Chapter 2: A Step Forward
Acree was about to answer when Ratchet turned from the consul, Raf now seated on his shoulder and looked down at Jack. "How is that possible?"
Jack chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Uhh, I'll let you know when I figure it out."
Ratchet and Arcee stood in silence for a moment, finally Ratchet spoke. "Med Bay. Now." His tone left no room for debate. Jack walked down the metal stairs and headed down the wall to the Med Bay. Arcee followed quietly, not yet sure what to say. The bots foot steps seemed to echo more them usual in his ears. Raf was still seated on Ratchets shoulder. In an odd show of humility, Ratchet spoke up. "I take it you found out about this earlier today Raf?"
"Yeah and I've been trying to do research." Raf smiled from his spot on Ratchets shoulder.
"Have you found anything?"
"Jack's changes and powers most closely resemble a werewolf. If he changes, we will hopefully have a better idea of what lore to look at but till then, everything I've found is speculation"
"Elaborate." Ratchet said taking on his teacher tone again. An exercise like this would help Raf develop his assessment skills. A large part of being a medic, engineer or inventor was being able to research a problem and come up with ideas to create a solution.
"Werewolves date back to Roman civilization and have gone through many changes over time. People are constantly creating new lore, so it is impossible to see what is actuality accurate. The most common aspects of werewolves is that they change with the full moon, but in some cases they can change whenever they want. Other common factor is silver; it works almost all the time, but in some cases it is holly. How wolves change and the powers they have has endless range." Raf stated in a very factual manner.
Ratchet nodded curtly. "Didn't take you long to start researching."
"Jack saved me from a dodge ball in gym, and the class I had after was computer technology." Raf smiled and shrugged. "So I had time."
The small party arrived in the small polygonal med bay, the walls were rough and dusty brown cut from the rock face. Ratchet had at first created a bit of a scene with the dusty walls but the effort required to smooth them would have been astronomical, so after a great deal of grumbling he conceded and just pulled his tables and tools away from the walls. He also kicked up a fuss to get tarps to put over his sensitive equipment, not that he ever remembered to use them. Or ever needed too, given his project with Synthetic Energon and injuries.
There were two berths opposite each other with their corresponding equipment scanners, IV lines, energon tanks and other stabilization equipment. To the right of the two Optimus sized berths, while still light enough to move around in case of emergencies. Next to the berths was a console that would display a patients medical readings, to the right of that lay a medical table with tools for Cybertronians, lastly stood there energon chamber in the far corner. Raf almost shuddered seeing the large glass room. It felt like only yesterday it had been used to save his life from Dark Energon.
Jack walked over to the closest of the two berths and Ratchet gave him a lift onto it. Arcee sat beside him, smiling slightly, silently offering support.
Ratchet opened the scanner on his arm and let the green light scan over Jack before walking over to the console to view the results in detail.
"Wow." Raf glazed at the screen. "Your cellular regeneration is through the roof."
Ratchet turned and raised an optic ridge.
"It's a saying." Raf quickly explained. "Well, that's where your healing came from. Funny," Raf took of cleaned and replaced his glasses on his face. "Your cells don't seem to be deteriorating."
Jack's glaze snapped up to the younger almost teen, he had seen enough sci-fi to know what that meant. "I'm not ageing?"
"No." Ratchet spoke. "You still are, your cells are still dividing but not dieing at normal rate. You are still going to grow, probably rather swiftly, just don't expect to get old in a rush afterwords."
"Anything else?" Jack asked hoping that there wasn't.
"Not that I can tell." Raf started at the screen. "Well I guess your metabolism is up too, but that goes without saying."
"So Jack will be alright?" Arcee pipped in.
"At least till the full moon." Raf said. "I think he should be on base for that just in case something does happen."
"When is it any way Raf? I haven't had a chance to look." Jack said hopefully.
"Two weeks, so your good for a little while."
