Episode 4: Busted
The whole Autobot base came to life once the kids were dropped off. Miko folded her English test into a paper airplane and flung it at the ceiling, where it got caught on top of the lights. She twirled and back flipped over to Bulkhead Four and chatted with him about how boring school was. Raf and Bumblebee Five and Three watched an America's Funniest Home Videos episode, guffawing uncontrollably. Only Jack remained silent, reading silently on a desk near the corner of the base. He paid no attention to the words, only that it was impossible for anyone to talk to him. Or so he thought.
"Gosh, it's a beautiful day outside," Arcee Two commented as she walked over. "Perfect for, oh I don't know, a drive perhaps."
"No thanks," Jack muttered without looking up.
"We can make doughnuts around police cars again," she suggested. "You loved that."
"Uh-uh."
Arcee Two bit her lip nervously, searching for ideas.
"I got it! Let's wrap Bulkhead around with toilet paper! Remember his face when he woke up?"
"Nah."
She leaned down and looked over his shoulder curiously.
"You want me to quiz you for that chemistry test?"
"It's history," Jack sighed. He finally faced her.
"And why do you care?" he snapped.
"I'm your guardian, Jack Darby, and I'm not digging your attitude," Arcee Two said sharply.
"No you're not. Arcee is. The first Arcee."
"Jack, you don't understand. I am her."
"No, you're like her."
Arcee Two froze. Her Energon heated to a boil, but she allowed herself to calm down.
"Look, I know much has changed in such a short time. You have made a strong friendship with Arcee. I can remember how it was, even though I never experienced it. It's painful to have memories that aren't yours," she paused, catching her breath. "I guess all I want is for you to give me a chance. Like you did for her."
"I-I'm sorry. But I can't," Jack replied, looking down at his shoes. Arcee Two's optics slowly narrowed.
"Fine," she scowled. "I guess I'm not that special after all."
She retreated to the other side of the base, arms crossed over her chest. She slumped in between Bulkhead Three and Bumblebee Five, watching enviously as they played with Raf and Miko. For half an hour, the entire room sparkled with energy, except in Arcee Two's and Jack's dark corners.
Ratchet Two opened the Ground Bridge and the rest of the Autobots entered the base, all of them looking quite pleased with themselves.
The Bumblebees bleeped excitedly about their surprise attack on the Driller operators, making punching motions in the air. Bulkhead Two and Three joked about how stupid the commander was, and Bulkhead nearly collapsed laughing after hearing their story of the drones' rear ends catching on fire.
"I'm assuming that the mission was successful?" Ratchet asked Optimus and Ultra Magnus. They each nodded gratefully, Magnus a tad more happily.
"Good job girls," Arcee praised her squadron, transforming her pistol back into a hand. "Never seen Cons blow up so fast."
"Talk with your boyfriend," Arcee Two said bitterly as she passed by her.
Arcee looked towards Jack, and he turned his head around after spying on them. She sighed as she shook her head and approached the desk.
"I heard that you've been a hassle today." Arcee remarked, arms crossed.
"But she shouldn't have tried talking to me," Jack defended. "She just walked over here and pretended that she was you. Then she kept naming off all of the things we did, as if she was there."
"In some ways, she has a right to. How would you feel if you couldn't have your own life? I don't blame her for trying to make her own memories."
"It's just weird, that's all."
Arcee sighed. "Well, Arcee Four's taking my shift. You wanna go for a drive?"
Jack's eyes lit up eagerly. "Right now?"
"I gotta take a decontamination bath first, silly. But I'll be ready in a minute."
Jack watched Arcee as she walked away, and he slammed his helmet on top of his history book.
The hidden passageway on the mountain opened and Arcee wheelied out to the road, tumbleweeds fleeing from her deadly speed.
"Yeah!" Jack yelled, bending his head back. Arcee giggled and slammed her tire on the road, and Jack's body was thrown forward.
"Whoa, easy!" Jack said while straightening his helmet. Arcee giggled more in vehicle mode.
"So how was your day?" Arcee asked randomly.
"Uh, fine I guess," Jack replied, a little off guard.
"Nothing wrong? That's a first."
Jack thought about it. "Actually, the only thing that's bothering me is your new buddies."
"Jack, they just want to get to know you better. I actually think they're jealous of us hanging out and want a chance too."
"That's exactly what Arcee Two told me," Jack sighed.
"She's me, so she's right," Arcee responded. "Watch, by the end of the day, you'll be okay with them."
"It's worth hoping." He stared at the landscape surrounding them. The sun shone through a blanket of fluffy cumulus clouds. The cacti on the sides of the road radiated with green and their flowers displayed flamboyant shades of pink, yellow, and white. The mountains cast a shadow on the road, but in a peaceful manner like trees casting shade. Jack inhaled a refreshing lungful of air and let it out slowly.
