Speech Legend:
"Human Speech/Cybertronian Speech"
"Spirits Speech/Communications Line/Karas Talking"
'Thoughts'
"Inhuman/Non-Cybertronian Creatures/Intense screams or yelling/Introductions"
Chapter 2: Meet the Bots:
The Soul is everything.
Completely devoted to protecting the City and its residents, the Guardian's soul must be a pure one. A soul that is tainted by the dark sins that reside inside the Mikura and others like them cannot be trusted in guarding the city and all those living inside it.
A soul among the living is selected by the city's priestess, who takes the form of either a young girl or a white cat is destined to become the city's greatest protector, the Crow among the darkness.
Karas.
After the battle from the previous day, Jack had returned Raf to his home without any delay. This wasn't the first time Jack had seen the boy however. Both being students from the same high school, Jack could recall seeing Raf in the halls from time to time. But besides that, Jack hadn't had that much contact with the boy and really didn't know him that much about him.
Sighing to himself, Jack turned his gaze towards the small kid. His new 'Job' along with his one at KO Burger had unfortunately left Jack with very little time to meet up with other kids his age and make friends. That was one of the few things that really bothered Jack about his after school duties but it wasn't something he could easily change.
Besides, with the new developments recently...Jack doubted that he would have that much free time from now on anyway.
The sounds of horns honking and tires screeching soon brought Jack out of his inner thoughts and made him stare off as the school's parking lot emptied itself. As Jack watched the cars crowed the exit however, he noticed a yellow blur fly by his eyes. Following this strange blur, Jack suddenly spotted Raf run towards a familiar looking yellow sports car.
In the back of his mind Jack heard a voice yell at Raf, to warn him to stay away from that car.
But what could he do? What reason would he have to do so? What justification would he have? Its not like he could warn him due to the whole 'Giant Robots' thing, Jack wasn't there last night...Karas was. Sure, he could tell Raf about the obvious 'Don't go into strange vehicles' but how would Jack know that Raf didn't know who the owner of that car that was?
Sighing to himself, Jack could only watch as the young boy climbed into the vehicle and drive off.
Making a mental note to investigate this at the first opportunity, Jack turned his back on the scene and started his trek back home. However, it turns out that making his way back home would be just as difficult as yesterday unfortunately. Because as the teen stared to walk away he noticed a familiar blue motorcycle sitting in the parking lot as well.
After two previous encounters, Jack was all too sure of who this mysterious vehicle was. And if what just happened to Raf was anything to go by then this motorcycle surely wasn't just going to sit there and watch him like last time.
Not wanting to make a scene, Jack slowly walked away from the building and down a nearby street. But in his eagerness, Jack unfortunately missed someone staring at him. Near the entrance of the school was a figure sitting in a wheelchair, a man with piercing red eyes.
A few moments later, a short walk away from the School:
Glancing behind him, Jack nearly cursed when he saw the motorcycle slowly following behind him. Thinking quickly, Jack dove into one of the nearby alleyways and took off in a dead sprint. But this attempt was also foiled when the motorcycle easily caught up to him. Coming to a quick halt, Jack couldn't help but watch as the motorcycle swerved to the side and come to stop in front of him.
"Take it easy kid." The 'Rider' said, "I only want to ask you a few questions."
Jack gave the bike a strange look, "Sorry, but my mom always told me to not talk to strangers." Jack attempted to walk away one more but when the motorcycle slowly drove past him and stopped in his path, he knew that option was out of the picture.
The 'Rider' gave Jack a annoyed look, "Well, just answer a question or two and we can see if I'm a stranger or not."
'What?' Jack mentally questioned. What did this bot mean by that? Sure, he knew what this motorcycle alt form but there was no way that she could know about him...right?
"And how can we do that?"
The 'Rider' leaned forward, "Answer me one question."
Jack instinctively had a bad feeling when it came to this but agreed none the less (what could go wrong?), "Name it."
"You wouldn't to happen to know anyone that goes by the name Karas, would you?"
Well Crap.
Keeping his cool, Jack tried to respond with what anyone else in his position would have said if they were asked the same question.
"Whats a 'Karas'?" Arcee could just see the uncertainty in the boy's eyes as he said this, there was no way she could be wrong now.
