Thank you for your patience. I don't know what is up with the formatting at the end, but I'll try to fix it in the next chapter.
I don't own it.
Chapter Two: Presence and Explaining
Jazz was not in a good mood when his awareness returned.
He groaned in his head, but as he went to rub at it he realized that he didn't seem to have any motor control. He went to assess his systems when he realized that he had no systems to assess.
What the slag is going on here?
Who? What the hell?
Who are you? Where am I?
My name is Jack Sorenson and, apparently, you're in my mind.
Your mind? What the slag am I doing here?!
I guess…I guess that when I tried to see if I could help you…I got hit with a wave of energy and my shields all but shattered. You must have…been pulled in when they fell.
Shields? What shields? What are you talkin' about?
I'm an empath; a powerful one and that means that if I don't have mental shields then I can be seriously hurt by the emotions of others. When I went to see if I could heal you my shields were fine, but I was hit by that strange wave of energy at the same time that I reached for that flickering thing in your chest cavity and it crushed my shields. If I had to guess I would say that with my shields gone your mind came and melded with mine. It's probably temporary, just until your body is up and running again, so don't worry about that.
She could feel the mind within hers thinking about this predicament, but he wasn't able to answer before the situation snowballed a bit and the body of Jazz, just to her right, was lifted, leaving her nothing to lean against. She eep-ed rather loudly and fell over, hitting her elbow on the way down and renewing the pain from a rock strike earlier. The noise was loud enough for the sensitive audios of the Autobots around her to hear and suddenly she found herself the center of attention, something she abhorred with a vengeance. She looked up at hem with an abashed smile and wiggled her gloved fingers at them shyly.
"Umm…hello?"
ASTERIKSDONTWORKANDITSUCKS
Optimus and the other Autobots looked down on the small human woman in shock, just realizing that she had been leaning against Jazz's body. She looked frazzled, like something had happened beyond the fight and she was clutching her head with one hand while holding her now injured elbow with the other. She tried to smile at them, but the 'bots could see that her heart wasn't really in it and she probably had a hell of a headache. Ironhide wasn't having any of it though.
"What did you do to Jazz?"
"Jazz? Is that his name?"
Ironhide grabbed the young human and squeezed her slightly, not hearing her already damaged ribs creaking dangerously.
"What did you do to Jazz?"
Jack tried not to gasp, but couldn't help it when the mech squeezed harder.
Jack, tell him to stop!
The world darkened a bit and Jack continued to gasp, trying to get air into her lungs.
"S-stop! Please!"
The crack of her ribs breaking was lost to the voice of the largest of the mechs telling the one holding her to let go. She was dropped and instinctively landed on her feet and fell into a roll, doing her best to ignore the pain screaming through her abdomen. She stood, crouched to lessen the pain, and watched the mechs warily, ready to dodge should one try to grab her again. She watched them carefully as they looked at each other before the largest looked back to her.
"I am Optimus Prime; who might you be little one?"
His voice was deep and strangely soothing to the empath.
"I'm Jack. What-what are you?"
The yellow mech with the light bar placed one huge hand on Optimus's shoulder.
"Optimus, this is not the time for explanations. We must go, quickly."
The larger mech nodded quickly and turned again to Jack, who by this point was once again cradling her arm, but now had it wrapped around her ribs in a futile effort to stabilize them.
"Ratchet, you take Jack. We'll take her to Will and the others until everything is explained."
The yellow light bar mech nodded and suddenly Jack got an eye-full as the mechs suddenly became cars of varying types. There was an eighteen-wheeler cab, a yellow corvette, a black heavy-duty truck, and a rescue ambulance, that one was the one Optimus called Ratchet.
Get in the back of Ratchet's auto form. They'll help you with your injuries.
Are you certain?
Yeh, I'm certain. Go on Jack, they won't hurt you.
That black one did. Iron hide.
He's got a temper on him like a wolverine with a toothache. Don't let him get to ya.
Jack nodded at Jazz in her mind – she had long ago figured out how to picture herself in her mind – and stumbled to Ratchet.
"Um…may I ride with you?"
The rear doors opened in response and Jack smiled at the vehicle, knowing that Ratchet could see it. She bowed as best she could with her broken ribs and thanked him before crawling into the back and lying down on one of the benches in the back.
She was asleep almost immediately.