"I like Jasper," he started. "I mean, it may be a nowheresville but you can take a long drive here and just enjoy the ride."
Arcee remained silent.
"What? Let me guess, you're laughing at me."
"You never told me that you liked quiet drives," she said softly.
"Don't you?"
"Yeah…but they're best when the wind hits your face just right."
She accelerated, and the two zoomed across the desolated road, the whole world to themselves.
Starscream cackled in jet mode. Wrong way, he said to himself.
"Flatline! Arcee is coming towards your position."
A red tanker truck drove off from an abandoned gas station and blocked the road. Arcee's brakes automatically triggered, and she slid to a stop before impact.
"Hey, you're blocking the road!" Jack yelled. Then he noticed that the cab was empty…
Flatline transformed and raised his gigantic arm to smash the motorcycle. Arcee drove out of the way and transformed, and she gently set Jack down next to the gas station.
"Flatline," she glared. "What do you want with Jack?"
"Starscream can take care of him," he said. "All I want is your torn out spark."
He spoke while reaching behind his back for his cannon. He readied it, and the cannon began to absorb molecules for ammo.
"Then come and get it," Arcee whispered. She dodged his powerful blast and circled around to his back. Angrily, she shot bursts of Energon at his back, and the brute collapsed at the blows. He wrenched his body around and fired another round at Arcee, and she was thrown back thirty feet.
"Arcee!" Jack yelled. He ran to go up to her, but Starscream landed right in front of him, his red optics glowing brightly.
"Sweet dreams, boy," he smiled darkly, aiming his missile at him.
"No!" Arcee sprinted into him and smashed her fist into his face while he was helplessly splayed on the floor
"Bah!" he choked, Energon bleeding from his mouth. Arcee put her pistol up to his face, but Flatline clutched onto her wing and tossed her like a ragdoll into a stop sign on the corner.
"Where are your clones?" Flatline boomed, noticing that Arcee did not have a number. "I'll spare your sorry life if you tell me."
"Ahhrrrgh!" She broke the sign at the middle of the pole and swung it at Flatline's chest like a lethal baseball bat. She managed to make a small dent into his abdomen, but Flatline ripped the sign out of her hands and brutally pushed her down next to Jack.
"Such a shame, killing the original," Starscream said as he transformed his hand into a cannon.
"Arcee!" Jack snatched a small stone from the ground and tossed it up at Starscream's head with pinpoint accuracy. The sharp rock dug into Starscream's cheek, and a small spurt of Energon tricked down his jawline.
Starscream winced at the pain for a second, and turned his head sharply at Jack. His pale face shook with hatred.
"YOU DARE INSULT-"
Flatline suddenly collapsed to the ground, and Starscream lost his balance.
"Flatline!" he hissed back. "Warn me that you'll fall unconscious next time!"
A small magnetic disc clasped onto his chest and electricity shocked his entire body. The skinny Decepticon fell down next to Arcee, and in a few seconds a huge shadow cloaked the entire gas station.
Jack hesitantly raised his head, and witnessed the Decepticon warship itself above him. A shaft on its underside opened, and the ex-Decepticons' bodies were elevated by rings of light. Jack caught sight of another shaft above him, and more rings enveloped Arcee.
"No!" Jack desperately grabbed Arcee's wing as she was raised, but his arm weakened and he plopped back on the road.
He watched miserably as the shafts sealed and the warship ascended into the nothingness of the clouds. Instantly, Jack reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out his black Razr.
"Miko's Doughnut Ball and Monster drink Museum."
"Miko!" Jack said urgently. "Put Ratchet on the line!"
"Which one? They both hate Earth tech-"
"JUST DO IT!"
"Ratch! Jack needs help!" Miko screamed, after hearing Jack's tone. They looked stunned at first, since they had never seen Miko so afraid. Ratchet jogged over to her side and awkwardly positioned his mouth over the phone she held up.
"Jack, Jack what is it?"
"TheconstookArcee!"
"What? She's on a mission right now!"
"We went for a drive! I saw them take her!"
Ratchet checked the screen on his arm. His spark numbed.
"Jack, my readings say that Energon has been spilled a few miles from you! And it's coming from Arcee Two!"
Time stopped for Jack. He moved his phone midway from his ear
"Jack, backup is on their way. I will send a Ground Bridge for you."
"No," Jack said. "I need to save her too."
A Ground Bridge opened and an ambulance emerged in front of Jack.
"You're not going alone," Ratchet Two said in vehicle mode. Jack got inside the passenger seat and Ratchet Two sped off.
Arcee Two stared at the scrubbed spot where the II had been, paying no attention to the Energon dripping from her right cheek. She flailed her body around vigorously, but the cuffs holding her arms up were unbreakable. Transforming was out of the question.