The 'Rider' put her hand on her chin in 'thinking' manor, "Well, its a human-like person in armor who has been killing these monsters at night." Arcee said in a casual tone, "And he sounds remarkably like you actually."
Jack just stared at her, "Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?"
The 'Rider' just shrugged, "Doesn't make it any less true."
Tired of the 'Rider's' humor, Jack tossed his arms up in frustration and just turned his back to the motorcycle. Is this what these giant robots did in their free time? Screw around with random humans? Despite the fact that she likely did know who he was, Jack was not going to give her the satisfaction of actually getting him to admit it.
"I'm sorry to inform you, but I don't know anyone by the name of Ka-"
"KARAS!"
Both Jack and Arcee were surprised by the sudden outburst, neither sure of where it came from. Quickly looking for the source of such a yell, both the human and Autobot eventually noticed something at the other end of the ally that was violently running towards them.
It stood at a impressive height, only a few inches below Arcee's mech form. The creature had a fairly thin body with a skeletal torso dangling in the mid air. Its arms were fused to the creature's chest, metal spikes and pins forcing the limbs to remain in place. The monster was also seemingly lacking a set of legs, the lower section of the torso only having a few wires and metal pipes in their place instead. Supporting its body was more than a dozen metal legs (18 exactly) attached to its back. All of these legs were quite similar in design as a spider's except they were much longer and pointed at the end.
The monster's face looks like what would of happened if a wolf lost a fight with a sowing machine, its jaw completely sewn together by numerous metal wires.
'Another one?' Despite the fact that this monster looked quite different, Arcee could tell that this one was similar to the creature from two days ago. Jack on the other hand...had quite a different reaction.
"Oh You've Got to be Kidding me!" Jack yelled in frustration, Arcee giving him a strange look before smirking. Jack caught this and quickly looked away with a cough. But before Arcee could make a remark the monster grabbed a nearby dumpster and tossed it towards the duo.
Reacting quickly, Arcee transformed and grabbed Jack. Bending her knees, the Cybertronian jumped high in the air and allowed the metal container to fly past them. Landing with a thump, Arcee quickly transformed her arm into its blaster form and opened fire. The monster was quick to react however and used its many legs to climb the ally's walls, dipping and dodging out of the blaster fire.
"You're Going to have to do better then that!" the monster sneered, a chuckle emanating from the back of its throat.
Grunting in annoyance, Arcee somewhat gently lowered Jack back to the ground and transformed her other arm into a blaster as well. Now with double the firepower, Arcee continued to blast away at the walking arachnid-like creature. Her attacks proved quite ineffective however. Instead of dodging like last time, the monster intertwined many of its limbs together and created a shield for itself.
Standing behind the attacking Autobot, Jack looked on as the femme furiously attacked the monster, the Mikura.
Noticing that her shots were just bouncing off the creature, Jack let out a annoyed sigh. Sliding his backpack off his shoulder and opening it up, Jack stared at the clump of white fur that sitting between his history and science text books. After being slightly poked the white fuzzball uncurled itself and stretched out its little arms, revealing a small white cat. Ears twitching slightly, the small feline looked up at the boy with a somewhat serious look on its face.
"Meow?"
Jack resisted the urge to flick the cat and just returned its gaze, "Its time." the cat's eyes focused, "Lets get this over with already, okay?"
The feline just nodded and quickly crawled up the boy's arm. Settling on his shoulder, the small creature glared intently at the Mikura before it was suddenly engulfed in a massive blue light. Jack was engulfed in this light as well although he didn't seemed bothered by it. As the light grew in intensity, Arcee had to cover her optics while the Mikura screamed in pain, the light blinding its.
This light continued to shine for a few more moments before it started to fade. With the threat of her optics overloading, Arcee removed her hands from her line of sight and gazed at the source of the intense light.
Standing behind Jack was a strange new figure. This person was seemingly a young girl around Jack's age with light blue hair that was wrapped up in two ponytails. Wearing a brown jacket, blue skirt, and a pair of goggles on top of her head, the young girl placed both of her arms on to Jack's shoulders and started to chant something that even Arcee couldn't even understand.
The Mikura however...could. It imminently understood what was happening and it was damn sure not going to let it happen.
