More Than Meets the Eye
Chapter I: Darkness Rising Part I
April 18, 2012-Somewhere in Texas
"-So, there I am on the lookout when out of nowhere these high-beams light up my rear-view. Then it hits me, I'm illegally parked!" Cliffjumper tells his beloved partner.
"Another parking ticket?" Arcee asks from Alamo, Nevada, close to the Autobots base. Cliff was telling her about his most recent scouting mission in New York City in order to take the edge off of a serious case of boredom.
"Better: the boot."
"Big metal tire clamp, impossible to remove," Arcee remembers from their lessons on Earth culture.
"Bingo! So the local police do their thing, and I let 'em get all the way down the block. That's when I kick off my new shiny shoe and BAM!" Cliff exclaims, finishing the story.
"New York's finest soil themselves," Arcee replies, easily hiding her amusement. Though she'd only been partnered with Cliffjumper since the day they left Cybertron together, she was all too used to his loud, friendly, out-going personality, and she loved him for it.
"You know me, Arcee. You mess with Cliffjumper-"
"-And you get the horns," Arcee finished for him. Cliff had had the horns since Cybertron, and made certain to scan an Earth vehicle with horns when he got there. "Not sure how that complies with Autobot rule number one: keep a low profile?" Arcee asked as Cliff laughed at his own story.
"What can I say? Patrolling for Energon out here in Dullsville gets lonesome. Almost makes me miss the Decepticons."
"Like Alamo, Nevada's a party?" Arcee asked in response. "We're alone wherever we travel on this rock, Cliff," she said in a lonely tone.
Then Cliff picked something up that gave him a reason to be excited. "I'm getting a signal."
"Need backup?"
"Do I ever need backup?" Cliff said arrogantly. He took a quick turn off the road to find the source, and found an old, abandoned strip mine. But what was most interesting was what was inside. "I just found a whole lot of Energon!" But just as interesting was what was above him. "Decepticons!" he warned Arcee as he transformed to his Cybertronian mode, and just before he was shot by the Nemesis, landing in the middle of the Energon field. As he was recovering from the hit, a dozen Vehicon drones dropped from the Nemesis. "Arcee, about that backup?"
"On it, Cliff!" Arcee replied. "Arcee to Optimus, the 'Cons are back. Cliff might be neck-deep in scrap."
"Understood," Optimus Prime replied from his location in Tennessee. "Ratchet, do you have Cliffjumper's coordinates?"
"I'm locked on his signal, Optimus, but our team is scattered across time zones," the medbot replied from Alaska.
"Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, rendezvous back at base and prepare to Groundbridge." The Autobots arrived not thirty minutes later, but were surprised to find a total lack of Decepticons. What they did find was "An untapped Energon deposit."
"What's left of it," Bulkhead corrected Prime.
Ratchet was confused though. "The first Decepticon activity in three years."
"That we know of. If they're scouting for Energon, they may be preparing for His return," Optimus said in a grave voice.
The team then started searching the old mine for any sign of Cliffjumper. Unfortunately they did find one sign: a broken horn. "No," Arcee said, completely in denial.
"Ratchet, can you track his position?"
The medbot immediately opened his tracking system on his arm, only to find "No! Cliffjumper's life-signal . . . just went offline."
April 19, 2012-Alamo, NV
Jack had completely recovered from his odd dream thanks to the dull day he was having at work. That was just one of the many reasons he preferred Alamo to New York-it was peaceful, so unlike his old home in the City That Never Sleeps. But before the memories could start flooding in, another person rolled up, and as always, he welcomed them with "Welcome to KO Drive-In, where every patty's a knock-out. May I take your order?"
"Uh, two Super combos, extra fries."
"Okay, dos numero twos, anything else?" he asked as another worker handed him the pre-made order.
"Yeah, some advice. How do I get an awesome job like yours?" he asked, before bursting into laughter.
Oh great, it was Vince, the school jock and bully. Though Jack could have easily torn him apart, he did his best to avoid him, and only challenged him to verbal judo, of which he was a self-proclaimed master. "So that's two orders of we're-not-as-funny-as-we-think-we-are combos with a side of bite-me."
