Transformers prime; the new member saga; book 1; the cube and the flame
Chapter 3; taking notice
She woke up feeling groggy, as she was being dragged across the floor of the decepticon warship the nemesis. She heard someone say, "she's coming to, hit her again!" she was then met with a sharp pain in her back, as she was roughly slammed against the floor. She looked up to see the decepticon leader, Megatron. "Ah, the one the call Arcee. Give us the location of the autobot base, and everything you know about them!" he barked. "And if I don't?" Arcee snarled. "Then we will kill the boy." He said, as two decepticons shoved Jack to the floor beside her. "Fine, I'll tell you," she gave him the location of the base, and their plans, as Megatron smiled contently. "Good very good. Now that you are no longer of use to me, kill them both!" a decepticon shot Jack with a blast, and his remains fell to the floor. "Jack nooo!" Arcee screamed as she turned to see Megatron charging up his fusion cannon, and firing it in her face...
"Jack!" Arcee shot strait up, only to be met with a pain in her side and chest. "oh, good you're awake. I was starting to suspect the worst," said the red and white med-bot known as ratchet.
"Where's Jack?!" Arcee asked, worried for his safety.
"He's on the bed beside you, safe and sound." Ratchet said, who had his full concentration on the monitors in front of him.
Arcee looked over at Jack who was lying on the bed beside her. "Jack," she said,
Jack, as if responding to her words, woke up, "Arcee," he said with a painful looking grin
"What happened?" she asked,
"You sustained heavy damage to your systems and vehicle form, so for the time being you are going to have to stay—ah! Ah! Ah, what do you think you're doing? You have to stay in bed, or you'll just make it worse!" the old bot said, having turned around to see Arcee starting to get up.
A familiar honking sound turned their attention to a red and blue truck entering the base before a black haired woman exited and ran over to Jack. "Jack! Are you okay?!"
Jack looked over to her, "mom," he said, turning his attention to the truck as Optimus Prime transformed into his robot form.
"Honey, are you okay? I heard what had happened. You must be hurt! Can you walk? Does it hurt?" June said, checking his injuries as she spoke.
"Mom, I'm fine! Although my back, chest, and head hurt a bit," he said, trying to shoo her away. Just then his phone rang, "it's a text from miko," he said, "she says she's here, and she's coming to see how I'm doing."
"Hey! Jack, I'm trying to help you here, the least you can do is stay still so that I can work." "Sorry, mom," he said as he lay back down.
"You seem to have bumped your head, and your ribcage must've popped out of place, but other than that, I don't see anything too serious." June said, as she worked, bandaging his head, and popping his rib cage back into place
"i hope you're happy. You've missed a whole day at school for this."
As she did this, ratchet was also tending to some wounds, those of which belonged to Arcee, when Optimus turned his head, causing ratchet to be distracted,
"What's wrong, Optimus?" the old bot asked, "nothing, old friend. I'd thought i'd heard something."
Ratchet shook his head, and continued to work on Arcee until the screen beeped to life. "ugh, what is it now?" the old medic sighed to himself as he walked over to the computer screen.
"Optimus, there's an energon surge, I need you to go with Bumblebee and Bulkhead to check it out." "Very well, Autobots, transform and roll out!"
Ratchet activated the ground bridge as Optimus Bumblebee, and Bulkhead drove through it.
"uh, ratchet," June started, "do you mind dropping me off at home? My car broke down." The medic sighed, "fine. I might as well pick up raf as well then."
And with that, he transformed into an ambulance, and rode away with June darby.
"Finally, we're alone!" Jack said sounding relived, as he sat up in his bed
He looked at Arcee, who was also getting up, "so... are you still mad at me?" he asked
"think about it Jack; you risked your life for me, yet almost got yourself killed, I was worried sick about you, and I took a beating from knockout, but you were there for me, with me. So here, maybe this will tell you,"
She then leaned over, and kissed him on the lips, which he accepted and gave in return.
"I'm going to take that as a no, you're not mad at me, am I right?"
"What do you think, dummy?" she said, raising an eyebrow plate.
"So, do I win a prize?" he asked, grinning.
