Chapter Two: In the Middle

I was still a bit jarred by Arcee's attitude towards this new 'bot when the transmission ran its course and ended. I was so caught up in watching Arcee's uncharacteristic behavior that I barely heard Optimus talk about landing coordinates, extra measures to ensure Hot Rod wouldn't be captured like Wheeljack was, or how he was glad to know that the 'bot survived the evacuation of Cybertron. All I gathered from the entire conversation is that he was close with Arcee and that everyone but Bulkhead seemed to know him at least passingly.

I was so unsure of what to think and feel that it was Miko who ended up being the one to ask the important question, and she knew the perfect target: Arcee, even teasingly throwing in Hot Rod's nickname for her, "So, who is this guy, C.C.? You said something about Elite Guard?"

Raf added his own bit onto the question, "Yeah, but you all acted surprised that he knew the encryption. I guess he's not a member?"

Arcee shook her head, almost chuckling, "More like an Academy dropout. Even though he was pretty close to graduation he said it wasn't for him and left."

"What? Couldn't he cut it?" I asked, for some reason a bit spiteful.

"More like he got bored. It wasn't that he was stupid. Hot-Shot just had commitment issues."

Optimus voiced his agreement, "When the war actually started he didn't hesitate to take up arms. As I recall he was a bit impatient, but had a lot of potential. When he put his mind to it he really shined."

"Reminds me of a certain 'squishy' individual to my left actually," Arcee jabbed a thumb in my direction, "but at least this one has fewer bad points than Hot-Shot did."

"Thanks." the sudden compliment had caught me off guard and put my unease to rest a little.

Arcee smiled, "Don't let it go to your head."

Ratchet got back on topic by puzzling aloud about the code of the transmission, "I admit Hot Rod was pretty skilled, but he never struck me as capable of this level of computer operation. The boy was a scout like Arcee and Bumblebee, not a tech."

Optimus was actually the one to reply, and not Arcee, who I expected to, "Need I remind you I was not born anywhere near the leader designation? I was a dock worker originally, reformatted into a soldier."

"True."

It was new information to me. The prime was never one to talk about himself. Honestly, the only things I knew about him was his personality, his ideals, and that 'Prime' was actually a title and not a last name. I'd have never pegged that 'bot as a common laborer. I had assumed he was always a finely tuned (literally) military figure from the way most of the Autobots seemed to borderline revere him. Even the new guy Hot Rod seemed to look up to Optimus. Not that I couldn't see why. Heck, the 'bots probably had even more reason than I did considering he had been leading them for so long and fought so long in the war.

"That aside, Ratchet, we should get underway. Open the groundbridge. Bulkhead and I will be there to see that he lands safely and help conceal the Excellion. Bumblebee, be on standby in case of Decepticon attack."

Arcee sighed, "I wish I could have your backs, the 'cons probably didn't overhear, but there's always the chance of them detecting the ship."

"Just rest. Even though you are patched up, you still need to give your systems time to recover. We will be alright, and this new addition to the team could not have come at a better time."

"Yeah. We won't be down one now. Better still, we'll be up one when I'm finally up and rolling again."

Optimus nodded as the groundbridge sprang to life and then turned to head through. Bulkhead breached an interesting question to him on the way out, "I wonder how he found us? Do you think he ran into Wheeljack out there?"

"He did promise to send any survivors our way." the prime mused, then passed through the energy vortex.

I sighed, worrying for them, but quickly found myself winded. Sitting again, I realized just how badly I was injured. Arcee noticed I was in pain as well, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just stood up too long, I can manage."

Ratchet actually seemed impressed, "I'm actually surprised you are holding up so well. I've always thought humans were such fragile creatures, but you make up for being easy to break with an astounding ability to push through high amounts of damage."

Miko of all people, beamed a smile, "Jack's a special case. I know a lot of humans that would buckle from a papercut."

"Papercut?" the doctor inquired.