While Jack was having is world torn down at base, the usually tranquil peaceful desert was having every particle of tranquillity bashed all the way to Cybertron. The scorching mid day heat meant nothing to the worlds two most enthusiastic Dune Bashers. The poor golden sand didn't know what hit it as it was scattered to the four winds by a large forest green truck, blaring Slash Monkey.
"Woo Hooo!" Miko gripped Bulkhead's armrests as they slammed through another dune and sped towards another. "Nice one Bulk!" She pumped an arm.
"Haha! ready for the next one?" Bulkheads engine roared as he powered towards the next sandy cliff.
"Totally!" She held onto his arm rests again, grinning from ear to ear.
Bulkhead geared up and roared, smashing the poor dune. Miko let out another Woop as it was reduced to dust. Bulkhead slowed down and let Miko catch her breath.
"Wanna go back to base now Miko?" The oversized Wrecker ask in his fatherly tone, turning the volume down to a more manage level rather then ear drum rupturing. Though he would never have it that loud, if he has is way Miko would have perfect hearing for as long as humanly possible. It also gave her one less excuse when she got into trouble.
The girl slumped in her seat, "Not really. Jack is probably with Ratchet in the med bay, and I hate all that sciencly stuff. Could we..." she paused. "Go for ice cream? Or back home so I can help you get all the sand off of you before we go to base?"
"You offering a car wash?" the green wrecker asked, getting just a bit cheeky. Seven months ago, Miko would never offered such a thing, but it saved him a great deal of time. This wasn't the first time she had offered it, though, and Bulkhead almost chuckled at the memory. He had a feeling she would come out in a swimsuit this time rather then have him soak her clothes in an impromptu water fight. Besides, nice cool water always felt nice against his sun baked chassis.
"Trade you ice cream for a wash." Miko bartered with a grin.
"Deal." he stated eagerly before increasing his speed. They rolled back onto the highway and set off for Jasper. Her host parents worked during the day so they could have there water fight in peace. The two rolled into Jasper and stopped at the Ice cream shop. "Don't get anything sticky, or your walking home." Bulkhead warned as he opened the passenger door.
"No bubble gum, I know." Miko pouted as she hopped out. "I'll be right back." Throwing the door closed, ran the few steps into the cold, white store, letting out a small sigh as the chilled air blasted past her. The store was empty save an elderly man behind the cash register. She hopped up to the counter and presented her money. "Two scoops of Death By Chocolate on a waffle cone please."
"Hello, Miko. How are you?" The old man enquired as he laddled out the frozen treat.
"Good, no homework today."
"That's good." He pushed the last of her ice cream into her cone. "No Bumblegum today?"
"No." Miko took her cone and gave it a lick. "My ride doesn't like the sticky gum."
The old man chucked. "See you next Friday, Miko."
"Bye Fred!" The teen shouted she went out the door. She worked to get her Death By Chocolate down to the cone to lessen the risk of getting it on Her guardian.
Bulkhead's passenger door open and she hopped in. "Got my Ice cream and now I'm ready for that car wash."
Bulkhead just chuckled and pulled out of the lot. "So what is that one?"
"Death by Chocolate." She put her free thumb up and took a long lick.
"Uhhh, can humans die by chocolate?"
"No silly, its just the name; milk chocolate and dark all rolled into one mix." Miko nibbled around the top of her cone to get at the rest of the ice cream.
"Then why do they call it Death by Chocolate?"
"Cause dark chocolate is really strong."
"I see..." he said, even if he really didn't.
Miko just giggled and strapped herself in, when they arrived at Miko's house she finished her cone in one big bite, hopped out and made a beeline for the house.
Bulkhead relaxed on his wheels, these were the days he liked. No impending disaster, no relics to hunt, no fighting. Just him and his little girl. They'd get all the sand off of him, have a discrete water fight( that he would win) or as discrete a water fight as possible. This was Miko after all.
