Hello! Here is Chapter 4. I think this is the longest chapter so far. I just couldn't get a witty line to end on so I kept writing lol. As always, I don't own anything. Oh by the way, this story is set in Season 2 before Nemesis Prime, at least at this point. Sincerely, madlibs44.
Chapter 4:
"My life is over!"
"Stop being so overdramatic, Jack," Arcee rolled her optics. She watched her partner as he nervously ran his hands through his hair while he paced the humans' loft. Raf and Miko watched the teenager go back and forth as if it were a tennis match, completely enthralled by his predicament.
Jack stopped to glare back up at Arcee. "I am not being overdramatic. My mom will kill me when she finds out that I'm failing, not one, but two classes!"
Bumblebee beeped and Raf nodded. "Bee's right, Jack. I'm sure your mom will understand now that she knows about the Autobots."
Jack exhaled strongly and brought his hands to his head in frustration. "That's not a good excuse, Raf. And even if my mom accepts it how am I supposed to explain it to my teachers? Or to colleges when I start applying soon?"
"Dude, grades are so overrated," Miko laughed, leaning back into the couch. Jack simply shot a glare in her direction, having already decided to ignore her additions to the conversation.
Bulkhead looked down at Miko disappointedly, "Miko… you need good grades to get into college. Do you want a mundane job like flipping burgers for your whole life?... No offense, Jack."
"None taken," the teenage boy muttered.
Raf looked thoughtful for a moment. "Why don't you talk to Michelle? She's in college so she could probably give you some good advice."
Jack just moaned and let himself fall into a seat on the couch. Arcee grumbled, extremely frustrated with her partner at the moment, "He tried that already but she's with Ratchet right now."
"Ratchet the Hatchet threw him out of the medbay, huh?" Bulkhead chuckled.
Miko raised an eyebrow up at Bulkhead, "What are they doing in there anyway?"
"This right here will activate the electric pulse shield. It'll knock out any dangerous humans and Cybertronians who come in contact with your car…"
Michelle tried to follow along as Ratchet explained his modifications to her car. She had simply asked him to fix her car, as in return it to its original state before the attack. But he had gone above and beyond her request. She had to wonder if he actually had fun messing with the "primitive technology" that was her car. In addition to the shock defense thing, he had upgraded her radio-stereo system so that she could contact the Autobots on their comlinks. Attached to her new radio was a small but high quality screen that Ratchet had described as some sort of GPS-slash-Autobot-finder. He had wanted to add additional armor to the vehicle but didn't have enough materials to spare. Michelle was glad, though. The extra weight would've caused her gas mileage to plummet and her gas expenses to skyrocket.
"That should be everything," Ratchet finished, looking quite proud of his work. Michelle smiled up at him sheepishly before looking back to admire her car. It had been cleaned and waxed, the dents pounded out and the burned paint replaced. Ratchet had decided, for some strange reason, that her car did not look very good in red. Instead, he had repainted it a light grayish-blue. Michelle had to admit that she did like the color change.
"I should name him."
"W-what?" Ratchet stammered, caught off guard by her statement. "Why in the world would you name a non-sentient being?"
Michelle looked back at him and shrugged. "Humans name inanimate objects all the time. Besides, he's kinda like an honorary member of Team Prime."
Ratchet stared down at the human before him. Humans made very little sense to the poor mech. "It is your car," he sighed, waving her off as he walked over to his tool bench.
Michelle smiled brightly and stared at the car for several minutes. She had to pick a good name, one that was subtle but obvious at the same time. It needed to be a name that would stick. When she had first got the car, it would constantly swerve towards the right due to a misalignment. 'Sideswipe' came to mind but then she realized that Ratchet had probably fixed the misalignment problem. She thought of the name 'Kit', which was from some old TV show she had never watched. Maybe Orion Pax because that was Optimus' original name. But that would probably cause some issues with certain mechs, so no. The color kind of reminded her of an early summer morning just before the sun came up. 'Sunrise'? Ick, no, that was way too cheesy. Suddenly, the perfect name popped into her head and she turned back to Ratchet excitedly, who had begun to organize his tools.
"Bluestreak!"
Ratchet nearly dropped his strange drill-looking device in surprise as he whipped around to look at her. His mouth opened and closed several times, causing the young woman to frown and tilt her head to the side in confusion. "How do you know that name?"
Michelle blinked up at him. "What? Bluestreak? I just came up with it… because he's blue and he went really fast when I first met you guys… Is something wrong with that name?"
"No, no, it's just a coincidence," Ratchet muttered before turning back to his tools. Michelle continued stare at him, completely confused. "Are your optics malfunctioning again?"
Michelle quickly turned back to her car, muttering a quick "no". Climbing into her car, she admired all the new tech once more before turning it on. She sighed as the car hummed softly and smoothly, sounding much better than it probably had even when it was brand new. Shifting smoothly into drive, she drove her car out into the main room of the base and parked it next to the stairs. Climbing back out, she smirked up at the awed look Raf was giving her car.