"Nevermind. Just a really small pointless scratch that doesn't hurt much."

Arcee looked over at me fondly, "Yeah, I like to think of all three of you as special for your own reasons, but Jack's the tough one." she laughed at a memory, "Remember when we first ran into Airachid? You admitted later that you briefly pondered fighting her off with your knife before quickly realizing how stupid that was."

"Haha, yeah. I don't know what I was thinking, the biggest blade on it wasn't even the length of my middle finger."

"I can kind of admire that you wanted to fight back, even if it was stupid. The fact that you almost managed to finish her off with that bit of sabotage was pretty great too."

"I still don't know how she got away from that explosion so fast, but I guess if I did, then she could."

"Again, Jack, don't make a habit of fighting decepticons, that's my job."

"I know. Not like I can do a whole lot to them anyway." on that note, my thoughts wandered back to the terror of our fight against Airachnid and MECH, who had many times come back to haunt us. At least one, hopefully both, were out of the equation, but thinking about it reminded me of something, "You said you used up all of your transformation energy on Airachnid, and Ratchet said something about a pulse. Was that the explosion I heard before snapping to my senses again?"

She nodded, "Yeah. When I saw her looming over you, I thought you were dead and I kind of flipped out. Losing three partners to 'cons was too much for me... especially since I was finally starting to get past everything and loosen up. I went all out on her and just wanted to end her without caring about anything else. Like Ratchet said I'm lucky I didn't kill both of us. I'm sorry."

"What exactly did you do?"

"You noticed my vehicle mode is a lot smaller than my 'bot mode right?"

I nodded, "Of course."

"Ratchet can explain it better, but we transformers have mass conversion technology within our natural systems. It's what lets us change our body parts to suit our alternate modes and get rid of extra bits that wouldn't normally fit. Our bodies change extra bits into energon and back again when we change size."

"So basically you set off this energon like I set off her ship?"

"Basically. There's some loss of energy since the process consumes it as well, but we all have large reserves of the stuff set aside for transforming."

"Transformation Reserve Energon."

"TRE."

"Isn't energon like your blood? I can't imagine detonating my own blood..."

Arcee looked away, fidgeting slightly, "Well, I was pretty pissed off, and pretty sad. Rage and despair can do weird things to logic, like get rid of it completely."

"Putting it that way, if you were killed and I had a miniature nuclear device for a blood stream I might cut loose with a bit of fireworks myself."

"Good thing only one of us has that feature then. Allspark forbid we both need recharging."

I laughed at the idea of both of us plugged in, me probably in a much smaller wall socket. As time passed and we waited for Optimus to get back, I couldn't help but think back at much our friendship had progressed in the year we'd known each other, and worry that she wouldn't need me anymore with this 'Hot Rod' around. Back then, when she first came to get me to come back to this whole mess, I had only the slightest inkling that we could ever get like this.

Just over a year before...

Coming in for a day of work at my part-time job, I sighed at the end of a long gaze at the sign. I was just about to double-check the chain on my bike when a familiar voice came to my ears, "Nice bike."

I turned, and immediately felt ten times worse than I already did as I spotted Arcee in her vehicle form. Not that I minded the autobot's company, but part of me felt like I had disappointed all of them by walking away. I'd always been taught to be responsible to my family, friends, and my job, but that worked against me both ways in this. I had a responsibility to my mom, who would be all alone without me and crushed if I got killed tangling with 'cons, but I also felt like Miko and Raf would need me. Miko had a tenancy to cause trouble and Raf was the kind of kid that would try his best to help out and end up dead. I wasn't sure what to do. Then there was Arcee, the grumpy autobot that seemed to be going through a lot that she refused to admit to anyone. Part of me felt like she needed someone she could talk to. I wasn't sure what to do. I wasn't sure what I could do.

"Arcee look, really, Miko already tried. Tell Optimus I respect him big time, but if you're at war with stuff like the decepticons there's nothing I can do to help."