Miko came out a few minutes later dressed in a black and pink striped one piece swimsuit with a large bucket and a soft foam stubbly. She zipped around the side of the plain white house and pulled the water hose around.
"Ready, Bulk?"
Bulkhead braced himself for the cold assault. "Ready."
Cold water shot up at his wind shield and flowed down into his engine block. Miko got his front good and soaked before turning the water off and going at him with the soapy sponge. Occasionally using the shower setting on the hose to make sure he didn't dry out to much. Miko carefully went over every inch of his front getting into all the nooks and crannies.
She finished Bulkhead's front and picked up her heavy bucket of soapy water. Seizing his opportunity Bulkhead rocked forward just jostling the bucket and soaking Miko's legs.
"Eep!" Miko dropped the bucket and jumped away.
"Got you." Bulkhead said just a little smugly.
Miko put her hands on her hips. "Oh really?" She picked up the hose again and pointed. "Who has got who?" She sprained with the jet setting and slowly traced down to his tires.
"Don't you dare." Bulkhead growled half heatedly. He really should have seen this coming.
Miko turned the hose and hit the inside off his wheel rims.
Bulkhead almost laughed and rolled back and forth on his wheels trying to disrupt her aim. He did let a chuckle slip free as she danced after him. Eventually Miko got tired and set about finishing her job and after she went back inside to change and grab her art bag, they headed back to base.
When they returned the rest of team Prime was present. Optimus had his back to them working on the Iacon database again, Bee and Smokescreen had highjacked the kid's tv and gaming system and were racing. Arcee and Jack were off to one side talking about how knows what, Miko couldn't hear. Ratchet and Raf were hunched over a circuit board, or rather Ratchet was hunched and Raf was trying not to fall off Ratchet's hand as he soldered the board.
Bulkhead transformed and gave his charge a wave as he headed off to the wash rakes to get the last of the sand off of him. Miko bounced up to the railway and pulled her sketch book out and set about finishing her Jedi Optimus. It was comical yet rather accurate, with her quary standing to the side of her, she could see half of his features clearly rather then just his back. She erased the outline of her drawing and redrew it to fit Optimus in this view, plus the Star Saber of course. In her drawing he was holding it up parallel to his body. She sketched in silence till she got bored then went over to the sofa and sat on it with a flop.
"So who's winning?" She watched the tv as Bumblebee and Smokescreen were neck in neck.
"Me of course!" Smokescreen boasted, just as Bee bumped his car and took the lead. "Slag." He dead planed as Bee finished the game.
Miko bounced forward and grabbed a control from the plain short square table. "You and me, Bee!" And off they went for their game.
Optimus suppressed a groan of frustration and braced himself against his work station. He subtly arched his back trying to release the tension from his muscle strands, his fingers digging into the metal console; he was annoyed. Not with anyone but himself, he should have decoded this cypher easily, yet he was hopelessly stumped in attempting to unravel it's intricacies. There were bits he understood, but relearning the mess would make months and he didn't have the spark to tell his team that. Alpha Trion clearly wanted to protect these last four relics. The giant desperately wanted to find some way to release the tension ruling his body, he just couldn't relax. With a barely audible huff, he pealed away from his work station and turned to the other bots in the room.
As he turned a small square of white caught his optic, carefully he pulled Miko's tiny sketch book from the wall way. He glanced up at the teen, who was completely absorbed in her game, before returning his gaze to the book, the corner of his lips turning up. He reconsigned the character and the idea behind it. The children had once had a sleep over in the base and watched all six Star Wars movies. He was present in the back if only to learn more about human culture, the movies were humours as well. Ratchet by the end of the second had made a game out of pointing out all the scientific errors. Oh yes, Optimus had learned the way of the Force, and he thought he made a rather dashing Jedi, all be it the Star Sabre was far superior then a light sabre.