Vince stopped laughing at that, demanding "What'd you say?"
Jack just sighed. "Fifteen fifty-nine, sir, at the window." Sometimes it just wasn't worth it, he thought as he set the order down. Big mistake, as Vince stopped at the window and grabbed the order before driving off. Great, now his boss would be mad at him because the till was short. Fortunately it was now the end of his shift and he gave a sigh of relief as he left. On his way out, his mom, June called. "Hey mom, I just got off."
"Okay honey. Should I expect you to be home or are you going to be at school tonight?" Heh, figures she'd ask about the dance. She'd actually been bugging him about getting a girlfriend (or even a boyfriend, shudder,) for the past three months. Well, at least she was finally somewhat moving on after that day. It only took her ten years.
"No, mom, I'm not going to the dance. Experience suggests I should never cut a rug, unless I'm installing carpet."
"Fine, have it your way, but be careful on your way home."
"Be careful? Seriously? This is Alamo, not the Big Apple, mom. Queens has more people in a square mile than this place has total," Jack replied with a strong emphasis on how absurd that sounded. Then, he saw her. The most perfect motorcycle he'd ever seen: a purple 2008 Kawasaki ZX-6R, high-performance engine, and the most beautiful lines he'd ever seen, even with the pink highlights. "I love you," he said in a truly love and awe-struck voice. Then he remembered he was still on the phone. "Yeah, I love you too, mom, gotta run." He hung up the phone and walked to the motorcycle. "Hello, beautiful. Where have you been all my life?" He then ran his hands over the seat, testing the feel. "Nice," he decided, falling even more deeply in love with the bike.
Then he remembered his dreams, and the weird memories that they were. "Whoa, slow down there, Jack. Remember what happened to Sam when he found the perfect car?"
What does he mean by that? Arcee wondered. She had been perfectly fine with the young man (sixteen or seventeen Earth-years old by her guess,) admiring her. She even liked it, it helped her remember fonder times with both Cliff and her first partner, Tailgate, which in turn helped her deal with their losses better. Now though, Jack had completely confused her. Who was this Sam and what had happened to him? And what was with that tiny electrical shock when he touched her?
"Ah, what are the chances of it happening twice?" Jack decided, taking a seat on Arcee, just to see how it felt, and it was perfect, just like the rest of her. "It may take a few KO paychecks, but I am going to own a ride like you someday."
Then Arcee was reminded of why she had hidden at the fast-food restaurant in the first place, as two Vehicons turned their high-beams onto her, and Jack. "Scrap," she whispered, just barely loud enough to hear herself. Then the Vehicons charged at her, and she instantly responded, much to Jack's surprise. He started screaming in shock and fear, as Arcee was heading straight at the 'Cons (well, more like between the twins.) She just managed to squeeze past them, tearing off the lower half of Jack's jeans, turning them into shorts. The 'Cons turned after the pair as soon as they could, chasing them down the street. "Do not let go," Arcee told Jack.
"Great, not again!" Jack replied, confusing the femme even more than before. Her confusion was so bad, that she allowed the 'Cons to catch up, and she just barely braked soon enough to make it so that they crashed into each other. Arcee pulled down a side-street and allowed Jack to get off. "What are you?" Jack asked, in an attempt to act like a normal human.
"I don't exist," Arcee replied, starting to relax. Now that was more like it. Then, just to scare him even more, she said "Tell anyone about me, and I will hunt you down." Jack nodded before turning down another side-street. Satisfied, Arcee drove away, and the two headed their separate ways.
That is, until one of the Vehicons turned down the street that Jack had. "Scrap!" Arcee exclaimed. This was not good! She pulled a quick U-turn and jumped over the Vehicon following her to save Jack.
Jack in the meantime was running at a normal, human speed from the second 'Con in order to make certain he'd rouse no more suspicions from the Cybertronians, if that was what they were. Then, while he doubted it would work, he told the 'Con "I don't even know her!"