"Optimus didn't send me and no one's asking you to help."

"Okay... so... if we both agree I'm not warrior material, then..." I looked away, uncertain. I did want to help actually, but there was no way I could trade blows with three-story tall transforming robots.

Arcee, pain in her voice, struggled slightly as she swallowed her pride, "Jack, I just lost someone I cared about. Maybe it's the grief talking, maybe you're growing on me..., but whatever it is... I'm just not ready to say goodbye."

I looked to the 'bot with a measure of surprise, not having expected her to confirm my suspicions. To be honest, I wasn't sure what my feelings were, and I'm not just talking about the situation. I wasn't sure if I thought of the 'bot as a friend, a big sister, or if I was attracted to her. There was a bond there, I knew that much. We just seemed to click. As if we were the only ones in the entire universe that could completely get each other.

"I... I'm not ready to say goodbye either..."

There was a smile in the fem' 'bot's voice, "Well, that's... good to hear."

There was an awkward silence.

The bike bot fidgeted, "I get the feeling one of us should say something, but I'm coming up blank on my end."

"Me too... Not exactly sure where to go from here."

"How about back to base?"

"I have work."

"Then isn't that a place to go from here?" she teased, "I'll wait. How long will you be?"

"Just a few hours."

"And I just happen to have a few hours to kill while Ratchet studies that data you three got on the 'con ship."

"Sorry about that by the way."

She shook her head, "Don't worry about it. Miko explained. She said you and Raf only came to get her out of danger. I'm the one that should apologize. I snapped at you for leaving that room on the ship when you had no choice but to leave it."

"Heat of the moment, no big deal. I knew where you were coming from."

"Thanks for being mature about it... thanks for taking care of the others too. According to Miko you were a real hero."

I laughed, "She was probably blowing things out of proportion."

"Still... making the save and thinking on your feet deserves... what's that word... 'kudos'?"

"Thanks." I glanced around to make sure nobody was watching me talk to a motorcycle. Then looked to my friend again, "I should go or I'll be late. See you in about four hours."

"Take the com-link in my storage compartment. Ratchet made it to clip into your cellphone. It replaces the battery."

I did so, popping my cell's battery out to put in the far more complex Cybertronian device, "Thanks."

"This way I can let you know if I'm called away or if 'cons show up."

"Right." I turned and headed off towards the employee entrance, but then stopped and turned back to tell Arcee a final thing, "I can't really help you fight decepticons, but I'm here for you if you need me for anything else okay? I mean it."

"T-thanks... same here, Jack."

End of flashback...

The blips and bleeps of the machinery and Ratchet grumbling thoughtfully over the medical readouts brought me out of my nostalgia, "Something wrong, Ratchet?"

"No, Jack. Nothing's wrong exactly. Just something interesting in the scans. You probably wouldn't understand it."

"Try me."

He spouted a long string of technical jargon that I of course didn't understand.

"You did that on purpose." I glared.

"Yes. Yes I did." the 'bot teased with a completely deadpan humor, a behavior he'd not had a year ago. "To put it simply it seems that Arcee is recovering at an unusually high rate. Normally those kinds of wounds would have left her disabled for a full week, but she is already able to do light activity. If this continues, our commander will be fully operational in only half the time it should logically take."

Arcee raised a metallic eyebrow, "Any idea what's causing it?"

Ratchet nodded affirmatively, "I have been working on a theory almost since the children joined us."

"Ratchet, are you saying they're the cause?"

"How is that even possible?" I wondered.

Ratchet pulled up several scans from various other incidents and from various other members of our group, "This isn't the first time one of us has recovered unusually fast." He brought a screen dated about a year ago to the front and expanded it so we could see better.

Arcee recognized it, "That was from when Megatron pegged me at the space bridge. I was out cold."