"NO YOU DON'T!" Charging head first towards the two fleshlings, the Mikura raised at least ten of its legs and launched them at the two humans.
-Clang-
Arcee wasn't going to let that happen however.
Seeing the attack coming, the Autobot quickly turned toward the dumpster that the Mikura had sent flying earlier. Grabbing the metal bin, Arcee pulled the dumpster around and kicked it between the Mikura and the humans. This caused the Mikura to impale it instead of the humans. Growling, the Mikura quickly dislodged its limbs from the metal box and tossed it aside before lashing out at the Autobot. Arcee quickly deployed her arm blades and started to block or deflect any of the limbs that got too close.
But this would turn out to be a impossible task. With the Mikura possessing so many arms, even a Autobot with hand to hand capabilities like Arcee's wasn't able to defend against so many incoming attackers at once. The two of them spent nearly a minute merely trading blows, with Arcee dodging, blocking, or parrying the monster's attacks while the Mikura used all of its limbs to target more the many vital areas that the Autobot had.
Things finally came to a stand still when the Mikura launched all but two of its legs at femme imminently tried to think of a way to get out of this situation but it was no use for three reasons.
1). The alleyway was too thin for her to simply roll out of the way.
2). The kid and whoever the other human was were currently behind her so jumping backwards was also not a option.
And 3). If Arcee tried to jump over the attack, she would then leave the two humans completely vulnerable.
All Arcee could do was bring up her arms and try to wait out the assault. Turns out though...that wouldn't be necessary.
A bright flash of light suddenly filled the alley and in the split second that it would've taken the monster's limbs to impale her, Arcee saw the same appendages miraculously fall to the ground, each sliced in half. Getting a familiar feeling in her spark, Arcee looked downward and noticed a particular set of armor standing in front of her.
"Well, that was a close one." Flicking the blood off his katana, Karas turned his blade towards the Mikura in front of him. Staring at the stubs that had been its legs, the Mikura's mind was going a mile a minute due to the recent chain of events.
It had been so close, just a few more seconds and it could have gotten to the boy and torn him apart! But no, that machine...whatever it was had gotten in the way and now it not only had to deal with that machine but Karas too!? Its just not fair!
Growling, the Mikura propelled itself backwards with its two remaining legs, hoping to give some distance between itself and its two opponents. That proved a bit difficult however since it was now missing more then a few legs, but the Mikura made due with what it had left.
In response to this, Arcee quickly brought out her blasters and opened fire on the Mikura while Karas ran off in pursuit.
Blasting away, Arcee smirked as her shots smacked into the Mikura's back. Unlike the last creature she faced, this monster was clearly not as durable. This was proven correct when the Mikura screamed in pain, her blaster fire burning holes in the monster's back and torching it from the inside out.
Growling out of frustration and pain, the Mikura turned its head in retaliation. Its eyes blowing bright red for split second, the Mikura suddenly released a large stream of energy towards the Autobot. Rolling out of the energy's path, Arcee was easily able to dodge the monster's attack before continuing her own assault. Still blasting away at the monster in front of her, Arcee nearly grinned when she saw Karas reappear right next to one of the Mikura's legs.
Reaching out, Karas grabbed one of the creatures remaining legs and yanked it backwards. Losing one of its last supports, the Mikura tripped and slammed into the ground. Repressing a groan, the Mikura tried to push itself up but was interrupted when it felt something drag itself backwards. Flipping onto its back, the Mikura looked up and saw Karas, who was standing over the creature with his sword held up high.
But before Karas could end this monster's life, the Mikura's chest started to shake and convulse. Suddenly the monster's arms, which had been bolted and pinned to its chest, ripped themselves free (quite violently) and reached towards Karas in a attempt to tear his head off.
Karas didn't seem that surprised by this however. Letting go of the Mikura's leg, Karas merely tossed his sword (VERY HIGH) into the air and caught both arms in mid strike. Staring into the Mikura's eyes, the armored figure then violently ripped the abomination's remaining limbs from its body and allowed its torso to fall to the ground in a thud.