He flipped to the beginning of Miko's book and went through each page, draws pre-bots to after. Plenty of Bulkhead and Ratchet as well as himself, he could see when Bulkhead had agreed to be her model as the skill behind her works improved dramatically. Sure she was no Sunstreaker but defiantly had potential, Optimus almost huffed again. Wasn't that the story of Miko, endless potential, no control or respect. Despite the trouble she got into she never showed fear and was not afraid to act. After she shouted at Megatron when he came to base Optimus worried about Megatron taking a more active interest in the humans. Thankfully he had not, though it did bring Miko more into Optimus's focus as it was there was nothing he could do control Miko. She would sneak into the field and disobey whenever presented with the opportunity.
When Optimus gave the task of Miko's guardianship to Bulkhead, he had hoped that the wrecker would mellow her or perhaps help him grow past his fear of small, crawling things. Optimus had a feeling that fear was linked to his fear for Scraplets... The Prime shuddered; any sane bot was afraid of those little monsters. Sadly, while Bulkhead did grow out of his fear, Miko was as wild as ever. Every action she made was blown far out of proportion, every move had energy behind it, and as a result, she expressed everything without restraint.
Though Optimus would never admit it to anyone, most defiantly not Miko,( Primus knows what that would do to her) she had the makings of a great warrior. The mech smiled. There was no way he was going to inflate her ego. So for now, he would watch her and try to keep her out of trouble. The other two humans he could trust to stay safe, Miko, however, could not recieve such trust.
As he found himself back at his dashing Jedi picture, Jack had entered the human area and sat down beside Miko. The boy had been solemn since his recovery.
"So Jack, any chance your going to go all grey and hairy?"
"Miko." Jack growled.
"Howling at the Moon?" Miko continued to prod.
Jack bared his teeth and growled his chest puffing out and claws extending.
"Licking your-"
Optimus saw the raven teen's shoulders flex and his eyes go black. This could no longer continue."Miko." His lip plates were set in a thin line, but he was otherwise very controlled.
As everyone's gaze snapped to the Prime, he vented deeply. 'Well to late to go back now...' He reached down and placed his servo by the rail. "A word." His voice was hollow like the one he used before the heat of battle.
Miko's face fell a thousand miles; her eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and in her chest her heart clenched. Never had she heard that tone before, and it made her want to fall into a deep dark hole. She swallowed thickly and stepped onto his palm. He fingers curled around her protectively befor turning from the rest of the team and heading out of the base. The girl's eyes had fallen to the floor; she wanted to collapse on Optimus's servo. Miko knew she had no reason to be afraid of Optimus, he would never hurt her. But something about the way he had spoken to her... it made her feel hollow. Each of Optimus's steps echoed loudly, the sound reverberated in her ears ominously like she was been taken to her doom.
By the time they arrived at the top of the base and had made there way to the edge, Miko thought her heart was beating like a humming bird.
Optimus slowly sat down, letting his long legs hang over the edge. He let his servo rest on his thigh, still not speaking as if he was letting Miko stew in her own regret.
The large mech vented deeply before he finally spoke, "Miko, why did you taunt Jack?"
the girl opened and shut her mouth, before she looked down at her feet. "I don't know." her voice a bare whisper.
Optimus frowned, if he had learned anything about Miko, he had a good idea why she toyed with Jack. "Did you see the effect your words had on him?" the Prime decided to let her muse over his last question a bit.
"No..." Miko slowly sat down on his palm, "I wasn't looking." her gaze roaming anywhere but at Optimus.
"His body was changing for a fight."
She finally looked up at him, understanding dawning in her eyes. "Oh..."
Optimus sighed, and she bit her lip. "I suppose I wanted to him lighten up. Nothing really bad has happened so far."
"Miko, Jack is still learning to cope with his new form. Anything can still happen. Today was an excellent example of that." Optimus's voice mellowed.
"I understand." Miko said quietly.
