My Life as a Teenage Beast Hunter

Chapter 4: Contact

After an uneventful atmospheric entry, Crosswind reduced his airspeed to the normal cruising speed of an F-18. He made sure to research everything about his new alt mode's flight characteristics before he departed from the Enduring Spirit. Just to be safe, he activated his Jammers to conceal himself from the indigenous population's tracking systems. From what he'd read about the planet's history, Crosswind concluded that the locals would take exception to an errant aircraft traipsing through their airspace and react violently.

Able to concentrate on his primary task, Crosswind zeroed in on the Autobot signal that appeared on his scanners.

The signal was moving at roughly 70 miles per hour down an old highway. Crosswind zoomed in to get a better look and realized who he was following. Arcee.

"Crosswind to Enduring Spirit: It's Arcee. I've found Arcee." Crosswind announced.

Elita One smiled. "Very good. You may land and introduce yourself. We'll be along shortly."

"Yes Commander." Crosswind replied as he started his descent.

Eventually, Jack picked up the sound of jet engines. "Arcee, do you hear that?" Jack wondered. "Yeah." The femme answered. "Look around. The Cons might have found us."

Jack turned his head around and saw the source of the jet noise. "Uh Arcee, there's a jet behind us, and it's getting real low." Jack observed with much apprehension.

Knowing her inability to outrun a jet, Arcee slammed on her breaks and told Jack to disembark. She then shifted into robot mode and fired several shots from her arm cannon.

Despite being caught off guard, Crosswind dodged all of the Energon blasts and dove for the deck before shifting into his own robot mode.

"Whoa, whoa!" he yelled as he touched down. "Hold your fire!"

"Why should I show mercy to you Con?" Arcee spat.

Jack noticed that the new arrival looked very offended by what Arcee had just said.

"Believe me Arcee, I never was and never will be a Decepticon. Look." He said pointing to the Autobot insignia on his wing.

"How do I know you're telling the truth? And how do you know who I am?" Arcee demanded with her blaster still pointed at Crosswind's head.

"As to your first question, I'm here under orders from Elita One. As to your second, you're a legend among the Autobots." Crosswind replied in a matter of fact tone.

Elita One?! Arcee thought.

"Oh. Sorry." Arcee apologized as she retracted her cannon. "Jetfire's the only other Autobot flyer I've seen while on this planet."

Crosswind's optics widened. "Jetfire's here?!" he exclaimed at the mention of one of his idols.

"Uh-huh." Arcee confirmed. "By the way, I still don't know your name."

"Right. I'm Crosswind. Helmsbot and Recon specialist aboard the Enduring Spirit." The young Autobot introduced.

Arcee motioned to her human companion. "This is my partner, Jack."

"Hello." The human said as he waved.

"How did you find this planet anyway?" Arcee asked.

"We followed the path of a massive energy surge originating from Cybertron." Crosswind explained. "We also know that the Decepticons have constructed a massive citadel out west. By the way, who are the other Autobots on this planet?"

"Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ratchet, Optimus Prime, and Wheeljack." Arcee answered.

"Excellent. With their help we should be able to defeat the Decepticons once and for all." Crosswind concluded.

"That reminds me," Arcee began. "You said you were following Elita One's orders. Where is she now?"

As if to answer her question, the Enduring Spirit gracefully swooped down and landed near the two Autobots and their human companion. The main ramp extended down allowing the crew to disembark.

Elita One stepped down first, flanked as always by Firestar and Moonracer. Next came Ironhide, Jazz, Prowl, Hound, and Sideswipe. Last but certainly not least came the Aeiralbots.

"Wow." Jack gasped. "Now that's what I call reinforcements."

Meanwhile…

I hope Starscream rusts in pieces. Wheeljack huffed internally. During the battle outside the Autobot base, the seeker inflicted some damage on Wheeljack's ship, the Jackhammer. Being the pragmatic bot that he was, Wheeljack decided to withdraw with minor damage rather than risk destruction at the hands of that stiletto heeled creep.

What Wheeljack didn't know, however, was that the perceived minor damage would eventually snowball until the Jack Hammer stalled and plummeted out of the sky. The Wrecker did everything he could to restart the engines but to no avail. All Wheeljack could do was brace for the inevitable impact with terra firma. The small ship crashed in a scarcely populated desert in northern Nevada. The concussive force left the Wrecker unconscious for quite some time.

Wheeljack eventually came to and noticed that his legs were pinned under the collapsed control column. One of his arms had also been cut by a jagged piece of the Jackhammer.