Releasing a banshee's scream, the Mikura started to flip and spasm uncontrollably. Being nothing but a torso now, the monster had nearly lost all of its self control due to the pain. Eyes glowing with more then simple rage, the monster started to randomly release blasts of energy from its eyes in the hopes of killing..well, anything.
These blasts were quite random due to the Mikura's mindset and missed nearly everything possible target. Most of the blasts ended up flying into the sky or into one of the nearby walls but one or two of them were able to hit quite close to someone important. When one of these blasts nearly nicked Karas in the head, the armored figure figured that something had to be done about this.
Reaching down, Karas once again grabbed one of the Mikura's remaining legs and lifted it upward. Still releasing its optic blasts, the Mikura started to scream in surprise when Karas simply started to flail the creature around like a sack of potatoes.
Swinging the creature around, Karas began to smash the Mikura head first into anything it could reach. The walls, the ground, the dumpster from earlier, the Mikura could do nothing as its head was slowly smashed into a pile of scrap due to the blows. After more then a few swings the Mikura was no longer in any condition to use its energy attacks and was promptly dropped back to the ground.
Having its head crushed into slag and being nothing but a torso, the Mikura could do nothing as Karas finally caught his sword in mid air. Holding his sword with both hands, Karas wasted no time and swiftly sliced Mikura's head clean open in a single swing. Screaming in pain for a brief second, the Mikura quickly went limp...finally dead.
With the creature now disposed of, Arcee breathed a sigh of relief and transformed her arms back to normal. Hopefully that would be the last one of these monsters she would have to deal with for quite awhile. Decepticons were one thing, but these creatures? Yeah, Arcee could do without one of them for quite some time.
"You okay?" Karas asked, walking towards the femme as the Mikura faded from the alleyway.
Arcee shrugged, "Fine, that thing had nothing on the other one. What about you?"
"Meh, I'm good." Arcee watched the armored figure walk passed her, not fazed by had just happened at all. It made sense when Arcee thought about it. If THIS was what Karas had been doing during all of the video clips then he was clearly used to it by now.
Her gaze following the armored figure as he walked passed her, Arcee's optics widened when she noticed what the boy was walking towards.
Standing behind Arcee was Jack and the unknown female from before...and now, Karas was standing next to them as well, completely separate from Jack, who was seemingly unconscious at the moment. Furthermore, surrounding the two humans was a blue dome that was seemingly protecting the two from any outside threats. This utterly confused the slag out of Arcee, who then stared intensely at Karas with one hell of a glare.
Noticing the glare (which felt quite similar to a look that his mother tended to give him), Karas just looked at Arcee and asked what she wanted. Pointing at the strange situation next to him, Karas quickly sheathed his sword and waved his arms in a calming gesture.
"I can explain!" Karas yelled, not liking the glare that Arcee was giving him.
Arcee rolled her eyes and was about to reply when she heard sirens in the distance. Apparently someone had called the police due to all the noise that they had caused. With company on their way, Arcee quickly transformed into her alternate mode and drove up next to Karas and the two humans.
"You better!" Arcee said, "But unless you want the police to find you, your body, and that girl in the middle of a wreaked alley, you may want to come with me."
Karas was a bit torn by this. He could easily just say no, but she was right about one thing. Due to his body being right next to him, the police would be an issue if he didn't go with her and if he did go with her...what and the hell would happen concerning him and these giant machines. Would he get involved with what happened yesterday in that canal? Would he get interrogated by these giant machines about what he is and what the Mikura were?
His life would get a hell of alot more complicated...but what else could happen if he wen-
"What are you waiting for!"
Both Karas and Arcee (and the girl who was holding Jack's body) were caught off guard by the sudden voice and turned around. Standing at the entrance of the alley was a local girl from Jack's high school, one Jack somewhat recognized. Right after leaving his high school, Jack recalled seeing this same girl sitting right outside the entrance with a sketch book...but that was it.
When did she follow him? How long had she been standing there!? How much did she see!? WHY WASN'T SHE FREAKING OUT ABOUT THE GIANT ROBOT!?
"Go with her!" The girl yelled excitedly.
Still a bit shocked by the girls sudden appearance and the sirens getting a bit closer, Arcee and Karas both had their own take on the situation. Karas was trying his best to remain silent, using the fact that neither of them could see his face to his advantage. Arcee on the other hand...