As he suspected, the 'Con kept chasing him, but then something he didn't expect happened: the bike returned before slowing down just long enough for her to say "Hop on!" Jack immediately obeyed, and the femme took off down the highway. The 'Cons continued to give chase, and revealed that they were Decepticons by starting to shoot at them. However, the weapons they used were unlike the ones that Jack had seen in his dreams. The Cybertronians Sam knew fired canons with shells and needed to at least partially transform to their robot mode, while these Cybertronians were using directed energy weapons (DEWs,) or as they were commonly known, laser guns, and the guns were the only thing that had changed about the cars.
On the highway, a familiar canary-yellow Chevy Camaro with black racing stripes showed up, ramming the two 'Cons. "Good, he's a friend, right?" he asked the femme, just to make sure, (as Jack was fairly certain it was Bumblebee.)
"Family," Arcee corrected the human. She was surprised that he didn't have more questions for her. Not that she'd have answered, given the need to keep their existence a secret. Then she spotted something that just might give her and Bumblebee a chance to end the fight: an off-ramp that the humans were still in the middle of building. And even better, it would intimidate the human.
As a matter of fact, the jump did not intimidate Jack, but he acted like it. When they landed, Jack noticed that a kid, no more than twelve or thirteen was sitting in front of them . . . with a remote control Bee? "Whoa," the kid said.
"You have no idea," Jack told him as he got off the femme. Then he realized that he recognized the kid. "Rafael, right? Rafael Esquivel? We go to the same school. You're the kid that skipped a grade or two, right?"
"Yeah, more like three or four grades, and call me Raf. Hey, when did you get a motorcycle?" Raf asked.
Jack was about to answer when he spotted the twins. "No time for explanations right now, Raf. Run!" Jack then ran for a nearby depression in the side of the 'river,' just in front of a storm pipe and took cover there, turning just in time to see Arcee change and declare "This ends here, 'Cons." She then charged at the Vehicons and started fighting them, hand to hand. Jack was impressed. Despite the memories that Sam had, he had never seen Cybertronians fighting like this. It was almost . . . elegant, like some kind of dance with death.
"What are they?" Raf asked, shaking Jack from his trance. He hadn't even noticed the other boy join him near the pipe.
"Giant robots that turn into talking cars," Jack explained, still not taking his eyes off of the fight. He was surprised to hear the femme saying something about how her fight was in vengeance for some bot called 'Cliff.' The only bots who had fought for revenge like that were the annoying twins, but Jack liked it. It made her seem more . . . human. But her rage turned against her as the Vehicon quickly recovered and shot her in the chest.
Before it could finish her off though, Bumblebee showed up, landing on one 'Con and hitting another before stepping on his face. Convinced they were down for a while, Bee stepped back from the 'Cons, and onto Raf's RC car. Jack then got confirmation that it was Bee due to one little detail: he couldn't speak English, only Cybertronian. Oddly though, Raf seemed to understand him just fine.
The little incident, however, distracted Bee from the 'Cons long enough that they recovered and shot him. It was about to turn into another Chicago incident when Raf yelled at the 'Cons, turning their attention towards them. "Bad call! Quick, inside the pipe!" Jack said taking off, with Raf right behind him. They got far enough inside for the 'Cons to be unable to reach them before turning around again.
"What did we just see?" Raf asked, after Bee checked on them.
"A really dangerous sight that we should probably forget," Jack said as they ran.
Inside the Autobot base (what used to be a nuclear missile silo that had been decommissioned after the Cold War,) Bumblebee, Arcee and Bulkhead were debriefing Optimus on what had happened in Alamo. Arcee was not happy about it. "-and the 'Cons would have been scrap metal if I hadn't been distracted by the human."
"Human?" Optimus asked. Bumblebee corrected Arcee, and Prime acknowledged, "Two boys."
Arcee was unsure, due to a hard hit to the head she had received. "I . . . guess a second one caught us in action? I don't know, was a little busy at the time," she said, her anger over the situation was clear in her voice.
Optimus however, was only concerned over the repercussions. "If the Decepticons are targeting us, anyone perceived as our ally will be at grave risk."