"Isn't Ratchet awesome?" she exclaimed happily as she walked briskly up the steps. Looking around, she noticed certain absences. "Where is everybody?"
"Oh, Optimus commed and asked for their help in the field," Raf answered. "They should be back soon, though."
Michelle nodded slowly, "Ok… but that doesn't explain where Miko and Jack are."
Raf looked away nervously, "About that…"
"Ratchet," Optimus' voice sounded over the comm. "Send a groundbridge immediately for Jack and Miko."
"Miko, what were you thinking?" Jack shouted over the noise of the battle. "Oh, wait. You weren't."
Miko sneered back at him as she took photos with her phone, "You didn't have to follow me."
Jack put a hand to his face in exasperation. A loud bang was heard and a moment later a Vehicon body flew over the two humans. Miko grinned and took a quick picture as it sailed over their heads. Jack peered over the rock they were hiding behind and winced as he saw Arcee get kicked in the equivalent of her gut by Knockout. Optimus and Megatron were fighting a ways off and Jack noted how it seemed as if they were dancing, their moves were so graceful and timed. He didn't even look away from the fighting as he answered his now ringing phone.
"What do you two think you're doing?"
Jack sighed, "Hey, I tried to stop Miko from following the bots and I got pulled along." He tuned out Ratchet's lecturing, having heard several times from several different people how dangerous an active battlefield was. The teenager turned to the younger girl. "Miko, time to go. Ratchet's sending a groundbridge."
"Awe!" she moaned but put her phone away nonetheless. "My phone's almost dead anyway."
Jack just rolled his eyes and planned out the safest route from their hiding spot to the now open groundbridge. Taking Miko's hand, he pulled her along as he darted from boulder to boulder. He pulled Miko quickly behind one large rock just before she was squashed by Bulkhead's large foot. The two humans felt as if they were beginning to go deaf from all the gunfire around them. Both froze as a Vehicon spotted them and began to run over. Jack sighed in relief as Bumblebee slammed into the Vehicon, sending both Cybertronians flying into a nearby rock face. Seeing an opening, Jack and Miko sprinted the last stretch to the groundbridge.
"Ratchet! Close the groundbridge!" Jack heard Arcee scream. The two humans were mere feet from the groundbridge when it suddenly closed in front of them.
"What gives?" Miko exclaimed, staring at the space where the groundbridge was a moment ago. Jack glanced back at the battle and his eyes widened.
"Go, go, go!" he screamed, pushing Miko away.
The two managed to dive behind a boulder just as Megatron skidded to a stop in front of where the Autobot groundbridge was moments before. Miko was panicking beside him and he placed a hand over her mouth to keep her incoherent, frightened mutterings from alerting the Decepticon leader to their presence.
Megatron growled at his missed chance to infiltrate the Autobot base. He turned away from the closed groundbridge and searched the ground for the two humans he knew he had seen there moments ago. An evil grin crept onto his face as he spotted the toe of Jack's shoe poking out from behind a nearby boulder. He stepped around the boulder so that he could see them fully and laughed as they tried to press themselves further into the rock. The Decepticon lord reached down to grab the two humans. "I remember you," he chuckled darkly.
An energon blast got him in the back and he stumbled past the humans, falling to his knees. Not a second later, Bumblebee rolled in, grabbing the two humans mid-roll before transforming. The yellow Autobot tore away from the battle with Jack and Miko in his alt mode as fast as he could, flying past Optimus, who had his gun aimed at Megatron's back. Arcee and Bulkhead deflected any Vehicons that attempted to attack the Autobot leader.
Megatron sneered and stood up, his back facing his nemesis, "How uncharacteristic of you, Optimus. Shooting an enemy in the back is against your nature."
With that, Megatron transformed and jetted away, followed by whatever Vehicons were still functioning enough to fly or drive away. Optimus, Arcee, and Bulkhead fired off a few parting shots but only managed to disable one Vehicon as it straggled behind. Optimus slowly lowered his gun and observed the damage around him.
Arcee continued to stare in the direction of Megatron's departure. "Too bad you didn't get in a shot to his head."
Optimus looked critically at the blue femme. "Ratchet, we need a groundbridge. Bumblebee, what is your location?"
"He's back at base with Jack and Miko, Optimus," Ratchet's voice sounded over the comm. "Is it safe to reopen the groundbridge?"
"Yes, the Megatron and his troops have departed."
In response, the groundbridge reopened in front of the three remaining Autobots in the field. As Arcee and Bulkhead entered the portal, Optimus took a moment to double-check the immediate area for cons. When he stepped through the portal a moment later, Optimus was met with the sight of Mrs. Darby scolding both her son and Miko. She must have arrived on base sometime during the battle.