"Scrap."
Later: The Base.
Taking the two humans back to base (and a cat, which suddenly replaced that mysterious girl once Karas returned to his body), Arcee had a chance to learn a bit about these two humans. The girl, who's name turned out to be Miko was a very excited girl. That was fairly clear seeing how she wouldn't stop yelling in excitement during the entire drive.
Jack on the hand tried his best to say as little as possible during the entire drive. With his cat once again ridding in his backpack once again (Arcee had asked why he was bringing it along but Jack said that the feline was important to his explanation and it wouldn't work without it), Jack tried to ignore everything around him and simply enjoy the ride...but that was a bit difficult seeing how there was someone screaming in his ear the whole time.
Meeting back up with Bumblebee on the way (who asked what took her so long), the two Autobots quickly entered their base and joined the rest of the team. The humans were in awe once they saw the rest of the Autobots, each for their different reasons.
Miko was utterly ecstatic, Raf was was just in utter surprise, and Jack? Jack was suppressing the urge to slam his head into a wall. There was more of them!? Oh, this was going to be a massive pain.
The large red and white mech approached the group and after glancing at the three humans for a second looked towards Arcee and Bumblebee for a explanation.
"Arcee, I thought you and Bumblebee were only to bring back one human..." the cranky medic asked, "So why are there three of them!?"
Arcee shrugged, "Hey, its not my fault humans multiple so quickly." Jack sent the femme a quick glare for that remark but she didn't seem to notice.
Ratchet meanwhile just grunted and looked off to the side, clearly still annoyed about the situation. This was also the moment when the other bots walked in on the conversation. Miko and Raf took this moment to introduce themselves, with Raf being quite polite while Miko nearly assaulted poor Bulkhead with quite a number of excited questions.
Jack on the other hand merely tried to make himself as unnoticeable as possible, but today wasn't his day now is it?
"So..." Raf asked the bots in general, "...if you guys are robots, who made you?"
"Ugh! Puh-leez..."
Ratchet just snorted and waved off the boy's question. Instead, a much larger robot approached the children instead. Towering over the humans was a bot who was even taller then the others, colored in red and blue paint was the leader of the Autobots.
"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron." Optimus informed them, "More commonly known as Autobots."
Going into a small yet informative explanation, Optimus laid down most of the need to know information that concerned the Autobots. He basically described why they were there (Apparently it was due to a war over a fuel that doubled as their race's life force), who the Decepticons were (Who Arcee described as the jokers from the canal), and how they were going about dealing with them.
It was a war that had been going on for longer then any of the children could imagine, a war that started a bot that Optimus had once considered a brother. A vicious and manipulative Decepticon called Megatron, the leader of their destructive faction.
All in all, it was actually quite informative and Jack was quite shocked at all of it. Sure, he had to deal with spiritual threats as a Karas...but that doesn't mean that he couldn't be surprised at the revelation that there was a race of intergalactic robots that were fighting a secret war on earth. Still, he had yet to explain why the children were there, why get them even further involved in all of this?
So Jack decided to ask the million dollar question himself, "What does Megatron or any of this have to do with us?"
"Due to your interaction with and the ill intentions that the Decepticons have displayed toward your kind, it is best that you three remain under our watch," Optimus said. "At least until we can determine our enemy's intentions."
All the Autobots present seemed to agree with that statement...well, all but one of them anyway.
"With all due respect, the human children are in as much danger here as anywhere!" Ratchet quite verbally expressed his concerns.
"They have no protective shell!" Ratchet hissed before lifting up his metallic foot,. "If they get underfoot, they will go…squish!"
And to prove his point, Ratchet stomped his foot with a very loud thud. Raf, Jack, and Miko shuddered at the very thought of that. Getting stepped on was something that was always reserved for bugs when it concerned humans...but when it came to these metal titans, humans basically were bugs to them.
Optimus didn't seem too concerned however, "Then for the time being Ratchet, we must watch where we step."
Ratchet just rolled his eyes at his leader's remark but didn't say anything more about it. However, during the conversation Arcee noticed that someone wasn't there...
"Wheres Cliff...?" Arcee had just noticed that her partner was missing...which should have been much easier to figure out considering how vocal he normally is.