April 20, 2012-Alamo, NV
The next day Jack could barely concentrate on school, mainly because he was worried about what would happen now. He didn't want to live Witwicky's life! Sure, being able to know about an alien race was cool, but an alien race in the middle of a war? Witwicky had lost his entire family because of this same war! Earth had been killed and humanity extinguished because of the war! Then, Raf waved him over. As much as he wanted to avoid him, Jack knew it would be best if he made sure that Raf wouldn't talk about the battle they had been caught in the middle of. "Raf, hey. Look, let's just keep this between us, forget anything ever happened, okay?"
But before Raf could agree, Bee showed up, getting their attention. He then opened his passenger door and said something in Cybertronian. "He wants us to get in," Jack assumed, remembering what had happened to Sam Witwicky.
"No, just me," Raf corrected him.
Jack stared at him in amazement. "How do you know that?"
"It said so. Yours is over there," Raf said, pointing at the femme motorcycle. Raf then got inside Bee, despite Jack's protests, so Jack, determined to avoid the war altogether, walked away and ignored the bike. Arcee would have none of that though, and followed him. Unknown to her though, a third human, this one an enthusiastic Japanese exchange student named Miko Nakadai, followed Arcee, as she had also fallen in love with the motorcycle.
Once Arcee had caught up with Jack, she got in front of him and said "Relax, I just want to talk to you."
"Don't you mean you and your new friend?" Jack asked, surprisingly jealous of the woman riding the bike.
"Kid, there's a lot you don't understand," Arcee said, while revealing that the biker was just a hologram.
"No, no, I get it. The first rule of robot fight club is you don't talk about robot fight club," Jack quipped, backing off, though Arcee kept getting closer. Why couldn't anyone understand he didn't want to be a part of this? Wait a minute, that could work. "What you need to understand is that I don't want a bunch of talking vehicles following me around, trying to get me killed."
Arcee transformed, kneeling so she wouldn't overwhelm him. "Look, Jack, your personal safety is exactly why Optimus Prime has requested your presence."
"What?" Jack asked. Optimus was here, alive?
"You may be in danger because you are one of the few, one of the only to have ever seen us."
Then Miko decided to make her presence known. "Dude, what are you waiting for? Go with!"
"Scrap," the duo said in unison. Now they had to take her along. Jack reluctantly agreed to go with the femme, if only to keep an eye on Miko, who had quite the reputation as an adrenaline junkie already despite having been in Alamo for only seven months. Arcee changed back to her vehicle mode to allow the humans to ride her, and immediately noticed something odd. Even allowing for their different sizes and gender gap, Jack was far heavier than he should be, compared to Miko. She quickly filed that away with the other oddities about the teen that she had noticed, including his use of 'scrap' just a few minutes earlier. By the AllSpark, if she didn't know any better, she'd have sworn that he already knew about them and had lived with them for years. But even if that could have been true, (which it definitely wasn't) why the hesitancy? Well, she'd figure it out eventually, or get it out of him, one way or another.
Jack was surprised when Arcee and Bee just started driving, eventually right towards one of the local mountains. "Another hologram hiding the door?" he asked.
"Not exactly," Arcee said, just as very large blast doors opened up, revealing a tunnel inside the rock. Using Sam's memories, Jack instantly recognized it as a missile silo, a far more secure location for an Autobot base than Diego Garcia or the DC warehouse. Inside were two more Autobots, one of them being Sam's favourite 'Bot to tease: Ratchet-though he had a different paint job from the one Sam had known. The other was an unknown, built a little like Ironhide, but even bigger, and it looked like he turned into a green SUV.
Once they stopped, Ratchet immediately asked "I thought there were two?"
"Haven't you heard, humans multiply," Jack teased. As was typical when Sam teased the medic, Ratchet just groaned.
The other two introduced themselves, with Miko immediately running up to the green warrior, who identified himself as Bulkhead. "Are you a car? I bet you're a truck, a monster truck! Do you like heavy metal? How much do you weigh? Have you ever used a wrecking ball for a punching bag?" Miko asked, rattling questions off as fast as a machine gun. Bulkhead just stared at her in confusion, what was he supposed to do with this girl? Jack on the other hand simply shook his head, Miko was certainly living up to her reputation.