Wheeljack eventually cut himself loose with his good arm and treated his wounds with the onboard medical kit. With that done, the Wrecker then salvaged anything he could from the wrecked ship; grenades, tools, even his trusty detonator. Finally, he gave the wreckage an affectionate tap, shifted into his vehicle mode and set off to rendezvous with Bulkhead.

Wheeljack been driving for couple of days through Oregon and eventually into Washington without incident when he came across the rendezvous point he and Bulkhead agreed upon in case things ever went south. And yet again I hate that I was right. Wheeljack mused to himself.

Bulkhead and Miko heard Wheeljack's engine as he approached. The sleek white supercar ramped off of a bump in the ground and landed right next to Bulkhead.

"Jackie!" Bulkhead exclaimed. "You made it!" Both Wreckers shifted into robot mode. Bulkhead then proceeded to wrap Wheeljack in a bear hug.

"Nice to see you again you big lug nut." Wheeljack greeted. "Sorry I took so long. I had to drive here."

Miko, who had been sitting on a stump nearby, crossed her arms. "Meh, I wasn't worried. Bulk over here was a nervous wreck."

"Don't listen to her Jackie, she thought you weren't gonna make it." Bulkhead countered as he put Wheeljack down.

"Is that so?" Wheeljack asked feigning insult.

"Okay, maybe I was a little concerned for your wellbeing." Miko defended.

The three then shared a hearty laugh…

Back in the Nevada Desert…

Scourge and the Predacon Dragon located what was left of the Jackhammer and investigated the remains.

"This was Wheeljack's ship." Scourge realized aloud. "And it looks like he was injured in the crash." He said after eyeing an Energon stained and jagged piece of the hull.

The infamous tracker took a sample and held it toward the Predacon dragon's nose. The great beast immediately took off in Wheeljack's direction upon smelling the blue substance.

"Lord Megatron, the Predacon and I have picked up the trail of the Autobot known as Wheeljack." Scourge reported.

Megatron grinned. "Good work. Perhaps he can lead us to the others…"

Just outside Titusville…

Jenny, Sheldon and Brad landed in a relatively unobserved plot of land in central Florida. "Alright, it shouldn't be far from here." Jenny said. "But first things first. Sheldon?"

Several arms holding what looked like comically oversized spray cans coated Jenny in various hues of specialized paint to change her appearance. Her hair turned ginger and her skin changed from milk white to Caucasian. The paint changed her clothes' colors too. Bright red for the tank top, black for the skirt and a mauve color for the boots.

After he finished the paint job, Sheldon opened a small compartment on his armor's leg to reveal a mauve light jacket that lacked buttons or a zipper (I'm not sure if there's a specific name for this so please let me know.) Jenny put on the jacket before removing her hair ties and sticking them in one of the jacket's pockets.

Sheldon produced a mirror for Jenny to check his work. "I have to admit, that's not half bad Sheldon. What do you think Brad?"

"I dunno…" he began. "I kinda like the way you looked before."

Jenny smiled at her boyfriend's honesty. "Well this way I can walk around in public. And at least it's not the Exoskin."

Brad shuddered at the mere mention of that monstrosity.

"Right then, get into your civvies boys." Jenny commanded.

Brad's Cardinal armor folded up into a pretty convincing backpack and the silver shell armor did the same.

With that the three set off for the coordinates that Jenny had seen on Ratchet's monitor. After an hour's walk, they reached their destination: The Tico Warbird Air Museum. "Are you sure this is the right place?" Brad asked.

"Absolutely." Jenny replied. "Jetfire's in there all right. The tricky part will be getting him out."

"Why did he have to pick such a public place to hide?" Sheldon groaned.

"Guess he wanted to hide in plane sight." Brad joked.

Sheldon face palmed and shook his head.

"And that's one of the reasons I love you." Jenny sighed. "But enough joking, let's get in there and find our Autobot."

The three paid for admission at the front desk and entered a large warehouse sized room filled with every manner of military aircraft imaginable. Jenny wasn't very impressed.

"Ugh. They charge all that just to see a bunch of planes gathering dust?" the robot girl scoffed.

"I imagine it's not cheap air-conditioning this place." Sheldon guessed.

"Whatever. Let's split up and find this guy." Brad suggested.

"Okay." Sheldon agreed.

"Remember, we're looking for an F-14D Super Tomcat." Jenny reminded. "Call if you find him."

The three split off and combed different sections of the museum. Sheldon became distracted very quickly seeing as he was surrounded by all sorts of cool aircraft. The museum contained a vast collection including examples from both World Wars, Vietnam, Korea, and even some from the Gulf War. What made things difficult though is that the planes weren't organized in any meaningful way.