Jack looked at the blue femme in confusion, "Cliff?"
"Cliffjumper, he's my partner. Someone who would be every excited to meet all of you." Arcee replied to the young boy, putting a large emphasis on the last bit. While this was lost on Miko and Raf, Jack could easily tell what she was implying.
Well, at least Jack knew what to call that Red mech from yesterday now.
"Hm?" Bulkhead said, hoping to somehow escape the awkwardness that Miko had drove him into with her questions, "You and Bee were taking so long that he got bored and went out, he should be back fairly soon though."
Arcee...did not take it well. But it was ultimately Ratchet who blew up on the green wrecker, "What?! After getting nearly offlined yesterday, You let him go out just like that...with no one accompanying him!?"
Despite getting yelled in the face, Bulkhead didn't seem to understand why the medic (and Arcee) was so angry, "Cliff looked alright and he said that Doc gave him the go ahead." Arcee looked over at the medic in question and could clearly see that was bunch of scrap, "And besides, he said that he would take it easy if he saw any Cons."
"You told...Cliff of all bots, to not engage any Cons..."
"Thats right." Bulkhead nodded.
Arcee could just barley contain the rage she wanted to unleash upon the wrecker. Of all the Autobots, Cliffjumper was always one of the most head strong. If there was a fight that he could get into then you better be damn well ready to send a clean up crew in at a moments notice. So you could kind of understand Arcee's gripe...if there was anyone you could send into a situation where you didn't want them to get into a brawl, Cliffjumper would be one of the last bots you should send.
With the medic and femme fully prepared to kick his aft to Cybertron and back, Bulkhead was quite relieved when he heard a sudden beeping coming from Ratchet's console. Calmly (and cautiously) walking over to the console, Bulk released a sigh of relief when he saw that it was the bot's communication channel and it was coming from Cliffjumper.
"See? I told you." Bulkhead grinned, "Hes likely ready to come back and is calling for a bridge or something."
The Wrecker pressed a few buttons and looked toward the console's monitors, "Hey Cliff, hows it going?"
Static filled the command center for a few seconds before Cliffjumper's voiced echoed through the base. The bots, Arcee and Ratchet especially were relieved to hear their comrade's voice but were concerned when they heard something else in Cliffjumper's com link. It sounded like blaster fire.
"Hey Bulk, do you mind getting the others...you won't believe what I found!" Cliff's voice sounded both excited and a bit terrified at the same time, which is never good when it came to someone like Cliff.
Optimus walked up to the console, "Cliffjumper, what have you found?"
"Well, I was driving along when I noticed some of the cons escorting some supplies to a isolated patch of rocks. I followed them and...sneaked my way inside." Arcee rolled her eyes at her partner's definition of 'sneak' (Which normally involved more then a few Cons getting their visors punched inward), "Once inside, I found a nice little mining operation. But that's not the best part!"
Bumblebee beeped a few times (which Raf somehow translated to 'What...best part?' for Miko and Jack), which lead to Cliffjumper added one very important detail.
"Its Megatron sir...he's here."
The atmosphere in the Autobots base became deathly silent the moment they heard Cliffjumper's message. Megatron, the Decepticon leader was back? Sure, the Autobots had been preparing for such a event and were even expecting it but to know for certain that Megatron was currently on earth was unsettling. Even the humans were shocked, having just heard of this warlord and he was already here?
Baster fire still being heard in the background, Optimus slowly turned towards his team.
"Ratchet, you shall remain here with the children while the rest of us supports Cliffjumper." the medic nodded, "Be prepared to bridge us back at a moments notice. If Megatron is truly there, then a quick exit may be required."
Optimus then turned to look at the humans, "The three of you are to remain here with Ratchet." Miko and Ratchet both gave a disappointed sigh, neither of them liking the turn of events. Optimus then approached a seemingly empty tunnel with the other three Autobots trailing behind him.
The tunnel was suddenly consumed by a large swirling green vortex as the Cybertronians walked towards it. With the coordinates set on Cliffjumper's location, Optimus turned towards his team.
"Autobots," Optimus called. "Transform and roll out."
All four of them then transformed into their vehicle forms and drove through the portal, which then closed behind them in a flash of light. The three humans, who had been watching the entire scene just looked on in confusion and awe.