The pair stared off into the sun set, an unfinished tension to the air; there was something else Optimus wanted to ask about. "Miko, why do you always strive to follow us on missions?"
Miko's eye's brighten slightly.
"Truthfully." he clarified, watching as they dimmed back a bit.
She sighed, "I just want to help somehow," her voice grew faster so he couldn't interrupt. "Raf helps with the tec, you have Jack the Key. They both have done stuff to help with the war." she slumped. "I'm just stuck in the background keeping Bulk company. Heck the times I have gone out I've played bait really well."
"Bait?" Optimus raised an optic ridge, perhaps there was more to her running out then he first thought.
Miko laughed coldly. "When do I not get caught when I head out?"
Ah know he was starting to see the thoughts going through her head. "You put yourself out to draw the Cons out."
"And right into Bulkhead's fists." She punched her open palm.
It started to click in his mind. "You've been running interference."
"Well, I'm great at running if nothing else."
Optimus smiled slightly, perhaps there was more to Miko then he originally thought, he fished her sketch book out of his sub space. He hadn't had the time to put it down before intervening. "I rather like your last drawing. It is quite dashing."
Miko blushed brightly and took the book back. "I'm glad you liked it."
"May I ask why I am such a frequent model?"
Miko felt more blood rush to her cheeks. "You stand still," she passed and bit her lip. "and have a pretty cool chassis that is easy to work with."
"I see." Optimus said smoothly. "Your one of Bulkhead dressed as," he searched for the right words. "Santa Clause, was very good as well."
Miko giggled. "He has the frame type for it," she opened her book to Optimus the Jedi again. "you make a better Jedi."
"Tell me about your art." Optimus said and smiled involuntarily when Miko started to talk freely. She oozed with passion and vigour. After their latest conversation he had to admit that she would make a fine warrior. She was all about guts and glory, and she did not let her fear control her. Instead, she moved past it to help the ones she cared about.
It was clear to Optimus that Miko loved Bulkhead as a father or an older brother, and it was that love that got her into trouble. She did not reconsign him as a superior, yet another factor that got her into trouble. He had not given her much thought prevously, perhaps it was time he changed that. He had a feeling Miko would respond well to his attention. She need someone she respected in her life, and hopefully he could earn that respect if he had not done so already.
But first he need to learn about his new charge; he couldn't help but wonder what might have been if he had became her guardian when she first appeared. He knew she loved her heavy metal and her drawings, but he did not know much else. It almost felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. He knew next to nothing about any of the human children, he knew only their skills and actions. He knew some of Jack, but he had not spent any time with Raf or Miko. Perhaps he could find some way to spend more time with all three of them. With the current state of the Iacon database, the war was effectively stalled. As intelligent as Soundwave was, he doubted that he would have any more luck with the database.
Yes, Optimus smiled warmly down at a Miko and she in term smiled a bit brighter when she looked up, he finally had time to right a few wrongs.
Megatron roared in frustration, Soundwave had just informed him that his work on the Iacon database had been brought to a stand still. He ground his denta; it was beyond frustrating. Optimus was far more familiar with Iaconian codes, and would undoubtedly crack the new code first. Megatron stormed down to his quarters, drones scrambling to get out of his way. He would have loved nothing more then to beat Optimus into a energon pulp at this moment, he sat at is personal computer and reviewed energon reports. He's best bet was waiting for Optimus to crack the codes and hunt the artifacts then waste Soundwaves talents trying to crack an impossible code. After all he still had an Autobot base to find.
HELLO FANFINCTION! Second chapter up! So, I have a little question for you all. I hate to put a price on this, but this is kinda hard to write. So I feel justified.
I am asking for ten reviews this chapter. Get to fifteen before the next chapter release. Just to make sure this is worth continuing. So, this is possibly the last chapter if we don't get the reviews. Possibly the beginning of a great story and fun ride. So it's on you guys! I would like to get a little support from you lovely readers and little love going for this fic.
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