Autobots, Assemble!

Part 2:

Galvatron Rising

Chapter 4

Galvatron knelt silently while both Jane and Ratchet patched him up. There honestly wasn't that much to patch up aside from a few minor leaks that were merely cosmetic wounds, but that didn't stop either of them from fussing over him like two worried Guardians fussing over a sparkling.

"What were you thinking?" Ratchet scolded sharply. "You could've gotten seriously wounded, even killed! Holo-forms are wirelessly and directly linked to their user's sensory set. You were lucky all you got was a thorough beating from Sandman! There are other convicts in there that would've done far worse to you!"

Spider-Man leapt over from his one-sided conversation with Cap, wordlessly asking the medics permission to approach. It was odd to see him silent – he was notorious for being a chatterbox to rival Bluestreak. His constant quips and jokes during battle were a trademark.

"Uh…" He cleared his throat. "You…you okay?"

Mentally he slapped himself for how inane that question sounded. Of course he wasn't okay because he had two medics fussing over him and looked like he was endeavoring to ignore his aching body to the best of his ability. He remembered being just as sore after dealing with Sandman the first few times. Coming up with excuses for Aunt May regarding some of his more noticeable bruises had been….difficult, and the residual sand in his hair hadn't made it any easier.

Thankfully Flash had turned into his go-to scapegoat for such excuses. Funny how handy a school bully could be sometimes.

"I will live." Galvatron answered shortly. He looked abstracted when his red eyes looked down at him. Spider-Man knew well enough what was bothering him. Green Goblin always left a certain lingering impression, and his words to him earlier had touched the mech on the raw.

"Hey, look. Gobby likes messing with people's heads for sick grins. You know none of what he said was true. He was riling you up on purpose to get you to react that way. You learn to just ignore him after a while."

"That is where you and I differ. His words were not only mean to taunt me – they were also true. I did threaten to end him." Galvatron argued half-heartedly. He refused to make eye contact with anyone out of perceived shame.

"Yeah, true. You did threaten him, and I'm not gonna lie to your face and say you didn't. But you didn't go through with it, did you?" Spider-Man wisely pointed out. "I'd say that's more than enough proof to convince me you aren't Megatron anymore."

'Very nicely put, Peter.'Cap thought proudly, nodding to himself. He certainly had a way with words. He wasn't just saying it to make him feel better, either; he was saying it because he needed to hear it – he needed to know that others had faith in him.

And it worked like a charm. Galvatron's abstractedly hurt look was replaced by a smile that quickly morphed into a devilish smirk when Tony decided to be funny and broadcast Jameson's rant over his comm. unit and the Avengers ID cards. Jameson was so upset that he was practically inarticulate, not so much upset over the hacker-caused break out but the boy's triumph in both escaping the cell and the prison.

Again.

"Geez. Somebody get that guy a chill pill." A nearby police officer noted. "He's going to give himself a stroke at this rate."

"Oh wait, wait! Cap, can I have your ID card real quick? I kinda left mine at home." Spider-Man asked. "If I can get him to smirk then I can get him to laugh, too! My dungeon run isn't over officially until I've said something funny to Jameson."

Cap shrugged and passed him his ID card. Hey, his cause was a noble one in his opinion. And honestly, as polite of a man as he was, he disliked Jameson just as much as Spider-Man did.

The wall-crawler fiddled with the card so it was now two-way communication. He was no longer just listening in. Now he could talk back to Jameson freely over Tony's ID card. He lived for the simple pleasures – and one of them was ticking off his own employer, unaware that his own photographer was the one doing the teasing.

"Oh picklepuss? Tah-dah!" He sang.

He cracked up when Jameson became even more inarticulate. It was pretty obvious he was swearing badly enough to make the hardiest battle-tried soldier blush but no one could understand a single word that he was saying.

In mere seconds everyone within hearing range of the ID card was laughing uproariously at J. Jonah Jameson's expense, and that included Galvatron. The boy had been right about Jameson all along – ticking him off really was the greatest sport ever invented because the payoff was completely worth it. One put up with his all-around bad attitude for this single reason.

"Tony, joking aside for a minute – did you find out who hacked the cells?" Vision asked. "If not, did you at least find out how?"

Tony was heard to snort his laughter into check before answering: [I did a little cyber snooping to see if I could find our mystery hacker, but no such luck. They fled back into their own computer or whatever they used to hack the prison. Whoever did the deed utilized a well-hidden backdoor I build into all of my tech. Here's the catch though – only myself and Pepper know how to open that backdoor. Only we know that it's there at all.]