"W-what just happened?" Jack asked.
Annoyed by such a simply question, Ratchet waved his arm in the portals direction, "I transported them to the designated coordinates via the ground bridge," Ratchet made it sound like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
The three humans looked at him questioningly however, still in the dark about what exactly that meant. "What's a ground bridge?" Raf asked.
Ratchet sighed and turned back to the computer. "Scaled down version of Space-bridge technology," he grumbled. "Since we don't currently possess the means, or the Energon, required for intergalactic travel…"
That clicked something in Jack's head, "You're stuck here...on earth."
"With the likes of you, yes..." Ratchet replied with a good amount of distaste in his voice, "But I constructed the ground bridge to enable us to travel from here to anywhere on your planet."
"Whoa!" Raf exclaimed. "Does it work for humans?"
Ratchet nodded with a bit of pride, "Naturally,"
"You mean I could just shoot on over and visit my folks in Tokyo?" Miko asked.
"Within moments," Ratchet suddenly got a fairly nasty grin on his face. "In fact..." Ratchet said, optics gleaming, "Allow me to send you there immediately, all three of you!"
Miko glared at the medic, "Watch it Ratchet."
Ratchet scoffed at the young girls threat and simply returned to his work. But before he could get any work done, a loud blaring alarm sounded through the base. The kids quickly covered their ears while Ratchet scanned his monitor for the cause of it. When he found it however the medic cursed openly and quickly shut off the alarm.
"W-what was that?" Jack asked, his ears still rinigng a little bit.
"Slag, it was the proximity alarm!" Ratchet then brought up a video stream and showed it to the kids. The screen then showed a slightly overweight African-American man getting out of a government chopper. Ratchet groaned in annoyance when he recognized who this was.
"Great...its Agent Fowler."
The kids looked confused for a second so Ratchet continued to explain, "Agent Fowler is our government designated liaison to the outside world, who tends to only make himself known when there is something to complain about."
Actually considering what he just said, the Autobot medic then turned to the children, "Considering the Voltaire nature that Agent Fowler normally processes, it would be wise if he did not know about your presence at our base." With that said, Ratchet quickly lead the children to a nearby wall to hide behind.
This proved to be a wise decision as the elevator opened up just after this and Agent Fowler stepped out, looking quite angry as he did so.
"Prime!" Fowler screamed, "I have a bone to pick with you! Do you have any idea how much damage you and your team just caused!?" Not seeing the Autobot leader, the agent continued to call for the Prime in anger. Rubbing his eyes in annoyance, Ratchet briefly left his console and approached the agent himself.
"Agent Fowler, Optimus and the others are currently in the middle of a mission. You will have to direct any and all problems you have to me." Ratchet regrettably told the agent, who groaned in return.
"Mission?! What could they possibly be doing!?" Fowler asked the medic, "After all the destruction you've caused in the last few days what more could you all need to do!?"
Ratchet glared at the human, "And what do you mean by that?"
As if he was reading off a checklist, Agent Fowler began name nearly every damage that had been reported in the last two days. "Seven wrecks, thirty-four fender benders." Fowler yelled, "A three hour traffic jam, numerous reports of a speeding motorcycle of unknown make and a black and yellow muscle car were all reported yesterday."
"Along with that, there was also the matter of the burned up alleyway that was reported just a hour or two ago!" Jack subconsciously twitched when he heard that one. It wasn't really the Autobots fault when it came to that one...
"With all the destruction you lot are causing, there needs to be one dandy explanation for all of this!" Ratchet sneered and aggressively approached the agent. Neither of them back down as Ratchet got up close and personal with the Agent, but of them coming face to face with the other.
"Now listen here you ungrateful pile of-" Ratchet was cut off when yet another alarm sounded through the base, this time being yet another communications call from the other Autobots.
"This is Bulkhead calling base, do you read me!?" Bulkhead roared over the com. line.
Ratchet gave Agent Fowler one last glare before rushing back to his console. Preparing the ground bridge just in case, the Autobot medic quickly answered his friend's distress call.
"I read you Bulkhead, whats the others status?" Ratchet asked, "Whats happening over there!?"