Raf had his own question. "So, if you guys are robots, who made you?" Ratchet scoffed at his question.
Jack decided to save the Autobots an explanation. "Raf, do you really think someone made them? They're obviously an alien race from some distant planet."
"Jack is correct. We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron. But you can call us Autobots for short," a very distinctive voice said. Sure enough, behind them stood the great Optimus Prime, virtually identical to Sam's memories of him, though without the cool flame design that the other Optimus had. "Although, I do wonder how you knew that."
"Well, I know that humans don't have the tech to make something like you guys, so obviously, you're aliens. After all, 'once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' But that begs the question, why are you here, and who were the others that you were fighting? And why are they here?" Jack asked. He really hoped that it wasn't about the AllSpark again.
"We are here to protect your planet from the Decepticons," Optimus started.
"They're the jokers that tried to bump us off last night," Arcee explained.
"As for why they are here, in part it is because our planet is uninhabitable, ravaged by centuries of civil war," Optimus finished.
"Why were you fighting a war?" Raf asked. Hmm, a good question, Jack thought. Sam hadn't even asked that.
"Foremost, in an attempt to bring a change to what had become a very static way of life. Also, over control of our world's supply of Energon, the fuel and lifeblood of all Autobots and Decepticons alike. The combat was fierce, and endured for centuries. In the beginning, I fought alongside one whom I considered a brother. But in war, ideals can be corrupted, and it was thus that Megatron lost his way." Megatron, Jack shuddered at the name. He'd had the occasional nightmare from the king Con due to Sam's memories.
Miko was bored over the history lesson, while Jack had another question. "So, what does Megatron, or any of this, have to do with us?"
"Megatron has not been seen nor heard from in some time. But if his return is imminent, as I fear, it could be catastrophic. And since you now know of our existence, I fear that as of last night, the Decepticons now know of yours."
"Got it, we see any strange vehicles, call 911. Can we go now?" Jack asked. Now that he knew they weren't needed for the war, he was desperate to get home and stay out of it.
"Are you insane?" Miko whispered to him. "I am living a dream here in Botswana, and I will not allow you or anyone else to shatter it."
"It is best that you three remain under our watch," Optimus interjected. "At least until we can determine our enemy's intention." Ratchet brought a fairly reasonable objection to them staying there, saying that the Autobots could step on them, emphasizing that with a heavy step. Jack shuddered, if only in fear that the medic could unknowingly reveal his secret. "Then for the time being, Ratchet, we must watch where we step," Optimus answered.
Then an alarm started sounding, which Bumblebee (via Raf,) identified as a proximity sensor, saying someone (whom Ratchet identified as Agent Fowler,) was up top. "Wait, I thought we were the only humans who knew about you," Miko objected.
"Miko, do you really think that the government wouldn't have noticed them come here? This Fowler is probably their official liaison with the government. And considering what happened yesterday, he's probably not in a good mood."
"Indeed," Optimus agreed. "Jack is correct, under the circumstances, it would be best if you did not meet at this time." Jack and the others quickly hid, while Jack kept an eye out. From the elevator came a fat black man in a suit who immediately started complaining about a whole mess of traffic incidents that had been caused the other night. Personally, he didn't know why he was that mad, that was nothing compared to the Washington and Vegas street fights, let alone (shudder) Chicago. Optimus on the other hand simply said "We have the situation under control."
"They're back, aren't they?"
"If you are referring to the Decepticons, I have doubts that they ever left. Your planet is much too valuable," Optimus replied. Jack had to agree with that. If he had learned anything about the 'Cons from Witwicky, it was that they never gave up on anything, especially something they considered valuable.
"Then it's time to wake up the Pentagon," Fowler insisted. Jack scoffed at that, remembering how useless the military had been against the Transformers before they stumbled on sabot rounds, and again wondered why he was so mad, it hadn't been that bad. The more the man talked, the more Jack was reminded of Galloway, and that was not a good thing. Optimus agreed with the first part, and told Fowler that they were possibly the only defence against the Decepticons. "Says you," Fowler dismissed.