A cold shiver ran down her back when the door opened and Megatron entered the room, Dreadwing at his side.
"My lord, I ask you why did you switch off the cloaking technology?" Dreadwing asked. "We're leaking a trail."
"No, I believe our guest is," Megatron replied, gazing at Arcee Two. "And when her…new teammates stage a rescue, they will be making their own trails as well."
After he said his sentence, the room lit up and revealed hundreds of Vehicons positioned around the room. All of their cannons aimed at Arcee Two.
"What shall I do with the scientist and Starscream, my lord?" Dreadwind continued, staring in awe at the number of guards.
"I will deal with them later," Megatron growled, recalling his treacherous second-in-command. "I sense that their confrontation with Arcee was not just a coincidence."
"I'm right here you know!" Arcee Two shouted angrily, her body dangling.
"My lord!" a drone panicked as he dashed into the room. "I'm detecting twelve incoming Energon signatures!"
Megatron smiled back at Arcee Two and followed the drone out of the room without another word.
"Destroy all of the Autobots," Dreadwing shouted to the hidden drones. "But save Prime for Megatron."
He coolly strode out of the room, and the lights powered down.
"I'm sorry, Jack," Arcee Two said as she helplessly looked up at the multitude of glowing rifle barrels surrounding the room, like an ominous blanket of stars.
"Autobots, roll out!" Optimus thundered. The five Arcees, two Bumblebees, two Bulkheads, and Orion Pax transformed and zoomed after Optimus over the cliff of the mountain.
"Maxmum Overdrive!" the Autobot leader yelled in truck mode. His team pressed on their gas pedals and shot down to the Nemesis like comets.
"AUTOBOTS!" a guard warned his comrades. A squadron immediately assembled on top of the vessel.
The roof-mounted Energon lasers swiveled around and shot beams of purple at the intruders. Ultra Magnus transformed in the air and hurled the Magnus Hammer at a laser. The powerful hammer tore through the double barrels like a wrecking ball and spun back to its owner similar to a boomerang. Bumblebee and Bumblebee Five's pistols shot blasts of Energon through the chests of drones climbing up to the roof, and the bodies toppled over the reinforcements like dominoes.
With Arcee Six and Three at each side, Arcee's motorcycle mode landed on the vessel and she rammed into a rank of Vehicons. Arcee Six and Three somersaulted as they transformed, and they unleashed intense bursts of Energon at the laser cannons. Bulkhead and Bulkhead Three skidded on the roof and they transformed when their truck modes collided against an overpowered drone. They beat their maces deep into the drones' heads as their backs dropped to the ground, and pummeled a Vehicon's hood down when he tried to escape. Shots fired from Optimus' and Magnus' blasters cleared an incoming army of Vehicons, and Optimus easily slashed the laser barrels with his sword.
"Go, we'll cover you," Optimus yelled over to Arcee. She nodded back and ran into the gaping entrance of the ship, Arcee Four and Five following close behind.
"Lord Megatron!" a drone stumbled up to his master. "We have a breach!"
The Decepticon tyrant activated his arm-mounted cannon, a hungry smirk wrapped around his face.
In the distance, a Vehicon's cry for help sounded, and it was interrupted by the thump of a body collapsing. The drone whimpered and broke into a run, but Megatron seized his neck.
"You coward!" he grimaced. "What has made the Autobots so threatening now?"
"Over here, Fathead," Ratchet Two said in ambulance mode a few meters away. He drove off, and the livid Megatron and several Vehicons dashed after him.
Jack held his breath as the Decepticons ran past his hiding spot, and released it only when he was sure they were gone. He peeked at the entrance to Arcee Two's cell, and realized that two drones were about to enter.
It's now or never, he thought. Suddenly, he found himself frantically sprinting over to his ticket inside. Miraculously, in only twenty seconds, he ran almost a mile and stealthily took cover behind one of the drones' legs. At the last second, the door slid down into the floor and Jack scaled up on the drone as he headed inside.
"False alarm," he uttered when his comrades pointed their guns at him. Jack climbed up to his upper leg and snatched the small card attached to his hip.
"This is stupid," a Vehicon complained. "Where are the Bots? We've been standing like this for two hours already!"
"They'll come," Jack's Vehicon moaned. "And we'll kill their newbies, snuff the girl's spark, boo hoo, and then Master will take care of Prime."
The drones above chatted agreeably and failed to notice Jack leaping from the drone's back and onto the metal arch with Arcee Two cuffed inside.
She heard the faint landing and stared up thunderstruck at Jack.
"Hey," he mouthed. Arcee Two gently smiled back.