"Hmm…" Ratchet hemmed thoughtfully. If he had suspicions as to the culprit he didn't voice them.

He and Jane finally finished fussing over their patient and released him with the warning to take it easy for bit so his sensory net could recover. No heroics for a couple of hours, did he understand? Vehicle form was alright, as was flying around, but no crazy stunts or they'd have his head on a pike!

"You guys can head on out now. We can take it from here." A heavily built police sergeant offered gruffly. "Thanks for all the help. We'd have convicts running amuck if not for you."

One might've thought this thanks was intended for the Avengers as a whole, and in a sense it was, but his grateful gaze was locked on the giant black and grey mech and the smaller red and blue wall-crawler at his side. That mech had willingly taken a beating from Sandman in order to buy his friend time to call for back up, and Spidey understandably felt horrible about it.

If anyone lived up to the motto of the Avengers, this alien did and then some. He held his own personal safety much lower than he probably should on his list of priorities.

"Any injured wardens or guards I need to tend to inside?" Jane asked.

One of the half dozen wardens who had made it outside gestured to her to follow. She would help them and then return with Ratchet once she was done. This was her job after all, and Ratchet – being the overprotective mother hen that he really was – would not leave her alone in a prison, not on his life. He had turned himself into her unofficial bodyguard when Thor wasn't around to fill the role.

"You guys go on ahead! I'll catch up with you in a bit!" She called back to them. "Oh, and Galv?"

"Hmm?" From all indications he was taking the little nickname they'd given him in stride. He seemed perfectly alright with it. That was another good sign, and personally one she found rather cute about him.

"Don't make me put you on medical leave, okay?" She winked back at him and then followed the warden inside the prison.

Now he fully understood why Jane was more terrifying when she was being nice. She knew better than anyone how to instill the fear of Primus in someone in the most subtle way possible. If he disobeyed her, she would probably send both Ratchet and Thor to knock some sense into him, both literally and metaphorically.

And she would do it, too. He had no doubt that she'd sic both of them on him if he put one foot out of line. It was no wonder that Thor liked her so much.

Spider-Man grinned broadly behind his mask. With those parameters there was one thing Galvatron could do for him to keep him from going stir-crazy for at least a while. It was a little thing that might make him look a bit petty, but he really did need it for more than one reason. One of those reasons was currently hiding on his nightstand in the form of a camera.

At least he hoped it still was….. Oh no…..Oh dear God…..

He silently prayed that his camera was still where he'd left it.

"So, ah….Would you mind giving me a lift home? I kind of need to get there before Reflector decides it's no longer fun to sit quietly on my nightstand like a good little camera. Seriously, it's like dealing with a tiny mechanical puppy! He's cute as all get out but man alive is he hard to keep under wraps!"

The grey and black mech eyed Ratchet out of the corner of his optic. His look wasn't quite puppy-dog pleading but it was getting dangerously close. Ratchet heartily cursed the names of both Jazz and Hawkeye for indirectly teaching him that in the span of about a day. Then he sighed in defeat. Well, if anything it would keep him from climbing the walls from inactivity.

"Just don't strain yourself."

He nodded and carefully transformed under the medic's watch. His smaller red and blue costumed friend nimbly jumped onto his canopy, assuming the same crouched position he had before. Once certain his passenger was secured he lifted up into the air and took off in the direction of Midtown.

The young hero gave him explicit directions to a small two story house nestled comfortably in a scenic little part of Midtown. It wasn't the grandest of buildings, certainly nothing compared to Avengers Mansion, but it had a certain air of hominess about it. During the flight the boy had slipped on casual civilian clothes over his uniform and removed his mask, stuffing both it and his web-shooters into a small knapsack.

The street on which the house sat was small but he managed to land in the middle of the road without causing any damage to the cars parked on the curbside. He shut off his engine and dimmed his purple lateral lines.

"Stay here. I don't want you giving my Aunt a heart attack or anything. She's heard about your kind on the news every once in a while, but no offense – you're kind of intimidating." He said. He muttered under his breath: "Now I just have to hope that little 'bot hasn't dropped his cover and made a royal mess of things…."

He smiled when the vehicle emitted a rumbling noise that was obviously a chuckle. "None taken. Now get on inside to check on both of them. I will tell you now that mini-cons are notorious for causing trouble unintentionally. They always mean well, but…frankly I would not be surprised if he did disobey you."

"Tell me about it." Peter sighed. "Thanks again for the lift and the save earlier. I owe you one. Well, actually I owe you two, don't I?"