"Hey fleshie, did anyone get splattered on that freeway? Team Prime knows when to use force, and how much to use," Bulkhead stated, illustrating his point by ripping out then crushing a device that Jack didn't recognize. And as Ratchet yelled at Bulkhead (apparently the device had belonged to the medic,) Jack had to agree with the 'Bot, though he resented the 'fleshie' comment, it almost sounded like Bulkhead didn't have any respect for humans. Maybe working with the 'bots would be a good . . . no, he couldn't risk thinking like that.
Eventually Fowler left, but not without giving an ultimatum first: to take care of the Decepticons, or he would. Not ten minutes after he left, Ratchet cried out "Blasted Earth tech! Cliffjumper's life signal just popped back online." By the way Arcee flinched at the name, Jack had to guess that she was close to the mech. Miko on the other hand just wanted to know who he was, and Optimus asked how it was possible. "It isn't. Another bug, the system's chock full of them!" Ratchet complained.
"If there's any chance Cliff's alive-" Arcee started. Optimus immediately knew what she meant, and ordered Ratchet to prepare sick bay and left through . . . something with everyone but Ratchet, although Miko attempted to go with them.
"What was that?" Raf asked Ratchet.
"I transported them to the designated coordinates via the ground bridge."
"What's a groundbridge?"
"A scaled-down version of spacebridge technology," Ratchet somewhat explained, sounding quite exasperated. Jack had to shudder at the name of the technology that had once doomed the human race. "Since we don't currently possess the means or the Energon required for intergalactic travel . . ." Ratchet continued.
Jack knew what he was implying immediately. "You're stuck here. But don't you have any ships?"
"Not any more. The first thing the Decepticons did when they discovered we were here was to destroy our ship, and Arcee and Cliffjumper arrived via a Decepticon spacebridge that was destroyed on Cybertron."
"So, who is Cliffjumper?" Miko asked again.
"Cliffjumper is . . . was one of greatest warriors on Cybertron during the war. Fast, strong, cocky, always getting into fights with the Decepticons even when it wasn't necessary. And he was an extreme chatterbox, nothing could shut him up, not even a fight or being in the presence of the most feared Decepticons. After Cybertron went dark and most of us left, Cliffjumper and Arcee were one of the few to remain behind. From what I've been able to piece together, the two were captured by Starscream, Megatron's second-in-command, and were used to crack an Autobot code that was used by Optimus to send a message when we arrived here. Starscream then used that message to target this planet with a spacebridge in an attempt to destroy us. But before he could send a single Decepticon through, Arcee and Cliffjumper damaged the space bridge and came through it before the bridge was destroyed. The two of them had been partners ever since."
Just then, one of the computers went off, reminding everyone of Ratchet's original complaint. "So, why are you guys using human computers?" Raf asked.
"It certainly isn't by choice," Ratchet said just a tad too harshly. "It was handed down by the previous tenants when we inherited this former missile silo. I make modifications as I see fit." Just as he finished speaking, six more bugs made themselves known.
"Hey, Raf, you wouldn't happen to have your laptop on you by any chance?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, why do you . . . hey, great idea, Jack!" Raf said as he realized where Jack was going with his question.
Ratchet also had an idea about what Jack was thinking, and was not impressed. "You do realize this is complex technology, right? I mean, it's not a child's toy."
Jack just laughed at that. "It is here, Ratchet. We grow up around computers and know them so well that the government is hiring right out of high school these days in order to have the best people for their computers. And Raf here is easily the smartest of all of us."
As Jack had been praising Raf, the boy in question had set up his laptop and quickly hacked into the base's computer. With a few quick keystrokes, Raf said "Try it now." Doubtful, Ratchet checked the computer, if only to prove the humans wrong. But to his surprise, the bugs had all been cleared out. Ratchet turned to Raf, a newfound respect shining from his optics. Well, at least this was one human that was worth keeping around.