Chapter 4
Midnight ruminated on Noah's words as he drives around the city in the middle of the day. Tried as he could to not get too attached to the boy, their inner struggles have done more to fortify a camaraderie between them that Midnight had hoped to avoid. He had already lost one dear friend; he didn't want to lose another, especially one so unfamiliar with the conflicts outside of his home.
As he exits onto a mountain road, Midnight notices a red sports car approaching him from behind. An image of a particular Decepticon suddenly flashes in his mind and a rage begins to heat up from within him. He sees an emergency stop ahead and decides to pull over to let the sports car pass to be sure. Midnight watches as the car goes by and discovers that it wasn't the Decepticon Knockout that he original thought. Chastising himself for being too quick to judge, Midnight pulls back onto the road and continues driving up the mountain.
Once he was far enough into the mountain, Midnight pulls off into a dirt road and follows it into the forest until he reaches a small pond in the midst of a wide clearing. After making sure there weren't any prying eyes about, Midnight transforms into his robot form and stretches himself out. He kneels over to the pond and gazes into it to see the glowing Energon cubes that he had moved there from the ravine. The movement of the water from the fish within did well to hide their existence from any human wandering through. And if Decepticons discovered it, the location is far away from the city that any fight that breaks out would not affect humans too much, if at all.
Standing up, Midnight looks up at the afternoon sky and takes a deep breath to cool his inner core. He then proceeds to practice the gongfu forms that he's been doing with Zero after he gained his robot body. It was awkward when he first started doing this training since he wasn't used to having a humanoid form. He could tell Zero wanted to laugh at him at times but she remained patient with him, going through the motions slowly so that Midnight could mimic them properly.
Dashing into a punch stance, Midnight admits that he stopped doing these exercises ever since Zero's death since it brought too much pain for him to recall the forms. He wonders why he suddenly feels okay with doing them again and supposes his growing friendship with Noah has given him enough strength to finally move on. He could sense his spark easing up substantially as he performs the final form and falls into a finishing stance.
Noah should be getting out of school soon, thought Midnight. I should head back.
He suddenly hears rustling and turns quickly with guns drawn at the source. A few seconds pass before a deer comes bounding out of the trees and into the distance. Midnight lets out a sigh and changes his guns back to hands before turning around.
"Nice place you've got here."
In an instant, Midnight performs a back kick and hits something big and heavy from behind him without looking. Turning around, the bot discovers that he had sent a big white robot flying into the ground. The robot coughs once and slowly gets himself up.
"Okay…" gasps the Cybertronian. "Was not… expecting that…"
Midnight immediately aims his gun arms at the bot.
"Well, you're not immediately shooting at me," deduces the white robot, dusting himself off. "So that means you're no Decepticon."
Midnight narrows his optics. "You're an Autobot?"
"Gee, did the insignia on my chest give it away?" the white robot responds sarcastically. "Name's Wheeljack."
"Midnight," responds Midnight nonchalantly, transforming his arms back again. "Did Optimus send you?"
"It's a bit complicated," answers Wheeljack, crossing his arms. "I'm with the Autobots, but not really."
"I see," says Midnight. He then turns to walk away.
"Whoa, what's your damage?" exclaims Wheeljack. "You don't have a Decepticon or an Autobot insignia and just back-kicks anyone who says hi?"
"If you want to fight me, then just do it," utters Midnight, turning to face the Autobot. "Otherwise, just leave me alone. I'm not aligned with either the Decepticons or the Autobots."
"Then what are you?" demands Wheeljack.
Midnight falls silent and then turns back to the road.
"I don't know yet."