He turned and headed for the door with one final nod and smile at the intimidating black and grey aircraft sitting quietly in the middle of the street like it was just another vehicle. Just before he went in he glanced back and saw that Galvatron hadn't moved an inch. It looked like he wasn't going to leave until he was positive nothing bad had happened or would happen.

With a smile and a shake of his head he went inside, shutting the door behind him and leaving his newest friend out in the street. Stubbornly protective fit his personality way better than egomaniacal monster in his opinion. He was like a giant, loyal, armored guard dog like this.

As soon as Peter stepped inside and let the door shut he froze in his tracks. His Aunt May was sitting on the sofa in the living room watching the news reports about the near break-out at Ryker's, and curled up next to her like a robotic kitten with his head resting against her side….was Reflector.

When Reflector spotted him the little camera mini-con whistled happily and jumped down to greet him. His greeting devolved into flurried trills and beeps that Peter was certain was a stammered apology for dropping his cover.

"Peter, why didn't you tell me your camera was a disguised Cybertronian?" She demanded.

Peter's face flushed in embarrassment. "Well, see I-I didn't know how you'd take it. I didn't lie to you intentionally, Aunt May; it's just that having a robotic alien in the house is kind of weird to some people, and I didn't want to upset you I guess."

"Oh I'm not upset." She smiled kindly, lowering the volume on the television. "This one's been very helpful in many ways. And I think he's such a dear – so eager to help. Of course, seeing a tiny mechanoid tumble down the stairs was a bit of a surprise to me, but he was the one who was upset, Peter. I had to calm him down – he was on the verge of panicking, poor thing!"

Reflector bwooped and shuffled his feet shyly. Peter glanced down at him with a what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you look. The little mech managed a shy smile up at him before scooching away to seek shelter with his Aunt.

"Not that I blame him. I was worried, too – that near break-out put me on edge, as well." She continued on. "I don't blame him for worrying about you. You were out at the time around that area, weren't you? How did you get home so quickly?"

"Uh…"

Peter unconsciously stole a glance out of the window to see if Galvatron was still out there waiting, and he was honestly surprised that he still was diligently parked out on the street. Lying to his Aunt May felt wrong, it really did, and she had already followed his gaze and spotted what he was eyeing.

"Is….is that another Cybertronian?" She asked, getting up from the sofa to look out of the window. "Peter? Is that how you got home?"

He nodded rather guiltily and half-lied: "Uh-huh. He was heading out from Ryker's and he gave me a lift here. Jameson called me and told me to get over to the area around the prison to get pictures – from a safe distance - but I had to tell him that I forgot my camera and started off towards one of the bus stops. That mech considered it way too risky for me to be anywhere near that place and took me home right away."

"Well I think that was very nice of him." She smiled indulgently out at the intimidating black and grey alien aircraft. "What's his name?"

"Galvatron. He's with the Avengers. He's their newest member."

His Aunt started for the door determinedly. "I think he deserves a thank-you for bringing you home safely. It's the least I can offer him."

Peter rushed to the door and blocked it. He laughed nervously: "I don't think that's necessary, Aunt May. He's kind of shy around people, and he's about to head off to regroup with the Avengers anyway. He doesn't want them worrying about him."

She waved aside his argument and expertly maneuvered her hand around him to reach the door knob. "Oh nonsense, Peter. This won't take more than a minute of his time."

Realizing there was literally no way around or out of this Peter sighed in defeat and let her walk out without trying to stop her or convince her that it really wasn't needed and would probably make the mech melt into the pavement out of embarrassment. His Aunt could be a little excessive in her thanks, but hopefully he could keep her from embarrassing him too much. He looked back to see Reflector dozing peacefully on the sofa before following her out.

Galvatron forced himself out of very light recharge when he detected footsteps approaching him. Seeing both the young man and his elderly Aunt May heading for him, he flickered his purple lateral lines at them to show that he knew they were coming. The boy had an apologetic look on his face while the elderly lady had a grateful smile on her face that radiated kindness.

Color him shocked that she wasn't intimidated by him in the slightest. If anything she had the look of a mother about to congratulate a child on a special achievement. She approached him calmly, her head ever so slightly tilted to one side as she regarded him through her glasses.

"Hello?" He hazarded, his lateral lines flashing as he spoke. "Is something the matter?"

She shook her head. "Oh, no, nothing's wrong. I just wanted to thank you for bringing my nephew home safely for me. That awful situation at Ryker's had me worried about him. He has an unfortunate talent for attracting trouble wherever he goes."

"Aunt May." Peter whispered harshly, looking distinctly embarrassed.

