write.
Wolfheart: *fuming* Why'd you make me act like that.
Me: Because it sets the mood for the next scene. I think…
Arcee: *glares at me* If he gets captured…
Me: *interrupts Arcee* Shush shush shush shush. Don't make me spoil it for them. *turns to readers* Now readers, I expect you'll read & review. Tips, comments, concerns? I'll accept anything BUT flaming. NO FLAMING! Well then, later yawls. (How I say goodbye.)
All three: *waving goodbye*