"What are you so happy about?" the drone noticed. Arcee Two flashed a mischievous smile at him, and his optic caught the tiny fleshling jamming the key into the last cuff.
"THE HUMAN! DESTROY-"
With one blast from her pistol, Arcee Two shot him in the head and transformed. The guards above shot recklessly down at the blue and pink motorcycle. The blasts hurled down like a volley of arrows, but Arcee Two and Jack were too agile. As if the whole world had gone in slow-motion, Jack mounted on Arcee Two and she raced forward, the bursts hairs away from the two of them. They outran the blasts and sped out of the cell, Arcee Two driving like a madman.
Megatron and his troopers kept shooting at the helpless ambulance, but it kept annoyingly turning into the corners.
"Hold still!" Megatron exploded. He followed the troopers around the corner and dodged out of the way when the front ranks were shot down.
It was rare to see Megatron so astounded. His burning optics expanded and his jaw partially dropped.
"Megatron," Optimus spoke gravely, his blaster out. Ultra Magnus stood behind him with the fabled Magnus Hammer, wielding it with both hands. Arcee and her clones scowled with their pistols drawn and the Bumblebees had their cannons ready. Ratchet Two held out his surgical blades and the two Bulkheads stood at the back of the line, arms crossed with cannons for hands.
"How?" Megatron asked, more to himself.
"Free Arcee Two!" Optimus shouted. "Or we will use deadly force."
Megatron returned to his old self.
"The Autobots have expanded," he started. "But they're still no match against the Decepticons!"
His saber was released over his claw, and he bellowed as he swung it at Optimus. The Autobot leader's reflexes initiated, and he blocked Megatron with his sword. The two exchanged blow after blow, while the Autobots took down any Vehicons that dared to interfere.
Optimus stopped Megatron's strike once more, glaring into Megatron's optics. The fiend smiled maliciously, and Optimus' optics widened. Megatron socked his opponent under the chin while he was distracted, and Optimus crashed onto the floor. Megatron stepped towards him, his saber positioned over his head. He stopped in mid-swing when he heard a whoosh, and he looked up too late. The Magnus Hammer collided into his frightening maw, and he lost focus for a second. By the time he recovered, a shower of Energon blasts rammed his body and he felt his legs give way. The Autobots watched contemptuously as his helm banged firmly on the wall of the ship, and Megatron finally shut his optics.
"Good riddance," Ratchet said sourly after the Autobots ceased their fire.
"Let's finish him!" Bulkhead bellowed, raising his mace. Several shots were heard way off, and Arcee Two emerged with Jack.
"The Cons are onto us," she shouted to the team. "We have to Bridge back!"
Ratchet contacted Bumblebee Two, and a Ground Bridge opened. The two Bulkheads and Bumblebee Five hauled Optimus into the portal and the rest of the Autobots jumped inside. Arcee Two dodged another Energon blast from behind her and darted inside right before it closed.
Dozens of drones stopped at where the Ground Bridge had been and gasped at the sight of their defeated master.
"Lord Megatron!" one of them yelped. "What happened?"
Megatron's optics narrowed.
"This." He stabbed the drone through his spark chamber and rapidly annihilated all of the witnesses to his humility. The drones' bodies crackling beneath his feet, Megatron stomped over them to the prison sector of the ship. Starscream and Flatline have some serious explaining to do, he growled to himself.
Back at the base, the Autobots and kids encircled Arcee Two and Jack, listening intently.
"So…it was all a set up?" Jack addressed Arcee.
She nodded.
"It was meant to be a surprise. I knew that if Arcee Two scrubbed off her number, you would take a drive with her. Then, at the end of the day, you would find out that my clones are no different from me."
Jack glanced at Arcee Two and looked down.
"I-I'm sorry. Really I am. I was stupid. I should've been nice to you from the start."
"S'okay partner," Arcee Two grinned. "It was a fun drive."
"The Cons know about you guys because of me!" Jack shouted, outraged at himself. "The secret is out there!" He shut his eyes and pushed a hand through his hair.
Optimus spoke up. "It was inevitable. Yes, I am disappointed that Megatron now has the knowledge of our new comrades, but I am also proud that you have learned to trust Arcee's clones."
"In only one day too!" Arcee smirked. "It took us months to be friends."
Jack chuckled lightly, and then his frown returned.
"If it will make you feel less guilty, I have a job for you," Ratchet commented.
Jack raised his head eagerly. Ratchet threw a mop and bucket at him, and filled the bucket with black paint.
"Let's hope there won't be another mix-up again," he said, and he pointed at Arcee Two's blank wing.
Determined, Jack walked toward Arcee Two with the mop and bucket. The Autobots and kids watched him and Optimus nodded in approval.
The adventure continues in Episode 5...stay tuned and prepare yourself for the ride! Roll out =)