One of the museum employees noticed that Jenny seemed to be looking for something. "Excuse me young lady, can I help you?" he asked. The man appeared to be in his late forties and wore blue oil stained coveralls.

"Yeah, I was wondering where you keep the F-14." Jenny answered.

"You must be talking about the Super Tomcat that just came in. Right this way. Name's Frank." He said as he motioned for Jenny to follow him. "I'm Jenny." She introduced as she started after him.

"I don't mean to be rude, Jenny, but you don't look like the type of person that visits places like this." Frank observed.

"Normally I wouldn't, but I'm here with my boyfriend. He's really into this sort of stuff." Jenny explained.

"You two must be in a pretty serious relationship if you were willing to tag along with him." Frank teased.

Jenny blushed a bit and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "We aren't that serious yet. I mean- we are serious but not too serious. Just the right amount of serious. If that makes sense…" Jenny stammered. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Okay, okay." Frank chuckled. "Sorry for making you uncomfortable."

As Jenny and Frank walked along she realized that the museum's main showroom was one giant hangar and that direction they were traveling lead to one of the hangar's doors. I started on the far left of the showroom and we've been walking for a good bit now too. Jenny thought. If Jetfire is anywhere near that hangar door, we might just be able to bust him out without much fuss.

"Well, here it is." Frank announced.

Sure enough, before the two sat a mostly white F-14D Super Tomcat… with black tailfins adorned by Jolly Rogers and black accents for the wings and fuselage. Jetfire doesn't look like that. Unless…

"So, what do you think?" Frank asked eagerly.

"I'm sure my boyfriend could give you a better opinion than mine. I was just trying to find it for him." Jenny replied gingerly. "Speaking of which."

Jenny held her hand up to her ear as if she was holding a phone and dialed Brad's number. Luckily the long red hair she now sported acted as a decent enough cover. Jenny explained that she had found the Tomcat and gave Brad instructions on where to meet her.

"There." The robot-girl-in-disguise said after hanging up. "He should be along any second."

Sure enough, Brad found the two and whistled at the sight of the old warbird. "Whoa. A real F-14D Super Tomcat. It's so much cooler up close."

"Isn't it though?" Frank agreed. "I used to fly these back when I was in the Navy." He said before introducing himself.

Coincidence much? Jenny thought. "You don't say." Brad unknowingly echoed.

"Yup." Frank affirmed. "Unfortunately Uncle Sam ordered almost all of them retired and either put in museums or stripped for parts."

Jenny nodded absently, still wondering whether this could in fact be Jetfire.

"Listen close, because what I'm about to tell you might sound crazy." Frank began in a low voice. That caught both teens' attentions. "Apparently this example is one of the few airworthy Tomcat's still in existence."

"How do you know that?" Brad wondered.

"Because most of the aircraft we get nowadays have had their engine components stripped out." Frank explained. "The curator told me that this Tomcat was flown in here. And the weird part is that an Australian flew it in."

Jenny's eyes widened at that revelation. "An Australian?" she gasped.

"I was just as shocked as you. Though I guess he could have been born in Australia and moved to the states at some point." Frank supposed. "Anyway, the really weird part is that he parked the plane and left without greeting anyone. Not even the curator. Naturally we made a thorough check of the plane to make sure there wasn't anything harmful on it."

"Naturally." Brad said absently as he too started putting the puzzle together.

"We didn't find anything dangerous so we rolled it into the showroom and called it a day. Since the plane was still in working order we figured we'd add it to our airshow lineup" Frank continued. "But one morning while I was inspecting the front landing gear, I found something… odd."

Frank then pulled out a flashlight from one of his pockets and shined it into the aforementioned area, motioning for the two teens to have a look. What Frank had discovered was an Autobot Emblem.

Jenny and Brad gave each other a look that said "It's him."

Frank turned off the flashlight and stood back up. "After failing to scrub the thing off, I asked around and was told that it was an inside joke between the technicians and the pilots. Personally I think Uncle Sam knows something I don't."

Jenny and Brad simply stood in stunned silence.

"Well, I've bothered you two lovebirds enough. Nice meeting you." Frank said as he walked away.

Brad called Sheldon over and told him everything. "So you think it's really him?" Sheldon inquired.

"It has to be." Jenny answered firmly.

"He must have adopted a new paint job before coming here and sent all of the necessary paperwork via the Internet." Sheldon concluded.

"So… how do we get him out of here exactly?" Brad wondered.

A fair question given that even though Jetfire lay close to the hangar door as hoped, there were still a few planes between him and the door itself. This meant that he would have to transform and walk out of the hangar rather than simply roll out.

"Whatever we decide to do, we'd better think of it fast." Jenny advised.