"You're welcome." Galvatron replied politely. He had to keep himself from snorting in amusement at the boy's rapidly reddening face – poor Peter was turning as red as Cliffjumper's armor plating. And he had to hand it to him – this youngster could act. In one persona he was confident and witty; in this one he was shy and rather awkward. Those were two totally different personalities and he could shift between them seamlessly! That took talent.

The elderly lady laid a thankful hand on his plating that made his previously iron-clad spark glow. She then turned and made her way inside with her nephew in tow. He didn't need to be showered in praise to know that his simple but meaningful little task was appreciated.

Carefully, so as not to disturb the parked vehicles, the sentient aircraft lifted off and started his short journey towards the stately brownstone building that he was already beginning to consider his home away from home.

The call about the Wrecking Crew had come around midday. Almost five hours had passed when Galvatron finally re-entered the subterranean launch bay via the hidden exit tunnel beneath the river. Outside, the sun began to dip below the horizon, igniting the sky in a burning mosaic.

"There you are! What took you?" Tony asked. He was busy with maintenance on one of the Quinjets and had a power drill in one hand and a wrench in the other. No one else was around. Only the rush of water and the growl of the power tool could be heard.

"I…got a little side-tracked." He admitted.

Tony chuckled at how guilty he sounded. "Hey, happens to the best of us. Besides, Spidey's a nice kid. I don't blame you for wanting to help him. Your sensory net recovered yet? You don't look as ache-y as you did earlier." He exchanged the power drill for another tool, circling around to the Quinjet's thrusters.

"It is better. My sensory net tends to recover faster than normal thanks to conditioning brought on by years as a gladiator."

"So you've got more of a pain tolerance than most people. Interesting." He replied. "Another thing I didn't know about you."

Galvatron walked around the Quinjet to find him again. "What are you doing down here all by yourself?"

Tony continued to dart around the armed aircraft, checking the systems one by one. "Eh. I find that doing stuff like this helps me think out difficult problems. My brain has a habit of multi-tasking when it really should be focusing on one subject at a time. I work with it instead of against it – it's better that way. I'm just trying to figure out how that hacker knew about the back-door, and why they went after you and Spidey specifically. None of the other cell blocks were touched."

He frowned in frustration, leaning against the Quinjet and rubbing his temples. "I just…I don't know. And I hate not knowing. Not knowing is a total nightmare for me because everyone expects me to have all the tech answers. How am I supposed to tell them that I don't have a clue?"

Seeing the normally confident Iron Man like this was definitely something the mech hadn't been expecting. He seemed right now like a frustrated child desperately in need of guidance or reassurance from a father figure who wasn't there. It struck him that both Cap and Optimus, and in a more immediate sense, Ratchet, had all provided that need to him, and the soldier and Ratchet still did.

"I suppose you have Ratchet working on this mystery?"

Tony sighed: "Yeah, but he hasn't reported back yet. He doesn't know Earth tech as well as Raf does, so he kind of needs his help." He forced a smile at him. "But enough of my moping – it'll come to me eventually. That's usually how it works. What's up with you? How'd your drop off go?"

"I believe Reflector might be in some form of trouble with Peter." He hinted. He knew the man was smart enough to connect the dots, and connect he did.

Tony cracked a wide grin. "See, that's why I want a mini-con! They're little rebels and they don't even seem to notice it because all they want to do is help! I'd love to have one of those little guys around to help with things. Jarvis would too, wouldn't you buddy?"

"That would depend, sir." Jarvis said noncommittally from inside the Quinjet where he was running a diagnostic on the tracking systems. Tony smirked and affectionately patted the aircraft. He didn't know what he'd do without the AI. He was like an older brother.

He went back to finishing his full system check and maintenance of the Quinjet. Galvatron watched him with interest. Already he could see the inventor's mind beginning to work again on the problem at hand while also managing to complete something productive at the same time.

Soundwave had compiled dossiers on each of the Avengers after their accidental jaunt to Asgard and had pointed out this particular trait of Iron Man as noteworthy. He could be thinking about one thing and doing something entirely unrelated to it at the same time, oftentimes keeping up conversation all the while. It was like his brain had to be moving at a million miles an hour for it to work at all. That trait might explain why Stark was never truly idle. Thus far, he'd never seen him sit down and relax for more than maybe half an hour at a time, and even then he was always fiddling with something or other. Sitting idle would practically drive him loopy.

It was funny really. He'd thoroughly made up his mind that he shared absolutely nothing in common with the Avengers, but Stark actually shared one of his own behavioral quirks and took it up twelve pegs in the process. During the War he'd been busy manning an entire army, and before that as a miner and later a gladiator - the mere thought of being idle was inconceivable to him. He'd always been active – it was a part of his core programming.