Ratchet shook his head, "The shot was potentially lethal, but within moments of getting you back around Jack you were walking around and the wound only required a few mends. Your auto-repair functions took care of most of it."

"That still doesn't explain how I could be doing it."

"My theory is still a fledgling one, and I haven't the technology to test it, but I believe it might have something to do with energon exposure. Remember when Optimus told you that Earth was one of many planets selected for storing energon reserves long ago?"

"Yeah."

"Perhaps that energon had a strange affect on the genetic development of your species. Energon being the life force of transformers, slowly changing the life force of humans. It would not be too large a stretch of the imagination that humans infused with a form of energon and a different life energy might possibly have an enhancing effect."

"I'm having a little trouble wrapping my head around the idea, but you're saying that just being around humans makes energon better?"

"Not raw energon, the radiation of raw energon overpowers the effect, but humans do seem to slightly enhance the effectiveness of processed energon, specifically during the refinement and conversion processes, like during auto-repair or transformation."

A light bulb went off in Arcee's mind, "So that's why I've been getting faster at mode changing."

"It was also quite possibly the reason you didn't kill yourself when you released that energon pulse. It was a burst of incredibly refined and stable energon rather than just regular energon."

Bee spoke up suddenly, and Raf translated for those of us that couldn't understand him, "Good point, Bumblebee, this is as good as it is bad. If the 'cons find out that humans enrich energon..."

Arcee gritted her teeth, "They'll double their efforts to conquer Earth, probably openly start abducting humans."

Ratchet frowned hard, "Knowing Megatron he will launch the first of said assaults on our human charges. Going after each one with overwhelming force."

"We can't let that happen."

Miko didn't seem worried, "Well, great timing on Hot Rod's part then! Reinforcements for the win!"

Ratchet was perplexed at the odd phrasing, not knowing internet jargon. I sighed, "Miko, don't use internet slang in regular conversation. Especially with people that don't surf the internet."

We were cut off from continuing our conversation by the com-link coming to life, heavy laser fire being the first sound heard, Optimus' voice being the second, "Ratchet, emergency land bridge at our coordinates. We are under heavy decepticon fire."

The voice from the transmission, Hot Rod, roared with equal parts anger and exhilaration, "Time for maximum overdrive you decepti-scum!"

On that note there was a small transformation sound I recognized as the change of 'bot hands to weapons and the firefight abruptly got more intense. Ratchet fiddled with the groundbridge controls, "It's no good Optimus, you are too tightly packed in that outcropping. I can't get you an exit that would be behind cover. You'd have to run into enemy fire."

Hot Rod was quick to answer, "Then I'll just make some cover. Covering fire that is. On my mark open the groundbridge at these coordinates, have Bee pop out and bring the pain, then get right back in. I'll be there to make sure he isn't shot."

"That's right between your position and the decepticons! You're suggesting a Vector Gamma Gambit aren't you! That's madness! The point man is killed 40% of the time in that strategy! You'd be committing suicide!"

"Don't forget who you're talking to. I'm the fastest thing this side of Arcee. Plus it's either the gambit, or wait for the incoming flak to collapse this rock face on us."

Optimus didn't like it, I could tell, "We do not have any other options, Ratchet. We will do the gambit."

Ratchet sighed and turned to Bee, probably to tell him to be ready, but the skilled scout already was. He cued up the bridge to a single button press and waited for the cue, "The bridge is primed and ready."

Arcee stood up and shouted over the com at Hot Rod, "Don't you get yourself dead, Hot-Shot, you just got here."

"Please," the 'bot scoffed, "They won't even scuff the paint job."

"If you let them leave a single scratch I'll paint you black and blue you got that?"

He laughed, not at all concerned about an apparent suicide charge at the enemy. I could see how he'd gotten his name.

Next Chapter: The Beginning

Preview: We jump back a little to Hot Rod's arrival and the start of the firefight, Hot Rod grabs a vehicle mode, and more looking back at past events that happened around canon episodes.