"How could you two be so reckless?" the nurse asked angrily. Jack looked absolutely horrified while Miko seemed to not care at all.
"Mom," Jack pleaded, "I only went in because Miko did and I-."
"If Miko jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?"
Optimus sent a reprimanding stare at Michelle, who was trying very hard not to laugh. Michelle sat up straight, face red, when she noticed the large Autobot's gaze on her. Satisfied that the young woman would at least try to take the situation seriously, Optimus turned to see Raf conversing with Bumblebee. The young boy seemed quite concerned about the young bot and Optimus couldn't help but smile at the two. A tap on his leg brought Optimus out of his thoughts. Looking down, he saw an angry Nurse Darby standing by his foot staring up at him with her arms crossed.
"Yes, Nurse Darby?"
June huffed and flipped away a few stray hairs. "Optimus, you really need to keep better track of these kids. Sooner or later, someone is going to get seriously hurt again, or worse, killed if these incidents keep happening."
"As always, the safety of the children is our top priority," he explained softly. The woman didn't seem satisfied by that answer. "We have tried several times to explain to our charges the danger of following us onto a battlefield. Perhaps some stricter regulations should be put in place?"
Jack's mother smiled at the suggestion but Jack cringed and moved discreetly so that he was standing behind Arcee's leg. The small femme smirked down at him. June turned to look up at the human loft, where Michelle was now leaning on the railing.
"Maybe they just need a better babysitter than Ratchet," she said innocently but looking pointedly at the college student.
"Finally," Ratchet muttered from where he stood at the monitors and Michelle blanched.
Optimus smiled, "If that would make you feel better about leaving the children in our care, Michelle would be happy to perform such a task."
"Hey, wait!" Michelle called from the loft. "I happen to know that Miko listens to me even less than she listens to Ratchet."
"As if that were possible," Ratchet muttered again. The medic returned quickly to his work after a sharp look from Optimus.
Mrs. Darby put her hands her hips and gave Michelle an authoritative look. "Well, then, you'll just have to start learning to how to keep her in line."
Miko let out a small 'pfft' from her perch on Bulkhead's shoulder.
"And Jackson Darby," June spun around to face her son and Jack obligingly edged out from behind Arcee. "There's no school tomorrow due to teachers' meetings. I expect you to go with Michelle tomorrow and visit her university. I already have a list of people I want you to find and talk to and what questions to ask."
"What? Mom, you can't just dump me on Michelle all of a sudden," Jack stammered, waving his hand towards Michelle. The college student was looking oddly smug. "She probably has plans tomorrow."
"Actually," Michelle chimed in, smiling innocently. "I already talked to your mom about this. I'm all free tomorrow."
Jack's shoulders dropped as he accepted his defeat. He looked up at Arcee hopefully. "Ready to see a college campus, partner?"
"Sorry, I have patrol tomorrow," Arcee chuckled, smiling down at her partner. "Optimus will be taking you."
"Yeah, Optimus already has experience with college students," Michelle laughed and Optimus grimaced slightly. As she walked back to her pile of work on the couch, she shouted back to the teenage boy, "Think of this as punishment for your poor report card!"
June spun around to look at her son again, a murderous look in her eyes.
"Thanks a lot, Michelle," Jack grumbled, kicking his feet as waited for Michelle to finish getting ready. Optimus had dropped him off at her apartment at 8am EST, meaning 5am in Jasper, Nevada. The boy yawned and leaned back into her couch. "Now I'm grounded for a month."
Michelle laughed as she stepped out of her bedroom all set to go. "Just use the month to get your college applications out of the way. Or at least started. Ready to go?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," Jack sighed and looked down at the long college to-do list his mom had given him that morning. "I'm surprised she's having me look at a college this far from home, though. She misses me even when I'm gone for a day."
His older companion laughed as they walked out of the apartment building, "That's moms for you. She's probably just trying to get you to broaden your horizons and stuff like that."
The two waved at Optimus as he drove by on his patrol of the campus. Michelle had to wonder how he had been patrolling for weeks now without anyone reporting him as a suspicious vehicle to the campus police. It probably had something to do with Agent Fowler. They crossed onto the main part of campus and made their way to the Admissions Office. They stopped just before the office door and Michelle turned to Jack.
"Ready to start the long, tiresome process of college search-and-apply?"
"No."
So there's Chapter 4. I realized as I was spellchecking that Michelle knows about Jack's bad grades even though she wasn't there when he was being overdramatic about it. So let's just assume that Raf told her because we all know that he can't keep a secret lol. Anyway please review if you liked it or if you have any suggestions. Lilygirl33 if you call me out on the POVs or something stupid again, I'm going to kick your ass. (She's my sister by the way so don't think that I'm threatening some stranger.) Have a nice day and good luck on finals to all the college students!