"What?" Stark asked, one eyebrow quizzically raised.

It took the mech a moment to realize he'd been unconsciously staring at the man while thinking over this.

"Nothing. Just…thinking." He said. "Sorry."

Stark grinned and shrugged, clambering down off the rear end of the Quinjet. "Hey, everyone has that little habit of staring at something, anything, when they're thinking over something. I'm no different. You don't need apologize for it, Galv. It's just how the brain works – it forces the eyes to fixate on one thing so it can focus better and concentrate on the problem at hand."

Then he froze mid-step, a look of sudden dawning comprehension on his face. "That's it. That's how the hacker got in! They must've done something to focus the system's attention away from them so they could look for the backdoor without being kicked out. Did anything weird happen at Ryker's that you remember? Lights flickering, electricity going out in one of the other cell blocks or the hallways – anything like that?"

He thought back on everything that had happened at the prison. Only one thing really stood out, but it seemed so coincidental in nature that really it was absurd.

"The cell. The cell the boy was in somehow had the power cut. I had to carve it open. He's good, but I don't think he would have been able to accomplish that with his limited tools. Either the hacker accidentally aided him or he was purposefully helping him escape."

Stark nodded vigorously. "That would explain why the bulkheads were directing you towards the cell block where Spidey's enemies were. The guards said they temporarily lost control of the lockdown systems for about a minute – which was how long it took you to get to the cell block. This hacker wanted a confrontation to happen and purposefully led you two there. But why? It's the why that I don't get."

He started pacing back and forth at the mech's feet. "They could've easily just let the kid stay cooped up in the cell and let the criminals come there, open the cell with brute force, and take care of him after taking care of your holo-form. But that didn't happen. Why? Why wouldn't they choose the easiest course of action?"

Galvatron watched the man pace back and forth for another ten minutes as he rapidly mumbled to himself all sorts of possible theories as to why the hacker would behave that way, his red eyes roving back and forth and back and forth as he tried to keep up with the rapid flow of words.

"Stark, perhaps you should focus less on why and more on whom. Who had the knowledge to find the back-door in such a short time span? Who knew how to trick your own system into following a false breach?" He suggested.

Stark nodded absently, continuing to pace feverishly and mutter. Just for a brief second he let himself appreciate the mech's intelligence. For an ex-miner-turned-gladiator-turned-warlord this guy had a lot of common sense and smarts tucked away.

The lift nearby hissed open to admit Cap who looked a little puzzled about the strange scene near the Quinjet – an anxiously pacing Tony and a confusedly worried Galvatron looming over him and watching him pace.

"What's going on?" He asked, walking over to observe, one eyebrow slightly raised.

"Your friend here is having a bit of a brainstorm. I would not advise interrupting him." Galvatron said with a very tiny smirk on his face. He was pleasantly stunned to see the soldier smile while he watched Tony's continued pacing.

Cap strolled over and planted himself right in his path. Tony, completely oblivious to him, bonked into him. It seemed to jolt him out of hyper-active brain mode and into normal person mode in a snap.

"Tony, you're over-thinking a problem again." Cap scolded lightly. "Simplify it. You're making it a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Narrow down your options first, and then you can start figuring out who was responsible for the hacking. Because, seriously, I kind of doubt the Serpent Society have the smarts to go after Spider-Man. Oh sure, they have enough of a reason, but I really don't think they'd be able to hack your hidden back-door that quickly. You're giving them too much credit there."

How exactly the man had known about Tony's rapid muttering and what the contents of it were was a mystery to Galvatron. The man wasn't telepathic in the slightest. Was it just because he'd been around Tony for so long that he could effectively guess what was on his mind? If so, then that man was dangerously good at reading people. He filed that information away for later as a sort of warning to himself never to lie to the soldier.

"A.I.M could've done it, but they've never gone after the kid before." Tony admitted slowly. "And all of his tech-using villains are locked up – maybe they could've had a guy on the outside do it for them? But it's not like your everyday street thug has that kind of knowhow…."

"I think it's even simpler than that. You said yourself that only you and Pepper know about the back-door."

Tony's eyes widened. "Oh no…."

Cap nodded grimly. "You've got a mole in the system. There is one criminal currently missing from Ryker's that Spider-Man hasn't been able to catch yet. He's a master of impersonation and works for the Green Goblin."

Tony had frozen in place, letting the information organize itself in his brain into a horrible reality. How could he not have seen this? It stared him in the face.

"Chamaeleon." He hissed.