"Don't be greedy, I think one is enough for now." She said, "Now, go to sleep, it's best we get some rest. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, one that I've already planned out." She said, this time being the one to grin.
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then, I guess. Good night, beautiful." He said, "good night, Jack." She said.
Jack drifted off to sleep, and Arcee drifted into sleep mode. But while the two were alone, they really weren't. Someone was watching, someone who had already seen a cybertronian before
It had been a week since Randy had found the robot, and it was currently in he and Markus (his engineering friend)'s secret hide out, which was, an old abandoned garage
He'd been going for a drive in his now fixed but still crappy car (courtesy of Markus), when he saw the second strangest thing he'd seen that week:
A truck was speeding towards a mountain. He'd tried following them, and getting out, while trying to wake them up, when a section of the mountain slid open to reveal a door.
Startled, Randy got back in his car and parked his car besides the opening, and ran in just as it closed. He kept walking until he saw the most incredible thing he'd ever seen: two, wait, no... Three giant robots that resembled the one he'd found.
They'd seemed to be talking... and with humans? He immediately recognized one of them: Jack darby.
Trying to keep hidden, he watched for a while, and saw as two more giant robots enter the massive room, only to have left (and turned into cars?) with the tallest one.
Then he saw as the red and white one transformed, and a woman enter it.
Then his heart sank, he saw as the red and white started speeding towards him!
He quickly flattened himself against the wall for his life, and waited until it had left.
He looked back to see someone else he recognized as miko, enter, and hold up her phone.
He turned to look at what she was aiming at, only to see Jack darby, and the blue robot kissing!
He took off running.
"What?!"
"I'm telling you Markus, that's what I saw!" said Randy, who was pacing nervously around the garage that they had for a hideout.
Markus had a grey sleeveless shirt under a pair of bright blue baggy overalls that drooped over a pair massive combat boots. He had a mess of dark brown hair under a floppy torn baseball hat.
"Jack darby?" "Uh huh," "making out?" "Yep," "with one of those?!" Markus pointed and the giant robot from a week before. "Exactly! That's what I've been trying to tell you!" "Wow," said Markus, unsure of what to make of the subject.
"Listen," Randy said, "we're never going to find out what these things are, unless we open them up. Now let's get that thing open!" "Okay, fine!" said Markus, as he got up and walke over to the robot.
"Now let's just see what we have h—OHMYGOD!" "What?!" Randy asked, "WHATTHEHELL?!" Markus scooted backwards, as Randy jumped, or rather climbed over the thing's legs to see what was happening.
"OHCRAP!" he yelled, as he saw what was happening.
The robot's chest was opening, and out popped a little hovering robot, with some sort of satellite dish, that flew away, making a whirring sound as it went.
But that wasn't all: out fell a very large bronze cube with circular panels on each side that glowed multiple shades of blue.
Randy went over to pick it up, only to hear Markus say, "No! Man, don't touch that! We don't even know what it is!"
"Relax," Randy said, "i just want to know what it is." He bent over to pick it up, but it was massive!
Finally he started to get a hold on it—wait, no—it was shrinking! E=it soon became soo small, that it could fit in his left hand.
Immediately, he froze, as information about things he didn't even know about filled his brain: things about a planet called cybortron; about a war; about the autobots and decepticons.
In 1 minute, he knew everything about everything that ever existed on the planet cybertron.
He came to hearing Markus's voice saying, "are you okay?! What happened?!"
"autobot." Randy said.
"Excuse me?" Markus said, confused.
Randy turned to his friend, "an autobot! That's what that is!" he pointed to the giant robot.
"Say what now?" Markus asked, still confused.
"He's from the planet cybortron! his home!"
"What happened to you, Randy? Are you sure you're okay?" Markus asked, confused as ever.
"The cube told me everything!" Randy said.
"Okay..." Markus said, just trying to go with it now, "hey, what happened to the lights on that thing? They've gone out."
Just then the tiny hover-bot returned, shooting a laser at the robot, and returning to it's chest, which then closed, as it started rumbling.
"Uh oh!" said Markus, "step back!"
The two stepped back, just as the robot started changing shape, soon becoming a car.