Just like with Cliffjumper's call from earlier, Ratchet could clearly hear the sound of blaster fire in background along with the numerous Cybertronians (Cons and Autobots alike) screaming at one another. Along with these however was also another audio frequency that Ratchet was picking up. It was unlike anything the bot had heard in all his years. It was like something out of the inferno itself, screaming for energon and blood alike. Whatever it was...Ratchet was not looking forward to finding out what it was exactly.
"Ratchet! We need a way out of her pronto!" It was Arcee who answered the call this time, "We have wounded and more then our fair share of Cons!"
The medic nodded and began working on deploying another Space bridge to their position.
"And Ratchet..." The medic in question briefly stopped working, listening intently to whatever Arcee had to say.
"There's something else in here with us..."
Next Time: Battle in the Mine, Karas reveals himself to the other Cybertronians...but what else dwells in this mine?
Chapter Notes:
Yep...I tossed Cliff right back into the fire. Sure he's fine, but trust me...things are going to get pretty nasty in there.
-About the fight this time, please remember Arcee was stuck in the very close environment and her movement was very limited. If she was in a area like where she fought the first Mikura, then there is a good chance that she would have been able to handle this one. She won't be at a disadvantage all the time.
-Why did Agent Fowler later then in canon? Well, he did have to deal with the mess that Arcee and Jack left in that alleyway, so he wasn't able to get there before Optimus and the others left for the mine.
-And for the remainder of the fic, I will be putting a sort of reference section for each Mikura that appears in this story. They will be in the chapter that the Mikura appears in and will describe their name, reasons behind it, their physical appearance, and their abilities/threat level.
Mikura Archive:
(Prologue):
The Raging Driller:
-This particular Mikura got its name from its hot temper and its drilling/earth based abilities. The monster's rage is universal, hating everything from humans, other Mikura, and anything else it can see (including Cybertonians) and will take a sick pleasure out of ripping them apart and eating them. Next there is the earth aspect, as this Mikura has the power to easily manipulate the earth with its ability to quickly move and drill through anything at a fast speed being its most noticeably feature.
Physical Characteristics:
-Large, dominating stature. Its strength focusing the monster's arms and defense.
-Has a second pair of limbs hidden in its shoulders.
-Mouth full of razor sharp teeth, can be used to devour prey or tunnel through substances.
-Large single red eye, similar to a tunneler's hat in a sense.
Alternate form:
-Can transform into a tiger-like alternate form, which increase speed but decreases durability.
Threat Level: 1.5
-Physical defense can be quite durable, but is still nothing against the blade of a Karas.
-Has more then one way to defend itself, and its extra limbs can be quite a surprise.
-Its alternate form can provide itself with a new way to combat its foes and even a means of escape.
-Ability to use the area around it to combat its foes.
Death:
-Killed by Karas, cut in half after a long battle with Arcee and Karas.
(Chapter 2):
The Decaying Prison:
-The name refers to the thin appearance of the Mikura and its mouth. The Mikura is a stealthy hunter, one that rarely makes itself known unless its desperate or sure of itself. Due to the fact that its mouth is wired shut, the Mikura can only devour a small amount of its prey which results in its thin appearance (thin and decaying, like a skeleton) and less aggressive strategy. The prison bit refers to the bound arms of the Mikura, which is similar to a strait jacket.
Physical Characteristics:
-Head of a mutated wolf, its mouth sown shut with metal wires and nails (can fire optic blasts from its eyes).
-Humanoid body, skeletal in appearance. Legs were cut off at the knee caps and tied together with cloth.
-Arms bound to the torso in a similar fashion to a straight jacket, huge spikes holding them in place.
-Processes 18 spider-like legs, attached to its back. All of them with a spear-like tip.
Alternate mode:
-Has the ability to transform into a cross between a wolf and a missle, capable of flying through the air at incredible speeds while also retaining its thin appearance. But due to its death at the hands of Karas and small enviroment, this Mikura was unable to display this form openly.
Threat level: 1
-Has multiple limbs and cannot be taken out by removing one or two.
-Physical body is weak, cannot take much punishment (due to its lack of food and skeletal body structure).
-Prefers to attack its foes when they are weak or vulnerable. Which is why he attacked Karas while he was in human form.