"wow!" was all that any of them could manage as they looked at the hotrod now before them: it was dark red, with bright orange flames protruding down both sides of the car and the hood; the roof was with golden, and protruding from the back was a wide and short golden V-shaped spoiler with red and orange flames going down it.
"Let's take a look under the hood," Markus said,
"Agreed," Randy said, as the rushed over to the front of the vehicle.
Markus lifted the hood and whistled, "Wow. Look at this engi—well hello, what do we have here,"
He looked at a strange golden and silver piece of machinery that glowed blue, and was spinning.
He grabbed his screwdriver, and started to stick it in the device, "let me just-" he turned the screw driver, and the car changed back into the robot, this time though, its chest plate was the hood (and even that had folded inwards making its look thinner), and underneath its neck on either side, was half of the roof. Its golden spoiler now stood out like wings from its back. It's trunk became it's back (which had also folded inwards), and it's back wheels and what surrounded them made up the shoulders, and it's fore-arms and calves were red with the orange flames, with the front wheels inlaid into the calves. It's somewhat thin head was outlined with red, and it's face was gold, with red eyebrows, and red eye outlining on top of its head, it had a crest of three evenly space golden horns; the two on the outside were shorter, and went out and back, and connected at one
V-shaped point above its eyebrows; its third was longer, and went straight up.
"Do it again," Randy asked, as Markus touched the hood/chest plate, making it open, as he once again turned the thing with his screwdriver, as the robot changed back into a car.
"It's mine, I call it." Randy said, looking at the car with astonishment.
"Why do you get it? I made it work!" said Markus, looking over to Randy.
"Yeah, well I found it."
"Good point," Markus said.
"Besides," Randy continued, "this might just be my chance to become popular"
Randy book was acting very strange that Friday.
It'd been the day after Arcee and Jack were attacked by decepticons, and for some reason, Randy was laughing at him.
Every chance he got, he would laugh, giggle, or snicker, at Jack.
The whole day he'd been thinking, 'what the hell is wrong with him?' he'd hadn't yet been answered, even when he saw Randy at his work that same day.
Arcee stood parked in her usual spot in the parking lot of K.O. burger, waiting for Jack to be done his shift.
Jack was serving the jerk Vince (and what she wouldn't give to blast that jerk into the ground), who kept insulting him when a hot rod pulled into the drive through, and started honking its horn
"Hey Vince! What's wrong? Brain to slow to come up with what to order?" she recognized that voice: that was Randy (A.K.A the book worm)!
"Hey, book worm! Why don't you shut your mouth!" Vince snapped back, after hearing a couple people in his truck snicker after hearing Randy's remark.
"Okay, but you might want to as well, I hear some flies coming."
More snickering came from Vince's truck, "what was that?" he said.
"Nothing," Randy said.
Vince turned his attention back to jack, "just give me the darn food!" he said, before driving away.
"Welcome to K.O. burger, where everything's a knock out, May I take your order?" jack said.
"Yeah, I would like a burger, and some fries." Randy said, "Anything else you want with that?" jack asked.
"Just a tip: computers are fun, but just try not to fall in love with them!" he said.
"Okay, so a burger and fries, along with a side of 'I'm trying to be hilarious but I'm not making any sense'" said jack
"Oh, and one more thing," randy said, "try not to lean to close to the microphone, some people might think that you're kissing it!" he then turned on the song, 'I'm on fire tonight' by 'the sap rattles' while throwing the money at the counter.
That was odd, jack thought, very odd.
After spending the night driving around, and watching the sunset with Arcee, jack woke up Saturday morning to find a note from him mom on the counter that read,
Dear jack and Arcee, Miko has called me to come to the base for something special. I'll see you later, love: Mom.
He walked into the garage to find Arcee parked there, "so, what did it say?" she asked,
"Just that Miko wanted everybody to come to the base for something special, and that she was going also." He said with a yawn.
"You want to go?" she said, "sure, as soon as I get ready," jack said.
After he'd gotten ready, they'd left the garage, and were now speeding towards the autobot base.
"What do you think it was that Miko wanted to show everyone?" jack asked Arcee, "I don't know, maybe she found a new video game." She said, causing both of them to laugh a little, "Well whatever it is, I'm sure we'll find out."
To be continued...